A Change of Heart

"We talked to McGonagall," James announced to Sirius. He noticed his friend looking distraught but when he was about to ask him if something was wrong, any sign of that emotion disappeared.

"What did she say? What happened?" Sirius asked sleepily.

"Not much. She said a family had been attacked, but they don't know who," James replied frustrated. "I sent an owl to my parents, as did Remus... what if its one of our families?"

"I doubt it would be mine..." Sirius said plainly. "Everything will be fine, you'll see. No need to worry."

"You sound too calm," Remus said looking at him oddly. "Are you okay?"

"I'm quite alright. Where is---umm---?" he asked trying to remember a name, while the boys looked at him confused..

"Lily? She went to find Sarah," James said examining Sirius. "She said she had to talk to her... Are you sure you're alright?"

It wasn't like Sirius to act so nonchalant at the mention of ill news. He would've encouraged the investigation they had talked about before. He would've encouraged a plan to find out what the teachers knew, even if it meant breaking school rules. Actually he would've preferred to do it if it meant breaking school rules.

"I feel cooped up, care for a walk?" he said interrupting James' thoughts.

"Yeah sure," James agreed still looking at him warily.

They walked down to the common room, where Sirius seemed to take an odd curiosity for other people's conversation and looked rather lost when James and Remus called him to get his attention.

"Maybe a bit of fresh air would do you good," Remus suggested.

"Yes, fresh air... that does sound good," Sirius said looking around for the exit looking rather lost.

"Sirius? What are you doing?" James asked as he headed towards a bathroom door. "I thought you wanted to go out."

Sirius stopped and looked back at James and Remus who had been walking to the opposite direction. "Yeah right. Leave. Lead the way." His merry voice disconcerted both boys even more, but they led Sirius out of the common room.

"I think last night might've made you ill," Remus said as they walked to the grounds.

"How do you mean?" Sirius asked looking apprehensive. "What about last night?"

"Well, sleeping in the cold of the North tower appears to have done you no good. You looked a bit lost up in the common room," Remus said as they walked down a corridor.

"Yes---yes, that's right," Sirius said positively cheerful. He muttered under his breath as though trying to memorize the idea. "Last night I slept at the North Tower."

"That's right mate, you did," James said looking at his friend worriedly.

How was it possible that he was only sounding odd until that morning? He had seemed like the same old Sirius when they had stayed up waiting for McGonagall in the common room. He saw from the corner of his eye as Sirius scratched something on the back of his neck, which was obstructed by his hair. He was about to ask him what it was that had bit him when someone stumbled against Sirius, making him fall down to the floor.

"I'm terrible sorry," Professor Ammit, their arithmancy teacher said as she regained her posture.

Remus helped Sirius up, who looked lost for a moment and then looked at their professor confused. The professor looked at Sirius curiously before excusing herself and walking down the corridor hastily.

"What was that?" Sirius asked James confused. "What are we doing here?"

"We're walking down to the grounds, honestly Sirius, maybe you should go get yourself checked out at the hospital wing," Remus said as they walked down the stairs.

Sirius gave Remus a confused look before walking ahead of both boys. He headed towards the Quidditch Pitch, leaving Remus and James to follow after him. When he was far away enough so that he couldn't hear both of them whisper, Remus turned to James.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that almost wasn't Sirius back there," Remus said looking concerned.

"Of course it is! He just doesn't feel well. What do you expect? He spent most of the night in the North Tower, he probably caught a bug," James said dismissively. "He just needs some rest."

Remus looked at James for a moment thoughtfully before speaking again. "Well, at least--I'm glad everything is okay between the both of you again."

James avoided Remus eyes at his last comment. He wasn't exactly okay with the idea of Sirius and Lily, but then again what could he do about it. It was obvious Lily didn't care for him, not in the way he wanted her to.

"It's her choice isn't it? She can't help who she likes," he said in a choked voice. "Besides we have more important things to worry about."

He was right of course and Remus knew it. There was a mystery to unravel and they didn't know where to start.

