Chapter 10: A Rat, A Dog and a Sense Of Perspective

Andi grabbed the pot of floo powder from the mantelpiece and took a small pinch of the silvery substance contained within. She knelt and tossed it into the fire calling "Severus Snape" before plunging her head into the roaring green flames.

Once Andi's head had stopped spinning, a sensation that Harry had found incredibly disconcerting when he'd tried fire-calling in the future, she looked out into Severus' office to find the man she was seeking watching her from the chair behind his desk.

"Mrs Tonks – to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Severus, something's happened and Harry needs to speak with you immediately. We thought it best that I call first in case you weren't alone."

Severus stood from his seat. "May I come through?"

Andi nodded her confirmation and backed out of the fire. A moment later the tall, black-robed, greasy-haired figure of Severus Snape calmly stepped out of the fireplace and into the Tonks' home. Glancing around the room he found only Harry and Andromeda present and fixed his attention onto a clearly agitated Harry Potter who was pacing up and down the room and wringing his hands.

"Harry, what's happened?"

"The Goblins…" panic filled Harry's voice, "…they've convinced the DMLE to give Sirius a trial…"

"Focus Potter." snapped Severus, causing Harry to jerk to a stop and stare at the Potions Master. Harry took a deep breath, calmed himself and concentrated on the situation at hand. "Thanks," he said ruefully. "I needed that."

"Now, explain."

"The last time I was at Gringotts my account manager asked me about Sirius and I muttered a comment under my breath about him not receiving a trial – ", Harry broke off and held his hands up defensively at the look of incredulity on Severus' face "- I know, I know. It was bloody stupid of me. I thought I'd got away with it when he didn't react but it turns out I was wrong…" He took a deep breath and continued. "We visited again today and he told us they've convinced someone high up in the DMLE to look into this and had it confirmed Sirius wasn't tried. A trial has been scheduled for next week but hasn't been publicly announced yet."

Severus immediately grasped the problem and the cause for Harry's distress. "And you're concerned that Wormtail is going to run"

"Yes! If he goes into hiding now Voldemort could come back much sooner! We'll be completely unprepared to fight him!"

Severus looked at Harry shrewdly. "You know where Wormtail is? You understand if we intervene it will be yet another deviation from your future?"

"I know where he should be and you're the only one in a position to help. As for it being another change to the future - I know, I don't see that there's a choice." Harry slumped into a nearby chair, put his head into his hands and sighed. "Ever since returning there's been one unintended change after another. The entire point of minimal changes until my third year at Hogwarts was to preserve as much of my future knowledge as possible. That was blown out of the water the moment I ended up on your doorstep."

Harry looked up at Severus and Andi. "I started to write things down – important things you know? Things that will help with my tasks but… I'm… struggling sometimes… little details, things that happened towards the end of my future are becoming – I don't know how to describe it, murky I guess? It took me five minutes to remember my partner's name in the Auror office. I worked with the guy every day for five years and I couldn't remember his damn name right away…"

Severus and Andi shared a look of concern. "What about things closer to your current age?" Andi asked.

"That's what worries me - those memories are clear. I just…" Harry hesitated then said in a small, quiet voice "…I don't want to forget my children…"

Andi moved to Harry's side and pulled him in a gentle hug, rubbing her hand soothingly over his back. Severus turned away and allowed Harry a moment to compose himself and when he looked back, Harry was wiping away the remnants of tears from his eyes. Harry gathered himself and stood once more, looking determinedly at Severus. "Wormtail should be hiding in the Gryffindor third-year boy's dormitory. He's in his animagus rat form and goes by the name 'Scabbers'. He's posing as Percy Weasley's pet."

Severus pondered this information. "I don't foresee an issue capturing him as long as he's there, but we'll have to turn him over to the DMLE anonymously. If it's done before the trial is even announced it will look absurdly suspicious and the last thing we want is for the Ministry or the Headmaster to come looking for answers."

"Thank you," said Harry softly. "I know what happened between you and Sirius when you were at school and how much you hate him. I know it's likely you'll never be able to forgive him for that and I wouldn't expect you to. Just… thank you for helping."

"I don't believe I'll ever be friends with him Harry, there's too much history there, but we will have one thing in common. We'll both want to see you through this, for your parent's sake as well as your own." With that, Severus turned, tossed some floo powder into the fireplace and called out "Severus Snape's office, Hogwarts" before stepping into the flames and disappearing.

A few hours later a piece of parchment fluttered out of the fireplace and landed next to Harry who had been waiting impatiently for news. He picked it up and written on it were four short words.

