No Body No Crime □■ Hermione Granger

Chapter 29

"I see," said Lupin, though he still looked slightly suspicious "Well, let's drink to a Gryffindor victory against Ravenclaw! Not that I'm supposed to take sides, as a teacher." he added hastily.

They drank the butterbeer in silence, until Harry voiced something that should only be thought about at 5AM while in bed and unable to sleep.

"What's under a Dementor's hood?"

Professor Lupin lowered his bottle thoughtfully.

"Hmmm, well, the only people who really know are in no condition to tell us, you see, the Dementor lowers its hood only to use its last and worst weapon."

"What's that?"

"They call it the Dementor's Kiss," Arlene answered for Lupin "My mum's a lawyer, she's been there to Azkaban several times," she explained "It's what Dementors do to those they wish to destroy utterly, I suppose there must be some kind of mouth under there, because they clamp their jaws upon the mouth of the victim and suck out their soul."

Harry spat out a bit of butterbeer.

"What— they kill—?"

"Oh no," Lupin continued for her "Much worse than that, you can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working, but you'll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no anything, there's no chance at all of recovery, you'll just exist as an empty shell, your soul is gone, forever lost."

Lupin drank a little more butterbeer, then said, "It's the fate that awaits Sirius Black, it was in the Daily Prophet this morning. The Ministry have given the Dementors permission to perform it if they find him."

Harry sat stunned for a moment at the idea of someone having their soul sucked out through their mouth.

Arlene on the other hand, though about Sirius, if he was innocent, it would be a miscarriage of justice, and the real spy, the one who was responsible for the death of her father, would get away with it.

But if he wasn't...

"He deserves it," he said suddenly.

"You think so?" said Lupin lightly "Do you really think anyone deserves that?"

"Yes," said Harry defiantly. "For some things..."

Oh Arlene thought his parents.

She wondered if she should tell Harry that Sirius might be innocent but then decided against it, she had no proof other than the incident with her mum who could be bloody well helping him.

"See you later next week?" Lupin asked. Harry, who had been silent since his statement nodded and left.

"Actually, Professor, I have something I wanted to discuss with you." Arlene said "It's about Black."

Lupin froze, looking mildly surprised but sate back down anyway "What about him?"

Arlene copied his movement and sate down "You were friends with James Potter, and I know that Sirius was as well, is it possible that you knew him back then?"

She already knew the answer.

"Yes." He answered warily, as though she was luring him into a trap, which she kind of was.

"Well?" she asked "Well enough to—" she paused "To know if he really was guilty?"

Lupin looked taken back "Where is this coming from?"

"My mum thinks he's innocent," she confessed "she always told me he was dangerous but then at Christmas I had a Sneekoscope and it whistled when she said she didn't think he was and-"