'So, what brings you to this neck of the woods, Minister?' came Madam Rosmerta's voice.
Kirra watches as Fudge's thick body twists in his chair as though he was checking for eavesdroppers.
Then he said in a quiet voice, 'What else, m'dear, but Sirius Black? I daresay you heard what happened up at the school at Hallowe'en?'
'I did hear a rumour,' admitted Madam Rosmerta.
'Did you tell the whole pub, Hagrid?' said Professor McGonagall exasperatedly.
'Do you think Black's still in the area, Minister?' whispered Madam Rosmerta.
'I'm sure of it,' said Fudge shortly.
'You know that the Dementors have searched my pub twice?' said Madam Rosmerta, a slight edge to her voice. 'Scared all my customers away ... it's very bad for business, Minister.'
'Rosmerta, m'dear, I don't like them any more than you do,' said Fudge uncomfortably. 'Necessary precaution ... unfortunate, but there you are ... I've just met some of them. They're in a fury against Dumbledore – he won't let them inside the castle grounds.'
'I should think not,' said Professor McGonagall sharply. 'How are we supposed to teach with those horrors floating around?'
'Hear, hear!' squeaked tiny Professor Flitwick, whose feet were dangling a foot from the ground. 'We are lucky that Kirra Potter was there otherwise things could have gone very badly'
'All the same,' demurred Fudge, 'they are here to protect you all from something much worse ... we all know what Black's capable of ...'
'Do you know, I still have trouble believing it,' said Madam Rosmerta thoughtfully. '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 know the half of it, Rosmerta,' said Fudge gruffly. 'The worst he did isn't widely known.'
'The worst?' said Madam Rosmerta, 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 possibly be worse?'
'You say you remember him at Hogwarts, Rosmerta,' murmured Professor McGonagall. 'Do you remember who his two 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 triple act, Sirius Black, Emily Barnes and James Potter! It was a real shock when she ended up with the brother I must admit, I mean Sirius and Emily were soulmates!'
Harry dropped his tankard with a loud clunk and Emily choked on her drink again as her friends looked at her, Jasper's jaw was basically touching the table.
'Precisely,' said Professor McGonagall. 'Black, Barnes and Potter. Ringleaders of their little gang. The three of them were very bright, of course – exceptionally bright, in fact – but I don think we've ever had group a pair of troublemakers –'
'I dunno,' chuckled Hagrid. 'Fred and George Weasley could give 'em a run fertheir money.'
'You'd have thought Black, Barnes and Potter were siblings!' chimed in ProfessorFlitwick. 'Inseparable!'
'Of course they were,' said Fudge. 'Potter trusted Black and Barnes beyond all his other friends. Nothing changed when they left school. Black was best man and Emily was the maid of honour when James married Lily. Then they named them both godparents to Kirra... even though Emily was dead... and who would have thought that Emily Barnes would have been reincarnated as a product of James and Lily Potter... that cant be a coincidence. And they made Remus the Godfather of Harry. Kirra and Harry have no idea, of course. You can imagine how the idea would torment them.'
'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.'
'How does that work?' said Madam Rosmerta, breathless with interest. Professor Flitwick cleared his throat. 'An immensely complex spell,' he said squeakily, 'involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find –unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge it. As long as the Secret Keeper refused to speak, You-Know-Who could search the village where Lily and James were staying for years and never find them, not even if he had his nose pressed against their sitting-room window!'
'Barnes was already dead... So Black was the Potters' Secret Keeper?' whispered Madam Rosmerta.
'Naturally,' said Professor McGonagall. 'James Potter told Dumbledore that black would die rather than tell where they were, that Black was planning to go into hiding himself ... and yet, Dumbledore remained worried. I remember him offering to be the Potters' Secret Keeper himself.'
'He suspected Black?' gasped Madam Rosmerta. Kirra rolled her eyes at this, Dumbledore could honestly go to hell for as far as she was concerned.
