Harry and the Pirates

Chapter 66

Canines, Confusion and Catastrophes

by Technomad

Instinctively, Harry yelled "Expecto Patronum!" A burst of silver mist answered his call, but that was the best he could do. Some of the others who'd been taught the Patronus also tried to cast the spell, but none of them were particularly successful. All the Slytherins gathered in a circle, back-to-back, with Snape and Sirius Black in the center. "Attack them! Do like we did in the Chamber! Try any spell you can think of!" At Harry's command, the students' wands blazed with magic, throwing offensive spells and raising shields. It didn't drive the Dementors off, but they did seem to be at least stymied for the moment.

From within the knot of Slytherins, Snape roared: "Let me through! It's my job to defend you, not yours to defend me!" When the students made no move to allow him past them, he shouted: "Damn you for a bunch of Gryffindors!" At that taunt, Harry and Dudley moved apart, allowing their House Head through. Snape whipped up his wand. "Expecto Patronum!" A silvery doe sprang from the end of his wand and charged at the Dementors, driving them back.

Luna added her bit: "Expecto Patronum!" Much to Harry's surprise, she produced a corporeal Patronus as well. Her hare joined Snape's doe, and the Dementors retreated some more, hissing their frustration and fury. For a second, everybody looked at her in wonder.

"Miss Lovegood? You learned to cast a corporeal Patronus?" At Luna's nod, Snape said: "That's why I'm proud of my Slytherins! Come on! Are the rest of you going to be outdone by her?" Encouraged by their teacher's words, the others chanted the spell, and more and more bursts of silvery mist, some of them beginning to resemble animals, appeared.

Just then, the door opened. Professor Lupin walked in. "Professor Snape! You haven't brought my potion!" Several Dementors, seeing what looked to be easy prey, turned on him, and he whipped out his wand. "Expecto Patronum!" A silvery wolf sprang into existence, charging the phantom fiends, who were now huddled together in one corner of the room.

The Dementors had apparently been expecting easy prey, and were becoming visibly agitated. One of them turned, smashing a window, and the whole pack of them fled outside. In the sudden silence, everybody lowered their wands. Professor Snape was the first one to speak.

"Your potion…yes, yes, I have it here. Drink it down quickly, man!" He opened the door to his office, ducked through, and came out with a goblet full of some nauseating-looking stuff. Harry got a whiff of it, and his eyes watered. He had smelled many bad things in Roanapur, but this was easily among the worst things he had ever whiffed!

Professor Lupin grabbed the goblet and slugged it down. For a second, Harry was reminded ineluctably of Revy Two-Hands, reacting to the sight of a new bottle of Bacardi. As he did, the rising moon became visible through the window, and Professor Lupin began to change form. His clothes morphed into grey fur, his body altered its proportions, and soon a huge wolf was staring at the amazed students.

"Professor? You're an animagus?" asked Draco Malfoy.

Snape gave him an exasperated glare. "No, he's a werewolf! He's able to function because of that potion! Without it he'd be a murderous maniac!" Snape turned his glare to Peter Pettigrew, who groveled forgotten on the floor. "Wouldn't he, Peter?"

"A werewolf?" Hermione looked toward the broken window. "And…and tonight's the full moon, isn't it?" At those words, Harry felt a frisson of fear.

"Bozhemoi," he muttered. Rapidly, he ran over in his mind everything he knew about werewolves. "Professor! We've got to get out of here! He'll be on us any second!" He aimed his wand, trying to think of the most destructive combat spells he knew.

The students milled, panicking, trying to get through the door, until Snape's voice rang out: "Hold it!" Confused, they stopped. While they were very frightened, so far, Professor Lupin hadn't done anything, which was utterly unexpected from a werewolf. Snape said, commandingly: "As long as he's taken his potion before he changes, he's harmless!" Fearlessly, Snape strode over and petted Lupin's head. To Harry's horror and wonder, the werewolf not only did not tear his professor's throat out, but licked his hand affectionately. Snape withdrew his hand and took out a handkerchief to dry it, looking slightly disgusted. "See what I mean?"

