7/4/24

The next day was a Hogsmeade weekend meaning almost everyone was out enjoying their day in the village.

Even so, even with permission now thanks to Sirius, Harry wanted to stay at the castle and was by the lake once again practising his Patronus some more.

"Expecto Patronum," Harry said, focusing hard on his memory, making a poof of silvery light come out.

Jack, Baby Tooth, Elisa, Annie, Ron, and Hermione were there with him silently (so not to distract him) cheering him on.

"Expecto Patronum!" Harry said louder.

This time the poof was brighter but it wasn't forming just yet.

"You know," Jack said after a while "Slowing down your speech and/or yelling the same thing over and over doesn't always work."

"I'm trying to put more power behind it," Harry said, shaking off a cramp in his hand from holding his wand for so long.

"I get that," Jack said, getting up, sticking to the shade but coming over, pulling his own wand out. "But what makes a Patronus more or less powerful is the happiness level of your memory, remember. Expecto Patronum." he said in a calm simple voice and a strong brightly shining dolphin came out and started swimming around everyone before vanishing. "See?"

Rolling his eyes, Harry raised his wand once again, concentrated very hard on the memory and said once more (still in a loud voice) "Expecto Patronum."

This time instead of a silvery mist, something solid came out of the end and started running around before them.

This got everyone cheering, making Harry smile raising a hand up to pet it as it came back showing itself as a stag.

"You did it!" Hermione said happily, clapping "Oh Harry, you did it!"

"Prongs..." Harry said ignoring the cheers as he smiled petting the silver deer.

"Harry? Are you ok?" Annie asked, seeing him not responding to the others.

"Um, yeah," Harry said, snapping out of the state he was in saying he had to go see Lupin about something.

"You want us to come with you?" Ron asked in a friendly but I-hope-he-doesn't-because-I-like-it-here voice.

"No, no, I won't be long." Harry said heading inside.

o0o

Inside Harry went straight to Lupin's office where he could hear him and Sirius talking.

"Come on Moony, it was one night, and nothing happened," Sirius said calmly.

Quietly Harry looked around the side of the door and watched his dad's two best friends in the room, one trying to pack everything up, one unpacking said items.

"But something could have happened," Lupin said in a 'I've already made up my mind' voice. "And the only reason nothing did happen was because Jack and Elisa got Harry and Hermione away from me and then I was knocked out by Bunny." He said placing a flat-packed wardrobe into the suitcase. "If that didn't happen, I could have bitten any of them and I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"But resigning?" Sirius asked, taking the wardrobe out and putting it back. "You passed another month, why not keep going?"

"I held on one more month because the kids needed to do their exams, Sirius," Lupin said in an annoyed voice as he repacked the wardrobe "Besides, once it gets out to the parents what I am, they will come in their hoards trying to make Dumbledore see the error of his ways and question how the best headmaster Hogwarts has ever had could have made such a dumb mistake."

"It wasn't a dumb mistake." Harry said, speaking up, making both men turn to the door. "You have been the best Defence professor we've ever had. Don't go!"

"See? Prongslet understands," Sirius said, smiling and coming to lay an arm over Harry's shoulder.

Shaking his head, staying quiet, Lupin continued emptying his drawers and packing his things.

Harry was trying to think of something to say but didn't get a chance to say anything because Sirius asked kindly.

"So, not that we don't want you here, pup," he said, taking a rest on the desk sitting on top of some papers Lupin was about to pack away. "But is there something we can help you with?"

"I – I was coming to tell Professor Lupin that I finally managed to cast a Patronus," Harry said, trying to focus on that.

"Really?" Sirius asked, amazed. "Well well done pup," he said, messing up the teenager's hair. "What form did it take?"

"It – It was a stag, you know a male deer," Harry said, fiddling with his fingers.

This got the men to go silent and look at each other not sure what to say.

"I... I think it was my dad," Harry said, continuing his speech. "You know, because of how people say how parents are inside their kids?"

He trailed off as he felt arms wrap around him and fingers running through his hair.

"Yes," Lupin said from where he was while Sirius hugged Harry. "Your father did always take the form of a stag when he transformed, that's why we called him Prongs."

