I'm Going to Find Snape and Form an Alliance

Yes, Harry had grown up.

If she had really been fourteen, she would have trusted Sirius blindly—so blindly that no matter who made a mistake, it could never have been him.

But Harry was no longer the person she had been then.

Even her view of her own father was no longer quite so rose-tinted.

After all, she had seen what James had been like when he bullied Snape.

The newly arrived Black had been teaching for less than a week, yet he had already become the most popular professor at Hogwarts.

The bulletin board in the Great Hall was plastered with posters girls had made for the "Professor Black Fan Club." Someone had even secretly changed the Fat Lady's password from "dragon dung" to "Professor Black is the most handsome."

Hermione had offered a fair assessment: "Professor Black is much more useful than Lockhart. He actually demonstrates how to fight off a werewolf."

Care of Magical Creatures had just ended, and the hem of Harry's robes was still smeared with slime from the latest little treasure Hagrid had brought out.

She leaned against the stone wall outside the greenhouse, closed her eyes, and rubbed her temples. Buckbeak let out a clear cry from the paddock, reminding her of a certain idiot who had gotten hooked after riding him once.

That fellow had tried several more times afterward, until an impatient Buckbeak kicked him and broke the skin on his arm. Not only had Draco refrained from making a fuss and running to his father, but he had also rolled up his sleeves and insisted on getting on good terms with Buckbeak.

That kind of behavior always reminded Harry of the people she had heard about after reaching adulthood in her previous life, the ones called masochists.

"Are you all right?" Ron's voice came from beside her. A leaf was stuck in his red hair, and his face still bore red marks from a Biting Cabbage attack. "Didn't you get enough rest? You look pretty tired."

Harry shook her head. "I'm fine, just..." She paused, unsure how to explain her exhaustion.

Sirius had inexplicably gone straight from fugitive to Hogwarts professor, Draco's pursuit was impossible to shake, and Basilisk Voldemort mocked her from time to time. They all weighed on her shoulders like stones.

Ron suddenly took a deep breath, his eyes shining. "I hope... I think I can help take some of the burden off you." His blue eyes looked especially bright in the sunlight. "We're friends, right?"

Harry turned to him and took Ron's hand, moved. "Thank you, Ron. You're a good brother."

Ron's ears turned completely red. His lips moved, as though he wanted to say something else, but Neville's sudden arrival interrupted him.

The round-faced boy came running over, out of breath. "H-Harry! Professor Black is looking for you. He's in the Headmaster's Office!"

"Now?" Harry frowned.

Neville nodded. "Professor McGonagall is there too."

Harry sighed and turned to Ron. "What were you going to say just now?"

"N-nothing!" Ron waved his hands in a fluster. "Go on, take care of your business."

He watched Harry walk away, then suddenly kicked a stone on the ground hard. The stone struck a tree trunk, dislodging an unripe fruit that fell on Ron and made him cry out in pain.

"Be brave, Weasley," Ron muttered to himself. "Next time, I definitely have to..."

His voice faded into the wind, while in the distance the Whomping Willow gently swayed its branches, as if mocking his hesitation.

When Harry pushed open the door to the Headmaster's Office, the aroma of sweet tea already filled the air. Professor McGonagall sat behind a half-moon-shaped desk and tapped a fingertip against it, sending a cup of black tea with milk sliding toward Harry.

"Are you settling in at school?" McGonagall's voice was gentler than usual.

Harry picked up the cup. Through the rising steam, she saw several color-changing magical sugar pearls at the bottom. "Everything's fine, Professor."

"I'd like to introduce you to someone," McGonagall said suddenly.

A faint sound came from the shadows behind the bookcase.

Harry's breathing grew quiet without her realizing it, and her fingers tightened around the rim of her cup.

From the moment Black became head of house, this reunion had been inevitable.

A tall man stepped out of the shadows behind the bookcase. He wore a dark gray Dragon Hide jacket, and his black curls hung to his shoulders. A bluish shadow of freshly shaved stubble remained on his chin.

When those familiar gray eyes turned toward Harry, she suddenly remembered the face she had seen in the fireplace in her previous life, haggard as a prisoner's.

He looked like a different person from the vibrant man before her now.

"This might be hard to believe, Harry, but I'm actually your godfather, Sirius Black." Although Sirius had rehearsed this countless times in his head, his voice was still a little awkward when they finally met.

He looked at Harry, then took a deep breath and began explaining Peter Pettigrew's betrayal. It was a long story, and Harry sat quietly on the sofa watching him as he told her of the love, hatred, and grudges between them.

"...So for the past twelve years, I've been hunting that traitor." Sirius's voice dropped, and suppressed fury burned in his gray eyes.

A brief silence fell over the office.

"I believe you," Harry said, her tone unbelievably calm, without a trace of doubt.

Sirius, who was still thinking about how to make Harry believe him, froze. His gray eyes went wide, and he looked like a big dog that had been put on pause.

Professor McGonagall chuckled, a sly gleam flashing across her Half-moon Spectacles. "I told you, Harry is as sensible as her parents."

Sirius suddenly dropped to one knee, making himself look even more like a large dog. "I'm the head of Gryffindor at Hogwarts, so if you ever need anything-"

"Can you sign my Hogsmeade permission form?" Harry pulled the crumpled parchment from her pocket and blinked her emerald-green eyes. "My uncle and aunt didn't sign it for me. We... um... forgot about it..."

It was a rather poor excuse, but Sirius looked as though he had been hit in the face by a Golden Snitch. He stared into the almond-shaped eyes identical to Lily's, and a sudden, aching warmth filled his chest. "Of-of course I can! You can go as many times as you like from now on. I can even go with you! All your sweets from Honeydukes are on me!"

As the quill swept an exuberant signature across the parchment, Harry noticed that his hand was trembling slightly.

After Harry left, Sirius suddenly jumped up and rushed toward the door.

"Where are you going?" McGonagall asked, raising an eyebrow.

"To find Snape and form an alliance!" Sirius's voice came from the corridor. "If that boy dares come near Harry again, we'll stuff him into the hole in the Whomping Willow!"

Headmistress McGonagall shook her head. Her face was full of helplessness, but she couldn't suppress the smile tugging at her lips.

That was fine too. She would let them get on with it, so long as they didn't cause any particularly serious trouble.