"Yes, Susan! See Daphne's footing. Daphne, you are exaggerating wand movement, you actually do not need it. Susan! Don't use a fucking stinging hex in a duel!"
Harry was instructing Daphne and Susan as they dueled each other in the classroom. It was a week after the Break-in. McGonagall had taken away Neville's Hogsmeade privileges due to his part in Black's break in. Neville had received an Howler from his Grandmother berating him and telling him that he had brought shame on the family name.
"Uhh... Shit! What happened?" Susan asked after she was enervated by Harry. Susan was a good duelist for someone who was 13. She was fast but that was it. Daphne was much better than the Bones heiress as she was fast, creative and good at dodging. She also had more spell knowledge than Susan. Susan's spells were all limited to third year school spells and a few standard spells. She did not have any advanced spells to use in a duel like Harry or Daphne.
"You got defeated by Daphne. You are a decent duelist but there is a lot of room for improvement." This was the first session Susan had actually dueled. In their last two sessions, Susan had only watched Harry and Daphne duel and taken notes. They had also spent a lot of time chatting on mundane topics from Hogwarts studies to professors to the bills proposed in the Wizengamot. They had spent a small part of last session telling each other the names of professors as given by students of their house and their own opinions about them. It was fun hearing about it.
"How can I improve? Where all did I make mistakes?" Susan questioned.
"First the number of spells you use. One must always have variety or at lest a decent number of spells in their arsenal. You foolishly used a stinging hex. Stinging hex is literally suicide in a duel. It does nothing. Also everything you used were schoolyard spells. If you want to go in the dueling ring or become a hit-witch, out of all the spells you used, only the stunner and Expelliarmus would be used and they too would be seldom. Spells like leg locker, jelly legs, punching hex and everything are only used in schoolyard fights. You know instead of Stupefy, you can use obstupefio. It is a stunner with no counter, but only stuns the person for one hour. This spell is used by hit-wizard force instead of Stupefy. Instead of the punching hex use Conlido curse. It is a more powerful alternative." Harry told her.
"Can you teach them to me now? These spells you told me about." Susan asked.
"Yes... I will teach them to you today. Let me finish where you went wrong so we can work on improving... Yeah, so, your spell arsenal is woefully short. Also, your dodging is shite. Now, you both are doing unnecessary wand movements. To cast most spells, an incantation is not necessary let alone wand movement. Let me demonstrate."
"Stupefy" He did it with incantation and wand movement.
"Stupefy" He did it with incantation only.
Next a jet of red hit the wall. It was silent and without wand movement. He had decided to show that he could cast non-verbally. Salazar had said that Dumbledore, when he was in school had started openly using non-verbal spells from the start of his fourth year. Tom Riddle had done the same in the second term of the fourth year. It had got them a lot of positive attention from their teachers and had been offered private lessons.
"You can cast non-verbally? That is a sixth year thing!" Daphne half shrieked.
"It is not that tough. You just have to practice." Harry replied with a shrug.
"What about Dodging? can you demonstrate that?" Susan asked again.
"Gladly. You both can shoot stinging hexes in my direction. I will dodge."
"Both of us?" Daphne asked and Harry nodded. The exercise started and the two blondes shot stinging hexes at Harry.
10 minutes later, Harry was still untouched and waving around spells. Both the girls were breathing heavily. Stinging hexes may not require any high amount of magic, but firing more than 600 hexes continuously was tiring even for an average adult wizard. It showed that the girls were more powerful than an average witch or wizard of their age. Not in Harry's league but Harry was sure that their power would easily rival in power with the likes of Bellatrix Lestrange, Antonio Dolohov, Alastor Moody and so on, at full magical maturity. A normal third year student would be on their knees by the first 300-350 hexes itself. They had fired like 700-800 hexes by estimation each.
"Stop!" Harry commanded. He did not wish for the girls to exhaust themselves magically.
"Did we, by chance, get a hit in?" Daphne asked after a few moments.
"Obviously not."
"Damn! I thought that with two of us, we will hit the bastard." Daphne cursed.
