stuck with you {h.p x reader}

3.10 ・゜゜・．

"Harry? Y/n?"

"You say you remember him at Hogwarts, Rosmerta, remember who his best friends were?"

"Naturally," said Madam Rosmerta, with a small laugh. "Never saw any of them without the others, did you? The number of times I had them in here - ooh, they used to make me laugh. Quite the triple act, Sirius Black, James Potter, and George Whitlock!"

Harry dropped his tankard with a loud clunk. Ron kicked him.

"Precisely," said Professor McGonagall. "Black, Whitlock and Potter. Ringleaders of their little gang. All very bright, of course - exceptionally bright, in fact - but I don't think we've ever had such a group of troublemakers -"

"I dunno," chuckled Hagrid. "Fred and George Weasley could give 'em a run fer their money."

"You'd have thought Black, Whitlock and Potter were brothers!" chimed in Professor Flitwick."Inseparable!"

"Of course they were," said Fudge. 'Potter and Whitlock trusted Black beyond all their other friends. Nothing changed when they left school. Black was best man when James married Lily, and when George married Heather. Then they named him godfather to Harry. Harry has no idea, of course. You can imagine how the idea would torment him."

"Because Black turned out to be in league with You- Know-Who?" whispered Madam Rosmerta.

"Worse even than that, m'dear." Fudge dropped his voice and proceeded in a sort of low rumble. "Not many people are aware that the Potters knew You-Know-Who was after them. Dumbledore, who was of course working tirelessly against You-Know-Who, had a number of useful spies. One of them tipped him off, and he alerted James and Lily at once. He advised them to go into hiding. Well, of course, You-Know-Who wasn't an easy person to hide from. Dumbledore told them that their best chance was the Fidelius Charm."

"How does that work?" said Madam Rosmerta, breathless with interest.

Professor Flitwick cleared his throat. "An immensely complex spell, "he said squeakily, "involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find - unless, of course, the Secret Keeper chooses to divulge it. As long as the Secret Keeper refused to speak, You-Know-Who could search the village where Lily and James were staying for years and never find them, not even if he had his nose pressed against their sitting-room window!"

"So Black was the Potters' Secret Keeper?" whispered Madam Rosmerta.

"Naturally," said Professor McGonagall. "James Potter told Dumbledore that Black would die rather than tell where they were, that Black was planning to go into hiding himself and yet, Dumbledore remained worried. I remember him offering to be the Potters' Secret Keeper himself."

"He suspected Black?" gasped Madam Rosmerta.

"He was sure that somebody close to the Potters had been keeping You-Know-Who informed of their movements," said Professor McGonagall darkly. "Indeed, he had suspected for some time that someone on our side had turned traitor and was passing a lot of information to You-Know-Who."

"And what about the Whitlocks?"

"They didn't get the chance to appoint a Secret Keeper. Dumbledore didn't recognise the danger they were also in."