Disclaimer: See the Prologue.
A/n Hey everyone. First of all, happy holidays! This year is about to end and a new one about to begin. Anyway, thank you so very much for the reviews and comments so far. I may not respond to all of you, but I read every single one on both sites. I have a poll to do with Draco about how I should save him on my ff dot net profile. AO3 users, I will provide a link in the notes over there. The poll will remain open for 2 weeks and will close on Saturday 21st January 2020 at Midnight. If Voting does not work, ff dot net users you can pm me as well. AO3, leave a comment.
With that said, I really hope you enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think. Also, share it with people you think would like the story as well.
Chapter 4: Moody and Moony
5 months later.
March 15th, 1989
"Happy damn birthday to me," Remus Lupin said to himself as he consumed another glass of fire-whisky.
He knew it was not healthy to drink too much, but he couldn't see any other way to deal with the fact that 8 years ago, his world had been turned upside down.
A tear ran down his cheek. Eight years ago, he had friends and a purpose in life. But in the space of two days, all of them were gone.
Three of his friend's dead. One a traitor locked up forever who was also dead to him, and his cub hidden away where no one would find him.
Dumbledore had not told him where he had hidden his cub. The only thing he had told Remus was that young Harry was growing up somewhere safe where he was loved. Obviously, he couldn't take Harry in for two reasons. 1. Because he was a werewolf and he may accidentally bite Harry during the full moon and 2. Because the ministry wouldn't allow a dark creature to care for a child, especially the boy-who-lived. About 5 years ago, Lily's sister's house had gone up in flames. Remus had been very worried then. He had met Petunia and her husband and, in his opinion, they were the worst kind of muggles imaginable. If they were wizards and witches, they would get along perfectly with the pure-blood supremacists, death-eaters, Voldemort, and death-eater supporters. But still, Petunia was Lily's sister, and he should have saved her because that is what Lily would have wanted him to do.
Every month he would ask Dumbledore if his cub was okay. Dumbledore would give him a cup of tea and then they would talk about Harry. Dumbledore would show him pictures of Harry but something seemed off about them, as if they were made out of magic instead of being the real ones.
He would have his doubts at first but after drinking the tea, all his doubts would go away.
He was about to take another sip of fire-whisky, but then he heard someone knocking on the door of the little cottage he had bought for himself. He opened the door and froze. Standing in his doorway was none other than Harry Potter. He was with a goblin.
"Good afternoon Mr. Lupin, my name is Griphook. May we come inside?"
"Yes, of course."
Remus lead them both inside and Griphook got down to business.
"Mr. Lupin, thank you for seeing us. As I said before, my name is Griphook and I am from Gringotts. To my left is Harry James Potter, son of James and Lilly. Five years ago, he was adopted by our Director Ragnock after we found out that he was being abused by his relatives."
"What?" Remus said, "Being abu, wait, Harry. You weren't staying with Lily's sister, were you?"
"If you are talking about aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon then yes, I was staying with them."
Remus was so furious and for a moment, Harry and Griphook saw the shadow of the wolf on Remus's human face.
"That lying, fowl, evil," but he didn't say anything more because all his anger at Dumbledore drained away. Dumbledore was only doing it for the best, he told himself. He knew that because Dumbledore had been the one who had allowed him, a werewolf to come to Hogwarts. Griphook, recognizing the effects of loyalty potions, quickly slapped a portkey in Remus's hand which lead straight to the goblin's hospital. He knew that a quarter cup of loyalty potion would get a human loyal to the supplier of the potion, but werewolves had very strong occlumency shields and he figured that Dumbledore would have pumped the poor man with so much of the potion, and if that had been going on for a bit longer then the potions would either kill Remus or take away his free will completely, making him Albus's personal robot.
It would take a couple of weeks at least for Remus to heal.
Two weeks had now past and all of the lingering effects of the loyalty potions were gone.
To say that Remus was furious was an under-statement.
He wanted to march down to Hogwarts and kill the manipulative old bastard. In his anger, he forgot that he could apparate. He stood up and started running towards the door when a voice stopped him.
It was Ragnock, the Director of the bank.
"Excuse me, just where do you think you are going, Mr. Lupin? Let me introduce myself, I am Ragnock, the Director of Gringotts."
Remus froze, then suddenly bowed low in respect.
"Director Ragnock, may your blades drip with the blood of your enemies and warriors remain strong. I'm going down to Hogwarts to give Dumbledore a piece of my mind."
