Chapter 33: Children and Fools - March-April 1994

"Children and Fools tell the truth."

As the trio walked to the statue of the one-eyed witch, Hermione saw Crookshanks. "Are you on the lookout for rats? Good kitty," she praised. Crookshanks followed them through the passageway.

It had been roughly fifteen minutes since they'd last seen Lupin, Sirius, or Snape by the time they snuck around to the Shrieking Shack. They settled in invisibly to listen again with a host of charms and wards.

Snape was speaking. "You both are arguing about what's good for Harry, when it shouldn't be up to either of you. You're both bad influences." His tone was as venomous as ever.

Sirius said, "What's it to you? I thought you despised all of your students, particularly James Potter's son."

Snape didn't rise to that bait. "No one else is here to tell you these unpleasant truths, so alas, it falls to me. I've never fallen for your little gang's charms. Doesn't that rankle, that I knew you were all terrible all along?"

Lupin sounded offended when he asked, "Even me? I thought we were… friendly acquaintances now."

"I may have forgiven you for the Whomping Willow incident. But, you enabled your friends's misdeeds. Too bad none of the professors at the time could see it. And now, you would be the old man's pawn if not for me. He doesn't care about you or the boy."

"Explain that," Sirius said quietly.

"This fool," Snape gestured to Lupin, "stayed away from Harry yet reported his every sneeze to the old man. I attempted to stop both of those things by sparking a rivalry between the two of you over Harry. I thought Lupin would be the lesser of two evils, but I was wrong."

Lupin attempted to speak. Sirius got there first. "Why does the old man care so much about Harry?"

"The Dark Lord is not dead. The old man thinks that the boy will save us all. You know of the words that drove the Potters into hiding. Well, those words are still haunting the youngest Potter now. Furthermore, the old man won't raise a finger to actually fight the war unless something's in it for him. It's despicable."

Hermione was intrigued but didn't have time to analyze that. The wizards were still talking.

Sirius said, "I thought you hated me, but you really hate the old man, don't you?"

"Black, you told me yourself that he was going to send Harry to live with Petunia before you were arrested, before his parents' bodies were cold. Lily would have never stood for that." Snape said every word deliberately. "He understands what he's doing. Unlike some people."

Lupin said, "Well, I'd rather be stupid or naive than needlessly cruel—."

Snape cut him off, "Lucky for you, then."

Hermione suppressed a laugh.

Lupin continued, "I'll… think carefully about what you both have said about… him. Perhaps I've been wrong…"

"You were. And you probably still are. Don't tell him anything about the boy, and get out from under his thumb, wolf."

Hermione was distracted from the conversation by Ron saying, "We've got trouble. Remove charms. Now!"

Ron pulled a now-visible Harry and Hermione into the first floor window of the Shrieking Shack. Sirius, Remus, and Snape were upstairs, but not for long at the racket the trio made.

Squeak, squeak, squeak. A recognizable rat was chased into the Shack by a ginger cat with a bottlebrush tail.

"Get him, Crookshanks!"

Sirius came down the stairs first. "The rat!" He charmed the windows and doors impervious rapidly.

"Nice wandwork," Harry complimented his godfather.

"Good to see you, kid, though I wish it were under better circumstances." He panted as he shot more charms around.

Sensing that he was trapped, Pettigrew transformed back into a human and grabbed Harry by the arm. He was about to say something when he was felled by Ron's stunner.

"Search his pockets," Ron ordered Sirius.

Sirius narrowed his eyes.

Ron challenged back, "Do you want us teenagers to do it? Make sure he's not still armed!"

From Pettigrew's pocket, Sirius pulled out a piece of parchment showing a map of Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. "I'll be. I didn't think he knew enough to make one of these."

Hermione bit her lip. "He must have seen Harry on his version of the Map it and attempted to kidnap him with a portkey."

Snape spoke with a casual tone but with glinting, angry eyes, "Which begs the question: what are you three doing here? Out of bounds. Tsk tsk."

