Slytherin, Raised By Wolfstar: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

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Chapter Eight: Restrictions and Preparations

Close to dawn Harry was awoken by a nearby heartbreaking cry. Despite the severity of the sound however, it did not alarm him as growing up he heard it every thirty days. The full moon must have set and Canini was morphing back into human form. Despite Harry being calm, Terence definitely was not.

‘What was that? Are we under attack again?’ He said is a groggy panic.

‘That’s my sister, she is morphing back to human. Even on Wolfsbane Potion it is incredibly painful. She’ll be mostly better within the hour.’ Harry said, trying to go back to sleep.

‘Werewolves have existed for over three thousand years and yet their isn’t something to ease their pain?’ He asked curiously.

‘Hardly anyone cares about a werewolves’ well being, so very little effort has been made to better their lives. Most research that exists was done by werewolves themselves,’ Theodore piped up.

Finally it was quite again, Harry rolled over to try and fall back to sleep. He had just entered a zen relaxation when Sirius entered their bedroom.

‘Wake up, get dressed, eat, and pack your things. We are leaving as soon as Canini is strong enough to walk,’ he said grimly.

Harry moaned, the sun wasn’t even rising yet, and after the night he had he wanted at least four hours of sleep instead of just one. Begrudgingly he got up and did as he was told.

Within an hour they had everything packed and under the cover of darkness used magic to take down the tent. The sky had only started to turn a little grey as the reached the Portkey.

Once again working the early morning shift, Basil greeted them near a metal muggle trash can lid. ‘Mr Black, your party isn’t set to leave for another hour.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Sirius said exhaustedly, ‘I am tired, and my husband is probably worried sick. Can we please join the party that is leaving now?’

He looked nervously at his schedule, then sighed. The next party departing to the Ottery St Catchpole area leaves in five minutes, they are the Portkey over there.’ He pointed at a busted garden gnome with two people waiting around it.

‘Thank you Sir,’ Sirius said trying his best to sound grateful. With that they headed towards the people waiting by the Portkey, one of whom Harry had met once the previous year.

‘Luna, right?’ he asked the girl, Luna Lovegood?’

The young girl turned to face him. She was a Ravenclaw in the year below him. She had straggly, waist-length, dirty blonde hair, very pale eyebrows, and protuberant silver eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look, as well as an aura of distinct dottiness about her.

‘Hello Harry, pleasure to see you again,’ she said in her constantly calm and soft voice.

‘Er, yes. A pleasure to see you again too,’ he didn’t mean to come off sounding rude, it was nice to see a friendly face, it had just been such a night that nothing seemed like a pleasure.

Harry was expecting to have to introduce her to Sirius, but then Sirius put his hand out to Luna's father, who took it happily. 'Good to see you again Xenophilius, even under such circumstances.'

'Ah yes, a night of horrors indeed. No doubt the Daily Prophet will run its lies on the true events. That is why we are leaving so early, to hopefully get the Quibbler out before their half-truths reach the masses.' Xenophilius was an eccentric-looking wizard around Sirius' age, he seemed to be slightly cross-eyed and had shoulder length hair that was the texture of candyfloss.

'Well best of luck with your goal,' Sirius said genuinely, he then saw Luna and smiled. 'My how your daughter has grown into a beautiful young lady. That does remind me, I was wondering if you could tell me where you supply your Casition Potions?'

After taking the Portkey back to Ottery St Catchpole Sirius and Xenophilius talked most of the hike back to the Weasley's burrow while Luna joined Harry, Canini, Theodore, and Terence. Only when the Weasley’s home became visible in the distance did the two families split up. When they were twenty paces from the door, it burst open, Molly Weasley came rushing out to meet them.

‘Sirius, are you and your children alright? Where is my family, are they alright? Where is Remus?’ She was a frightened mess, very clearly worried sick.

Sirius closed the distance and put his hands on her arms to calm her down, ‘Your husband and children are all fine, in fact Arthur was one of the bravest wizards I saw last night. Me and the kids are fine, we just left early, that’s why your family isn’t with us. And when everything was going down I didn’t want panicked wizards seeing Remus and think he was a threat so I apparated him home.’