I have the rat

The next morning's edition of The Daily Prophet carried a huge banner headline, 'Not So Black After All? Sirius Black to receive trial!' accompanied by a large photograph that Harry recognised as being from his parent's wedding day. The article itself expressed outrage that the head of a Noble and Ancient House had been merely tossed into Azkaban without even a hearing and suggested that new evidence had come to light indicating that Black may actually be innocent of the crimes he had been accused of. Minister for Magic Millicent Bagnold had apparently been unavailable for comment but one of her rivals, a certain Cornelius Fudge, had been quoted saying that he was disgusted that the present minister had allowed this situation to be brushed under the rug and promised that, if he ever became Minister, such failings would not be allowed to occur.

Harry lay down the newspaper and sat back in his chair as he considered this turn of events. He felt torn – on one hand, he was delighted that he would get to see his godfather much sooner than anticipated and that he'd actually be able to spend some quality time with him rather than having their relationship cut short. On the other, it was yet another nail in the coffin of the plans he and his family had spent hours ironing out prior to his return. He realised that sooner or later he would have to make a decision about those plans – should he toss them away and charge ahead like a typical Gryffindor? Or should he sit back and see how things turned out, potentially risking his future knowledge becoming obsolete? Harry groaned. It was times like this that he really missed Hermione – she'd always been the one he'd turn to for advice and she'd never steered him wrong.

Harry remained in his chair, deep in thought and barely acknowledging Andi and Ted moving around him. He hadn't really thought about his best friends since returning having been too tied up with the tasks he needed to accomplish, but he missed the easy camaraderie he'd had with them both growing up. He and Ron had plenty of good times and he'd been his first friend, but Harry recognised there were phases when he hadn't been a particularly good one – more often than not Harry had accepted one of Ron's non-apologies after a falling out to make sure their relationship remained intact. He was unsure how he would react to Ron when they met again, not knowing how aware he had been regarding Molly Weasley's actions in the future but set that aside to deal with at a later date.

Hermione however, was a different case altogether. She'd always been his most loyal friend, standing by him through thick and thin, never wavering in her support of him until, as he knew now, the meddling of the Weasley matriarch affected things in their sixth year. She'd still chosen to stay with him when Ron abandoned them during their hunt for the Horcruxes though, and he had been forever grateful to her for that. After they'd rescued Sirius at the end of their third year, Harry believed he may have liked Hermione as more than a friend but nervousness at potentially ruining that friendship, and an indication from Ron that he was interested in Hermione, led to Harry had backing off and turning his attentions elsewhere.

His thoughts drifted to his other close friends. He'd be meeting Neville soon and he was determined Luna wouldn't have to put up with the bullying she experienced at school in his time. He also felt a kind of relief that he wouldn't have to face Ginny until a year after starting Hogwarts. Whilst she had been the mother of his children he remembered all too well her full-on 'fan-girl' phase and as with Ron, he didn't know if she was involved in her mother's plans. He needed to discover for himself how much of his love for her was real or as a result of outside interference.

Harry shook his head attempting to clear his thoughts and pushed the newspaper to one side. He pulled out his Muggle notebook and pen and continued documenting the life he was reliving.

A week later and winter had taken hold of the English countryside. Although tame when compared to those Harry had experienced in the Scottish highlands, temperatures had plummeted and frost was visible each morning on the bare branches of the horse-chestnut trees that lined the street outside the Tonks residence. Harry had taken to pacing around the living room when agitated or nervous and this day he had good reason to be both. This was the day of Sirius Black's trial. He knew there was no way he would be able to attend in person if he wanted to keep himself hidden from the clutches of Albus Dumbledore and so Andi and Ted, who were planning on being present anyway due to familial ties, had promised to report back as soon as they were able.

In Harry's hand was a crumpled piece of parchment which had been delivered to him via owl that morning. The day before Severus had anonymously contacted Amelia Bones, the head of the DMLE, and provided the location of Wormtail. He'd watched from a distance as an Auror team, led by Madam Bones, had arrived to find Peter Pettigrew stunned and bound to a chair in an abandoned Muggle warehouse in north London.

Eventually, Harry gave up his pacing and headed to his room to practice his magic. He'd borrowed Dora's first-year textbooks and was working his way through the practical spell casting, not wanting to push himself too much until he had a better understanding of how much he could handle at this time. He was so engrossed in his training that he didn't notice how much time had passed, or hear the floo as it activated downstairs. He was practicing the Levitation Charm when Andi spoke, making him jump and lose concentration, and causing the chair he was levitating to crash to the floor and break into several pieces.

