Chapter 590: What are you here for? (Edited)

"Ahem? Well... I did lie."

The exposed Sirius had to admit it, but he was still arguing evasively. "But at this hour it's unlikely that anyone from the Ministry of Magic is still watching the Red Flu, so it's not that big a deal."

Or rather, Sirius didn't think he was being persuasive, he just thought so.

But apparently Hermione didn't think so, either....

"Is it too dangerous?" she shouted, "If the Ministry finds out, the entire Order of the Phoenix will be in big trouble!"

"You sound just like Molly," Sirius said scornfully, "It's the only way I can get past answering Harry's letter without having to use codes, which can be cracked."

At the mention of Harry's letter, Hermione and Ron turned their heads to look at him.

"Fish knows."

?(ΦωΦ)?

Fish raised his arm and said, "Fish ran into Harry when he went to mail his letter!".

"Why hadn't you mentioned that to me?" Hermione said reproachfully.

"Nya?" Fish cocked his head to one side, confused. "Why would I tell Hermione? And Fish doesn't even remember."

Hermione rolled her eyes helplessly, knowing that it was completely pointless to get angry at Fish... and that it wasn't really her fault.

So she turned to Sirius and said seriously, "I think you should go back right now.... We can go to Dumbledore for Harry's question."

"I've been here so long that the Ministry would have found out by now," Sirius said hoarsely. "You'd better let me talk to Harry once and for all, I don't think I can do it later anyway."

He shot Hermione a slightly grumpy look.

Because Sirius knew that Hermione would go to Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall to inform them of the night's events, and then he would definitely be banned from using the Red Flu to talk to Harry.

"What do you say?" Hermione turned her head to look at Harry.

Harry agreed that Sirius was taking too much of a risk, but he really wanted to talk to his godfather for a while.

So, after some hesitation, he said, "Just this once, Hermione."

"I'll tell Professor McGonagall everything that happened tonight." Hermione folded her arms and looked at them in exasperation.

Harry averted his gaze guiltily, and Sirius simply didn't care.

"Well, we'd better hurry up before someone interrupts.... well... Or the Ministry of Magic finds out."

Sirius gave Hermione a furtive stab, then smiled at Harry and said, "About your scar, I don't think it's really anything to worry about. You were in a lot of pain last year too, weren't you?"

"Yes, Dumbledore said my scar hurts whenever Voldemort has a strong mood swing," Harry said with a shrug, "So I only mentioned it in passing."

As for his mention of Voldemort's name, no one in the room reacted much.

Not to mention Sirius, Harry and Fish, who weren't afraid of Voldemort, and Ron and Hermione, who were also calm.

After all, Harry and Fish had called him by his first name twice in three days, and Fish had a history of defeating him one-on-one head-on, so their fear of Voldemort was gone.

Then they talked about Dolores Umbridge, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

Sirius mentioned her hatred of half-humans, not only for writing laws against werewolves two years ago, but also for wasting time and energy chasing after mermaids.

"No wonder Fish felt that she didn't seem to like Fish nya very much..."

(?ω?)

Fish frowned, twitching his cat ears on the top of his head, unhappy.

"Ah... there are always people who have different preferences than the norm." Sirius let out a slight chuckle, "And in the eyes of many wizards, half-humans like mermaids and centaurs aren't that cool, Umbridge is just more extreme."

"She herself looks like a toad nya?".

(`н)

Fish said with a pout, crossing his arms.

"Hahahahahahahahahaha?" Sirius laughed out loud at Fish's comment, nodding his head as he said, "Maybe that's why she hates half-humans so much."

Even Hermione let out a small snort of amusement, but Fish was confused as to what was so funny about Sirius' comment.

"How was Umbridge's class?" Sirius asked, wiping tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes. "Did she teach you all how to kill half-humans?".

"No," grumbled Harry to Sirius, "He won't let us use magic for anything."

"We just read that boring textbook." Added Ron as an aside.

"Fish knows why nya."

?(ΦωΦ)?

Just as Sirius was about to share with Harry the information the Order of the Phoenix had obtained from inside the Ministry of Magic, Fish beat him to it.

"Fudge is afraid that Albus will organize the students of the school into an army and fight with the Ministry of Magic nya."

Sirius was a little disappointed that he hadn't been able to make his presence felt.

But Harry and Ron didn't have time to fixate on their emotions for the moment, they were both stunned at Fish's words.

"I've never heard anything so stupid, not even Luna Lovegood's crazy talk." After a few moments of silence, Ron shook his head and sighed.

"Luna is not crazy or stupid, and her grades are better than yours nya."

(ˇˇ)

Fish looked at Ron sadly.