Hermione snapped, "Save your lecture for someone who cares." She always wanted to say that to someone, and Snape deserved it more than most. She scolded the adults, "You all owe Harry an apology. Your secrets hurt him. Also, you're not as subtle or smart as you think, being snuck up on by a couple of teenagers."

Lupin chimed in, "Is this really the time? We have a convicted murderer here. We need to get him to Azkaban."

Hermione debated the merits of asking for a Veritaserum interrogation. The trio didn't know very much about Voldemort's current plans. But if Snape didn't have any handy, she didn't think he would "be cool" about the trio having their own stash. I worked so hard on that, and we haven't gotten to properly use it once, she internally pouted.

Ron said, "I'd rather wipe the rat's memory of the last hour and let him go back to the DL." He mouthed "Dark Lord" at the adults' confusion. At Lupin's continued blank look, Ron said, "He's not a great servant, which is a gift to those who wish to bring him down."

Lupin's face twisted in distaste. "Ethically…."

Snape cut him off, "Excellent idea, Mr. Weasley. I'm happy to do the honors."

Harry spoke up frantically, "Wait! I don't think that's a good idea. Can we just let him go?"

Sirius frowned. "Without even a little revenge?"

Harry shook his head. "No, I think our only somewhat moral choices are to turn him in or let him go. I'm not a fan of the memory charm part of the plan, myself." Harry turned to Snape, "Can't you just tell your boss that you got him free?"

Snape scowled. "Childish naiveté. He could have heard something important, or that he will make important."

Harry crossed his arms. "Give me one, actual, plausible way that what happened here will matter to the DL."

Ron supplied, "I don't think the rat heard any of the conversation. He was too far away."

Hermione and Ron both positioned themselves next to Harry to signal their support.

Snape said to Ron, "But a memory charm was your idea."

In the face of the trio's stony resolve, Snape gave in. "Fine. I will gleefully imagine a suitable scenario where I'm able to overpower the five of you and free Pettigrew. I have, through my wiles, convinced you all not to tell anyone about the Azkaban escapee's appearance. This will allow him to make further, futile attempts."

Harry gave Hermione and Ron a small smile, presumably because he had successfully persuaded Lily-as-Snape.

Hermione admired Harry's principles, even if she would have been fine with the memory charm. Or whatever Sirius had in mind.

Snape's face twisted sourly. "Now, the children should go back to school. Detentions will be forthcoming."

Before they departed, Ron got the adults to agree on a shared story about the night's events. Harry was shaky on the details, but trusted that Ron was on top of it.

Ron and Snape exchanged snappish, fragmented sentences about Snape transporting Wormtail back to Voldemort and denying his involvement in the nights events to anyone at Hogwarts.

Lupin and Sirius were more pleasant in tone but not particularly interested in taking orders at first.

Harry admired his friend's confident management of the metaphorical herd of cats. Well, and one actual cat, but Crookshanks loved Ron in this timeline. Harry thought that most cats could keep a secret, especially Hermione's.

All six humans were all in agreement about letting Snape claim that he stunned them all.

Harry thoughtlessly said, "Snape's the bad guy, got it."

Snape gave him an unreadable-yet-intense stare.

"What?" Harry said, caught off-guard by suddenly remembering that this was actually Lily Potter.

"You are correct in essentials." Snape looked heavenward. "I think of myself as the 'bad guy'."

Lupin and Sirius exchanged glances.

Harry asked, "Er, does that bother you?"

"No. It serves my purposes. And here, it serves all of yours as well. Let us depart."

At Ron's direction, Sirius and Remus left to go get a drink at the Three Broomsticks. The pair would claim to have headed there directly from Remus' office, using the Whomping Willow tunnel for nostalgia. If pressed, they would say that they saw Wormtail but lost track of him.

The trio went back to Hogwarts the way they came.

Harry wished that he and his friends could talk everything that just happened over, but it was too risky. He sat on the floor in the common room with his back resting against the a couch and gazing at the fire until he could plausibly go to bed.

Once he was safely tucked into his four-poster, Harry pulled out his secret journal and charmed some ink. This is a poor substitute for talking things out with my friends, he lamented.

He wrote a big, disorganized list of what was in his head. He added notes long after the other boys in his dorm had fallen asleep.