"How did you dodge every singe fucking spell?" Susan asked exasperatedly.
"Practice, my dear Ms. Bones. And that is what we will be doing. You will be able to do the same soon if you practice diligently." Harry replied.
"Can we meet more frequently? I am woefully inadequate. And so you do not have to teach us everything, we will research and bring you spells from our side too after summer. That way, you would also get something out of this." Susan said. Harry had no problem in teaching the two girls for free. He would not teach them everything, obviously, but he could make them extremely competent in case he needed to form his own version of the Order of the Phoenix or the Dragon legion, a group formed by several powerful witches and wizards to combat Grindelwald and his forces.
His Grandfather, Charlus Potter, was one of the main members of this group along with Arcturus Black. Together they both were made a deadly force and were titled 'The Butchers of Walpurgis' as they had killed the most members of Grindelwald forces who called themselves Knights of Walpurgis. The Dragon legion had a reputation of taking no prisoners. This group included several powerful members like Ophelia Greengrass ( Daphne's Great aunt), Gerald Longbottom, Alexander Bones, Christopher Rosier, Asher Crouch among others. The most surprising name was Abraxas Malfoy, Lucius's Father. Apparently Lucy didn't follow his Father's footsteps and became a bootlicker of a dark lord.
"We can... I have no problem with it. I can manage Thursday, Saturday and Sunday." Harry replied to Susan's question.
"That is acceptable." Daphne nodded.
"Then it is decided. Every Thursday, Saturday and Sunday evening. And Daph and I will research new spells for us all." Susan said.
"Thank you for today's session Harry." Daphne said kissing his cheek, dangerously close to his mouth.
"Yes, Thanks Harry." Susan said kissing his other cheek.
"Come Susan. Let us go." Daphne said and they left together leaving Harry, as he had stood rooted at the spot
"The fuck!" Harry said after a few moments to an empty room.
The trio were currently in Hagrid's Hut chatting amiably about school. Ron was talking about Lupin's class and how Trelawney was a fraud. His two friends had arrived at a truce finally a couple of days ago after Hermione had insulted the divination Professor and called her a fraud on the face before quitting Divination all together. Ron's respect for Hermione had grown enough to get over his rat's death after his mourning period had passed.
"Hermione, can you give me the milk Jug? It is in the cupboard." Hagrid asked as he needed the milk for tea.
"Ron, I don't believe it — it's Scabbers!" Hermione suddenly yelled.
Ron gaped at her.
"What are you talking about?"
Hermione carried the milk jug over to the table and turned it upside down. With a frantic squeak, and much scrambling to get back inside, Scabbers the rat came sliding out onto the table.
"Scabbers!" said Ron blankly. "Scabbers, what are you doing here?"
He grabbed the struggling rat and held him up to the light. Scabbers looked dreadful. He was thinner than ever, large tufts of hair had fallen out leaving wide bald patches, and he writhed in Ron's hands as though desperate to free himself.
"It's okay, Scabbers!" said Ron. "No cats! There's nothing here to hurt you!"
"I guess you owe me something." Hermione said.
"What?" Ron asked cluelessly.
Harry stomped his foot and hissed "An apology, Ron."
"Oh! Err... Yeah, I am sorry for err... blaming the mons- I meant the cat, yeah, your cat needlessly." Ron stammered out an apology. Hermione smiled.
"Well, all's well that ends well. But you both owe me an apology too. For you know, turning me mad due to the fight between the two of you." Harry said.
The two of his friends shared a look before lunging at him and taking him into a group hug.
"Can't breath." Harry gasped as he tried to free himself from their tight embrace. They parted and grinned at each other. They turned to hear clapping sounds accompanied by sounds of Ron's rat. Hagrid was applauding them with a smile on his face.
"I am 'appy fer you all. Would anyone like my cakes? Freshly baked and all. We should celebrate by eating 'em." The trio shared a look. Hagrid may be a very good person and all, but his skills at baking were shit. Eating his cakes were torture for the teeth.
