Among Other Things

Disclaimer: I do not own HP!

Chapter 12

Moon’s Paw-Library

Out of all the rooms in the cottage, the library had to be Harry’s favorite.

Nothing could quite compare to the scent of the leather bindings, the shelves upon shelves of books, and the warm cozy atmosphere.

It spoke of home the way no place had ever done in his short lifetime.

Oftentimes, he would find himself drifting into the library for answers to his homework, when he was unable to sleep, and just for a quiet moment to think (Moony and Padfoot tended to very boisterous).

It only took a minute or two, but he always was able to achieve complete relaxation in this diminutive haven.

Right now, however, it was far from being a place of paradise.

“So, what happened?”

Harry sighed, his emerald eyes solemn as he gazed at the tattered tabletop in front of him. “The Dursleys were being worse than normal. They…”

Hermione stared at him sadly. “Don’t worry. You don’t have to go into it.”

He took a deep breath, blocking out the memories of Number Four, Privet Drive. “And Dumbledore…

I think he’s been lying to me.

I knew, before the summer, that he was trying to make me into a weapon.

I knew that he hadn’t enlightened me as to my true purpose in the war.

So, when I got the chance, I left. I didn’t want to be a pawn anymore.”

“And now,” she pressed gently, sensing that Harry was hiding something big.

“Well, I wrote a letter to Voldemort, ‘cause I figured that he’d know what Dumbledore isn’t telling me.”

“Harry,” Hermione breathed in shock. “I can’t believe you did that!”

“Yeah, I know. I can’t believe I did it either. Anyway, he wrote me back,” he said so nonchalantly, that Hermione almost missed it.

She gasped sharply, her eyes wide. “Please tell me you at least checked for curses,” Hermione moaned, running her hands through her hair.

Offended, Harry nodded. “Of course, I’m not stupid, you know. Anyway,” he said, reaching into his pocket. “Here is the letter.”

Hermione snatched it off the table, dropping it moments later as the message registered.

“But if he didn’t kill them…Who did?”

“That’s what I want to know,” Harry said grimly.

“So, what are you going to write back?” Harry briefly rolled his eyes. No matter what, Hermione’s curiosity would always stay the same.

“You do know that curiosity killed the cat, right?” he asked, earning him a sharp punch from his friend.

Hermione mock glared. “Hush you, and tell me,” she warned, raising a fist in warning.

“I’m going to ask him to tell me what he knows, of course.”

“And you said that I’m curious,” Hermione smirked, eyeing the books piled on Harry’s side of the table.

She tried to ignore her own overwhelming curiosity, since Harry did look stressed, but when was the last time he voluntarily researched anything?

“Harry, what are those books for?”

“I’m researching Dumbledore,” he said simply, absently rolling up the sleeves of his robe.

“What!? Why!?” Hermione exclaimed.

“I don’t think he is what he says he is. He’s just a little too…perfect. Plus, if he’s lying to me about my purpose in the war, what else is he lying about?”

Hermione blinked in surprise at his reasoning. “Good point. Do you want any help?”

Harry shrugged, managing to hide a small grin. “All right.”

Nodding briskly, Hermione picked up one of the books, A Comprehensive Look at the Downfall of Grindelwald, and began to read.

The next few hours were spent with only the sounds of pages turning, and the scratching of quills.

Their intense research was abruptly ended at noon in the form of Harry’s overexcited godfather, Sirius.

“Hey, you two. It’s time for lunch and I risked my life to make it, so you better hurry up,” he confided, beaming at them.

Harry arched an eyebrow, eerily reminiscent of Snape.

“What’d you make? Toast?” Harry asked, frowning at the thought of Sirius being able to make anything edible.

Hermione giggled, but immediately hid it under the glare of the dark haired animagus.

“Hah, hah. You’re hilarious, Harry,” he muttered. “For your information I made stew, and I had Moony taste it first. So there!” Sirius retorted childishly, sticking out his tongue.

“Did he die?” Harry gasped, widening his eyes innocently.

