Second Chances

“Snape called him arrogant.” Harry said bitterly. On his way back to his house common room he came upon Professor Black. Lara Black had been a long time friend of his father. She was his only source of reliable information about his father. Harry couldn’t remember his parents since he had only been a baby when they had died.
“Snape would.” She told the thirteen year old very plainly. “With good reason too.” Harry looked at the Muggle Studies teacher appalled. It was clearly not the answer he had expected. “I know you’re used to hearing about how you’re father was an amazing wizard in every way, which he was. What you don’t hear is that he really could be an arrogant bastard. He knew he was cool and he soaked up the attention.” Lara explained. She looked over for Harry’s reaction and finally found him standing dead still as if in shock a good ten paces behind her.
“But everybody always says how much they loved him.” He stammered.
Lara shook her head. “Snape kept to himself at school. James was simply a bully when it came to Severus Snape’s mere existence.” She told him. They continued walking down the dark castle halls. When they reached the portrait that guarded Gryffindor Tower Harry recited the password and the large glided frame swung open. “Harry, forget Snape. Even if he was a bit of a bully as a kid means nothing. James Potter was a good person, and the best friend that I could have ever asked for. Whatever Snape says against him is his over developed sense of vengeance that he’ll never get by picking on you. He’s just being a prat. Get to bed and no more sneaking about after curfew!” she finished with a half hearted scold. After all, she could never try to count the number of times she had done the very same thing while she was a student.
Harry nodded despite being a bit confused about who his father had really been. “So I’m just supposed to tell myself that Snape is a prat?” he questioned amusedly. Professor Black affirmed. “Well, I already do that!”
Lara went to bed that night hating herself. What right did she have turning James into a bad guy? Especially since he wasn’t a bad guy. James Potter had been one of the most chivalrous men she had ever known. He had stood up for her countless times and had even asked her to be the godmother of the children that he and Lily were not yet planning to have. It struck her now, nearly four years after she first learned of the Potter’s deaths, how truly wrong that whole event had been. Harry deserved to have his parents with him, and he hadn’t deserved growing up with his aunt and uncle, never knowing what his parents had done for him. He hadn’t deserved being beaten by his cousin, and he hadn’t deserved the lies about who he was. Lara, having been dead the night the Potters died, had no knowledge of the miserable life her godson had been leading until he was eleven years old. She herself had been oblivious of the magical world for sixteen years after being reborn into a Muggle family. She never learned of Harry’s existence until only weeks before he learned the truth himself on his eleventh birthday. Even now, three years later, Harry didn’t realize that his Muggle studies teacher was in fact his godmother. Lara couldn’t find a way to justify keeping this from him. She had promised she would though, and therefore continued with her attempts to treat Harry as she would treat any other student. While Lara pondered her morals in the dark of her room she found herself gazing at the blackened lawns that were the Hogwarts Grounds. Having nothing to stare at but grass and empty pathways was not particularly fascinating so when a black dog came bounding out the trees of the forest she nearly fell over backwards. Pulling herself together she watched the dog carefully as it ran toward the castle. Instead of heading for the main entrance he stopped and looked around. Seconds later he went around the side of the building and out of Lara’s sight. Even though she was perfectly ready to go to bed the dog made her uneasy and she headed out into the dark corridors to find Professor Reamus Lupin.
Lara tiptoed up the stairs to Remus’s office. She opened the door a crack and looked in. Reamus was bent over his desk staring at something. Lara raised her hand to knock on the door.
“It’s awfully late for a visit Lara. I thought you would be asleep by now.” He said without ever looking up.
“How’d you know it was me?” she asked closing the door behind her.
“I saw you coming.” He said pointing at the parchment on his desk. “This has just been confiscated from Mr. Potter.”
Lara walked around the desk and looked over Remus’s shoulder. The parchment was in fact a map. A very familiar map that Lara, Reamus and their friends had put to very good, but mischievous, use in their school days. It was the Marauder’s Map named after its creators: James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. It had been confiscated from them in their seventh year and Lara had assumed it had been thrown out. On the paper she saw the very office she was in and herself and Remus depicted as two black dots labeled with their names. Lara stared at the old map for a moment wrapped up in the memories it dragged up. “We probably would have been expelled if we hadn’t had that map.” She sighed. Referring to herself and her other friends reminded her of why she was there to begin with. “I just saw Sirius.” She said. “Just now out on the grounds. Came running out of the forest.”
