"And that's pretty much it," Blake finished, sighing.
The 4 of them had made their way to Daphne's bedside, and were relieved to find that the pureblood girl was doing fine, albeit slightly tired.
"So he's innocent?" Zabini muttered in disbelief, staring across the infirmary at Harry, Ron and Hermione's sleeping figures.
"I don't know what's crazier," Tracey said shakily. "Black being innocent, or Lupin being a werewolf…"
As the other three seemed to be processing the fact that Sirius Black, one of the most notorious criminals in wizarding society, was actually innocent, and the fact that their favourite teacher at Hogwarts was actually a werewolf, Daphne gave Blake a questioning look. He had no doubt in his mind what the girl was trying to ask him, and he gave her as discreet a thumbs up as he possibly could. Daphne sighed loudly in relief.
"You okay, Daph?" Tracey immediately asked, concern etched across her face.
"I'm fine," she responded haughtily. "I'm not made of glass!"
They chuckled, but the loud opening of the infirmary doors stopped them immediately. Blake's eyes narrowed - 4 individuals walked in, immediately greeting by Madam Pomfrey.
Charlotte gasped.
"Isn't that-"
"Good evening, children," the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, said with a strained smile.
He knows Black escaped.
"I'm glad to see you're all supporting your friend here. Ms Greengrass," he said, nodding his head at Daphne.
"It's nice to see you again, Minister," Daphne responded politely. Blake resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Of course they've met before.
"I see you're recovering well," Dumbledore said kindly. Daphne smiled and thanked Dumbledore for his concern, but Blake could hear the ever so slight distrust in her voice. But to be fair to him, Dumbledore probably doesn't know - if they made the switch of Secret Keeper without him knowing, and Sirius didn't even contest in court, there's no way he could know.
Snape stood there silent, as if contemplating, while McGonagall rushed to check on her House's students.
"Now," Fudge continued, casting his gaze over to Blake.
"You must be Blake Renshaw," he said cordially, extending his hand.
"Yes, that's right," Blake responded. "It's nice to meet you, Mr Fudge."
Fudge smiled briefly at his politeness, before his face became strained again.
"Likewise, Blake. Now, I don't suppose you would mind walking me through the events of tonight? Unfortunately, we are working with limited information," he said, glancing at the Golden Trio, who were still soundly sleeping.
"Of course, sir," Blake responded, thinking quickly. What's Snape said? He hasn't told him about Lupin, has he?
"Perfect," Fudge said, relieved. "Headmaster, I don't suppose there's a room where Professor Snape, Ms Greengrass, Blake, yourself and me could speak freely?"
"Of course, Cornelius," the old man responded. The Slytherin students exchanged worried looks as Daphne and Blake stood up.
"Follow me."
/
"So, Professor Snape," Fudge started, as they all sat down comfortably in Dumbledore's office. "Would you like to begin?"
"Very well," the man said in his usual, slimy tone. "I went to Lupin's office to give him his Wolfsbane Potion, and I noticed there was an enchanted Map open on his desk. The Map showed Lupin moving suspiciously within the Forbidden Forest. I had already suspected Lupin of being an accomplice to Black, and so I followed him. I went through a secret tunnel underneath the Whomping Willow, and found Black, Lupin, Potter, Weasley and Granger, all in the Shrieking Shack, and I thus disarmed Lupin, thinking my suspicions had been proved true. However…" Snape said, pausing slightly.
Blake and Daphne tensed - is he going to grass?
"Renshaw and Greengrass here showed up suddenly. How or why, I do not know…"
Blake immediately understood the cue he was given.
"Actually, we came to see Professor Lupin too," he said quickly, as all eyes turned to him. "We wanted to learn the Patronus charm, and since he's the DADA teacher we'd been coming to him for advice. But then we saw the Map open, and we saw Professor Lupin and Professor Snape in the Forest."
"And Potter wasn't here - we normally learnt the Patronus charm with Potter, you see," Daphne interjected. "So we were doubly concerned-"
"-and we saw the Wolfsbane potion on the desk, so we knew he hadn't taken it."
"Hold on," Fudge said suddenly. "You knew Lupin is a werewolf!?"
"I-"
"We-"
"-figured it out, sir," Blake said, and was disappointed to see Fudge's worried expression. Why's he worried? Shouldn't he be impressed we figured it out? Nonetheless, Blake continued.
"But it was fine as long as he was taking his medication - he was very responsible, and we felt perfectly safe. The only reason it was compromised was because Lupin was definitely trying to save them. But it's a full moon, so we knew he would transform. We guessed that Professor Snape was out there and would be fine, but if Harry wasn't there, and both of the Professors were inside the Forest, we came to the conclusion that Harry was in danger - especially given Black's presence - and Lupin forgot to take his potion, so he was in even more danger."
"Not to mention Granger and Weasley and Potter are best friends - those two were probably with him too. So we followed Snape out to the Forest, and we saw him go through a tunnel, so we followed him."
While Daphne spoke, something clicked in Blake's mind.
Fudge's worried about his reputation if the fact that Lupin, a werewolf, is a teacher - not the security risk, but the fact that his reputation for allowing it could be at risk.
"But then we overheard the argument," Blake said. Suddenly, he had an idea - a way to potentially - there's a massive chance it won't work, but potentially - clear Sirius Black's name.
"Black was claiming innocence."
Snape's face contorted into surprise for a second, but Fudge didn't catch it, too busy to be outraged himself.
"Preposterous!"
"That's what we thought too," Blake said grimly. "Until he explained. Minister, did you know Sirius Black is an unregistered Animagus?"
Fudge's mouth gaped in shock.
"It's true - Harry had been telling me a massive, black dog was stalking him recently - turns out, it was Sirius Black. But it got me thinking - Black had a hundred different chances to kill Harry, so why didn't he? And then he revealed it - Black wasn't the only unregistered Animagus. Pettigrew and James Potter were too. A massive failure from the previous Minister's office, I thought."
Blake felt Daphne shift ever so slightly behind him, and he resisted the urge to grin. She's got it.
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