Chapter 87 - 87

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Return of Padfoot

There was a lot of speculation that went around the castle while Harish was sick. All of it was about him; wondering where he was, whether he had died, whether he had left the school…When Harish finally did return to school, everyone had gotten him to regale both the second task and his near death experience so many times that he was soon sick of it.

That weekend he spent all of his time catching up on all of the work he had missed. Then, the week after that went by so slow that Harish was sure Saturday would never come.

The Friday before their Hogsmeade weekend, Harish got another short message from Sirius.

Be at stile at end of road of Hogsmeade (past Dervish and Banges) at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Bring as much food as you can.

"You don't think he's come back to Hogsmeade, do you?" Fred asked over Harish's shoulder. Harish grabbed his school bag, cast a charm on it to keep food fresh, and began piling any food he could grab into the bag.

"It does look like it, doesn't it?" George replied.

"He has," Harish stated after a pause. "My father told him to."

"Your father told him to?" Draco asked, who had been watching their interaction. "Why?"

"He wants someone to keep an eye on me," Harish said.

"And it's a good thing, too," Hermione said. "With yet another attempt to kill you—"

Harish rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, but it's not like he's in the castle. He certainly didn't prevent me from being poisoned."

"Not even Dumbledore could have prevented you from being poisoned," Hermione reasoned. "I mean, how was Sirius supposed to know someone would be slipping poison into your morning pumpkin juice?"

Harish opened his mouth angrily to retort, but Daphne said quite suddenly, "We're going to be late for Potions."

Hermione glanced down at her watch before leaping to her feet, exclaiming, "Holy cricket, we are late!"

And she dashed off. Draco smirked and followed. Daphne gave Harish a smile and was the last to reach their Potions class. They made to the class just before the bell rang and found their seats, panting heavily. Ron shot them glares from across the room and Neville was sitting next to him with a subdued expression on his face.

They copied down the instructions that were on the board and began working on their potions for that day. Nothing unusual, or worth noting at all, happened until a knock sounded on the dungeon door.

"Enter," Snape said.

The class looked around as the door opened. It was very unusual for anyone to interrupt Potions classes. Professor Karkaroff came in. Everyone watched him as he walked up to Snape's desk. He was twisting his finger around his goatee and looking agitated.

"We need to talk," Karkaroff said abruptly when he had reached Snape. He seemed so determined that no one should hear what he was saying, that he was barely moving his lips. Luckily for Harish; Draco, Daphne, and Hermione were sitting at the very front of the room, directly in front of Snape. Most people didn't like being near the man, so that was the only table available as the three Slytherins had come in so late.

Draco tried not to eavesdrop on his godfather, gently chopping his ginger roots, but failed miserably.

"I'll talk to you after my lesson, Karkaroff," Snape muttered, but Karkaroff interrupted him.

"I want you to know now, while you can't slip off, Severus. You've been avoiding me."

"After the lesson," Snape snapped.

Pretending to inspect a measure of armadillo bile, Draco snuck a sidelong glance at the pair of them. Karkaroff looked extremely worried, and Snape looked angry. As the bell rang, Draco knocked Daphne's armadillo bile into the floor and said, "Here, let me clean this up for you!"

"I'll help you!" Daphne exclaimed, and they both grabbed a rag and ducked under their table to listen.

Hermione rolled her eyes and strolled out of the dungeon.

"What's so urgent?" they heard Snape hiss at Karkaroff.

"This," Karkaroff said, still making every effort not to move his lips. Draco and Daphne both peered up through the legs of their table to see Karkaroff show Snape something on his left forearm. From the angle they were at, they could not tell what it was. But as both were raised in Pureblood families, neither of them had any trouble guessing what it was. The Dark Mark.

"Do you see? It's never been this clear, never since—"

"Put it away!" Snape snarled, his black eyes sweeping the classroom.

"But you must have noticed—" Karkaroff started, sounding even more agitated.

"We can talk later, Karkaroff," Snape spat. "Greengrass, Malfoy, what are you doing?"

Both of them shot up, clutching their bile covered rags.

