Together (A Harry Potter love story) 3

24

"I should think not," snapped Professor McGonagall sharply. "How are we supposed to teach with those horrors floating around?"

"Hear, hear!" Flitwick agreed, taking a sip of his drink.

"All the same," demurred Fudge, "they are here to protect you all from something much worse...we all know what Black's capable of..."

Madam Rosmerta sighed thoughtfully. "Do you know, I still have trouble believing it; of all the people to go over to the Dark side, Sirius Black was the last I'd have thought...I mean, I remember him when he was a boy at Hogwarts. If you'd told me then what he was going to become, I'd have said you'd had too much mead."

"You don't even know half of it, Rosmerta," said Fudge gruffly. "The worst he did isn't widely known."

"The worst?" Madam Rosmerta repeated, her voice alive with curiosity. "Worse than murdering all those poor people, you mean?"

"I certainly do," said Fudge.

"I can't believe that. What could possible be worse?"

I furrowed my eyebrows, shuffling as close to the table as possible.

"You say you remember him at Hogwarts, Rosmerta," murmured Professor McGonagall. "Do you remember who his best friends were?"

"Naturally," said Madam Rosmerta, with a small laugh. "Never saw one without the other, did you? The number of times I had them in here - ooh, they used to make me laugh. Quite the group, Sirius Black, Jake Donovan, James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew!"

My breath caught in my throat as my heart gave a horrible jolt. Dad best friends with Sirius Black? And James Potter! Harry's dad? And Remus Lupin, as in Professor Lupin? Dad had never mentioned anything about any of them! But now, thinking about it...the way Dad had spoken about Black in the Leaky Cauldron...'Black lost everything that night - we all did'...calling Harry 'mini Potter'...the way his eyes widened every time Harry walked up to him, as though seeing someone else...how he had kept the wizarding world a complete secret from me for the first eleven years of my life...to 'protect me'...

I avoided Mione and Ron's eyes completely, trying to concentrate on listening to the adults conversation.

"Precisely," said Professor McGonagall. "Black, Donovan, Potter, Lupin and Pettigrew. All very bright, of course - exceptionally bright, in fact - Jake being who he is now, I always knew he would go into that field - but I don't think we've ever had such troublemakers-"

"I dunno," Hagrid chuckled. "Jake's own daughter could give 'em a run fer their money."

I didn't laugh - I could hardly breathe, I was listening so intently.

"You'd have thought the five of them were brothers!" chimed in Flitwick. "Inseparable!"

"Of course they were," said Fudge absentmindedly. "Potter trusted Black beyond all his other friends. Black was best man when James married Lily. Then they named him godfather to Harry. Harry had no idea, of course. You can imagine how the idea would torment him."

"Oh, shit," I mumbled under my breath, squeezing my eyes closed as they continued - I didn't want to believe it true.

"Because Black turned out to be in league with You-Know-Who?" whispered Madam Rosmerta.

"Worse even than that, m'dear..." Fudge dropped his voice and proceeded in a sort of low rumble. "Not many people are aware that the Potters knew You-Know-Who was after them. Dumbledore, who was of course working tirelessly against You-Know-Who, had a number of useful spies. One of them tipped him off, and he alerted James and Lily at once. He advised them to go into hiding. Well, of course, You-Know-Who wasn't an easy person to hide from. Dumbledore told them that their best chance was the Fidelius Charm."