"No Hagrid, maybe next time. We are getting late. I do not want a man hunt launched to find me." Harry lied to Hagrid for the sake of his teeth. "And Ron, I am petrifying your rat till we get to the tower. We don't want it lost on the grounds." At this Scabbers bit Ron and made a dash. But Harry was faster. He shot a full body bind at the rat and it hit true.
"Thanks mate. I am sure, he is scared of going back to the tower. Scared of Hermione's cat... Well it's not the cat's fault. All cats chase rats." Ron added the last part hastily seeing Hermione's glare directed at him.
Harry chuckled. "We will order a cage for Scabbers, Ron. That will protect him from Crookshanks." Harry placated.
"Well, we better get going. The dinner will start soon. If we don't reach there, Tonks will launch a man hunt for us." Hermione said.
They nodded and bid Hagrid goodbye. Meeting Hagrid was always good, well except when he made them try out his rock cakes and last year when Hagrid was arrested and he told them to follow the spiders... And the Norbet incident too.
Ron, Harry and Hermione started walking towards the castle at a leisurely pace, Ron telling Harry about the latest scores in the England Quidditch league. Puddlemore united was currently at the top of the chart followed by Holyhead Harpies. Harry remembered that he had a lot of shares in those teams. 'Good for me. My finances would increase. Perhaps I should officially start supporting Puddlemore.' Harry thought.
"You know mate, that tree brings back a load of memories, doesn't it?" Ron said pointing at the whomping willow. It was just out of range. It was the only violent tree he had seen.
Harry grinned, "We flew your dad's car to Hogwarts and crashed it there. We almost got expelled, didn't we?"
They laughed and Hermione huffed, "I don't understand what's funny about getting expelled. Also that stunt was the most fooli..."
Hermione was cut off by a growl. They turned to look at a jet black dog who was growling at Ron. Scabbers sounds increased, probably afraid of the dog.
"It's the-the gr-grim. We are going to d-die!" Ron stammered in fear.
"Don't be ridiculous, Ron. It is just a dog. Not that tripe Trelawney sprouts. There are so many black dogs on the streets. This one is also a stray." Hermione said. The dog growled at Ron.
"Good doggy. Good doggy." Ron said taking a step forward to calm the dog. Harry did not think it was the best decision, but animals yearned for love. Ron, by showing the dog some love would calm it down. It was a gamble. Ron took a couple of more steps forward after putting his pet rat, still in the body bind, into his pocket. The dog had stopped growling. It was a good sign. Right?
Well, apparently not. As soon as Ron got close enough, the dog lunged and bit Ron's leg. The force sent them tumbling to the Willow.
"RON!" Harry and Hermione yelled and ran forward, Harry drawing his wand to stun the dog. But Harry had forgotten about the violent tree. A branch of the tree came to hit him in the abdomen. His reflexes kicked him and he tried to dodge the branch, 'tried' being the key word. The branch of the Whomping Willow hit him and Hermione, sending them sprawling onto the ground.
Harry groaned in pain. He wanted to lie there but his friend's life was in danger. Harry got up and summoned his wand, wandlessly. "Immobulos Maxima" He incanted at the tree branches. They stopped dead. "Come on Hermione!" He yelled to the girls who was getting up. Her lip was split and her clothes were muddy. Harry himself was sure that he had a bruise and a few scratches from the fall.
Harry finally saw Ron disappear into the base of the tree. 'The tunnel to the shrieking shack.' Harry realized remembering the maps. The marauder's map was in possession of Lupin as he had confiscated it a week ago seeing it in Harry's hands. Moreover, Lupin somehow knew it was a map. It was fishy but Harry could not have defied a teacher. He had a much more detailed map in the Chamber.
"Harry — we've got to go for help —" Hermione gasped.
"No! That thing's big enough to eat him; we haven't got time." Harry replied. They could not wait for help to arrive. Ron may be eaten or mangled by that dog... grim as Ron called it. Harry saw a cat slip in where the dog went.
"Crookshanks?" Hermione whispered uncertainly.
"We have to go in Hermione, come on!"
