Chapter 6: Reactions and Revelations
Word count: 4,537
A/N Another chapter finally. So evidently I'm a really slow writer. I'm hoping that with practice I'll get quicker. I'm not super happy with this one, but I wanted to move on. Maybe I'll do some editing at some point in the future.
Several minutes after finishing his pasty Harry realised he was stalling. He was nervous. Nervous about whether he had fulfilled Sirius' command satisfactorily. He was also worried about the snake. What would Sirius think of that decision?
He couldn't sit, staring at the walls of his room indefinitely though. Pulling himself together he got up to decide what to take with him. Definitely his parents trunk and the library trunk from Arcturus. The extra pasties he just bought. He looked at his new trunk with all his purchases stored within. There wasn't anything specific in there he thought he should take. He decided to leave it. He could always come back if Sirius wanted to see it.
Looking around his gaze caught on the pendant he'd placed on the desk. He remembered his desire to ask Sirius about the initials and he tucked the pendant into his pocket.
Finally he stepped over to the terrarium and stared at the sleeping snake. He didn't think leaving the snake behind was a good idea. What if someone came in and saw it? Sighing he reached in and gently picked up the snake. The daft creature barely stirred as Harry dropped it into the pocket of his robes.
Making sure he had the portkey firmly grasped Harry took hold of everything he was taking and returned to Grimmauld Place. This time he landed inside the house in the entrance hall. That was unexpected. What was different about this time?
Moving over to the room they had sat in the previous day Harry placed the trunks and pasties down and then went back into the entrance hall.
"Sirius." Harry called out as he considered where his Godfather might be.
There was no response so Harry decided to try looking upstairs. When he got onto the next floor he looked around and saw one door at the end of the landing was open. That seemed as good a place as any to start.
Once at the door he looked round it to see what was in the room. It was a large library, seemingly too big for the space between this door and the neighbouring ones. Sirius was in there sorting through piles of books.
"Hi Sirius." Harry said softly not wanting to startle his Godfather.
Sirius looked up, his expression shifting to something unreadable. Harry suddenly felt even more nervous than he had before.
"What happened, you almost broke the command." Sirius demanded in lieu of a greeting.
Harry blinked at the abruptness of Sirius' words.
"You felt that." He blurted out. "No, not important," He then said, not wanting to make Sirius think he was evading the issue.
Harry took a deep breath and looked Sirius straight in the eyes. He really hoped Sirius would understand. "There was something I wanted but it was a really bad idea." Deciding that showing was easier than telling, Harry reached into the pocket of his robe. He slowly withdrew the snake to show Sirius. "I didn't know what to do."
Sirius stared at the little snake in Harry's hand. He didn't say anything immediately but his expression softened. Harry relaxed, feeling that Sirius had understood.
"A snake, huh. Well, I can understand why you would want one, though I can't say I'm particularly fond of them." Sirius looked a little more closely at the snake but made no move to touch it. "So, why is getting a snake a bad idea?"
The question surprised Harry. He thought it was rather obvious why a snake would be a bad idea.
"Well, I don't think people will react very well to me having one. They'll probably all think I'm evil again like they did when they found out I'm a parselmouth." He said, explaining his concern. "Also, it's not one of the allowed pets." He added as an afterthought.
Sirius sighed.
"Listen to me. You can't live your life based on how others might react to it. Being a parselmouth doesn't make you evil, so if you want a snake you should have one."
"Really?" Harry questioned uncertainly.
"Yes." Sirius said quite matter of factly. "Now as to your concern over a snake being allowed I'm sure there was something about that in the Hogwarts' charter."
"Charter?" Harry asked, having never heard of it before.
"Yep. Big book that contains all of the school rules. Except most of the copies seem to have vanished. I, or the Black's I suppose, have a copy. I remember reading it as a kid. Let me go look for it."
Harry watched Sirius disappear into the depths of the Black library. Not certain how long Sirius would be, Harry decided to sit in the comfortable looking armchair in the corner of the room. As he waited he stroked the head of his snake. It was a strangely meditative action and he found himself dozing.
THUD. An unexpectedly loud noise startled Harry and woke the snake. The snake hissed in the direction of the noise.
"Sorry." Sirius said, who evidently was the cause of the noise having dropped a very large book onto the table. "So, what's its name?"
"Huh." Harry looked at Sirius slightly confused.
"The snake, Harry." Sirius said with a grin. "What's its name?"
"Oh." Harry looked at the snake. It did need a name. He also suddenly realised he didn't even know if the snake was male or female.