'He was sure that somebody close to the Potters had been keeping You-Know-Who informed of their movements,' said Professor McGonagall darkly. 'Indeed, he had suspected for some time that someone on our side had turned traitor and was passing a lot of information to You-Know-Who.'
'But James Potter insisted on using Black?'
'He did,' said Fudge heavily. 'And then, barely a week after the Fidelius Charm had been performed –'
'Black betrayed them?' breathed Madam Rosmerta, Kirras breathing was beginning to get uneven as she began to get angry at what they were saying, she needed people to know that Sirius was innocent.
'He did indeed. Black was tired of his double-agent role, he was ready to declare his support openly for You-Know-Who, and he seems to have planned this for the moment of the Potters' death. But, as we all know, You-Know-Who met his downfall in little Harry Potter. Powers gone, horribly weakened, he fled. And this left Black in a very nasty position indeed. His Master had fallen at the very moment when he, Black, had shown his true colours as a traitor. He had no choice but to run for it –'
'Filthy, stinkin' turncoat!' Hagrid said, so loudly that half the bar went quiet, Kirra had been clenching her fists in anger so hard that her nails were beginning to dig into her palms, drawing blood
'Shh!' said Professor McGonagall.
'I met him!' growled Hagrid. 'I musta bin the last ter see him before he killed all them people! It was me what rescued Harry an' Kirra from Lily an' James's house after they was killed! Jus' got 'em outta the ruins, poor little things, with a great slash across their foreheads, an' their 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-Know-Who's attack an' come ter see what he could do. White an' shakin', he was. An' yeh know what I did? I COMFORTED THE MURDERIN' TRAITOR!' Hagrid roared.
Kirra slammed her fists down onto the bench angirly and Mattheo quickly grabbed her hands, "hey hey its okay" he sushed her and then noticed the blood on her hands, "what the hell..."
"Im fine" the girl hissed
"You are not fine!" Mattheo hissed back and he pulled the girl into his chest, holding her as close to him as he could, rubbing her back softly as she calmed down, listening in on what they were saying once more
'How was I ter know he wasn' upset abou' Lily an' James? It was You-Know- Who he cared abou'! An' then he says, "Give Harry and Kirra ter me, Hagrid, I'm her godfather and I can find Remus, I'll look after them –" Ha! But I'd had me orders from Dumbledore, an' I told Black no, Dumbledore said Kirra and Harry was ter go ter their aunt an' uncle's." Hargird growled
"Black argued, but in the end he gave in. Told me ter take his motorbike ter get Kirra an' Harry there. "I won' need it any more," he says. 'I shoulda known there was somethin' fishy goin' on then. He loved that motorbike, Emily had bough' it for him, what was he givin' it ter me for? Why wouldn' he need it any more? Fact was, it was too easy ter trace. Dumbledore knew he'd bin the Potters' Secret Keeper. Black knew he was goin' ter have ter run fer it that night, knew it was a matter o' hours before the Ministry was after him.' But what if I'd given Kirra an' Harry to him, eh?" Hagrid was getting more and more worked up by the seconds
"I bet he'd've pitched em' off the bike halfway out ter sea. His bes' friend's children! But when a wizard goes over ter the dark side, there's nothin' and no one that matters to 'em any more ...' A long silence followed Hagrid's story.
Then Madam Rosmerta said with some satisfaction, 'But he didn't manage to disappear, did he? The Ministry of Magic caught up with him next day!'
'Alas, if only we had,' said Fudge bitterly. 'It was not we who found him. It was little Peter Pettigrew – another of the Potters' friends. Maddened by grief, no doubt, and knowing that Black had been the Potters' Secret Keeper, he went after black himself.'
'Pettigrew ... that fat little boy who was always tagging around after them at Hogwarts?' said Madam Rosmerta.