‘Oh thank the stars, they are all right,’ Mrs Weasley exclaimed with such relief. She then look Sirius, Harry, and the others up and down. ‘You all look an exhausted mess, why don’t you stay a bit to rest up before returning to your cottage?’

‘The offer is very much appreciated Molly, but the only thing that could make me feel better right now is seeing my loves face when he knows we are alright. May we come in to use your floo?’

‘Oh yes, of course. Come in, come in.’

All five of them entered the home, followed by Mrs Weasley. They made their way to the large fireplace where Harry was the first to grab a fistful of floo powder and say ‘Mould-on-the-Wold!’

When Harry arrived back home he was immediately greeted by a pale but overjoyed Remus Lupin.

'Harry, you are safe. Is everyone else alright? I haven't dared telephone the Higgs until I know the details.'

'Everyone is safe, we are all-' but before he could finish the sentence Remus had pulled him into a tight hug.

'I was so worried.'

Soon everyone was back, when Sirius returned he turned to everyone with a grave face. 'Kids, I want you all to go up stairs. You can sleep, play, unpack, I don't care, but me and Remus need to have a serious talk. We'll take you home after Terence.'

All four of them make their way up stairs and into Harry's bedroom, then turn around and on the spot and as quietly as possible sneak back to within ear shot.

'I thought you might be dead, the Prophet said bodies were removed from the forrest,' Remus said with lingering worry.

'Bodies? Let me read that,' Harry could hear the moving of paper, then Sirius started to read, 'If the terrified wizards and witches who waited breathlessly for news at the edge of the wood expected reassurance from the Ministry of Magic, they were sadly disappointed. A civilian emerged some time after the appearance of the Dark Mark alleging that no serious injuries had occurred, but refused to give any more information. Whether this statement will be enough to quash the rumors that several bodies were removed from the woods an hour later, remains to be seen. Remus, this was written by Rita Skeeter, she stretches the truth to near insanity.’

‘I thought it was true because the Dark Mark was in the sky, and that always meant Voldemort or one of his closest followers had killed. No one died then?’ Remus asked.

‘To the best of my knowledge no one died. But that doesn’t mean what happened doesn’t foreshadow dark times. Come into the basement, I have a feeling we are being eavesdropped.’

With that Harry’s parents had moved to the basement which had an enchantment making it near sound proof. Canini then turned to the others. ‘I don’t know what they are discussing now, but there is something I must say. You three probably saved my life last night, if anyone had seen me I probably would have been blasted on the spot, but even under the stress of the situation you kept me safe. Thank you.’

‘You’re family, and you taught me that means looking out for one another,’ said Theodore.

‘Yes, I would never let anything happen to you, Canini,’ Harry said with a smile.

‘I wouldn’t let anyone hurt a kid, even if that kid was over a foot taller than myself,’ Terence exclaimed.

‘Ok. Now I don’t know about you, but I am going to go pass out until noon. Goodnight.’ Canini walked back upstairs and soon the boys followed up to Harry’s bedroom.

Harry wanted to discuss further what had occurred that night with his friends, or write a letter to his friend Tracey Davis letting her know they were ok, but the second he was in his bedroom he felt so tired he couldn’t even function.

‘Terence, do you mind if I take a-‘ but by the time he looked at his friend, Terence was already asleep on top of the sleeping bag from the previous night.

No longer feeling obligated to act as the host, Harry took off his bag and flopped onto his own bed where he almost immediately fell asleep.

When the sun had risen to its maximum height, Remus came and knocked on their door, waking the three boys up. ‘Terence, it is time to take you home. Grab your things.’

All three rose from where they lay, though Theodore just sat up and started reading a book from his shelf. Theodore and Harry both grabbed their bags and headed down stairs where both Sirius and Remus were waiting.

‘We are ready to go,’ Harry said, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Remus look at Sirius, then back at Harry, ‘We aren’t dropping you off at the Dursley’s after we bring Terence home, Harry.’

‘Why?’

‘We’ll explain when we get back,’ said Sirius, ‘Anyway we will probably be at the Higgs’ for a while as we’ll have to explain to them what has happened. You and Theodore make some lunch for everyone.’

‘I guess this is goodbye then,’ said Terence, giving Harry a hug. ‘The next time we see each other I’ll be your captain. Thank you Harry, last night might have been crazy but yesterday was still the best day of my life.’