"Hey." He hissed at the snake. "Are you a boy or girl?"
"A boy." It, he, responded.
Harry contemplated the snake. His colouring reminded Harry of a dying fire.
"Do you like the name Ember?" He suggested.
The snake tilted his head a little, seeming to contemplate the matter.
"Yes. It is suitable." He said eventually.
Harry looked up at Sirius.
"Ember." He stated. " His name is Ember."
"Very original." Sirius responded as he prodded the book he had dropped onto the table. "This is the Hogwarts' Charter."
Sirius started flicking through the pages. Harry, after deciding to ignore Sirius' commentary on his naming ability, got up to get a closer look.
"Here it is." Sirius was pointing at a page approximately two thirds of the way through the book. Harry started reading.
All students are permitted a pet. Under general circumstances it must be an owl, cat or toad. One notable exception is that Parselmouths are additionally permitted a snake. This is to allow for the development of parselmagic skills.
"Oh, that's good. But… What's Parselmagic?" Harry asked.
"Not sure really." Sirius answered. "All I know is the obvious, it's magic that requires parseltongue." He grinned at Harry but then his expression turned contemplative. "If you've got access to the Slytherin vault then there could be something about it there." He looked down at the book in front of him. "Might even be another copy of the charter in there too, that would be good for you to have."
Harry hadn't really thought about what would be in the Slytherin, or Peverall, vault. But it made sense there might be things about the school or the magic the Slytherin family practised.
"I'll have a look when I go back to Gringotts." He said.
"Great. Well, now we've got your snake all sorted you can tell me about the rest of your shopping trip." Sirius pulled Harry over to a settee at the side of the room and sat down.
"Sure." Harry said as he sat beside Sirius. "Well… I started with getting a new trunk. The shop had bags too. There were these leather satchels but I liked two of them; a black one and a green one. Your command meant I ended up getting both even though I definitely don't need two satchels."
"Oh. Sorry." Sirius said, chuckling lightly.
"It's not funny." Harry stated. Glaring at Sirius for laughing at him.
Sirius' expression turned a little more serious.
"I am sorry. It wasn't a very good command was it. Too broad and vague. It was my first one though."
"It's okay, but…" Harry trailed off a bit uncertainly.
"But what?" Sirius encouraged him.
"If you give me more commands and I break, or nearly break, them, will you always give me a chance to explain." Harry said all this staring at his hands, not sure of how Sirius would react.
Sirius was quiet for a moment but then reached over and pulled Harry into a hug.
"Harry. You don't need to be scared to say things to me. Okay." Sirius said softly.
"Okay."
"Good. And it was a good question too. I will always give you a chance to explain." Sirius said firmly.
"Okay, thanks."
"Excellent. So, what did you buy next?"
"Oh, um. Clothes. Adelford's is still around so I went to all three stores. I now have more clothes than anyone could possibly need."
"Different styles?" Sirius asked.
"Yeah. Oh and I asked the guy in Adelford's if you can make clothes from Basilisk hide. I ended up telling him about the basilisk I killed. He said that I should harvest it and then send him a sample. He said to talk to the goblins, that they should be able to help with that." Harry paused. "I should really make a list of the things I need to do at Gringotts."
"Good idea," Sirius said, getting up to retrieve some parchment, ink and a quill. "Here." He said passing the items to Harry. "I didn't think about harvesting the basilisk but it would certainly be a waste for it to just sit there."
After noting down basilisk harvesting along with looking for books on Parseltongue and the Hogwarts Charter in the Slytherin vault Harry continued telling Sirius about his shopping trip.
Mostly Sirius just listened. He did interject when Harry told him about getting the books for all the electives.
"What subjects did you choose?" Sirius asked.
"Care of Magical Creatures and Divination."
"Divination, really."
"Yeah. I didn't know what to pick so I just chose the same ones as Ron." Which in retrospect probably wasn't the best way to choose subjects Harry thought.
"Hmm. Well, you can do whatever you like of course, but you might find Runes or Arithmancy more useful in the long term." Sirius commented.
"Yeah, I noticed yesterday that runes seemed to be used a lot, at the bank and here with the wards. That's why I got the books."
"You've still got time to change your mind. You can write to your head of house if you do."
"I'll think about it." Harry replied. It was nice having someone who cared about what he was doing, having an adult whose opinion mattered to him.
He finished off telling Sirius about his purchases, ending on his visit to the apothecary.
"I bought 4 of the third year kits and 2 of the first and second year ones. I want to do some practising. Do you have a potions lab here?"
