As Potter is to Snape

Chapter 34

Remus looked down at the picture in his hands and then back up to Harry's bright green eyes. "Harry, I-"

"Don't," Harry interrupted. "Explain, because there is no way that my dad would have been friends with a murderer. Why didn't you tell me?!"

Remus felt like the breath had been knocked out of him. He had absolutely no idea what to say to Harry. He didn't know how to explain about Sirius, how to make him understand.

"Harry," Severus said, suddenly beside Remus as he held his hand out for the photo. "It's not Remus's fault that you didn't know. It's mine. It was my place to tell you and I didn't. I kept waiting for the right time to bring it up but-"

"Is there a right time to tell someone that their dad was friends with one of Voldemort's followers?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"He wasn't!" Remus spoke sharply, harsher than Harry had ever heard him and Harry glanced up at him.

"Remus-"

"No, Severus," Remus shot back. "We tried it your way and do you see what happened?! Harry deserves the truth."

"Then I'll tell him," Severus remained calm, despite Remus nearly shouting at him.

Albus and Minerva were standing now but neither had come closer or joined in the conversation that was happening beside them. Minerva looked saddened and Harry was unsure why, but Albus simply sighed. He seemed to want to interject but thought better of it as he held his hand out for Minerva.

"Would you like to take a walk?" he asked, seeming to decide that it would be better to give them space. Minerva nodded and walked with him out of the kitchen and to the living room, where a moment later, they heard the front door close.

"I'm telling him," Remus said in a voice that was somewhere between soft and stern. He wasn't yelling but it was clear that his mind wouldn't be changed. Eventually, Severus conceded and led the way into the living room where they all took seats, Remus and Harry on the couch and Severus in the chair.

Remus took a deep breath and turned to Harry. He held the picture out to him. "Alright. This is me, your dad, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew. And they were all my best friends. Two of them are gone now, and Sirius Black is the reason." Remus swallowed hard and tried to gather his thoughts so that he could explain this in a way that Harry would understand. "When Voldemort went after you and your parents, Dad helped put them in hiding. They used a very powerful charm in which they hid the location of themselves inside a single person. That person was Sirius. He and your dad were closer than brothers. He even lived with the Potters for a while. They- we all- trusted him. None of us even suspected that he had been turned by Voldemort and his followers, that he was a spy against the light. To us," he glanced at Snape to see him scowling down at the floor, "to most of us, he had always been the exact opposite of everything that Voldemort stood for. He had never held onto his family's pureblood beliefs. In fact, he'd been ostracized by them because he believed that Muggle-borns, Half-bloods, and everyone else deserved equality and were just as important as wizards. So you can imagine why it was such a shock to us all when Voldemort found you that night. Because, make no mistake, Harry, he could not have done so unless Sirius had given up the secret."

"So he was their friend?" Harry asked, his voice constricted with emotion as he felt his eyes sting. "He was their friend and he betrayed them?!"

"Yes," Remus agreed simply. "We don't know why or when he changed, but there is simply no other way to explain it. Peter got to Sirius before anyone else could and he tried to confront him. But Peter was never much for dueling and Sirius was very good. He killed him and thirteen Muggles with a single blast. The Aurors found Peter's finger among the wreckage and that was all they had to return to his mother."