CHAPTER 24
A Capture And An Elaborate Escapade
The Swarm and Tilly were on individual stretchers up in Dumbledore's office. Harry was now under a sleeping potion that Madam Pomfrey made him drink. She had tutted and fussed over all of them and when it came to Harry, she just couldn't get his leg to heal all the way.
After trying for ten whole minutes she cried, "It's hopeless! I'll have to call a Healer from St. Mungo's."
And when she turned her back to them and headed for the fireplace, Blaire said, "Tilly, promise me that you'll-"
"Keep whatever just happened to myself?" Tilly interrupted. "Of course."
"Not all of it." Blaire said hastily. "Just our relationship with Professor Snape and the portkey that takes us to safety the moment we're in danger and Harry's leg."
"Of course." Tilly said unhesitatingly.
"Not even Ron and Hermione."
"Alright... Will you satisfy my curiosity? About Professor Snape, that is, he's usually so mean, and..."
"Please don't repeat this to anyone."
"I won't tell a soul." she said earnestly.
"Prof has been looking after us since a little before our first year, and we're constantly in his care. You see, he's got a very important reputation to maintain and if any of the children of his friends find out the truth...he may get hurt."
"Friend's children?"
"Er, well, people like Lucius Malfoy."
"Oh...their knowing will be disaster."
"Exactly."
"Do you trust him?"
"With my life!" Blaire said with conviction.
"I promise." Tilly said after a moment of silence. "No one will know...and let's not talk of what happened ever again."
"Of course." Blaire said and then smiled. "Thanks."
Madam Pomfrey returned with a specialist from St. Mungo's Wizarding Hospital. This man was a short plump black-haired man with a jolly round face and twinkling grey eyes, but if one looked closer, beyond the twinkle was alertness and keen observance.
"Hello, you lot!" he said good naturedly. "I'm Healer Pat Baker. What are your names?"
One by one, they introduced themselves. If he was surprised at hearing the triplets names, he didn't show, but asked them a couple of questions before turning to Harry.
They learnt that the Healer specialised in cases where ordinary magic couldn't work, that is, he was well versed in Muggle medicine and highly intricate forms of magic and was one of the best of his kind. He had grown up in the Muggle World and incidentally, originated from Cokeworth. His parents and the Evans' met occasionally and apparently, so did he and Prof and the triplets' mother.
Healer Pat Baker studied Harry's leg for a bit and tried a couple of spells, which didn't get any response from Harry's leg, but his head glowed scarlet everytime the spell was used. The first time this happened, Ethan startled quite badly.
The doctor frowned for a few moments and then his eyes sought out Harry's scar for the first time during his visit. Then he turned to Madam Pomfrey and said, "I take it you know what ails this boy?"
"Yes." Madam Pomfrey said.
"And measures have been taken to prevent any further damage?"
"Yes, Healer. I believe it's a yearly procedure."
"There are methods that could cure him, but I am not very well versed with them. I've seen Severus in the libraries of the Hospital as well as the Ministry for years, and I take it that he was searching for such a cure."
"Yes, Healer," Madam Pomfrey said. "We all are, the Headmaster included.
"Tell him that I'll try and help him out."
"You will?" Madam Pomfrey said in surprise.
"Of course." the Healer said graciously. "I don't think there is any case such as this in England. However, there could be answers in lands where magic is believed to have originated from...Armenia, Israel and India...I have been thinking about taking a break to advance my knowledge, and I was thinking of visiting Angola, but I think a trip to the Orient should be more worthwhile."
"Thank you, Healer!" Ethan exclaimed gratefully.
"Think nothing of it, son." Healer Pat Baker said and turned back to Harry's leg.
"Until the curse is completely neutralized, I don't think his leg will completely respond to magic. And from a total break in the bone, this boy is now, most fortunately suffering from only an hairline fracture..." he twirled his wand and Harry's support was now hard and constricting. "In six weeks, the support will be take it's original form and his leg will be fine again. Until then, he should lay off it.