“No, he did not die! Now, go eat before I make you the permanent food testers.”

This had an immediate reaction.

The teenagers fled so fast that their chairs tipped over, landing on the floor with a crash. One, unfortunately, had a mind of its’ own and decided to fly out and land painfully on Sirius’ foot.

Cursing, Sirius jumped up and down in agony on his one good foot, and wondered what revenge he could take against the teens.

He knew that chairs did not fly that far without help.

Unless, the chairs were still angry about the first time he had sat in them and commented on their extremely uncomfortable seats.

Sirius sighed.

Sometimes the magical world could be so difficult.

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Lunch was a boisterous affair, and how could it not be with the Weasley twins in attendance?

They too had been secluded away in their room, with only the occasional explosion to announce their presence.

Remus, who had enjoyed a popular fiction novel that morning, looked on in amusement as the twins finished each other’s sentences, threw rolls at each other, and made as many jokes as possible.

Sirius, once he had recovered, joined in with all the enthusiasm he could muster. By the end of the meal, Harry and Hermione were laughing so hard, they almost fell out of their seats.

Harry, Remus noted, had at least completely finished his meal, most likely prodded into it by Hermione.

Once the meal was finished and the table cleared Remus spoke. “This afternoon I thought that you four might like to do me a favor and start cleaning the attic.”

The four teens glanced at each other briefly before nodding, somewhat reluctantly. Although cleaning was horrible for any teenager, they would do anything for Remus.

Harry stood up. “Alright, I guess we should go ahead and get started then.”

With that, the others followed the small form of their friend, eager to get the chore out of the way.

Sirius smirked at Remus. “That was mean, Moony. Giving them chores during holiday….for shame!”

Remus rolled his eyes. “I just thought that if Harry spent some time up there, looking through the memorabilia, it might make him feel better.”

“And the purpose of inviting his friends to do work?”

“They would have come up there minutes after he did,” Remus returned. “I just sped up the process.”

Sirius nodded and leaned back into his comfortable armchair.

Remus shifted, the better to situate Sirius’ weight better. Really, didn’t the man know how to use a regular chair?

“Do you possibly think that you could get off me?”

Sirius grinned, strands of his blue-black hair falling into his eyes. “Nope, I’m comfortable. Though you’re bony knees do leave something to be desired.”

In return, Remus unceremoniously shoved him off his lap, ignoring Sirius’ cry of pain.

“Could we get back to the discussion at hand?” he asked mildly, reaching for the now-crushed piece of chocolate, he had hidden in his waistcoat.

Sirius snatched it from him and shoved half in his mouth before giving the rest back to Remus.

“And that would be?”

Remus took a few moments to chew and swallow, he was raised properly, unlike a certain animagus, after all.

He glared. “The one we were having about Harry,” he reminded.

Sirius licked his fingers, determined to get every bit of chocolate he could.

Sometimes he could really understand why Remus was so addicted to it. Just the thought of Remus and chocolate together made him moan in delight.

“Don’t you have any table manners?” Remus snapped, amber eyes emitting a soft glow in his anger.

“Nope,” Sirius finished wickedly, sucking his middle finger in a very familiar rhythm.

Remus felt his face flush bright red, as well as a certain other region, and shifted in his seat. Of all the times to become aroused…

“Would you stop that!?”

Sirius paused mid-suck, wondering if he should push Remus any farther. Quickly he counted the days until the full moon.

He grimaced at the fact that it was less than five days away.

He had better appease him soon, otherwise he’d definitely regret it.

Sirius made sure he had the last of the chocolate off his fingers, all the while eyeing Remus’ very interested stare, before turning and pouncing him, knocking the chair over in the process.

Some time later…

Straightening the chair, Remus finally took his seat and claimed a chocolate biscuit provided by the house elf.

Naturally, he’d had to promise them that they weren’t doing anything involving the rug near the fireplace and chocolate, before they’d agreed to appear in the room.

At that thought, Remus flushed vividly once again, remembering the elf’s face as she’d apparated, once again, during…it.

He’d never be able to look any of them in the eye again.