The two started crawling into the tunnel. Harry knew it lead to the shrieking shack.
"Where does this tunnel come out?" Hermione asked breathlessly from behind him.
"The shrieking shack." Harry replied before ignoring Hermione's next question about how he knew that.
They moved as fast as they could, bent almost double; ahead of them, Crookshanks's tail bobbed in and out of view. On and on went the passage... But Harry could only think of rescuing his friend from the dog.
And then the tunnel began to rise; moments later it twisted, and Crookshanks had gone. Ahead Harry could see a patch of dim light through a small opening. He and Hermione paused, gasping for breath, edging forward. Both raised their wands to see what lay beyond.
They had arrived in the infamous Shrieking shack. The room they were in was in shambles. cobwebs hung around the room. There were trails in the dirt that layered the room. "Ghosts definitely did not do that." Hermione stated.
"Obviously." Harry muttered.
They followed the thickest dirt tail which looked like someone had been dragged on the floor- Ron. Wands out they climbed upstairs as stealthily as possible. They reached a door. Harry could hear faint whimpers from behind it. He kicked the door open. Ron lay on the floor, clutching his leg which was definitely broken. Harry's eyes roamed around the room.
"Where is the dog gone?" He questioned.
"Not a dog," Ron moaned. His teeth were gritted with pain. "Harry, it's a trap —"
"What?"
"He's the dog… he's an Animagus." Ron was staring over Harry's shoulder. Harry wheeled around. With a snap, the man in the shadows closed the door behind them. His body was coming into view, 'a disillusionment charm' Harry realized
A mass of filthy, matted hair hung to his elbows. If eyes hadn't been shining out of the deep, dark sockets, he might have been a corpse. The waxy skin was stretched so tightly over the bones of his face, it looked like a skull. His yellow teeth were bared in a grin. It was Sirius Black.
Harry snarled. His eyes glowed swirling like a storm.
"Expelliarmus, Expelliarmus" Black shot disarming hexes at them. Hermione was disarmed. Harry was quicker. He erected a non-verbal Protego, stopping the spell before returning fire with a bone breaker, Stupefy, piercing curse, a fire arrow, Bludgeoner, Lacero, Reducto and a special disarmer from his family grimoire which broke the victims hand too. Black had erected a hasty auror shield, Protego Aegis but it was shattered by Harry's Reducto, and Harry's special disarmer hit true. The wand came sailing towards Harry and he caught it in his free hand. Black screamed in pain and his eyes showed disbelief.
"You are fast." Black started but Harry was not interested.
"Concluserat Magia Vincula." Harry shot one of the most potent restraining spell invented and one lost to time, taught to him by the founders. It produced extremely powerful magic inhibiting chains that were so tight that it was painful to move. If the victim tried to do magic, it would bring them pain and only the caster could remove these chains. It was an incredible spell if someone was to be captured. The only downside was that it only lasted for 7 hours, but for now it was enough.
Black grimaced as the metal chains wrapped around him. Harry would now give him to the dementors so the Bastard could get the payment of his crimes from the dementors.
"I thought you'd come and help your friend," he said hoarsely. His voice sounded as though he had long since lost the habit of using it. "Your father would have done the same for me. Brave of you not to run for a teacher. I'm grateful… it will make everything much easier…" Black said, strangely unfazed by the fact he was in chains.
"Black, now you have been caught. You will pay your due for betraying my parents you traitorous bastard!" Harry growled.
"I may have... in a way... But only if you knew the whole story..."
"The whole story!? You betrayed my parents to Voldemort. You sold them out when they trusted you! End of the story." Harry snapped back.
And then came a new sound — Muffled footsteps were echoing up through the floor — someone was moving downstairs. "WE'RE UP HERE!" Hermione screamed suddenly. "WE'RE UP HERE — SIRIUS BLACK — QUICK!"
Harry wheeled around as Professor Lupin came hurtling into the room, his face bloodless, his wand raised and ready. His eyes flickered over Ron, lying on the floor, over Hermione, cowering next to the door, to Harry, standing there with his wand covering Black, and then to Black himself, crumpled and bleeding at Harry's feet. That too in chains.
