Nemea Leonthrope Chapter 7 (Patreon)

Hello friends and fans, Kairomaru is here with another chapter of Harry Potter the First Nemea Leonthrope. This chapter we see the results of Harry’s generosity and some of what Tonks is doing behind the scenes for her ‘Whiskers’, cause she’s sweet and lovable like that.

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Chapter 7 – Thanking the King, Tonks’ Search for Answers

“Good morning, Padma.” Harry greeted as he walked up to the Ravenclaw Patil sister in the Entrance Hall; Hermione, Ron, Lavender, and Parvati walking with him.

“Good morning, Harry.” Padma replied with a smile as she joined the group.

“How have you been since our last letter?” Harry asked as the group made their way to the Great Hall.

“I’ve been well, my lessons in Enchanting are progressing and depending on how well I do in Arithmancy and Ancient Runes this year, Dad says he’ll allow me to enchant my first object next summer.” Padma replied with a bright grin.

“That’s brilliant, Padma, I hope we cover a bit of Enchanting sometime this year too.” Harry grinned always liking how excited Padma got about Enchanting.

“Well I still have to do well in classes first.” Padma replied thoughtfully as the group entered the Great Hall.

Harry chuckled at that and stopped before they could make it to the tables. “When have you ever had a problem with that, Padma?” Padma blushed slightly at Harry’s praise before thanking him. This led to Parvati and Lavender giggling and pulling Padma towards them to whisper amongst each other.

“Hmm, where should we sit?” Hermione asked the group as she looked between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. “We have members of two houses in our group, so should we welcome Padma at Gryffindor or sit with her at Ravenclaw?”

“If it isn’t too much trouble would you all mind sitting with me at Ravenclaw? There’s someone I’d like you all to meet and she could definitely use some friends.” Padma spoke up looking between everyone in the group.

“What? We have more Gryffs than Claws; we should sit at our table.” Ron spoke up as he was edging his way towards the Gryffindor table eager to get to his breakfast.

“It doesn’t really matter what table we sit at Ron, the food is still the same; besides Padma wants to introduce us to someone so we should take her up on the offer.” Lavender replied while nodding at Padma.

“She has a point, plus Padma says this girl could use some friends and I’m always up for making a new friend.” Parvati stated with a nod as he stood next to her sister.

“But I’d rather sit at our table.” Ron said with a grimace before looking at Harry.

“I don’t mind changing tables, it could be fun. Besides, Ron, we get to meet someone new; we could always afford to branch out a bit.” Harry replied though it only made Ron pout and walk towards the Gryffindor table himself and sit down immediately beginning to load his plate with food.

“Must he be such a prat?” Hermione sighed as Harry shrugged and followed Padma towards the Ravenclaw table with Parvati and Lavender. The group sat down at the Ravenclaw table next to a small blonde girl with a dreamy expression on her face as she moved her food around on her plate.

“Good morning, Padma. You seem to have your friends with you today.” The blonde stated with a smile as the group sat around her.

“Everyone this is Luna Lovegood, she’s a second year. She and I struck up a friendship near the end of last school year.” Padma introduced the girl with a smile before turning to Luna. “Luna these are my friends Hermione, Harry, and Lavender. Parvati is my sister of course and you’ve met her before.” Luna wished the other girls good morning before she spoke to Harry.

“Good morning, Harry Potter.” Luna greeted airily.

“You can just call me Harry, if you want.” Harry replied with a chuckle.

“You don't mind?” Luna asked cocking her head at him.

“Not at all, the ones who call me Harry Potter most days are people interested in staring at my scar; also my slightly manic, but incredibly friendly, house elf. His name is Dobby.” Harry smiled thinking about Dobby. Hopefully his friend was finding ways to keep himself busy.

“Alright then, I shall call you Harry, Harry.” Luna paused for a moment before closing her eyes while sighing. “If you wish…you can call me Loony.”

Harry frowned at that and looked at the slightly younger girl. “Why would I call you that, Luna?”

“It is what most everyone else calls me. I think the Wrackspurts cause it though it could also be Nargles.” Luna's eyes had opened and she looked up at him. Her face was carefully set and showed little emotion. “The name first started when I beat Ronald in chess while visiting the Weasleys a few years ago.”

Harry's gaze swept to where Ron was sitting at the Gryffindor table and he frowned at the back of the boy's head for a moment before turning back to Luna and smiling softly. “Luna, I have no intention of ever calling you Loony, okay?” Harry saw her eyes widen but that was the only thing that changed about her. “I'll also see if I can talk to some of these…Wrackspurts? See if we can’t get them to stop using that name.”

“Why would you do that, Harry?” Luna asked with an undecipherable look on her face.