Well, at least he’d gotten chocolate out of it.

“Have fun?” Sirius asked, a very smug smirk on his face.

“You know very well that I did,” he responded promptly. “Now, could we finish our discussion?”

Sirius nodded affably. “All right. Where did we leave off?”

“Why exactly I decided to have them clean the attic.”

“Oh…So, why did you?”

Remus sighed and gave his lover a sad look. “Harry’s hurting, Siri. And we can only do so much.

I thought I’d give him a chance to see old things of ours and Lily and James.

He knows almost nothing about them.

And, with his friends, they can make sure that he doesn’t get depressed over it,” Remus finished softly.

Sirius reached over and gripped his hand tightly. “Don’t worry, Moony. He’ll be all right. We’ll make sure of it.”

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Hall of Prophecy, Department of Mysteries

Benjamin had been an unspeakable for over twenty years, a rather distinguished amount of time for his career.

Of average height and build, mousey brown hair, and hazel eyes, he had the perfect look for an Unspeakable.

No one noticed him, while he noticed everything.

During his career, he had seen many travesties and miracles, one of them being the Potter boy’s survival of the Killing Curse.

Upon hearing of this extraordinary event, he had requested an assignment in the Hall of Prophecy.

This let him record the prophecies as they came in and interpret them.

Once they were interpreted, the written copy was sent to an office in the Department of Mysteries, while the actual prophecy itself was enchanted so that no one outside the Department of Mysteries, besides the subjects of the prophecies, was able to touch them.

In addition to his regular duties, he’d used this assignment to locate the one that he was most interested in.

Within three months of signing on to the new position, he had located a prophecy that had been only whispered about in the Order of the Phoenix.

This was, of course, the prophecy that had ended in the Potter’s downfall, and he had been interested in discovering exactly what it stated.

It was during his viewing of it that he had noticed something…off.

Hours upon hours of research later and he had determined that the prophecy was, in actuality, a false one.

He was not sure as to the creator, but he had a decent guess.

Especially when he went through the Potter boy’s file and found Albus Dumbledore’s name on every piece of paperwork.

Very suspicious, that.

This had lead Benjamin to ponder why exactly such a venerable wizard would not only fake a prophecy, but ensure that the child of the prophecy was placed with Muggles when he had several other suitable guardians.

These thoughts had led him to believe that possibly there was another prophecy, one that Dumbledore had covered up by creating a false one.

With this idea in mind, Benjamin had searched through every prophecy in existence. It had been tedious work; taking the time to reinterpret every single one, but it had finally paid off.

Finally, over a decade later, he was at the last prophecy.

It had been hidden in the farthest corner behind two others, and if he had not caught a glimpse of it in the light, Benjamin knew he never would have seen it.

Reaching out carefully, Benjamin picked it up and eyed the pale light shining out of the orb.

Just from glancing at it, he could tell that this was a very old prophecy, hundreds of years old. Benjamin frowned at the orb before making his way to his office.

He would have to be careful with this one; he felt that it held a great secret, one that could change the future of the wizarding world.

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The letter from Kingsley Shacklebolt to Albus Dumbledore was short and brief.

Sir,

We have narrowed the location to within a five-mile radius. We should be through the wards within a week. I will send word when the attack is to take place.

Shacklebolt

Albus smiled as he burned the correspondence, ensuring that no one would be able to read it.

Sighing, he reached into one of his drawers and pulled out an old photograph, wrinkled and tattered with age.

In it were the four marauders, laughing as they stood in front of the Whomping Willow. He looked at their youthful faces, feeling an unusual sort of sadness at the fact that within a few years, one would be dead and another falsely imprisoned.

He shook his head and pushed the photograph back in the drawer. He could not focus on the past.

He’d done what he’d had to for the greater good.

He had been forced by that blasted prophecy he’d found in the depths of the Hall of Mysteries.

At least he would soon have everything exactly the way it was supposed to be, with him as the ultimate power in the wizarding world.

End of Chapter 12! Please review and thanks to those who have!