Chapter 2
Ever since Harry Lupin-Black (formerly Potter) had been rescued from his abusive relatives, the Dursley family (who were now in prison for child abuse), he had lived with his parents’ friends Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, by whom he had been adopted. Remus was a werewolf, due to which it was extremely difficult for him to get a job, as he faced much discrimination.
But Harry’s school, Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry, never could keep a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for very long; the last one, Gilderoy Lockhart, had lost his memory after trying to erase those of Harry and his friend Ron Weasley. Lockhart had told them that he had taken credit for other wizards’ achievements in the many books he had written, as he believed the books wouldn’t have sold nearly as well if people didn’t think that they described his own achievements. He was leaving at the worst possible time, too—during the crisis of Ron’s sister Ginny’s life being threatened by a Dark object which had magically hypnotized her and then tried to make her kill herself (from which Harry had ended up saving her).
Lockhart had never been too good of a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to begin with; Remus was clearly a far better one, having effectively taught the students how to defend themselves against a wide variety of Dark creatures. He had also taught Harry how to defend himself against the dementors, the Dark creatures which guarded the wizard prison Azkaban and were at Hogwarts to apprehend Harry’s parents’ betrayer Peter Pettigrew; it was questionable whether the Ministry was making the best decision to have Azkaban guarded by dementors, given their dark power of forcing their victims to relive the worst memories of their lives.
But it was being kept a secret from the students that Remus was a werewolf; Minerva’s nephew Michael George, who had replaced her as Transfiguration teacher and Head of Gryffindor House when Minerva became the headmistress, was always concerned about the students’ safety. He saw that he had reason to be, when Remus found Peter Pettigrew living on campus at Hogwarts—as Ron’s rat. Remus, Harry, Ron, and Harry’s other friend Hermione Granger—plus Hermione’s magical cat Crookshanks, who could also see through Peter’s disguise—had chased Peter (nicknamed Wormtail after his Animagus form) to the Shrieking Shack near the village of Hogsmeade which was located near Hogwarts. The chase had continued onto the Hogwarts grounds, where the full moon came up and Remus (having forgotten to take his Wolfsbane potion as needed, a potion which made him not dangerous in his werewolf form) transformed into a full-fledged werewolf. Michael McGonagall, as well as his aunt Minerva, had helped to rescue Harry, Ron, and Hermione from this situation.
Once the children were being treated at the Hogwarts hospital wing, Michael walked off down the hallway with his aunt. He told her she’d be in legal trouble now—and rightly, as she had risked such a dangerous situation by hiring a werewolf. Michael said that he would write to the Hogwarts board of governors about what happened, and Minerva could not stop him.
The next day, Minerva was reading the Wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet , at breakfast. Much to her shock, she (along with the students) saw an article by reporter Anita Skeeter (the evil twin of the Lupin-Black family’s ally Rita Skeeter) which was sharply critical of Minerva’s recent hiring decisions. When Minerva went back to her office, all of the Hogwarts governors were there; they said that either she’d have to sack Remus in the interest of the students’ safety, or they’d sack both her and Remus. Minerva defended her actions, saying, “How was I, or even Severus (the Potions master), to know that a situation had arisen where Remus hadn’t taken his Wolfsbane Potion as needed? We shall certainly be more careful of such things in the future.” “That’s not enough, Minerva,” one of the governors replied. “Without being coerced into it like we were last year by Lucius, we’ve all signed the order for your dismissal. You should know that Mr Lupin’s personal life will be affected, too.” Minerva knew that this couldn’t mean anything good, as it was because of her that Remus’ and Sirius’ personal lives now revolved around Harry. She had rescued Harry and his cousin Dudley from the Dursleys (who weren’t very good parents to Dudley either, but in a different way), and taken Dudley to live with Minerva’s old friend Arabella Figg, who was a Squib—someone born to magical parents but without any magical powers of their own.