'Hero-worshipped Barnes, Black and Potter,' said Professor McGonagall. 'Never quite in their league, talent-wise. I was often rather sharp with him. You can imagine how I – how I regret that now ...' She sounded as though she had a sudden head cold but Kirra was still shaking with anger against Mattheos chest.
'There, now, Minerva,' said Fudge kindly, 'Pettigrew died a hero's death. Eyewitnesses – Muggles, of course, we wiped their memories later – told us how Pettigrew cornered Black. They say he was sobbing. "Lily and James, Sirius! How could you!" And then he went for his wand. Well, of course, Black was quicker. Blew Pettigrew to smithereens ...'
Professor McGonagall blew her nose and said thickly, 'Stupid boy ... foolish boy ... he was always hopeless at dueling... should have left it to the Ministry ...'
'I tell yeh, if I'd got ter Black before little Pettigrew did, I wouldn't've messed around with wands – I'd've ripped him limb – from – limb,' Hagrid growled and Mattheo was beginning to get worried as the girl began to shake even more.
'You don't know what you're talking about, Hagrid,' said Fudge sharply. 'Nobody but trained Hit Wizards from the Magical Law Enforcement Squad would have stood a chance against Black once he was cornered. I was Junior Minister in the Department of Magical Catastrophes at the time, and I was one of the first on the scene after Black murdered all those people. I – I will never forget it. I still dream about it sometimes. A crater in the middle of the street, so deep it had cracked the sewer below. Bodies everywhere. Muggles screaming. And Black standing there laughing, with what was left of Pettigrew in front of him ... a heap of blood-stained robes and a few – a few fragments –' Fudge's voice stopped abruptly.
There was the sound of five noses being blown. 'Well, there you have it, Rosmerta,' said Fudge thickly. 'Black was taken away by twenty members of the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol and Pettigrew received the Order of Merlin, First Class, which I think was some comfort to his poor mother. Black's been in Azkaban ever since.'
Madam Rosmerta let out a long sigh. 'Is it true he's mad, Minister?'
'I wish I could say that he was,' said Fudge slowly. 'I certainly believe his master's defeat unhinged him for a while. The murder of Pettigrew and all those Muggles was the action of a cornered and desperate man – cruel ... pointless. Yet I met Black on my last inspection of Azkaban. You know, most of the prisoners in there sit muttering to themselves in the dark, there's no sense in them ... but I was shocked at how normal Black seemed."
Kirra couldn't help but think about what it would have been like for Sirius to be stuck in azkaban all that time, and she was grateful they had been animagi, because Sirius told her all about turning into his dog form, it was keeping him sane since the dementors didn't go after him
"He spoke quite rationally to me. It was unnerving. You'd have thought he was merely bored – asked if I'd finished with my newspaper, cool as you please, said he missed doing the crossword. Yes, I was astounded at how little effect the Dementors seemed to be having on him – and he was one of the most heavily guarded in the place, you know. Dementors outside his door, day and night.'
'But what do you think he's broken out to do?' said Madam Rosmerta. 'Good gracious, Minister, he isn't trying to rejoin You-Know-Who, is he?'
'I daresay that is his – er – eventual plan,' said Fudge evasively. 'But we hope to catch Black long before that. I must say, You-Know-Who alone and friendless is one thing ... but give him back his most devoted servant, and I shudder to think how quickly he'll rise again ...'
There was a small chink of glass on wood. Someone had set down their glass. 'You know, Cornelius, if you're dining with the Headmaster, we'd better head back up to the castle,' said Professor McGonagall. One by one, Kirra watched as the teachers and the minister went to leave the bar and Madam Rosmerta's disappeared behind the bar.
The door of the Three Broomsticks opened again, there was another flurry of snow, and the teachers disappeared. 'Kirra, are you okay?' Mattheo and Theodore asked her in concern
"I have to find a way to prove that he is innocent" she muttered out determiningly
"So is somebody going to fill me in on what the bloody hell is happening?" Jasper asked them