Disclaimer: I still don't own HP or any char thereof!

Chapter 92

Dolores Umbridge was arrested yesterday at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the use of a blood quill. However, before she could be brought to the Ministry, she had taken ill and had to be rushed to St. Mungo's. The doctor's would not comment on what was wrong with her, only saying that she would be staying there for a while. The Ministry would not release the name of the student on whom the blood quill was used, but Madam Bones assured us that Ms. Umbridge would stand trial for use of the illegal object once she was fit enough to be released from the hospital.

Harry ran his hands through his hair as he re-read the tiny article hidden in the middle of the Daily Prophet. He never would have seen it had Hermione not pointed it out. Clearly this was the minister's way of keeping what Umbridge had done quiet. He glanced at the head table and saw that nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary, other than a few teacher's smiling.

'I just hope Sirius didn't do anything stupid,' he thought as he shoved the paper in his book bag.

Harry looked back up at the Head table in time to see Remus walk in and sit down, which prompted Dumbledore to stand up. "As many of you no doubt know, Professor Umbridge is no longer with us."

Most of the student body cheered, which caused Dumbledore's lips to twitch slightly.

"Therefore, I have brought back Professor Lupin to finish teaching for the remainder of the year."

Harry, along with his friends clapped the hardest for Remus.

"We might actually learn something now," said Hermione, very excited.

Harry laughed.

"Did you know about this?" asked Ron.

"Yeah. Sirius told me last night. I wanted it to be a surprise."

His friends just grinned at him.

Harry was exhausted. He just failed a charms exam which put him in a foul mood. And to make matter's worse, Hermione was nagging him about why he had failed.

"Because I've not had time to study," he finally snapped. He then walked ahead of both of his friends. He wanted nothing more than to take a nap. He wasn't even hungry enough to go to dinner.

So when Angelina ambushed him the second he walked into the common room about Quidditch, he was about ready to blow someone or something up.

"That's not fair Angelina. Ginny tried out and made seeker. You can't strip her of the position and give it back to me just because I'm allowed to play Quidditch again. It's not fair to her."

"But you're the better seeker."

"She's right, Harry. You're loads better than me," piped in Ginny.

"But I don't have the grades to be on the team. I'm failing everything."

"McGonagall will make an exception. She knows how Umbridge was."

"I'm tired of exceptions being made for me because I'm Harry Bloody Potter."

"Don't you want to play again?" asked Ron carefully from his position in the corner of the room. Clearly he was trying to avoid his temper.

"Of course I do, but Ginny tried out and made it. I'm behind in all of my classes. Let her play the first game ... then, I dunno. Maybe her and I can have a fly-off for the second game to see who plays for it."

Ginny looked at him grimly then looked over at Angelina. "Angelina, I quit." She then bounced off before anyone could say anything.

"Now you have to play, Harry. We don't have anyone now."

Harry huffed. "Fine."

Angelina grinned. "Excellent. Practice is in an hour."

Harry shook his head in disgust, realizing how badly he had just been played.

A couple of days later found Harry enjoying the Halloween feast. "The food is really good," he said.

Ron nodded, much to the relief of those nearby. His mouth was full of food.

As Harry reached for more mashed potatoes, his vision and hearing dimmed. As a reaction, he slammed his occlumency shields up.

"Harry?"

He tuned out Hermione and pushed his shields up even higher. As he did this, he realized that Voldemort was pleased over something. Very pleased.

Once he was sure his shields were up and strong, he looked up to see his friends looking at him - all with worried expressions.

"Harry, are you alright?"

He nodded and reached for something to drink. If Voldemort was pleased, it certainly didn't mean anything good for the good guys. He would need to tell Dumbledore after the feast.

The next morning, the Headline of the Daily Prophet startled everyone.

Mass Break-Out of Azkaban!

Harry read the article and shook his head in disbelief. They were crediting Pettigrew for the breakout rather than admit it was Voldemort.

"Is the Ministry this stupid?" hissed Harry as he perused the article.

Ron gave him an incredulous look that Harry snickered at.

He then looked over and saw Neville. The boy was pale and glaring at the pictures of the now free Death Eater's. He leaned over to whisper in Neville's ear, "I'm sure the Auror's will catch them soon."

"I'm going up to the dorm," he said quietly. "I don't feel good."