“Because you seem nice, Luna, and I was called names myself for a long time. It wasn't very fun.” Harry shook his head at the memories of his life before Hogwarts. Luna smiled at him before turning and engaging the other girls in conversation over breakfast. Harry noticed Padma, Parvati, Hermione and Lavender all give him approving looks for how he handled Luna’s insecurity causing him to blush slightly.

“What’s this? Does Loony actually have someone besides Patil sitting next to her?” another girl questioned as she stood next to the table with a patronizing smirk.

“Go away, Edgecombe, no one wants you here.” Padma responded to the girl frostily.

Harry watched Luna's shoulders slump slightly before her distant look returned. Harry gently nudged her shoulder and when she turned to him, smiled warmly at her. Luna's gaze widened in response and her eyes refocused.

Harry turned to Edgecombe before Padma or one of the other girls could start in on the brunette. “Miss Edgecombe, do you find something funny about insulting my friend?” The table immediately fell silent; no one had ever heard such a flat, yet slightly threatening, tone come from Harry Potter before.

“W-What?” Edgecombe mumbled as she started to pale. That tone from Harry causing a subtle primal fear to shoot through the girl.

“If you don't want similar insulting names to mysteriously start being applied to yourself you should probably address her as 'Luna' or 'Miss Lovegood' from now on.” The silence at the Ravenclaw table had stretched to encompass the entire Great Hall.

Marietta Edgecombe’s eyes widened but she still tried to speak “I can call her…”

“Miss Edgecombe,” Harry cut her off, “think very carefully about what you say. I don’t take lightly to people who insult my friends.”

All the courage drained out of Marietta's body and she turned to look at the rest of the Ravenclaw table for support. Seeing none forthcoming she could only reply one way. “Yes, um, I’m sorry.”

She quickly walked away and conversations began to restart in the Great Hall. Harry turned back to face Luna who was staring at him wide eyed. “See? Just a talk can do wonders.” Luna nodded with a smile and giggled a bit.

Breakfast continued with conversation between the six friends before Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall walked by to hand out the students timetables. The timetables were quick to be passed between the friends to check for any classes they had together.

“Hermione?” Harry said looking at her schedule again and finally giving up trying to understand it while rubbing his forehead as he handed it back to the girl. “How can you possibly take all five elective courses at once? You realize three of the classes meet at the same time, right?”

Hermione blushed and snatched her timetable from him. “I'm surprised you noticed that. I know it will be difficult but I have no doubt I can handle it.”

Parvati just shook her head at the other girl. "Seriously though, why do you want to take Muggle Studies? You’re Muggleborn, you probably know more than the Professor."

“Well I think it will be interesting to study from a magical perspective don't you?” Hermione asked the Indian witch.

Harry sighed. “I think you should just attend for a week if you're going to take that class, Hermione. Just to see how much you don’t need it before dropping it. We still use quills and parchment, not to mention the majority of the magical population can't even pronounce electricity much less know what it does. Don't come complaining to us when you find out the things they teach in the class are a hundred years out of date.”

“Harry, may I speak with you for a moment?” called a familiar, to Harry, female voice behind him. Turning around and meeting the gaze of Penelope Clearwater Harry nodded at the Head Girl.

“What can I do for you Penelope?” Harry asked the older girl before she moved close and hugged him. Harry was understandably confused by the sudden hug. Everyone in the Great Hall seemed to have noticed what was going on and a hush fell over the hall once again.

“I wanted to say thank you, Harry, for the tutor that came to help me catch up on my studies the last week of summer.” Penelope said with a smile as she pulled back from the hug only to quickly kiss Harry’s cheek turning him into a blushing mess.

“What? But how do you know it was me?” Harry questioned as he fought to get his blushing under control.

“You said I was going to get some help with my studies when we met in Flourish and Blott’s, remember? Then a private tutor shows up at my house about a week before school starts and helps me catch up with my studies. Who else could it have been?” Penelope asked with a smile as she hugged Harry again.

“That was you, Harry?” Hermione asked from beside him. “I was already finished with last year’s coursework but when the tutor showed up at my house I was able to sit through entire hour classes in only a few minutes with her spells. It was perfect for revision! I really felt like I’d taken a month of classes in only a few days.” Hermione quickly hugged Harry too but wasn’t brave enough to kiss his cheek in front of the whole school.

Harry wasn’t use to such praise and physical affection so he was losing his current battle with his blushing face. Hearing the girls thanking Harry for the tutors both Colin Creevey and Justin Finch-Fletchley made their way over to thank Harry for the tutors that had shown up at their homes to help them as well. Thankfully neither boy tried to hug him or kiss his cheek like Penelope had done. Thanks and handshakes were enough for Colin and Justin. Finding out that there were spells that could let you experience sitting through entire classes in only a matter of minutes was interesting, though both Colin and Justin complained about the headache it caused after doing it multiple times in a day. Even Madam Hooch had come down from the Head Table to thank Harry for his donation to the school’s broom supply. Forty new Cleansweep Sixes were now available for the yearly Flying Class and any of the Quidditch Teams that needed a replacement broom for a game. Harry had shaken the Flying Instructor’s hand with his face still burning red. He really hoped they would stop thanking him soon; he really wasn’t used to this type of thing.

