Thanks again for all the reviews! This is the end of the current story arc; I'll work on this again in the next seasonal set of fics.

Part Six

"But running away isn't really a Defense tactic, is it?" Harry stood up and wiped some of the sweat from his forehead. Ted was a sadist when he wanted to be, drilling Harry and Draco in dodging, various shields that were much more draining than most of the spells they practiced in class, and running and leaping that they could use magic in their muscles to enhance.

"Of course it is." Draco had the superior expression on his face that made Harry wish, sometimes, that they weren't brothers, so he could get away with punching him. "When you retreat from a greater force and live to fight another day, that's still a victory."

"Yes, it is." Harry didn't think it was his imagination that Ted looked a little amused at Draco's pompous tone of voice, but he nodded at both of them. "I understand the impulse to stand up to your enemy and always win, Harry."

"Henry's a Gryffindor." Draco acted as if he wanted to emphasize Harry's full name since neither Ted nor Tonks used it. "It's no wonder he thinks that running away is dishonorable or something."

"That's not it!" Harry blushed a little hotly when Ted stared at him. "All right, it's part of it. But I also think that if you leave an enemy behind you, they might just curse you in the back."

Ted smiled. "Those aren't bad instincts, Harry." He ignored the way that Draco grumbled Henry not quite under his breath. "But especially as an underage wizard, you'll encounter plenty of people who are stronger than you. If one of them is trying to kill you, then running away is both honorable and practical."

Harry nodded slowly. He already knew that Ted was stronger than him, a lot more so. And he was sneaky, too. He'd caught Harry off-guard time after time with fairly simple jinxes and hexes that Harry would have said he was protected against.

"Now," Ted muttered, and took a step back. "I want to try something a little different. Stand over there, and I'll fling some spells at you. But they'll hit this shield first." A sharp sweep of his wand, and a glowing white wall of light separated Draco and Harry from him. "I want you to tell me, before they hit the shield, whether they're the kind that would be good to run away from, or whether you can stand up to them."

"What if we've never seen them before?" Draco demanded.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually." Ted winked.

Harry watched closely as Ted stood there for a second, his wand dangling in his hand as if he'd forgotten that he'd drawn it, and then he whirled around and began sending spell after spell at the shield. Harry thought it would be too fast at first, but then he realized that Ted was repeating the same spell three or four times, so they had a good idea of what it looked like.

The first one was the Stunner that he'd taught them. "Deflect!" Harry called.

"Run away!" Draco yelled at the same time.

Harry frowned at him, and Ted stopped casting. "Tell me why you said what you said. Draco, you first."

"Maybe Henry knows a shield that can stand up to a Stunner, but I don't. And if a Stunner hits you, then it's really easy for your enemies to capture you."

Ted nods. "Those are good, well-reasoned points." He looked at Harry, who scowled a little. It sounded as if Ted thought that Harry's points wouldn't be the good, well-reasoned ones.

Harry tamped down on his irritation and tried only to concentrate on the question that he'd been asked. "I could dodge it. A Stunner doesn't move fast, compared to some of the spells that you've been showing us. And I do think that I could raise a shield strong enough to hold one off."

"Do you?" Ted smiled, and this time, there was a nasty edge to the expression. "Let's see you do it, then." With a snap of his wand, a section of the wall between them disappeared right in front of Harry, and Ted stepped forwards, obviously aiming his wand and making a big, exaggerated show of it.

"Protego!" Harry bellowed, instinctively going for the first Shield Charm that Ted had taught them. It was also the most powerful, but that meant it was going to drain them faster, as Ted had explained.

Ted's Stunner was most of the way to him before the shield sprang up in front of Harry. Harry frowned with concentration, feeling the sweat pouring down his forehead faster than it had when Ted had made them run around earlier.

But he'd claimed that he could do this. That meant he had to. Harry recklessly fed more and more magic into the shield, and it glowed blue-white. For a second, the light was bright enough to fling shadows onto the wall.

Ted's Stunner hit it and vanished in a roar of red sparks. Harry let go of the shield a second later, with a gasp, and sagged to his knees.

"Henry!"

Harry thought distantly that there always seemed to be someone around screaming that whenever he did something just a little bit difficult. He reached up and patted Draco's hand as it snatched his shoulder. "I'm all right, Draco."

"That was a stupid tactic to use, in some ways," Ted murmured. "It would leave you vulnerable to anything that an enemy wanted to use immediately afterwards."

Harry swallowed through a throat that felt scorched and managed to grin at Ted. "Unless they were so scared of someone who could raise that strong a shield that they were already running away, right?"