“Sirius came running out of the forest with Dementors floating around everywhere? I don’t care how long he’s been in Azkaban, but he is not that stupid.” Reamus told her.
“No, he was a dog. Dementors can’t sense animals, just people. Walking into the castle as a dog would be the perfect way to get to Harry.” Lara explained.
“Lara, I’m not sure that Sirius is after Harry.” Reamus said, looking at her for the first time. “Harry said that he had left his dormitory because the map told him that Peter Pettigrew had been in the castle, but he had thought Pettigrew to be dead. We all thought he was dead, but I don’t think he died. And I don’t think that Sirius had anything to do with Lily and James dying. Lara, I think it was Peter. Peter sold them out to Voldemort, and Sirius tried to kill him, but Peter disappeared.” Reamus said all in one breath.
“But somebody can’t just disappear, and Peter couldn’t have betrayed them. He wasn’t the secret keeper, Sirius was.” She protested.
“I doubt that Harry was hallucinating, Lara. If he saw Pettigrew on the map than Pettigrew was on the map, and if he was on the map than he is alive. Sirius was framed. He’s not here looking for Harry, he’s here looking for Peter.” Reamus said firmly.
“We have to find him. If somebody else does he’ll be turned over to the Dementors!” Lara said.
“We can’t go looking for him!” Remus said grabbing her arm to keep her from running out the door. “How would that look? Us trying to help the most hated man Azkaban has seen in a long time? The entire world thinks he’s a murderer, and just because we know he’s not won’t change anybody’s mind. What we need to do is find Pettigrew. I’ve looked all over the map. He’s nowhere.”
The next few weeks were spent wandering the castle during ever single spare minute the two could find. Their nights were spent staring at the map spread out to its full capacity on the floor so that they couldn’t miss him. Peter Pettigrew, however, proved to be tricky. Several times Lara swore she saw his name on the map but when she actually looked there was never anything there. At the end of the third week Lara was exhausted. She hadn’t slept in a long time. She dragged herself up to Remus’s office and collapsed into a chair. “I never want to see that damned map again after all this!” she said bitterly.
“Lara, don’t get your hopes up. There may be nothing that we can do.” Remus told her as he handed over a cup of tea. “If we can’t actually get our hands on Pettigrew there’s nothing we can do. We have to prove that he’s alive, and in order to do that we need to have him in person.”
“Reamus, if Sirius finds Pettigrew before us he’ll kill him. If he kills Pettigrew then he’ll actually be committing the crime that got him locked up to begin with and he’ll just have to go back to Azkaban.” Lara said thoughtfully, but nervously.
“Don’t you dare go looking for him. He thinks you’re dead, remember?” Remus told her. “We can’t have anything to do with him until we have Pettigrew.”
“It would be really nice to have something else to think about. Unfortunately it’s just this and Buckbeak for now.” Lara muttered.
“Is there a date yet?” Remus asked over the rim of his cup.
“Next Thursday.” She said. “When Draco was a first year I tried to tell myself that he wasn’t his father, but as it turns out he’s a miniature clone of his father. Just as arrogant, just as rude. It’s a shame really, that Narcissa got stuck with such a horrible husband, and now a horrible son. She was always alright.” Said Lara. Remus nodded his agreement.
Next Thursday seemed to come much faster than next Thursdays normally come. Lara taught her morning classes, but canceled her afternoon ones. She wanted to visit Buckbeak. Nobody except Hagrid and Remus knew that Buckbeak belonged to her and not to the gamekeeper. Buckbeak was tied up outside Hagrid’s cabin. She walked up to him and sat down on the ground. Most people would have never walked up to a hippogriff without bowing, but Buckbeak was different and just so happened to be very fond and protective of Lara. He didn’t seem to know that in six hours he was no longer going to be alive, but the lack of that knowledge didn’t seem to bother him. After a while Lara couldn’t stand it anymore and dragged herself back up to the castle. She went straight to Remus’s office hoping that he would be in the mood to let her cry all over him just like he did when they were kids. When she got there the office was very empty. She sat down behind the desk to wait and happened to notice the map sticking out of a drawer. She set it in front of her and muttered the charm so that the map would become visible. The last time they had been watching it they had been interrupted and had not paid much attention to how they folded the map back up. Because of this the panel that was visible was of the grounds. The Whomping Willow in particular. Off to the side, hidden in what Lara knew to be a hedge, was a black dot labeled Sirius Black. Lara snatched up the map and ran out of the office looking for Remus. It took her nearly two hours to track him down. When she found him she shoved the map in his face and pointed to the hedge. Remus gasped at what he saw.