"Reparo" he muttered with a wave of his wand then turned to Andi as the chair fixed itself behind him. "Well?" Harry demanded, "How did it go?"

Andi beamed at Harry. "Brilliantly. Cleared of all charges."

Harry flew across the room and grabbed Andi in a tight hug which she happily returned. "It looked touch and go for a while. Barty Crouch wasn't happy at all that Sirius had been brought back in for a trial but when the Aurors escorted Pettigrew into the court and gave him Veritaserum, Crouch withdrew his complaints."

Harry smiled delightedly up at her. "What happens to Sirius now?"

"He's got some recovering to do. The exposure to the Dementors means he'll be seeing a Mind Healer regularly for a while but other than that he's released – completely free to go."

"When can I see him? Would it be OK if he comes over for Christmas maybe?"

If possible, Andi's smile appeared to grow even larger. "Oh, I think I can do one better than that…"

Sirius Black stepped into the room and cleared his throat "Hello Harry"

"Sirius!" Harry yelled and sprinted the short distance to his godfather before throwing himself into his arms.

"I'm so sorry Pup. I shouldn't have left you that night."

"It doesn't matter now. You're here." Harry gripped Sirius tightly. His eyes squeezed shut, he clutched at the man whose death had left him numb and vowed to himself that he would not allow that event to reoccur.

Eventually, Sirius pulled back and smiled down at his godson. "Andi tells me you've quite the story to share with me?"

"You can say that again. You're going to want to sit comfortably for it though, it's going to take some time to tell it all." Not wanting to let go of Sirius now he had him back, Harry grasped at Sirius' arm and pulled him from the room.

Following the completion of Harry's tale, Sirius had settled back into his chair, steepled his fingers and proceeded to just look at Harry without saying a word. After five minutes of this Harry couldn't bear his silence any longer. The emotion of the day had already put him on edge and to have one of the most important people in his life merely stare at him mutely after he had laid everything on the line and asked for his help was just too much.

Harry reached his limit and exploded. "Come on Sirius! Say something! Anything! Don't just leave me hanging here!" He dropped heavily into the large, squishy armchair by the fire and glared at the man.

Sirius cleared his throat and leant forward slightly. "Just to be clear here…" Harry mirrored his movement eagerly, awaiting the assessment of his godfather "…you and your best friend save my life twice, she then stands with you when you're abandoned by everyone else and loyally stays by your side throughout the downfall of Voldemort, and at no point do you even attempt to date her? Is there something wrong with you?"

"SERIOUSLY? THAT'S WHAT YOU TOOK FROM THAT STORY?" Harry exploded.

"Oh Pup. We've clearly got some work to do."

Andi, who had been watching the exchange from the corner of the room, managed to turn her snort of laughter into a cough but not quickly enough to avoid the glare Harry shot her. She took the opportunity to intervene before things got out of hand.

"As I said before Harry, Sirius is going to need regular checks from a healer for the foreseeable future, and he clearly can't be trusted on his own so Ted and I thought it would make sense for him to stay with us for a while." Despite his current irritation with his godfather, Harry did appreciate the opportunity to spend more time with him, something that Andi was eager to accommodate especially as it would give her a chance to reconnect with her favourite cousin.

Andi soon realised that having Sirius around had another benefit that she'd previously overlooked. She'd been steadily getting more anxious about Harry's all-consuming focus on his plans and she could see it was affecting him even if he wouldn't admit it himself. Large, dark bags had formed under his eyes, which had themselves taken on an almost permanent bloodshot condition. He was snappish and irritated and the boy that had found balance in the summer between working and enjoying life was in serious danger of disappearing altogether. What he needed was a chance to let off some steam and not take things so seriously, even if just for a little while. This was where Sirius had come in.

Despite his years incarcerated in Azkaban, Sirius could see his godson was on the verge of cracking under the pressure of the tasks that lay before him and, without prompting from Andi, he took it upon himself to try to bring a little light into Harry's life. He'd started a campaign of small, innocuous pranks in attempt to make Harry laugh – every small smile was a victory to Sirius – and was beginning to increase these in both scale and extravagance. Although subtlety had always been more of Moony's strong suit rather than his, he believed he was getting along rather nicely. Harry was yet to respond with a prank of his own but Sirius had faith that, once the inevitable prank war began, he'd be more than capable of dealing with anything Harry could dish out.

There were two things however that Sirius hadn't taken into consideration. First was Harry's future relationship with the Weasley twins including the partial ownership of their joke shop, and second, was the possibility that Harry was merely biding his time until his co-conspirator returned from Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays.