"No," Ragnock said calmly as he crossed his arms over his chest. "This is not the time to confront Dumbledore yet. If you do that now, then all will be lost. He holds many positions of power and misuses his rights.
He may feed you so much loyalty potion that it may either kill you or take away your free will forever and turn you into a personal robot. If he finds out that we have healed you, then he does have the power to have us goblins exterminated. So far, we have caused him problems and looking at his flashbacks, he is just waiting for Voldemort to return to come and finish us off. When he does find out that we are healing those who he puts under loyalty potions, then he will get truly desperate and cause you and us many problems."
Griphook came over and stood next to him.
"I understand how you feel," he said in a comforting voice. "I also wanted to go and kill that bastard when I first saw Harry. We have a device which we can read his speech and thoughts from, but still we need to tread very carefully when it comes to Dumbledore. He is a very dangerous man. At the moment, we can't do anything to him, but we can try and get a few of his positions of power taken away from him when it is time for Sirius's trial, and we can definitely ruin his reputation.
"Don't you dare talk about that…that fiend in front of me!" Remus snarled. "He is the reason that my friends are dead and Harry is orphaned."
"I think that you need to pay Sirius a visit in Azkaban," Griphook said. "Don't you think the situation to be strange? James and Sirius were brothers in all but blood and as thick as thieves during and after Hogwarts. Think back. Was Sirius acting suspiciously before James and Lily's death?"
"No, but…Wormtail!" he gasped. "He used to be all jumpy and scared when he was around us and come to think of it, he also had his left arm covered even during the summer. You don't think…they couldn't have…it all makes sense!"
"I think that you need to go to Azkaban to talk to Sirius about what really happened. Whatever you do, don't break him out yet. Now is not the time."
"Okay, I will do that," Remus said. "If it does turn out that Sirius is innocent, then when it is time to deal with Dumbledore, I would like to be given a chance to bite him when I transform on the full moon."
A big smile appeared on Ragnock's face. "you can definitely do that," he said chuckling. "But remember, you are not the only one who needs to deal with him. We all need to have our revenge as well. We have also got James and Lily's portraits with us too so you can talk to them if you like."
Remus decided that he wanted to talk to the portraits first before going to Azkaban.
It was a few minutes later when Ragnock came to take Remus to see James and Lilly.
Remus stood in front of them and James spoke.
"Moony, my old friend. It's been eight years since the last time we saw you."
"Remus!" Lily greeted him with a big smile. "I hope you have been looking after yourself."
James? Lily? Remus said, his eyes tearing up. He rushed forward as though he wanted to embrace them, but then stepped back.
"Y-yes, er, I mmean no, I haven't been looking after myself properly. I should have saved y-you, I'm sorry for failing you, Lily and James.
"It's fine," Lily said.
"We don't blame you," James said.
"How is Harry?" James asked. "I hope that you and Sirius have been looking after him?"
Remus looked away guiltily.
"Er, no, I haven't been looking after him, he was living with Petunia."
The look on Lily's face made Remus take a step back. "Just what do you mean by that Remus? I realize that you couldn't look after Harry but what about Sirius, Frank, Alice, Andromeda, Ted, or Minerva? You better have a good answer for me, Remus, otherwise I will personally make your life a living hell when you come to the afterlife."
"Dumbledore gave me many loyalty potions and I was very stupid not to have figured it out before.
Sirius is in Azkaban for betraying you, Frank and Alice were tortured into insanity by the Lestrange brothers, Bellatrix, and Barty Crouch's son after you were killed, and we haven't heard from Ted and Andromeda yet."
James looked insane and Lily fainted with shock.
"Listen, Moony, Wormtail was our secret keeper, not Padfoot. As for the injuring of the muggles, the bastard Wormtail must have thrown a blasting curse in the street, turned into a rat, and escaped down the sewers. A perfect way to have Sirius framed. Dumbledore knew that Wormtail was the secret keeper. We told him and put it in our wills.
By that time, Lily had woken up and heard the part about Dumbledore.
We are disappointed with you, Remus. We can't forgive you just yet. As for Dumbledore. Well, he has a lot to answer for," Lily said. Do us a favor. Help train Harry, help him with the fight against Voldemort and Dumbledore, get Sirius free from Azkaban, teach Harry to play pranks, and make sure that he has a long and happy life."
"I will do that," Remus said with his head bowed.
"Forget about the past, Moony," James said. "No one can change what has happened. Concentrate on the future, and stop feeling bad about what happened. It's not your fault. If you want someone to blame, then blame Wormtail, Dumbledore and Voldemort.