Harry nodded with understanding. "I'll come up to check on you later." Neville had confided in him last year that the Lestranges had tortured his parents into insanity during the first war.

"Where's Neville going?" asked Ron.

"Back to bed. Doesn't feel well," said Harry as he watched Neville leave the Great Hall.

The castle was abuzz for several days about the breakout. Sometimes it could get eerily quiet as everyone was whispering about what the breakout could mean. Other times it felt like everything was back to normal.

There had even been some fears about them canceling Quidditch.

That was an unfounded fear though. The teacher's thought that the students could use a distraction.

Thus, Harry was currently looking around the pitch for the golden snitch. If he hadn't seen it released, he'd have wondered about it because the game had started four hours ago.

He winced as Ron missed another save and allowed Slytherin to score again.

The score was Gryffindor 90, Slytherin 70.

And then it began to rain.

"Bloody marvelous," muttered Harry.

He dove away from a stray bludger.

As Harry glanced around the stands to see if the snitch was there, he saw Sirius and Remus. There were also various order members he noted absently. He didn't know them by name, just by sight.

"Slytherin 80!"

Harry groaned.

As he dodged another bludger, he finally saw it.

Harry immediately dove for it.

"Harry Potter has seen the snitch!"

And then he felt both bludger's slam into him. They didn't hurt him, merely stunned him, but it had served it's purpose.

He had lost sight of the snitch.

"Gryffindor scores!"

Severus watched as Potter circled the pitch. It had been a while since a game had lasted this long.

Across the way he saw Black and Lupin in the parent section of the stands.

It pained him that he could not openly cheer for his son, but he took some solace in the fact that he has someone who can now - even if it is the mutt.

Pain suddenly flared in his left forearm from a summons. He caught Albus' eye to let him know and headed to the castle to get his Death Eater robes and the Dark Lord's potions.

"Nice save by the Gryffindor Keeper!" announced Lee Jordan.

As Harry cheered, he saw the snitch again. He immediately pushed himself into the broom and flew toward it.

He managed to dodge two bludgers but he could tell that Malfoy was still on his tail.

Harry heard one of the Slytherin's yell, "Stop him!"

Using a defensive maneuver he had just learned, he dodged a spell and closed his hands around the snitch at the same time.

The Gryffindor's cheered as his team mates rushed to meet him in the air.

When he landed, he was pulled into a hug by Sirius and Remus.

"You'd have made your dad proud with some of those moves, Harry."

Harry grinned.

"As you wish, my Lord. They will be ready within a week." Severus bowed his head and after being dismissed, left the Dark Lord's Headquarter's. On his way out of the door, he saw the newly released Bellatrix lurking in the shadows watching him. With a slight nod at her, he continued his way through the house to the disapparation point.

Once he was back in his quarter's, he headed to his personal lab to get started on brewing the Dark Lord's requests, most of which involved potions to help the Death Eater's that had been in Azkaban regain their strength.

A couple hours had passed when he finally went to his office to catch up on his grading.

Eventually he got to Potter's essay. Now that Umbridge was gone, the boy was finally starting to get caught up on his homework but it was easy to tell that he was still behind in his studying. He had discreetly asked around and discovered that Harry was indeed failing everything. Flitwick had been in near tear's because of it.

A knock at the door made him look up. "Enter."

The Headmaster came in the room and erected privacy barriers. "What did Tom want?"

"Potions." Severus handed over the list.

"Healing potions, I see. When are you going to tell him the truth?" asked Albus for the 10th time in three day's as he looked over the list.

"How are his shields?"

"They are still strong," replied the Headmaster without looking up from the piece of paper.

"Should I really tell him now? After all this? I'm afraid the truth will destroy him, especially after this Umbridge fiasco."

"You should. It's eating away at you that you can't be there for him. You deserve your son Severus. The longer you wait, the bigger the chance that someone will end up hurt."

Severus looked away but nodded.

Unfortunately, the Headmaster had not been the only one to pester him about telling Harry either.

Remus had cornered him after having been at the castle less than 48 hours about when he was going to tell Harry the truth.

Maybe he would do it this weekend.

"Mr. Potter and Ms. Bones, since you worked so well together last year, you two can work on this plant."

Harry grimaced at the plant that was taller than he was.

"What is it?" asked Harry to Susan as she moved her belongings next to him.

"I have no idea."

"Essay's due two weeks from now, along with a presentation."

