Encounters of the Future Sort
Brownies from Greenhouse Seven
Harry
Dungeon Corridors
with Ron
April 1st, 1996
He was face to face with the spitting image of a teenage Sirius—like the memory had grown a sentient consciousness and climbed right out of Snape's pensieve.
"Oi! Prongs!" Sirius yelled haughtily, and Harry couldn't help but draw the comparison of the pensieve Sirius shouting at Snape as he was dangling upside-down.
Harry prickled with anxiety. Is this really happening...or have I cracked?
"Where the hell did you go off to, then?" Sirius accused. In the dim light of the corridor, he had high cheekbones and dark hair that fell elegantly about his shoulders. He glared at Harry. "We had to fend Peeves off by ourselves! Luckily he found some first years to go after…"
Harry blinked, still not believing his own eyes. He wasn't sure if this was his manifested worst nightmare or if teenage Sirius actually was standing before him. But that wasn't even the weirdest part. He called me—
"Prongs?" Sirius took a step towards Harry, as if reading his mind.
Harry suddenly felt very vulnerable. His occlumency lessons hadn't gone particularly well. Worse off—he'd severely unnerved Snape in the process, whom he never trusted to fiddle around with the contents of his mind to begin with. On that thought, what were the chances that it had only been a few days since Umbridge interrogated him about Sirius' whereabouts?
"Mr Potter," said Umbridge, "let me remind you that it was I who almost caught the criminal Black in the Gryffindor fire in October. I know perfectly well it was you he was meeting and if I had had any proof neither of you would be at large today, I promise you. I repeat, Mr Potter… where is Sirius Black?" —Ootp, chapter 28
He thought of Mad-Eye Moody as he recalled the unpleasant conversation in her office. Harry was sure Mad-Eye would advise him that this might be some kind of cruel trick to catch him off guard with the purpose of eliciting information.
Ron, who was quite pale, took a step backwards and tugged the sleeve of Harry's robes. "Harry…have I gone mad or a-are y-you seeing this too—?"
I can't be hallucinating then, Harry thought quickly, trying to gather all possibilities. Maybe dark magic, or...a boggart?
Was his new worst fear that his father and Sirius were nothing but arrogant schoolyard bullies? He was certainly ruminating on it a lot. Boggarts did feed off fear and prefer dark, dingy places...
Harry considered this as another possible option, grasping his wand very tightly in the pocket of his robes. His eyes fell upon the two other boys behind Sirius. One was thin, tall, and had a long scar trailing across his nose. Lupin. The other was short, round, and had mousy hair—
Pettigrew.
Harry snapped his jaw shut and tensed up. It had to be a boggart or an intentional, dark magic trick. Only members of the Order and Voldemort truly knew about Pettigrew…
"Prongs? You all right?" the young Sirius knit his brow.
Lupin put a hand on Sirius' shoulder. "Er—Sirius, I don't think that's James."
Ron let out a small yelp and looked down at his half-eaten food. "I hope this isn't a brownie from greenhouse seven…"
Sirius and Lupin were staring at Harry like they were just as confused as he was. As Harry eyed them both over, they didn't seem spectral or uncanny...and his scar didn't hurt, so that was a good sign. Despite his initial alarm, an odd, calming sensation consuming his gut told him this strange encounter didn't hold nefarious intentions.
Resolved in this hopeful, somewhat desperate belief, Harry opened and closed his mouth a couple times before managing,
"You're Sirius Black."