"But, sir, there is no way to make a werewolf harmless! They're one of the most dangerous creatures there is! It says in Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them…" Hermione's voice trailed off as Snape fixed her with a stare of laser-beam intensity. While Hermione was no coward, Harry could see her beginning to quail. Harry wouldn't have wanted Snape looking at him that way at all.

"Miss Granger," Snape purred, his voice reminding Harry of Balalaika toying with some fool who had thought to cheat or take advantage of her, "while your encyclopedic knowledge of what is in your books is, no doubt, commendable, you should remember that the state-of-the-art marches on. When we all get a little quiet, may I recommend a perusal of the last few years' back issues of Potions Monthly? You will find it in the library, a place with which I know you are quite familiar."

"Ostanovityes!" yelled Dudley. He sent a stunner at Peter Pettigrew, who had thought to use the chaos to slip out unnoticed. The stunner hit its target, and the pudgy little man slumped over, unconscious. Dudley looked up, to see Snape staring at him. "Terribly sorry, sir. I saw him making a break for it, and thought it was better to stun him first and beg pardon later. I'm sorry for interrupting you, sir." Snape was a stickler for not being interrupted, particularly when in mid-rant.

"No apologies necessary, Mr. Dursley," Snape said, slightly abstractedly. "That word you used…what was it?"

"It's Russian, sir. It just came out. Harry and I speak Russian a lot back home in Roanapur, and we think in Russian about as much as English these days." Dudley spread his hands. "It means 'stop.'"

"Indeed," Snape said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Let us get our dear friend Mr. Pettigrew well and truly secured, and then call in the Aurors." At this, Sirius Black's eyes went wide. "Oh, come now! With the man you're supposed to have murdered right here and alive and well, I'm sure those charges can be cleared right up!"

"All right," Sirius said, scowling. Harry thought that it really didn't sit right with him to have to owe his old school enemy anything, but this situation was unprecedented. Under Snape's direction, Pettigrew was soon securely tied up and unconscious, and Professor Dumbledore was summoned.

At the sight of Sirius Black, Dumbledore's eyes went wide, and he whipped up his wand. Before he could do anything, though, he saw Peter Pettigrew lying on the floor, out cold and tied up tightly. "I believe there is a story waiting to be told here," he said mildly, lowering his wand. "May I hear it, please?"

Between Ron, who told the Headmaster of the years that Peter Pettigrew had apparently been masquerading as his brother's pet rat, Sirius, who explained exactly how Pettigrew had tricked everybody and double-crossed the Potters, and Draco Malfoy, who preened visibly as he told how he had turned the tables on the traitorious Marauder, Dumbledore soon had the facts of the story at his hands.

"I see," he said, stroking his beard thoughtfully. Harry suppressed a grin. He had seen actors in Chinese operas stroking their long false beards in exactly the same way. He wondered for a second if Dumbledore had seen those operas, and adopted the gesture, or if he had come up with it independently. "I shall summon the Aurors, and explain the situation to them myself, since they are quite likely to shoot first and ask questions never if they see Mr. Black here." At the mention of Aurors, Harry noticed that both Sirius Black and Professor Snape looked rather pale, and he wondered why his House Head would fear the forces of the law. Then he remembered that Snape had been a Death Eater once. He probably has good reasons to not like or trust the Aurors, Harry decided.

"We should also remove ourselves from this room, and lock it tightly until the moon is down. While Professor Lupin is currently harmless, I do not want to take chances with my students' well-being," Snape said, giving Lupin-the-werewolf a distasteful look.

"Sir, he's harmless! He's a harmless little puppy-wuppy!" Pansy Parkinson stepped over and patted Lupin on the head, as he fawned on her shamelessly.

"He's also still contagious. Do you fancy growing fur every full moon, Miss Parkinson?" At the acerbic question, Pansy shied away suddenly, staring at Lupin as though he had grown a second head. Under Snape's direction, the students were soon on the other side of the heavy wooden door, which Snape sealed with a bunch of powerful spells that Harry didn't know. With Pettigrew in the middle of the procession, carried along like the wolf at the end of Peter and the Wolf (which Harry and Dudley had seen when a live-action theater troupe had brought it to Bangkok; Balalaika had paid for them and Petunia to go, seeing it as a good cultural thing) they trooped off to await the Aurors.