"About this whole investigation thing---I know you guys want to try to help and everything but maybe the best way to help would be to just go to Dumbledore about this," Remus said looking uncertain.

"You don't think we can handle this? Come on Moony, he's got a lot to deal with. Look, I'm not saying we're going to tackle these people down and fight 'em, I just think we need something to support any allegations we have. We'd be accusing a teacher. Do you realize how serious that is?" James said trying to convince Remus of his point of view. "We don't even know who this person is; we don't know who we'd be accusing."

"I guess... it just--it seems like something we shouldn't keep to ourselves is all," Remus said still unconvinced.

"We're not. Lily is helping isn't she? If she agreed to help, I would think you'd be more on board," James said persuasively.

"Talk about peer pressure," Remus said with a defeated laughter.

"So you're in right?" James said happily.

"Somebody else has to baby-sit you guys when Lily isn't around," Remus said jokingly.

"Why did we come out here to begin with?" Sirius said suddenly looking annoyed. "Don't we need to be worrying about what McGonagall said?"

They looked at him bewildered at his words.

"You seemed completely unaffected by them when we first told you," James said puzzled.

"I--" Sirius looked at him thoughtfully. "I guess it took time sinking in. How are we gonna go about this then? We need to find out who this person is. What you heard is directly connected to this. We need to get more information."

'This is the Sirius I know,' James thought to himself. He looked for a moment at a determined Sirius and voiced out his thoughts. "We need to find out everything we can about every teacher that works here. It's the rational place to start."

"But how are we going to get that information without drawing attention to ourselves?" Remus said looking thoughtful.

"The one person we can trust and knows this school better than Dumbledore himself," James said looking triumphant.

"Hagrid!" Sirius said happily.

***

When the boys walked over to Hagrid's hut, they were disappointed to only find Hagrid's young pup Fang sitting outside, obviously waiting for his master to arrive. The dog, even though only a puppy, was big enough to push James back when he greeted him.

"So, no Hagrid. Where to now?" Remus said looking disappointed.

"I dunno. He's not the only one missing either. Where's Peter?" Sirius said suddenly realizing their friend had not been with them since morning.

"He said he had things to do. He needed to talk to someone about classes. Seems he's behind, again," Remus said with a sigh. "I wonder if he's ever going to keep up. He can barely keep his head above water."

"He's a bit thick, that's the problem," Sirius said jokingly.

"Some friend you are," James said trying to keep from laughing.

They finally wound up walking back to the castle, heading towards the Great Hall while they tried to come up with an idea about what they should do. They spent the rest of the day thinking about what they should do. None of them could come up with suggestions. Every idea sounded more incredible than the next. There was no way they could just go to a professor and ask them to give them their full name or nickname. It wasn't as though they could approach them and ask them if they were death eaters either. While they were frustrated and annoyed by the time the day ended, they consoled themselves with the idea that as soon as they saw Hagrid, they would be able to ask him all they needed to know. To their disappointment, they didn't see Hagrid at dinner. They had seen Lily walk around with Sarah and Hannah, but she had looked too preoccupied with her friends to pay any attention to the boys or their plans to get information. When Sirius had approached her to tell her what they had come up with she had said she would help with what she could, but that she had some things to take care of that day. Sirius had looked somewhat disappointed by Lily's lack of interest and she had caught on. She had taken him aside when he had arrived to the common room that night after dinner and talked to him about what was worrying her.

"It's just Sarah--she's worried about her parents and I wish I could do something to help her ease her mind, but right now it seems hopeless. I'm sorry if I seem a bit distant," she said rubbing Sirius arm considerately.

"I'm just happy to spend time with you. I'm sorry I seem a little bit clingy," he said looking embarrassedly.

"That's a description for you I never thought I would hear," Lily said amused.

"Well, who wouldn't want to be clingy with you? You've got it all: the looks, the brains, and you're fabulous," he said looking at her adoringly.

