Just in case you don't have an encyclopedia knowledge of the books, the time skip allowed for Snape's Worst Memory to happen, but not before Career Advice starts, so now Harry's at his lowest opinion of the Marauders but hasn't talked to Ginny yet.
It was a long week. Sirius kept expecting Remus to try talking him out of it, or Tonks to come back over any second and decide change of plans and she was out.
Moony was gone the majority of the time though, getting his affairs in order with those werewolves as usual but promising he'd be back, and when he arrived only moments after Tonks on the day of, Padfoot was once again in the hallway and ready. He finally left his tomb with a true purpose, the sun shining on his black fur a needed warmth.
He'd never apparated as a dog before and hoped to never have to get used to the feeling of doing so. As promised by their pink haired guide, the schools gates were wide open as visitors came and went, even for this short holiday, and Umbridge was so hectically busy only the caretaker and some blonde kid with a silver I badge pinned to his chest stood waiting to meet them rather than the toad herself.
Both of their eyes narrowed unpleasantly as they spotted their approach, the blonde in particular seemed to recognize Remus and him and backed away towards the castle with mingled horror and disgust. Sirius hesitated for the first time as he wondered if he was recognized, he knew his disguise was outed to Death Eaters, but he hadn't thought any kids would be a problem.
Remus froze as well, his hand straying protectively to hold at Padfoot's fur as if prepared to apparate him away right then as he recognized young Malfoy, but Tonks stepped forward with the plan none the wiser. "I'm on Orders to take these two right to Umbridge."
Filch sniffed and looked down his nose in disgust as his stooped visage looked up at Remus. "As if I'd let this filthy half-breed and his mutt back on these grounds," he said, jowls quivering.
"Then it's a good thing it's not up to you," Tonks spoke with her own disgust and finality as she waved a blank bit of parchment under his nose.
He snatched it away, his tiny eyes roving over nothing as he reluctantly handed it back. "Says nothing of the mongrel, the one on fours," he added nastily.
"I think it's some sort of experiment," Tonks shrugged without concern. "Personally I'm not even sure it's safe to have around kids, but my orders-"
"Yes, yes," he finally spoke with just a hint of glee as he stepped aside.
"I'll go with them sir," Draco said at once, better than having to stay next to this smelly old man all day watching him check useless children off a list, this was a degrading position for someone as the head of the Inquisitorial Squad. "Make sure they ah, don't get lost."
Padfoot shifted uncomfortably and Remus swallowed for the same unease, but Tonks didn't seem concerned as she nodded and took off without looking back.
This had been a terrible idea and Remus really wanted to turn back now to get Sirius out of here, it was just one teenager, surely they could manage that without causing a scene. What were they doing here anyways, just coming up to tell Snape he'd better keep up with his Occlumency to Harry without Dumbledore around or else? Or else what, they'd never been able to stop Snape being a vindictive arse their entire time in school, they certainly couldn't threaten him with anything meaningful now.
Harry deserved to have them try though, the boy had too many people leave him and this was all they could offer him now.
The little Malfoy in fact proved to be more of a help than a hindrance, as he hitched up a believable smile underneath his sneer and told them, "this way," while leading them down to the dungeons.
What his reasoning for taking them to Snape rather than Umbridge could be none of them were going to argue for, Sirius in fact even thought that's still where they were heading as he had not taken the time to explore the castle back two years ago, so focused on his task he'd been. He'd even made the dangerous mistake of not even realizing Snape had been a teacher here until too late. As far as he knew, maybe Umbridge had moved the new Headmistresses office down here, it's where she deserved to be, hidden away in the bowels of this castle.
Given it being the last break before exams, there were only a sparse few students milling about, all of them with homework weary faces. A blonde girl with pigtails looked likely to vomit as she feverishly read over some parchment right in the entryway to the Great Hall as if she'd forgotten her breakfast to come, a tall boy with dark skin and a sandy haired bloke were having some quiet exchange under the stairs and watched in surprise to see their old teacher pass that still didn't deter them from their conversation.
Sirius's memories of school were few and far between, but repetition alone informed him that their old potions class was not far off, it was a class he'd always loathed. They passed the supposedly empty classroom without a glance in, so the voice coming out startled them all.