Harry picked up his Herbology book and started flipping through it.

They looked through their books for most of the class when Harry said, "squeeze the left tentacle."

"No. I'm not crazy," she said giving him a funny look.

Harry made a face at her so he got up and squeezed it. The plant started flailing it's leaves around. "Nope. Not that then."

Susan just laughed.

By the end of class, they had discovered that it was a Catulus Plant.

"This plant cures dragon pox?" asked Harry.

"That's what the book says."

They worked right up until the bell rang. The Hufflepuffs had defense with the Gryffindor's so Harry and Susan kept talking about their project as they walked to class.

Now that Remus was teaching again, they were actually learning stuff. In fact, in the two weeks since Umbridge had left, they had learned more than all of last year combined. After class, he made plans with Susan to work on their project this weekend.

Harry was currently engrossed in a book titled Skin Magic in the Founder's Library when Nick appeared in front of him.

"How are you doing Harry?"

"Pretty good, now that the toad is gone and I'm almost caught up on my homework. You?"

"Upset that I was denied again to join the Headless Hunt."

"It's their loss Nick," said Harry honestly.

Nick smiled at him. "I came down here because Professor McGonagall is looking for you. She has your godfather with her."

Harry cast a quick 'tempus'. It was a little after 8 a.m. on Saturday. He knew that his dorm mates would be asleep for a while and he wasn't supposed to meet Susan until around 3 that afternoon, so he had snuck down when he woke up at 6 that morning. "Thanks Nick! I'm sorry you had to take time to find me though."

"Oh, I knew where you were and they didn't ask me to come look for you, but Sirius has already been up to the tower and knows that you're not there."

Harry groaned and after marking his place in the book, set it back on the table so that he could continue reading it later.

He then made a quick dash to the kitchens to ask for a muffin and some juice before heading back to the Tower.

"There you are, Mr. Potter!"

Harry jumped. He hadn't heard McGonagall approaching. "We're you looking for me ma'am?" he tried to ask innocently.

"Your godfather is here. I think he and Professor Lupin were going to take you out for the day and spend some time with you."

"They're allowed to do that?"

McGonagall looked at him funny. "This is a school Mr. Potter, not a prison. Of course they can take you out for a weekend if they wish too."

"Where is Sirius?"

"Right here kidd-o. Where have you been?"

"Library and kitchen," said Harry. "I woke up early and knew that Ron and Neville would sleep until almost noon."

"Normal teenager's do that," said Sirius in jest.

"Yeah, yeah, we all know I'm not normal. Now ... Professor McGonagall said something about you springing me from this prison?"

Sirius laughed as McGonagall harumphed and walked away. "C'mon. Remus told me how you've been working hard to get caught up in your classes and I thought you needed a break from all that hard work, plus some fresh air will do you some good."

Harry made a face. "Where are we going?"

"I figured we'd go to Diagon Alley for some food and some light shopping. Of course, we'll have to disguise you a little, but that's no problem."

"Work's for me," said Harry rather cheerfully, causing Sirius to squint at him. "I'll run up to the dorm to leave a note for Ron and Neville and be back down in a couple of minutes." In the note, he asked them to tell Susan that he would probably be gone for most of the day, that he would hunt her down when he came back.

The trip to Diagon Alley had been exactly what Harry needed to relax. He was still on guard, of course, and had become upset when he realized that no one was taking Voldemort's return seriously (stupid, idiotic ministry), but he hadn't felt this relaxed in a while.

At one point, Sirius and Remus had wanted to see how Harry's scar was healing, so he had removed the glamour long enough to show them. There was still a scab over the words, but it was slowly going away. He could already tell that when the scab left, the words would still be visible on his hand.

As they were returning to the castle, Sirius looked down at Harry and grinned. "Want me to spring you again next weekend?"

"Sure!" said Harry eagerly. "I love you."

"I love you too, Harry." Suddenly Sirius snapped his finger's and Harry's hair turned gold.

"AH!"

Sirius then laughed before apparating away.

He turned to scowl at Remus. "Tell me you can fix this?"

"I can," he said as he started walking up to the castle.

"Remus!"

Remus laughed but never stopped walking.

"I'll use those pranks in the book you all gave me in your class on Monday!"

"Which one?"

"The one that causes the teacher's hair to fall out," said Harry as he grinned mischievously.

"You wouldn't?"

"I would," said Harry as they entered the castle.