“We have to go.” He said. “Now.”
“What happened to having nothing to do with Sirius?” she exclaimed as Remus grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the castle.
“Look at the bloody map, Lara!” he shouted at her.
Lara wrenched her hand free from Remus and looked at the map. Sirius was no longer the only dot there. So were Peter, and Harry Potter. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were also at the Whomping Willow. “Oh no,”
The two took off towards the Willow, which was on the other side of the castle and once you got there it was still a good distance away. Lara glanced at the map as they ran and saw the dots that were Sirius, Peter, and Ron disappeare into the tree itself.
“Reamus, Sirius is taking them to the Shrieking Shack.” She panted as they ran.
“Them? Who’s them?”
“Ron and Peter are with them.
“Weasley?” he asked. “That’s not good. Harry and Hermione will go after him.”
“I know.” Lara said.
Nearly ten minutes later they finally arrived at the tree. Harry and Hermione were nowhere in sight, and were no longer on the map either. Reamus froze the tree and the two of them darted to the secret opening at its routes. It was a passage way the Remus knew very well. Even though it was dark Remus did not light his wand, and Lara just stayed close hoping that he remembered all the turns and pot holes they might come upon. It wasn’t a terribly long walk, but Lara was very relieved to see the ladder
that led up to the most haunted building in Britain that sat directly above them. Quietly the two followed the muddy footprints down a dark dusty hall. Remus burst through the door with his wand ready. Lara stayed just out of sight.
“Well, Sirius, looking rather ragged aren’t we?” Remus said looking down. Lara leaned in a little to get a glimpse. Harry must have tackled Sirius. He was just picking himself up, but Sirius remained on the floor looking up at Remus very amused. “Finally the flesh reflects the madness within.” said Remus. He held out his hand to help his friend up.
“Well you’d know all about the madness within wouldn’t you, Remus?” Sirius said as he took the offered hand.
From out of sight Lara heard Hermione’s voice. “No!” she shouted. “I trusted you, and all this time you were his friend! He’s a werewolf! That’s why he’s been missing classes.”
“How long have you known?” Remus asked.
“Since Professor Snape set the essay.”
“My, my, Hermione. You really are the brightest witch of your age I’ve ever known.”
“Enough talk Remus!” Sirius shouted. “Let’s kill him!”
“Alright. But wait just one more minute. Harry has the right to know why.” Remus said trying to sound reasonable.
At this point Lara heard something behind her. Footsteps back by the ladder. Knowing that barging in might not have been the best idea, she stepped into the room and let the dilapidated door swing closed behind her. She had tried to do this with out being seen but the hinges squeaked loudly. Everybody’s heads turned in her direction. “Heh heh, um…. Hi Sirius?” she stuttered.
“Lara!” Remus said rather exasperated. “I wanted you to wait out there!”
“Well, Remus! Somebody else is out there!” she said sarcastically. At that moment the door swung open and somebody pushed Lara out of the way angrily. Lara found herself on the floor by Harry and his friends. She looked around and found Severus standing where she had been just seconds before. “You ass!” she shouted at him.
Severus completely ignored her. His eyes were firmly set upon Sirius Black. He had his wand pointed steadily at Sirius and a overjoyed look danced in his eyes. He looked at Remus. “I told Dumbledore that you were helping an old friend into the castle.” He said. “And here’s the proof.”
Sirius chuckled. “Once again you’ve put your keen and penetrating mind to the test and come to the wrong conclusion.”
“Sirius,” Remus warned.
