Harry Potter and the Siren's Song

After a few seconds, Sirius bounded off Harry's chest and resumed his normal form. Even in the semi-darkness, Harry could tell his godfather was less than pleased with him. "Harry," he started, "I was out of my mind when McGonagall said you couldn't be located in the castle. And when Moody said where he thought you were..." Sirius broke off, and after a pause he said in a shaking voice, "What on earth were you thinking? Out in the forest at night, spying on a meeting with giants and vampires?"

"But Sirius-"

"Harry, let me finish! I realize that only your father should have the right to chastise you like this, but he's not here!" The words hung heavily in the air between them, and Harry couldn't think of anything to say. "I don't want to know why, and I don't want to know what you were thinking. All I care about is that you're safe." A bleak smile crossed Sirius's face. "Because now I can stop worrying about you, and focus on how angry I am with you."

Harry nodded, unable to speak. Sirius came up beside him. "You had us all pretty shaken up, you know that? I doubt if Ginny Weasley will ever forgive you."

Harry nodded again. Then he said the first question that popped into his head. "Sirius, why are you here?"

"This," Sirius said simply, holding up a bit of parchment. Harry peered at it, then recognized it as his letter to Remus Lupin.

"How did you get that?" Harry asked, feeling a little shell-shocked.

"Remus sent it to me this morning, along with another letter. He felt I should be the one to tell you," Sirius said simply. "Why didn't you just ask me if you wanted to know something about Helena Velange and her sister?"

"I saw how you looked when you saw her," Harry swallowed. "I didn't want to upset you."

"Right, because I wouldn't be at all upset if you snuck off into the Forest to spy on a meeting that involved giants and vampires." Sirius said dryly. "I wish I knew what went through that head of yours sometimes. I know you're not used to turning to grown-ups for help, Harry - God knows you've received damned little of it when you needed it growing up - but that's the past. You know if you need help, you only have to ask-"

"Do I?" Harry shot back. His hands were shaking with sudden anger. "You know what I see, Sirius? I see myself surrounded by people determined to keep the truth from me. I never knew I had a godmother until you told me. Don't you think that's something I should have known? I see the adults in my life determined to keep me from knowing exactly why Voldemort destroyed my family. 'When you are older, when you ready.' Well, I want to know - I need to know. Now."

Sirius looked shaken, as though stunned by this sudden show of temper. "I can't tell you that, Harry. Only Dumbledore can really explain-"

"Fine - then at the very least you owe me the truth about my godmother." Harry crossed his arms. "I need to know, and I know you know the truth." Seeing Sirius waver, he said in a croaky voice, "Please, Sirius. I need to know."

Sirius sighed. "Very well." He sat in a chair behind a huge oak desk and indicated for Harry to sit as well. "It's a very long story, Harry but I can sum it up for you in five words - Helena Velange is your godmother."

"Professor Velange - is my godmother?" Harry repeated, feeling as though the wind had been knocked out of him. Hermione was right. He wasn't sure why, but the thought bothered him. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"I supposed Dumbledore thought it best for you to get to know her first, but you'll have to ask him about that." Sirius looked down at his hands, obviously uncomfortable with the very idea of questioning Dumbledore's judgment. "You were right when you said I was upset when I saw her. I haven't seen Lena for 15 years - except in my mind." Sirius stood again, and crossed the room where he stopped to look out the window and onto the dark grounds. "Not since the night when she left."

"She left," Harry repeated faintly. "But I thought you left her, when you went to Azkaban-" Harry stopped when he noticed that Sirius didn't appear to be listening.

"I didn't even know that she was alive, that she was herself-"Sirius stopped mid-thought and ran a trembling hand through his dark hair. "But that's another story, for another day. What you need to know now is that Lena is here to protect you, just as I am here to protect you. Nothing else matters to me, Harry, except your safety." He turned to face his godson. "I swore an oath to your father on the day that you were born that I would protect you at all costs. And while I've done a fairly shoddy job of it for most of your life, by God I won't break that promise now."

"But why didn't Velange - I mean Professor Velange-" Harry felt as though the room was spinning slightly, "tell me about this herself?"

"I don't know, Harry. I don't know where she's been, or why she's returned. But Dumbledore gave me his word that she is here to protect you."

Harry's temper was rising. "Let me get this straight," he said slowly, "Professor Velange is my godmother. You don't know where she's been, or what she's been doing, or even why she chose not to tell me who she was, and I'm supposed to blindly accept the fact that she's here to protect me. Because it's told to me by the same people who have kept the truth from me for five years?"

"Harry, you have to listen to me!" Sirius pleaded. "I'm not explaining this correctly-"

"No, you listen to me!" Harry snapped. "I spent 10 years being told I had no other family, and being raised in a cupboard by people who would rather see me in an institution for incurably criminal boys then in their precious household. Of course the Dursleys lied to me; but for people I love and trust to do the same? You'll forgive me if I don't warm up immediately to the idea that there was someone out there who promised my parents they'd be there for me in the event something happened to them...someone who didn't bother to try and find me, or get me out of that house!" Harry was angrier then he had ever been. "Don't worry, Sirius - I'm not angry at you. You have the excuse of Azkaban - what excuse does she have?" He stood, and shot his godfather a look of disgust. "All someone has to explain to me now is why she is cozying up to Snape - or is that something else I'm not old enough to hear?" With that he all but ran from the room, leaving a defeated and shaken Sirius behind him.

