[From Samhain to the Solstice]: Chapter Fourteen of "Adagio'- A Tale With Some Truth In It

[lomonaaeren]

Lupin barged straight into the room in the Shack. Severus, on the other hand, like a sensible Slytherin, stayed back, and cast a silent Summoning Charm that would disarm everyone in the room.

“Snivellus!”

Black was just as deranged as Severus had always pictured him, as the photographs in the Daily Prophet had shown him, with stringy, matted dark hair hanging around his face, and that terrible snarl on his lips. He moved closer to Severus, flicking his eyes for only a moment at Lupin. Severus found that more interesting than Black’s other actions, than his own fear.

“I’ve waited a long time to kill Peter, but longer to take care of you,” Black said madly.

Severus flicked his wand again, and chains appeared around Black, pressing in so close around his skin that they would break his bones if he tried to struggle. Black gagged and thrashed around. Severus rolled his eyes and sent him sprawling onto the bed that stood in the middle of the room, taking some delight in the dust that billowed up around him.

“Severus, no! Peter is here!”

“Perhaps you could explain what you mean, Lupin.” Severus was studying Harry. The boy looked shaken, but already calmer than any other child would have been.

“The map that we made of the school—it shows people’s names.” Lupin was staring at Black as he spoke, not even glancing at the boys he’d claimed to be so anxious to protect. Typical. He did always put his friends before all else, including obeying the rules or upholding the safety of others. “I saw the name Peter Pettigrew on it.”

Severus made an exclamation of disgust before he could stop himself. “Black dug up the body and brought it here?”

“There was no body,” Lupin said, quietly, intensely.

Severus frowned. He did recall reading that, not at the time, but in the Prophet articles about Black’s escape, which had repeated several times that nothing except a single finger was left of Pettigrew. “Then what—”

Black growled, and transformed.

Severus’s shock might have kept him still as he watched the giant black dog leap out of the chains, but he was a skilled duelist. His wand whipped up again, and he Stunned Black in a way that made him crunch into the wall.

“Severus!”

“Shut up, Lupin,” Severus said, as his mind drew the connections and realized that Lupin must have known about Black’s Animagus form. They would have never kept something like that from each other. Knew, and didn’t tell Albus. Had contributed to Harry being in danger when Black managed to slip past the Dementors, who would ignore animals.

Severus glared at Lupin viciously enough to make him cower, and then turned to Harry. “Are you all right?”

Harry nodded. His eyes were bright and quick, traveling over Severus and to Lupin and then returning to the Stunned Black. “Black grabbed me and Ron and brought us here. He was ranting about the rat and how the rat wasn’t dead.”

“That’s what I was trying to tell you,” Lupin said, deciding his existence was important enough to assert again. “Peter didn’t die when Sirius attacked. He’s a rat Animagus, and he’s been in hiding since the end of the war. That explains things. Sirius broke free to get hold of him at last.”

Severus narrowed his eyes and aimed his wand at the room in general. At least he knew the spell would have one effect if Lupin was lying, mistaken, or delusional. He chanted the Animagus Reversal Charm silently, and then waited.

Black regained consciousness and howled, in a canine voice and then in a human one, as he was forced back into his birth form. And there came a similar shriek from the area of Weasley’s pocket, which tore as the rat inside fell to the floor and grew into a scrambling, panting, sweating man Severus recognized despite the passing of the years.

Severus Stunned him at once.

“Let me kill him.”

Most unfortunately, it seemed that Black had already recovered from the shock of his transformation. Severus didn’t bother discussing it with him, but Stunned and bound him again. It seemed that Black might be innocent, distasteful as the prospect was, but perhaps he had broken free to kill the man he blamed for the Dark Lord’s death or something equally stupid. The story would keep.

“Severus—”

“I do not know what the story here is, but I am sure we will hear it better in the hospital wing,” Severus said flatly, and turned towards the door of the Shack. He cast a spell that would reveal anyone hiding nearby, because at this point it seemed likely that that would happen, and nodded when nothing came back. He floated the Stunned Black and Pettigrew into the air, and tossed Harry and Weasley’s wands back to them.

Weasley still had his mouth open. He shut it with a click and grabbed the wand, scowling at Severus.

Harry only looked at him with shining eyes, and smiled. “It’s sure to be interesting.”

“Severus—”

Severus let the werewolf call him by name and babble most of the way down the tunnel and back up from under the Whomping Willow. The essence of his complaints seemed to be that he knew Black was innocent and that he knew Pettigrew had survived and that Severus shouldn’t have Stunned them.

But he wasn’t saying anything interesting, so Severus stepped out of the tunnel confident about his decision.

Until he saw the movement of the Dementors towards them, and the full moon shining from behind the branches. Lupin gave a gasp as his form began to twist.

At least he wouldn’t attack, but it did mean there was one less wand to cast the Patronus that might keep the beasts at bay.

Vaguely aware of the fact that he was revealing his Patronus in front of Harry after all, and more than vaguely annoyed about it, Severus raised his wand. “Expecto Patronum!”

His silver doe exploded into being, making Severus’s heart tremble for a long moment. Then he pushed it aside, locked everything behind the thick Occlumency shields that he sometimes needed simply to make it through the day, and moved forwards, directing the doe to charge the Dementors.