Ted smiled at him. "There's that. But I think we need to teach you to call back some of the more extreme manifestations of your power. They actually will work better if you don't put as much strength into them."

Harry nodded, and leaned on Draco for a second as he stood up. Draco watched him anxiously, but Harry winked at him.

"I'm the one who exhausted myself," he said. "I won't do that, next time. Now, are we going to put up the shield and identify some more spells?"

In the middle of March, Harry closed his eyes and focused on the memory of Father telling him that he would remove his arm to remove the Dark Mark, and then snapped his wand in the movement that was becoming so familiar to him by now.

"Expecto Patronum!"

He heard a gasp that might have come from Tonks, and opened his eyes to see the silvery swan that was gliding along the air in front of him. It only lasted a minute; as soon as Harry saw it properly, it disappeared. But it had been there, and it had lasted longer than the ferret Draco had managed the other day.

"That was amazing, Harry!" Tonks grew a pig's snout that only lasted a second in the middle of her face, and then brilliant purple hair, and then actual tusks curling up from the corners of her mouth, as if she was so excited that she couldn't decide what the best expression of that excitement was.

"Amazing!" Hermione echoed, her smile fervent. She had a gleam in her eyes that Harry knew spelled competition, too. Harry grinned at her. She had managed the mist a couple weeks ago, but was still working at defining the shape of her Patronus.

"Brilliant, mate!" Ron crossed the distance between them to clap his shoulder.

"Why a swan?" Draco asked.

Harry peered at him. Draco looked sulkier than Harry would have expected, especially given that he'd achieved a corporeal Patronus first. "What do you mean?"

"I would have thought—a snake of some kind. Since our family is represented by snakes. I mean, except for you." Draco sniffed. "Or a lion, for your House. Or even a dr—" He stopped.

"A dragon?" Harry found himself grinning and didn't try to stop. "You wanted me to have a Patronus that matched your name so that you could say you were the one who protected your little brother?"

Draco shoved him, face a brilliant pink. "Shut up."

"Is there a reason that it would be a swan?" Hermione asked Tonks, before Harry could go on teasing his brother. Hermione was giving Harry an exasperated look, as though to ask him to behave better than this, please.

Harry didn't stick his tongue out at her, but it was a close-run thing.

"Not in particular." Tonks smiled and finally chose a purple color for her hair that manifested as deep swirls of color throughout it. "Patronuses are symbolic, but the symbol isn't always a one-to-one link. Someone who's afraid of lions might still have a lion as their Patronus, for example, because a frightening creature would make a great defense against Dementors."

"I do actually have a bit an idea of why," Harry confessed, and tried not to be intimidated when Tonks turned to look at him in interest. "I was thinking of my parents, and my mother—I think of her as a swan, sometimes. Beautiful and graceful."

Tonks nodded. "I can see how you came up with that comparison for Aunt Narcissa. And it also makes sense that you would pick a creature with a lot going on under the surface."

It took Harry a minute to get it, and he groaned. "Tonks, that is an awful pun."

"Isn't it terrible? I think I'm starting to decide in favor of teaching rather than the Aurors. In the Ministry, everyone just wanted to kill me when I made those puns. Here, you have to grin and bear them."

"Harry, please. I just want to talk to you. I promise that I'm not going to try and kidnap you or take you anywhere."

Harry glanced warily over his shoulder. Lupin was standing in front of his classroom with his hands held out. Harry grimaced. He shouldn't have gone past it to get his Charms book from his bedroom, even if this was a shortcut to Gryffindor Tower.

"I don't trust you. You haven't even told me personally that you knew the Potters and me when I was a stolen baby. Were you just going to keep that to yourself forever?"

Shock grabbed Lupin's expression. He shook his head a little and closed the door of his classroom behind him. "Where did you hear that?"

Harry sneered. "Sirius Black."

More expressions went on chasing themselves across Lupin's face, and he moved his lips as if counting invisible numbers. Then he shook his head again and muttered, "Maybe what I have to say won't come as a shock to you after all, then."

"I don't want to hear what you have to say, Lupin."

"Then maybe someone else?" Lupin offered, and opened the door of his classroom again. A huge black dog sauntered out into the corridor, its tail giving a single wag that might have been directed at either Harry or Lupin.

Harry felt as though someone had hit him over the head with a club. He moved a step backwards, ignoring the way Sirius growled, and drew his wand. His hand strayed towards his robe pocket, where he also had a Portkey that Mother had slipped him before he left home this time.