"The cast is waterproof and dirt repelling. It will not lead to the itching that is usually caused when a cast is worn, and it is shock absorbing. He'll need a crutch, and he shouldn't try to overexert himself. Pain relievers may work on him, but if they don't, I'll prescribe some Muggle pills... As for these kids, I think they could do with a night in the peaceful confines of the hospital wing.
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The Hospital wing was silent when Sirius and Remus entered it at two in the morning, the triplets, their friends and even Snape and his dog, who was sprawled by the side of his chair, were fast asleep. Harry's leg was wrapped in a bandage and he still looked sickly pale. The sight brought out the guilt in him all over again.
They had just been released from Ministry and Peter Petrigrew was condemned to a lifetime in a cell with anti-animagi wards. He wasn't given the kiss, much to Sirius's disappointment.
The rat had shrieked and begged and cried like a child during his trial. He kicked his legs and threw tantrums, and pleaded and threatened, but there was nothing to it. He was thrown into the hands of the dementors. They would escort him to Azkaban.
Sirius was given a formal apology and a huge compensation, which he immediately dropped in Remus's hands, despite his protests. The man needed it more than him, besides it was almost taken to task for endangering school children and would probably have been put down had Dumbledore not intervened.
He and Remus had just taken another step into the infirmary when two very familiar faces appeared in a portrait above them. Sirius gasped out aloud and Remus could only stare. Snape woke up with the commotion. He took in the sight and rolled his eyes. Then he drew his wand and waved it in the direction of the children and then on himself and casually dosed off again.
The big, old sod. Sirius couldn't help but feel quite sore towards that man. He knew Veritaserum didn't work efficiently unless the consumer was taken by surprise, but he couldn't help but feel that a little hole had been made in his already very porous pride. Maybe the actual reason for his resentful attitude was that he knew that the triplets would always be more comfortable with Snape than they would ever be with him.
Yes, Sirius was jealous, and what made it worse was that he would probably never be able to change the scenario...and it hurt...a lot.
"It's been a long time, Moony, Padfoot." James said seriously.
"James!" Sirius cried out. "Lily!"
"Hello, Sirius, Remus." Lily said with a sweet smile. "It's been a long time."
"Why did you not come to meet me?" Remus demanded at once. "If I'd known that there was a portrait of you around Hogwarts, I would have accepted this job two years ago!"
"I'm sorry, Remus." Lily said with contrition. "But I just couldn't remember you...you just weren't there in my portrait mind!"
Remus sighed sadly.
James frowned, "You know, I should have thought of you all along...come on, you're my best friends...but I just didn't. Surely sometime in these twelve years, Lily and I would have talked about you, but it seemed that I thought about you for the first time only when Snape told the children the truth."
"He must have charmed you that way." Remus gasped almost immediately.
"What do you mean?" Sirius said.
"He knew that you would mention us." Remus said. "And he probably knew that he'd have a hell of a time trying to explain the whole werewolf and betrayal -"
"And he also knew that they are just children." Lily said quite firmly. "And that brings me to the question: SIRIUS BLACK! WHAT IN THIS WORLD WERE YOU THINKING! GRABBING MY SON AND BREAKING HIS ALREADY DAMAGED LEG! DON'T YOU REALISE HOW DANGEROUS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN?"
"Damaged leg?" Sirius asked worriedly.
"People say he threw off the Avada Kedavra that night." James said quietly, with a restricting hand on his wife's shoulder. "But actually, it affected him in a rather strange way."
"What strange way?" Remus said.
"He can't walk on it without external support." James said. "The curse hit the part of his brain that controls his leg, and-"
"I want peace in this infirmary!" came Madam Pomfrey's screech. "You know as well as I do that patients suffering from severe trauma are trying to sleep. Black! Lupin! Hop on the beds in the far corner there and Lily and James may join them, but another sound and I'm going to have to silence all the portraits around here!"
And the infirmary was silent again.
...
Sirius was woken up by Remus, who looked as fresh as a new leaf. Sirius looked up at his crisp appearance with a jaundiced eye. Having being woken up half a dozen times by Madam Pomfrey in order to gulp down bitter potions that would improve his recovery rate, had kept him up for the better part of the night and Sirius wished he could get a few more hours of sleep.