"We do, but it's probably in a right state."
"Oh, maybe there's one at the Potter townhouse."
"The Potter Townhouse," Sirius said, surprised.
Harry blinked, thinking.
"Oh. I forgot to tell you." He exclaimed. "I asked about the Potter residences at the bank yesterday and I got a portkey to the Potter townhouse." Harry sighed. "I can't believe I forgot! Did I forget anything else." He muttered harshly to himself.
Closing his eyes and leaning his head back on the settee he ran though everything that happened since he arrived in Diagon Alley.
"The Wills!" Harry blurted out suddenly. Opening his eyes he found Sirius staring at him slightly concerned.
"Harry, it's okay."
"It's not." He said getting up to pace back and forth across the room. "In the Potter heir vault there was this envelope. It said Just In Case on it. The letter from Dad I showed you was in there along with the wills. I can't believe I forgot. I could have looked at them yesterday.
"Harry, stop." Sirius got up and gripped Harry's arms to stop his pacing. Harry flinched slightly at the sudden contact but Sirius kept holding him. "It is okay."
For a moment Harry just stood stiffly in Sirius' grip but then he relaxed against Sirius. Sirius pulled him back to the Settee.
Keeping Harry in his arms Sirius set him on his lap. For a little while they sat silently but it eventually became clear to Sirius that Harry wasn't going to speak.
"Harry," Sirius said softly.
Harry continued to not say anything.
"Harry," Sirius repeated more firmly, a hint of command in his tone.
This time Harry looked up at Sirius.
"I should have remembered," He said quietly.
"No, Harry." Sirius stated. "You've learned an overwhelming amount of information in the last couple of days. Nobody would expect you to remember it all."
"But the wills are important."
"Yes, they are." Sirius said quite matter of factly. "And now you've remembered them, we can deal with them. Do you have them here?"
"No," Harry said morosely. "I left all the paperwork in my room. I didn't think I'd need them."
"Fine. Tomorrow you can bring them and we'll figure out if anything needs doing."
"But…"
"But, nothing." Sirius cut him off. "You do not need to rush to deal with everything, the wills will keep until tomorrow."
"I suppose." Harry acquiesced. He was a little surprised how much he didn't mind Sirius telling him what to do. It always irritated him when other adults tried. He wondered if it was because Sirius was technically his Lord and the family magics were pushing him to comply. Or maybe it was just because Sirius was the first adult who seemed to genuinely care about Harry and wanted to help him. He had broken out of Azkaban for him after all.
"Excellent, now you were telling me about a house." Sirius said, moving the conversation on.
"House?" Harry questioned as he tried to remember what he had been saying. "Oh, the Potter townhouse. I got a portkey at Gringotts like the one I got for coming here. Can we go there?"
"Possibly. But, you would need to set the wards like I did here" Sirius cautioned.
"Oh. Um, how do I do that?" Harry asked. He hadn't thought about that.
"I can teach you how to manipulate the wards here. Depending on how you do at that we'll make a plan for visiting your house."
Harry was a little disappointed to realise he wouldn't be able to visit his family's house immediately, but he didn't want to put Sirius at risk so he would be patient.
"Reading the runes book you bought would be beneficial." Sirius added.
"Yeah, ok." Harry agreed, glad he had decided to purchase the extra books. He could start looking at them tonight.
Thinking about books made him suddenly remember something.
"I brought the library trunk from Arcturus with me. And a trunk I found in the Potter Heir vault that had a bunch of my parent's old school books and journals in it."
"Really," Sirius' eyes lit up. He stood up, forgetting that Harry was still sat on his lap. Harry ended up on the floor and gave Sirius a very unimpressed look. "Oops. Sorry Harry."
Sirius held out his hand to pull Harry to his feet. He then proceeded to gently push Harry out of the room towards the stairs.
They didn't get very far before the unexpected opening of one of the doors caught Harry's attention.
"Kreacher" Sirius yelled, unfortunately much to close Harry's ear.
"Hey, that was loud." Harry exclaimed. Turning his attention back to the door he saw that it was a house elf that had caused it to open, a very dirty house elf.
Sirius ignored him, too intent on glaring at the house elf.
"What are you doing Kreacher?" Sirius demanded of the elf.
"Kreacher is cleaning," he muttered in answer.
"That seems unlikely." Sirius stated harshly. "If you were cleaning, the house would be cleaner."
"Um, Sirius." Harry interrupted, not entirely certain what he wanted to say. He was a bit surprised at the level of animosity Sirius seemed to have for the house elf.
Sirius looked over at him and softened his expression.
