Chapter 7

Among the myriad of Dark Creatures in the world, none are as foul as the dementor. Their origins are unknown, though it is speculated that they form in places of great suffering, though it is equally likely that it is the other way around and that it is their presence that makes a place miserable. There are records of their presence in other locales around Europe, but Azkaban is the only place that one may reliably find a dementor in recent times.

Several Dark Lords have been able to rally them to their cause over the centuries. Many a Dark Wizard has also lost their soul in the attempt, making any attempted alliance with them a dangerous undertaking.

Classified as a Non-Being, the dementor is not truly alive and thus cannot truly die. The Patronus Charm is the only spell known to have any effect on them and it is also by means of this spell that the British Ministry of Magic keeps control of the creatures. Though even the strongest Patroni will not destroy a dementor, it appears to cause them enough discomfort or even what passes for pain that they can be threatened with it.

The exact level of intelligence possesed by dementors is unknown, but is presumed to be fairly close to sapience, as they are able to understand speech and recognize certain individuals.

Harry closed the book and stared at it thoughtfully. It had contained far less information on dementors than he'd hoped, but the mention of the Patronus Charm was certainly useful. He would make it his business to learn that particular spell as soon as possible.

Being helpless as the soul sucking abomination advanced on him was not an experience he cared to repeat.

Unfortunately, the book offered no hints as to why it had targeted him in particular. There was a chance that he, Ginny and Luna simply had more traumatic pasts that the other students, but there was no way to verify that short of interrogating all of Hogwarts and there was no guarantee that it was even the reason for the dementor's keen interest in him.

The entire incident had also raised several other questions in his mind that he would now very much like to have answered.

What was a soul? How was it connected to his magic? Why had the dementor's presence frozen his magic? What was the Dark?

Unsettling as the near death experience had been, it had also posed so many fascinating questions about magic and revealed truths that he had previously scoffed at. He now knew with absolute certainty that there was indeed something Dark about magic, which likely meant that there was also Light. He still strongly doubted the popular interpretation of it, but he could no longer discount the entire concept.

His own experiences with the capricious nature of his runes made him equally wary of both. For all that people liked to equate good with Light and Dark with evil, Harry suspected that neither was particularly benign when meddled with.

Harry observed Lupin carefully as the man lectured the class on the subject of boggarts, wondering what to make of him.

According to Charlus and Dorea, Lupin had been a dear friend of his parents, but a few things simply did not add up.

He had no memories of him ever being over for a visit before Voldemort had attacked the Potter home, unlike Sirius and Pettigrew. Furthermore, unlike those two, Lupin had been neither imprisoned nor dead, and yet he had never come to check on the son of his dead friends.

Even assuming that he hadn't known where Harry was, it had been two years now since his return to the Wizarding World. Surely the man could have dropped by? Stranger still, he hadn't even attempted to approach Harry since the school year had begun. The whole dementor thing would have been a perfect excuse, but Lupin seemed content to pretend that Harry was just another student to him.

All around strange behavior for someone that was supposed to have been a very close friend of his parents.

"Who wants to go first?"

The question knocked Harry out of his thoughts as the class formed a line in a sort of ordered chaos.

Most of his classmates had understandable fears, that being all sorts of monsters. There was one Hufflepuff girl whose name Harry couldn't recall that had a giant carnivorous tomato for some bizzare reason though.

Everyone was generally able to turn their fear into something funny and laugh at the transformed boggart, which got Harry to thinking again.

He'd come across the boggart while researching dementors a few days ago and had been puzzled. It was a Non-Being just like the soul sucking monsters currently haunting every entrance into Hogwarts, but a decidedly more benign one. Little more than a pest really, as the only conceivable way for a boggart to actually hurt someone was through shock induced heart attack or maybe scaring someone off a ledge.

Yet for all of that, Harry could still feel a little piece of Dark from the shape shifter. It was tiny in comparison to the dementor on the train, but it was definitely there. Fascinating.

He knew what he would see once his turn came up. Aside from a few memorable occasions of nearly traumatising himself with a horror themed video game back when he'd been nine, there was only one thing that came to mind when he thought of his fears.

The boggart transformed into a perfect copy of the dementor from the train, but it was not nearly as frightening. It could change its form all it wanted, but it could not replicate the same sense of Dark. He wasn't afraid of the dementor's outer sppearance so much as he was of what it represented, which was not something that could be faked.

He was shocked however, when he began to feel a familiar misery seep into his mind, ignoring Aul'El and his Occlumency like they were nothing just like the dementor had done. Similarly, he felt a weak chill in his runes and a more intangible chill in his magic. It wasn't even close to being as powerful, but the mere fact that it could replicate even a tiny speck of a true dementor's power implied all sorts of interesting things.

Lupin jumped in front of him then, perhaps mistaking his surprised staring at the boggart for paralyzing fear.

The boggart instantly transformed into the silvery sphere of a full moon, which Lupin quickly turned into a balloon and sent fluttering away.

What a strange thing to be afraid of.

Remus sighed heavily once the third year Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff class left the room, taking with it the son of his friends.

He had no idea what to do about Harry.

He had never seen the boy as a baby, they had already started pushing him away by then, suspecting him of being a spy for Voldemort.

He understood their reasoning. He was a werewolf and werewolves had been Voldemort's allies during the war. The Ministry and its oppressive werewolf legislation made sure of that, though Fenrir Greyback would have undoubtedly allied with him either way. It didn't make the experience any less bitter for Remus though, who would have died for his friends in a heartbeat.

James, Sirius, Peter and later Lily had been the closest thing to pack that non-werewolves could be, and they had cast him out. For all that Remus tried his hardest to suppress and deny the beast within, he could not do it completely. From that place inside his soul where the wolf resided most of the time, it had howled its grief and fury at being so betrayed.

When Harry was born, Remus had been in Germany, ostensibly speaking to the werewolves there about a possible alliance with the Order of the Phoenix or at least staying neutral. In retrospect it had been to get him away from Britain and any possible information that he could have passed on to Voldemort.

When James and Lily had been killed a year later, he'd still been in Germany, though he had long since stopped talking to the werewolves there. He'd grown rather bitter and resentful of the suspicion everyone had of him and decided to simply not go back to Britain if that's how they were going to be. Their deaths, Peter's death and Sirius' betrayal had hit him hard despite the gulf that had grown between them and he'd never mustered the will to go back.

Then came Dumbledore's letter, asking him to teach DADA in Hogwarts. It was a job that he'd never dreamed he'd be able to have with his condition, but he had still been hesitant to return to Britain. The werewolf laws in Germany were better than in Britain. Not by much, but enough that he had been able to keep a job. Not a great or enjoyable job, but a job that allowed him to eat and have a roof over his head.

But he owed Dumbledore a lot and he had always wanted to teach, so he had come back despite his misgivings and now he was faced with Lily's eyes looking out from James' face, both of them too old to belong on a thirteen year old.