As they marched along, Harry heard Snape lean down and snarl in Pansy's ear: "If that 'harmless little puppy-wuppy' makes any messes in there, I know who is going to be cleaning them up…don't I?" Pansy paled, and Harry smothered a grin.

When the Aurors came, it turned out to be a tall black man with a shaven head, and a rather pretty girl with a punk hairdo that seemed to change colors every time Harry looked at her. Harry remembered her from the times she'd helped judge dueling contests at Hogwarts. "Auror Shacklebolt, Auror-Cadet Tonks, you already know Professor Snape. This is Sirius Black, and I would like you to restrain your enthusiasm until we tell you the whole story of what's gone on this evening." While Dumbledore's voice was gentle, the air of slight crackpottery was gone. Harry thought that this Dumbledore was more like the man he'd read about in his History of Magic books; the defeater of the evil wizard Grindelwald, the only wizard that Voldemort was said to fear.

Once the whole sordid tale was done, Shacklebolt took command of the situation. "Since you say this Pettigrew's an Animagus, we'll keep him on ice until we have him in a cell designed for dealing with Animagi. As for you, Mr. Black…" he turned to face Sirius, "it appears that you were the victim of a horrible injustice. The newspapers will have a wonderful time reporting it, and tearing the former Minister and his Ministry apart."

At this statement, Luna gave a squeak of excitement. Sirius looked down at her. "I think I'll give an exclusive interview to The Quibbler," he said, making Luna give him a look of pure adoration. He ruffled Luna's hair. "When I was being a dog, Miss Lovegood always saw to it that I had plenty to eat, and would brush my fur for hours while she told me all about her life." Luna smiled a very secretive smile, and Harry wondered just what Sirius knew that he did not.

"In the meantime, Mr. Black, I would like to have our school Healer, Madame Pomfrey, give you an examination. Please accompany me down to the infirmary, although I do know you remember quite well where it is," Dumbledore said. As he left, he turned and said: "Oh…and twenty points to each and every one of you students, for coolness in the face of extreme danger. I think that Salazar Slytherin himself would be very pleased to see what his House can do."

After Dumbledore left with Sirius, Snape was staring after him. "I never thought he'd say such things about my house…" he finally muttered. Then he shook himself and came back to himself. "Right, then. Since we can't go back to our dungeons until tomorrow morning, we can bunk down here. I imagine the Aurors will be by tomorrow, to gather us up and take us down to the Ministry for formal depositions."

"Sir?" Millicent Bulstrode raised her hand. "Would it be possible for some of us to give our depositions in privacy, and not have the contents published openly?" The other girls all chimed in, agreeing with her, in a rare show of unity.

Harry wondered why they would want that, then remembered what they had said about Pettigrew's Animagism explaining a great deal. He shuddered. He could think of all sorts of nastiness that a sneaky little wretch like Pettigrew could have got up to, in the girls' dorms and shower rooms, with or without a wand. He wondered if Ginny had been one of his victims. The thought filled him with fury, and he imagined what would happen if he could drag Pettigrew back to Roanapur, and explain what had been going on to Balalaika. He figured that Pettigrew would soon be making the acquaintance of Sawyer the Cleaner, and her chainsaw. And he couldn't think of anybody who deserved more to do so.

Snape's eyes widened. "Of course, Miss Bulstrode. The legal system we live under is designed to protect victims' confidentiality, and is particularly solicitious of unmarried witches." The girls relaxed visibly, but were still obviously on edge. Dudley put his arm around Luna's shoulders protectively.

Sure enough, the scandal rocked the wizards' society. When Sirius Black gave his interview (as promised, to The Quibbler), the issue sold out immediately, and Luna's father printed two extra whole runs of that issue. Harry smiled to hear Luna burbling about how much money they were bringing in, and how happy her father was. Privately, he thought that while the Quibbler was entertaining reading, it printed a lot of rubbish. He was glad to see that it did print real news when it got the chance. And Luna's happiness was, as always, contagious.