In the other corner of the infirmary, the five children were sitting in a small circle, eyeing them warily.
Remus raised his hand and gave them a small wave and surprisingly it was Harry who returned it with a tentative one...This successfully meant acceptance. Sirius too decided to wave and raised his pathetic claw like fingers up into the air, and he was greeted by all three waves.
"Can we come over?" Remus asked quietly.
He received a short nod from Blaire. And as Sirius moved to stand up, the infirmary doors slammed open and in dashed two Gryffindors, one bushy-haired holding onto a cat, the very cat Sirius had befriended a few months ago, and a redheaded boy.
"Tilly!" the boy said, "What happened?"
"Yeah Tilly!" the girl in a trembling voice, "We were so worried! Oh, Tilly, we were so caught up in our fight, we just forgot about you...then we heard that you were in the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey said that you were not to be disturbed and we didn't know what to think! Are you alright? How're you feeling?"
"Ron, Hermione! Slow down, I'm fine."
"Then why were you sleeping here?" the boy, Ron asked.
"Because, I wasn't fine then, I suppose?"
"Ha, ha, very funny, Tilly." Ron said. "And I suppose you're here because of this lot?" He turned to the five silent spectators with some sort of annoyance.
"No, no!" Tilly said hastily. "I'm here because I chose to. They didn't drag me along!"
"Along where?" Hermione demanded. "What exactly happened."
Sirius could have sworn he saw Blaire give Tilly a sharp look, to which Tilly responded with a blink.
"You see, the two of you were fighting over your stupid 'your cat ate my rat,' 'did not' issue. I was fed up, so I decided to delay going to class until you two had moved ahead and as I came down, I saw the triplets, Neville and Draco hanging around there, and asked if I could join them."
"So he's Draco now?" Ron demanded.
"Isn't that his name?" Tilly demanded.
"He's Malfoy!"
"He's a Black, Ron!" Hermione corrected.
"Could you stop behaving as though I'm not there?" Draco Black said irritably.
"Of course," Tilly said. "Sorry, Draco. Then, there was this big black dog that approach us and dragged Harry by his good leg down to the Whomping Willow."
"What?" Hermione said.
"You heard right, and then believe it or not, the dog took Harry down the hole at the bottom of the tree and the tree didn't hurt them one bit...now comes the shocking bit...as we were trying to get to the hole at the bottom of the tree, the tree suddenly stopped moving because Crookshanks had placed his paw on some sort of knot on the tree."
"That's not true!" Hermione exclaimed.
"There were five witnesses Hermione." Tilly said cooly. "You could ask them."
"Nevermind that." Ron said impatiently. "What happened then?"
"Well, we went down the tunnel and it led to the Shrieking Shack!"
"Really?"
"Yes! And there was no one on the bottom floor." Sirius noticed both Blaire and Harry give Tilly an uneasy look. She ignored them and went on, "Then, when we reached the top floor and found Harry on the bed clutching at his injured leg, the door shut behind us and there in front of us was Sirius Black!"
Hermione screamed and Ron turned pale, and the silent spectators seemed to have enjoyed the reaction immensely.
Tilly laughed nervously, "And then I fainted."
There was a moment of silence where Blaire and Harry and Ethan let out a breath of relief.
"Seriously?" Ron asked annoyed. "You fainted?"
"Of course."
"So what happened after that?"
"I don't know." Tilly said.
"Nothing at all?"
"I remember waking up in the infirmary an hour ago."
"What do you remember, Potter?" Hermione asked Blaire.
Blaire looked at her cooly, "Whatever happened after that is something I'd rather not disclose."
"What do you mean?" Ron demanded. "You have to tell us."
"It's none of your business." Blaire said with conviction.
"It's Tilly's business." Ron went on. "Her story doesn't make any sense, and after all, she went through it too, she has a right to know."
"Actually, Ron," Tilly said firmly, "I'd rather not know."
Hermione let out an exasperated breath and turned around and was greeted by the sight of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin in pyjamas. She stared for a moment and then dropped her cat to the floor and screamed.