"Expelliarmus" Lupin yelled. Harry was shocked at the sudden move and had no time to do anything as his wand was ripped out of his and his friends hands and Lupin caught them.
Then Lupin spoke, in a very tense voice. "Where is he, Sirius?"
Harry was confused at the odd questioned but had already seen red. As the professor's attention was on Black, he wandlessly summoned his secondary wand from his leg holster and snapped an Expelliarmus, bludgeoner and a body bind nonverbally at Lupin.
Lupin had no time to react as he was disarmed and slammed into the wall, before he found himself the victim of a body bind. Harry reclaimed the wands and returned Hermione's wand to her.
"Harry, you must listen to me! I saw-"
That was as far as Lupin got before Harry punched him in the face. "I should have known, Lupin. I gave you the benefit of doubt. You were a friend of Black's... and my father's. You never approached me but I held hope that you would be a good person. Sadly, I was wrong. You are in league with Black. Today I will bring justice to my parent's death. I will avenge them by handing you two motherfuckers to the DMLE, where you and your buddy will receive the dementor's kiss. Let's go. But before that... Argenti Conpedes" Silver shackles snapped on Lupin. He won't be able to escape.
He turned to Ron and pointed his wand at Ron's leg and waved it. The bone snapped back in place and Ron yelped. "You will be able to walk now atleast. Madame Pomfrey will heal it better though." Harry told him.
"I should have outed you as soon as I came to know you are a werewolf, professor." Hermione told Lupin.
Lupin chuckled. "Brilliant as always Miss Granger. Severus assigned that essay hoping someone would realize what my symptoms meant… Did you check the lunar chart and realize that I was always ill at the full moon? Or did you realize that the Boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?"
"Both," Hermione said quietly.
"And when did you know, Harry? After all, you specifically used chains made of Silver, a metal which is poisonous to werewolves."
"Yes, yes whatever. Let us drag you both for the meeting with the dementors, shall we? And, to answer your question, since the year started, the academic one." Harry said.
"Harry, you must hear me out, please. Today, in the map, the one I confiscated, I saw you, Ron, Hermione and Sirius standing together near the Whomping willow, but there was one other name... Peter Pettigrew. So I hurried down here..."
Harry was not amused. "You know, it was an extremely pathetic attempt to buy time Lupin. No one is coming to save you both."
Fate seemed to hate Harry as at the very moment he completed the sentence, the door was pushed open and at the door stood Severus Snape.
"What do we have here?" He sneered looking around, his eyes lingered a moment more on Black and Lupin. "So, Black, you are finally caught, and I was correct... You are aiding him Lupin. And yes... the Gryffindor trio! I will have you three expelled for being out of school. Let us go." He sneered and raised his wand.
Harry reacted on instinct. "Fulgur Percutiens". A massive bolt of lightning shot out of Harry's wand and hit Snape breaking through his hastily erected shield. It was a rare elemental spell which would do a lot of damage to the victim. In some cases the victim had been sent to a coma. Snape's shield saved him from this fate but he was still knocked unconscious due to the sheer level of the spell. No one would have expected a Hogwarts student to know it, let alone a third year. It was the most powerful attack spell in Harry's arsenal currently.
"How do you know that spell? And for that matter, the rest of them?" Lupin asked.
"Lupin" Harry growled. "Now, that your plan has failed, questioning me won't save your hides. Your ridiculous ploy failed as did your backup man. Pettigrew being alive was a fucking lame excuse. One a child could see through!"
"Pettigrew is alive! and in this very room! Infact in this redhead's pocket!" Black snapped finally saying something.
"He was the secret keeper! I myself suggested it to Lily and James. I shouldn't have. But it was the perfect ploy to fool Voldemort. But Pettigrew betrayed us! He played us! I was going to kill the Rat today! I mean you no harm Harry. I swear!" Black pleaded.
"What does Scabbers have to do with all this?" Ron asked. From where harry was standing he could hear the sounds from Ron's Pocket.
