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The Daring Win	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 8178 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

Chapter List
- 16
- 17
- 18
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Chapter Seventeen—Skirting Secrets
Sirius had been staring at the same letter for five minutes now, and Dolores judged that she had given him more than ample time to react to it.
“Is something wrong, Black?” she asked, and made sure to keep her voice supremely unconcerned as she spread marmalade across her toast. Currently, she had more than enough to do, keeping an eye on Harry and making sure that he was learning the proper amount of marmalade and butter to spread on his food. She didn’t need Black to have a mental crisis as well.
Sirius started horribly and glanced up, shaking his head. “No, nothing!” he said, in a bright tone that rattled on Dolores’s nerves. He laughed and reached out, his hand almost knocking over the glass jar of marmalade. Dolores rescued it, keeping her eyes firmly on his face. “Nothing you need to worry about.”
That probably meant it concerned some matter of the Black inheritance. Dolores leaned back and studied him. “You are certain?”
“Of course!”
“Nothing that can affect Harry?”
Black never could lie, and that ridiculous, wide-eyed sideways glance said so. But he immediately focused back on her and increased the brilliance of his smile, as if it had ever worked on her. If he did think it did, Dolores thought him blinder than Dumbledore. “No, no! How could a matter of my family affect Harry?”
“Perhaps the Ministry objected to you making him the heir to the Black estates.” Dolores was not sure that would be a bad thing. On the one hand, making Harry Sirius’s heir tied Sirius more closely to them.
On the other hand, Sirius had enough other reasons to be loyal, and the wealth might give Harry a most undesirable independence.
Sirius contorted his mouth into a happy grin. “Yes, that’s it. Only a little problem that I’ll have handled as soon as I can get to the Ministry.” He stood up, stuffed some scones into his pockets—Dolores grimaced; he was not Harry—and reached out to ruffle Harry’s hair and Pardus’s fur in the same motion. “Anyway. Have to run.”
He took off running, and didn’t slow even when Dolores made the small cough that was successful in halting him most of the time. He just waved a hand at her and kept streaking, plowing through the doorway and, from the sound of it, through the Floo a second later.
Dolores turned to observe Lupin. He had been sitting close enough to read the letter over Sirius’s shoulder, and his behavior might give her some clue of what it was about.
Lupin did look a little cooler and paler than usual, sipping his tea with a cup that trembled, but that was not enough evidence to decide one way or the other what letter Black had received. Dolores shook her head and regretfully put aside the concern for now. “What lesson will you be giving Harry today, Mr. Lupin?”
Lupin looked up with a smile that strengthened as she watched. “Evidence for the ancient wizarding communities of Atlantis.”
“You are not going in chronological order.”
“Harry is such a strong pupil that I don’t need to. I go by his questions, and when he doesn’t understand something, then he knows he can ask me and I’ll explain.”
Dolores paused, then nodded. She had to admit that Harry was much more intelligent than many young boys she might have adopted, and able to decide on the progress of his own education. Dolores would interfere only if he seemed to be wandering too far afield from the Ministry-approved topics. “And do you enjoy that process, Harry?”
“Yes, I do.” Harry spoke up in the firm voice she had encouraged him to use lately, and used his napkin instead of his fingers to mop the crumbs off his chin. “And I sure enjoy it more than I ever did the Muggle primary school.”
“That is to be expected. It was Muggle.”
Lupin looked a little concerned, the way he often did when Dolores disparaged Muggles, but Harry nodded ferociously. “And there’s no Dudley here to bully me and keep the other kids from being friends with me.”
“Will that ever happen again, Harry?”
“No. When I go to Hogwarts, people are going to beg to be my friend.”
It will be Slytherin for him, nothing else, Dolores thought contentedly, and exchanged a smile with Harry. Lupin again looked concerned, but Dolores didn’t think that mattered. In fact, by showing that Harry was somewhat independent from Lupin’s influence as his teacher, it was a good thing.
I am raising a prodigy.
*
“This is bad. It’s very bad.”
Dolores paused. She had thought Sirius was asleep already, because he had come back so late and looked even more frazzled than when he’d left. If it was a matter of the Black inheritance, it must be complicated beyond imagining. Perhaps the goblins were involved. She had felt more than enough sympathy, and arranged to leave him alone, rather than questioning him.
