Chapter 5

The walk back to the castle was not a quick thing.

Sirius certainly wasn't in any hurry as he spent a good 10 minutes just staring off into the distance before we even started to walk away from the Whomping Willow, and Remus looked as content as a docile werewolf could be just exploring the familiar surroundings.

I had shifted back and forth a few times to judge how Lupin would react and after the first time he gave a few sniffs in my direction and seemed to determine nothing amiss.

That's a plus in my book, certainly could have made things difficult otherwise.

After giving Sirius some more time to think, which I use to covertly retrieve some of the runes I placed in the area for further study, the three of us started a slow pace through the woods towards the north entrance, the walk taking a good half an hour at such a leisurely pace.

By the time we had arrived within sight of the gates we could see the welcoming party ahead of us, consisting of Dumbledore in front, and McGonagall next to him exchanging a few heated words.

Nearby and behind the two were Professors Flitwick and Hagrid who it would seem had heard about our coming and decided to come along.

Lupin only gave a look between me and the upcoming people once or twice before putting them out of his mind, still following quietly beside me.

Dumbledore was the first to see us unsurprisingly followed shortly afterwards by Hagrid who seemed to eye Remus like a new puppy his parents were getting him.

That's Hagrid for you, no surprise there.

McGonagall seemed to be much more suspicious as she held her wand firmly at the ready for any signs of aggression from any of us, though Flitwick seemed to just be eyeing the coming spectacle in curiosity.

Slowly walking up to the four professors I debate on how to start before Dumbledore decides to do it for me. "It would seem you've had yourself quite the eventful evening my boy." His entire demeanor remaining as calm as could be. "Severus has informed us of some quite extraordinary claims that certainly could do with some verifying." He finishes, giving us a chance to explain.

Meanwhile, Hagrid seems to be slowly approaching Lupin with a hand out acting his usual self when it comes to 'misunderstood creatures', while Lupin is just giving his actions a look that is as appropriate as it ever could be when being treated as he now is.

With a side glance at the half-giant Dumbledore decides to cut that off before it has a chance to escalate. "Perhaps we should hold off on trying approach for now Hagrid."

"O' course Professor." Hagrid gives a slight sheepish chuckle as he backs away.

"Would you care to explain how the events of the past few hours has occurred Mr. Harris?" Dumbledore questions.

The following conversation takes a good couple minutes to bring everyone up to speed on how I found myself following Professor Snape and leading to come to the present as Dumbledore remains as unflappable as ever, taking every word said with the severity it deserves. Sirius chimes in a few times to give commentary from his perspective, as well as explain the entire reason for his presence being from getting at Pettigrew and how he learned he was at Hogwarts.

At Pettigrews mentioning I remove the cube holding him and hold it out for the head master to take.

Dumbledore calmly takes the cube, giving it a look of curiosity for a second or two before lazily passing it over to McGonagall to hold onto. She proceeds to wave her wand over it a few times and seems to get what must be some interesting results as her eyebrows raise. Giving me a quick look before turning to Flitwick, who also seems to show quite the interest at the spell work.

"I must confess, I was quite surprised to hear from Severus the claims that were made involving poor Remus and his apparent reactions to yourself." Conversation shifts towards the elephant in the room as it were, as Lupin continues to lazily sniff around the area and occasionally sprinting a few feet after something that peaks his interest.

"I really don't know how that came to be, I believe it has something to do with a pack mentality and my actions showing a form of domination that his werewolf instincts are following." I answer the unspoken question in his words.

He gives a slow nod. "It is quite remarkable to witness, and I would wager quite a nice thing to learn when he recovers in the next few days. Why, one could only wonder if something of this 'form' of yours could be used to pass along such a wonderful trait you seem to have in control." He finishes with a raised eyebrow.

"As of right now, I am afraid that is just not possible." I am quick to head his point of query. "My other forms 'bite' is not contagious, believe me I have tested it quite thoroughly on animals in the forest."

