For the rest of that night George had kept them entertained by encouraging Gabrielle to share her feelings for Fred. Even the Delacour’s were highly amused by the sight of Fred colliding with, tripping over, and smashing various things throughout the backyard in his desperate attempts to escape from a smitten Gabrielle. It was well after midnight as they were finishing their hot cocoa in the living room that Mrs. Weasley shooed everyone off to bed. The day’s events had worn Harry out so much so that he was not even aware of returning to Grimmauld Place. How he had managed to change and get into bed he would never know. He dreamt that Gabrielle, tired of chasing Fred, had made a lasso out of a bit of rope and was now spinning it around her head. She cast it off catching Fred around his middle and was pulling him back to her slowly as Fred begged him for help. Suddenly, it started to rain within the burrow. Confused he looked up at the ceiling only to be poked in eye. Wait a minute! Something was poking him. A drowsy Harry barely managed to open his eyes when a long finger poked his nose. He jumped up, alert and prepared to fight.
“Harry Potter sir, you is finally here!”
“Dobby?”
He couldn’t believe his eyes. Dobby was in sitting on the headboard of his bed beaming at him. He looked towards Ron, who gave a loud grunt and mumbled ‘didn’t take your cat,’ it seemed that he was still asleep.
“Dobby what are you doing here?” he asked, unconvinced that he wasn’t still dreaming.
“Dobby has come to serve Harry Potter sir! Dobby is taking care of the Potter Manor now!”
“Potter Manor, Dobby?” now he knew he was dreaming, “What Potter Manor?”
“The Manor Harry Potter is sleeping in sir!”
Harry looked around, his surroundings seemed familiar “ yes, he was at Grimmauld Place. But Dobby had just called this the Potter Manor. Where would he get a funny idea like that?
“What did you just call this place?”
“Potter Manor, sir!”
“No Dobby, this is Grimmauld Place,” he swallowed hard; “this…this is Sirius’ home.”
“No sir! Dobby is heard Professor McGonagall talking about Harry Potter’s new manor sir! Dobby ran to Professor Dumbledore and is asked him if he can come serve Harry Potter in his new Manor? Professor Dumbledore is allowing Dobby to go! Dobby has been waiting for Harry Potter to come home sir! He has taken the screaming portrait down, sir! And the tapestry in the…” but he never learned what tapestry Dobby had torn down. Wiggling his ears, Dobby said, “Welcome home Harry Potter!” and vanished into thin air.
Harry was still struggling to determine whether he was dreaming or not when he heard the door of his room creak open. He turned, this time managing to get a hold of his wand.
“Professor Lupin?”
Professor Lupin looked as surprised as Harry felt. He cast a look about the room; his eyes fell on Ron’s sleeping form. Putting a finger to his lips he motioned for Harry to follow him. Harry joined him in the hallway and walked silently behind him. A few minutes later Harry realized that he was being lead to Sirius’ old room. Once they got there Lupin opened the door signaling him to go inside. Harry noticed that Buckbeak lay sleeping underneath the only window Sirius’ room had. After making sure the door was locked Lupin turned to Harry and followed his gaze.
“We’re going to be letting him go soon,” he said sitting on Sirius’ bed, “Even though we are just trying to keep him safe, it is unfair to keep him cooped up, Hippogriffs like to roam free.”
Just like Sirius, the fleeting thought ran through his head. He sat down across from Lupin on a wobbly wooden chair.
“I heard you were here,” Lupin informed him, “Finally figured out Mafalda was a witch I suppose?”
He nodded just as an owl tapped on the window. Careful not to wake Buckbeak, Lupin opened the window and the owl swooped in. He took five knuts from his pocket and paid the owl for delivering him a copy of the Daily Prophet. The headline caught Harry’s attention instantly, Dementors Rejoin He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He swiped the paper and read:
Last night the dementors, guards of Azkaban, fled their posts and returned to their former master He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. During his reign of terror He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named employed the dementors kiss, sucking the soul from one’s mouth, on those who opposed him. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named also used dementors in mass muggle attacks. Although unable to see dementors, this caused panic and hysteria among the muggle population.
The Ministry of Magic was warned by Albus Dumbledore at the Wizarding Convention of 1982, once thought to be the year Harry Potter defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, not to align the wizarding community with creatures that would return to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named if he regained power. Unfortunately Cornelius Fudge, who was given the job of Minister of Magic after Dumbledore refused it, returned the dementors to Azkaban placing them in charge of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s biggest supporters.
Luckily, Ministry of Magic officials were tipped off and managed to reach Azkaban just in time to prevent any escapes. When the Daily Prophet exclusively reported last month that Cornelius Fudge kept the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named hidden for the past year despite the protests of Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore the wizarding community was outraged. This is just another blunder that has many in the wizarding community calling for the resignation of Cornelius Fudge from his post as Minister of Magic. When asked for a comment, Ministry officials reassured the magical community:
“There’s no reason to get worked up. Ministry wizards are being mobilized to takeover as guards of Azkaban.”
When pressed for comment about Cornelius Fudge, one Ministry wizard who preferred to remain anonymous said “we’d be better off without him.”
“Finished?” Lupin asked.
“Why did it take so long for them to return to Voldemort?” he asked the first question that popped into his head.
“I suppose they were waiting for a sign that he had really returned,” Lupin answered.
Harry skimmed the article once again, “Will Ministry wizards be able to guard Azkaban?”
“Perhaps,” Lupin conceded.
“Couldn’t a prisoner just steal their wand?” Harry persisted.