‘I’ll see you on the first, enjoy your last few days of summer.’

‘You as well.’

With that the three of them were gone. Harry did what he was told, he and Theodore prepared supper, but as Harry was chopping the lettuce he couldn’t help think about why his adoptive parents didn’t want him returning to the Dursley’s. Not that Harry was complaining though, any day away from the Dursley’s was a blessing.

Harry, Theodore, and Canini enjoyed a nice autumn salad with some lemonade for lunch, leaving half the bowl for Remus and Sirius. They then did their own thing, Theodore went to continue reading, Harry set a letter to his friend Tracey Davis and his cousin Nymphadora then started playing some wizards chess with Canini.

It was nearly three o’clock when the two men returned. They looked drained from having so explain the complexities of what had transpired the night previous, so the ate their autumn salad before calling Harry over to sit with them.

‘You probably want to know the reason you will be staying here for the last few days of summer,’ said Sirius. ‘For one you probably spent the right amount of time there already, but the main reason is we think there might be a dark wizard on the loose and until you are at hogwarts we want to keep you and the other two safe. Do you understand?’

Harry didn’t like being told what to do, he was capable of protecting himself, but he had to admit there were worse fates then just not going back to the Dursley’s.

‘It is fine,’ said Harry, ‘I’ll just spend this week getting ready for school, go to Diagon Alley, maybe visit my friend while I’m there.’

‘Sorry Harry,’ said Remus, ‘But none of you are leaving the house until Hogwarts, and we have half a mind of not signing you and Theodore’s Hogsmeade permission slip again this year for your protection.’

Anger was now boiling up inside Harry, ‘You promised, you promised that this year we could go since we would just sneak there anyway! You said it would be safer if I was there in a crowd then sneaking in the shadows!’

‘We did,’ Sirius said, trying to deescalate the situation, ‘And we are keeping our word, but if we hear that something dark is going on in that area then no promise will stop us from doing what we must to keep you and Theodore safe, and next year when Canini goes to Hogsmeade we’ll be thinking about her safety too.’

‘You both are so unfair. You are basically keeping us locked up in here!’ Harry shouted.

‘We are too exhausted to deal with this right now. Go calm down in your room,’ Remus said while trying not to raise his voice.

‘Are you sending me to my room?!’

‘I was just suggesting, but if you keep yelling it’ll become an order.’

‘Fine!’ Harry shouted, then marched his way upstairs to his and Theodore’s room and slammed the door shut behind him.

‘What was all that about?’ Theodore asked with both concern and curiosity.

‘The Marauders have taken over.’

The next few days were very boring, all except for the tension between the kids and the adults and the stormy weather that persisted. Theodore and Canini had taken Harry’s side that forcing them to stay inside wasn’t right. They kept to themselves and interacted with Remus and Sirius as little as possible.

On Wednesday, the day before school started, Remus had flooed to Diagon Alley and picked up the supplies they would need as well as fill three small bags with gold for them each to use over the year, and Harry started packing it. Apart from The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 4, by Miranda Goshawk, he had a handful of new quills, a dozen rolls of parchment, and refills for his potion-making kit—he had been running low on spine of lionfish and essence of belladonna. He was just piling underwear into his cauldron when these was another knock on the door.

‘Come in,’ said Theodore. Remus entered, holding two bundles wrapped in parchment paper.

‘I almost forgot, you both have one more item on your school list you must bring to Hogwarts this year. Dress robes.’

‘Dress robes?’ asked Harry, ‘why would we need that?’

Remus handed the two teenagers each a package. ‘I don’t know, it just says on your lists that you need them for an upcoming formal occasion. Open them up.’

Harry might have still been mad, but he was to curious not to see what they looked like, he tore the parcel open. It wasn’t as bad as he had expected, in fact; they were more or less the same as his school robes, except that they were bottle green instead of black. Harry looked over and saw that Theodore’s was identical except his was pitch black with a silver collar and trimming.

‘I thought it best to get something simple, but at the same time match your eyes. I only realized after that they match your house colours.’

Harry was still frustrated, but he had to admit they were nice. ‘Thank you Moony,’ he said with a half smile.

‘You are welcome, now hurry up and finish packing. You’ll want a good night sleep for the train ride ahead.’