"Harry, if you want to have time to go to the library after lunch too, you've got to pay attention."
Padfoot had spun around without the conscious thought to do so at just his godson's name, he stood back in front of the door before Hermione had finished speaking.
The trio and a blonde boy he did not recognize was in the corner of the room, two cauldrons on their fires. One having already bubbled over at least once, as evidenced by the colorful stain down the side. Harry was sitting down on a stool with a far away expression as if he hadn't even realized he'd been scolded, Hermione had a book open and was flipping through pages, while Ron and the unknown boy were exchanging weary looks.
"Hermione, maybe we should just do potions later," Ron tried to tell her with a sympathetic look at his friend.
"Yeah, thanks for inviting me," the other boy agreed, "but I said I'd meet Hannah and Ernie after breakfast, and Harry seems distracted-"
"No, no, this is bound to come up on our exams and I've got a meeting with Professor Vector the rest of the day and Ron's got Quidditch practice all afternoon. We've got to go over this now!"
Merlin this girl worried about her studies far to much, Sirius wanted so very much to laugh, but remembering his promise to Remus he was already backing away, dragging his eyes off his forlorn godson and back to his task at hand to go find Snape-
When Harry looked up right at him.
"Sirius?!" He startled to his feet so fast, he knocked the two cauldrons together and upended the world as they splashed all over him.
At first nothing really changed. There was no marvelous flash of light, no force of nature that showed everyone outside of this room had vanished. Padfoot was already moving forward in concern, holding onto the tether of his Animagus by the barest trace of his human sanity as he reared up on his hind legs whimpering in concern if Harry was alright, did he need to go to the hospital wing, what had that potion done to him-
A flash of red light blasted him onto his side, he lay stunned and staring at the shoes of Remus, Tonks, and their escort looking at the one who'd drawn his wand and hit him.
"Neville!" Ron snapped, snatching his wand away while Remus had already waved his own and Padfoot got back to his feet shaking himself off.
"Sorry," he gasped, clearly his imagining of the fearsome beast from nowhere had not been lunging at Harry's throat. "I thought, I mean-"
"Um," Hermione cleared her throat uneasily and bent down to pick up something red that nobody paid any mind to.
"Harry, are you alright?" Remus stepped the rest of the way into the room in concern, but no further magic was needed to vanish the mess, it simply melted into the air.
"What are you doing here?" Harry demanded, not even acknowledging the gunk now off of him, his voice more harsh than any of them had ever heard. "S-Padfoot, you shouldn't be here-"
"Guys," Hermione tried again.
Malfoy was already trying to back out of the room, looking somehow even more delighted at Potter's mishap and trying to finish go getting Snape so his head of house could see what he could bring to the Dark Lord's side, actual members of the Order, and now even a detention for Potter and these useless lumps if he was lucky.
He backed right into open air that did not move.
"We'll explain later Harry," Remus gave Hermione a confused frown but was still trying to usher Harry to his side, "let's get you to the Hospital Wing though, please, I don't like that's stuff just vanished when it touched you, who knows what you absorbed-"
"Hey!" Hermione demanded attention as she held up the red book with a golden one on the spine for all to see. "This is what happened."
"Why can't I leave?" Draco demanded, now pounding his fists on nothing with a look of panic already setting in for being trapped anywhere with this lot.
"What are you even doing here?" Ron demanded of him.
Remus took an uneasy step towards Hermione, offering his hand for the book, watching Harry in concern to make sure he wasn't going to drop dead, keeping an eye on Padfoot as he sat at Harry's feet and kept an eye on the Malfoy boy as Tonks stepped up beside him and began prodding her wand that rendered no better solution as he read the problem of their life. "The Boy Who Lived?"
"Um, yes?" Harry's face scrunched up in further displeasure as he watched Malfoy start screaming bloody murder, his own worry starting to grow as he realized his voice echoed, but also distracted because Professor Lupin had never called him that before and it was really weird.
"Bloody hell what have we gotten ourselves into?" Ron asked of nobody.
Neville just stayed carefully in his corner, watching Harry and Professor Lupin for some indication of what was coming next. Their old teacher pocketed the book, ignoring for now the sentence that had appeared once he read the chapter title, and went to put his hand gently on the panicking teenager.