She blushed as she smiled at him. She remembered for a moment why she had started to like Sirius to begin with. He had a certain charm about him and she had seen his charm work on other girls, but the way he talked to her, she knew he cared about what she had to say. It was just something about the way he looked at her. Even now, when he had suddenly lapsed in the conversation. At moments he looked a bit lost and confused, as though he suddenly didn't remember where he was. There was still a concentration in what she was saying that he didn't surrender. He leaned down to kiss her softly and she responded, only to see the image of James pop into her head. She pulled away suddenly and looked away. She looked back at Sirius to see a confused and somewhat hurt gaze on her.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. It's just that it feels weird, there are still some people around," she said looking around the common room trying to excuse herself for her sudden action.

They had secluded themselves to a corner where there weren't so many people, but still, on the other side of the room, near the fire, where the other three marauders and Lily's own friends, talking.

"It's okay," Sirius said softly. "You're right. Do you want to go back?"

He pointed towards their friends and she stole a glance at where James was sitting next to Hannah. She found that he had turned away as though he had just been looking in her and Sirius' direction. She looked back at Sirius and shook her head. They spent some time just talking about meaningless things until she finally gave a big yawn. They made towards their friends, who were looking rather relaxed for the first time in days. The girls said goodbye to the boys and walked up the stairs to bed. Lily gave Sirius a quick kiss and walked behind her friends saying goodnight to the rest of the marauders before heading up.

The boys remained there until everyone else had retired to their dormitories. Peter then went upstairs to retrieve the Marauder's map and the invisibility cloak and Remus and Peter saw James and Sirius off as the two boys left the common room to look for Hagrid yet again. Remus and Peter waited patiently for the two boys to return, anxious for any news of anything that might help them in their little investigation. When James and Sirius returned however, they looked disconcerted and confused.

"Hagrid wasn't there," James announced.

"There was no indication that he had left for more than a day," Sirius said looking discouraged.

"Where might he be?" Remus asked thinking outloud.

"What if the person---the death eater hurt Hagrid?" Peter contributed nervously.

"I don't think they wanted anything with Hagrid. What for?" James said plopping down on the sofa.

"They thought someone might've heard them by the Forbidden Forest, you said it yourself," Peter said growing more nervous as he spoke.

"Come off it Peter, stop panicking. Nothing's happened to Hagrid. He probably went down to Hogsmeade for drinks, you know what he's like," Sirius said annoyed at Peter implications. "We'll just have to wait another day to ask him what we want to know."

"What if he is gone for more than a day?" Remus asked worriedly.

"Even though I hate the idea of it, we'll just have to patient. And we might have to rely on someone outside the school to find out information for us," James said pacing. He looked to the fire for a moment and spoke again. "Remus, do you still know that girl--Alice what's-her-name--who got that job in the ministry?"

"Alice Thompson? Yeah, I kept in touch with her during the summer, why? What's your idea?" Remus asked, curiosity peaked.

"Maybe she can look into the most recent people hired here at Hogwarts, After all, she works in the ministry. No better source than them is there?" James said looking at him cheerfully.

"That's a good idea," Sirius said delighted.

"All we need to do is give here the names of the people to look into. We have Professors Iris, Hydra, Ammit, and who is the muggle studies professor? Rhea! I wouldn't dare accused McGonagall of being a death eater, or Sprout for that matter. So just ask Alice if she can find out something about these people," James said counting down a list of their teachers. "That is everyone isn't it?"

"Yeah, that's everyone... I think," Sirius said looking satisfied.

So they agreed on Remus sending a letter to Alice Thompson and waiting for an answer. Once they had the name, they could keep a close eye on their teacher and once they had some actual proof of that teacher's betrayal, they would turn them in. All in a day's work. They went to bed with their plans ironed out. Tomorrow would be spent in class, trying to notice anything in their teacher's behavior that would tip them off. However, they didn't realize that if the spy in Sirius mind kept coming in and out as he had done so all day, they would be caught and they would all be in danger.