The dog walked over to her chair and sat down on his haunches beside her. With a quick snap of his jaws the bacon disappeared. After licking his lips he tilted his head at Hermione as if questioning her.
"You know this dog?" Richard asked.
"I'm sorry dad," Hermione continued to struggle to get her words out. "After mentioning animagus to you, I...I thought," She took another breath to finally control her laughter. "Dad...you've met him before, but...Dad, Mum...meet Sirius, Harry's godfather."
Mr. and Mrs. Granger watched in amazement as the large dog morphed into a man. The same man who they had seen at Kings Cross.
"Dad, Mum, please don't be mad at Sirius. I asked Harry to get him to come in his Animagus form," Hermione explained.
Sirius held out his hand to Mr. Granger who was still standing with his mouth open. "I couldn't resist," He said with a grin. "I sincerely apologize if my little prank was ill conceived, but when Harry said Hermione would like me to come as Padfoot..." He shrugged.
"Welcome Sirius," Jean said as she stood up.
"Well no harm done," Richard said finally as he took Sirius' hand.
"Would you like something to eat Sirius? Plenty more bacon on the plate," Jean said.
"No thanks. If I do have to have Molly Weasley in the house, I want to at least enjoy her cooking."
"So Pettigrew?" Hermione asked.
Sirius sat down in one of the chairs and blew out a breath of air. "Been a long time coming, but I'm ready to see the bloody bast..." He looked at Richard and Jean. "Sorry. I'm not sure if you know about Pettigrew."
"Hermione said he framed you and betrayed Harry's parents," Richard said as he took his seat back at the table.
"I'm not sure if Hermione has told you everything," Sirius started. "Like how Peter was one of my best friends?"
"No...she didn't mention that," Richard replied.
"There were four of us. Harry's father, James, then myself, Peter and Remus Lupin. We called ourselves the Marauders."
"Marauders?" Richard asked. "Sounds... a bit juvenile."
"Well at the time we were kids. We…we liked to play a few pranks now and then. I admit now that I'm older, that some of them might have not been as funny as we thought they were at the time, but we were kids with a touch of arrogance. At least James and I were. Remus was the level-headed one. He ended up a prefect while Pettigrew…he was a…" Sirius shrugged. "To tell you the truth, he was a kid who we hung around with because he hero worshiped us but we really did consider him a friend."
"So what happened?" Jean asked.
"You know about Voldemort right?" Sirius asked.
"We are learning more and more about him and Mr. Potter," Richard replied as he gave a significant glance toward his daughter.
"Well during our time at school and afterwards, he had a very dark army. James and Lily, that's Harry's mother, found out Voldemort was targeting them for some reason so they went into hiding. They ended up protecting themselves with a spell called the Fidelius. Basically whatever you want to protect is considered a secret and the designated 'Secret Keeper' is the only one who can give the secret away. For example, say I wanted to hide this fork," He lifted the utensil in question. "A very powerful witch or wizard could cast the Fidelius and make a person, let's say in this case, it's Hermione, the Secret Keeper. Now unless Hermione told you about the fork, you would never know it existed. It could be sitting right here on the table and you would not see it. Even if she told you, you couldn't tell anyone else about it since you were not the secret keeper."
"But…" Richard started as he tried to imagine what was being described. "you can't…I mean.."
"Dad, it's magic."
"Anyway, since I was James' best friend and the best with a wand, I was the obvious choice to be the Potters' Secret Keeper," A firm look came over Sirius' face as he was obviously trying to not be haunted by what he had to explain next. He let out a sigh and continued. "As I mentioned though, we liked our pranks. I, unfortunately, came up with the idea of pranking Voldemort and the Death Eaters. I suggested we make Peter the secret keeper while telling everyone I was," Sirius swallowed as he continued to fight the pains of the past then continued. "It was that idea and Peter that got James and Lily killed. Peter had been turned; he was already a Death Eater. He told the secret to Voldemort and…and James and Lily were killed," Sirius lost his battle of control and a haunted look came into his eyes as he remembered seeing the Potters' destroyed house that night. He finally took a breath and continued. "I went to check on Peter that night and when he was gone…I knew what had happened. By the time I made it to Godric's Hollow, it was too late. I went after the bloody rat with every intention of killing him. I wanted nothing but revenge. I finally caught up to him in London and…" More painful memories of that encounter flooded through Sirius' mind. "I…I underestimated him. When he realized he'd been cornered, he shouted to everyone around that I was James and Lily's murderer and then blew up the street around us. A dozen or so people died and in the confusion he changed into his Animagus form, a rat, and disappeared. Aurors showed up and since everyone thought I had been the Potters' secret keeper as well as believing I blew up the street, I was sent to prison while everyone thought Pettigrew was dead. They even gave him the Order of Merlin for trying to take me on. I spent almost twelve years in Azkaban. I broke out of there to save Harry when I realized Peter was still hiding in his rat form and was very close to him. I ended up getting caught and Pettigrew escaped again. If it hadn't been for your daughter I'd be dead."
....
Join my P*atreon to enjoy 60+ advanced chapters.
Link: p*atreon.com/ScarletRosee (Remove the *)
Free members can get 2+ advanced chapters FOR FREE.