"Don't touch me you filthy beast!" Draco howled like an animal and leapt to the opposite side of the room, using curse words even Sirius had never heard Kreacher use as he rubbed at the spot in disgust. "What's going on? Why can't I leave? What's happening?"
"You breaking our eardrums isn't helping," Harry told him coolly before turning to Hermione. "What did I do?"
"I, um," she'd gone very pale and still now that she didn't have a job to do of alerting the others to the books existence, her own text on the floor where it had fallen for her original shock of the noise of Harry's shout.
Remus looked carefully around at everything and caught Padfoot's eye, who understood this to mean not to get involved any further for now. Though Neville was the only one in here not privy to that secret, it was better safe than sorry as he stepped up to Tonks and the two had a quick whispered exchange.
They turned and raised their wand to the invisible barrier preventing them leaving and a blast of blinding white light flashed back at them all. Remus stepped forward, and still could go no further.
"We're doomed," Tonks sighed.
"Nobody else panic," Remus pleaded, though she'd sounded perfectly calm and in fact stated it more as a fact as she once again pressed her hand against nothing. Their patronesses had not worked and been able to escape, nobody had come at Malfoy's screeching though at least Snape should have heard and come running, and no magic nor force was getting them out of this. There was one solution left.
Remus pulled the book back out, took an uneasy breath, and read the first sentence.
"That's it then?" Harry demanded of him, refusing to look at Sirius though he'd have liked to very much. Who ever thought his wish to talk to him would be granted in such an insane fashion. "We're just going to sit around and read the magical book that appeared to get us out?"
"It appeared for a reason," Professor Lupin sighed. "I can only hope once we see what all it has to say we get out of this. You're sure you're alright Harry?" He hadn't once stopped glancing at him to make sure he had no ill side effects.
"Yes," he crossed his arms and sat down stubbornly to prove his point, he wasn't much happier with him than his godfather at the moment, but only seemed wound up further as nobody else protested, though Ron looked very much like he wanted to for their immediate future as he couldn't seem to decide which to glare at more, the book forcing them to be reading, or Malfoy now looking like someone had just sentenced him to death for his imprisoned company.
The chapter was as boring as Vernon Dursley could wish it to be, as they all knew exactly what was happening of course. Harry felt his heart plummeting with every mysterious circumstance, the cat, the people gossiping about him on the streets, Aunt Petunia not even wanting to acknowledge she had a sister, so little had changed since then the day of his parents death and he'd been forced to go live on Privet Drive.
The dementor memory that Professor Lupin himself had helped him magically never have to revisit again played in a loop in his head once more, for the first time banishing that look on James Potter's face as he hung up Snape in a courtyard, the look of disgust on Lily Evans face as she watched.
If wasn't even Sirius he'd been wanting to talk to all along, but he'd never be able to speak to them because of this day.
Dumbledore and McGonagall having a whole conversation about it before Hagrid brought him did catch him off guard, even if it was nothing of particular news, he smiled softly for his head of house grieving his parents and wondered if Dumbledore would care about Harry as more than just his scar if he knew the mess he was in now.
Hagrid did come around then, and Harry pursed his lips up with displeasure even as Padfoot perked up in delight to hear his own name mentioned along with his bike. His stomach clenched unpleasantly as he stared down at the dog that was his godfather, fury still prevalent he'd left the safety of Grimmauld place just to come up here and baby sit him like a naughty child now apparently.
Sirius hadn't even remembered he'd owned a bike! This was the worst day of his life, he knew that and could still recall in vivid detail his arrival in Godric's Hollow, dementors only took the bad memories after all. He'd begged of Hagrid to let him take Harry, but could no longer quite recall why himself he'd leant the motorcycle away nor the exact rage that had consumed him to walk right into Pettigrew's trap. Just the image of that hole in the roof, the shoe lying in the doorway he hadn't been able to cross. He watched Remus, the catch in his voice, the way he'd kept his own pain for this day buried so long it barely swam to the surface now as he finished speaking for Dumbledore's Harry's luck that felt wasted for the outcome they were currently in.
And then everything was ripped away.
Warning you now that the next chapter will not be long at all so hopefully I'll get it up soon.