Dumbledore had been stingy on the details of Harry's life when questioned, which Remus figured was a ploy to make him actually talk to the boy himself.

But it was so hard. What was he supposed to say to the son of the people who had been like family to him? Family that had cast him out, but who he had still loved.

Dinner time in the Great Hall.

"Hey, Potter! I heard you nearly wet yourself in front of a boggart yesterday."

Harry sighed at the continued idiocy of one Draco Malfoy. The blond Slytherin hadn't stopped trying to mock him over the dementor incident on the train since the start of term and had apparently gotten a second wind upon hearing that his boggart was also a dementor.

"I'd like to see what you'd be like in front of a dementor, Malfoy!" Ginny retorted angrily, face beginning to flush with the well known temper of redheads everywhere. "From what Fred and George told me, you ran into their compartment and all but begged them to protect you from it on the train."

"Shut your mouth, Weaslette!" Malfoy shouted at her, his own pale face developing a few blotches of red.

"Excellent comeback, Malfoy. That sure proved her wrong." Harry said dryly, finding the blond idiot's taunts tiresome at best. The whole experience had gotten so repetitive that not even his runes could be bothered to prickle. It was kind of like constantly being bothered by a yippy little dog.

Malfoy's anger swelled further at the dismissive tone. He loathed being brushed off and that was exactly what Potter had been doing ever since first year, treating him like he didn't even matter. Aside from that one incident at the start of second year when he'd thrown a goblet at his face that was.

"It's too bad the dementor didn't Kiss all three of you and remove some of the filth from the world." He snarled furiously.

There was a series of gasps from the Ravenclaws around them, shocked that he would say something like that.

Harry was unphased though, having been exposed to the internet for years and having many an angry twelve year old threaten to fuck his mother or worse. The fact that he had been ten at the time only served to make him feel more mature than his age warranted.

"I could say the same about you and your pet apes, but I won't. But I could."

Draco managed to look even more constipated at Harry's lack of reaction and opened his mouth to say something else when he was beaten to the punch.

During this entire time, Luna had been focusing on her food to the exclusion of all else, but now that her mashed potatoes were shaped like a castle with a little gravy moat, the conversation going on around her finally penetrated her focus.

"Draco? When did you get here?"

Her polite question had the Malfoy scion spluttering in pure rage, believing that he was being mocked by the crazy second year, who was clearly acting like he was so unimportant as to be beneath her notice.

An understandable assumption, but completely wrong. Luna had simply been putting a lot of effort into her potato castle.

The perceived insult had him reaching for his wand, though he wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do with it yet.

"Malfoy!" A different female voice cut into the action. "Ten points from Slytherin and detention for drawing your wand on another student."

"How dare you?!" Draco yelled at her at the top of his lungs, outraged well past the point of reason. The nerve of the mudblood to give him a detention!

"I quite agree with Ms. Clearwater, Mr. Malfoy." Flitwick chimed in from where he'd approached behind the Slytherin. "Drawing a wand on another student outside of a classroom and without the supervision of a professor is a serious offense."

"When my father hears about this….." Draco seethed, putting his wand away and stomping off.

Harry shook his head in disbelief at the antics of the blond idiot. If there was anything that proved that the Sorting Hat could be convinced to sort according to a student's wishes, it was Malfoy's placement in Slytherin. The boy was clearly a Gryffindor.

He raised his goblet of water towards Penny in a mocking sort of toast for helping to get rid of the pest, exchanging amused smiles with her. No doubt the muggleborn Head Girl had taken her own measure of enjoyment in smacking down the uppity pureblood.

His eyes went further up the table towards the seventh year girl that she had warned him about, seeing her already looking at him. Deciding to be a bit adventurous, he winked at her.

Bryanna's eyebrows shot up in surprise before a smirk stretched across her face. This might be easier than she'd thought.

"Did you just wink at that seventh year?" Ginny demanded in a harsh whisper.

"So what if I did?" He asked back, not liking her tone. If Bryanna was going to do what he suspected she was going to do, then he fully intended to take advantage of the situation and shag her silly. If Ginny couldn't deal with that, then they were going to have a problem.

Taken aback by the confrontational response, Ginny quickly backpedaled. "Uh, nothing… I just, uh, wanted to know why."

That had to be the worst lie that Harry had ever heard, but he didn't call her out on it. He wasn't interested in dealing with Ginny's crush on him and felt more certain that he would never feel the same with every day. She just felt too much like a kid to him for that, even if he was only a year older than her. His accelerated growth was making a mess of his personal relationships, making him too old in physical maturity to fit in with his peers but too young in years to fit in with those older than him. He was doing his best to ignore that bit of discomfort since he knew that there was nothing he could do about it, but he was poignantly aware of it. The last time that he'd felt truly comfortable around another person had been with Zoe, which said a lot about the situation considering their arrangement.

"I just felt like it." He told her, his tone making it clear that the subject was closed.

The redhead went into a sulky silence and started pushing around the food on her plate, appetite gone at being shut down like that.

Luna stared at Harry and started blinking furously.

"Luna, what are you doing?" He asked, looking at her strangely.

"I'm winking at you because I feel like it." She replied, still blinking furiously.

"That's blinking, not winking." He informed her.

"No Harry, it's definitely winking." She insisted.

"Winking is only done with one eye." He reasoned.

"This is double winking."

A laugh burbled up Harry's throat at the ridiculosuness of it all, leaving him chuckling into his goblet for quite a while, made worse by the fact that Luna was still double winking at him like she had something to prove.

"Don't ever change, Luna. Don't ever change." He told her, still chuckling. Whether she had done it on purpose or not, the slightly irritable mood that Ginny had put him in was gone now.

There were two spells that Harry felt he needed to learn as soon as possible.

The first was the standard contraceptive charm that prevented pregnancy, because of the high chance of getting laid. It had once seen some fairly widespread use, but had since been phased out in favor of a potion that needed to be taken once a month.

Both had to be applied to the woman, which presented something of a problem for Harry. He would have honestly preferred a spell or potion that would simply make him infertile for a while, but it apparently didn't exist. Not that he would trust a potion to work on him with his most recent set of runes, but it was the principle of the thing.

He was incredibly grateful for the fact that Zoe had insisted on a condom despite being on the pill. The possibility of getting a girl pregnant at his age made him queasy just thinking about it. He was nowhere near ready to be a father.

He was probably just overthinking it, as both the spell and potion were highly reliable, but he still would have liked to have the extra security.

The second was the Patronus, the reason for which was obvious. The dementors floating around the castle made him nervous.

It was a rather interesting spell with the way it needed to be charged with a happy emotion and there was an extra tidbit of knowledge on the dementors in the description as well.

Apparently, the reason why the Patronus was effective against them was because it was a purely positive force that couldn't feel despair. It was anathema to them. The book didn't explain how a Patronus avoided falling prey to the dementor's ability to nullify other spells, but Harry figured that there was something about the emotion charged into it that blocked that ability.