Ron turned around too and shouted in surprise.
"Now, Ron and Hermione," Neville said, "I think it would be best if you and Tilly went for breakfast and waited for the Daily Prophet to arrive. There will be quite a few interesting articles there and I'm sure you'll be able to piece together the picture."
Tilly nodded at the five of them, firmly grabbed Ron by his arm and Hermione by her hand and dragged them out of the infirmary.
"May we come now?" Sirius said.
The triplets nodded again and Neville and Draco made to move off the bed, but Ethan stopped them. He looked up at them and said, "Professor and Mr. Black, er, Sirius, this is Neville and Draco and we're practically brothers in all but blood."
"Of course," Sirius said, graciously taking the implied meaning that they wouldn't leave the infirmary during the entire confrontation and happy that they were referring to him as Sirius. It showed that he had made some progress...he needn't have worried about it. He noticed, Harry's leg still in a very stiff cast.
Harry noticed and said, "Don't worry about it. It'll heal in a couple of months, Prof and Madam Pomfrey are going to pass it off as a magical dog bite that'll take a while to heal."
"I'm really sorry about that." Sirius said. "You see, I was desperate to kill Petrigrew and Remus wouldn't allow me to do so, unless you knew the truth and I didn't think clearly and well, you know the result."
"It'll heal." Harry said. "Now tell us what exactly happened at the Wizengamot meeting..."
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Severus entered the hospital wing at half past six to see the Swarm and Black and Lupin laughing together. He brushed down the jealousy that had crept up his chest and slowly approached them.
"Prof!" Ethan said, budging up a bit and making place between him and Draco on a bed besides Harry's. "Come, join us!"
Severus rolled his eyes, but moved up to the bed and sat down.
"I take it you've eaten your breakfast?"
The children shook their heads and Severus scowled.
"Nifty!" Severus called out, and the moment the elf appeared he said, "get us breakfast in trays."
Their meals appeared before them in less that a minute later and they began to eat and just then a couple of owls flew in through the window carrying the daily prophet. Severus put down his tray and picked out his small money purse and pulled out five knuts and placed it in the owl's leg pouch.
He saw Blaire putting back her purse as well.
Neville had already opened the paper and was reading while chewing on his pancake. Suddenly he gasped and was choking on his food. Severus used his wand and cleared the boy's windpipe and opened the newspaper to read the headlines.
SIRIUS BLACK FOUND INNOCENT! EXONERATED! FRAMED BY PETER PETTRIGREW! PETTRIGREW FOUND ALIVE AS RAT ANIMAGUS! PETTRIGREW ESCAPES CAPTIVITY!
"What!" Severus yelled in frustration.
"What happened?" Black demanded.
Severus passed the paper on to Lupin, pulled his tray towards himself and said, "Read it aloud."
Lupin, sitting between the beds on a chair took a glance at the headlines, frowned and then gasped. Black, sitting in a chair besides him, had an indignant expression on his face.
"I told them he deserved to be kissed?" he growled out. "They refused to listen!"
"Aloud, Lupin." Severus repeated.
Lupin gave him a reproachful look and read out the headline, eliciting a gasp from the triplets and Draco.
"Yes, you read that right." Lupin began, "Sirius Black was indeed found not guilty, though that couldn't be said about the long thought dead Peter Pettigrew. Things weren't as it seemed to be. Years ago, the tale told of a Sirius Black who'd been tracked down and confronted by a Peter Pettigrew. The belief consisted of a usually cowardly Pettigrew trying to single-handedly bring down a deranged Sirius Black in a fit of rage, shock and grief.
"Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew and a couple of other wizards had formed a strong friendship in school, and this bond kept getting stronger, until one friend made Sirius Black their secret keeper due to the threat posed by He-Who-Must-Not-be-Named. Black, knowing that he would be the obvious choice, and afraid that he'd devulge the secret after unbearable torture, convinced his friend to switch keepers to the useless Pettigrew.
"Useless has been stressed on in inverted commas...They've taken pains to keep the Potters out of it..."
"Just continue reading!" Severus instructed impatiently.