Remus made a face. "You know, gold hair doesn't suit you very well." Remus snapped his finger's and Harry's hair turned green. He then strode away laughing.

Harry just stood slack jawed in the hallway.

"Going for a new look, Potter?" asked Malfoy a minute later.

Harry just scowled and stalked away from the blonde. He would get Remus and Sirius back for this when neither were expecting it.

As soon as his house mates saw him, most had burst out laughing, especially Ron. "How would you like green hair?" asked Harry with a glint in his eyes.

"You wouldn't!"

"Watch me," he replied with a smirk.

The next morning, at breakfast, when everyone had bitten into a muffin, a wide variety of hair color's starting popping up amongst the houses.

So for the next two days, everyone walked around with colored hair (which is when the prank wore off), including Lupin. He was sporting a lovely shade of bright pink. (Harry hadn't felt brave enough to prank the rest of the Professor's, so it was only Lupin that got hit.)

November 17, 1995

I'm slowly starting to get caught up on 2 month's worth of homework. Thankfully, with Susan's help, I managed to pass my Herbology test today.

I had another occlumency test today. Dumbledore says my shields are still strong. He told me that he was proud of me for how quickly I applied myself to study it. After the holiday's he agreed to share the full prophecy with me.

Snape has been looking at me funny again. Hopefully this mean's he's going to tell me the big secret soon. While I'm curious, I figure that if it would have been majorly important, he would have already spit it out.

I tried using a scar removing potion on my hand today. It didn't work. I didn't figure it would since Snape said that I would always have the scar but at least I can say I tried.

Hermione confronted me today about where I learned to do such a complicated glamour on my hand (she saw me apply it). Evidently it's a 6th year spell. She's starting to get suspicious that I'm smarter than I've been letting on.

Sometimes I hate being so different.

-Harry

Harry was walking toward Remus' office. He was to going to walk Harry down to the front gate to meet Sirius. As he was walking, he rounded the corner and literally ran into Cho.

"Sorry Cho. I wasn't watching where I was going."

"It's alright," she said with a slight smile. "Where are you off to?"

"Professor Lupin's office."

"You have detention?"

Harry smiled. "No, thank goodness."

Cho placed a hand on his arm briefly and smiled. "I'm off to Quidditch Practice. Maybe I'll see you later?"

"Sure," stuttered out Harry. 'Great time for the stutter to return,' he thought as he finished his trek to Lupin's office.

"Hi Sirius!" Harry said as he greeted his godfather at the gates of Hogwarts twenty minutes later.

"I hear you picked up a couple new girlfriends since last weekend."

"What?" Harry asked while turning red. "I don't have any girlfriends!" He then turned to scowl at Professor Lupin.

"Honestly Sirius. Could you have been any blunter?"

"Nonsense. Harry's a strapping young lad of 25! He's allowed to have as many girlfriends as he wants."

"I'm 15 Sirius."

"Hmm ... Fifteen. I guess that means that it's time for the birds and bee's discussion."

"The birds and ...? Oh. No. Sirius. Please. You don't have to." He could not have this conversation again, especially after the embarrassment that he had felt after Snape had given it to him.

"Nonsense. Do you know when your mom told your dad she was pregnant with you, he asked how that was possible. So I'm going to give you the same talk I did to him then, except he had a lot more witnesses."

"Oh, Sirius. You really don't have too," assured Harry.

"Yes I do."

He pleaded silently for Lupin to help him but Lupin was too busy laughing to be of any help.

So Harry received "the talk" again as they made their way through Hogsmeade village before apparating to the Leaky Cauldron to go to Diagon Alley.

"So Harry. Do you know what you want to do after you graduate?" asked Sirius as they walked toward Ollivander's together. He needed a refill kit for his wand servicing kit. Thankfully "the talk" hadn't lasted long. Harry was still flustered because of it. Sirius had gone into extreme details.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. Becoming an Auror will help me fight against Voldemort but surely he can't hang around forever."

"Well, what are you good at?"

"Defense, potions, charms, and ancient runes are fairly easy, especially now that I'm caught up in my homework on them again."

"You'll need transfiguration and herbology N.E.W.T.'s as well to become an Auror."

"I'm lousy at Transfiguration. I'm surprised McGonagall hasn't booted me out yet. Herbology's not too bad. Neville helps me a lot."

"Hmm."

