Brooklyn and the Boy Who Lived

The Gargoyle and the Innocent Murderer?

The next couple of weeks went by, which included Brooklyn doing his best to visit Buckbeak as much as he could, considering that Malfoy had apparently snitched to his father about the Hippogriff's 'fierce nature,' and over exaggerating about his hurt arm.

Lupin's classes were also seemingly a big hit among the students, as he once the previous week after Hagrid's class looked into a lesson where they faced a Boggart. But when it was Harry's turn, Lupin jumped in right when it turned into the creature of Brooklyn's new nightmares, a Dementor. He now wondered why Lupin even stopped Harry from doing the spell at all.

Trelawney also became somewhat of a nuisance, bugging Brooklyn to no end about his 'Seer' potential, as he continued to try to avoid her in the hallways like he did with Snape.

Now, it was the week when all the third year students were allowed to visit the local nearby village, Hogsmeade. From what he had heard about it from Ron, this village had a lot of cool shops, including an abandoned haunted shack.

Harry unfortunately, wasn't allowed to go because nobody had signed his permission form. And Brooklyn was quite furious, even storming up to McGonagall to try and convince her to let him sign it.

"I'm his brother, for Pete's sake. That should count as his guardian, shouldn't it?" He demanded, folding his arms while Harry looked on in disappointment.

"I'm sorry, Brooklyn. But you're not legally his brother, so he still can't go, and it wouldn't be appropriate, seeing that you're not technically human," she responded, keeping her stiff upper tone that sometimes made him angry.

"Well, I call bull on that, this isn't fair!" He hissed, hands balling into fists. McGonagall gave him a look that clearly said she didn't want to argue about it, plus, maybe a touch of sympathy in there somewhere? Who knows what this woman thought sometimes.

"This is my final word. Good day," she eventually said, turning away to take care of the other students with their permission forms. Huffing, Brooklyn turned and stormed back to Harry, looking pretty downcast as the two of them returned to the common room.

"She what?!" Ron yelped in horror, hands on his head. Brooklyn nodded; his eyes still flared in anger.

"Pretty much word for word, including the fact that I don't count as his legal guardian or family in the Minister's eyes," he grumbled, crushing a piece of loose parchment in his hands to ease tension. Hermione looked sympathetic.

"But Harry, why didn't you tell me about this permission form in the first place?" Brooklyn asked him, who suddenly looked guilty.

"I dunno, guess it just didn't seem so important, and we had other important things to do," he mumbled in a small voice, and then Brooklyn felt his anger subside just a little, as he could probably understand.

Ron did his best to cheer them up. "Well, ya know, the way all this fuss about Hogsmeade is made, it really isn't all that cracked up to be. But Honeydukes is good, along with Zonko's Joke Shop and the Shrieking Shack..." he trailed off after Brooklyn and Harry gave him death glares.

"I'm not helping, am I?"

"No, you're not."

Hermione and Ron eventually left for Hogsmeade, promising they would bring back plenty of stuff from Hogsmeade for them, and Brooklyn found himself patrolling near the Black Lake, lost in his thoughts, and hoping some kind of opportunity to prove himself to Dumbledore that he could take on Sirius Black would come.

He suddenly heard a noise in the bushes and froze, eyes flashing white, but saw nothing. He drew his wand though, not disturbed.

"Alright, whoever you are! Come out if you know what's good for you!" he growled. A small snuffling noise came and revealed a skinny black dog. The gargoyle lowered his wand a little, staring down at it. Where did this dog come from?

The dog trembled a bit before Brooklyn, who slowly approached it. It was extremely underfed and probably had fleas. He held out his hand, nonetheless.

"Hey there, what's your story, mutt?" he asked, chuckling a little as the dog sniffed his hand, then wagged its tail. For some reason though, it was quite familiar. But it couldn't be, could it?

The dog then pawed the ground and woofed at him, before something happened: Its form began to change, the black fur disappearing, growing taller and taller, until a man stood where the dog used to be, with a sheepish smile on his face.

Brooklyn's protection mode kicked in; he snarled in anger. It was Black! Rushing forward, he grabbed the man by his throat, thrusting him against the tree. He struggled in Brooklyn's grip.

"You dare show yourself here, Murderer?!" he roared, pressing against his throat hard.

"P-please! I mean you no harm!" Black begged, his face turning purple. But Brooklyn wouldn't back down or fall for any of that stuff, especially after last year when he fell for false innocent flattery from a cursed diary!

"Yeah, and I'm a bunny rabbit!" he hissed.

"Really! I didn't come here to kill you or Harry! If you put me down, I can explain!" Then Brooklyn heard the honesty and desperation in his tone, and for some reason, this snapped him from his anger. He let the murderer go, who rubbed his throat and coughed.

Brooklyn stood there, hands on his hips as he glared down at the pathetic man. "Alright, explain yourself, and quick!"

Black stood up, eyeing the gargoyle nervously before he took a breath and answered. "I'm innocent," he said.

He's what?! Brooklyn thought in shock. Sirius then gestured him to sit as he began to tell his story, Brooklyn listening carefully, eyes still narrowed in suspicion.

Brooklyn was back in the Gryffindor common room a while later that night before going down to the Halloween feast, still not sure whether to believe Sirius. This was all just too nutty to take him seriously, as if he had stepped into a different dimension.

He groaned, putting his head in his hands again, wondering how he was gonna explain himself out of this one now. Why does he always get into situations like this?

Harry sat down with him, smiling. "Hey, so what happened this afternoon with you?" Brooklyn shrugged.

"Nothing much, really," he said, staring into the fire.

Right after he said this, Ron and Hermione returned with candy from Hogsmeade, talking about their adventures there, along with Harry's own story of Lupin drinking a potion he got from Snape.

After that, it was time for the Halloween feast. Brooklyn ended up enjoying himself, even ignoring Malfoy's taunts and fainting acts. But when they all ventured back to the common room, he was startled to see that the way there was blocked!

"What's the hold up?" he asked. Ron then smirked. "Neville's probably forgotten the password again."

But then said person spoke up in irritation behind them. "Hey!"

Ginny ran through the crowd, her eyes wide with fear. "The Fat Lady, she's gone!" Brooklyn tensed, then pushed through the crowd.

When he saw the portrait, his blood froze, seeing three slashes in the canvas, either from a knife, or something else. Perhaps... gargoyle talons? His legs trembled a little at the idea of Demona possibly finding him hiding here. He really didn't want to add her to the list of things to worry about, next to Dementors, Buckbeak, and Sirius!

Dumbledore appeared, and they eventually found the Fat Lady, hiding behind a pig in another painting, revealing that it was Sirius who slashed her portrait, making Brooklyn frown in disapproval. If this guy was innocent, he was certainly doing a fine job of keeping a low profile!

All the students were moved to the Great Hall, and Brooklyn struggled to fall asleep in his sleeping bag, while Dumbledore and Snape discussed at how Sirius could have gotten inside. He knew then that he was gonna make Sirius come clean about who he was actually after, as his eyes finally shut from watching the enchanted ceiling of stars above him.