Harry catalogued three important facts:

1. Remus had been reporting to Dumbledore about Harry, and he might not anymore.

2. Sirius had listened to Harry when he denied him revenge on Wormtail. This was true in the other timeline, too, and the thought warmed Harry.

3. Snape sees himself negatively. While part of Harry thought that was justified, he felt a small amount of pity. Snape's deeply unpleasant actions were almost certainly critical to the previous timeline's war. As Ron had said, Dumbledore finding the ring early in this timeline supported the idea that Snape was a major source of information for him on horcruxes.

Well after midnight, Harry capped his inkwell and shut his eyes for the night.

Hermione thought that the trio learned some interesting things from eavesdropping on Lupin, Sirius, and Snape's confrontation.

Lupin was clearly influenced by Snape and Dumbledore in how and when he approached Harry that year. Hermione hoped that Harry and Lupin could move past that.

Snape and Dumbledore had also driven a wedge between Lupin and Sirius, which might be on the mend now.

Remus and Sirius now have a shared secret with Lily-as-Snape. Hermione hoped that brought them closer together. Those adults all needed friends, but allies would be fine as well.

Most importantly, all of those things could (directly or indirectly) help Harry be happy, and that was one of Hermione's top priorities.

But the piece of conversation that she was the most fascinated by was Snape's pronouncement that Dumbledore wouldn't help Harry meaningfully with the war, believing in the prophecy too much.

But Snape specifically had said, Unless something's in it for him, referring to Dumbledore.

Hermione herself was suspicious of Dumbledore's intent, given that only horcrux he destroyed himself in either timeline connected to a legend that he had demonstrated an interest in, as Rita Skeeter's work had uncovered. It sounded like Snape had reached a similar conclusion.

As Sirius pointed out, Lily-as-Snape seemed to genuinely loathe Dumbledore. Hermione noted that she had found it in her heart to use the killing curse against him in the other timeline, and the evidence of her ill opinion continued to pile up.

Hermione was morbidly dissatisfied that Dumbledore wouldn't be around for long enough for the two of them to team up against him. Ah, well.

However, Hermione could still enjoy a sense of schadenfreude. Dumbledore didn't even obtain the legendary Deathly Hallow in this timeline. The stone in that ring was just an ordinary rock. The real Resurrection Stone was no more, as of a year earlier when the trio traded it for a trip back in time.

As Harry's redheaded friend had directed, Sirius and Remus went for a pint in the Three Broomsticks. Sirius paid for both pints and they sat at a table where everyone in the pub could see them, for their story.

Sirius found himself drained after the confrontation in the Shrieking Shack, but he decided to take the opportunity he had now to mend a fence.

They started with the casual sort of catch up that they'd omitted before. Their few notes and singular conversation in the last decade had focused almost completely on Harry, but there was a lot else that they could talk about.

Remus described the cities he'd been (unsaid: looking for work). Sirius talked about fixing up his family home (unsaid: out of spite for his parents and brother). Remus talked about his "studies" of werewolf packs. Sirius talked about his "studies" of dementor exposure.

When he couldn't take it anymore, Sirius asked, "What are you going to do, about teaching?"

"If the bat is to be believed, I won't be able to work at the school after I've outlived my usefulness."

Sirius tried the approach that had worked with Petunia. "What would you want to do, if you could do anything?"

Remus looked disappointed. "You know I can't think like that."

"Come live with me." The words tumbled out of his mouth without consulting his brain.

"I don't need your pity."

"Maybe I need yours. Did you ever think of that?"

Remus scoffed.

Sirius said lightly, "My summer companions are shaping up to be an eclectic bunch. You listen to the list and tell me that you don't feel a little bit sorry for me."

The pair separated amicably an hour later.

Buoyed by success, Sirius decided to initiate another pub meeting. A week after talking to Remus, Sirius returned to Hogsmeade to meet up with the bat himself: Professor Severus Snape.

After the unlikely pair were served drinks, Snape asked, "What was it that you wanted to talk about? Your letter was… nonspecific."

"I know you care about Harry, in your own way. I wanted to ask for some advice."