-At the Ministry of Magic-

“Where is it? Where is it?” Tonks muttered as she went through various files in the Ministry Archives. She was looking for anything related to Sirius Black’s case to try and answer some of Harry’s questions. She had come down to the Archives to try and find trial transcripts, interrogation reports, court records of his sentencing or anything that Sirius had said that had been recorded about why he’d betrayed the Potters. So far she wasn’t having much luck the Archives were sorted by year and month only, meaning she had to look through all of the records that had happened in November of eighty one. With Death Eaters still on the loose and the crime rate so high there was a lot to go through to try and find what she was looking for.

“Still down here, Tonks?” a man said as he walked down the aisle she was looking through.

“Yeah Dawlish, still haven’t found Black’s records. You’d think they’d be kept in the very front of the November Eighty One cases.” Tonks replied as Dawlish stopped next to her and looked at the various drawers containing files for November Nineteen Eighty One.

“When have the archives ever been orderly? We’re probably lucky it’s organized as much as it is.” Dawlish chuckled as he reached out to a drawer and started going through it. “I’ll help out for a while, no credible sightings of Black have come in for a couple days and I could use a break from all the chaos in the office.”

“Thanks Dawlish, I’m starting to wonder if the files are even here though.” Tonks responded with a grimace as she closed the drawer she was looking through and opened the next one.

“They’ve got to be. No one would be stupid enough to lose them; you’d lose your job at minimum and probably be charged with ministerial neglect too.” Dawlish replied while looking through his drawer.

“True, though with all that is here I’m surprised I haven’t found anything yet. Not a single file with Black’s name on it at all. No arrest record, no trial transcripts, no sentencing documents, nothing.” Tonks stated with a frustrated huff.

“Well it’s not like they just tossed a man to the dementors without a trial, even the Death Eaters got fair trials. Not that some of them didn’t get off scot free anyway; Imperius my hairy arse.” Dawlish grumbled as he continued to look through his drawer.

“Wait, you don’t think everyone just assumed he was guilty and he was fast tracked into Azkaban, do you?” Tonks questioned the Senior Auror with a serious look on her face.

“No way, we gave the Lestranges of all people fair trials; surely Black had to have gotten one too.” Dawlish muttered as he slowed his search of the drawer.

“I’ve been down here for hours already though and haven’t seen a single file with his name on it. That was probably the biggest case of that month, including the Lestranges, so why is there nothing here?” Tonks questioned as she flipped through more files.

“Maybe we need more people searching? Half this aisle is for November Eighty One, with a few more people we can look through all of it and make sure before we cause a commotion.” Dawlish suggested as he looked at Tonks.

“Couldn’t hurt, though if the worst case scenario is true and he was tossed into Azkaban without due process how bad do you think it’ll be?” Tonks asked curiously as she shut the drawer she was looking through.

“An absolute shitestorm. A Pureblood from an Ancient and Noble House tossed to the dementors without so much as a questioning? There’ll be heads rolling if the Wizengamot has anything to say about it. At least a few dozen people are getting sacked without question, some are going to be arrested themselves, it’ll be chaos almost as bad as what’s going on now with Black’s escape.” Dawlish stated with a grimace as he closed his drawer and opened the one below it.

“Damn, but if he is caught the Minister’s Kiss On Sight order will end him before we could get the truth from him.” Tonks replied as she stood up from the floor.

“Go up to the office and grab another couple clerks to help us search. If we can’t find anything we’ll bring it up to Amelia. Let’s hope we can find something though, I’m not looking forward to the mess it’ll cause if we don’t.” Dawlish said with a sigh as Tonks nodded and headed out of the archives to get more help.

‘Don’t worry Whiskers; I’ll definitely get to the bottom of this. You deserve to know what happened that night more than anyone else.’ Tonks thought to herself as she walked up to the Auror Office to grab a few more clerks to join the search in the archives. After grabbing three clerks Tonks led them down to the archives and had Dawlish explain what was going on.

“Alright, we’re looking for Black’s files; I want every drawer labelled November Eighty One searched and those records found.” Dawlish gave out the orders as the three clerks snapped to attention and started searching.

“Hopefully we’ll get through all this before tomorrow, though I already doubt that.” Tonks stated as she opened a new drawer and started searching.

“You and me both, Tonks, you and me both.” Dawlish grunted as he pulled open another drawer himself. It was going to be a long shift.

-End Chapter-

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The plot thickens! Sort of? How embarrassed is Harry right now? What did you think? Good? Bad? Let me know! I do know that it is a bit shorter than normal but I’m writing this while I have the flu so I hope you’ll forgive me.