"Nymphadora!" exclaimed Sirius as she walked through the door, already shedding her coat to accommodate for the warmth inside the house compared to the freezing temperatures she'd escaped from outdoors. Sirius seized her and dragged her into a hug. "Little Nymphy! It's been so long – look how big you've gotten!" Sirius was really laying it on excruciatingly thickly in an attempt to embarrass her. Due to the hug, he was unable to notice the way Harry and Dora's eyes met, confirming an alliance that had been discussed in letters between the pair. They had no plans to reveal this agreement to Sirius however – it would be much easier to catch him off guard if he thought he was only at risk of retribution from Harry.

For the first week after Dora's return, the pair did nothing. Sirius's pranks grew more and more elaborate and had culminated in Harry arriving for breakfast that morning with his skin and hair dyed a brilliant Gryffindor crimson after Sirius had bewitched the shower. Furthermore, Harry had found himself unable to simply speak and instead had to croon every sentence as though he was channelling Celestina Warbeck and finally, Sirius had somehow managed to enchant every pair of his socks forcing Harry to incorporate a bizarre little dance into his walk every seven paces.

While Sirius was congratulating himself on his prank combination and clutching at his sides which were aching from laughter, Harry met Dora's eyes and gave a small nod. It was time for Sirius to experience a little payback. The pair had decided to combine both Muggle and magical pranks, favouring a 'shock and awe' approach over playing the long game on this occasion. They were confident that Sirius wouldn't know what had hit him.

Sirius had slept terribly. He'd woken up several times during the night due to quiet ringing noises that stopped the moment he got out of bed to investigate them, each time coming from a different location in his room. Eventually, this had stopped and, exhausted, he'd managed to get back to sleep only to be awoken a few hours later by a loud, blaring noise right next to his ear. Immediately jerking upright he failed to notice a small string that had been tied to him. His movement caused the string to pull taut, triggering a levitated bucket of water to empty its contents all over him and his bed.

Grumbling and now unable to get back to sleep, he moved to the bathroom to start his day, only to discover an uncomfortable feeling in the rear of his pyjama trousers. Nervously reaching down he discovered the remnants of a soft, ripe tomato stuck to the top of his backside with the rest of the fruit smeared all over his posterior and the tops of his legs.

Sirius jumped in the shower to clean off and realised that he was experiencing Harry's revenge. Despite the unsettling feeling that he wasn't clear of pranks yet he smiled to himself, happy that his godson was relaxing a little. The shower was hot enough for steam to cover the mirror and so Sirius didn't notice before leaving the bathroom, that his long black hair had turned platinum blonde. Nor did he notice that the toothpaste he had used that morning had dyed his teeth a delightful maroon colour.

Sirius edged his way downstairs, carefully checking each corner and doorway that he passed to ensure he avoided any further surprises. Entering the kitchen he was surprised to see Harry, Ted and Andi all sitting and consuming their breakfasts, not expecting them to be awake this early in the morning.

"Good morning everyone," Sirius said as he surveyed the room, looking carefully for any further traps.

"Morning" came the chorused response. Sirius could see Harry's shoulders quivering slightly and narrowed his eyes at him. Finally, a snort became a laugh and all three of the people sat at the table collapsed in hysterics.

"What?" said Sirius, nonplussed. Andi simply conjured a small mirror and handed it to him, almost dropping it as her hands shook with mirth.

He first fixated on his hair "I look like a bloody Malfoy!" he bellowed before catching sight of the colour of his teeth and clamping a hand over his mouth. Dora then took the opportunity to enter the room and smirked at the sight of Sirius. She sat down and poured herself a cup of tea. "Tea cousin?" she asked innocently.

Sirius nodded, keeping a close eye on Harry who was watching him intently with a twinkle in his eye. He lifted the cup to his mouth and just before he took a sip, caught sight of Harry's smile widening just a fraction. He stopped abruptly, looked at Dora who had maintained her expression of innocence, and slammed the cup down on the table before storming from the room, leaving behind gales of laughter.

"What did you two do to the tea?" Ted asked as he wiped tears away from the corners of his eyes.

"Nothing," laughed Dora "but he's now so twitchy he won't trust anything all day."

Eventually, Sirius saw the funny side and congratulated the pair on their pranks. By the time Christmas was over and Dora had returned to school, Harry was much more relaxed about everything and looking forward to meeting his friends again.

"Mission accomplished," said Andi to Sirius with a smile as they watched Harry unwinding with a book, curled up in his favourite armchair by the fire. Sirius just smiled back, delighted that he'd been able to help Harry in some way.