CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN - Sirius Suspicions

On Sunday, Ron forgave Attuoria in an instant, and apologised for lashing out. Attuoria gladly accepted his apology, though she knew she couldn't forget how easily he mistrusted her.

That night, as Hermione and Attuoria were correcting Harry and Ron's Astronomy essays, something extremely odd happened.

Harry knelt on the carpet by the fireplace, staring into the flames. "It's Sirius."

"Sirius?" Hermione gasped. "There's no way - Do you think he's trying to contact you like he did during the Triwizard Tournament?"

"I don't know. But I saw him, I know I did."

All four of them immediately crouched down by the fire, their heads huddled together.

"Sirius? As in Sirius Black?" Attuoria asked, mesmerised by the crackling flames.

"Yep, my godfather. This'll be your first time meeting him." said Harry, turning his head slightly to glance at Attuoria through the thick lens of his glasses.

"That's cool. I get to meet your godfather through a fireplace."

"Oh wait, we never told Attuoria -" Before Hermione could finish, a head popped up amidst the flames. He had long, tangled dark hair, and the soot around his face made him look very unkempt. A wide grin spread across his face when he saw Harry.

"I was starting to think you'd gone to bed. I've been checking every hour." said Sirius, quickly panning his gaze across the four kids before finally landing on Attuoria. "Who's this?" he asked suspiciously.

"This is our friend, Attuoria Knight." Hermione introduced.

"Er, hi." Attuoria said awkwardly. She had an odd feeling she was intruding on something that she wasn't supposed to see. "Um, if you want me to leave, I'll -"

"No, you stay here." said Sirius, and Hermione quickly yanked Attuoria back down. The suspicious look on his face stayed. "I know who you are. You're the girl that was at Hogwarts during Harry's first year, but disappeared and then came back this year."

"Yes," said Attuoria, surprised. "How did you know?"

Sirius ignored her question and instead began talking to Harry.

Well if he won't tell me, I'll just find out for myself. Attuoria entered his mind and had to dig a little further to find the thoughts that went through his head during their conversations.

"This is the girl Dumbledore told us about. How did she mix with Harry and his friends? She's involved with the Malfoys, of all people. Dumbledore said we should be welcoming to her, even involve her in our plans. Screw that. I don't trust her. For all we know, she could be working for Voldemort. Better keep her away from us."

Sirius thought that she might be working with Voldemort? Did Dumbledore know that she was working with Voldemort? This was definitely the start of trouble for Attuoria. The Dark Lord clearly stated that she should not let others know that she was on their side. People weren't so supposed to know that she even had contact with him.

For the rest of the time as Harry spoke with Sirius, Attuoria sat there with her lips pressed together. She was waiting to see if Sirius would say or do anything to reveal his suspicions about her. After all, he wanted her to stay away from Harry. But Sirius's head disappeared without mentioning anything more about her.

Attuoria let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in. If Sirius had said anything, she knew she would've lost all her friends. Unlike what happened with the rumour, this time she wouldn't be able to get their trust again.

"Attuoria? Are you okay?" Hermione's voice brought her out of thoughts. "You look very nervous."

"Nervous?" said Attuoria, bringing her hands up to wipe off a bead of sweat that she didn't know had slid down her forehead.

"Have you never been nervous before?" asked Ron.

Attuoria shook her head.

"Sirius can be quite straightforward, if not blunt, sometimes." said Harry. "But he means well. I know there's the whole 'mass murderer' rumour going around about him, but it's fake. I'm sure Hermione told you the whole story involving Peter Pettigrew?"

Attuoria nodded slowly, recalling what Hermione had told her about their third-year. Apparently a man named Peter Pettigrew had framed Sirius Black for a mass murder. The name Peter Pettigrew sounded familiar to her. She was positive there was a man named Pettigrew amongst the Death Eaters, but she wasn't sure of his first name. If anything, they were probably the same person, because Death Eaters were known for ruthlessly commiting mass homicides.

"Yeah, so you don't have to be nervous around him. He's really nice."

"Right, of course." She supposed he was right. Even if Sirius Black didn't trust her, at least he didn't flat out call her out in front of her friends. One word from him and it would've been game over. Attuoria was thankful for his silence. Plus, his thoughts were a form of warning to her: she needed to be more cautious.

But she couldn't stop thinking about what he said. "Dumbledore said we should be welcoming to her, even involve her in our plans,"

Dumbledore wanted her to feel welcome? Welcome to what? Who's "we"? If Sirius was suspicious about her working with Voldemort, then Dumbledore would most definitely have made his guesses. But why would he want them to involve her in their plans? Did they think she would choose them over Voldemort?