His look shifts to a pointed state as he interrupts any further comment. "I had indeed heard of some rumors of a certain 'beast' roaming the 'Forbidden' forest as of this past year." He stresses word pertaining to said forest, as if to slightly admonish me for ignoring the implied broken rule. "I had even heard from some friends among the centaurs about something having frequent fights with the spiders living there."

With an embarrassed chuckle I rub the back of my head. "What can I say, I'm not a fan of spiders."

"Oh? Are we talking bout Aragog and his children?" Hagrid pipes up from his repeated tries to get closer to Remus, who even he seems to find weird, as he keeps a certain distance from his advances.

With a shared look I respond to Hagrid's inquiry. "Just brought up in mention with the forest."

With a nod he resumes trying to slowly coax Remus closer, with said actions only causing Lupin to continue to keep his distance from the half-giant.

Returning back to the previous line of conversation. "I have however been spending the past year also looking into a way to remedy that and try to give Professor Lupin and other werewolves a way to obtain control and get rid of the horrors of their affliction. In fact I was hoping to eventually have a word with you about that and get your opinion and maybe some help obtaining some of the more hard to get ingredients."

A smile quickly comes to his face as he responds. "I would be delighted to have a look sometime." He doesn't comment on the inquiry regarding ingredients, which is understandable. He would want to see what said ingredients would be for first most assuredly.

It would seem in the time we had been talking, McGonagall had found out all she could regarding the prison cube, as she walked back up to Dumbledore and handed it back to him.

His attention returning to the item in his hand, he raises it in my direction. "Would you be so kind as to undo your spell please?"

Before I can respond or do as he asks however, the doors to the castle on the other side of the courtyard burst open, as what looks like an auror steps out. Followed behind by a dementor and Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, who comes prancing out heading in our direction.

The noise however seems to draw Lupin's attention as his head whips to the newcomers direction and with raised hackles, gives off a loud growl.

The noise brings Fudge's attention to the werewolf in the vicinity, and the figure of Sirius Black only a few feet away from it. With a frankly embarrassing yelp, he shouts out to his companions. "Slay that beast! Capture the criminal and have him kissed immediately!"

The current situation is certainly not what the auror had been expecting as it took him a few seconds to even process the command the minister had given, before he gives the dementor a look and point at Sirius. "Contain the criminal."

The dementor however seems to realize the stupidity of the command and doesn't immediately listen.

"Do it now!" The auror seems to shout, holding out what looks to be some type of badge at the dementor, not appreciating the delay.

This seems to do the trick as the abomination slowly starts to float in our direction.

From the corner of my eyes I can see Lupin beginning to charge at the newcomers direction, and I decide to do something about it myself. With a flick of my wand, a small spear of light flows out, and strikes the dementor in the middle of its chest, causing it to abruptly halt and give an eerie wail.

My spell causing it to slowly wither from within, as what I can assume to be some of the recent souls it has consumed, rush out of the wound into the air, and after only a few seconds it completely dissipates.

While my actions have slowed Lupin down, he is still advancing on the minster and auror, who upon seeing the destruction of their protection, proceed to panic. The minister seems to faint, his form falling to the ground, as the auror scrambles for a moment, before seeming to try to apparate away. Only for his form to somewhat stutter in place as the wards of the castle stop such an action and one of his legs pops off sending him to the ground.

Fortunately for the two, I give a quick shout to stop Remus from continuing to attack. "Stop!"

Remus seems to give a quick grunt of "Prey?", but a further shake of the head causes him to huff and return back to the general area he was before.

The looks we receive are interesting as everyone but Dumbledore and Hagrid are giving me blank looks at my actions and at the fact I waited until Remus was almost on top of the two before calling him off. Dumbledore just gave me a look of slight disappointment, while Hagrid just continues to focus on coaxing Lupin closer, thinking his usual thoughts on such matters.