"And I'm sure you've already heard this from everyone who knew him," Sirius continued pulling away and kneeling down, his hands still in Harry's hands "But you look so much like him. Except you-"

"My eyes," Harry finished smiling. Normally he would be annoyed with this sentence, but since it was Sirius saying it, it made him feel happy.

"Can you tell me some more stories before you leave, if you really are leaving?" Harry asked, looking between the two men.

"I'm sure we can do that," Sirius said, taking a seat back on the (now paper-less) desk. "What do you want? Pranking, funny, how he got in trouble one day, or something to do with your mother?"

Harry picked one and sat down in the second chair smiling as he listened to the story, Lupin continuing to pack, correcting some points or adding some information when needed.

As it was coming to an end, everything was packed away and the only thing left out was the Marauder's Map.

"Here Harry," Lupin said, folding it up and handing it over. "As I am no longer your teacher, I feel no regret in handing this back to you. It's of no use to me, and I am sure you, Jack, Ron, and Hermione can find uses for it."

Harry took it and looked down at the parchment a thinking look on his face,

"You told me that Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs would've wanted to lure me out of school... you said they'd have thought it was funny."

"And so we would have done," said Lupin, reaching for his now closed cases as Sirius messed up Harry's hair a little (again). "I can't begin to think what James would say if his son never found any of the secret passages out of the castle."

"He'd probably drag you to Gringotts to get a DNA test to make sure you are indeed his son." Sirius said with a small bark of laughter.

There was a knock on the door and Harry quickly hid the map away into his pocket.

It was Professor Dumbledore, who didn't seem too surprised to see Harry there.

"Your carriage is at the gates Remus," he said.

"Thank you Headmaster."

Lupin picked up his old suitcase and the empty Grindelow tank.

"Well, goodbye Harry," he said smiling "It's been a real honour teaching you. I feel sure we'll meet again some time. Headmaster, there is no need to see me to the gates, I can manage..."

Harry had the impression Lupin wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

"Goodbye then Remus," said Dumbledore soberly. Lupin reached out, shook the Headmaster's hand, then with one last nod to Harry left the office, Sirius going with him to keep him company and help carry the tank.

Sighing, Harry sat back down looking around at the bare walls of the office, where mismatch markings on the walls showed where things were hanging for the past year.

Hearing the door shut, he looked over to see Dumbledore was still there.

"Why so glum Harry," he said calmly. "I would think on a day like this you would be happy."

"Why does it matter if Professor Lupin is a werewolf?" Harry asked, talking to the floor. "He's the best Defence teacher we've had. So what if he's a little more furry than other people once a month? It's not his fault he got bitten is it?"

"No, Harry, it's not his fault," Dumbledore said calmly "But parents who don't know him will be worried about the safety of their children. Last month, he didn't take the potion which made him safe, and he could have bitten any of you. Even you who he saw as a member of his pack, even if by terrible mistake."

'Terrible.' Something stirred in Harry's head. 'Greater and more terrible than ever before...' Professor Trelawney's prediction.

"Professor Dumbledore - yesterday, during my Divination exam, Professor Trelawney went very – very strange."

"Indeed?" Said Dumbledore. "Stranger than usual, you mean?"

"Yes... her voice went deep and her eyes rolled back, and she said that Voldemort's servants will find him and bring him back to power." Harry explained. "I already told my friends about this, but… Do you think she was making a real prediction?"

Dumbledore looked mildly impressed.

"You know what Harry? I think she might have been," he said thoughtfully. "Well then that would bring her total of real predictions up to two. I should offer her a pay rise."

He was about to leave when it looked like he remembered something.

"Ah, yes, Harry. I know Sirius is now a free man, but I would like you to go back to your aunt and uncle for at least the first week of the summer holidays."

"Why?" Harry said, curious, looking up to the headmaster.

"They need to see you are alive and well, now don't they?" Dumbledore asked in his rhetorical question voice.

"Like they care if I am or not," Harry said looking away grumpily.

"Harry, there is a very important reason why I am asking you to do this," Dumbledore said now in a firm voice. "So please do it. It will only be for a minimum of a few weeks. Alright?"

Frowning deeply, Harry nodded, wanting a reason why, but feeling like he wouldn't get one if he asked.

AN: Surprise!

Bet you weren't expecting an update so close to the last one were you? ;P

Well here you go and i am (not going to promise) just say that I think there will be about 2 - 3 chapters left.

But I do not know when they will be.