Another Prisoner, Another Professor

It was, without a doubt, the worst Christmas season Harry could remember, even worse than the year that Aunt Marge spent the holidays at Privet Drive and kicked him out of his cupboard so her dogs could sleep there. The entire school smelled like wonderful food and the teachers had decorated the Great Hall with hundreds of gleaming ornaments, but Harry couldn't enjoy any of it. No matter what he did, he couldn't stop thinking about Black.

The most difficult thing was that one part of his mind - which sounded a lot like Hermione - kept insisting that Black had to have some sort of understandable reason for leaving him with the Dursleys. Maybe the Dursleys really wouldn't let him have you, it pestered Harry as he read about hippogriff hearings. He tried his best to ignore it. Maybe some of Voldemort's old followers were after him and it was too dangerous for you to stay with him. Maybe he didn't have any money until his mother died and he was too poor to take care of a baby. One thought more than all the others kept rising to the surface: Maybe he's ill.

The more Harry thought about it, the more it seemed like a possibility. The night Black stood in front of the Mirror of Erised, his face had looked gaunt and almost unhealthy. He'd missed the Quidditch match because he'd had a headache, and later he'd ordered Harry, Ron and Hermione out of his office for the same reason. And hadn't Hagrid said that it sounded to him as though Black had been having headaches all year? What if the headaches were a sign of something more serious, something more dangerous? Perhaps after years of being ill Black knew he was dying, and he'd come to teach at Hogwarts so he could spend his last year on earth near the godson he'd never known.

Harry hated to let himself believe Black had an excuse; if he believed it and it wasn't true, he knew he would feel even more awful than he did now. But he had to admit that the idea made some sense, and if Harry stayed angry with Black and Black died without Harry ever having spoke to him, he would never forgive himself. Hesitantly, he told Hermione.

"Harry - I think you might be right," she said, setting down her quill. It was Christmas Eve and the two of them and Ron were in the common room by themselves. Except for Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys, the rest of the Gryffindors had gone home for Christmas, and Harry hadn't seen any of Ron's brothers or Ginny for the past hour. Fred and George had snuck out to Hogsmeade, and Ginny was upstairs playing with Crookshanks. Harry wasn't sure where Percy was - probably in his dormitory or the library. "I don't think we have nearly enough evidence to conclude that he's dying, but I think there's definitely enough that it's possible he's ill."

"Hermione, what's with you and this 'enough evidence' thing lately?" asked Ron, setting down the book he was reading about the Chudley Cannons. "Are you planning on going into Magical Law Enforcement or something?"

"I just think evidence is important, that's all," said Hermione. She opened her mouth to speak again but Harry cut her off.

"Look, I don't think this is definitely true," he said. "I don't even really think it's probably true - either way, Black should have at least let me know he existed. I'm not saying I forgive him for anything or that I really believe he had an excuse. It's just - well, if he did have an excuse and this was it, I'd never be able to tell him anything after he was dead. And I'm not asking him anything," he added. "Forget it. It's not happening."

Hermione chewed on her lower lip and looked up at the ceiling. After several moments had passed, she said, "Well, if that's the case and we want to find out the truth, I think we're going to have to break into Black's office."

Harry and Ron stared. It was as though Percy had walked through the door and announced he was quitting school to work on the Knight Bus with Stan Shunpike.

"Are you joking?" asked Ron, his voice hushed. "You're telling us we have to break into somewhere? To a teacher's office?"

"Well, it's obviously very important," said Hermione. "And if Harry won't ask Black anything, I don't see how else we're going to find out any information. Besides, it isn't as though I've never done anything like this before. I got into Snape's office last year to take things for the Polyjuice Potion."

"Yeah, but that was because people were being Petrified!" said Ron.

"I helped sneak Norbert up to the tower so Charlie's friends could take him."

"That was so Hagrid wouldn't be sacked for having an illegal dragon!"

"Maybe this isn't as obviously urgent," said Hermione, "but finding out the truth means a lot to Harry and I think we should do it."

"Well, of course we should," said Ron, looking abashed. "I'm just surprised you're suggesting it, that's all."

Hermione took a fresh parchment from the stack of rolls on the table and spread it out. "We need a plan," she said. "First of all, we have to figure out when Black is least likely to be in his office."

"When he's teaching a class," said Harry, sitting down next to Hermione. "Only it can't be during our class, or else he'll wonder where we are."

"Whenever he's teaching a class we're in another class," said Hermione. "Maybe one of us could sneak out of Binns's class without Binns noticing, but I think we should all do it together, and even Professor Binns would notice three students missing at once. Maybe - never mind."

"What?" said Ron immediately.

"I had an idea but it wouldn't work. So if we can't do it during one of our classes - "

"What was it? Maybe it could work."

"It couldn't, Ron, so let's stop wasting time. I think our next best bet - "

"We can't even know what it was?"

"There's no point in your knowing what it was!" Hermione looked flustered. "Our next best bet is during dinner."

"That's no good," said Ron. "You never know when he'll decide he's not hungry and go back to his office. What about the middle of the night?"

"We know he sometimes wanders around the school in the middle of the night. It's risky."

"Maybe that was only while he was looking for the Mirror of Erised," said Harry. "I don't know why he'd do it now."

"But that's the point," said Hermione, "we don't know. He could still have a reason to do it." She had written down every possible time on the parchment and crossed them all out. "I can't think of any time where we know he won't be in his office."

"Wait a minute," said Ron. "Do we know he's even at school over Christmas?"

Harry tried to think of the last time he'd seen Black. "He wasn't at breakfast this morning," he said. "I don't think he was at dinner last night either."

"He was at breakfast yesterday," said Hermione. "The teachers usually stay at school for Christmas, don't they?"

"Not always," said Ron. "Flitwick wasn't there last year. I bet he went to see that granddaughter he saved the cocktail umbrella for."

"Black has a cousin he gets on with," said Harry. "He's got a picture of her daughter Nymphadora in his office. He might go to their house for Christmas."

"We'll have to find out." Hermione wrote Black's cousin? on the parchment. "Once we know when to break in, our next problem is figuring out how. Black probably keeps the door and the lock secure. It might be worth it to go in through the window."

"It's on the second floor," Ron said. "We'll never be able to climb it."

"We won't climb in, we'll fly up to the window."

"On whose broom? Harry's got killed by the Willow, you haven't got one and mine's at home. Plus it's worthless."

"We'll have to go to the broomshed first and take one of the school brooms."

"They're not always that good," said Harry. "A lot of them are really old. I think we'll all have to take our own, they'll never manage with three people on one at once."

"Maybe one person can fly up and let the other two in," suggested Ron.

"No," said Hermione, "that won't work. I think we ought to have a good escape plan, however we do it, and if we hear Black unlocking his office we won't all be able to get out the window fast enough." She breathed in sharply. "I've just remembered - Kreacher."

"What?" asked Ron.

"Black's house-elf. House-elves can apparate into Hogwarts - he could show up at any time."

"Yeah, but will he?" Harry said. "Black told me he doesn't like to use Kreacher more than he absolutely has to. I think Kreacher's living at Black's house, not staying at Hogwarts."

"We're just going to have to risk Kreacher," said Ron. "We can't do anything about him. So let's see...we've got to steal three school brooms, fly up to a second-floor window and hope we can get it unlocked, and do all this when Black's not in his office. We'll have to do it at night, if we're all on separate brooms we can't use the Invisibility Cloak. How about tomorrow?"

"What?" Hermione looked taken aback. "That soon?"

"It's our best shot at it," said Ron. "Even if Black stays at Hogwarts over the holidays, he'd have to be a real workaholic to be in his office on Christmas night."