Harry Potter and Future's Past

Chapter 30: Trials

July 2nd, 1996

"You look like crap this morning Sirius, what's up?" Harry asked the next morning when he opened his bedroom door to the knock. "Thought Wormtail's trial would have you in a pretty good mood."

Sirius sighed as he glanced over his shoulder and then entered the room shutting the door behind himself. He noticed Hermione already sitting on the bed. "Morning," Sirius said in her direction and then continued to Harry. "I think I screwed up."

"What do you mean," Hermione asked instantly on alert that Sirius might have told someone about the future.

"Moony and Tonks," Sirius said. "I told them both they had my blessing hoping that it might bring them closer. Then of course helping Tonks the night before last..." Again he sighed as he rubbed his face.

"It took a whole year last time," Harry said with a shrug. "Give them time, besides as much as I want them to have what they had in the future we know it's possible it might not happen."

"I know but you said he was happy and...I don't know. I'd like something good to come to one of us," Sirius explained. "I mean the Marauders. Your father and mother..." Sirius swallowed as that familiar haunted look passed into his eyes before he recovered and continued. "They never got their happiness and...well it would be nice to see Moony happy."

"So why do you think you messed up?" Hermione asked.

"Tonks is down in the kitchen crying her eyes out and from the redness in her eyes, I think she's been doing it all night."

"What happened? What makes you think it has anything to do with Moony?" Harry asked though memories of seeing the despondent Tonks in the previous time line came to mind.

"It's what she told me, at least I think it was that through her sobs," Sirius explained. "It seems Remus' big hang-up..."

"Is that he thinks him being a werewolf makes him unsuitable for her," Harry said. "Remember we already know."

"Yeah right, but things are different this time. You remember that Madam Bones asked Tonks to be on her staff?" When Harry and Hermione nodded, Sirius continued. "Tonks told Amelia about her wanting to date a werewolf just in case it made Amelia change her mind, but not only was Amelia fine with it, but even offered him a job...sort of."

"What kind of job?"

"Basically she wants the information that Remus is giving Dumbledore about the werewolves," Sirius replied. "Unofficially of course, but she offered to pay him and even suggested she'd have a real job for him once the war was over."

"That was nice of Madam Bones."

"Maybe, but it seems Remus took it wrong or something when Tonks told him about it. He accused Tonks of trying to use him to better her career," Sirius said. "He said she was trying to get him to betray Dumbledore."

"It isn't like Dumbledore deserves any loyalty," Harry muttered.

"You have to look at it from Remus' point of view," Hermione explained. "Remember that it was Dumbledore who let him come to Hogwarts which gave him his friends and it was Dumbledore who gave him a job when he nee...wait a minute..." Hermione paused as her eyes went wide.