I was suddenly awoken to a shrill cry only a few hours after I had been asleep."ARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! NOOOOOOOOOO!" I jerked awake, bolting up.
"What was that?" Alicia asked groggily, sitting up. I shook my head, getting to my feet. Pulling on a robe, I rushed out of my dorm to see what had happened. Getting to the bottom of the stairs, I spotted all the boys from Harry and Ron's dorm.
"What happened?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest as the other students filed behind me.
"Everyone back upstairs!" Percy shouted.
"Perce, Sirius Black!" Ron shouted hysterically. "In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!"
"That's ridiculous, Ron," I retorted, breaking the still silence that had risen.
"Nonsense!" Percy said, agreeing with me for once. "You had too much to eat, Ron - had a nightmare-"
"I'm telling you!" Ron insisted.
"Now, really, enough's enough!" McGonagall shouted, coming into the room. "I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!"
"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" he insisted. "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare-"
"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron protested. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!"
Giving Ron a hard look, McGonagall retorted shakily, "Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?"
"Ask him!" Ron shouted, pointing to the back of the portrait. "Ask him if he saw-" Ron broke off and, giving Ron a stern look, McGonagall stepped out and began talking to Sir Cadogan, the replacement for the Fat Lady.
"Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?" she asked.
"Certainly, good lady!" he replied heartily.
"You - you did?" she replied after a shocked silence. "But - but the password!"
"He had 'em!" he replied. Sympathy flooded my features as I saw Neville's face scrunch into one of extreme guilt. Instantly, I moved through the crowd over to him. Quickly I hugged him, squeezing his shoulder comfortingly. "Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!" McGonagall slipped back through to face us.
Her voice shaking, McGonagall demanded, "Which person. Which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them laying around?!" Whimpering slightly, Neville raised his hand shakily as I tightened my grip around him. Soon we all sat down in the common room, waiting to hear if Sirius got caught. Everyone was rather anxious, but the others were anxious for a different reason than I was.
I sat on the couch, staring into the fire with Fred and Angelina on either side of me. As I sat, I suddenly heard faint whispering behind me. "So I guess she really wasn't helping him. He wouldn't have needed the passwords from Neville if Valerie had been helping."
"I guess we all misjudged her," another voice replied softly. It remained completely silent until dawn when McGonagall told us he had escaped again. Throughout the rest of the day, news spread of what had happened, including how he had gotten the passwords. Half the students started becoming much kinder to me than they had been the entire time I'd been at Hogwarts. The other half, mostly Slytherins and a few Ravenclaws, said I could have just given Sirius the passwords Neville had written down.
Either way, it was an improvement. The Fat Lady was returned with trolls as guards a little later in the day. The following weekend, it was another Hogsmeade trip, but I had been summoned to Remus' office. I crossed my arms over my chest, bitting down on my lip nervously, and waited to see what he had to say. "Valerie, we need to talk," he said, facing me. "I'm still your guardian and I don't want us fighting like this."
"Okay," I said quietly, not looking at him. "I'm not going to change my mind about Dad, so if that's your solution, then forget it."
"I'm not asking you to," he replied. With a sigh, he admitted, "I actually wanted to apologize to you. Yes, we disagree about Sirius, but...Val, you may not be my daughter, but you might as well be. I care about you so much more than I care about being right about Sirius. Valerie..."
Before he could go on, the fire suddenly flashed green and Snape's voice called, "Lupin! I want a word!"
"Want to come along?" he asked, stepping towards the fire.
"Eh, why not," I sighed, joining him and going through the fire to Snape's office.
"You called, Severus?" Remus said, stepping out of the fire with me behind him.
His eyes flitting over me, Snape drawled, "I assumed it would just be you."
"Valerie was in my office," he replied lightly. "Figured she could tag along."
"Very well," Snape replied dryly. "I have just asked Potter to empty his pockets. He was carrying this." He handed over an old piece of parchment. On it were several messages.
Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business.
Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Mooney, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.
Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor.
Mr. Wormtail bids Professor Snape a good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball.
I managed to repress a smile as Remus looked it over, something flickering in his eye. "Well?" Snape drawled. When Remus didn't say anything, Snape snapped, "Well? This parchment is plainly full of Dark Magic. This is supposed to be your area of expertise, Lupin. Where do you imagine Potter got such a thing?"
"Full of Dark Magic?" Remus repeated, shooting Harry and I quick looks warning us to not talk. "Do you really think so, Severus? It looks to me as though it is merely a piece of parchment that insults anybody who reads it. Childish, but surely not dangerous. I imagine Harry got it from a joke shop."
"Indeed?" Snape drawled, his jaw clenched with anger. "You think a joke shop could supply him with such a thing? You don't think it more likely that he got it directly from the manufacturers?"
"You mean, by Mr. Wormtail and all of these people?" Remus replied. "Harry, do you know any of these men?"
"No," Harry replied quickly.
"You see, Severus? It looks like a Zonko product to me," Remus replied.
"I think I saw that last time I was there," I lied.
Next moment, Ron burst into the room, panting out, "I - gave - Harry - that - stuff. Bought - it...in Zonko's ages ago."
"Well," said Remus cheerfully, clapping his hands together. "That seems to clear that up! Severus, I'll take this back, shall I?" He folded the parchment and put it in his jacket. "Harry, Ron, come with Valerie and I. I need to have a word about my vampire essay."
After we left Snape's office, I said, "I'll wait for you in your office, Remus, so we can finish our conversation?"
"I'll be up in a few minutes," he promised.