"Cleaning up my armadillo bile, Professor," Daphne said, smiling innocently.

"And I was helping her," Draco added quickly.

Karkaroff turned on his heel and strode out of the dungeon. He still looked worried, but now was showing traces of anger. Neither of them wanting to be stuck in the room with an exceptionally angry Snape, both Draco and Daphne rushed out to the courtyard to tell Harish all about what they had overheard.

When they did tell him, Harish informed the others about what he and Daphne had overheard at the Yule Ball.

The next day the three sixth years went to another Apparition Lesson before meeting up with the three third years and Ginny, who had been talking about what Harish and Daphne had heard at the Yule Ball. As they walked down to Hogsmeade, Draco asked, "Wait, but what were you two doing there anyway?"

They both blushed, remembering their kiss.

"We just needed to cool off a bit from the dancing," Harish replied awkwardly. They walked in silence and the girls left to go buy more quills while the guys went to buy Quidditch supplies.

"What else happened while you were out there?" Hermione asked Daphne curiously.

Daphne shrugged, flushing deeper.

"You didn't—kiss?" Hermione asked.

Daphne nodded. Hermione squealed and hugged her friend.

"So what was it like?" Hermione asked.

"Wonderful," Daphne replied.

The twins wheedled this information out of Harish as well. When they asked him the same question, he replied with, "Well I dunno, I guess—I mean—it was really nice," he finished with a happy sigh.

The twins snorted.

The two groups met up again and Draco and Ginny separated from the group to go to the Three Broomsticks. Hermione went back to the castle, as she had some last minute homework to do. Then, the other four went to the end of the street to meet with Sirius. Towards the end, the cottages began to get fewer and fewer until finally they could see an enormous black dog that was carrying several newspapers in its mouth.

"Hello, Sirius," Harish said quietly when they had reached him.

The black dog sniffed Harish's bag full of food eagerly, wagged its tail once, and then turned away and began to trot away from them across the scrubby patch of ground that rose to meet the foot of the mountain. Harish, the twins, and Daphne climbed over the stile and followed.

Sirius led them to the very foot of the mountain, where the ground was covered with boulders and rocks. It was easy for him, as he was on four legs, but the teens had trouble scrambling up the rocks and were soon out of breath. They followed Sirius higher, up onto the mountain itself. For nearly half an hour they climbed a steep, winding, and stony path, following Sirius's wagging tail. Harish cast a cooling charm on himself and switched his bag to the other shoulder as it started cutting into his skin.

Then, at last, Sirius slipped out of sight, and when they reached the place where he had disappeared, they found a narrow cleft in the rock. The four squeezed into it and found themselves in a cool, dimly lit cave. Tethered at one end of the cave was Buckbeak the hippogriff. During the summer he had stayed in the stables at Slytherin manor. Harish knew that at one point there had been horses there, but they had long since been gone since his ancestors had died out.

The teens bowed to the creature, and after regarding them imperiously for a moment, Buckbeak bent one knee and allowed the twins to step forward slowly and pet his beak. Harish, however, turned to the black dog that had just transformed into his godfather.

Sirius was wearing a set of robes Harish's father had bought for him, but he looked as unshaven and wild as when Harish had first met him other than that; his black hair was longer than it had been when Harish had last spoken to the man, and it was untidy and matted once more. He looked very thin.

"Bacon!" he said hoarsely after removing the old Daily Prophets from his mouth and tossing them aside.

Harish pulled his bag open and handed Sirius fistfuls of bacon, a few chicken legs, and bread.

"Thanks," Sirius said, eating three pieces of bacon at once. "I've been living off rats mostly. Can't steal too much from Hogsmeade without drawing attention to myself."

He grinned at Harish, who grimaced.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Fulfilling my duty as godfather," Sirius said, stripping meat off of a chicken leg with his teeth. "Your father sent me here."

"I know that," Harish protested. "But why did he send you out here? It's not like you are in the castle to watch me."

"You know I can't enter the castle," Sirius said with a hint of exasperation, he had been gnawing on his bone rather like a dog and was now waving around in aggravation. "Imagine if Dumbledore knew I was with you. Imagine if Dumbledore knew who you were! That would be disastrous!"