Minerva said, “All right, I should not have hired a werewolf.” She was not genuinely thinking this, and she was lucky that none of the school governors were capable of Legilimency—magical mind-reading, at which Minerva’s deputy headmaster Severus Snape was highly skilled. “All right, Minerva,” said the school governor who had spoken to her earlier, “If you admit that you made a mistake, you can keep your job.”
Sirius met Remus and Harry when they got off the Hogwarts Express train at King’s Cross Station, as usual. They had an unpleasant surprise waiting for them after they Apparated home, however (with Harry going with Sirius via Side-Along-Apparition, which may be used to transport underage family members). Members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement were outside their house; they let the family inside, but immediately sat down to talk to them.
One Ministry member told Sirius, “Mr Black, it has come to our attention, via the Hogwarts board of governors, that your partner Mr Lupin is a werewolf. Recently enacted anti-werewolf legislation forces us to take Harry away from you and Mr Lupin for Harry’s own safety.” “Am I still allowed to live with Remus when Harry’s not around?” Sirius asked. “We’ll ask Madam Umbridge, who wrote this anti-werewolf legislation,” said another Ministry member, “but most likely, it would be best for your own safety, Mr Black, if you didn’t live with Mr Lupin either– especially as you have a child. We didn’t need to enact any sort of law preventing werewolves from having children—because not only do they never reproduce, we’d never let a child be adopted by a werewolf with these new laws.” “What about other werewolves and their partners?” asked Sirius. “We’re enforcing this new law to the fullest extent that we can,” replied the Ministry member, “with so few werewolves being willing to register with the Ministry. But you know all about the stigma against werewolves, hardly any wizards and witches are willing to date them.” Sirius thought, And whose fault is that? The Ministry itself, especially with this new law, is perpetuating stigma against werewolves.
“Now that I think of it, Mr Black, you must stay with Harry, because who knows where he’d go otherwise?” said the Ministry member. “It was very well publicised how much trouble Dumbledore got in for forcing Harry to live with his abusive relatives, who are still in prison for child abuse and will likely be in this situation for the rest of Harry’s minority. So Harry must stay with you, Mr Black. Werewolves are particularly dangerous to anyone with whom they live, because that is whom they have the most opportunities to attack…” “...when in werewolf form,” Sirius clarified. “We know ahead of time when the full moon is coming, and we take measures to prevent Remus from being dangerous to others.” “If you contest this decision, Mr Black,” said the Ministry member, “then Harry will be taken away from both of you—although he would have nowhere to go in this case except to an orphanage.” Harry thought about sending the Weasley family a letter by owl to see whether he could live with them full-time if Remus and Sirius lost custody of him. Harry had spent part of a summer at their house already, with Sirius’ and Remus’ approval. (Harry had not been able to reply to any of Ron’s letters, as a house-elf named Dobby had stopped them in an attempt to discourage Harry from returning to Hogwarts. Ron had thought Harry was in trouble, so he and his older brothers Fred and George had come to Sirius’ and Remus’ house in their father’s flying car to rescue Harry. Sirius had said, “Okay, Ron, Harry can stay at your house if he wants to.” “And the flying car?“ Remus had added. “Exactly what James and I would have done if we’d known how Sirius was being abused at home before he escaped to James’ house of his own accord.”) Back to the present, Ron had told Harry at King’s Cross that the Weasleys would invite him to watch the Quidditch World Cup with them this summer if Mr Weasley could get tickets. As Harry was thinking this, the Ministry members left, beckoning to Sirius to follow them.
Sirius instead turned to the fireplace and said, “Harry, we need to go. Professor McGonagall the Elder will know what to do. Incendio !” The Ministry member who had last spoken to Sirius said, “Mr Black, I’m not sure you can trust Minerva…” But before he could finish his sentence, Sirius had thrown some Floo powder into the fire, taken Harry’s hand, and said, and said very clearly, “Minerva McGonagall’s office!” Sirius and Harry went up the chimney and had started whizzing across Britain before the Ministry member could stop them.