***

"Harry!" Ginny exclaimed from her seat by the fire. She practically ran to him, and threw her arms around his neck. "We've been so worried!"

Harry kissed the top of her hair, and looked to where Ron and Hermione were staring at him as though he were a ghost. "I'm ok, you know."

"Harry," Hermione said, struggling to her feet, and dumping books helter-skelter onto the floor. A few seconds later he felt her arms around him, as Ron watched without comment. "Where on earth have you been? McGonagall practically turned the tower inside out, looking for you!"

"In the Forest," he said simply.

"Why on earth were you in the forest?" Ron asked, his brow furrowed.

"Followed Velange and Snape." He lowered his voice and told them about the meeting he had witnessed.

"You actually saw Snape and Velange meeting with vampires?" Hermione squeaked.

"Sod that, you saw giants???" Ron added. "What were they like?" he asked, looking excited.

"There's more," Harry said, while Ginny clung to him. "I know who my godmother is - it's Velange."

"Professor Velange?" Ron asked, looking incredulous. Ginny looked up at him, startled. Hermione, he noticed, didn't say a word.

"Hermione?" he asked, watching her step back and bit her lip. "What is it?"

"I've been keeping this from you, Harry...but now you know." She took a deep breath and said in a rush, "I've known that Lena was your godmother for weeks, since just after Halloween."

"What?" Harry asked, startled. "How did you know?"

"I asked her," Hermione said, while Ron goggled at her.

"You knew?" Harry asked, his temper rising again. "You knew all this time and you didn't say anything?"

"Why, Hermione?" Ginny asked, looking as stunned as Harry felt.

"She begged me not to tell you," Hermione said calmly. "And since I knew this was how you would react-" she had barely gotten the words out before Harry's temper got the better of him.

"You're supposed to be my friend!" he bellowed at her. "You're supposed to be helping me find her, and then you tell me something like this?" Ron jumped in front of Hermione, and shot Harry a warning look.

"I'm sure she did what she thought was best," Ron said in a cold voice, before he turned to look at Hermione. "But you could have told him, you know."

Hermione straightened her shoulders, and met Ron's challenging glare. "I think Harry's proved that Velange was right in making sure he didn't know - she seemed to think he would jump to conclusions-"

"Of course she's going to say that!" Harry practically spat at her. "She left me to bloody rot at the Dursleys. Hell, if it weren't for Dumbledore's determination to get me to Hogwarts, I'd probably still be there, assuming I didn't give in to temptation and sodding blow them all up for being the incredible gits that they were! You're supposed to be one of my best friends, Hermione - how could you keep something like this from me?"

He looked down into Ginny's eyes, and something there made him let go of the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. She was looking at him the same way he had seen Snape looking at Velange that night in the forest, and he couldn't bear to yell like this in front on her. "Never mind, it doesn't matter," he muttered. "Just do me a favor, will you? And leave me alone? I just can't even look at you at the moment. Tomorrow - we'll talk."

Hermione nodded, and after shooting a frightened glance at Ron, headed up the stairs towards the girls' dorms. Ron started after her, before he stopped and turned to say, "Hermione loves you, Harry - you know she wouldn't have done this unless she felt it was the right thing to do." Ron's wide blue eyes were very vivid in his pale face as he faced his best friend.

"Right" Harry said sarcastically. "She lied to me because she loves me. Because she wants to protect me. Just like Dumbledore lied to me, like Velange lied to me. I'm just surrounded by people who want to protect me. Well guess what? All this protection didn't keep me from being hungry and ignored for ten years. It didn't keep me from spending my entire childhood wondering if anyone might care about me. And it sure as hell didn't keep me safe from Voldemort, so I've just about had it with people trying to protect me!"

Ron didn't look away from Harry's furious glaze as he said in a croaky voice, "That's irrelevant at the moment, Harry. The history I remember is that Hermione and I both went with you down the trap door, and I was with you in the Chamber of Secrets, and Hermione was with you when you went back in time to save Sirius. And we did it to protect you. Do you have idea how hard it is being friends with you sometimes? How many times Hermione and I have wondered if we'd ever see you again? So you'll forgive me if I don't think much of your ingratitude! Sorry, Harry - I need to go check on Hermione - you know, your other best friend who loves you." With that, Ron whirled off up the stairs.

Harry goggled after him, before he turned to Ginny. "I guess I had that coming, didn't I?" he mumbled.

