"Harry, are you all right?"
Hermione's voice broke the silence in the wooden hut.
Harry slowly raised his head. Seeing the faint guilt and concern in Hermione's eyes, he forced a smile and said, "Of course! I've never been better!"
There was a trace of resentment in his voice, but it was mixed with genuine excitement.
The conversation just now had given Harry some good news, but it had also led him to a very troubling suspicion, leaving him with mixed feelings.
The good news was, of course, about Sirius and the truth of what had happened all those years ago.
He had suddenly learned that he had a godfather, which meant he would soon be able to escape the Dursleys.
There could be no better news, but his suspicions about Vaughn and Dumbledore had dampened his joy.
He desperately wanted to find out exactly when Vaughn and Dumbledore had learned about Peter Pettigrew.
Was it before Scabbers-or rather, Peter-had escaped from Ron? Or afterward?
This mattered a great deal to Harry, because he had always regarded Dumbledore as the elder he respected most, and Vaughn as a good friend.
Harry knew perfectly well that even if they had known the truth, neither of them had been obliged to tell him. Still, he did not want his trust to have been betrayed.
He had been through a great deal over the past year or so and had grown much more mature, so he did not let himself get fixated on a mere suspicion.
At least until he understood everything, he preferred to believe that Vaughn and Dumbledore had not deliberately kept him in the dark.
His tangled thoughts kept him from considering where Hermione's guilt had come from.
More precisely, he subconsciously believed Hermione was cleverer than he was, so