“It could happen;” he conceded once more, “but I know, and now so do you, that Dumbledore went to Azkaban last night and is using some old magic to bind the prisoners.”
Relief seeped throughout Harry’s body, if Dumbledore was taking care of it, than he doubted that the prisoners would be able to escape.
“I guess Cornelius Fudge is in big trouble?”
Lupin smiled a little wider, “It would seem so,” he responded.
Harry couldn’t help it, he smiled too. After a moment Lupin cleared his throat getting back to the original reason they were here.
“I was just coming to check in on you. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
Remembering the real reason he had woken up Harry hastily repeated his conversation with Dobby to Lupin.
“I don’t understand what he meant by Potter Manor…”
“Well I thought that would be obvious,” Lupin replied. “Harry, Sirius made you his heir when we reformed the order. He told Professor Dumbledore that you were to inherit everything that had ever belonged to the Blacks if anything were to happen to him.” Harry was dumbfounded, but Lupin simply smiled and continued, “As did I “ although I’m afraid I don’t have much to give.”
“But…why?”
“Well, neither of us have a family to speak of. So you see you were the obvious choice on both our behalf.”
It dawned on him that Lupin’s reasoning was true. Sirius was never given a chance to have a child of his own, as he was thrown into Azkaban at such a young age.
“Why didn’t you have any kids?” he asked Lupin. The thought occurred to him that this was a highly personal question. Just as he was about to retract his question Lupin smiled at him. It was a sad, rather pathetic sort of smile.
“I thought you would have figured that out for yourself Harry,” he told him. “How could I risk it? What if I bit them?” he asked shaking his head. “No, it was best that I never had a family of my own, I couldn’t condemn anyone to a life like mine.”
Harry felt bad for Lupin. Knowing your whole life that you would never marry and have children of your own had to be gut-wrenching.
“You’ve been like a father to me,” Harry confided, “Both of you have.”
Lupin looked surprised; he turned away as his eyes misted over and browsed the books on the shelf next to Sirius’ bed. After he had composed himself he turned back to Harry, a brown and gold book in his hands.
“He left you his home,” he began, “all the gold from his Gringotts account was placed into your account,” he continued, “and this,” he waved the book in his hands, “is the last testament that all the marauders left behind, and now it’s yours.”
Harry took the brown and gold book from Lupin. It looked like the Riddle diary except that it had an emblem of a werewolf, stag, dog, and rat imprinted around the Gryffindor crest on the cover. He smiled when he noticed that tiny lilies had been strategically placed so that they were not noticeable upon first inspection. Harry tried to open it but it was sealed shut. Lupin took his wand out and tapped the book saying “Alohomora” and it fell open.
“But I thought that was the spell used to open doors?”
Lupin shrugged looking bemused. Upon further inspection, Harry realized that the cover was not a cover at all; it was actually a very tiny door. If the werewolf, stag, dog, rat, and lilies were not on the emblem, Harry thought to himself, than this would look just like…
“Sirius and James thought it would be funny to steal a Gryffindor door,” Lupin confirmed the suspicions forming in his mind, “A lasting proof of what it took to be a marauder.”
Harry quickly rifled through the pages which proved to be empty.
“Do I have to write in it?” he asked remembering how he had contacted Tom Riddle.
“No, all you have to do is tap the marauder on each page. Some times there will be just one, some times more. It depends on who wrote in it that day.”
Harry turned back to the first page and found a miniscule stag and dog fighting in the bottom right hand corner while a werewolf chased a rat around the page. He managed to tap all four with some difficulty as the rat was rather small and running quite fast. Words immediately materialized onto the page.
Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs Proudly Present the Marauders Memoir: The Ultimate Guide for Mischief Makers
“I think I’ll leave you to it,” Lupin told Harry as he got up to leave the room, “Just say Evanesco when you want to leave the pages,” he advised him.
Excited, Harry turned a few pages and found a rat digging a hole. He tapped him and a miniscule screen appeared on the page. He put his eye to it and felt himself falling head first into the book. Looking around, he noticed that he was now in Hogwarts. Spotting the statue of a hump-backed, one-eyed witch he realized that he was in the third-floor corridor. He heard someone coming and hid, forgetting that they could not see him. He instantly recognized a much younger looking Peter Pettigrew. The last time he had seen Pettigrew was during his fourth year when Pettigrew murdered Cedric Diggory and helped Voldemort to return to power. However, murder was the last thing that this pudgy boy who looked about his age seemed capable of. As he walked down the corridor he stumbled twice in his apparent rush to get to where he was going.
“Dissendium,” he muttered wiggling his wand in a funny way, “dissendium, dissendium, dissendium.”
With the last ‘dissendium’ he walked right into the one-eyed witch and fell. Turning, he screamed, as the hump of the witch slid open. He got up and ran down the rest of the corridor. Harry followed him. They reached the Gryffindor common room and Pettigrew ran to Sirius and James, his fellow Marauders.
“I was practicing a new spell…” he was explaining, “and the statue opened up.”
“Which spell?” Harry’s father, James, asked.
“Dissendium,” Pettigrew promptly replied.
Sirius laughed, “Well done Wormtail! Sounds like you’ve found your first secret passage…”
The memory began to swirl. Harry, remembering Lupin’s advice, said “Evanesco”. He was back in Sirius’ room. A loud thump and yell caught his attention. He closed the diary and heard it lock itself shut. Tucking it safely under his arm he opened the door. George came running by. Spotting him, George confided, “Just convinced Gabrielle to wake Fred up!”
If Fred’s yell was any indication, she had served her purpose.