“Shut up, Remus.”
“Oh, listen to you two. Quarrelling like and old married couple.” Snape said.
“Why don’t you go play with your chemistry set?” Sirius spat.
Severus jabbed his wand into the side of Sirius’s neck. “Severus, don’t be a fool.” Remus said.
“He can’t help it. It’s habit by now.” Sirius laughed.
“That’s enough!” Lara shouted as she got up off the floor. “Severus you have no idea what you’re getting into right now. Sirius isn’t the one you want. You want Peter.”
Severus let go of Sirius. “But Pettigrew’s dead?” Severus said.
“No he’s not.” Lara and Remus said at once.
Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, a spell zoomed passed Lara and hit Severus squarely in the chest. He went flying into the wall beyond and slumped to the floor unconscious.
“Tell me about Pettigrew!” Harry demanded.
“He was at school with us. We thought he was our friend.” Remus explained.
“But Pettigrew’s dead!” Harry said. “You killed him!” he accused pointing at his godfather.
“That’s what we thought as well.” Lara told him.
“Until you mentioned seeing Pettigrew on the map.” Remus continued.
“The map was lying then.” said Harry firmly.
“The map never lies!” Sirius interrupted. “Pettigrew’s alive. And he’s here! In this room!”
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked rather thunderstruck. Sirius ignored them. “Come out, come out, Peter! Come out, come out and play!” he said in a rather cruel sing song manner.
“Sirius, stop teasing!” Lara reprimanded. “If you’re going to kill the bastard kill him already so we can be done with this!”
Sirius stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Lara. It was as if he had forgotten that someone who he had known to be dead (and to whom he had been engaged) had walked in the room just minutes ago. “But you--”
“I know.” Lara said. “It seems to have been a temporary condition. You said Peter’s in the room? Enlighten me.”
“He’s right there!” Sirius said jubilantly pointing toward Ron.
“Me?” Ron stammered. “He’s mental!”
“Not you! Your rat!” Sirius said annoyed.
It instantly all fell into place. Peter had betrayed the Potter’s, and when Sirius had caught up with him it had been Peter who cast the spell that killed so many people. Peter had cut off his own finger, which was for so long believed to be his only remains. Then he used his power as an Animagus to transform into a rat. Lara assumed that he had probably escaped in the sewers and had left Sirius on a demolished street surrounded by dead muggles, and with a wand in his hand.
“Show me.” Harry said skeptically. Lara could tell that he really wanted to believe that Sirius was innocent.
Ron’s pet rat, Scabbers, squirmed frantically out of his hands and ran across the floor. Sirius and Remus both cast their spells and missed. The second try turned the old rat into a rather foul looking man with watery eyes and one missing finger. Ron stared at the man with disgust.
“Remus?” Peter simpered. “Sirius? My old friends!” Without waiting for a response he made a run for the door which Harry blocked. Sirius shoved him back.
“You should have realized, Peter, that if Voldemort didn’t kill you then we would!” Sirius said.
“You sold James and Lily to Voldemort, didn’t you!” said Remus.
“I didn’t mean to!” Peter defended weakly. “You’ve no idea the weapons the Dark Lord possesses. Ask yourself what you’d have done, Sirius. What would you have done?”
“I would have died!” Sirius shouted. “I would have died rather than betray my friends!”
Lara’s mind was trying to work much faster than it was able to at the minute. As a result she found it very hard to put in words what she had just realized. It was something Remus should have realized a long time ago. He had always been the smart one after all. And now that Lara thought about it she remembered that she had mentioned this very thing before. They couldn’t kill Peter to prove Sirius’s innocence. It was just a backwards thing to do. Unfortunately, it looked as if Lara had not found her words soon enough. Harry wasn’t having any issues at all though.
“No, wait!” he said stepping between them and Peter.
“Harry, this man is—“
“I know what he is. But we’ll take him to the castle.”
Within minutes they were all back in the dark dirt passage way walking back to the castle. Harry and Sirius took the lead helping Ron along behind them. Lara was next along with Hermione. Remus took up the rear with Peter well in hand. Things seemed to be working out better than Lara had expected them to. She had imagined something happening to ruin the whole operation. But, it looked at the
moment that they would be able to clear Sirius’s name after all. Not even the Minister would be able to accuse Sirius of Peter’s death when Peter was right there in front of him. Once they were out of the way of the tree’s deadly branches things changed.
