Sirius's son

Revealing Secrets

No one in Gryffindor Tower slept that night. They knew that the castle was being searched again, and the whole House stayed awake in the common room, waiting to hear whether Black had been caught. Professor McGonagall came back at dawn, to tell them that he had again escaped.

Throughout the day, everywhere they went they saw signs of tighter security; Professor Flitwick could be seen teaching the front doors to recognize a large picture of Sirius Black; Filch was suddenly bustling up and down the corridors, boarding up everything from tiny cracks in the walls to mouse holes. Sir Cadogan had been fired. His portrait had been taken back to its lonely landing on the seventh floor, and the Fat Lady was back. She had been expertly restored, but was still extremely nervous, and had agreed to return to her job only on condition that she was given extra protection. A bunch of surly security trolls had been hired to guard her. They paced the corridor in a menacing group, talking in grunts and comparing the size of their clubs.

Rigel couldn't help noticing that the statue of the one-eyed witch on the third floor remained unguarded and unblocked. It seemed that Fred and George had been right in thinking that they —and now he, Eliza, Harry, Ron, and Hermione — were the only ones who knew about the hidden passageway within it

"D'you reckon we should tell someone?" Rigel asked Ron.

"We know he's not coming in through Honeyduke's," said Ron dismissively. "We'd've heard if the shop had been broken into."

Ron had become an instant celebrity. For the first time in his life, people were paying more attention to him than to Harry, and it was clear that Ron was rather enjoying the experience. Though still severely shaken by the night's events, he was happy to tell anyone who asked what had happened, with a wealth of detail

Neville however was in total disgrace. Professor McGonagall was so furious with him she had banned him from all future Hogsmeade visits, given him a detention, and forbidden anyone to give him the password into the tower. Poor Neville was forced to wait outside the common room every night for somebody to let him in.

None of these punishments, however, came close to matching the one his grandmother had in store for him. Two days after Sirius Black's break-in, she sent Neville the very worst thing a Hogwarts student could receive over breakfast — a Howler.

Hermione had cornered Harry and Ron the morning after the break-in to Gryffindor Tower. With tears in her eyes, she apologized to Ron. Telling him that she was sorry that she had not taken his complaints about Crookshanks seriously. She said that the break-in had shown her how they were all in danger, and how scared she'd been for Ron. Ron, meanwhile, apologized for how rude he'd been to Hermione. Harry, Eliza, and Rigel were beyond relieved, They had been going spare with how the two had been acting, and couldn't be happier to have both of them backside together.

Rigel had off course been interrogated and provided a memory of the event. The auror watched it and stored it in a small vial before jotting down some notes. Then with a tilt of his head, he left presumably to the auror office.

They spent the next several days discussing how they thought Black had managed to sneak into the castle for the second time. But each of their theories seemed as unlikely as the last. Meanwhile, their lessons were growing in intensity. In spite of the fact that they were still months away from their exams, their professors all seemed under the impression that a greater workload was the appropriate approach to the mounting stress of his father's second successful break-in.

As the weeks drew on, and their assignments grew in intensity, Rigel was becoming increasingly wary of Professor Lupin. The man was uncommonly kind to Harry and Eliza. But Rigel was becoming certain that his suspicions were correct. Rigel had done enough research on Werewolves to know what the signs were. He didn't want to believe it, didn't want to even consider the possibility that his professor turned into a monster once a month. But he couldn't ignore the signs. He kept trying to broach the topic with the man, but every time he tried, he just couldn't confront the man and ask 'hey do you transform into a monster every full moon.'