"Little did Black and his friends know that Pettigrew was secretly a Death Eater, and no one expected a betrayal. The friends family was torn to pieces and Black, in a state of devastation, began to track down Peter Pettigrew. He found him early in the month of November in eighty one.
"I commend the reporter!" Lupin exclaimed suddenly. "Sally Jones didn't even mention October!"
"Keep your thoughts to yourself, Lupin!" Severus demanded.
"Alright, alright...A point to be noted here, was that Black and his little group of friends were a rather unorthodox, rule-breaking teenager gang, and they were accomplished animagi by the time they completed their fifth year at school. Black was a big black dog, and Pettigrew was a rat.
"Now, when Black confronted Pettigrew, the latter put on a very believable act of the grieving, disbelieving sole survivor, and made sure everyone around could hear his little tale. Then, with his wand behind his back, he blasted apart thirteen muggles. At the same time, this murderer, cut off his finger, transformed into a rat and scurried away. The remaining finger was given to Pettigrew's old mother, along with an undeserving Order of Merlin, first class.
"Peter Pettigrew then searched around until he could find a perfect family that would put up with him and he found one at Ottery St. Catchpole. There he continued to live as a pet under the assumed name of Scabbers. Anybody whose seen Scabbers will surely remember his missing toe."
"Ron is going to have a fit!" Neville exclaimed, unable to help himself. Severus nodded and motioned for Lupin to continue.
"Sirius Black on the other hand was so destroyed, he laughed. When asked why, he said, "I was shocked! I never really expected stupid little Peter to come up with something so underhand!"
Black was then captured by a team of Aurors and thrown into Azkaban without a trial. One of the biggest mistakes of Mr. Bartemius Crouch, the head of the Department of Magical Law and Enforcement at that time."
"Alright, skip the rest." Severus said. "Go on to the next important part."
Lupin shrugged and read, "Sirius Black will now be the recepient of the Order of Merlin, fir-"
"No, not that." Severus said, irritably. "The part where Pettigrew escaped."
"Oh...Ah hah... I'll skip the bit about Peter's capture, and the Wizengamot hearing... Pettigrew was handed over to the dementors as soon as he was pronounced guilty. His boat was surrounded by a team of able agile Aurors. But as the boat neared the dreaded prison, they were attacked by approximately fifty masked Death Eaters. Muggles on the shore referred to the horrifying scene as a beautiful, unexpected firework show.
Two Aurors, including a father of two young children, were killed in the attack and the rest were greviously injured. This provided a great opportunity for Pettigrew to escape, however, another team of Aurors investigatingng this case currently, aren't quite sure. They say, Pettigrew himself could have caused the attack and -"
"Alright, that's it." Severus said, pushing his tray away, his heart sinking as the full impact hit him like a ton of bricks.
This was it.
"What wrong, Prof." Harry said, probably noticing the slight waver in his voice.
"Nothing, nothing." Severus said distracted.
This was it! The Death Eaters would send Pettigrew in search of Voldemort, most probably in return for his freedom. Voldemort would come back to power. Their only hope lay in the distruction of his Horcruxes. They were going to have to hunt for that with more vigour than ever. Could there have been more? Probably. But Dumbledore was certain of the number and Severus was going to trust him with that, not because he had no other option, but because he didn't want to lose his sleep worrying about it. Not now, anyway. Things were going to get worse, and he needed to be in good shape for that.
And besides he had other things to worry about. The Swarm's safety for instance. Narcissa, Petunia, Dudley, the Evans' all relied on him as well. So did Dumbledore...Not forgetting his precious Venn...This meant he was going to have to return to the ranks of the Death Eaters.
If he was lucky, he would probably evade the cruciatus. If he was lucky, he'd be excused from raids and attacks. If he was lucky, he wouldn't have to spend time coming up with instantaneous, believable lies. If he was lucky this entire thing could only be the result of his overworked mind.
Actually, if Severus and the triplets were really lucky, the rat had probably never seen his relationship with them. However, if by any chance, he did see them interacting, Severus Snape wasn't by any chance going to have a painless death.
tbc...