Lara headed to the castle to bring Dumbledore up to date on the night’s events, and so that the Minister could be notified as well. It seemed to take an extremely long time to reach the Headmaster’s office. The corridors were dark and deserted. Finally she reached the spinning stone stairs. At the top she knocked twice and let herself in.
“Uncle, we need to talk.” She said as she closed the door behind her. The fireplace was ablaze with emerald flames and for a moment she thought that her uncle had just left using the Floo Network. Then she noticed that he was sitting in the armchair by the hearth. Suddenly a man came tumbling out of the fire dressed in a hideous pin-striped robe and a lime green bowler cap. It was the Minister.
“Ah, Lara!” her uncle greeted happily while virtually ignoring the soot covered government official standing right in front of him. “What brings you here tonight?”
“Uh, well, it’s sort of a long story.” She said
“Should we perhaps wait until I’m done waiting with Cornelius?” the Headmaster asked.
“Can’t do that. It’s sort of an emergency.” Lara told him. “And it’s quite useful that the Minister is here actually. See, I can prove that Sirius Black is innocent, and that means that you, Minister, need to call the Dementors off immediately.”
“What is this proof?” the Minister asked.
“Well, it’s waiting for us down by the Willow.” Lara said.
“It certainly is a wonderful night for a walk.” Albus said pleasantly. “Shall we then?” he said opening the door for his niece.
It had taken Lara nearly fifthteen minutes to reach the Headmaster’s office, and she was worried about another fifthteen minutes passing before they reached the Whomping Willow. However, they hadn’t yet even reached the castle exit when the Deputy Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall, can running up to them.
“Albus!” she said out of breath. “They caught him Albus. Black. He’s in the Dark Tower. And Potter and his friends are all in the Hospital wing. Poppy says they’ll be fine. But, Albus, Severus said Remus is missing. You don’t think he could be out in the grounds as a werewolf, do you?”
“Pettigrew!” Lara gasped. “What happened to Pettigrew?”
“Who?” Minerva asked.
“Peter Pettigrew! He’s not dead. Sirius never touched him, or the Potters. It was all Pettigrew’s fault. We had him. He’s been living as a rat all these years. Dammit! I got to go find him.” She said running out of the castle exasperated.
Lara ran straight to the gamekeeper’s cabin by the lake. She burst through the door. “Hagrid! I need your help. Hurry.” she said. Lara grabbed hold of Fang’s color and the three of them left the cabin. “Remus is about somewhere, and it’s a full moon. We need to be careful. But more importantly we need to find Peter Pettigrew.” She explained.
“Pettigrew? Pettigrew’s dead. Thought you knew that.” Hagrid puzzled.
“No he’s not. He’s an unregistered Animagus. Just like James, Sirius, and I.” Lara said all in one breath. “Pettigrew turned out to be Ron’s rat. Scabbers.”
“Scabbers! I had Scabbers in my cabin for nearly four days waiting ter run inter Ron and give em back!”
“Doesn’t matter now. They have Sirius, and the Dementors are just waiting for the word. We have to hurry.” Lara said as she took Fang and headed into the forest. Hagrid took a different route. By the time it was midnight Lara had become quite discouraged. She hadn’t come across Remus, or Peter,
and all that Fang had done was chase and kill a few rabbits. She dragged herself back to Hagrid’s cabin. Hagrid was already there with the same results that she had.
Lara had just stated to walk away when Hagrid stopped her. “I forgot to tell ya.” He said joyfully. “Buckbeak’s fine! They went outside and he was jus gone. Vanished!”
Lara managed to smile, but this news did not help her much. It wasn’t pleasant to know that your fiancé’s soul was going to be stolen and you wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. When they has found Peter Lara had been sure that they would be able to pick up where they had left off. They would finally be married, and would go back to the cabin they had bought in the Irish countryside. But without Peter nothing would change. Sirius would still be a prisoner. She went back to her room and sat by her window for a long time. Nothing seemed real. Nothing outside was moving. It was like a painting. One moment frozen in time. It was a moment Lara did not like to see drawn out like that. It was nearly three in the morning when there was a knock on her door. She opened to find Harry Potter.
