Jupiter | Harry James Potter

xvii ; fire

"Sirius!" Harry hissed as we creeped into the common room at one A.M. Sirius had written the two of us back, telling both of us to meet him by the fireplace in the common at this time. Both of us were incredibly confused on how Sirius was going to show up in the Gryffindor Common Room, especially with all of the Tri-Wizard guests here, and not to mention, Moody.

I checked my watch. 1:01. Sirius was no where to be seen.

"What if he got caught?" I asked, my body freezing as I stood in front of the fireplace.

"No... we'd know if he got caught. They'd make an announcement or something... right?" Harry said, his face turning oddly pale.

"Psst!"

A flame flew out of the fireplace. Sirius's head was sitting in the fire.

"Sirius! How're you doing?" Harry asked as we scurried down to the floor in front of the hearth. Sirius had looked entirely different than when I last saw him over the summer. His hair was shorter and clean now, his face was fuller, and he looked younger, much more like the photograph I had of him after he graduated.

"Never mind me, how are you?" Sirius asked seriously. "Is Jupiter there? How is she?"

"I'm here. I'm well." I said, a smile pulling at the corner of my lips with the thought of him getting healthier. His letter telling me to meet him at the fireplace wasn't signed 'Sirius' in his albeit sloppy handwriting, but 'Dad.'

A relieved sigh blew out of the fire at my words.

"Harry, don't say you're fine." Sirius added. Harry's mouth shut as he thought about his words.

"I'm scared." Harry admitted, and soon enough, the words began to pour out of him like a broken faucet. "Nobody besides Jupiter and Hermione believe that I didn't put my name in the Goblet. I didn't. I really didn't Sirius. Everyone thinks I did it to get more fame, or to cheat Hufflepuff out of a victory, and now I can't even walk down the hallway without being laughed at or called names. The Daily Prophet wrote a whole newspaper about me, and said that Jupiter and I were dating and how she only talks to me as a ploy for you to try and kill me. Even Ron... even Ron thinks I did it for fame. I don't want it. I never wanted any of it, and I'm so tired. But I can't be tired, because the first task, are dragons. I have to fight a Dragon tomorrow, and I don't know how I'm supposed to that without killing myself. I'm a goner.

Sirius watched him at him, eyes full of concern, eyes that had not yet lost the look that Azkaban had given them — that deadened, haunted look. He had let Harry talk himself into silence without interruption, but now he said, "Dragons we can deal with, Harry, but we'll get to that in a minute. I haven't got long here. I've broken into a wizarding house to use the fire, but they could be back at any time. There are things I need to warn you about."

"What?" Harry asked, his face somehow getting even darker than it had already been. How could there be something worse than dragons coming his way?

"Karkaroff," Sirius said. "Harry, he was a Death Eater. You know what Death Eaters are, don't you?"

"Yes- he- what?"

"He was caught, he was in Azkaban with me, but he got released. I'd bet everything that's why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts this year- to keep an eye on him. Moody caught Karkaroff. Put him into Azkaban in the first place."

"Karkaroff got released?" Harry said slowly. I watched as his brain seemed to be struggling to absorb yet another piece of shocking information.

"Why did they release him?"

"He did a deal with the Ministry of Magic," Sirius grumbled bitterly. "He said he'd seen the error of his ways, and then he named names... he put a load of other people into Azkaban in his place. He's not very popular in there, I can tell you. And since he got out, from what I can tell, he's been teaching the Dark Arts to every student who passes through that school of his. So watch out for the Durmstrang champion as well."