"Everything. He is Peter Pettigrew! A rat Animagus!" Lupin said.
"Black blew him up almost 13 years ago. No more than a finger was found of Pettigrew's." Harry shot back.
"Yes... isn't Ron's rat missing a toe?" Lupin asked.
"I HAVE HAD HIM IN MY FAMILY FOR TWELVE YEARS!" Ron yelled.
"Twelve years... Garden rats do not survive for that long. Their lifespan is 3 to 4 years at the max."
"But-" Ron started but was cut off.
"Give me the rat Ron, let us see if they are indeed telling the truth or it is a load of tripe."
"He is -" Ron stopped short seeing Harry's glare and handed him the rat quietly. Harry gazed at the two men who were glaring at the rat in his hands. Snape was still out cold.
"Animagi Reverto." To their immense shock, the rat actually turned into a balding, fat man who lay stiff on the floor due to the body bind. Ron was gaping at it. Hermione's eyes were wide. Harry was wearing a neutral, cold expression thanks to his occlumency while Lupin and Black were glaring daggers at the guy.
"You traitorous Rat, I will kill you. You betrayed Lily and James. You Bastard! I will commit the murder I was convicted for 12 years ago!" Black seethed.
"Harry, you must lis-" The rat turned man began, but Harry hit him with the Obstupefio stunner.
"Do you believe us now?" Black asked Harry after a moment.
"Why should I?"
"Check his left forearm Harry. If he has a snake-skull tattoo, the mark of a death eater, he is, well a Death Eater, follower of Voldemort." Lupin said.
Harry checked Pettigrew's left forearm. There was a pale tattoo of a snake coming out of a skull. Harry felt a massive headache coming.
"I am taking the lot of you to the aurors. They will pump you all full of Veritaserum and you will speak up the truths. Hermione, Ron, let us drag this lot to the Headmaster's office. But, before that... Concluserat Magia Vincula. Concluserat Magia Vincula."
Harry put the special magic inhibiting chains on Pettigrew and Snape. They could not escape now. Lupin was in silver chains and won't be moving as it would be poisonous to the werewolf.
Harry was internally going through a shitload of emotions. He had just caught the supposed betrayer of his parents and a man who was dead for more than 12 years. By the way things were going, Black could be proved innocent by all means.
"You know Harry, I am your Godfather. Once I get this trial, a trial that was to take place 12 years ago and am proved innocent, you could, you know, come and live with me." Harry just nodded stiffly. He would have snarked back if he had not seen the man's joyful and hopeful face. He seemed confident.
"A trial that was to take place 12 years ago?" Hermione questioned.
"I was never given a trial. They chucked me straight into Azkaban after this rat blasted the street. He cut off his finger and turned into a rat before disappearing into the sewers. Crouch sent me straight into Azkaban, said I was a Black, a dark magic user and did not deserve a trial." Black replied.
Harry rubbed his temples. This was getting complicated. In his previous near death situations, he had killed the very root of the problem, Troll, Quirrell, the Basilisk and Tom Riddle. Here he did not even know who was at fault!
"Let's Go!" he snapped.
"How will we take them to the castle? They are four, we are three, and I am injured, even though you put my leg back, it is still hurting."
"He is correct Harry." Hermione said.
They were right. The prisoners had to be transported to the castle. Harry started taking deep breaths, to calm himself.
"Harry, you can send the Patronus message to the Professor." Hermione suddenly said.
"Of course!" Harry said slapping his forehead. "Why didn't I think of that before?"
He quickly sent a Patronus message to Dumbledore, McGonagall and Amelia Bones stating that he had captured Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew who turned out to be alive in the shrieking shack and they should arrive ASAP.
Not even three minutes later, Dumbledore and McGonagall arrived in a flash of flames. Dumbledore had his wand out, his eyes glowing with power. This was not the senile Headmaster, but the man who defeated Grindelwald, the man Voldemort feared. He looked at the four men. Two unconscious and two sitting in chains.
"Hey Minnie, long time, no see." Black spoke with a grin.
Harry facepalmed.