In Fish's mind, Luna, who told him all sorts of funny stories, was much more interesting than Ron, who was so dumb.

Ron didn't have the guts or courage to argue with Fish, so he apologized with a smile, and Fish looked away.

"Fudge let Umbridge stop us from learning Defense Against the Dark Arts for such a ridiculous reason?" Harry redirected the conversation.

"Yes," Sirius said, "Fudge believes that Dumbledore will do anything to usurp his power. He grows more suspicious of Dumbledore every day and one day he'll make up trumped up charges to have Dumbledore arrested."

"Like Sturgis Podmore in yesterday's The Daily Prophet?" asked Hermione.

"I'm not sure about Stooge," said Sirius, shaking his head. "I haven't seen anyone from the Order of the Phoenix all weekend, they've been very busy. It's been just Kreacher and I the whole time..."

The pain was evident in his voice.

It was obviously very frustrating for Sirius to see everyone running around the Order of the Phoenix, while he was stuck in that disgusting ancestral house.

"So you don't know anything about Hagrid either, do you?". asked Harry again.

"Ah..."

Just as Sirius was about to speak, Fish interrupted the conversation again.

"Fish knows too nya." Fish raised his head triumphantly, "Hagrid and Olympus... Fleur and Gabrielle's headmistress, went to the giants together nya?"

(`´)

Sirius looked at Fish with resentment in his eyes.

It was a rare occasion when he had been able to show himself in front of Harry with that piece of information that was well known in the Order of the Phoenix, but it had all been spoiled by Fish...which made him even more frustrated than he already was.

As before, Harry didn't care about his godfather, he was more concerned about Hagrid's situation.

"They're going to the giants? What are they going to do with the giants?" He asked anxiously.

"Yes, that's what Fang nya said."

"I think Dumbledore is trying to get to the giants before Voldemort does."

Fish and Hermione said a few words, and said everything Sirius had been about to say to Harry.

Sirius, who was already in a very bad mood, couldn't help but interrupt the discussion, "Look, don't talk about Hagrid in front of the others, it will draw more attention to the fact that he hasn't come back, and I know Dumbledore wouldn't want that."

Seeing that Harry still looked worried, he softened again, "Don't worry, Hagrid is good, he'll be fine."

Fish nodded and said, "That's right, and Olympus is good too, plus she can use Apparition. They can still escape if things go wrong."

Harry was a little relieved.

"By the way, when are you coming to Hogsmeade village again for the weekend? I've been thinking, we did a good job of impersonating dogs at the train station last time, didn't we? I think I can..." Sirius then brought up one of the main things he had come to see Harry about.

"No!"

However, this time he still didn't finish the sentence, only this time it was Harry and Hermione who interrupted him.

"Sirius, don't you read the Daily Prophet?" Hermione asked worriedly, Saturday's paper had mentioned that Sirius had been spotted in London.

"Ah, that," Sirius said with an unimpressed smile, "They always guess where I am, but they don't really get any clues..."

"But Peter Pettigrew must have told Voldemort about your Animagus form, back when there were Death Eaters at the station." As much as Harry wanted to meet Sirius, he kept his wits about him.

"Well, I see," Sirius said, in disgust, "I thought you'd like to meet."

"I would, I just wouldn't want you to get thrown in Azkaban again..." said Harry.

There was a moment of silence, Sirius looked up at Harry from the fire, and the emotions he had been repressing finally burst out.

"You're not as much like your father as I thought you were," he said, the coldness evident in his voice, "For Jamed, the only fun is the adventure."

"But..."

However Sirius had already lost interest in continuing the conversation with Harry, he made a random excuse and said, "Well, I have to go, I heard Kreacher come down, you can text me if you need anything."

"Just a moment!"

∑(ΦДΦ)

Fish suddenly called Sirius, "Can you get in touch with Albus for Fish? Fish needs to see him."

"Sure thing." Sirius nodded, but then asked in confusion, "Why don't you call Professor McGonagall?"

"Minerva and the others are busy, Albus has given them a lot of work..." said Fish matter-of-factly, "Anyway, you have nothing else to do, so of course Fish should ask you for help nya."

"..." Sirius' face turned sullen instantly, "I'll let Dumbledore know! Nothing else? I'm off!"

With a soft poof, his head disappeared and the fire came back into existence.

Without Sirius, the atmosphere was a bit regimented, Harry was sullen and didn't want to talk, Ron wanted to comfort him but didn't know what to say, and Hermione was so disgusted with Sirius' attitude and thoughts that she didn't want to speak for him.

"Hermione," Fish, the only one who wasn't affected, scratched the back of his neck and asked with a puzzled look on his face, "What is Sirius doing here tonight?"

(?ω?)