Along with the others who had been in on the capture, Harry went down to the Ministry of Magic, with Professor Snape along as fellow witness, chaperone and guardian. When his name was called, he walked through a door, to find himself facing a room lined with galleries, all of them filled with wizards and witches wearing a sort of robe and hat he had never seen before. In the middle of the room stood a large metal chair.

"Please take a seat, Mr. Potter," said a man that Harry recognized from pictures in the Daily Prophet as the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. As Harry sat down, he noticed that there were chains attached to the chair, and he was very relieved that they did not confine him in the chair, as he had heard was done with prisoners.

"This court shall now hear the testimony of Harry James Potter, a student at Hogwarts School," intoned the Minister. "Please tell the Wizengamot what happened on the night that you discovered that Peter Pettigrew had been hiding in plain sight as a boy's pet."

Harry had not been as heavily involved with Pettigrew as Ron had, and had much less to tell. In a short while, he'd been skilfully pumped for what he knew, and was dismissed. He was ushered out another door, to join the others who had already testified; they were being kept separate from those yet to testify, to make sure that their testimonies were not being coordinated.

After some time, which Harry spent alternating between chatting to his friends and reading a book he had brought along, the door opened and Auror-Cadet Tonks came in. "Wotcher, you lot. Time for you to be going along back to dear old Hogwarts. I'm sure that thought just breaks your hearts." She winked, and Harry felt himself warming to her. Even though, as a Roanapur-raised boy, he was intensely suspicious of police of any hue, seeing them as corrupt and untrustworthy, he couldn't help but like Tonks.

That evening, they heard that Sirius Black had been exonorated, and given generous compensation and an apology from the Ministry for his imprisonment. Harry felt like cheering.

A few days later, Sirius showed up at the school. Harry heard about this when Professor Snape told him: "Mr. Sirius Black wishes to speak to you, Mr. Potter. Please go to the Great Hall, where he is waiting." Curious, Harry went up to the ground floor, and soon found himself face-to-face with Sirius Black.

Black looked better than he had before. He'd cleaned up, was clean-shaven, and had obviously been fed better than he had been in some time. However, he still had a hollow look in his eyes that Harry associated with some people he knew in Thailand. Those people had generally seen too much war, and it had left its mark on them. Harry shuddered, and made a mental note not to ever do anything that could get him sent to Azkaban.

Oddly, Black seemed rather shy. They sat down, facing each other, and sat in silence for a little bit. Black finally broke the silence: "So. You're James Potter's son. You look like your father, save that you've your mother's green eyes. I haven't seen you since you were a year-and-a-half old. How has your life been? You know that your parents made me your godfather, don't you? I need to catch up on that."

Harry was very touched. He seldom thought much about his parents; the life he had was full and satisfying. However, he did sometimes feel rather wistful when he saw other children with their parents, and occasionally wondered what his own parents had been like. "Well, Mr. Black, you know I live with my Aunt Petunia, don't you? We live in Thailand; Aunt Petunia, her son Dudley…you've seen him, I think, when you were being 'Baskerville'…and me. My Uncle Vernon died a few months after I came to live with the Dursleys, and Aunt Petunia decided that the opportunities were better overseas."

"Yes, I remember that. And please, Harry, call me 'Sirius.' I hear 'Mr. Black,' and I look around to see where my father is. How do you like your life? Are you happy?" Sirius looked very anxious. "You were supposed to come to me, you know. In the event of your parents' deaths, I was designated as your guardian."

"You were? But how…?"

"Dumbledore took you and left you with the Dursleys, while I went haring off to find Peter. I found him, all right…and that led to twelve years of hell in Azkaban." Sirius looked very haunted. "Are you happy where you are? If you aren't, you know you're welcome to come live with me!"

"I couldn't be happier, Mr. Bla-oops, I mean Sirius! I love my life! Aunt Petunia couldn't be better to me! She treats me and Dudley like brothers, and that's how we think of each other. It's great having someone I can trust implicitly always at my side! Particularly where we live!"