Sirius sat down and whined. Lupin sighed a little. "Really, Harry, all he wants to do is talk to you. He isn't going to kidnap you again. He's sane enough now that he knows that won't work." He gave a strained smile. "And I realize that we have you to thank that for as well, or rather, the Malfoy house-elf who was defending you."

"I don't care what he wants to say. I made my choice. I'm staying a Malfoy."

"I know," Lupin said soothingly. "I'm only saying that he could still have a connection to you, as your godfather. He tried to get one by sending you a broom for Christmas, but he noticed that you didn't bring it back with you to the school. Why not?"

"Mother burned it."

Lupin and Sirius gave him what seemed to be identical looks of horror, and never mind that Sirius was currently a dog. Harry thought, distantly, that Draco would probably have agreed with them, and then forced the thought away. His hand was hovering above the Portkey, and since it was in his pocket, he could touch it and be away before they even knew what he was touching.

But because they had gone to such effort to sneak Sirius into the school, Harry did want to know some things. "So Dumbledore told you that Sirius had never got a trial and no one had ever seen the Dark Mark on his arm?"

"That's right." Lupin smiled shakily, as if he thought Harry asking that meant he had a chance of persuading Harry around after all. "I went searching for Sirius when he told me that. And it wasn't hard to find him. He's remained here because he wants to protect you from the real traitor, Harry."

"Peter Pettigrew. You said." Harry frowned at Sirius. "I don't understand why you haven't tried going to the Ministry and telling them that you're innocent of betraying the Potters, though."

Sirius looked up at Lupin as if searching for guidance, and then transformed so suddenly that it looked as if air was rushing in to fill the space where he'd been. He shook his head, muttered something under his breath, and focused on Harry. His hair was trimmed now, but he still had some dirt under his fingernails, and his eyes were haunted.

Harry caught his breath at being so close, again, to the man who had betrayed his family, but he stood there and stared at him, absorbing the impact.

"I think the Ministry would just set the Dementors on me," said Sirius, his voice raspier than Harry remembered. "There was an order to have them Kiss me on sight. Albus is working on clearing my name, but for now, I need to stay hidden." He gave Harry a tentative smile. "Thanks for mentioning to Albus that I'd never had a trial. That's the reason that he was able to do so much so quickly."

"Sure," Harry said. "I don't think you need to suffer for something you didn't do."

The emphasis in his words must have reached Sirius, because he winced. "But you do think that I should suffer for giving you a better home."

"You didn't, you bastard! There's no guarantee that the Potters loved me more than Mother and Father!" Part of Harry was surprised at how easily the names flowed out of him now, compared to the way that he used to think of James and Lily Potter as Mum and Dad, but then, Father and Draco weren't the only ones who had changed. "And you devastated them! I don't want you Kissed on sight or anything, but you bloody well should stand a trial."

He lowered his voice. The last thing he wanted was for someone to come and interfere, and raise the alarm that the Notorious Sirius Black was in Hogwarts.

"I did what I thought was best!" Sirius looked self-righteous, and Harry had the blinding revelation that no one was ever going to convince him otherwise. "Sure, you suffered because of it, but I couldn't have known that at the time! And I knew for sure that you would suffer if my dear Cousin Narcissa brought you up."

Harry closed his eyes and just stood there. He felt like a hypocrite, in some ways, given that he'd thought before he preferred his own set of morals to Draco's.

But neither the Dursleys nor the Potters had been responsible for those morals, if he thought through it objectively. He'd decided on the right thing to do more because it was what the Dursleys didn't do, and even though the Potters had loved him, it wasn't like they'd spent enough time with him to mold him in their image. Not really.

"I wish you hadn't done it," Harry said, and shrugged, and opened his eyes. "So why are you here, anyway? Why did you want to speak with me? Just to find out what happened to the Firebolt?"

"Yes." Sirius shifted when Harry glared at him. "Well, and to tell you that we found Pettigrew."

Harry blinked. "Where?"

Sirius smirked and reached out behind him, into the interior of the Defense classroom. When he held up a cage with a rat scrabbling in it, it took Harry a long moment to recognize it as Scabbers. Ron had said in a subdued voice several days ago that Scabbers had gone missing, and he thought rats were animals who went off by themselves to die. He hadn't seemed that upset, maybe because Scabbers had been sick so long.

Or not sick. Afraid.

The rat ran back and forth and stood on its hind legs to hit the bars with its front paws before Harry found his voice. "That's Pettigrew?"

"Yeah." Sirius's eyes flared with malicious satisfaction. "He was always pretty good at holding his Animagus form, better than the rest of us. I never thought he would be hiding as someone's pet until I saw that picture in the paper of the Weasleys, and there he was, just sitting there on your friend's shoulder as though he had a right to be there."