But now he was crouching in front of a Floo in the sitting room that she used for Harry’s lessons in recent wizarding history, and talking to someone through the fire that Dolores could not see. She eased a bit closer.
“Why did you contact me, Black?”
Dolores cocked her head. She had thought she knew that voice, for a moment, but no, she did not, other than that it was gruff, and male. She still couldn’t see the face in the flames, either.
“Because you’re one of the few who knows the truth and still might stand up against Albus.” Sirius closed his eyes and ran a hand through his wild hair. Dolores barely held back the temptation to cluck her tongue. She had spent so much time staring at him disapprovingly so he would stop that deplorable habit and style his hair neatly, and now it appeared it was coming back the minute he lost his composure.
“Why should I stand up against Albus?”
“You told me once that you thought he was overstepping his power as Head of the Wizengamot. And that’s truer now than ever, with the questioning he’s going through. And the loss of his influence.”
“Well…yes, I do believe that. But this is a private matter. I don’t see why I should interfere.”
“Because the Ministry gave custody to Umbridge, not him!” Sirius pounded a fist on the hearth. Dolores blinked. She certainly had never thought he would be that fierce in defense of her. “And because you know full well he wants custody of Harry so that he can keep politically-maneuvering around behind the scenes.”
“He might know better than the Ministry.”
“If you really believe that, why you are still working for them?”
There was silence from the fire. Dolores tried again to remember if she’d ever heard a voice like that at the Ministry. She didn’t think so, but then, there were plenty of Departments that she hadn’t interacted with on a regular basis.
“Say your piece, Black.”
Sirius waved a letter. Squinting, Dolores made out the creases in it. She thought it might be the same one he had received that morning. “He’s threatening me! Threatening to release the information that—well, you know what would happen if that information fell into the wrong hands.”
I don’t. And I want to know.
“And you think this is only politically motivated? That he wants Potter back under his control?”
“I know it is, Moody. Of course it is. He isn’t doing this out of some disinterested motive or the purity of his heart. If you won’t help me, then he’ll probably gain some control of Harry back, too.”
Moody! Of course Dolores knew of the famous Auror, although she didn’t think she had ever seen him at close quarters, which would be the reason she hadn’t recognized his voice. She hadn’t known he had a connection to Dumbledore that went beyond the one any Auror would have with the Head of the Wizengamot, though. This was immensely intriguing.
“Are you sure that Potter’s in the best hands?”
“I don’t always trust Dolores, but I do know that she wants to teach Harry about the world that should always have been his. And she did rescue him from the Muggles.”
How interesting to know that you don’t always trust me, Sirius. Dolores shifted a little and made sure that her shadow wasn’t falling into the room in such a way that someone could see it from the Floo. Moody was famously paranoid. She was amazed he hadn’t already insisted that Sirius ward the room.
“I’m not going to discuss this with you in her house, Black,” said Moody a moment later. Dolores sighed in disappointment. “If you think that this is something I need to take a hand in, then meet me in the Ministry at one-o’clock tomorrow. Choose a question only you would know the answer to and owl it and the answer to me tonight.”
Sirius sighed and seemed as if he was about to fall over. “Thanks, Moody. You don’t know how much this means to me.”
“I think I do,” said Moody. “Not that you ought to fall victim to this kind of tactic.” And the fire puffed out, just before Sirius sighed again and got up to walk towards the door.
Dolores took a silent step back, wondering if she ought to tell Sirius that she’d heard or not. It seemed like good blackmail material, but on the other hand, he had lied about the letter having nothing to do with Harry’s custody. Perhaps it would be better to confront him now and get it over with.
Something abruptly slammed into her backside. Dolores whipped out, wand rising in her hand too late. She shouldn’t need to be as paranoid as Moody to defend herself in her own household!
It was only Harry and Pardus, who had been chasing each other—Dolores was not sure which one had been in front—down the corridor. Harry immediately grabbed Pardus and stood there with his head bowed as if afraid that she would take his cat away, shivering.
“I’m sorry, Miss Dolores,” he whispered. “I thought Pardus had a mouse, and I was trying to take it away from him before he choked, and—”
From the sound of rustling in the sitting room, Sirius had retreated from the door, and was warned now. Dolores sighed and put her wand away. “What have I said about running in the house, Harry?”
“Not to do it.”