When you do go and visit Padfoot in Azkaban, take some healing potions and a lot of food and water for him. Make sure to take a large supply of chocolate as well. He will need it to help lessen the effects of the dementors."
"Don't worry, I'll do that."
"James, Lilly." Remus added with sincerity. "Thank you for all your support over these years. Prongs, for your determination to help me with my transformations as well as being a wonderful friend through school and beyond. Lilly, thanks for taking care of me and trying the best to heal me after the full moon, you guys have no idea what it meant to have friends like that."
James and Lilly smiled with tears in their eyes but could not speak. Instead, they nodded at him and remained silent. Remus stood up and left the room.
One week later, Remus had received permission to visit Sirius in Azkaban. He was now walking towards the prison.
He had packed a bag of all the things that he thought he would need for his friend. It was mainly healing potions and a lot of Chocolate to help with the dreaded Dementors.
He was taken to a visiting room by the warden. When the warden left, he turned and looked at Sirius.
Sirius looked terrible. His skin was waxy and stretched over his face, his hair was matted, his eyes were sunken and held a haunted look to them, and his face was fixed into an expression of pain and terror.
If anyone had told Remus eight years ago that Sirius Black would ever look like this, he would have just laughed at them and would have gone on his way.
He looked nothing like he did before, and Remus felt twice as guilty for not noticing the signs of the loyalty potions and letting this happen to his friend.
"Sirius, how are you? I know it's been 8 years and I am ashamed to admit that I didn't think you were innocent until recently."
"Moonie?" He croaked i-is that you?" he was taking in deep breaths and looked as though he was about to faint.
Remus instantly forced a large piece of chocolate into his mouth and Sirius sat up.
After drinking a few cups of water, he replied.
"Moony, it wasn't me. I wasn't the secret keeper. It was that blasted rat Pettigrew. We switched at the last second. It's m," "I know, Padfoot. I found out about it just a week ago, and don't you dare blame yourself for James and Lily's deaths. It was not your fault."
"How's Harry?" asked Sirius. "Have you taught him how to prank? I bet he's going to be just like James when he goes to Hogwarts."
"I'm sorry to tell you that I didn't raise Harry. He was living with Lily's sister for about four years of his life. He was then rescued by the goblins of Gringotts."
"What!" Sirius shouted. His face turned red with rage, and he tried to get up from his chair. "Poor boy must have been treated horribly that ugly bitch of a woman. You knew how bad she and her husband were, so why did you not make sure that Harry was raised by someone else? Surely there would have been other people, Frank, Alice, Ted, Andromeda,"
"I'm also sorry to tell you that Frank and Alice were tortured into insanity shortly after James and Lily were killed."
Sirius berried his face in his hands, and a few tears could be seen as they ran through Sirius's fingers. "Who did it?" he asked in a choked whisper.
"It was Bellatrix, Rodolphus, Rabastan and Barty Crouch's son.
"I'll kill them as well," Sirius whispered.
"When am I getting out of here?" Sirius asked Remus.
As soon as we find the rat." Remus replied, handing him the potions, food, water, and chocolate. In the meantime, I have brought you something to eat and drink. The healing potions and chocolate are for the dementors. They should last you for at least six months. I will come by to replace them later. Make sure that no one, especially the warden sees you with all this."
As Remus turned to leave, Sirius's words made him stop.
"I don't forgive you, moony. If I were you, I would have at least come and asked you if it was true instead of believing all the rumors."
"But Dumbledore," "That's no excuse. You should have realized that loyalty potions were involved sooner. You could have at least come and asked me if all the rumors about me betraying James and lily and the injuring of the muggles were true or not. You should have rescued Harry from those bastards earlier. If you think that you can just come here after leaving me in this hellhole for eight years and expect to be forgiven, well then you are deeply mistaken. I'm not saying that I won't forgive you. I will, but it will take time. Now go. I'm not in the mood to talk to you just yet."
"Padfoot I'm sorry,"
"Go!" Sirius yelled with an expression of pure fury on his face.
Remus left the room and hopped onto the boat which would take him back towards land. The last thing he saw was two dementors grabbing Sirius on each side and dragging him to his cell.