Well to be fair, it's not that she liked Voldemort any more than anyone else, but she made a deal with him. A deal is a deal. She will only "betray" Voldemort once their deal is complete, and technically she wouldn't be betraying him at all. She never pledged her allegiance to him. She only agreed to help him out with anything he needed help with.

Attuoria couldn't see how she was a threat to Harry and her friends. If she was reporting every detail of Harry's life to Voldemort, then yes, she would understand why Sirius wanted her to stay away. But she wasn't. She hadn't even heard from Voldemort in almost a month. The last time she spoke to him was their last meeting before she went to Hogwarts.

During that meeting, they had talked about retrieving a prophecy. The Death Eaters gave suggestions, and Attuoria kept quiet. She only ever spoke in meetings if Voldemort directly asked her to speak. After all, the Death Eaters were his true followers. She was only an allied force, similar to the dementors.

In fact, the only time she did speak in a meeting was when Voldemort asked her about the dementors. He asked if she was okay to communicate with the dementors the day before they broke his follower out of the prison. The only thing she said was yes.

To be honest, neither of them were making the best out of their deal. Attuoria hadn't gotten much of her deal from Voldemort, and Voldemort was barely asking her for help at all.

That night, Attuoria lay in bed thinking about how she felt when she was nervous. She didn't like it. She almost felt guilty that she was hiding a very big secret from her friends. But at the same time, so where they. The three of them shared something secretive with Sirius that they weren't allowed to tell her. And since both sides had secrets the other didn't know about, it was fair.

At least that's what she reassured herself.

***

The next day, the Daily Prophet announced that Professor Umbridge was now the Hogwarts High Inquisitor. Attuoria didn't quite understand why it made Harry, Ron and Hermione so angry, but she didn't like the idea of Umbridge having power within the school, either. The next week of classes were normal except for the fact that Umbridge showed up to quite a few of them, standing off to the side making notes on her clipboard and asking the Professors questions.

Harry landed himself in another week of detention after making yet another remark about Voldemort during Umbridge's lesson. As much as Attuoria admired his spirit, she agreed with Hermione and Ron that he needed to keep his mouth shut sometimes. The back of Harry's hand got redder and redder each day, the words "I must not tell lies" becoming more visible on his skin.

"Please stop getting yourself in trouble with that Umbridge woman," said Attuoria when Harry returned to the common room after detention. It was already midnight. His hand was bleeding so badly that the scarf he had used as a makeshift bandage was turning red. Harry sat down next to a table, and Hermione pushed a bowl of yellow liquid towards him.

"Here, soak your hand in that. It's a solution of strained and pickled Murtlap tentacles, it should help." Hermione said. Attuoria brought the bowl over to Harry and gingerly picked up his hand.

"I can do it -"

"No." Attuoria said firmly. "I don't like seeing you hurt. Your body doesn't deserve this." She pulled the scarf away from his hand slowly, observing the scars on the back of his hand. They were just cuts, but it made her feel so angry knowing that Umbridge was doing this to him on purpose. To try and teach him a lesson. Lessons are taught, not forced. Physical pain was in no way connected to the way one's mind works, so Umbridge's detentions were utterly useless. She was just trying to torture him.

"How can she do this? Is she even human? I thought humans called themselves humane for a reason." Attuoria picked up Hermione's handkerchief and dipped it in the yellow liquid. She brushed it against the back of Harry's hand, wiping the blood off.

"If there's something you need to know about humans, Attuoria, it's that not everyone has good intentions." Harry said darkly.

"You would know that by now, wouldn't you?" said Ron. "You knew what Quirrell was up to that time. He didn't have any good intentions."

"I was suspicious of him, but I never made any judgement about whether or not his intentions were good or bad. I just knew he was up to something."

"Well now you know he was trying to bring back You-Know-Who."

"But you can't technically categorise that as a bad intention, can you? He was doing what he thought was right and good, and in that case, it was bringing Voldemort back. Umbridge, on the other hand, is doing this to Harry just to torture him and cause him pain."

"Yeah Harry, I still reckon you should complain about this. Tell McGonagall, she would go nuts if she -"

"No." Harry said flatly. "How long do you think it'll take for Umbridge to pass another decree saying anyone who complains about the High Inquisitor gets sacked immediately?"

Ron didn't say anything more.

Once Attuoria had finished wiping all the excess blood off Harry's hand, she gently placed his hand into the bowl of Murtlap liquid.

"I'm going to go wash this upstairs," said Attuoria, holding up the bloodied handkerchief. "I'll be back."