“Sirius wanted me to give you this.” He said and handed her an envelope.
“What?” Lara said confused. It didn’t seem to her that somebody missing a soul would be able to write a letter.
“You’ll have to ask Hermione because whatever happened tonight makes virtually no sense to me. Sirius told me to give this to you so that’s what I’m doing.” Harry said.
Lara took the letter. “Thanks.”
“Um, Professor, why did Sirius look at you like that? When we were in the Shrieking Shack.” Harry asked quietly.
Lara smiled. She forgot sometimes how little Harry knew. “Sirius and I were engaged before I died.” She said.
Harry stared at her. “You were what?”
“We’d been dating since our fourth year. Quite frankly, it was about time when he finally asked me. We’d been together for seven years.”
“Oh,” Harry said with one eyebrow raised.
“Go to bed before you fall over.” Lara told him. Harry nodded and muttered a goodnight.
Lara sat back down at the window. She hadn’t been expecting any final words from Sirius and the idea of reading them when she knew he was already gone frightened her enough to simply stare at the envelope rather than open it. Lara had always been curious though, and sometimes it had a way of getting the best of her. Lara picked the envelope up again and turned it over. There was no seal. The flap was simply tucked into the envelope to keep it closed. She lifted the flap and turned the envelope upside-down letting the folded parchment fall into her lap. It wasn’t even parchment. It was a scrap of very cheap parchment. The edges were tattered and it was so thin that Lara could see the writing on the other side. She opened the parchment and saw only three words.
Find Your Mirror.
She stared at the words for a moment. She had thought it would be something more profound. Some sort of I love you kind of thing. She didn’t understand what he had written. Lara sighed and looked back out of the window. She could see her face reflected in the glass. Something clicked in her mind. She read the sentence again. Her mirror.
When Lara and her friends had been at school they had come across a broken mirror. Lara and Remus had developed an enchantment so that the mirror pieces would be like a Muggle walkie-talkie. They had been very useful when they were in different classes or different detentions, or over the summer holidays. Lara set the note and envelope aside and fastened her cloak around her shoulders. She slipped into a pair of shoes and left the castle. She left the school grounds and went quietly into Hogsmeade village. For the first time since her uncle brought her back to the magical world Lara went home.

Her cottage was looking very ravaged. The windows were broken. There was even a hole in the heavy wood of the front door. The shingles on the roof need a considerable amount of work. Lara discovered that the inside of the house had not faired any better. She lit the tip of her wand and set the table just inside the door upright again. The stuffing from the couch and chairs was another story. She wouldn’t have been able to find all the stuffing even if she had tried. Luckily, being a witch, she didn’t have to worry about it. With a few waves of her wand the couch suddenly wove itself back together and looked just as overstuffed as it did the day she had purchased it. Another flick cleared the floor of all the leaves and twigs that had blown in through the pane-less windows. Next she put the glass back in the window frames, and mended the hole in the door. Finally a fire sparked to life in the hearth and the oil lamps hanging along the walls began to glow. The floor was still strewn with all of her belongings. Books, pictures and other little things were lying destroyed on the floor. Lara looked up at the wall that the tipped over bookcase should have been covering. Burned into the peeling wallpaper was the familiar snake and skull symbol adopted by Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Lara looked at the Dark Mark in disgust. With more force than she meant to she flicked her wand at the bookcase which sprang up and slammed against the wall. Even though she could no longer see it, the fact that it was there annoyed her.
She sat on the couch and began arranging her books, though many were ruined, back on the shelves. She fixed the glass in several picture frames and hung them back on the wall. It didn’t quite look like home again but it was a good start. At least it no longer looked as if an atomic bomb had been dropped through her chimney. She dreaded going upstairs. If they had sacked the bedrooms as well there was little hope that she would ever find that mirror. It was small to begin with, and if it happened to get mixed up with one of the other mirrors (that would have surely gotten crushed) there was no chance of finding the one piece she needed. After several minutes she managed to drag herself up the stairs, and it seemed untouched.