"Professor Lupin said mom got her masteries in potions and charms. What was she going to do with them?"

"She considered teaching for a while."

"Really?"

"Her and James also talked about letting Lily run a side business of selling potions after you had grown some. She was a natural at it."

Harry smiled.

"Have you thought about playing Quidditch professionally?"

"The thought has crossed my mind," said Harry ruefully. "I just don't know."

"Well, hopefully you'll do well on your O.W.L's and your N.E.W.T's and then you can be anything you want to be."

Harry smiled as they approached the wand-maker's shop. That sounded good to him.

They were leaving the pet store talking about the prank that Harry had done on the entire school plus Lupin.

"It was so funny, Sirius."

"How did you get it in the muffin's?" asked Sirius curiously.

Harry grinned. "I was able to access the muffin's right as they came out of the oven."

Sirius ruffled Harry's hair while laughing. "I knew we should have made friends with the elves while we had been at school. Let's go get some food before I take you back to the castle."

At the gates of Hogwarts a couple hours later, Harry hugged his godfather goodbye.

"Thanks Sirius."

"Maybe I'll spring you in a couple of weekends."

"Why not next weekend?"

"Because it's a Hogsmeade weekend. I wouldn't want your friends to start sending me howler's because I'm suddenly stealing your free time from you. Plus, you need to keep your girl's happy."

"I don't have a girlfriend," protested Harry again.

"Whatever you say Harry," said Sirius grinning. "Besides, I have plans this upcoming weekend. So weekend after next?"

Harry nodded. "I'd like that. I love you Sirius."

"I love you too kidd-o."

Harry then trekked up to the castle. Even the slight drizzle that had started couldn't dampen his spirits.

Severus was brewing in his personal labs when there was a knock at the door. He quickly got up to answer it. "Can I help you Albus?"

The Headmaster entered. "Do you have any of my lemon drops?"

"You did not trek all the way down here just to ask me if I had any of your blasted candies."

"I did partly. Minerva's mad at me and took away the bag I had in my quarter's."

"What did you do?"

Severus was amused to see the great Albus Dumbledore blush. He was going to have to talk to Minerva. This was too good to pass up.

"Never you mind. Now, do you?"

"No Albus, I don't. Filius eats the things, he might have some. Now what else can I help you with?"

"I got that potion you wanted me to order."

"Good. I've almost finished mine to where it won't work against the potion Lily used and the blood adoption James performed."

"Have you ever thought of simply reversing Lily's potion?"

"Oh, that would go over well. 'Here Potter. Drink this. You'll have a nice surprise when you wake up," he said sarcastically.

"Quit being so dramatic Severus. I meant after you tell Harry the truth of course."

"There's no guarantee that the reversal will fix his eyesight since he obviously got his poor eyesight from Potter's blood adoption. I have perfect vision and so did Lily."

"And if Harry wanted you to brew the potion, would you?"

"I don't see why he would. I fully expect him to offer me up to the Dark Lord personally to be honest."

Albus chided him as he threw away the potion he had ordered. It had been ordered solely for the purpose of creating a paper trail that wouldn't lead back to Severus.

As the Headmaster made to leave the room Severus stopped him. "Before you leave Albus, I was wondering if you would do me a favor?"

"Certainly."

Severus disappeared into his bedroom and came out a few minutes later. "Kindly deliver this to Black when you see him next."

"Is this what I think it is?"

Severus nodded.

Albus' eyes had so much light in them a person could have seen in the dark. "When?"

"As soon as Black confronts me about it's contents - which I imagine will not be long after you hand him the letter."

"I do believe that I will need to be present when this conversation takes place. The castle does not need blowing up."

Severus merely shrugged. "As you wish."

A/N: This was originally two chapters, but I figured I'd combine them and give you a long one - which is the reason that it's posted a couple days after I said it would be. I wanted to give Harry a bit of normalcy before ... well ... you'll see. *shifty* The good news that comes out of combining these two chapters is that everyone is closer to Harry being told the truth!

And if anyone is curious about that letter ... Lily put a letter in the photo album for Severus to give to Sirius explaining the truth to him. Severus figures that once Sirius confronts him about the truth, then there won't really be any reason to not tell Harry the truth.

Up next ... my death sentence I imagine. *builds a fort around myself* Gonna aim for a Sat/Sun posting. *leaves out steak dinners for the reviewers!*