The Necromancer

Chapter 42

"It appears that some cosmetic charm just failed," Harry said with a hesitant smile, as though he was embarrassed on Tonks' behalf. He knew, of course, that Tonks had just accidentally shifted a part of her body thanks to her metamorphmagus powers, but he played it off as a cosmetic charm acting up to give her an out. "Your hair just turned a delightful shade of pink."

"Ugly hair, ugly hair," V cawed while he titled his head to take a good look at Tonks' new hair colour.

Tonks opened and closed her mouth a few times as Sirius came strolling up to them. She looked from Harry to Sirius and back and then raised a trembling hand to touch her own hair. "Ah, yes, I've been using a few charms lately and some of them just will not stick." She managed an uncertain smile, probably not sure if Harry would buy such an explanation.

Harry studiously ignored the issue, not wanting to give Tonks the impression that she'd been found out. He was enjoying himself far too much, shocking her at every turn.

"Sirius Black was You Know Who's most trusted servant," Tonks whispered urgently as she leaned closer to Harry. "He betrayed your parents to their deaths."

Just as Harry made to respond to that, James came floating out of Broomstix and made a beeline for Harry. "Why don't you ask my dad who really betrayed them?" Harry gave Tonks a challenging look while he crossed his arms. By that point Sirius had reached them and Tonks lost whatever colour had been left in her face. Her sudden pallid complexion clashed horribly with her bright pink hair.

"Ask me what?" James said as he floated closer, giving Tonks a curious look. "Hello, I'm James Potter, nice to meet you."

"Er..." Tonks swallowed a few times, gaze darting back and forth between Sirius and James, who stood amicably side by side. "I'm Doreen Jones. A pleasure to meet you, too." Tonks seemed to take a few moments to gather herself, squaring her shoulders as she did so. "I was merely expression my concerns that Sirius Black is a convicted Death Eater."

Sirius got an incredibly sour look on his face while James actually laughed, throwing his head back and everything. "I can guarantee, Miss Jones, that Sirius was never a Death Eater. He also never betrayed us, because Peter Pettigrew was the Secret Keeper. Sirius did not kill him, nor any of those muggles. They died in an explosion caused by Peter while he scurried away like the illegal rat Animagus that he is."

"Dumbledore wanted me gone so he could get at Harry's money," Sirius said while narrowing his eyes at Tonks. "So he gave me a sham of a trial, and had me convicted and executed so I was no longer in the line of people who would inherit Harry's fortune before Dumbledore."

"Wait, what?" Tonks' mouth dropped open again. It had been doing that a lot in the past ten minutes. "Is that true?"

Harry nodded, arms still crossed, hip jutted out as he waited casually for Tonks to finally understand the bigger picture. "Hence why I rescued my godfather from beyond the veil. Of course, the good news is that he served his sentence in Britain now and that he's officially a free man again."

Tonks blinked, her pink hair growing a shade brighter. "That's...actually true. He was convicted to be thrown through the veil, which he was."

"Exactly." Harry's grin was full of satisfaction. "So even if Britain gets their knickers in a twist over Sirius living here, legally there is nothing that they can do. They convicted him and carried out his sentence. Case closed."

"I suppose so, yeah," Tonks agreed in a whisper, though she still looked rather dubious about the whole thing. Harry regretted not being able to see the faces of Bones and Fudge and Dumbledore when Tonks pointed this out to them. Still, he had family members who would be witnessing those moments and they would give Harry a detailed account, he was sure.