She went in the bedroom and opened the closet door. On the top self was a leather covered box. She set the box on the bed and opened it. Inside was a jungle of mementos from when she had been in school. She sifted through the box and found the mirror at the bottom. Her tiny reflection in it was dull and blurred. The surface was covered in finger prints and the silver backing was chipping away at the edges. With the hem of her cloak she polished the mirror until every single mark on it had been rubbed away. She stared at the mirror wondering whether or not to say his name. How could he have his mirror? And even if he did have it how would he be able to respond without his soul. She was so wrapped up in working out the logic in her pessimism that she did not realize that the face she was looking at in the mirror was no longer her own. Instead Sirius’s face smiled at her in the little mirror.
“You know I’m not a patient man, Lara.” He said at last.
Lara jumped. She blinked her eyes a few times and then looked back at the mirror. Sirius was still there, and it seemed to her that his soul was very much there as well. “But, I thought…. You’re supposed to…. What the hell is going on?” Lara stammered. Sirius grinned at her, Lara wasn’t particularly amused.
“You’re godson has obviously picked up some of our old habits from being around you.” Sirius teased.
“What’s that supposed to mean!” Lara said. “He doesn’t even know who I am!”
Lara heard footsteps behind her. She wasn’t surprised. She had been expecting the Ministry to come looking for her. She obviously had some explaining to do about what had happened. What she hadn’t expected was for them to sneak up like that. The government should be polite enough to knock on the door. She sighed and was just about to turn around when somebody grabbed her hand and spun her around. It was too dark to really see who it was but that question was quickly answered when the person kissed her.

“Harry and Hermione managed to rescue me and Buckbeak.” Sirius told her. “Apparently, Hermione has a Time Turner?”
“So that’s how they did it.” Lara said quietly.
“Harry did most of the work though. Did you know that he can produce a corporeal Patronus?”
“He did?” Lara asked happily. “He’s been working at it for months.”
Sirius nodded. “It was a stag. Like James’s.”
Before another word could be said a flame suddenly burst up between them. A scroll of parchment and a golden feather popped out of the flame and landed on the floor. The fire crackled and popped for a second and then disappeared as quickly as it had come. Lara scooped the roll of parchment off the dusty floor and slit it open with the tip of her wand. Lara read the letter quickly and sighed. Her uncle wanted her back at the castle immediately. She handed the parchment to Sirius. He read it a few times then crumpled it up in a ball and tossed it over his shoulder. He had a playful look on his face and Lara knew exactly what he was thinking.
“I can’t stay.” She told him. His smile vanished. “It’s the Minister who wants me at the castle, not my Uncle. Fudge doesn’t want me out of sight because he knows I’ll help you. If I don’t go he’ll send somebody after me. The Ministry is still skeptical about if I was working for Voldemort or the Order, and even more so now that you’re supposed to be Voldemort’s best friend.” She explained.
Sirius wasn’t happy. Lara, however, could do nothing about that. She had to leave before she got the both of them into trouble. She kissed her fiancé. And left the room.
“Lara, wait!” Sirius said from the top of the stairs. “This is ridiculous. All we have to do is take Veritaserum and tell them that Peter’s alive.”
Lara shook her head. “Fudge banned it from interrogational use eight years ago.” She told him. “He thinks that it goes against people’s rights to not incriminate themselves.”
“But, there has to be something!”
“Don’t stay here. The Ministry will be watching the place soon enough. And make sure that all the lamps are out when you leave. And lock the door.” Lara said before she disaperated and left Sirius alone in the house.
Lara walked back up to the castle. The Tower Clock chimed four in the morning. She dragged herself to her Uncle’s office where Fudge and an Auror Lara had only ever met in passing were waiting along with her Uncle. She closed the door behind her and slumped down on the floor in front of the fire as if she had not noticed the other people.
“Where have you been?” the Minister asked in what he thought was a very casual manner.
“Home.” Lara answered plainly. Her Uncle handed her a cup of tea which she took gratefully.
“Oh. I don’t suppose that you go there often during the school year.” He said in the same manner.
“From time to time.” She said with an edge in her voice. “Cant this wait until later. It’s four in the morning.”
