Joanne Murray: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

‘You’re not leaving just because of that!’ said Harry.

Lupin smiled wryly.

‘This time tomorrow, the owls will start arriving from parents -they will not want a werewolf teaching their children, Harry. And after last night, I see their point. I could have bitten any of you ... that must never happen again.’

‘You’re the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher we’ve ever had!’ said Harry. ‘Don’t go!’

Lupin shook his head and didn’t speak. He carried on emptying his drawers. Then, while Harry was trying to think of a good argument to make him stay, Lupin said, ‘From what the Headmaster told me this morning, you saved a lot of lives last night, Harry. If I’m proud of anything, it’s how much you’ve learned. Tell me about your Patronus.’

‘How d’you know about that?’ said Harry, distracted.

‘What else could have driven the Dementors back?’

Harry told Lupin what had happened. When he’d finished, Lupin was smiling again.

‘Yes, your father was always a stag when he transformed,’ he said. ‘You guessed right ... that’s why we called him Prongs.’

Lupin threw his last few books into his case, closed the desk drawers and turned to look at Harry.

‘Here - I brought this from the Shrieking Shack last night,’ he said, handing Harry back the Invisibility Cloak. ‘And ...’ he hesitated, then held out the Marauder’s Map, too. ‘I am no longer your teacher, so I don’t feel guilty about giving you this back as well. It’s no use to me, and I daresay you, Ron and Hermione will find uses for it.’

Harry took the map and grinned.

‘You told me Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs would’ve wanted to lure me out of school ... you said they’d have thought it was funny.’

‘And so we would have done,’ said Lupin, now reaching down to close his case. ‘I have no hesitation in saying that James would have been highly disappointed if his son had never found any of the secret passages out of the castle.’

There was a knock on the door. Harry hastily stuffed the Marauder’s Map and the Invisibility Cloak into his pocket.

It was Professor Dumbledore. He didn’t look surprised to see Harry there.

‘Your carriage is at the gates, Remus,’ he said.

‘Thank you, Headmaster.’

Lupin picked up his old suitcase and the empty Grindylow tank.

‘Well - goodbye, Harry,’ he said, smiling. ‘It has been a real pleasure teaching you. I feel sure we’ll meet again some time. Headmaster, there is no need to see me to the gates, I can manage ... ’

Harry had the impression that Lupin wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

‘Goodbye, then, Remus,’ said Dumbledore soberly. Lupin shifted the Grindylow tank slightly so that he and Dumbledore could shake hands. Then, with a final nod to Harry, and a swift smile, Lupin left the office.

Harry sat down in his vacated chair, staring glumly at the floor. He heard the door close and looked up. Dumbledore was still there.

‘Why so miserable, Harry?’ he said quietly. ‘You should be very proud of yourself after last night.’

‘It didn’t make any difference,’ said Harry bitterly. ‘Pettigrew got away.’

‘Didn’t make any difference?’ said Dumbledore quietly. ‘It made all the difference in the world, Harry. You helped uncover the truth. You saved an innocent man from a terrible fate.’

Terrible. Something stirred in Harry’s memory. Greater and more terrible than ever before ... Professor Trelawney’s prediction!

‘Professor Dumbledore - yesterday, when I was having my Divination exam, Professor Trelawney went very - very strange.’

‘Indeed?’ said Dumbledore. ‘Er - stranger than usual, you mean?’

‘Yes ... her voice went all deep and her eyes rolled and she said ... she said Voldemort’s servant was going to set out to return to him before midnight ... she said the servant would help him come back to power.’ Harry stared up at Dumbledore. ‘And then she sort of became normal again, and she couldn’t remember anything she’d said. Was it - was she making a real prediction?’

Dumbledore looked mildly impressed.

‘Do you know, Harry, I think she might have been,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Who’d have thought it? That brings her total of real predictions up to two. I should offer her a pay rise ...’

‘But -’ Harry looked at him, aghast. How could Dumbledore take this so calmly?

‘But - I stopped Sirius and Professor Lupin killing Pettigrew! That makes it my fault, if Voldemort comes back!’

‘It does not,’ said Dumbledore quietly. ‘Hasn’t your experience with the Time-Turner taught you anything, Harry? The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed ... Professor Trelawney, bless her, is living proof of that. You did a very noble thing, in saving Pettigrew’s life.’

‘But if he helps Voldemort back to power -!’

‘Pettigrew owes his life to you. You have sent Voldemort a deputy who is in your debt. When one wizard saves another wizard’s life, it creates a certain bond between them ... and I’m much mistaken if Voldemort wants his servant in the debt of Harry Potter.’

‘I don’t want a bond with Pettigrew!’ said Harry. ‘He betrayed my parents!’

‘This is magic at its deepest, its most impenetrable, Harry. But trust me ... the time may come when you will be very glad you saved Pettigrew’s life.’

Harry couldn’t imagine when that would be. Dumbledore looked as though he knew what Harry was thinking.

‘I knew your father very well, both at Hogwarts and later, Harry,’ he said gently. ‘He would have saved Pettigrew too, I am sure of it.’

Harry looked up at him. Dumbledore wouldn’t laugh - he could tell Dumbledore ...

‘Last night ... I thought it was my dad who’d conjured my Patronus. I mean, when I saw myself across the lake ... I thought I was seeing him.’

‘An easy mistake to make,’ said Dumbledore softly. ‘I expect you’re tired of hearing it, but you do look extraordinarily like James. Except for your eyes ... you have your mother’s eyes.’

Harry shook his head.

‘It was stupid, thinking it was him,’ he muttered. ‘I mean, I knew he was dead.’

‘You think the dead we have loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don’t recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself most plainly when you have need of him. How else could you produce that particular Patronus? Prongs rode again last night.’

It took a moment for Harry to realise what Dumbledore had said. ‘Sirius told me all about how they became Animagi last night,’ said Dumbledore, smiling. ‘An extraordinary achievement - not least, keeping it quiet from me. And then I remembered the most unusual form your Patronus took, when it charged Mr Malfoy down at your Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. So you did see your father last night, Harry ... you found him inside yourself.’

And Dumbledore left the office, leaving Harry to his very confused thoughts.

*

Nobody at Hogwarts knew the truth of what had happened the night that Sirius, Buckbeak and Pettigrew had vanished except Harry, Ron, Hermione and Professor Dumbledore. As the end of term approached, Harry heard many different theories about what had really happened, but none of them came close to the truth.

Malfoy was furious about Buckbeak. He was convinced that Hagrid had found a way of smuggling the Hippogriff to safety, and seemed outraged that he and his father had been outwitted by a gamekeeper. Percy Weasley, meanwhile, had much to say on the subject of Sirius’ escape.