She quickly ran up to the dorms, where Lavender and Parvati were still up gossiping about something. Attuoria gave them a nod when she saw them, and was about to leave when Lavender called her back.

"Did you really go on a date with Draco Malfoy?" asked Lavender, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"No."

"Really?" Lavender didn't seem to believe her. "You must find him good-looking though, don't you?"

"I'm sorry?" Attuoria was a little taken aback.

Lavender rolled her eyes. "I asked if you think he's good-looking."

Good-looking? Draco Malfoy? She thought of his slicked-back blonde hair, high cheekbones, sharp jawline, and grey eyes. Was he good-looking? She wasn't too sure of the beauty standards for humans. But Draco was definitely much more pleasing to look at than Crabbe and Goyle, who literally reminded her of the troll she saw during her first-year.

"Uhh, I guess so?" Attuoria said hesitantly.

"Hm." Lavender let out a huff and exchanged glances with Parvati.

"You guys look good together." said Parvati.

"Who?"

"You and Draco Malfoy, dummy." Lavender giggled. "It's just too bad his personality isn't great."

"His personality is fine." said Attuoria, surprised at how defensive she sounded. She wasn't protecting him or anything. She was just telling the truth. Draco was a kind person at heart, he just didn't quite know how to show it.

Lavender and Parvati laughed. "You clearly like him," said Parvati. "So why are you going out with Fred Weasley?"

Attuoria had reached a new level of confusion. What is this whole "you look good together" and "you like him" and "you're going out with him" thing? What are they even trying to say?

"I like Fred, too," she said with a frown. Can't she like both Fred and Draco? She likes George, too, and Harry, and Ron. What was the big deal?

"Oh so you're two-timing?"

"You know what," said Attuoria, her eyebrows furrowed. "I need to go. Harry, Ron and Hermione are still waiting for me downstairs." She rushed out of the dorm before Lavender and Parvati could ask her another confusing question.

Once she got back into the common room, she immediately noticed the smashed bowl on the ground by the table. The three looked rather awkward, sitting there.

"What took you so long?" asked Ron. Attuoria handed Hermione her handkerchief and sat down on the chair next to Harry.

"Lavender and Parvati were asking me some weird questions," Attuoria waved it off. "What'd you do with the Murtlap solution?"

"Er, about that," said Hermione, glancing at Harry. Harry stared down at the shattered bowl.

"Since Umbridge isn't teaching us any proper Defense Against the Dark Arts, I asked Harry if he would, I don't know, teach us."

"That's not a bad idea," said Attuoria. Hermione's eyes lit up. "It's also one way to get back at that nasty woman."

"Exactly!" said Hermione. "But it's tough, putting this all on Harry. He doesn't, you don't, um -"

"Get straight to the point, Hermione." Ron groaned.

"Right, sorry. I was just wondering how you would feel about teaching us Defence Against the Dark Arts with Harry." Hermione looked at her hopefully.

"Me? I mean, I get why Harry, he's fought a bunch of things and probably knows how to defend himself, but me? I haven't even taken a full year of Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Let's be honest, Attuoria, you probably know more spells than all of us combined." said Ron. "How you even flew without a broomstick is beyond my -"

"YOU FLEW WITHOUT A BROOMSTICK!?" Hermione and Harry yelled simultaneously. Harry's arms flew up as he swerved around to look at Attuoria.

"That's impossible. Even Dumbledore can't fly without a broomstick." said Hermione.

"Is that how you trained Ron for quidditch?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, that's what she did." said Ron. "But figures, right? She's some weird Nightmare Demon creature. If she can read our minds then I guess we shouldn't be too surprised that she can fly, too."

"So what do you say" asked Hermione.

Attuoria pressed her lips together and shrugged. She couldn't tell them that she learnt it from Voldemort. She couldn't tell them that she had learned a whole bunch of curses, jinxes, and hexes from the Dark Lord himself.

"I'd feel a lot better if you were by my side doing this, honestly." said Harry.

If it makes Harry feel better, then she supposed she would help him.

"Alright then. But mind you, I'm not a very good teacher." said Attuoria, thinking of the time Dean Thomas tried to ask her for help but she did absolutely nothing to help him.

"It's always worth a try."

She's been hearing that phrase a lot, lately.

"Alright, I'm heading to bed. Er, goodnight." said Hermione as casually as she could. Attuoria stood up as well. "Goodnight, guys."

"'Night." Harry and Ron gave them an awkward wave, and the two girls went upstairs. Thankfully, Lavender and Parvati were already asleep, so Attuoria didn't have to deal with any of their weird questions again.