“I agree, Minister.” Albus said. “It has been a very long night.”
The Minister looked shocked and a little desperate. “Oh, well, these sort of things need to be sorted out when they happen. Whenever they happen.”
Lara rolled her eyes. “That’s it for me. I’m going to bed.” She got up and headed toward the door.
“Now hold on!” the Minister exclaimed. “This here is Kingsley Shacklebolt. He’s an Auror with the Ministry. We have decided that, for your safety, he should accompany you for a couple of days.”
Kingsley nodded politely but looked as if he knew that this was a ridiculous assignment. There aren’t many Aurors that don’t know the story of Lara’s successful infiltration of Voldemort’s forces when
the Ministry could do nothing. Lara raised her eyebrows in a very skeptical sort of way. “You’re giving me a bodyguard?” she asked. The Minister nodded. “No way.”
“Afraid it’s not your choice.” The Minister said. “There is every chance that Black might come looking for you. After all, if your story is to be believed, you betrayed Blacks Master in the worst way. Why wouldn’t he want to kill you?”
“And why wouldn’t I be able to handle it on my own if the occasion arises (which it won’t)?” Lara shot at him. “I seem to recall you begging me to work for the Ministry as an Auror instead of working for my Uncle.”
“And why exactly are you so sure that Black wont come after you?” the Minister asked completely ignoring what Lara had said.
“For starters, he knew I was spying on Voldemort. If he had been working for Voldemort he’d have done away with me years before, and he certainly wouldn’t have asked me to marry him. And as for him selling out the Potters: bullshit. Sirius wasn’t their Secret Keeper. He wouldn’t have been able to even if he tried. Pettigrew was the Secret keeper. And Sirius never killed Pettigrew. The bastard blew up a city block, cut off his own finger, transformed into a rat, and then scampered away.”
“You’re saying that Peter Pettigrew was an Animagus?” the Minister laughed.
“We all were. James, Sirius, Peter and I. We spent three years learning how so that we could stay out nights with Reamus without him biting our heads off, literally. Of course, being underage at the time, we never registered ourselves.” She explained.
The Minister looked speechless. He starred at Lara with is mouth hanging open a bit. “But, then, you…you have to register. You’ll face criminal charges if you don’t.”
“That’s not the point I was making. The point I was making is that Pettigrew is still alive and that you have a full out manhunt going on for somebody who was unjustly imprisoned for twelve years so that you can throw him back in prison when you find him all because you’re too arrogant to listen to the truth.” Lara said angrily. “And this could all be cleared up very quickly if you hadn’t banned Veritaserum!” Kingsley chuckled which made Lara smile too. The Minister shot him a filthy look and he straightened his face out instantly only to smile and wink at her once his boss’s back was turned.
The next morning Lara sought out Harry. She told Minerva that he would be late for class and asked Harry to walk with her for a bit. At first they avoided the topic of what had happened the night before. But that was exactly what Lara wanted to talk about.
“Harry, about last night.” She finally said. “You shouldn’t feel bad that Pettigrew got away. Sirius won’t be on the run forever whether we find Pettigrew or not.”
“He wanted me to come live with him.” Harry told her.
“I’m sure that he had planned on that from the moment he found out about your parents.” She told him. “I never thought Sirius to be the fatherly type, but then you showed up. I have some pictures of the two of you. When you were a baby. I’ll make some copies for you.”
Harry smiled. “Thanks.”
“And just for the record: You have officially kicked your father’s ass all over the Quidditch pitch with that Patronus. He couldn’t make one until he was eighteen and it took him months to perfect it.”
Harry went to class and Lara to her classroom to set up for her second period class. Somehow things felt more right now then they had in a long time. That didn’t make sense though. How could somebody running from the government because of something he never did be right? She supposed that it was simply the fact that at least he was out. Lara hated thinking of him in a prison cell. She was surprised at how little it had damaged his spirit. It was though. Not exactly broken, but cracked. She could see it in his eyes. It hadn’t been the same light she had seen in them all through out their childhood. But it wasn’t important right now. She had to be focused on clearing his name. But even that was pushed to the back of her mind. All she cared about at the moment was that she now had proof that Sirius was innocent, something she had always known in her heart.