A Little Help from a Snake // Tomarry

Part 27

Reposted: November 8, 2021

——————————

This chapter is fairly dialogue heavy, which is quite common in my writing, and unedited

Sirius nearly leapt out of his skin when he heard the dinstinctive pop. His head shot up, fearful that Dumbledore had somehow found him, only to grin when he saw who it was. "Harry! How have you been?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Harry replied.

"You didn't answer my question."

"I'm fine, Sirius." He looked around the room. "Nice place you got here," he remarked. The furniture, he noted, was broken. Ghosts definitely didn't do that.

"Yeah, well, it worked in our favor."

"Our?" Harry said, turning back to his godfather with a raised eyebrow.

"You know I'm an Animagus," Sirius began to explain. "Well, I didn't become one for the heck of it. Your father, Pettigrew, and I all became one to help Remus with his transformations."

"What was my father's?" Harry asked.

"A stag." Sirius smiled sadly, lost in his memories. "That's why we called him Prongs."

'What a coincidence,' Azure commented as Harry stiffened in realization. 'It's like Prongs from the Marauder's Map— oh.'

Harry began fishing around inside his bag. "I'm pretty sure this is familiar to you," he said, holding out the map.

The widening of Sirius' eyes confirmed this. "Where did you get that?"

"Fred and George Weasley had it," Harry replied. He removed his wand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

The now familiar words appeared on the parchment. Sirius chuckled wryly. "Same old map," he said fondly.

"So my dad was Prongs, and I'm guessing Lupin is Moony," Harry said. "Which one are you?"

"Padfoot. Which leaves Pettigrew as—"

"Wormtail," Harry finished unenthusiastically. "When you all made the map, did you do something to it? Because I can't see Lupin or Pettigrew anywhere."

Sirius nodded. "Only us four can see each other's names. But we can add people. Here, give me your hand."

Harry extended his right hand. Sirius took it and pressed it to the map. Warmth shot through Harry as Sirius concentrated on his magic. A moment later, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew appeared on the map.

"Wicked," Harry whispered.

'I still can't see,' Azure whined. 'Where's the rat?'

'In the Gryffindor dorm,' Harry replied, staring hard at the name as if he could somehow inflict pain through the map. Sirius was also glaring at Pettigrew's name, which was next to Ron's.

Professor Lupin was moving about in his office in an agitated way. Harry made a mental note to ask Dobby what was wrong with him.

"You still don't know whose side Remus is on?" Sirius asked.

Harry shook his head. "No, but Dobby is keeping an eye out," he told him.

"That's good," Sirius said, somewhat appeased.

"Sirius, are you sure Lupin would be on our side? I mean, quite a bit of time had passed since you last saw him." And if there was one thing Dumbledore was good at, it was manipulating others.