"This is Kreacher, my Mother's favourite house elf. I have no idea what he's been doing in the years since she died but it certainly hasn't been cleaning." He looked around at the walls with disgust. "Hey Harry, what happened to that house elf you freed from Malfoy? Do you think he wants a job?"
"Dobby," Harry said, realising he had no idea what happened to him. Before he could say that though there was a loud Pop and Dobby appeared directly in front him.
"Master Harry Potter has called Dobby. What can Dobby be doing for Master Harry Potter?" The elf stated excitedly.
Harry blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected that. Dobby meanwhile had started to look around at where he was and suddenly noticed Sirius.
"You being Sirius Black. You's not hurting Master Harry Potter."
"No, Dobby." Harry interrupted. "Sirius is innocent."
"Are you's sure, Master Harry Potter?" Dobby asked, continuing to glare at Sirius.
"Yes, I'm sure." Harry replied. "Anyway, how are you doing, Dobby?"
"Dobby is enjoying being a free elf."
"That's great. Now I have a question for you. You can say no of course. Do you want a job?"
That finally got Dobby to stop glaring at Sirius. He turned to Harry, his expression shifting to one of joy.
"Master Harry Potter wants Dobby to work for him?" He said, before launching himself at Harry and wrapping his arms around Harry's legs.
"Um," Harry murmured, not quite sure how to react to Dobby hugging him over a job offer. "Yes, although right now it's really Sirius that needs help. The house is," Harry paused, considering his words.
"In an awful state," Sirius continued for him.
Dobby released his grip on Harry's legs and looked around at the corridor they were in and then looked at Kreacher who was still hovering in the doorway.
"You is a bad elf, not keeping your Master's house clean." Dobby turned back to Harry. "Dobby will begin right away," and he grabbed Kreacher. The two of them then disappeared with a pop.
"Well, that's an interesting elf," Sirius commented. "Come on, let's go look at your trunks."
"Hey Sirius," Harry said, when they entered the room he'd placed the trunks in. "What room is this?"
"Oh." Sirius looked around. "My parents always called it the parlour, but they were pretentious snobs. I think we should call it the living room, since that's what we're using it as." He grinned at Harry. "What do you think?"
"Yeah, that's good." Harry replied with his own grin.
He went over and picked up the library trunk and set it before Sirius.
"This is the trunk Arcturus left me."
Sirius opened it up while Harry watched. It turned out the trunk had multiple compartments, most of which were for storing books but there were also a couple of general storage compartments. They were empty though.
"That's a lot of books," Sirius stated after briefly going through all the compartments. Around half of the book compartments were full. "Might be best if I look through the books this evening and you can take it back tomorrow."
"Ok," Harry agreed.
"Good,' Sirius said, putting the library trunk to the side. He then practically bounced over to the other trunk Harry had brought with him. His excitement palpable in the air.
Harry joined him and then knelt down to open the trunk. Sirius joined him on the floor and started rummaging through as soon as Harry had it open. He seemed particularly interested in the red leatherbound notebooks.
"These were your Dad's transfiguration journals." He said, turning to show Harry the notebooks. "But they have more than just school notes in them." He handed one over to Harry. "Tap it with your wand and say 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good'."
Harry took out his wand and cautiously followed Sirius' instructions. The book seemed to vibrate and then it widened, suddenly containing many more pages.
Harry flicked through these extra pages stopping when he saw one for a potion that changes hair colour.
"That's not Transfiguration." Harry stated, showing Sirius the page.
"No." Sirius said, smirking at Harry. "We, that is your Dad, Remus, the rat and I, liked to engage in the occasional prank. We recorded everything we thought up in these, hidden inside school notes."
"Oh, that's cool." He was glad to hear something new about his Dad. "Who's Remus?" He asked, never having heard that name before.
Sirius blinked at him in shock.
"You don't know who Remus is."
Harry shook his head.
"Remus, alongside your Dad, was one of my best friends at school, your Dad's too. I'm surprised you've never even heard of him."
Harry wasn't all that surprised. People really didn't tell him very much about his parents.
"I hadn't heard about any of you. No one even bothered to warn me about you when you escaped."
"That's right, you didn't know who I was the other night. It's ridiculous. What if I had actually been a mad mass murderer?" Sirius exclaimed.
"It is." Harry agreed, pausing a moment before continuing. "So can you tell me about Remus?" Harry asked, curious about the people his Dad was friends with.
"Sure. Remus was the quietest of us, the most studious. I was frequently surprised that he hadn't been sorted into Ravenclaw."
