17. Moony and the Planning
"Hermione can you do me a favour?" Harry asked quietly. Seeing her nod, he beckoned her to follow him. The curious witch went after him, intrigued.
When they reached an empty room, Harry looked around to make sure no one was watching or listening. Apparently satisfied, he nervously started.
"Er... you know how your cat likes to chase Ron's rat?" she nodded in confusion.
"You have to stop Crookshanks for a few days. I'm really sorry I can't explain more because I swore not to tell anyone, but this is very important for everyone. Can you please do it? For me?" he pleaded.
Hermione was slightly hurt. Her first friend in the Wizarding world didn't trust her enough to share a secret with her. She knew it was her who had to take the most blame. In her first year, when he was very friendly with her and shared almost everything with Neville and her, she acted like a bossy rules-are-above-life person, and she constantly pushed him to do his homework, to tell her what was bothering him and everything that went on in his life. With the intention of being closer to him, she had pushed him away from her, and now he spent more time with the Hufflepuffs and Neville than her. True, she was rather busy with all the subjects she took and most of the time she was tired from using the time-turner to do multiple classes at the same time, she still wished she actually had a friend who would trust her with their secrets.
However, she knew that there were secrets that couldn't be shared, like her time-turner secret, and she resignedly nodded in acceptance of her request, hoping that one day she would be close to Harry again. Crookshanks would have to be confined inside her room for a while. She absently wondered what importance a cat and rat fight had to Harry. But she had given up trying to guess Harry's life long ago. It was literally stranger than fiction.
Harry was surprised by Hermione's lack of questions. It was very unlike her, but he liked this new improvement, because it meant the bushy haired girl was starting to respect his privacy. He felt guilty at telling her virtually nothing when asking her to keep her cat within her dorms, but there was no other way. It wasn't a matter of trust. It was just that even the walls had ears. He felt bad at not being able to share this with Susan, but he knew she would understand when he would finally tell her, which was as soon as Black... Sirius' name was cleared.
It still felt odd to think of the escaped prisoner as his godfather. He spent the whole summer thinking of him as the reason for his misfortunes, but suddenly he was introduced as the scapegoat who suffered more than Harry cared to imagine. His years at the Dursleys were visits to the park compared to what Azkaban sounded like. If his encounters with the Dementors taught him anything, it was to steer clear of the island for his whole life because he was likely to go mad in weeks, if he ever set foot on the place.
Speaking of Dementors, he was supposed to find Professor Lupin. He still felt a bit distant towards the Defence professor, but Sirius told him (he was both delighted and nervous when he learnt that his old mate was a teacher. Needless to say, he was disgusted when he saw the dot of Snape in the map) that Professor Lupin was much too fair and probably didn't mention anything so that he wasn't accused of showing favouritism. When Harry pointed out that Snape showed favouritism every minute of school, Sirius said that Lupin couldn't face himself with any guilt, so what Snape does really doesn't matter to him.
Hastily thanking Hermione and hiding behind a statue to check the map, he noticed Professor Lupin was with 'Severus Snape' in his office. Snape's face was always unpleasant, but he showed pure loathing when he looked at Professor Lupin. His look almost rivalled the one he usually reserved for Harry. Almost.
After a minute, Snape went away, and Harry made his way to the ex-Marauder's office.
"May I come in, sir?" he asked politely when he reached the open door. The man was drinking something.
"Horrible. Oh yes Harry, come in." He said with a grimace. Not understanding his reaction, Harry hesitated.
"Is it a bad time, sir? I can come back later-"
"Oh no. I just had a bad tasting potion. Please have a seat." He said, pointing at the empty chair in front of his desk. Harry did as he was asked.
"So how may I help you, Harry?" Lupin asked pleasantly. Harry looked a bit nervous, undecided if the professor would really help him.
"Er... you remember how I fainted when on the train when a dementor came?" he started. Lupin looked concerned.