She did, and the creatures drew slowly back, their “robes” swaying around them. But they didn’t retreat further than a few dozen feet. They were still between the little ragged group that Severus was responsible for and the school.

Severus drew in his breath. So he would walk. That was all. He would simply press forwards.

He did it all the time.

“Expecto Patronum!”

Severus spun in place, his first, absurd thought being that Lupin might somehow have managed to reverse the werewolf transformation, and his next that Black had escaped from his bonds—

But Lupin had already cowered to the ground, whining as Weasley gaped at him, and Black and Pettigrew were still Stunned and bound. The Patronus was emerging from Harry’s wand.

Harry, who stood tall and proud, and just smiled a little when Severus gaped at him.

Severus shut his mouth and nodded. It seemed that Lupin’s lessons had been effective after all, or Harry’s private practice. Severus should have known better than to expect Harry not to master a useful piece of magic just because he didn’t like the professor.

“Towards the school,” Severus said.

His doe led the way. Harry’s circled them, pacing with a snarl on its face. Severus was not quite sure if it was a leopard or something else, but it was clearly a great cat, and it turned and bared impressive fangs when a Dementor got too close.

They reached the school at last—everyone except Lupin, who had bounded away into the Forest like the coward he was—and Severus managed to ask his Patronus to take a message to Albus. Then he leaned against the wall, utterly exhausted.

“Why did he turn into a werewolf?” Weasley was asking.

Severus didn’t say anything, partially because the words were so idiotic he didn’t know what would emerge from his own mouth, but he did take joy in Harry’s light, cutting, condescending answer. “Because he is one.”

At least that shut Weasley up.

*

“This is a tangled situation.”

Severus knew he probably shouldn’t, but he was enjoying the grave look on Albus’s face. Not so much because Albus was upset about Black’s innocence—a fact Severus was taking some time to absorb himself—but because for once, Albus seemed to have not expected things to play out this way and genuinely had no idea what to do.

Harry sat on the chair in the hospital wing, where they had gone to confine Black. Severus had thought it the best place, not least because there was a store of potions in the infirmary that would be useful to determine if Black was lying or under some kind of compulsion. Weasley had been given a Calming Draught and was half-asleep in the bed nearby. Pettigrew was under the Draught of Living Death, which Severus had forced down his throat the instant they came into the hospital wing.

Severus still couldn’t look at the man without wanting to kill him. It was best to make him as helpless and unlikely to escape as possible.

“Where is Remus, Severus?”

“He turned, but he was in his right mind. I assume he is on the grounds somewhere.”

Albus gave him a disappointed look. Severus ignored him. If the wolf was stupid enough to wander around and potentially let someone see him instead of curling up in the Shrieking Shack or sneaking into his office, it was not Severus’s problem.

“And you—would you mind repeating your story, Mr. Potter?”

“No, sir.”

Harry told the story as it had happened. Severus only listened with half an ear. As galling as it was, he did believe in Black’s innocence and that Pettigrew had been the Secret-Keeper.

He was more interested in observing Black’s reactions, and Albus.

Black had swung between looking crazed, looking hopeful, and looking stunned since he’d woken up from Severus’s literal Stunner. He glared at Pettigrew about half the time. The rest was divided between gaping at his godson, scowling at Severus, and staring at Albus.

A lot of the time he was staring at Harry, Black seemed to focus the most on Harry’s Slytherin crest and colors, which Severus had to admit was a source of endless amusement for him.

Albus was grim and quiet most of the time, other than asking a few clarifying questions about Harry’s recitation, and then asking him to go back over it. He had drawn his wand and cast a spell on Pettigrew that Severus didn’t know. He didn’t understand the blue glow it produced around the traitor, either, but he hoped it would prevent him from transforming.

“This is all most unexpected,” Albus said at the end. “But you may rest assured that we will keep Mr. Black from having his soul eaten by a Dementor. I will speak to the Minister myself.”

“Thank you, sir. I don’t think anyone deserves the Dementor’s Kiss.”

Albus gave Harry one more thoughtful glance, and then stood and left the hospital wing. Interestingly, he hadn’t said a word to Black.

Black struggled against the bonds that still tied him, loose, shimmering ones of magic that would tighten only if he attempted violent action against someone or himself. Madam Pomfrey came bustling to loosen them further.

“Harry,” Black whispered. “I—I’d love to be your godfather.”

Severus ignored the punch of loss underneath his breastbone as Harry looked at Black with shining eyes. Of course he would want to live with the mutt going forwards. And of course he would want to live in the kind of luxurious surroundings Black could provide him, rather than the small cottage at Spinner’s End.

It was for the best. Black should have been able to raise Potter anyway. And Severus could get more brewing done during the summer this way.

“I’ll have to think about it, Mr. Black. It’s bit of a change, right? But thank you for the offer.”

“Maybe you could stay here and we could talk about the details?”

Severus stood, drawing more attention than he had wished, with the way the legs of his chair screeched. But he only inclined his head to Harry, said, “I am glad that the evening has passed with no injuries to you or anyone else, Mr. Potter,” and then turned and left with as much dignity as he could muster.

“Snape thinks that?” Black asked behind him, in a ringing voice that he didn’t try to quiet. “Wow, old Snivellus has changed.”

Severus had more control than to slam the door of the hospital wing behind him, but not enough courage to stay and hear Harry’s response.