"Why do you think he went into Gryffindor instead?" Harry asked, having often thought the same about Hermione.
Sirius took a long while before responding, staring at the window in contemplation. Eventually though he did answer.
"When Remus was five he was bitten by a werewolf." Sirius paused, giving Harry a chance to assimilate that information.
"Werewolves are real." was Harry's initial response. Sirius nodded. "And Remus is a werewolf." Harry continued making sure he completely understood what Sirius was telling him.
"Yes, and I think living with that since childhood required a great deal of bravery. I believe that is why he sorted into Gryffindor and not Ravenclaw."
Harry nodded. He supposed that made sense, though he didn't really know enough about werewolves to judge for himself. All he knew came from muggle fiction. Contemplatively he looked up at Sirius.
"Are werewolves?" Harry stopped, not certain if he was about to offend his godfather with the question.
"Ask," Sirius stated. "You can always ask me things, remember."
"Are werewolves dangerous?"
"Yes," Sirius said bluntly. "On the night of the full moon, unreservedly yes. When they transform they lose all awareness of their humanity and will attack anything that comes into contact with them."
"Oh" Harry said. He wondered how a werewolf in a school would have worked then. "How," he paused, trying to figure out how to articulate his question. Sirius seemed to understand though and answered before he figured it out.
"There are several secret passages out of the school. One was used to smuggle Remus out to a building where he could safely transform away from the students."
"Secret passages, cool." Harry couldn't help but exclaim.
"Yeah, we made a map of all the ones we found. Sadly Filch confiscated it in our last year, so I can't give it to you. Though it could still be in Filch's office. If you did find it, it uses the same password as James' journals to actually display the map. And for both you need to say 'Mischief Managed' to hide everything again."
"Ok, sure." A map like that sounded really useful, maybe he could sneak into Filch's office and see if it was still there. But as interesting as the map sounded he still had questions about werewolves. "Um, so, what about when it's not the full moon?"
"The rest of the time they can't transform, can't infect people but the wolf is always a part of them. Faster reflexes, better senses, different instincts. Some, like Remus, work hard at controlling it, others embrace it. I think whether these things make a werewolf dangerous comes down to the personality of the werewolf in question, just like a wizard could be dangerous with their magic if they wanted to be." Sirius looked at Harry intently as he said all of this, like he wanted to be sure that Harry was listening to every word.
"I get it." And Harry did. It was like his Parseltongue, the ability didn't make him evil even if most of the wizards who had it were.
"Good. Any other questions."
"Well, not about werewolves in general." Harry said slowly. Sirius didn't say anything, just looked at Harry expectantly.
"Where do you think he's been?" Harry asked. "Why…" He trailed off.
"Why has he never contacted you?" Sirius finished for him. Harry nodded.
"I don't know Harry. I'm frankly surprised you've never heard from him. It always seemed like he saw you as a nephew. I would have expected him to check in on you, make sure you were ok and do something about it if you weren't."
"Oh" was all Harry could say to that. They lapsed into a slightly uncomfortable silence. Searching for something to say Harry remembered the necklace in his pocket. He pulled it out.
"I found this in the trunk too," He said, showing it to Sirius. Sirius took it from him and examined it.
"Snape," he whispered more to himself than to Harry.
"What?" Harry asked.
Sirius sighed.
"Azkaban was awful, but it gave me a lot of time to think about my life. The thing I regret the most was how we treated Severus Snape. He was a friend of your Mother's from before Hogwarts. Your Father was jealous of that friendship, he had taken an instant liking to your mother but she didn't want anything to do with him. That Snape had been sorted into Slytherin didn't help and he became the primary target of our pranks."
"You bullied him," Harry said softly, not looking at his Godfather.
"I didn't think so at the time, he gave back as good as he got usually, but in retrospect, yes, we did. There were a couple of instances that were really bad and definitely bullying."
Harry didn't know what to think. He'd had this idealised image of his Dad that had just been shattered. Intellectually, he knew that his Dad was a real person and just as likely to mess up as anyone else but it was still hard to hear the reality.
"Snape's my potions's teacher, you know. He absolutely despises me. I guess I know why now."
"I'm sorry Harry." He started to move his arm as if to hug Harry but then stopped. Clearly not certain of his welcome.
Harry considered him. He wasn't happy to learn that Sirius had bullied someone like he had been bullied, but it was a long time ago and Sirius had learned better since. Sirius was clearly a good person now and trying really hard to help him. They needed to move forward and so Harry leaned over and initiated a hug himself.