A couple of days later, Auror Alastor Moody was pacing around the hall very angry. Aurors these days were just not good enough. Ever since Harry Potter had vanquished Voldemort, the aurors had started slacking off. They didn't pay attention, and whenever he told some of them that they were fired, they would start complaining to him, and when he still declined to give them a position in the aurors team, they would bribe others and then people above him would override his decision and give those useless people positions in the Auror force. The only Auror which was good at the time was Kingsly Shacklebolt. Alastor desperately needed people like him, just in case Voldemort returned or another dark wizard came along.
The goblins had good skills, but whenever he started thinking about them, a deep hatred rose up against them. He could vainly recall being friends with the director Rag something. He kept forgetting his name. Albus had been telling him how bad the goblins were. Today was a day when Moody's mind had cleared a bit and he thought yet again about going to see the director. The hatred and anger were still there but it wasn't that bad.
Just when he was about to go out of his office, two people knocked and came in. One was an old human and another, a man in his twenty's. The young man's emerald Green eyes looked familiar, but Moody couldn't put his finger on where and when he had scene those eyes.
Moody offered his guests a seat and the older man spoke.
"Thank you for seeing us unannounced, Mr. Moody."
"Who are you," Moody growled at the two people suspiciously. "Why do you want to see me?" He tightened his grip on his wand beneath his robes. Even though Voldemort had been defeated, there were many death-eaters which had gotten off scot free because they had bribed people in the ministry who supported their agenda. A part of him was telling him that if death-eaters wanted to kill him, they would have done so much earlier, and a part of him was telling him that they must have waited for him to calm down and then catch him unawares. He had been on Voldemort's target list because he was known for sending many dark wizards to Azkaban. Not only that, but he had fought with powerful death-eaters like Evan Rosier and Bellatrix Lestrange and had escaped with only a few body parts missing. He still missed the chunk of his nose which Bellatrix had cut off. Many people had been scared of him because of how his face looked. Some people respected him. Many wanted him dead including those aurors which he had pushed aside. He was going into retirement in a few months. He did not hurt the two mysterious people in case they were not death-eaters but he swiveled his magical eye around and fixed it intently on them.
"We want to see you because we have something that you can help us with, it's something I'm sure you would love to do."
"Who are you anyway, should I know who you are? For some reason, I feel like I should know both of you."
Ragnock observed Moody to see what was going on.
"I'm Harry Potter and this is my adopted father Ragnock the director of Gringotts," the twenty-year-old man said just before he shrunk and his features changed. A young boy who had James and Ragnock's features along with Lily's eyes.
The old man changed to the director of Gringotts.
"Hello Moody, my old friend," Ragnock spoke."
Moody was fighting with the hatred and anger. Harry and Ragnock, recognizing signs of multiple potions and spells, slapped a portkey into the auror's hand which would take him to the goblin's hospital.
It had now been almost three weeks since they brought Moody in. Getting rid of all the potions and spells was no easy task, there were over 50 of them, not to mention the multiple spells directed towards the Goblins, all done by none other than Albus too many names Dumbledore.
April 19th, 1989
Moody had been livid once all the effects had been cleared from his mind. He had continued to apologize to Ragnock, but the director had waved them away because he understood what had been going on. Now was the part that Harry was nervous about. He really did not know how Remus and Moody would react after seeing the former dark lord Gellert Grindelwald.
A few hours after Moody had been healed, Ragnock, Harry, Moody, and Gellert were sitting in a Dueling chamber.
Harry had suggested to Ragnock that taking Moody to the dueling chamber to meet Gellert would be a good idea. Harry had heard a lot of stories about Mad-eye Moody, and if any of those stories were true, then he was ninety-five percent sure that Moody would start throwing around lethal and harmful curses. Harry had been correct. That did happen. As soon as Moody had seen Gellert, he had whipped out his wand and had started sending killing curses, organ rupturing curses, blasting curses, bone-breakers, and a lot of other curses such as the blood boiling curse.
Harry watched in awe as Moody deflected and cast curses with ease. Ragnock put Moody in a body bind and sat him in a chair. At that time, Remus also entered the room with another goblin called Bogrod. Bogrod knew that Gellert was no threat, so he left Remus standing there.
Remus stood there with his face drained of all colour and after staring at Gellert for a few seconds, he fainted with an expression of shock and fear on his face.
"Wow, I never knew someone could throw curses so fast!" Harry commented in awe to his father a few minutes later.
Ragnock had placed an overpowered silencing charm on Moody, so it was not easy to break it. He turned to Harry and commented.
"Son, what you have to understand is that Alastor Moody has been fighting dark wizards and witches for years. He fought and saw things in the last war that were horrible.
