Defence, Pretence, Offence (Hecatemus Book #2)

Chapter 66 - Plans

After the meeting Sirius had cornered Harry. In the interest of Sirius and Draco not killing each other, which would have been detrimental to everything, Harry had asked his soulmate to give him and his godfather a few minutes alone.

Sirius was frowning and he had the intense look in his eyes that Harry had seen only a couple of times. It was obvious what was coming.

"Exactly what do you think you're doing?" Sirius demanded.

"What I have to," Harry replied.

"You could go into hiding," Sirius pointed out.

"Like my Mum and Dad?" Harry asked. "It's him or me, it always has been ever since he killed them and we have to end it."

"There are other ways."

"And they all involve lots of people getting killed."

"Not all of them."

"What am I supposed to do, Sirius, sit back and wait until you and the Order have beaten Voldemort into submission and then just pop in and finish him off?"

"If that's what it takes to keep you safe."

"Would you do that?"

"I'm not eighteen."

"You weren't much older last time."

Sirius didn't seem to have an answer to that one. He crossed his arms and frowned even harder.

"And what's this about the Dark Mark?"

Harry sighed.

"I discovered it by accident when Draco was kidnapped," he said. "I affected Snape, but with everything else that happened I forgot."

"And you just remembered now?"

"No, I remembered a while ago, and Snape let me practice on him to see if it would be useful."

"Do you realise how dangerous..?"

"Of course I realise how dangerous that could have been," he snapped back, finally having had enough. "I know how dangerous all of this is, but I can't let Voldemort run roughshod over our world because I'm afraid. Don't think Draco or I have made any of these decisions lightly; I'm bonded to a Slytherin remember, we went through all our options."

Sirius turned away, shoulders tight and head down.

"Are you sure?" Sirius asked after a few moments.

His frown had lessened when he faced Harry again, but he was exuding worry out of every pore. He almost looked like the Sirius Harry had first met, not the man who had emerged from the ritual without the rigours of Azkaban.

"Yes," Harry said. "This was the plan with the most likeliness of success and the fewest number of casualties. Do you really think we would put Hogwarts in danger if we didn't have to?"

"No," Sirius admitted.

"This plays to our strengths and his weaknesses," Harry said. "I know we're Gryffindors and sometimes we do things we shouldn't because we rush in, but this isn't one of those times, Sirius. Hermoine and Pansy helped come up with this plan and Ron did a lot of the strategising before we even took it to Albus."

Sirius stared at him long and hard and, for once, Harry let him.

"You're too like your dad," Sirius finally said. "He only went into hiding because of you and your mum, and look how well that turned out."

"Not your fault," Harry said before they could revisit that particular path, "all Wormtail's."

He saw the flicker of disagreement flash across his godfather's face, but Sirius did not voice it. They both had their deep seated guilt complexes and neither of them were going to get rid of them any time soon.