It was also a very difficult spell because it took some seriously powerful happy thoughts to form it properly. This was a problem, because Harry couldn't think of anything like that off the top of his head. His life was comfortable and pleasant aside from a few irritants like Malfoy, Snape and his foster parents, but it had no outstanding moments of happiness either.

The happiest thing he could think of on short notice was the time he'd spent with Zoe, but he somehow doubted that the memory of a fun day and the physical pleasure that followed would cut it. Still worth a try, but Harry wasn't holding his breath on it.

"That's some pretty advanced magic you're studying."

Harry jumped slightly at the unexpected voice, having been so deeply absorbed in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed anyone coming up behind him.

"Sorry if I scared you, I just couldn't help noticing that you were studying the Patronus Charm." Bryanna said with a smile, taking a seat next to him. "Dementors making you nervous?"

"You could say that." Harry replied, wondering what her angle was. Coming up to him and starting up a conversation like this was more than a bit odd considering their lack of previous interaction, but he was willing to play along with it for now.

"Me too, I can't believe that Fudge thinks posting those monsters around a school is a good idea." Bryanna commented.

"He must be pretty worried about Black." Harry responded noncommittally. Everything he'd heard about the current Minister of Magic made him out to be something of a buffoon, but he wasn't going to share that opinion just yet.

"I'm surprised that you aren't."

"I've got a feeling that I'm in a lot more danger from the dementors than from Black." He said wryly.

"You're probably right about that." Bryanna agreed. "Any luck learning the Patronus?"

"I haven't gotten around to attempting it yet." Harry told her honestly.

"Want to give it a try together?" She asked with a smile. "Hogwarts doesn't teach that spell and I'd like to know it just in case."

Harry looked at her speculatively for a few seconds, wondering if she was seriously intending to act like this conversation had happened by mere chance. Eventually he just shrugged and agreed to her suggestion. She seemed smart and her desire to learn the Patronus was probably genuine even if she was using it as a pretense to get close to him, so having her along might help with learning the spell at least with the aid of a wand.

" Expecto Patronum! "

The problem, Harry decided, was definitely mustering together enough happiness on demand to cast the spell.

" Expecto Patronum! "

Not to mention that the book had not been particularly heavy on the details. Was the type of happiness important? Could a sadist conjure a Patronus by thinking of all the people he'd tortured?

" EXPECTO PATRONUM! "

It seemed unlikely that such a twisted form of happiness would work. This consequently meant that the source of that happiness had to be an important component. Following that train of logic, there surely had to be one or more specific types of happy memories that would work better than others.

"You know, learning the spell might work better if you actually tried to cast it ." Bryanna said peevishly.

"I like to think about what I'm doing before waving my wand around." Harry said back, not really sparing the older Ravenclaw too much attention, making her huff.

A properly cast Patronus called a spectral guardian into existence, so it was probable that thoughts of safety would work best.

" Expecto Patronum! "

But safety wasn't in and of itself a happy thought. Perhaps thoughts of protection? A strong guardian standing between the caster and the world, someone held close, loved and respected.

" Expecto Patronum! "

That could be a problem if it was the case. Harry couldn't think of a single adult, or indeed anyone at all, that he would trust to protect him.

"It's not working." Bryanna said in a not-quite whine, clearly frustrated.

Well of course it wasn't. Judging by the frequency of her attempts, she was probably cycling through her memories and hoping to pick the right one by accident, or perhaps she was trying to somehow force the spell into working through sheer repetition. That kind of approach was the province of meatheaded warriors swinging around giant shafts of sharpened steel, not mages. Her frustration at the lack of success had turned into the reason for the lack of success.

Weren't Ravenclaws supposed to be thoughtful intellectuals that considered things carefully before acting? I guess you can't rely on stereotypes all the time.

Deciding to finally give the spell a try, Harry stopped pacing the room and drew his wand.

With a deep breath he focused on the most memorable event in his life where he'd felt like an adult could protect him. Ironically, it was a memory that the dementors seemed to enjoy bringing to mind when in his presence, that being the death of his mother at the hands of Voldemort.

Not a particularly cheerful thought, but learning of the lengths that his mother had gone to in order to protect him did bring him a measure of happiness. Deliberately setting yourself up as a sacrifice to protect someone else was the most powerful demonstration of love there was.

A silvery mist left his wand, hovering in the air for a moment before dissipating.

Bryanna stared at him in disbelief.

"How in Merlin's name did you do that? You've spent the past hour just pacing around the room and then you manage to get some results on the first try without even saying the incantation."

"Calm down, take your time and think of a memory where you feel safe and protected, then concentrate on channeling that feeling into the spell." Harry advised.

Bryanna looked dubious, but did as she was told nonetheless.

" Expecto Patronum! "

A familiar silvery mist left her wand.

"I did it!" She exclaimed happily, jumping to give him a hug.

Harry noticed that she had rather strategically shoved his face into her breasts. They were very nice breasts, a little bigger than Zoe's if he wasn't mistaken. He felt his body respond and his runes tingle, but controlled it tightly.

"Congratulations." He told her once she let go, idly wondering how much of her current behavior was an act designed to sucker a naïve thirteen year old into developing a crush on her. She was acting somewhat differently than how Penny had described her.

"Thanks, now why don't you try it again, this time with the incantation."

"No."

"Why not?" She almost demanded. "If you were able to get a mist out without one, then you're bound to have more success if you try casting it properly."

"I'd rather put in a little extra effort to learn it silently than shout gibberish into the air." He replied dryly.

"I don't understand you at all, it's like you enjoy making things harder on yourself." She said in exasperation.

Harry wondered what she'd think of the fact that he wouldn't even be bothering with a wand if she wasn't here. She might not understand why he wanted to do things the hard way, but he didn't understand why everyone else wanted to cripple themselves by relying on their wands so much.

"Maybe I just like the challenge?" He offered with a small grin.

Bryanna looked at him oddly for a moment and then let out an amused chuckle.

"We've been here for a while, you want to get something to eat?" She asked with a brilliant smile.

Harry's stomach gurgled in agreement with the idea. It had been nearly two hours since the last time he'd eaten.

"….and that's when I learned that combining Arithmancy and Divination doesn't really let you accurately predict the future, especially if Divination is taught by a drunken fraud like Trelawney." Bryanna finished.

Harry hummed in agreement around a mouthful of particularly juicy carrot.

Ginny glared sullenly at the older girl, resenting her presence with the fiery wrath of an insecure preteen who was sure that the pretty seventh year was trying to catch Harry's interest and doing a far better job than she ever had.

"Are you going to put your penis in her vagina, Harry?" Luna asked dreamily.

Harry spat out the half-masticated carrot in surprise.

"What?" He croaked out.

"That's what Ginny's nargles are screaming at me."

"Well, Harry? Answer the girl, are you going to put your penis in my va~gi~na?" Bryanna sing-songed with a salacious smirk, having recovered from her surprise the fastest. The little blonde friend of Harry's was quite the character.