Dolores curled a finger beneath his chin and tilted his head up; with his eyes on the floor like that, he couldn’t see the message waiting for him in her face. “Then you’re not to do it again. If I catch you doing that, there won’t be a chance of Pardus catching mice because there won’t be any more Pardus here. Understood?”
Harry nodded, his eyes wide and his face still. He was getting better at controlling his emotions, she could see that. Not so long ago, he would have burst out crying at the pronouncement. “Yes, Miss Dolores.”
“What’s all this? Does Dolores think she can take away the kitten I got you?”
Dolores turned to face Sirius. He was smiling, but his cheeks still had a tinge of pallor to them. Dolores hid her frustration and gave Sirius a faint smile. “If Harry disobeys the rules because of a pet, then it must go.”
“But it’s his kitten.”
“Living in my house, subsisting on my bounty and invitation, much the way you and Mr. Lupin do. Or did you forget that part?”
“You wouldn’t get rid of Sirius, right?” Harry spun around to face her abruptly, his hands tightening on Pardus until the kitten squirmed and let out a little squall. “You wouldn’t be that mean!”
“I would not get rid of him the same way I would get rid of a kitten. But I cannot have him encouraging you to undesirable behavior.”
Harry ducked his head. Sirius, still looking a little pale, cleared his throat and shook his head. “I hope you don’t mean that threat, Dolores. Because in that case, I might have to go to Dumbledore and tell him that you’re an undesirable guardian.”
Before Dolores could even summon up her outrage, Harry did it for her. He faced Sirius and stared intensely as he said, “You wouldn’t do that.”
“Pup, you can’t want to get rid of Pardus!”
“I don’t want to go to Dumbledore,” Harry countered, his voice so thick and hot that Dolores was reminded of a fire burning underground. “No matter what happens. Even if Miss Dolores starts starving me like they did. Take me with you when you run. But don’t take me to Dumbledore.”
“I would never do that,” said Dolores, lost somewhere in the midst of her shock.
“If you did,” said Harry, and gave her a glance that had something wild lingering in the back of it.
Before Dolores could ask him where this had come from, Sirius broke in. “I don’t want to go to Dumbledore. But I want to keep you safe.”
“Dumbledore doesn’t want that! Or he never would have left me with the Dursleys in the first place!”
“I just said I wasn’t talking about taking you to Dumbledore!”
“You said it at first.”
Dolores eased slowly back and left Harry confronting Sirius in the middle of the corridor. She might not understand everything that was going on here, but she did know that Harry could fight this battle on his own.
Sirius gave one of those tugs at his black hair that she so hated, and a rough sigh. “All right, that was a stupid thing to say—”
“Yes.”
Dolores fought the smile off her face. That was as inappropriate a reaction as everything Harry had done, so far.
“But I do want you to be safe, pup. And happy. And to have what you want.” Sirius glared at Dolores. “I don’t want to see her get rid of your kitten any more than I want to see her starve you.”
Harry was silent for a second, stroking Pardus’s fur. Then he said, “I know, Sirius. But I don’t think she’s going to seriously do it.” He glanced over his shoulder at Dolores. “Are you, Miss Dolores?”
“I will get rid of him if you can’t handle having a pet. And I have told you about the conditions I have on letting you keep him before.”
Harry ducked his head and murmured, “Yes, Miss Dolores. I won’t—I won’t let him get out of control again.”
“See that you don’t,” said Dolores, with a firm nod, and then turned and swept down the corridor, watching over her shoulder with one eye. Sirius was grinning at Harry and shaking his head. At least he didn’t seem inclined to pursue either the argument or the notion of reporting Dolores to Dumbledore.
“She can be pretty strict, huh, pup?” Sirius was saying just before Dolores turned the corner.
Dolores sighed. The chance was gone now to ask Sirius about the letter, and although she could intercept the owl he’d send to Moody, it would probably give nothing more than the information the paranoid Auror had demanded to identify Sirius tomorrow. How inconvenient that Harry had run into her and made her reveal her presence outside the room to Sirius like that.
Dolores paused when she thought that. Could Harry have done that on purpose? Somehow known what the letter contained and that he would want to prevent Dolores from cornering Sirius or overhearing too much, so he had run down the corridor and bumped into her on purpose?
A second later, Dolores snorted. No. Sirius had not communicated with Harry since breakfast that morning, she was sure. And Harry was growing into a smart, manipulative young man, but not that skilled.
Not yet.
- 16
- 17
- 18
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The Daring Win