I just give Dumbledore a smirk and shrug as the other two professors proceed to help the auror and minister.

It only takes a few minutes for the two be be awoken, healed and back on their feet.

Fudge seems to immediately focus back on Sirius. "Arrest this man at once! I do not know what is going on here but this man is a criminal who has escaped from his confinement!"

The auror starts to move to do as such, before Dumbledore shifts in front of them. "Cornelius, there has been a recent development that affects this situation. A man previously thought dead has been found alive and the true culprit behind the accusations labeled at Mr. Black."

"Preposterous!" Fudge shouts out. "Black is guilty of every crime he was accused of and was found as such by the Ministry of Magic itself! Are you insinuating that the Ministry is wrong?!"

Giving a nod Dumbledore responds calmly. "In this case, that is correct. It would seem Peter Pettigrew was the true betrayer of the Potters and the cause of the death of those 12 muggles."

"Have you lost your senses!" Fudge blusters back. "Pettigrew is dead! I was there that night myself and all that was left of that poor man was his finger. Everyone knows that!"

"It would seem that is not the case, as Peter Pettigrew has been found alive just this night." Dumbledore says. "We were just now about to retrieve him from his bindings if you would care to witness for yourself."

Pointing at myself. "Go ahead my boy."

"What kind of fool are you trying to take me for? Why is this student here and what do you.." His words trail off as I proceed to undo the magic holding Pettigrew in stasis, the cube breaking apart and his form falling to the ground but still bound in red glowing ropes.

Pettigrew rapidly blinks as he takes in the new surroundings, before they widen in panic at seeing Dumbledore and the others now in front of him.

Trying to bluff his way out of the situation, he shouts at the headmaster. "Professor! Sir! Please, help me!" He rapidly twists his body as much as he is able. "Black is after me to finish what he started!" Any further words of his were cut off as with a jab in his direction I silence him.

At the words of what he thought was a dead man, Cornelius Fudge stares at Pettigrew before trying to brush it aside. "No! Pettigrew is dead. I don't know what you are trying to accomplish but I will not let you continue in this foolery. First the hippogriff vanishes earlier today and now this, I'm starting to believe some kind of plot is going on here." Looking at Hagrid and the werewolf before turning back to the Auror. "Arrest everyone, and kill the beast, we will deal with this back at the Ministry."

The auror just gives the minster a blank look before shaking his head. "Yeah, that's a hard pass. I'm not going to try to arrest Headmaster Dumbledore himself, or anyone else besides Sirius Black, and even then, I am pretty sure that is Peter Pettigrew." Nodding towards the bound form he continues. "I remember him from my time at Hogwarts myself and that looks a lot like him. Even if it isn't this is now way above my pay grade and I have no choice but to pass this up the ladder."

With his peace said, he proceeds to tap his wand against his auror badge and mutter a few words before retreating off to the side as Fudge stares at him, mouth open in disbelief.

Seeing the direction this is taking I mutter to the professors before leading Remus away with Hagrid in the direction of his hut. If this is going the way I believe it is then staying would only make things more complicated.

As the two of us leave with Lupin following us, the repeated pops of apparition sound out a ways out from the entrance we were standing at, and more aurors start jogging in the direction of the school.

~}-{~

As Rose sat in the Infirmary, Hermione and Ron arguing in the background while getting looked at by Madam Pomfrey, all she could seem to focus on was the hope that perhaps soon, she could be away from the Dursleys and find out more about her parents.

She could only hope that things went well and that Sirius would be set free quickly.

"He saved us Ron, he protected us from Professor Lupin when he changed and chased away all those dementors. If he wasn't there, things might not have gone as well as they did." Hermione's argument with Ron drew her attention as they continued to talk about their fellow student. "He even healed up your foot when you were complaining about it on the way back, and you still have the nerve to suggest telling everyone about his affliction? What about Professor Lupin, even you have to agree he isn't responsible for what he is and yet you aren't talking about telling people about that?"

