Potter Spawn

Chapter 14

It was ten o'clock in the evening, and Harry and Sirius were sitting on a sofa in the marauders' secret room. Sirius had protectively pulled Harry against his side and his eyes were constantly flickering from the entrance to Harry and back. He had a dark look on his face, one Harry had never seen before – it was protective, wild and threatening, and it reminded him of years spent fighting a war and a decade in Azkaban and a promising career as an auror.

Both of them were lost in thought, the memory of the afternoon and the troll heavy on their minds.

"I think we should tell them", Harry finally said. "Ron, Hermione and Neville. We should tell them about you. I think we can trust them. And it would make things easier."

Sirius nodded. "I suppose so. I trust them. Want to tell them now?"

"Yeah. If you don't think it's too early?"

"The earlier the better. Hermione lied to a teacher for you, they're at least going to hear us out."

"Great. You coming? I think they should still be up."

"Mhm."

Sirius transformed back into a dog and they headed up to the Gryffindor common room.

"Cornucopia", Harry told the Fat Lady and the portrait swung open. He stuck his head through and spotted Ron, Hermione and Neville by the fireplace, playing a game of Gobstones. Neville and Hermione, who had teamed up, appeared to be winning against a scowling Ron. Harry called out to them. "Can I talk to you? I wanted to tell you something. You can continue your match there."

The three of them exchanged glances, then Hermione levitated the board and they stood up to follow Harry and "Buck" to the marauders' room.

"What did you want to talk about, Harry?", Ron asked when they had arrived and placed the Gobstones board safely on the table. Harry glanced at Padfoot.

"Er, I told you guys Sirius Black is my godfather, didn't I?"

"Do you think it could've been him who hexed your broom today?", Ron asked, getting protective. He was rather like Sirius in the ways that mattered, Harry thought.

"No. What I wanted to tell you is... let's start at the beginning. The night my parents died, Sirius was the first to arrive in Godrick's Hollow. He... met Hagrid there, who was supposed to take me to Dumbledore. Sirius didn't want to give me to him, but Hagrid didn't give him much of a choice. So Sirius used a spell that was kind of a family secret – a spell to connect the minds of two people." His friends drew in a sharp breath. "Sirius gave me to Hagrid and left, wanting to find Peter Pettigrew, who had been my parents' secret keeper. A secret keeper is a vital part for the Fidelius Charm, which is supposed to hide a place, an object or sometimes even a person in another person's soul. Only the secret keeper can give the information of the place's whereabouts away, and the place is invisible to everyone but the secret keeper and the people he has told. My parents used the Fidelius to hide their house, and they made their friend Peter the secret keeper. It was Sirius' idea because he thought he would be a too obvious choice, having officially been my dad's best friend since their first year at Hogwarts. Sirius thought Remus, who had not been in contact with them a lot because Dumbledore kept sending him on dangerous, secluded, often unsuccessful missions, had to be the spy Dumbledore had warned them about and he figured no one would suspect shy little Peter, who was very affected by the war and had never been the same after he was kidnapped shortly after my parents' wedding. So he suggested Peter as secret keeper, which turned out to be a fatal mistake. After he was thrown into Azkaban, Sirius forgot about the spell he had used on me, until one day when I was four, I accidentally opened the communication channel. He told me about my parents and the wizarding world, and he taught me how to look after myself and how to be a prankster. When I got my Hogwarts letter, he managed to escape from Azkaban – and he's been with me ever since. Sirius is innocent."

Harry was breathing heavily by the end of his speech. He didn't dare to look his friends in the eye, but he did glance at their faces. Ron, Hermione and Neville were staring at him slack – jawed, their expressions disbelieving.

"A-are you serious?", Neville finally stuttered.

"No he's not, he's Harry. I'm Sirius."

Three shrieks melted into one as three heads snapped around to stare at a grinning Sirius Black, sitting where "Buck" had been just seconds ago. He didn't look particularly wanted criminal-y, with his (still very long) hair somewhat brushed and pulled back, muddy combat boots and his Hella Proud Dogfather t-shirt.

"You're Sirius Black, then?" Hermione's voice sounded unusually small.

"Yup." He popped the p, which might or might not have helped his case.

"So... you're innocent. And national hero Peter Pettigrew is a traitor. And a murderer." Ron sounded as flabbergasted as he looked.

"Yup. I'd prefer it if you left out the 'national hero' part when referring to Peter, the dirty rat."

"And you're an animagus."

"As were James and Peter. James turned into a stag, Peter into a rat."

"And Remus is a werewolf, isn't he?" The quiet question had them all staring at Hermione in shock.

"How did you figure that out so quickly?", Sirius almost squeaked. Hermione blushed. "You practically told me. I mean, his nickname is Moony and he has lots of scars that look like claw marks..."

"Incredible." Sirius was still staring at her. "You've been in the wizarding world, how long? A couple of months?"

Hermione turned even redder but didn't answer.

"Why should we trust you?" Ron's question had them returning back to the topic at hand immediately. "We've only just met you. For all we know, you could've tricked Harry into trusting you."

"If he had, he would've murdered me months ago, Ron."

The ginger nodded slowly. "I suppose."

Sirius gave him a tentative grin. "So we're good?"

"I suppose we are. Nev? Mione? What do you think?"

The two exchanged glances. "I suppose." "Yeah, I think so..."

Dogfather and dogson beamed. "Great! Who's up for a Gobstones tournament?"

"We're hiding a wanted criminal", Neville muttered wide-eyed.