Though caught off guard by the bold question, Harry gamely ignored the heat creeping up his neck and looked her in the eye.

"Anything is possible."

"Truer words have never been spoken." Luna agreed, thinking of all the snorkacks that were just waiting to be discovered.

Ginny rose to her feet in a single violent motion and stomped off.

"What's her problem?" Bryanna asked, knowing perfectly well what the redhead's problem was.

"She might still be upset about not having any boobies for Harry to look at." Luna hazarded a guess.

Harry let out a weak chuckle. He had a feeling that this was going to be the event that ended the friendship between him and Ginny. He'd found the redhead annoying at times, but she had become a friend. He wasn't going to change his behavior to appease her though. It wasn't like he owed her anything and this stupid crush of hers was really the thing that bothered him the most about her. She could either get over it or sulk about it, but it would be entirely on her.

Harry sighed despondently in his Ancient Runes class. It was just so boring . He'd already learned all of this on his own back in first year.

An unfair thought perhaps, since the class was no doubt pretty challenging to everyone who didn't have a two year head start, but that didn't chage the fact that he was just wasting his time here. He'd had the same problem in Artihmancy, except worse since he'd needed to study that one even more in depth for his rituals.

"Mr. Potter, stay behind please." Professor Babbling said when the class was over.

Malfoy threw him a mocking look on his way out, which Harry ignored. The blond ponce currently had his arm bandaged as if he'd been grievously injured by that hippogriff in his Care of Magical Creatures class, but everyone knew that he was faking it. Well, Parkinson seemed to be buying it and Malfoy's two pet goons probably didn't have enough brain cells between them to see it, but everyone with any sense knew that he was faking it.

According to Luna, who had heard it from Ginny, who had heard it from Ron, he was playing up the injury to make the hippogriff in question, Buckbeak, look more like a vicious monster than it actually was and get it executed. The ponce had apparently ignored Hagrid's instructions and provoked it and was now looking to get it killed in a spectacular example of pettiness. Malfoy truly did live up to the spoiled rich brat stereotype.

"I've noticed that you don't seem to be paying attention during class." Babbling commented once they were alone.

"I'm sorry, Professor. It's just that….." Harry started, not sure how to word it.

"You already know the subject matter." She finished for him.

"Yeah." He said with a nod.

"I thought this might happen." She said, rubbing her forehead in consternation. "Professor Vector tells me that it's the same with her?"

Harry simply nodded in confirmation.

This presented a problem for both Bathsheda and Septima. Both of them were rather fond of Harry, who they had gotten to know from his occasional visits over the past two years. Both of them had also been looking forward to having him in their class, but it served nobody if his time was being wasted going over things that he already knew. It wasn't often that a student came around who wanted to study ahead and they didn't want him to start resenting the time he spent in their class simply because he was too far ahead to benefit from it.

"If the opportunity were made available to you, would you want to stop attending Ancient Runes and Arithmancy and replace it with private tutoring from myself and Professor Vector?" She asked.

Harry's eyes widened at the offer. Private tutoring would allow him to accomplish more in less time, work at his preferred pace instead of the one set for a class of wildly different ability and actually make progress instead of waiting for everyone else to catch up to him.

"That would be perfect."

It was kind of funny actually. He'd never been this studious before coming to Hogwarts. But then again, he hadn't been learning magic back then either.

"I will need to speak to the Headmaster about this arrangement, but I don't foresee any problems." Bathsheda said, feeling that she'd made the right decision by making him this offer.

It would give both her and Septima some extra work, but they felt that it was worth it. Neither of their classes often got a student that seemed to have a genuine passion for their respective subjects and they were terribly reluctant to slow him down to the pace of the others.

"Harry, could I talk to you in private for a moment?" Ginny asked awkwardly.

Harry was somewhat surprised that the redhead had actually approached him. She'd been avoiding contact with him for a couple of weeks now, ever since that one time that Bryanna had joined them for lunch.

He knew that Luna had tried to play mediator and get Ginny out of whatever funk she'd worked herself into, but there hadn't been any apparent success.

"Alright." He said with a shrug and followed her to an out of the way room that looked like it hadn't been used in forever.

"I've been talking to some people…." Ginny started, her voice full of conviction. "Harry, that seventh year is just trying to get her hands on your money or take advantage of your fame."

Harry stared at her incredulously for a few moments and then started laughing.

"She is!" Ginny near yelled. "Just think about it. Why would a girl that old suddenly start spending time with you?"

"Ginny, I know." He said, still chuckling.

"You know?!" She blurted out incredulously. "Then why are you still hanging around her?"

"I'm waiting to see how far she's willing to go." He told her honestly.

She stared at him uncomprehendingly for a while before it dawned on her what he meant.

"You're just going along with it because you want to see her naked?!"

"Oh, I'm hoping she goes a lot further than that." Harry replied, a smirk pulling at his lips.

Ginny stared at him some more, then started to look almost heartbroken.

"What happened to you, Harry?" She asked sadly. "You didn't used to be like this."

"I believe the technical term is 'puberty'." Harry grumbled sarcastically. Why were people in the Wizarding World so surprised that he wasn't some kind of saint? Oh right, because of those fucking Harry Potter books. Even after knowing him for a year now, Ginny still occasionally made assumptions about his personality based on those. The fact that he was making money off them now was their only redeeming quality.

"Look, I know that you have a crush on me." He started, ignoring the way her face flushed at having it openly stated like that. He'd ignored it the previous year in the hope that she'd get over it herself, but enough was enough. "But nothing is ever going to come of it. I don't like you that way and I never will."

"Why not?" Ginny demanded, looking simultaneously angry and upset. "Is it because my boobs aren't big enough for the great Harry Potter?"

"Essentially, yes." He said bluntly, deciding to ignore her almost Malfoy-esque insult. "You're just a kid."

"I'm only a year younger than you!" She screeched in outrage, reminding Harry poignantly of the time that her mother had sent a howler to Fred and George.

"I like older women." He retorted.

This gained him another outraged scream, though this time it was wordless and accompanied by an angry exit, complete with door slam.

Harry sighed in the empty room, wondering how this was going to play out. At least that silly crush was probably dead and buried now, Mystra be praised.

"So, how goes Project Potter?"

Bryanna looked back at the Slytherin seventh year who had asked the question, seeing the same curiousity in the eyes of the other two as well.

Aside from her, the group consisted of Slytherin Tiana Day, Gryffindor Jade Dawson and fellow Ravenclaw Isabel Morris.

Aside from the two Ravenclaws, they had only become friendly with each other the previous year when they began contemplating the future and finding it lacking. Inter-house rivalries had suddenly started looking petty when faced with the fact that school was coming to a close and the uncertain future that lay beyond it.

None of them had liked the conclusions they'd come to about their likely futures, from which their current plan, jokingly called 'Project Potter', had come together.

