CHAPTER : 80

Harry wasn't surprised when Hermione finally brought up the third member of the infamous Gryffindor trio.

"What about Ron?" she asked. "When are you going to let him into the secret?"

"Ron? Didn't plan on letting him into it at all," said Harry which caused Hermione's mouth to drop open in astonishment.

"How come?" she asked. "He was your best friend back at Hogwarts. How can you possibly not tell him about... For god's sake Harry, he can't even remember you."

"That's probably for the best," said Harry, a bit amused by Hermione's indignation. Really, why did she care so much he wondered. For their earlier conversation he already knew that she had barely bothered to keep in touch with Ron. Nothing more than the occasional Birthday and Christmas cards.

"But why?" she asked again.

"I don't trust the Weasley family," said Harry.

"Wait, What? The Weasley family? All of them?" asked Sirius. "Why? I mean... I spent some time with them, they stayed over for a few weeks that summer you disappeared. They didn't seem like bad sorts once you got past Molly's regrettable bossiness that is"

Harry sighed. "Sirius... hmmm, I'm not sure how to explain this... Okay, hypothetically, if you saw a kid walking into a dangerous situation and let's say you knew something that could maybe help the kid. Would you tell them?"

Sirius looked a bit abashed, "Is this about the thing with Remus and Snivellous? Cause that was so not my fault, no matter what the greasy git said."

Harry slapped his palm into his face. "Trust you to say exactly the opposite to the answer I expected. I'd forgotten about that actually. But... Why wasn't it your fault?"

"Well," said Sirius slowly, as if he was explaining things to a five year old. "When you dare someone to jump off a cliff you don't really expect them to actually jump do you? Nor do I think it justified for the idiot who jumps off the bloody cliff to then turn around and accuse you of attempted murder."

Sirius looked at the three younger people, who were all wearing expressions of pure scepticism. "Snape was sneaking around like the greasy git he was. He was always trying to get the four of us in trouble and he was goading me about Remus's habit of disappearing every month. Quite frankly, the way he was talking I assumed he already had managed to somehow find out about the whole werewolf thing. Looking back, it's actually a well known Slytherin tactic to pretend to know more than you do in an effort to dig out information, but I didn't think of that at the time. I got a bit angry and I may have slipped more information out than I intended to, but like I said, I assumed he had already found out and my mouth ran away with me. Then the idiot actually tried to follow Remus down to the Shrieking Shack. Come on, how is it my fault if the bugger came that close to being attacked by a werewolf?"

Harry shook his head in disbelief. "Remus said it was a trick you played on Snape."

Sirius grimaced, "Well, I wasn't about to admit that I let Snape outsmart me. Not even to Remus and James. I think James knew, but he went along with my story."

"Anyway," drawled Harry. " getting back on point and for those people not named Sirius in this room - If you saw someone walking into a dangerous situation, would you warn them? Let's say it's a kid, a teenager. Someone you don't really know. Would you warn them?"

"Of course," said both Luna and Hermione simultaneously.

"And someone who doesn't warn the kid - Would you think someone like that was - untrustworthy? Not a very nice person?"

"Yes, of course," said Hermione. "Obviously the correct, moral thing to do would be to warn the kid."

"Right," said Harry. "I'm glad you agree."

"Listen, I already explained about the thing with Snape so..." started Sirius.

"Sirius, I'm not talking about that. This has nothing to do with you and Snape so could you just shut up about that and listen. And for the record I'm certain that you, as an adult, would certainly warn the hypothetical kid in the dangerous situation," said Harry."

He paused and gathered his thoughts. "So, as we all agree not telling the kid really doesn't put you in the best light. Right? So tell me, how much worse would it be, if you actually knew the kid. Let's say he's a family friend. He's visited your house and you've gotten to know him fairly well. Now, you still don't warn him. What does that say about you?"

Hermione had paled a bit, obviously she had started to figure out what he was getting at. "Harry... I'm sure there were reasons. I mean... They... They wouldn't have..."

"I see you've figured it out," said Harry. "For the rest of you, as I'm sure you'll remember back in my fourth year, I found myself entered, against my will, in the Triwizard tournament. Ron immediately started acting like a prat and at the time I was too fixated on Ron and too busy to think about the rest of them, but looking back, I have to ask myself - Where were the Weasleys?"

Sirius looked a bit puzzled. "What did the Weasleys have to do with the tournament?" he asked.

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