"I know," Harish grumbled. Sirius threw his bone to Buckbeak, who started crunching on it happily.

"What your father did want me to tell you, after your poisoning and all, is to be careful. I know I told you before, but I am sure that you know understand why I keep telling you."

"Does Father know who is trying to kill me?" Harish asked.

Sirius gestured helplessly.

"All I know is that whoever it is, is inside the castle, as I have told you before."

"So he hasn't told you that he has a hunch, or that he has suspicions of who it may be?"

"Harish," Sirius reminded him. "We are talking about Lord Voldemort. Of course he hasn't told me anything."

"But you have already told me all of this. Why did you bring me here to tell me again?"

"I am afraid of our mail being intercepted. I wanted to talk in private, where there is no chance of anyone overhearing or anything. With the last letter you sent me—and then of course you being in the Hospital Wing—things are getting fishier. I've been stealing the paper every time someone throws one out, and by the looks of things, we aren't the only ones who are worried."

"You and my father, you mean?" Harish asked, glancing at the pile of yellowing papers that Sirius pointed to.

Daphne, who had already noticed the papers, was reading through a few of them.

"That would be correct," Sirius replied with a smile.

"So did you tell him about what I told you? About Jugson?"

"Yes, I did," Sirius replied. "He seemed rather concerned. As you know, Jugson is a Death Eater, and Voldemort is quite certain that he did not send the man to the castle."

Suddenly, Daphne interrupted their conversation by saying, "They make it sound as though he's dying!"

"Who?" Harish and the twins asked together.

"Barty Crouch," Daphne replied. Harish noticed that Sirius was peering at her, trying to figure out who she was.

"Oh, Sirius, this is Daphne Greengrass," Harish said, knowing that the two had not been formally introduced. "Daphne, this is Sirius Black, my godfather."

"Pleased to meet you," Daphne said politely before returning to her newspaper.

"The pleasure is all mine, really," Sirius said with a wide smile. He shot Harish an approving look. Harish shook his head.

Meanwhile, the twins were asking Daphne, "What do you mean?"

"Look," she said, handing the paper to them. Harish moved over to look at it over their shoulders.

As Harish scanned the story, phrases like "hasn't been seen in public since November…house appears deserted…St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries decline comment…Ministry refuses to confirm rumors of critical illness" jumped out at him.

"Our brother is Crouch's assistant," George said absently.

"He says Crouch is suffering from overwork," Fred informed them.

"Mind you, he did look ill last time I saw him up close," Harish said slowly, still reading through the article as well. "It was the night the champions' names came out of the Goblet of Fire…"

Harish finished the article and after the twins had as well, they set the paper down among all of the old Daily Prophets. Then, Harish muttered, "Still doesn't explain who's trying to have me killed."

"Or how Jugson got into the castle," Sirius said, agreeing with his godson. There was a moment of silence while everyone thought. Then, Sirius broke it by saying, "You four had better return to the castle before you are missed." He turned to Harish and addressed him directly, "I will be staying here until the end of the year. If you have an urgent message, owl me but don't use the same owl every time."

Harish nodded and the four of them squeezed out of the cave, heading back down the mountain. Sirius followed them as a dog. The trip down the mountainside was much faster than the trip up. Soon they were walking across the bounder strewn ground, back to the stile. Here, Sirius allowed each of them to pat him on the head. Before turning and setting off at a run around the outskirts of the village. Harish, the twins, and Daphne made their way back into Hogsmeade and up toward Hogwarts.

"I wonder if Percy's seen Crouch at all recently," Fred mused.

"You could always send him a letter and ask," Harish suggested.

"Yeah," George agreed. "That's a great idea. How about we do that now?"

They walked up the stone steps into the entrance hall, where the delicious smells of dinner wafted toward them from the Great Hall.

"Poor old Snuffles," George said, breathing in the smell deeply. "He must really like you, Harish."

"Imagine having to live off of rats."

Harish and Daphne both shook their heads, before they caught each other's eyes and grinned.

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