"Lupin probably won't be here for much longer after what happened, but that Harris bloke is a student here like us, he's dangerous and people need to know to watch out in case he decides to attack anyone." Ron tries to counter, though even then it doesn't sound like he's 'that' vehement about it.

"He was perfectly safe to be around the entire time, there is no danger to worry about." Hermione continues to argue. "Besides, you heard what he said, his condition isn't even really a curse. What, are you going to say Hagrid is dangerous to be around now?"

Ron seems to shrink back slightly at her tone. "Well to be fair, Hagrid kind of is?" He responds.

That only seems to set Hermione off even more as she continues to beat into Ron the stupidity of his thinking.

Rose just shakes her head and turns back to ignoring the bickering of her two friends, fantasizing about having a home with someone who actually cares about her.

~}-{~

Omake 1 (Half non-canon?)

[In the life of Andy the Auror]

Andrew was not having a good day.

While it is true that the life of an auror is a stressful one, sometimes, he regretted choosing this career path when it was suggested to him in Hogwarts.

If he had known that most of his time would be spent on paperwork and dealing with idiots he would have told the professor where they could shove their wand.

Sadly this was his life now, he was somewhat used to it and after this long, all he could do was soldier on.

Today he was back in Hogwarts after escorting the Minister for an execution for some animal that attacked a student.

He really didn't look too much into it, nothing would really come from wasting his time trying to get the facts after the pompus fools in the legal department of the ministry made up their minds.

The worst part was the dementor he had to stay with while Fudge went off with the executioner, and the hours they took, only to come back saying the beast had escaped and they were to wait to see if it could be found.

Just great, more hours spent standing here with a soul sucking demon.

Not the kind of sucking he would prefer being done, he thought in the back of his mind.

What? You spend hours on end in a small room next to a dementor and try to find things to occupy your time while making sure you don't end up a snack.

The badges auror escorts used only did so much after all.

After hours of contemplating the folly of his life decisions, apparently there had been an incident on the school grounds and Sirius Black had been sighted, the minister rushing to get him and the dementor to bring them to where he was being reported being.

This was where his night just went from bad to worse.

The idiot Fudge just couldn't get it in his head that there was something going on, as we left the doors to one of the exits to the school and most of the head staff were there standing next to Black and a werewolf of all things. There was even a student in the mix too!

Shit why didn't things happen like this when he went to school?

Then the man child had to order him to sick the dementor on Black in full view of everyone else.

Seriously there has to be something wrong with him, but orders are orders.

After having to coax the demon, as it apparently was being hesitant, the unnamed student just had to make things weird by somehow blasting the dementor apart.

Okay, so on the one hand, that's a good thing in my book. Nobody likes dementors, period. The only reason they are used is because no one knows a way to kill them. And then here we have a student just whip a spell out his arse and tell everyone how much sucking they do for not doing this sooner.

Seriously what are they teaching kids these days in Hogwarts, cause I gotta get me some of that.

On the other hand though, this left only myself between the minister and the now charging werewolf.

Not a good thing, oh no, no, no.

I'm ashamed to admit that I might have panicked a bit, as I could only think about escaping, cause no way in hell was I dealing with a werewolf only a few yards from me. Fudge can deal with that shit himself, which if my eyes aren't deceiving me, he won't since he fainted in a pool of his own piss.

I'll certainly treasure that bit of memory.

Sadly, I forgot about the castle wards as I immediately bounced off them and splinched my damn leg off.

Shit just isn't going my way today!

Thankfully the werewolf was called off and Mcgonagall and Flitwick were kind enough to reattach my leg, the saints, the both of them.

Though I'll definitely be going in to have it looked at to be sure after my shift ends.

Which brings me to the newest shit show of the night.

"Arrest everyone, and kill the beast, we will deal with this back at the Ministry." Fudge ordered me as he gave everyone else a dismissive look.