"Honestly, not as well as I'd hoped." Bryanna admitted with a sigh. "He's not the bumbling boy I expected him to be, not even close. He's still young, but he must have some prior experience with women. He's too self assured around me not to."

The other girls looked both thoughtful and disgruntled by that, no doubt thinking who that experience could have been with.

"So you're saying that someone already got to him last year?" Tiana asked with a frown.

"I don't know, maybe. Either way, I don't think I'll be able to sucker him into falling for me."

"We could slip him some Amortentia." Jade suggested.

"Don't be ridiculous." The Slytherin girl snapped, continuing with a sneer that was aimed more at the situation than at the Gryffindor girl. "If it gets out that a bunch of 'commoners' dosed the Heir of a Noble House with a love potion they'll feed us to the dementors."

Left unsaid was the fact that if it happened the other way around, it would have merited a slap on the wrist at best.

"It's too bad that Clearwater wouldn't help us with this, she's been friendly with Potter since his first year." Isabel sighed.

"Clearwater's a muggleborn." Bryanna said dismissively.

"True."

They all had a muggleborn or second generation parent and had nothing against muggleborns, nor did they buy into the 'purity of magical blood' claptrap. The problem with muggleborns was that they didn't really grasp the situation in Wizarding Britain until after they left Hogwarts, by which time it was often too late. They had themselves heard it from their parents, but it hadn't truly sunk in until last year.

The old Noble Houses controlled pretty much everything; the government, the law, the money and the media. The Wizengamot was hereditary, which meant that the judicial branch of the government was also hereditary. It was in theory possible to climb the ranks in the Ministry regardless of blood status, but in practice you didn't get very far if you weren't 'the right sort' according to the purebloods that ran it or at least had a powerful patron. Not all of those Noble Houses were bigots, but there were enough of them to cause a lot of problems.

The real problem though, was money. The old Houses had it and everyone else…..didn't. Pureblood, halfblood or muggleborn, all of it was subordinate to the almighty galleon.

The Common Houses consisted of families that had been around for a few generations already, but couldn't really rise in status because the old traditionalists were doing their absolute best to keep the Wizarding World static, usually by maintaining a market monopoly and preventing any uppity Common Houses from getting as rich as them. The only simple way to actually manage a class jump was to marry into a Noble House and there weren't many Heirs that would look twice at a non-pureblood. Lily Evans had probably never quite understood what a lucky break in terms of personal status she'd caught with James Potter, though she hadn't lived long enough for it to really matter.

"Shag him." Tiana suddenly stated.

"What?" The rest of them blurted out in surprise. They were aware that it would likely progress to that point eventually, but this was a bit sudden.

"Shag him." The other girl repeated, keeping her eyes fixed on Bryanna. "If you can't manipulate your way into becoming the next Lady Potter then shagging him is the next best thing."

"I don't know, Tiana. That's a pretty extreme escalation and there's no guarantee that anything would come of it." Isabel said uncertainly.

"It's our last year here and he's the only one we can mess with safely. The only other Heirs we could try to cozy up to that wouldn't backfire on us are Longbotton and Bones. One is a nervous wreck and none of us have a cock to use on the other, not to mention that both Augusta Longbottom and Amelia Bones would destroy us if we moved on them. I'd do it myself, but I can't slip into his room at night since I'm not in Ravenclaw."

"Do you think it would work?" Bryanna asked thoughtfully.

"You can't seriously be thinking of doing this." Jade said incredulously.

"Tiana has a point, this is our last year and it is the best chance we'll ever have." Bryanna replied pensively.

"I think it's worth a try." Tiana interjected before any more protests to the idea could be offered. "If we wait for him to get out of Hogwarts, he'll have women throwing themselves at him left and right just because he's rich and famous, which means that we'd be just another couple of sluts looking to shag the Boy-Who-Lived. If this is going to work, we have to do it before that happens."

"That sounds a lot like whoring ourselves out." Isabel said distastefully.

"You wouldn't be the one doing it!" Tiana snapped peevishly. "You've already got a boyfriend and Jade still thinks she can get Wood to mount her without transfiguring herself into a broom-"

"Hey!" Jade protested indignantly.

"-, however unlikely that is, so she's not going to do it either. That leaves me and Bry and I'll tell you right now that I would much rather shag that boy in every single broom cupboard in this damned castle than end up like my mother, working as a low level clerk for a pureblood boss that keeps taking credit for everything she does but can barely even wipe her own arse without a house elf to help her."

Tiana took a deep breath to calm down after her rant and continued in a much calmer tone. "The fact is that wastes of space like Flint and that little shit Malfoy are going to have everything handed to them simply because inbreeding is popular in this pisshole of a country. Screwing Potter wouldn't be whoring so much as it would be….an investment into the future. Either me or Bry, or hell, even both of us if we can find somewhere out of Ravenclaw tower to do it, shag him nice and lazy, talk him into investing into our little business venture while he's still blissed out and promise him a small stake in our future profits. Everybody wins and all it takes is getting a little sticky with what is actually a pretty handsome thirteen year old. If we're lucky he might even get us off."

While Isabel and Jade flushed in embarrassment like the virgins they were, Bryanna stared back at her Slytherin friend, carefully considering her arguments.

"I'll introduce you to him during the first Hogsmeade weekend."

"Both of us then?"

"Might as well. Better safe than sorry."

"And we can finish each other off if he turns out to be a disappointment?"

"There is also that, yes."

"I'll wait for you in the Three Broomsticks."

"Good, now we just have to find a room with a bed."

"I'll ask the house elves if they know any."

Halloween.

"I can't believe he's going to Hogsmeade with that tramp." Ginny muttered resentfully.

"She has-" Luna started, only to get cut off by the irate redhead.

"Nice boobies. Yes, I know."

She'd kept her distance from Harry ever since their argument. She simply found it impossible to get around the fact that he was stringing the seventh year girl along on the off chance that she'd jump into bed with him.

Not that Bryanna was spared her anger, since the older Ravenclaw was actually the instigator of the situation.

It just didn't make any sense to her. Harry was supposed to be a hero! Alright, fine, Ginny was willing to admit that the mental picture of him she'd had before meeting him wasn't entirely accurate, but he still hadn't been like this last year!

He'd defended her on the train when Malfoy had insulted her. He had tutored her and Luna when it became obvious that Lockhart didn't have the first clue about Defense Against the Dark Arts. He had quickly figured out the problem with the diary and helped Dumbledore deal with the basilisk. He might not have been the same Harry Potter as in the books, but there had been no doubt in Ginny's mind that he was a hero.

Now he was suddenly looking to get into a girl's knickers and getting mad at her for bringing it up. She had grudgingly accepted the fact that Luna might have a point about boys, but that had been just looking. The fact that he was actively working towards the goal of having meaningless sex with a girl he didn't even know was beyond her ability to accept.

The fact that he'd called her a kid and that he liked older women was another point of contention, especially in light of the fact that she could barely think about sex without blushing while he treated it so cavalierly.