"Yes I do, and I don't want you to think any less of yourself because of it. You are not weak, if that's what you are concerned about. A dementor makes you relieve your worst memories and-"
"My worst is worse than others'. I've been told that, sir." Harry interjected. " I actually have a favour to ask you. On our first Hogsmeade weekend, I came to face another dementor, and once again I fainted. I know I'm not weak, but I can't afford to faint every time I meet a dementor. So I asked an older student if there was any defence, and she told me that there was a kind of shield."
"The patronus charm." Lupin said with a nod. Harry nodded and continued.
"Yeah, that. So I was wondering if you could teach it to me." He finished, looking at the professor hopefully. He sighed and thought for a few moments.
"I could, but you have to understand that it is a very advanced charm. In fact, it is considered well out of the NEWTs syllabus. A lot of full grown wizards are unable to perform it, especially in front of a dementor. If you do try to learn it, I don't expect you to cast an effective patronus charm within the year. You also should know that this will exhaust you very easily. Now, do you wish to learn it?"
"Yes professor." Harry replied with a determined face. Lupin smiled at him.
"Very well. How about we start our lesson from this Friday? You have the evening free? Great. I'll see you then Harry."
Harry gave a small smile and excused himself. A few minutes ago, he felt a bit... ill-treated by Professor Lupin because he didn't even mention being close friends with his father. Now he felt different. Sure, he still wished that he mentioned his parents in the passing, but the Defence teacher agreed to teach him a seemingly difficult charm that other teachers like McGonagall wouldn't. From what he said, it was a really tough charm to master and he would have to work really hard to master him. Harry Potter wasn't usually very driven to do schoolwork, but the prospect of hearing his mother's last, pleading voice hardened his resolve. Hearing her voice gave him an odd kind of assurance that his parents really loved him, but he didn't want to hear their voice when they knew they were going to die within a few seconds.
I will master this charm within this term. He promised himself.
...
After a week of watching Pettigrew on the map, Harry and Tonks started to get frustrated. They had to capture him in utmost secrecy, so that if things go wrong, they wouldn't have anyone suspecting them. Trouble was the rat always seemed to stay in Ron's pocket or under his pillow. The only time they separated was during Ron's class periods. At those times, he was found lurking in crowded or open spaces where it would be suspicious if they tried to catch him. Harry once expressed his concerns if the rat knew about their plans, but Tonks pointed out that if he did know, he would've escaped as soon as possible because it would be disastrous for him if they went to Lupin or Dumbledore with the map.
Finally, Lupin had admitted that he was James Potter's friend during his school. It took him Harry's disoriented muttering about hearing his father's voice when he faced the boggart-dementor for the first time in their patronus lessons. Harry produced a short living silver smoke at the end of the lesson, and Lupin gave him a chocolate and casually told him that he knew both of his parents at Hogwarts. Harry asked, faking ignorance, if he knew Sirius too, and the sombre faced professor replied that he thought he did. It wasn't much, but Harry knew about the professor's somewhat absurd fear of committing favouritism, and was quite satisfied.
Lupin, on the other hand, felt exceptionally bad not being able to show some affection to Harry. He remembered the one year old smiling toothlessly at 'Unca Moowey' and waving his tiny fists at him, Lily smiling beside him and James attempting to imitate his son for the little boy's amusement. If his idea of Vernon Dursley told him anything, it was that Harry didn't grow up with much affection. He ached to comfort the boy and ask about his childhood, or tell him stories about his parents (he noticed that Harry's face brightened whenever he said something about his parents), but he hated the feeling of self-righteousness that prevented him from doing so. He had a hard time deciding if he really wanted to teach him the patronus charm, but realized that he wasn't giving preference to James and Lily's son, he was helping out a student who needed his help. He wished he was like Snape, favouring whomever he wanted, without the fear of even a slap on the wrist from the Headmaster. He knew a Death Eater spy was far more important to Dumbledore than a werewolf who practically had no importance whatsoever. He wished he wasn't this poor, so that he could just do things without the worry of losing a job or being broke. He supposed Dumbledore wouldn't sack him just for showing some affection to Harry, and he knew he was being rather paranoid and... stupid, but he knew Severus' hate of the boy, and if he or the other teachers complained against him... he knew whose words were worth more to the old man. So he just settled on briefly mentioning that he knew James Potter at school just to raise the boy's spirits a bit.