Harry shivered a little at the thought of how many years he'd spent sleeping in the bed next to where a Death Eater was sleeping. He cleared his throat. "What are you going to do with him?"

"Take him to the Ministry," said Lupin.

"Kill him," said Sirius, at the same time.

Lupin turned to glare at him. "You know that they'll never have reason to believe that you're innocent without him, Sirius! Even if they do accept that you didn't have a trial, then they'll just rush a trial through and file paperwork that makes it seem as if you're guilty!"

"I don't care." Sirius grinned like a dog about to tear someone's throat out. "I've already been living on the run, and let me tell you, it's been a lot less miserable than it was when I first broke out and before that little elf restored my sanity. Why shouldn't I kill him and go right on living as a dog while they frantically search for me? That way, I get all the benefits of being free and Lily and James are avenged. And maybe someday Harry will let me really be his godfather." He turned around and beamed at Harry as if the matter was all settled.

Harry shook his head at once. "I won't if you kill him."

"Why not?"

Harry stared at him. Did Sirius really see no problem with what he planned to do to Pettigrew? Didn't Lupin, who had gone silent again instead of continuing to argue? Then again, Lupin seemed to have a problem of being quiet when he shouldn't. "Because murder is wrong."

Sirius snorted. "I bet you wouldn't have had a problem with it if I'd managed to kill him thirteen years ago."

"Yes, I would have!" Harry shook his head. "Except then you would have been in prison for something that was justified, and you probably never would have broken out."

"I broke out to protect you, Harry."

"And to get revenge." Harry nodded to the cage with Pettigrew in it. Pettigrew squeaked in despair, as if realizing that Harry wasn't going to help him after all, and threw himself against the bars again. "I have no idea which motivation was stronger."

Sirius smiled. "But you helped me get back my sanity, and you didn't turn me in to the Aurors when you could have. You must like me."

"You also don't deserve to suffer in prison for something you didn't do. But I'll tell them all about your Animagus form if you murder Pettigrew now."

The smile fell away from Sirius's face. "You sound like an actual treacherous Malfoy bastard, Harry. What the hell?"

"I'm not a bastard, even though I sometimes feel like one, thanks to you. But I think that murderers should go to prison. And so should kidnappers."

"I did the right thing when I took you!"

"Harry, you have to understand," Lupin added in a pleading voice. "I know you didn't know them very well, but your parents—they were incredibly distressed when they found out that they couldn't have a child—"

"You didn't go to prison for twelve years," Harry interrupted, making Lupin flinch. "You have no excuse to act as if you think Sirius is justified or act as if the Potters were my parents."

"Parents are people who love you, who take care of you. In every way that matters, they were."

"My parents love me and take care of me now."

"But only because they think they can manipulate you." Sirius leaned forwards, handing the cage to Lupin after a second. He gestured with his hands as though he thought they were wands, staring intently at Harry all the while. "That's the difference between the Malfoys and Lily and James. Narcissa thinks of children as just there to continue the family line and obey her in all ways, and old Lucius thinks the same way. Lily and James, meanwhile, wanted someone to take care of and love."

"And that means it's all right for my parents to be subjected to fear and loss and anger and grief for years because they had no idea what happened to me?"

"They don't really feel those things. They can't."

Harry shook his head, weary. "I already told you that I wouldn't accept going with you and becoming a Potter again."

"I know. I wasn't trying to convince you of that. I just thought I owed you a bit of an explanation as to what I was doing, since you did help me. And that you'd be relieved to know about Pettigrew."

"I'll report you if you kill him."

"But why?"

"You're already a kidnapper," Harry said, and he couldn't make his voice gentle. "And someone who essentially believes that my parents aren't human beings. But right now, you aren't a murderer. Is that really a line you want to cross? Are you going to take that step even though it could mean that you go to prison for the rest of your life?"

"Your daddy's going to ensure that happens anyway, for the kidnapping." Sirius's face was lined with bitterness.

"It might not be for the rest of your life. And I don't even know what the laws around kidnapping are. Maybe it'll be just for a few years. Maybe it'll be imprisonment in the Ministry instead of Azkaban. I don't know. But you're choosing to sacrifice everything you could be and have just for revenge." Harry glanced at Lupin. "Are you going to stop this? You were arguing against it a second ago."

Lupin's eyes shone with guilt. "I believed Sirius was guilty for years. I didn't bother to check…"

"And so you're going to stand by and just let him commit the crime now? Is that loyalty?"