"That's one way of looking at it," she said, her usual bright smile completely absent from her face. "The other way of looking at it is that you need to quit taking things out on the people who love you. I'm sorry that your godmother wasn't completely truthful with you, Harry, but has it occurred to you that she might have had her reasons? Not the least of which was the fact that just as Sirius was locked in Azkaban, she was locked in St. Mungo's?" Ginny's cheeks were a brilliant pink now. "And I'm still waiting to hear how exactly that excuses you for your behavior tonight! God, do you have any idea how worried I was? How worried we all were?" Ginny's voice had begun to raise in volume, and her hands were shaking. "I don't know when I've ever seen Dumbledore more troubled. But did you think of that? No, you were too busy trying to find out things that maybe you're not ready to know, that people who love you might just have kept from you for a damned good reason!" She took a step towards him, and grabbed his hand fiercely in her own. "I know you're angry, Harry, but that does not excuse your treatment of Dumbledore, or Sirius, or Hermione." The unspoken words, "Or me," hung heavily over the room. Her chin jutted out, and she nodded towards the stairs. "I suggest you start redeeming yourself by apologizing to Hermione. Now."

Harry blinked, then automatically turned towards the stairs. Just before he went up towards the girl's dorms, he said "She should have told me, Ginny."

"I'm not arguing that," Ginny said smoothly. "But that doesn't give you the right to treat her like that." She turned back towards the fire, and Harry could see her set her slight shoulders, as if steeling herself for an attack.

"Right," he said after a long moment, before he practically ran up the stairs.

Ron was standing outside the door to Hermione's room. His arms were folded across his chest, and his blue eyes looked positively frosty as he watched Harry hurry towards him. "Come to shovel some more guilt on her?" he asked, his voice colder than Harry could ever remember. "Did you manage to think of some more hurtful words to throw in her face?"

"No. I came to apologize," Harry said weakly, cringing inwardly at the venom in Ron's voice.

"Yeah. Well, you should," Ron said, before he swung open the door. Harry saw Hermione's golden-brown curls shining in the candlelight, spread out over her arms where she was curled up on her bed.

"Hermione?" Harry asked. She didn't move, or speak, or acknowledge his presence in any way.

Harry turned to Ron. "Where are Lavender and Parvati?"

Ron snorted. "Out. With Seamus and Dean," he answered. His meaning was all too obvious. However, Harry was intensely grateful to his housemates for their late-night snog session. It would be hard enough to apologize, but doing it in front of an audience would have been next to impossible.

"Could you give us a minute?" Harry asked. Seeing Ron's expression, he sighed. "I just want to tell her I'm sorry. You're next, mate - but I kind of need to be alone when I do this."

Ron nodded then a grin crossed his face. "You don't have to, you know. I figured after last year, at least we're kind of even now."

"No, I need to do this," Harry said firmly. "You were right, you know. You've always been there whenever I needed you, and then I took everything out on Hermione and you." He swallowed, and said, "I'm sorry, Ron."

"Don't mention it. It was kind of refreshing, watching you make a total prat of yourself. You know, The Boy who Lived was the Boy who was Human." Ron scuffed his feet on the floor, and Harry grinned at him.

"Now what? I planned on hugging Hermione, but it's, you know, you."

"Yeah, I know." Ron frowned for a moment, then clapped Harry on the shoulder. "There, that ought to about cover it."

"Right," Harry said, returning the gesture. "Now, would you mind getting out of here for a few minutes?"

"Will do," Ron said. He gave Hermione a final look, then left, closing the door behind him.

Harry moved over to the bed, sitting down a few inches from Hermione's feet. "You know, it's kind of anticlimactic, apologizing to you after you've already heard about it."

Hermione didn't answer; she just buried her face in her pillow. "Come on, Hermione," Harry wheedled. "I was completely out of line. I was beyond a prat, I don't deserve to have you warn me about an oncoming basilisk." She didn't move. Harry tried again, and was surprised to hear himself choking up. "Hermione, I am so sorry. All I can say is, I just kind of snapped when I heard you say that you'd known about Velange for weeks. Why did you know, when I didn't know? She's my godmother, and I didn't even know whom she was."

Hermione sat up. "That's still no excuse, Harry-" she began hotly.

"I know, I was wrong. I'm sorry," he said softly. "You didn't deserve that - no one deserved that."

A slight smile crossed her face. "Ok, so long as we're clear. You were wrong."

"Yes," Harry said with a sigh, "I was wrong. But Hermione," he paused, "why didn't you tell me? And what made you go and ask her?"

Hermione pushed her hair back from her face, and looked at him closely. "Are you really sure you want to hear this from me, Harry? Shouldn't you hear this from Lena?" It took him a second to realize that she was referring to Velange. Harry reached over, and took her hands in his.

"You're one of my best friends, Hermione - there's no one else I would rather hear this from." Harry was only slightly startled to realize that he meant this - every word of it.

"All right," Hermione said, and hugged her pillow to her chest. Her expression was very grave as she took a deep breath, clearly steeling herself for what was to come. "It's kind of complicated, actually..."

***

A/N: Many thanks to all that have reviewed at Schnoogle.com and FF.net so far - your encouragement and critiques mean a lot:

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