So she'd distanced herself from Harry and waited for him to come apologize. Her brothers had always apologized to her when she got upset. They might drag their feet sometimes, but they always did it in the end.

But Harry wasn't her brother. Furthermore, he seemed to have no intention of trying to fix their friendship and now he was going to Hogsmeade on what could technically be called a date with a seventh year with no sign of being bothered by the situation.

Now she was starting to worry that there wouldn't be any apologies or making up. Indeed, it was looking as if there wouldn't even be a friendship anymore.

This wasn't how things were supposed to be and she had no idea what to do about it. Confused and upset by the way things were going, she reluctantly decided to write to her mother. She'd held off on it so far, not wanting to go running back to her mother to solve her problems, but she needed advice that wasn't a flat statement about boobies.

Luna was actually very smart beneath her absent demeanor, but she just didn't get it.

Luna watched as Ginny pinned her letter to one of the school owls and sighed.

She could understand the redhead's position, she really could, but it was just silly of her to be upset at Harry for being himself. If he wanted to play with Bryanna's boobies and she let him do it, then Luna could only smile at them and hope they had fun. The fact that Ginny was upset by it baffled her.

But Ginny was also being herself with her attempts to get Harry to stop being himself, so she didn't say anything. Hopefully, her failure would teach Ginny that you couldn't transfigure a person into a different person and they could all be friends again.

No matter how detailed you made a potato castle, it was still just a bunch of mashed potatoes . People could learn a lot from potatoes.

Ginny should have spent more time making and contemplating potato castles.

Harry wasn't quite as enthused about Hogsmeade as the other third years, owing both to his aversion for large crowds and the way that some people stared at him. On the other hand, he had a pretty girl on his arm and was able to feel shamelessly smug about the jealous looks he'd caught amidst the staring. The Hogwarts rumor mill had of course been hard at work spreading speculation about the status of their relationship based on limited information, which was now 'confirmed' by the two of them going to Hogsmeade together. This had seemingly elevated him into some kind of pseudo-legendary figure among the boys in his year and possibly even those in the year above him.

As for Hogsmeade itself, he thought that the little wizarding settlement was very… quaint. It was the only purely magical settlement in all of Great Britain according to Bryanna, which said quite a bit about how tiny the magical population had to be.

She had taken him on a short tour of the village and then suggested they go to the Three Broomsticks for a pint of butterbeer to warm up.

Morbidly curious if butterbeer was actually made of beer and melted butter and having no better ideas, he'd agreed.

Now he found himself sandwiched between Bryanna and a friend of hers that went by Tiana.

Bryanna and Tiana. If Tiana wasn't a pale, curly haired brunette with hazel eyes, they could've been twins with names like that.

Her convenient presence in the Three Broomsticks was unlikely to be a coincidence given that they were friends. The Slytherin crest and green trim on her robes also hinted at the fact that she might be an ambitious schemer.

"So Bry tells me that you've been helping her learn the Patronus." Tiana commented, casually letting her hand fall to his thigh.

"We've been helping each other." Harry replied, trying not to fidget as the familiar prickle of magic passed through the runes on his back, followed by the equally familiar lust.

"Don't be shy now, Harry." Bryanna teased, her own hand dropping to his other thigh. "I wouldn't be half as far in learning it if it wasn't for your insight."

Harry took a deep breath in a vain attempt to calm the dull fire going through his loins. It had been over two months now since his last rendezvous with Zoe and he was discovering that solo sessions of wand polishing were simply not having the same effect anymore. Bryanna's light teasing and seemingly innocent touches since the start of term certainly hadn't helped.

Now he had two very pretty girls giving him some very damned blatant signals and it was a struggle not to grab them by the hair, kiss them and then drag them to the first empty room he could find. He knew that this had to be because of whatever ambition they were hoping to use him for, but it didn't really make the situation easier.

The proprietor of the establishment decided to approach them at that point, and just so happened to be a curvaceous MILF in the first set of cleavage baring robes Harry had seen thus far. It was hard to say how old she was with the way that magic slowed down aging, but she was definitely rocking the mature older woman look.

"Well isn't this a familiar sight?" Madam Rosmerta drawled in an amused fashion.

"Excuse me?" Harry questioned after quickly clearing his throat to prevent any embarrassing breaks in his voice. He was just glad that Bryanna and Tiana had surreptitiously removed their hands from his thighs. That would've made it really hard to pay attention to any conversation.

"I was just reminded of your father and… his friends."

Harry noted the slight pause and correctly guessed that she had been about to mention Sirius.

"They liked to come in here too, often with girls on their arms. Shameless flirts they were."

Definitely been about to mention Sirius. Lupin did not come across as a very flirty individual and Pettigrew had been….unattractive, to put it lightly.

"I can certainly see why they would flirt with you." Harry replied, the words slipping from his tongue before he could even think to stop them.

Fortunately, Rosmerta only burst into laughter instead of taking offense.

"You really are your father's son, aren't you? Except that you're starting even younger. I'm Rosmerta, but you can call me Rosie." She said merrily. "You girls need to be careful around this one."

"I'm sure we can handle him." Tiana smirked, hand snaking out to give Harry's thigh quick squeeze.

"I'm sure." Rosmerta said with an answering smirk and adopted a more professional demeanor. "What can I get you?"

"Three butterbeers please." Bryanna ordered.

"Coming right up."

Harry took the opportunity to check out the proprietor's swaying rear end and found it to be just as appealing as the rest of her. Truly, magic was wonderful for preserving a woman's sex appeal well past the age when a non-magical female would have probably lost it already.

A quick look around the tavern let him know that the other patrons were mostly minding their own business, though Ginny's brother Ron seemed to be staring at him with an angry sort of jealousy from where he was sitting with his Gryffindor friends for some reason. That was pretty random, but it wasn't as if Ron was actually important.

"You know what, Bry? I think we aren't trying hard enough if Mr. Smooth here has time to flirt with Rosmerta." Tiana commented, sliding her hand a bit further up his thigh.

"I have to agree." Bryanna said, mirroring the action.

Harry held back a groan. It was going to be a long day, but like hell was he going to let himself be teased like this without retaliation.

"And what are you going to do about it?" He asked, boldly reaching out to return the teasing with a thigh squeeze of his own. Only to Bryanna though, as he hadn't known Tiana long enough to be quite that bold.

" Harry! " The way she breathed out his name, with a mix of surprise and pleasure, had to be just about the sexiest thing he'd ever heard.

"Tsk tsk, Potter. It's bad form to pay attention to just one of us and ignore the other." Tiana commented from his other side.

Knowing an invitation when he heard one, Harry reached out with his unoccupied hand to give her leg a squeeze too.

"That's better." The Slytherin girl said huskily.

"You three might want to cool off a bit." Rosmerta said as she deposited their butterbeers on the table, making the teens jump in surprise because they hadn't noticed her approach. "You're making me all hot and bothered just looking at you."