"How novel."

Sirius took a sip of his drink, then said, "Harry is too knowledgeable, too mature. You're right about that, even though you're wrong that it relates to me."

"I'll admit that I've recently given up the hunt for that particular answer. I certainly have secrets that I keep from him for his own good." Snape looked at the surface of the rough wooden table.

Sirius hadn't forgotten Harry's allusion to Voldemort as Snape's boss. He said,"Harry seems to accept your… service. That seems strange to me."

"It's even stranger to me. His faith is somewhat misplaced, but should be to agreeable ends." Snape's voice hardened minutely. "Let no more be said on that."

Sirius sat in contemplation for a moment. "For a boy with so many secrets, he certainly values the truth. Even when he seems to know what I'm about to say, he seems eager for the telling."

As though realizing this for himself, Snape said, "He values the truth, and those who share it."

"He does. But I'm not quite ready to share all of what he wants to know. Not yet." Sirius sighed. "I feel so… breakable whenever James or Lily come up. You probably understand this as well as anyone. Even after all these years, I miss them so much."

With uncharacteristic hesitancy, Snape said, "Lily and I were still best friends when we… she died. We kept it a secret for reasons that seem impossibly silly now."

"I know. James told me. He hoped you two could get along eventually. After the war." Sirius paused to dab at his eyes.

Snape and Sirius continued drinking in silence.

Sirius eventually said, "James and Lily would have been such great parents. Instead, Harry might be stuck with me and Petunia."

Snape made a face and finished his drink.

Sirius looked at his empty glass. "You know, I wouldn't have picked Petunia as a co-parent. But I'm trying so hard to choose her now. I'm trusting that she'll fix things up with Harry, in her own way. I want to support her as she tries to be a better parent to Dudley, too. Also, I want her to have her own life: friends, passions, and choices."

"That's big of you."

Sirius couldn't tell if this was intended sarcastically.

Snape said, "Did you have a question for me?"

"Do you really think that I should let Lupin take my place in Harry's life?" Sirius was embarrassed to ask, yet he wanted to know what the man thought. Snape obviously cared.

"Not anymore. He seems to find you adequate, though I'm not sure if he'd tell either of us, were that not the case."

"So I probably need to work on getting his trust," Sirius realized. "I'll have to think more about that."

They both stood up to leave.

Snape gestured between the two of them. "This wasn't terrible. I might be inclined to repeat this activity in the future."

Sirius wasn't particularly busy. "Sure."

Ron was tense (and maybe a little frustrated) for the two weeks following the Shrieking Shack confrontation. Partially, he was concerned that Dumbledore or Voldemort would do something in reaction that he couldn't predict.

Ron wouldn't have chosen Remus, Sirius, and Snape to have a secret with. Just telling Dumbledore the truth about their confrontation in the Shack would have been fine in his eyes, even if it made the three adult wizards look bad. They were caught unawares by three third-year students and a sneaky-but-inept criminal.

But the redhead knew that Harry would want to cover for them, and so he did. Unless things went off the rails in a truly wild way, they could probably blame the adults. His attempts to reassure himself were feeble, but he couldn't think of anything else to do about it.

The other source of tension was the mounting pressure for the quidditch team. The final game of the season would be against Hufflepuff, and it would decide the Quidditch Cup. Slytherin had played a great game against Ravenclaw yet lost to Hufflepuff. Gryffindor would need 100 points and the snitch to win it all.

While Ron was still only a reserve player, he trained hard. Wood even had Harry come do some drills "just in case!" even though he was basically third-string. Harry appeared to take all of the nit-picking and endless reminders in stride.

When Harry came down to the ground after the grueling session, Ron told him, "You looked like a natural up there! Even more than usual. It was impressive."

Harry's eyes flicked around. No one was close to them at that moment. He leaned towards Ron. "I think I'm going to be some type of bird."

"Wicked!"

The trio had completed the mandrake leaf part of the animagus transformation. Hermione already completed brewing for the potion, for which Ron was endlessly thankful. It looked like a right pain to brew, and he was sure she did it perfectly. They were only waiting on a lightning storm.