It's things like this that make me question the intelligence of the magical world. Because seriously, shit like this happens all the damn time!

Like, who would think it a good idea to have a single ordinary auror arresting a bunch of Hogwarts professors, one student, Sirius black, that one makes sense, a werewolf somehow, and last but not least. Dumbledore himself!

Like.. THE FUCK!

There has to be something doing this, there just has to be. The amount of stupid around just has to have a logical reason behind it.

Is it the pumpkin juice?

I can't stand the taste but everyone else swears by it and would drink it all the time growing up.

My god… Could it be?

Back to the point at hand I was not going to go down with this ship. It definitely had a hole somewhere and was only a matter of time before it sunk.

"Yeah, that's a hard pass." I refuse the dumbass as I call in my superior and reinforcements.

Let them handle this clusterfuck cause I am just done.

~}-{~

After explaining the details of everything that had happened to my direct superior as they stood around with a squad behind her I mentally clock out and heave a sigh as it is no longer my problem.

"So you disobeyed a direct order from the minister?" Stevens asked me, with a sneer on his face.

Okay maybe it is still my problem because this jackass had to comment.

"Are you saying you wouldn't?" I respond back with obvious derision.

Apparently he disagreed with my choice as he shook his head and looked to be about to rant at me for not doing what I was told, but before he could, an angel came to my rescue.

"He did the right thing." Captain Jones said, interrupting Stevens.

I did not foresee this.

'Dear god…' I think as she gives me the most beautiful look I have ever seen as she seems to commiserate and agree with my line of thinking about everyone around us.

'I'm not alone?' I blink in shock.

Staring into her gorgeous eyes I can't help but notice just about stunning she suddenly appears.

'I think I'm in love…'

~}-{~

A.N. I never planned on doing this but a comment from QQ just had this idea popping into my head and I spent the next 20 minutes blasting this out. Enjoy.

~}-{~

Omake 2 (Definitely Non-Canon)

[I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto]

Waking up in the middle of the woods with rain on my face was not how I thought my morning was going to go.

Usually it was one of two things, either one of my wives waking me up with a beautiful present, or one of our children waking us up with a screech of yelling.

I love my children but sometimes, they can be trying.

But back to the here and now, as it seems something has happened to me while I was asleep.

The charms I have to my wives rings aren't responding properly, and as such I don't know where it is I am or how far I am from my home where I went to sleep.

Spending a few minutes checking the immediate area, I am at a loss as it looks like I'm in the states, near the north western coast of the US.

I also might not be on my earth anymore as I can't find any trace of magical presence at all.

Now you might be thinking that might be due to the forest I'm in and there just aren't any magicals in the area.

You would be wrong. The states are practically bursting with magicals spread out of the entire US.

If I am where I think I am then I should be able to easily feel some of the tribes that should be living in the area.

The closest I can find is a kind of tugging pulse near the town about 2 miles from my position.

Well, not much I can do from this clearing, so I head in the direction of the town to find out more information.

It doesn't take me long to exit the forest as I come to what looks to be a school?

Weird, there seems to be something about it niggling the back of my memory.

It also seems to be the end of the day as school looks to be getting out, with all the teenagers heading to their cars or walking down the sidewalks leading to the town proper.

My thoughts however grind to a sudden halt as I spot a group of teenagers that stand out from the rest.

'no…' I think in denial.

My appearance from the woods has not gone unnoticed as most of the remaining students stop to stare at me.

'noooo…' What have I done to deserve such torment.

"What's up with the dude in the cosplay?" I hear one of the teens that stand out from the rest.

"I don't know, I can't seem to hear him." One of the other teens, a boy with bronze hair responds to his taller, buffer, fellow student.

"Nooooooo!" I scream as I drop to my knees dramatically. The sudden action causing a few teens to jump in fright.

"What's his problem." Emmett asks Edward, as I continue to lament my cursed existence.

~}-{~