IN BLOOM ━━ h. granger¹

𝟬𝟭𝟯. a madman

"Naturally," Rosmerta said with a small laugh. "Never saw one without the other, always attached at the hip. They made me laugh, telling me stories, quite the double act they were, Sirius Black and James Potter!"

Harry gaped, while Juliet pretended to look shocked. They exchanged glances, Harry looking like he was about to faint.

"Precisely," McGonagall laughed. "Black and Potter, quite the ringleaders of their little gang. Exceptionally bright, but I don't think I've ever had such a pair of troublemakers-"

"The Weasley twins might give them a run for their money with that," Hagrid chuckled.

"You'd have thought they were brothers!" Flitwick exclaimed. "Inseparable!"

"Of course they were," Fudge said. "Potter chose Black to be his best man, when he married Lily, trusted each other way more than their other friends. The Potter's picked Sirius and his girlfriend to be Harry's godparents, of course. They have children around the same age, don't they? Though Black's little girl, she quite literally dropped off the radar."

Jules stiffened under the table, she could feel three pairs of eyes on her. Harry's hand removed itself from where it was on top of her own, and the atmosphere grew increasingly tense.

"Ahh. Juliet," Mcgonagall said sadly. "Little Juliet Black became Juliet Valentine after that night. Since she and Sirius never got married, and were never very public, it was quite easy for Cordelia to basically scrub her from existence. Cordelia fought very hard to raise Harry, but other forces drove to place him with his aunt."

Fudge dropped his voice very low. "Not many people are aware of the circumstances surrounding the death's of the Potter's. They knew that You-Know-Who was after them, Dumbledore had a number of spies at the time, one of which, tipped him off. He alerted James and Lily at once, and advised them to go into hiding. You-Know-Who, of course, was not an easy person to hide from, so Dumbledore informed them of the Fidelius Charm."

"How does that work?" Rosmerta said, intrigued.

"An immensely complex spell," Flitwick explained. "It involves the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living, soul. The information is hidden inside this person, the secret keeper, and is impossible to find unless the chosen person themselves divulges the information. As long as the Secret Keeper refused to speak, You-Know-Who could search for the Potter's and not find them, even if his nose was pressed against their window!"

"So Black was the Potter's secret keeper?" Rosmerta asked.

Professor Mcgonagall sighed loudly. "Naturally. James Potter told Dumbledore that Black would rather die than tell where they were, only his girlfriend and a single other friend new, both of which were in the clear with Dumbledore after. Dumbledore himself offered to be the Potter's secret keeper, but they refused."

"But they insisted on using Black?"

"He did," Fudge said heavily. "And barely a week after the chasm was performed, he betrayed them. See, he was tired of his double agent role, was ready to come out in the open and declare his support for the Dark Lord, no surprise considering that family of his. But as we know, You-Know-Who met his downfall that night at the hand's of the little Potter boy, and he was so weakened, he fled. That left Black in a precarious position, he'd shown his true colors as a traitor just as his master fell. He had no choice but to make a run for it-"

"Filthy stinkin' turncoat!" Hagrid exclaimed rather loudly, Mcgonagall shushing him as a result.

"I met him!" Hagrid growled. "I musta bin the last ter see him before he killed all them people! It was me what rescued Harry from Lily an' James's house after they was killed! Jus' got him outta the ruins, poor little thing, with a great slash across his forehead, an' his parents dead... an' Sirius Black turns up, on that flyin' motorbike he used ter ride. Never occurred ter me what he was doin' there. I didn' know he'd bin Lily an' James's Secret-Keeper. Thought he'd jus' heard the news o' You-KnowWho's attack an' come ter see what he could do. White an' shakin', he was. An' yeh know what I did? I comforted that murderin' traitor!"