Another Prisoner, Another Professor

At The Leaky Cauldron, Harry overhears Ron's parents talking about Remus Lupin.

"Molly, Lupin is supposed to have gone mad years ago, but mad or not he's found a way out of prison. Everyone's always said it's impossible to escape from Azkaban, but he's done it, and he's done it as a werewolf who's likely sick between full moons, what with living in that place. There's something driving him to continue, and on the night that Harry defeated You-Know-Who Remus Lupin lost everything he had. Half the Ministry wanted to execute him."

"But in the condition he's in, shouldn't it be easy to catch him, if he's ill - "

"That's what I thought." Harry could hear Mr. Weasley pacing across the floor. "That's what the entire Ministry thought. Magical Law Enforcement figured that they'd have captured him within a few days after he'd escaped, but it's been three weeks, and the only lead we have is an old witch in Wiltshire who says she saw a man matching his description who was trying to break into her cottage."

"But Arthur, everyone's said for years, Hogwarts is safe - "

" - but the safest place is Azkaban," Mr. Weasley finished. "If he could escape from Azkaban, Hogwarts shouldn't be too much of a problem."

"But if half the Ministry wanted Lupin to be executed, how do we know for sure that it's Harry he's after - "

There was a heavy sigh.

"Molly," began Mr. Weasley. He sounded very tired. "The minute Fudge heard that Lupin had escaped he apparated to Azkaban. The guards showed him Lupin's cell. And scratched all over the stone, traced in the dirt, written in blood, Molly, was one word, 'Harry.' It doesn't get much clearer than that.

"As a young man Lupin must have thought he'd beaten the odds. He'd been let into Hogwarts, he graduated near the top of his class...sweet Merlin, he was even made a prefect. Most werewolves who contract lycanthropy as young children are lucky to survive to their tenth birthdays. And then to have it all taken away, because a little child managed to win against the man Lupin had put all his hopes for the future with...Molly, we can't afford not to think Lupin wants Harry dead."

Two new voices were growing louder, and Harry looked to see shadows stretching across the passage to the bar.

" - wonder why he's not found it by now."

"Well, it's a pretty small bottle of rat tonic, Ron."

"But there's only so many - "

"Shut up!" Harry hissed.

Ron and Hermione came around the corner; Hermione had a puzzled expression but Ron immediately ran to the door and crouched down next to Harry. "Is that my mum and dad?"

Hermione joined them, pressing her ear against the door.

" - suppose if that's how you feel you'll tell him in the morning, Arthur."

"Not the specifics, of course. Harry doesn't need to know that a criminal's been writing his name in blood."

Ron's face looked ashen. "Who are they talking about?" he whispered.

"Blood...it reminds me of just a few months ago, and that whole...business with Ginny and the - "

"I think we ought to go to and get some sleep," Mr. Weasley said. Harry heard his chair being pushed back. "We'll need our energy, getting all seven of them off to the station. I wouldn't put it above Fred and George to play some sort of prank on those Ministry cars."

"Speaking of those two - " The Weasleys' voices were getting further and further away; it seemed they were going out the other door. " - the way they treat Percy is getting..."

After another moment everything was silent. Hermione was chewing on her lower lip in a rather nervous sort of way, whereas Ron looked at Harry with wide, frightened eyes. "Someone's been writing your name in blood? Blimey, Harry...it isn't that bloke - "

"Remus Lupin, yeah," Harry said stoically. The insides of his body felt numb. "Apparently when I defeated Voldemort it ruined Lupin's whole life, and he's supposed to be so powerful that he was the only non-pureblood allowed to follow Voldemort."

Hermione and Ron had cringed both times at the mention of Voldemort's name, but Hermione's face returned to normal first. "Come on, we have to find Scabbers's rat tonic," she said, opening the door. "Now, where was he writing your name in blood?"

Ron looked startled, but Harry answered, "All over his cell in Azkaban."

The three of them proceeded into the bar and began to search for the bottle of tonic. "Harry, that might be really dangerous, magically I mean...I've read some things about spells wizards have done involving blood - "

"So, make Harry feel worse, why don't you!" said Ron. "Here, I found the rat tonic."

"I'm not trying to make him feel worse," Hermione retorted, "I'm trying to help him."

Outside in the corridor they looked at each other for a moment and then proceeded upstairs to their rooms. "Do you think that - " Ron began.

"Oy, you, pipe down, there's some of us as are trying to sleep!" barked the portrait of a very old wizard in a teal cloak.

The silence on the stairs was even worse than Hermione's warnings had been. You can defeat Lupin, said one part of Harry's mind, you managed to defeat Voldemort when you were just a baby, and twice since then you've faced him again.

But a werewolf, and a werewolf who wanted Harry dead, and one who had been so powerful that -

"I'm not going to be murdered by a werewolf," he said aloud when he had reached his room and closed the door.

"Just stay inside during the full moon, love," murmured the mirror drowsily.