ღ chapter thirteen
( a madman )
HERMIONE WAS QUICK to whisper a charm that caused the Christmas tree near them to ride a few inches off the ground, drift sideways, and land with a slight thump in front of their table, hiding them from view. Through the dense lower branches, Jules saw four sets of chair legs move back, and heard the small grunts and sighs as the Professor's and Minister sat down at the table next to them.
They rattled off their drink orders as soon as turquoise heels approached the table, Madame Rosmerta, as she handed them their corresponding drinks. Glasses clinked, and Fudge invited Rosmerta to join them, which she did. "So what brings you to this neck of the woods, Minister?" she asked.
Fudge seemed to twist around, as if he was looking for anyone eavesdropping. He was very quiet when he spoke. "What else my dear, but Sirius Black? I daresay you've heard what happened up at the school on Halloween?"
Juliet stiffened, and Harry placed a comforting hand on her own.
"I did hear a rumor," Madame Rosmerta admitted.
Professor McGonagall made a clicking noise with her tongue. "Did you tell the whole pub Hagrid?"
"Do you think Black's still in the area, Minister?" Rosmerta questioned.
Fudge was short with his confirmation of her suspicions. "I'm sure of it."
"You know the dementors have searched the whole village twice? Scared all of my customers away, it's very bad for business, as I'm sure you understand, minister," Rosmerta said crossly.
Fudge cleared his throat. "Rosmerta dear, I don't like them anymore than you do. Necessary, but unfortunate, precaution. However, they are rather fzurious Dumbledore is refusing to allow them inside the grounds, I just met with them, you see-"
"I should think not!" McGonagall said sharply. "How are we supposed to teach with those horrors floating around?"
"Hear hear!" Flitwick squeaked.
"All the same," Fudge demurred. "They're protecting you from worse horrors, we all know what Black's capable of."
Rosmerta sniffed rather loudly. "You know, I still have trouble believing it. Of all those who could have possibly gone over to the Dark Side, Sirius Black never once crossed my mind. He was always so bright, and funny. He and his girlfriend, poor thing, the two were always in here during their final years at school."
"You don't know the half of it, Rosmerta," Fudge sighed. "His most heinous deeds are not as widely known."
"You say you remember him at Hogwarts, do you remember who his best friend was?" McGonagall murmured.
"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!"
"Hagrid, please!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed. "Keep your voice down!"
"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 ter me, Hagrid, I'm his godfather, I'll look after him —' Ha! But I'd had me orders from Dumbledore, an' I told Black no, Dumbledore wanted him somewhere else. Black argued, but in the end he gave in. Told me ter take his motorbike ter get Harry there. 'I won't need it anymore,' he says. "I shoulda known there was somethin' fishy goin' on then. He loved that motorbike, what was he givin' it ter me for? Why wouldn' he need it anymore? 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 Harry to him, eh? I bet he'd've pitched him off the bike halfway out ter sea. His bes' friends' son! But when a wizard goes over ter the Dark Side, there's nothin' and no one that matters to em anymore-"
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?" Rosmerta asked.
"Hero-worshipped Black and Potter," Professor McGonagall sighed. "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. "There, now, Minerva," Fudge said 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.
"You don't know what you're talking about, Hagrid," Fudge said 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 bloodstained 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," Fudge added thickly. "Black was taken away by twenty members of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad 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," Fudge said 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. 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?" Madam Rosmerta questioned. "Good gracious, Minister, he isn't trying to rejoin You-Know-Who, is he?"
"I daresay that is his- er- eventual plan," Fudge evaded. "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 clink 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," Professor McGonagall said.
One by one, the pairs of feet in front of Jules took the weight of their owners once more; hems of cloaks swung into sight, and Madam Rosmerta's glittering heels disappeared behind the bar. The door of the Three Broomsticks opened again, there was another flurry of snow, and the teachers had disappeared.
Jules waited for a brief moment, her eyes burning with tears. She couldn't bear to look at her friends. Especially Harry. Because the blood of the man who murdered Harry's parents was running through her veins, and she had just broken his trust.
She fled into Hogsmeade, ignoring Hermione's calls behind her, and ducked into Honeydukes. She didn't stop running, her legs burning, lungs aching, until she had reached the safety of Ravenclaw tower, where her friends couldn't reach her.
( AUTHOR NOTE )
i hope you enjoyed this chapter <33