"Where you live? Why, what's wrong with Thailand?"

"Oh, most of it's all right, I suppose. But I live in Roanapur. We all work for one of the top businesswomen in town, Miss Balalaika. She's Russian, and so are her men. That's why Dudley and I both speak Russian. We also know Thai, and some Chinese, and Dudley turns out to speak some Spanish."

"Merlin! You're way ahead of where your father, Remus, and I were at your age! Hang on…did you say Roanapur?" Sirius' eyes went wide. "You mean the pirate port?"

"Sure do. Most people here know that's where Dudley and I come from, and Miss Granger and Miss Lovegood have both visited us there." A thought struck Harry. "Look, now that you're free and Peter Pettigrew is apparently on his way to where you were, what are your plans? How are you going to live?"

"I don't know. I hadn't thought much about anything beyond protecting you and seeing that Pettigrew died." Sirius' expression became abstracted. "I never really did hold a job before I was sent to Azkaban, and now, even though I've officially been exonerated, I don't think anybody in Britain will hire me."

"How'd you like to come to Roanapur?" Harry leaned forward, visions of Balalaika praising him for bringing in such a valuable employee dancing in his head. "The Statute of Secrecy doesn't apply out there, and even if it did, Roanapur's lawless enough that most people don't care. Once people know you're there, you can write your own ticket!"

"Go to Thailand?" Sirius stared at Harry as though his godson had suggested that he paint himself green. "But…I'm British!"

"So am I, so's Dudley, so's Aunt Petunia. In Roanapur, nobody cares. You're a fully-qualified wizard, aren't you? Do you have a wand again?"

"Sure do," Sirius smiled as he brought a wand out from his robes. "Sixteen inches long, oak with dragon heartstring. Ollivander was kind of surprised to see me, but he remembered what I'd used before, and with that to work with, he soon had me kitted out! The wand, and the new clothes, and the money I'm living on, all came from the Ministry. I was voted some fat compensation for the fact that I'd been imprisoned for so long without a trial."

"Well, come out to Roanapur! I can give you some names of people to talk to, and you can either work for one of the bosses who run the town, or be a freelance! I'll look forward to seeing you there. I can show you around, introduce you to people, and generally help get you settled in. Aunt Petunia and Dudley will also help."

When they parted, Sirius was talking about how he'd use the international Floo system to get to Thailand, and Harry gave him some names and addresses of people to contact when he got there. Afterwards, they parted, and Harry went back down to the dungeons, to find himself facing Snape.

"I trust that your…godfather…did not traumatize you? Maybe twelve years in Azkaban has taught him a lesson or two." Snape did not look happy, and Harry remembered the old animosity between his godfather and his House head.

"We had a very nice conversation. He offered to let me come live with him, but dropped that idea when I told him how happy I am living in Thailand. Matter of fact, he's planning to go out to Roanapur himself. He wants tropic sunshine."

"Is he?" Snape smiled a rather evil smile. "In that case, let us hope that he's finally over his habit of pulling pranks and tormenting people whom he thinks are defenseless. From what you've told me, Mr. Potter, if he tries that on in your home town, he'll get a nasty surprise. Nasty…and fatal."

"I know. I warned him that people out there are often very dangerous, even though they're Muggles. That's why, while I'd love to have Ron and Ginny Weasley come out, and wouldn't mind having Percy Weasley along to chaperone them, I don't think that letting Fred and George Weasley near that town would be a good idea." Harry shuddered at the idea. "Too many people out there have no tolerance for pranks, and express their displeasure with a hail of bullets. And I'd rather not have to explain what happened to their sons to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley."

"That strikes me as very wise, Mr. Potter." Snape smiled slightly and turned away, back to his laboratory. "The Weasley twins do tend to presume overmuch that their victims will not retaliate. In your home town, that would be a fatal mistake to make."

"You're telling me, sir!" Harry pictured the reaction of someone like Revy Two-Hands, or worse, Balalaika, to the sort of "jokes" the twins liked…and shuddered.

END Chapter 66