"Sorry." Harry said sheepishly, embarrassed by the gentle reprimand. Things really had been going a bit out of hand for a public space.

"I know how it is." She replied wistfully. "I used to be a teenager too once, a long time ago."

"Nonsense, you can't possibly be a day over thirty." Harry responded instantly in a knee jerk reaction that had actually been trained into him by Katherine for when she wanted some older woman to feel flattered by her 'charming son'. Inanely enough, it had been among her more effective schemes.

Apparently it worked on pub owning witches just as well as it did on snobby muggle women, as it sent Rosmerta into a peal of delighted laughter.

"You're quite the sweet talker, aren't you Harry?" She asked with a teasing lilt to her tone.

"I try." He responded with a shrug, not wanting to admit that that last one hadn't been entirely intentional. The flirtatious compliment had been sincere for a change though. Rosmerta might not look as young as thirty anymore, but she still looked damned good, which was more than could be said for almost every other woman he'd said that to before.

"You're succeeding." Rosmerta returned with a flirtatious smile and turned to leave. "Wave me over if you need a refill."

"Should we leave you alone so that you can focus you attention on Rosmerta?" Bryanna asked, amused.

"I was just being friendly." Harry defended, semi-truthfully. He knew that barmaids would often flirt as a matter of course because it kept people coming back, but he did find her undeniably attractive. It didn't help that the two girls on either side of him had gotten him seriously randy and predisposed towards flirting.

"Suuure you were." Tiana drawled out, clearly not believing him.

Sirius had intended to make an attempt to infiltrate Hogwarts on Halloween, but there was one thing that he wanted to do first just in case he failed and ended up being dementor chow.

He had to see Harry, had to see if his godson was alright. He hadn't been able to find him before, but he had to see him. The rage he felt for the cowardly rat hadn't abated in the slightest, but his previous failure had instilled enough caution in him to acknowledge the admittedly high chance that he was going to die in the attempt to extract revenge for James and Lily's murder.

In hindsight, rushing off half-cocked after Wormtail had betrayed them to Voldemort had been a bad idea, but he hadn't been in a particularly rational mood at the time. He still wasn't truth be told, though at this point it was because of twelve years of dementor exposure rather than homicidal rage.

But getting back to the point, he had to see Harry first. He knew that there was always a Hogsmeade weekend before Halloween, which was by far the safest avenue for him to get a glimpse of his godson.

He stayed in his Animagus form and stuck to the woods around the village, keeping his doggy nose up in the air, hoping to get a whiff of his godson's scent. It would undoubtedly be different after twelve years, but he hoped that he could still recognize it.

Hours later, he had all but lost hope and started thinking that maybe Harry hadn't been able to leave the castle for some reason. When the barely familiar scent wafted into his nose, Padfoot accidentally planted his face into the dirt in his eagerness to get a look.

Stalking stealthily through the outskirts of the forest, Sirius caught sight of his quarry as they moved towards the Shrieking Shack and did an almost cartoonish rendition of a canine jaw drop.

Harry was….tall. Too tall for his age. Tall enough that Sirius seriously wondered for a moment whether he'd spent more than just twelve years in Azkaban. He looked so much like James that it hurt to look at him, though he kept his hair at a length more reminiscent of Sirius himself, nor did he wear glasses. Sirius couldn't see color in his Animagus form, but he was sure that the boy's eyes were still Lily's beautiful emerald green.

The fact that his godson had not one but two witches that looked to be seventh years keeping him company nearly overrode his self control and had him running towards the boy to lick his face in a display of pure pride.

Once the initial reaction passed though, Sirius felt a stab of pain in his chest, remembering better times with his best friend. For all that James had been chasing Lily rather obsessively since third year, he hadn't shied away from the occasional date with other witches. He and Sirius would often bring whichever girl they were goofing around with at the time to the Three Broomsticks for a pint of butterbeer and an amusing bit of flirting with the ever delightful proprietor. Their dates would invariably get jealous of the attention they were giving to the older woman, giving the two of them an opportunity to make it up to them later, sometimes in very pleasurable ways. Quite a few broom closets and abandoned classrooms held fond memories for him.

Lost in his grief and memories, Padfoot unintentionally whined loudly.

It turned out that butterbeer was not as disgusting as its name implied. It was in fact rather delicious and had some kind of magic in it that spread warmth over the whole body when drunk.

To Harry's minor annoyance, his runes made quick work of that due to it being a foreign magic. He hadn't considered that when carving them. It wouldn't have stopped him as it really was a minor thing, but the oversight displeased him. It was good to have confirmation that it worked at least.

They had stayed in the Three Broomsticks for a while, having a conversation intersped with flirting and teasing touches. Not as intense as it had been at first since they hadn't wanted to get another warning from Rosmerta, but still enough that Harry felt the magic in his runes prickling in an almost annoyed fashion at the time it was taking to get to the main event.

He had no idea what kind of plan Bryanna and Tiana had cooked up, but he could hardly wait to get to the part where they tried to take advantage of him.

After leaving the tavern, the girls had suggested taking a look at the Shrieking Shack, which was supposed to be the most haunted place in Britain, though nobody seemed able to say why exactly that was.

That was about the time when they all heard a loud, canine whine and turned to look at the source.

A very big black dog was staring at them from between the trees, it's eyes lightly shining.

The three students froze in surprise. The dog froze in surprise.

"Is that….a grim?" Tiana asked slowly, as if afraid that the sound would provoke it to attack.

Harry knew exactly what that dog was and it wasn't a grim. It looked a lot more ragged than he remembered, but it was undoubtedly Sirius' Animagus form, Padfoot.

"I don't think so." Bryanna replied uncertainly, squeezing Harry's arm as if to reassure herself that she wasn't alone. "Grims are supposed to be spectral and this one looks solid."

Harry knew that he had to do something and fast. There was an opportunity here, but he could already see Sirius getting ready to bolt. He still had a few questions about the night that his parents had died and Sirius was possibly the only person who could give him the answers he sought.

"It's Padfoot." He said, making things up as he went. "He's my dog, but I have no idea what he's doing all the way up here."

"Your dog?" Bryanna and Tiana exclaimed in surprise, echoed by another whine from an equally surprised Padfoot.

Sirius had no idea how to react. He'd known that it would have been too much to hope for that Harry would remember him, but it seemed that his godson did indeed remember. He couldn't have known the name of his Animagus form otherwise.

"He wouldn't hurt anyone, would you, Padfoot?" Harry asked pointedly, staring at the dog Animagus. If Sirius had a wand and the intent to use it, then Harry didn't fool himself into thinking that he could take him on in a straight fight, but he'd shown zero aggression so far.

He'd long since deduced that the dementors hovering around the school were supposedly for his protection in case Black went after him, which was in his opinion a completely asinine security measure. If the Ministry was right, then this was the best chance that Black was ever going to get to kill him.