Lupin looked tormented. But that wouldn't actually stop Sirius, who was already turning back to the cage as if he thought that he might as well kill Pettigrew, now that he knew Harry wouldn't approve.

Harry aimed his wand carefully and used a spell that Ted had taught him and Draco the other day. "Frangere!"

The curse distracted both Lupin and Sirius, who jumped back, which meant it flew and landed exactly where Harry had meant it to. It shattered the lock on the cage and three of the bars, and Pettigrew jumped out and sped away down the corridor. Harry thought he saw him dart through a crack in the wall and down a hole, but he couldn't be sure.

Mostly because Sirius had grabbed him and was shaking him until his teeth rattled in his head. "What did you—you stupid fucking kid!"

"Sirius, stop!"

"Dolor!"

Harry found himself suddenly stumbling back, free of Sirius's hold. He gasped and stumbled, nearly catching himself before he fell, and then someone did catch him, and hold him. It was Draco, who had his wand still aimed at Sirius. Sirius, who was arching in silent pain, his mouth open in an endless scream.

"Please, end it," Harry said, making his tongue work somehow even though it felt like it'd been tossed around inside his mouth, too. "Don't let him make you into someone different than you are, Draco."

"This is who I am," Draco muttered, but he ended the curse and watched without any expression on his face as Sirius slumped to the floor. Then he turned around and stared at Harry. "Did he hurt you, Henry?"

"Not much." And it wasn't much, Harry noted as he straightened again. He was just dizzy and his neck hurt from the way it had rolled when Sirius shook him. He stared down at the man the Potters had made his godfather, who was already fighting his way back to his feet again and looking remorseful.

"I'm sorry, Harry. I'm so sorry."

Harry stared at him some more. The odd thing was, he thought Sirius meant it. Just because he was sane didn't mean he lacked some of the other parts of the Black madness, like the sudden temper and the tendency to do stupid, impulsive things.

But that didn't make what he'd done acceptable. It didn't make the fact that he would have murdered Pettigrew if Harry hadn't intervened acceptable.

And neither was the way that Lupin was practically wringing his hands, looking as though he wouldn't be able to tell who was right if you gave him a million Galleons to.

"Apology not accepted," Harry said finally, and ignored the way Sirius flinched. "I let Pettigrew go because you would have murdered him. If you found him once, you can find him again. There are probably spells that track someone's Animagus form or something. And you should be able to get a trial from the Ministry eventually with Dumbledore speaking for you." He took a deep breath and winced as it hurt his throat. Draco's arm tightened so much around his waist it was almost another source of pain, but Harry didn't tell his brother to let go. He never would again.

"But I never want to see you again," Harry finished. "I have to be more mature than you, but I don't have to like it. I don't have to like the way you attack me and think that my family is evil and that I should be grateful for being kidnapped. I hope you get tried for what you actually did." He turned away.

"Harry," Lupin said.

"If you ever try to approach me again, Professor, I'm going to tell people you're a werewolf." And Harry meant it. Werewolves didn't deserve to be sacked from their jobs, but people who were as morally weak as Lupin did.

There was a long gasp, and then nothing. Harry didn't look back to see what Sirius and Lupin looked like right now. He walked away, Draco beside him.

When they were around the corner, Draco put his hands on Harry's shoulders and stared at him anxiously. "Do you need to go to the hospital wing? Were you just pretending to be all right in front of them?"

Harry shook his head, then winced as his skull ached. "I'm mostly all right, but I think going to Madam Pomfrey would be a good idea," he said reluctantly.

"Right. And then telling Mother and Father about what happened?"

Draco's face was still anxious, and Harry gaped at him. "You would keep it a secret if I wanted you to?"

"I think it's a terrible idea," Draco said immediately. "But if you want me to…" He grimaced. "Yes."

Harry put his hands on his brother's shoulders in turn, and stared at him, the face that looked like his and the hands that had wielded the wand that had saved him and the decision to support him even though Draco disapproved of what he was doing. That last was something Harry had only ever experienced from his friends.

He smiled. He was sure he'd made the right choice.

"We'll tell them," he said. "After we talk to Madam Pomfrey and she can reassure them that I'm really fine."

Draco nodded, relief in his eyes like light, and started helping Harry towards the hospital wing, although they took back and side corridors so that no one would see them and decide something interesting was happening and they needed to insert themselves into it. Harry let himself lean a little more on Draco, and his brother took the weight, uncomplaining.

There were no perfectly right choices in what Harry had done, probably, especially because Pettigrew might still be able to cause mischief. But overall, Harry was pretty satisfied with how his day had gone.

Acting like a Malfoy…isn't too bad.