The fact is, he has seen a lot that you probably won't have any understanding about until you are older. It's the same with me, I saw many things as well in the Goblin wars. The wizards history to do with Goblin rebellions is so one sided it's a joke to education. You and your friends already know this, but they say that they won all the rebellions when they did not win any of them.
Anyway, enough about all of this, we should wake them up and allow Grindelwald to explain his situation so they can better understand it.
Grindelwald began to wonder how to do that, when Ragnock suggested a pensive to show memories.
Remus and Moody were appalled after they saw some of the things that Gellert did. He explained his situation.
"I know what I have done is unforgivable, and I deserve the worst punishment in the world.
I would have stayed in Newmengarde prison if I had not seen young Harry's photo in the daily profit. At first, I thought about just staying there, but then I thought about the terrible things that I had done, and I realized that I just couldn't let Harry or anyone suffer at the hands of Albus Dumbledore. We were lovers once before he betrayed me. He was the one who encouraged me to become the person who I am now. If it weren't for him, I may have not been a dark lord at all. I also suspect that Albus put Adolf Hitler under the imperious curse. He may be responsible for world war 2. Anyway, coming back to Harry. I decided that Albus did not have the best of intentions towards young Harry, and I also wanted to help people in the same situations as Harry, you, Moody, and more. I couldn't let anyone suffer. I needed to do something to lessen the guilt so I escaped one night, gave those filthy muggles what they deserved, helped train Harry with the goblins, and yeah, here I am right now, talking to you. Just in case you don't believe me, I, Gellert Grindelwald, swear on my life and magic that what I have told Harry James Scar Rock Potter, Ragnock, Remus John Lupin, and Alastor Moody is nothing but the truth. So, I swear, so mote it be."
A golden glow surrounded Gellert as he made his oath.
Gellert waved his hand and an image of Albus Dumbledore appeared.
"Crucio! Avada Kedavra! Reducto!"
The image writhed in pain, slumped as the green light hit it, and was blasted into smithereens as the red light of the blasting curse hit.
"Well, that proves that you spoke the truth." Remus said.
"You didn't have to make that oath, old man," Moody growled, "I could tell from your expression that what you were saying was the truth. Good on you for making the oath. Constant vigilance!" He shouted, making everyone jump a foot in the air. Even if you didn't make the oath, I would have made you make it. If you didn't, I could always slip a few vials of veritaserum in your food or drink. The lesson I learnt is, don't trust anyone unless they have given you proof!' I have learnt this lesson the hard way. Anyway, Gellert, I would like to pick your brains to get some information about the bastard Dumbledore."
"Very well, combined with the Goblin's thought and speech tracker, I can give you a lot of info that he wouldn't want anyone, especially people like yourselves to know. Anyway, Remus please stay back because with the permission of Harry and Ragnock, I'd like to show you how I rescued your cub, his cousin and where they were."
Remus, who was by this point howling with rage at the injustice done to this man, quickly agreed realizing that even though he used to be a dark lord, he really wanted to change now.
"Gellert, firstly thank you for realizing that what you did was wrong. As long as both of them agree, I would like to view it."
Alright, I warn you now though, it is horrific and please try not to lose control.
Remus wondered why he said that but agreed anyway.
Ragnock agreed, but Harry, who was usually more composed, began to shake violently. He was able to calm himself down, then spoke to Remus.
"You won't hate me after you see it?"
"No, I won't hate you."
"Ok then, just please try not to lose control."
Remus took a deep breath and nodded to Harry, Ragnock and Griphook, who had been summoned as Remus and Harry were talking to each other.
Remus wondered why Griphook was there, then thought that he probably had something to do with the rescue 5 years ago.
Grindelwald and Griphook provided their memories from different points and Remus and Griphook went to view them.
The Goblin would provide translation for the first part of his own one, so Remus could understand what was happening on both sides that year.
Remus along with the Goblin came out of the Pensive almost an hour later. Remus looked ready to kill, his eyes taking on the color of the wolf inside. Then he remembered what Harry and Grindelwald had both said about trying to not lose control. He tried to calm down, then went over to Harry and hugged him so tight that he found it hard to breathe.
"Remus, I can't breathe!"
Remus loosened his grip on him and silently vowed to see justice done for the little boy, his cub who had been wronged in so many ways by Albus Dumbledore. He swore on his life and magic right there and then that he would protect Harry, his cousin, and his friends with his life; even if he had to die for them. After that, he turned to both Gellert and Ragnock, thanked them for keeping Harry safe, and they all got up and left the chamber.