How he wished he was back to his school days, and his greatest worry would be the ventures with other Marauders at the full moon.
...
"We do it tonight." He said quietly. Tonks looked at him, surprised.
"Capture Pettigrew? But how?"
"With some inside help." He said, grinning slyly. The metamorphmagus looked confused.
"Care to elaborate?"
"How about we have a chat with the Weasley troublemakers?" Tonks looked shocked at first and then a wide grin plastered on her face.
"Oh I'm gonna marry you, Harry Potter." She exclaimed to the Boy Who Lived, who looked mortified... and red, of course.
As it turned out, the 'Weasley Troublemakers' didn't refer to the twins anymore. In an attempt to make up for their lack of attention to her last year, the twins inducted Ginny to the group, and along with Lee Jordan's occasional helps, the trio was deadlier than ever, and Harry had an idea that Ginny might surpass the twins when she would gain some more knowledge. She was more mature than anyone suspected, Harry noted.
Harry and Tonks claimed they wanted set up a Crookshanks vs. Mrs Norris fight and they needed Scabbers as the bait for Crookshanks to appear, because apparently the cat was hiding in Hermione's room and wouldn't come out. The twins agreed instantly, but Ginny expressed her concerns about Scabbers' well-being, as 'the poor rat could do with some time away from cats'. Harry and Tonks both assured her that Scabbers wouldn't be touched by any cats.
The downside of their discussion was that the Weasleys demanded to know how they planned to capture Mrs Norris and was unsatisfied with their answer that it was a 'Trade secret we don't wish to disclose'.
It was difficult to plan the capture of the traitor who caused his parents' death and pretend that they were about to arrange a mere catfight. The Weasleys didn't understand why they insisted that no one else see them at catching Scabbers, but they helped anyway. Harry felt guilty at lying to them while attempting to kidnap a pet they had for years, but there was no other choice.
He pulled out a parchment where he sketched the layout of the Gryffindor common room with the help of the Marauder's Map, and laid it out. George and Fred quickly copied it, once Harry told them that he just made it himself by roaming around the place. They looked suspiciously at him, but didn't push the topic. Together, the five of them planned a 'Rescue Mission' (as the twins liked to put it) that consisted of a few dungbombs, some chocolate fudge spiked with a daydreaming sugar that the twins recently invented to distract Ron, and a few useful spells from the twins and from Tonks. They told the Weasleys that they had a cage ready to keep Scabbers safe until he was needed, but didn't see the necessity of mentioning that it was actually Andromeda who supplied them with that cage, which had some protective spells on it to prevent Pettigrew from transforming while inside it. After double checking every details of the plan, they all shook hands while the twins adopted a proud look, saying that they felt emotional seeing that Harry was 'going on the right path.' Harry smiled at them.
They are happy not knowing.
Contrary to what everyone thought, Ginny Weasley was a smart girl. She wasn't the Hermione sort of smart; she just understood a lot just by looking at someone.
She knew Harry and Tonks didn't have any plans to set up a fight between the cats. Harry and Tonks both laughed with her brothers while planning, but sometimes they lost their mask and looked at the other nervously, and there was a slight tension in their postures and smiles that they tried hard to cover, which told Ginny that whatever they were planning, was far more serious than an innocent prank. She didn't know if they would actually capture Scabbers, or the rat was just a part of their story, but she knew Mrs Norris wasn't going to be captured anytime soon. He brothers were genius at planning and executing pranks, but they weren't the observing kind. They didn't know they were actually helping them with something else, something far less innocent. She didn't know what their actual motive was, but she didn't tell anything to her brothers.
Harry and Tonks might be lying, probably for the Weasleys' own good, but this was Harry Potter. Whatever he was doing, was most probably going to make some lives better. She knew it from her experience.
If he wants secrecy, I can do that for him. I owe him that much.
A/N: If you guys like short stories featuring Grey Harry, there's a HarryTracey one shot I wrote a few days back. I promise it is written way better than this story (according to me, at least). Give it a try if you are interested.
Be sweet and review please!