Padfoot let his tongue hang out of his mouth and panted happily, trotting over to the three of them and giving Harry's hand a lick.

"See? He's harmless." Harry said, wiping his drool stained hand on his robes.

"I guess." Tiana said dubiously, still staring at the hulking canine warily.

Now what? Asking them to give me a moment alone with a dog would be suspicious and I can hardly talk to Sirius with them around.

It was a strange situation that compelled a teenager to ditch two pretty girls that seemed intent on having their way with him, but that was what Harry found himself doing. Lust simply had to take a backseat this time.

"Excuse me for a few minutes girls, I need to get Padfoot back home." He said to Bryanna and Tiana, making up his mind on a course of action.

"Okay." They agreed, still a bit uncertain about the whole situation but much more composed than they had been before.

"Teeny." Harry said softly.

The small house elf popped in, looking happy at being called.

"You's called for Teeny, master Harry Potter sir?" She asked earnestly, already looking around for things to do.

"I did." He confirmed. "Could you please transport me and Padfoot here back to the manor?"

"Teeny can be doing it!" She proclaimed, not even questioning why he suddenly had a dog.

"I'll be back in a few minutes." Harry assured the girls and vanished with the quiet pop of a house elf apparition.

Bryanna and Tiana exchanged glances

"Didn't he tell you that he lives with muggles?" Tiana asked.

"Wondering about the house elf?"

"Yup."

The three of them appeared in the sitting room of Potter Manor with the same quiet pop that they had disappeared with.

"Is you and the doggy wanting something to eat, master Harry?" Teeny asked a second later, knowing what Harry's appetite was like.

"Not right now, thank you." Harry refused politely, once more wishing that he could have gotten the little house elf to stop calling him 'master'. Unfortunately, her lower lip started wobbling tremulously whenever he tried to bring the subject up and he ended up backing down. She was an expert in emotional blackmail.

Once Teeny had made herself scarce, Sirius transformed back into human form, making Harry tense warily even though he'd been expecting it.

"Harry." The bedraggled man in Azkaban prison robes said, spreading his arms and taking a step forward as if to give him a hug.

"Hold it right there." Harry said firmly, taking a step back and raising his arms defensively. "I'm fairly sure that you didn't betray my parents and that you don't mean me any harm, but that doesn't mean I trust you."

"It was Pettigrew!" Sirius said loudly, looking a little wild eyed now. "He was the traitor!"

"What about the twelve muggles that you supposedly killed?" Harry pressed.

"Also him. He shouted something about me betraying James and Lily when I cornered him and then fired off a blasting curse."

"Alright, I believe you." Harry nodded after a moment's consideration, having already known that the situation was fishy and seeing no particular reason for Sirius to be lying to him. "But I'm still not hugging you, you stink."

Sirius stared at him in shock for a second and then burst into near hysterical laughter.

Harry frowned slightly in consternation. It hadn't been that funny.

"I bet you'd prefer a hug from those two girls of yours, eh Harry?" Sirius ribbed once his chuckles had subsided.

"Obviously." Harry said drolly. "Speaking of which, we'll need to postpone the rest of this meeting for another time. I need to get back before anyone gets suspicious. Stay here and keep out of sight until we figure out a way to get your name cleared, I'm sure that Teeny will be glad to have someone to take care of."

"Wormtail!" Sirius suddenly shouted. "He's in the castle, I have to get him!"

"Wormtail?" Harry questioned, the name(nickname?) being unfamiliar to him.

"Pettigrew!" Sirius spat impatiently. "He's a rat Animagus, been hiding out as the Weasley's pet rat ever since he framed me."

"Scabbers?" Harry wondered, having heard quite a few complaints about Ron's pet rat from Ginny as well as occasionally seeing it at meals. That ugly thing was an Animagus? He'd never seen Pettigrew transform in his memories and hadn't honestly thought that such a weak looking wizard was capable of it.

"Whatever he calls himself!" The escaped convict growled, throwing his hands up into the air angrily. "I have to get back there and kill him for what he did."

"I'll catch him." Harry stated. It shouldn't be too hard since the rat wouldn't expect him. Getting him away from Weasley without anyone noticing would be the bigger issue. Moreover, a living Peter Pettigrew would be exactly the kind of evidence they'd need to prove that Sirius was innocent.

"NO!" Sirius screamed, suddenly lunging to grab Harry by his robes. "He's mine!"

Alarmed and angered by the sudden attack, Harry pried the man's hands off and roughly shoved him to the floor. Not a feat of strength that a normal thirteen year old would be capable off, but he was physically older than his age, had a minor strength boost from his runes and Sirius was so far from being in good shape that it wasn't even funny.

"Don't be an idiot!" Harry spat angrily. "Everyone is on the lookout for you. You'll never succeed without alerting him and then he can just make a run for it. We'd never find him again if he escapes."

"I'm sorry, James." Sirius said contritely from the floor, sounding close to tears. "You're right, we'll do it your way."

Harry ignored the fact that he'd just been called by his father's name. The dementors had obviously not done Sirius' state of mind any favors.

"Stay in the manor and keep out of sight, nobody is going to look for you here. I'll get Pettigrew and then we can figure out how to solve this mess." He instructed, taking a deep breath to dispel the last of his short burst of anger. "I really have to get back, but Charlus and Dorea have portraits up on the first floor if you want to talk to them."

Too bad that wards can't be used to keep someone inside them, he's far too unstable for my liking. Harry thought, holding back a grimace.

That was a strange quirk of wards. They could do a lot of things, including block apparition and portkeys, but keeping someone from just walking past them was something that was impossible to do. It could be set up to trigger effects for anyone doing so, even lethal ones, but that only worked from the outside coming in. Azkaban would have been truly inescapable if it were otherwise. Line style exclusion spells such as the Age Line were the only exception, but they weren't really wards and couldn't be anchored to anything, which meant that they needed to be frequently reinforced.

And on that note, he was going to need to tell Teeny to keep the man from leaving. He wasn't likely to get more than one opportunity to make a grab for Pettigrew and Sirius did not strike him as the subtle type.

Sirius blanched at the thought even as he got to his feet. Talk to James' parents? The people who had shown him nothing but kindness and whose son and daughter-in-law he'd killed with his stupidity? A horde of dementors sounded less scary, even if they were just portraits.

"Got your dog sorted?" Bryanna asked once Teeny had popped Harry back to Hogsmeade.

"Yeah." Harry nodded. "Crazy mutt was all set to make another trip up here and took some convincing to get him to stay put."

"I don't think we have time to visit the Shrieking Shack anymore." Tiana said with a small frown. "It's nearly time to go back to Hogwarts."

"Alright, lets go then." He said, his mind already chewing over the problem of Pettigrew.

"Oh Haaary~." Bryanna sing-songed. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Harry turned to stare at her, seeing both girls holding their hands out for him to take.

Oh, right. That was still happening. Maybe the Pettigrew problem could wait for another day.