Snape had been there as well. Harry knew Snape had been a Death Eater. As such he should have known that Pettigrew and not Sirius was the traitor. Yet he had kept quiet all this time. Harry thought back to what had happened when Snape had shown up in the Shrieking Shack.
Snape was slightly breathless, but his face was full of suppressed triumph. "You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were here?" he said, his eyes glittering. "I've just been to your office, Lupin. You forgot to take your potion tonight, so I took a gobletful along. And very lucky I did... lucky for me, I mean. Lying on your desk was a certain map. One glance at it told me all I needed to know. I saw you running along this passageway and out of sight."**
Had that been true? Had Remus forgotten his Potion? Or had Snape been giving Remus a hint? When Snape told Remus that he forgot to take his potion, had he really been ordering Remus to pretend that he had not taken it?
Harry was appalled. "Could it be true?" he wondered. "Was Remus not what he seemed?" Even if it wasn't and Remus was not a traitor - According to Sirius's story his parents had not trusted anyone else with the knowledge that Pettigrew and not Sirius was the secret keeper. That certainly indicated that not only did they not trust Remus, BUT it also meant that they had clearly not trusted Dumbledore either. If his parents had not seen fit to trust Remus and Dumbledore, why on earth should he? After all they had known the two men far better than he. True, Sirius had explained that they had been wrong not to trust Remus, but could he really believe that? No, he could not afford to. After all, it probably was some sort of a logical fallacy to assume that Remus was innocent just because Pettigrew turned out to be a spy. What, after all, would have stopped Voldemort from having more than one spy? Nothing!
Harry wondered what would have happened that night if he had not stopped Sirius from killing Pettigrew. Would Remus have turned his wand on Sirius at the last moment? Probably! He had been kicking himself for saving Pettigrew as the man had escaped just moments later when Lupin transformed, but now it looked like he had actually saved Sirius from dying at Lupin's hands.
Wait, hadn't Dumbledore sent Sirius to live with Remus at the end of last year? That meant that he couldn't contact Sirius at all. Sirius trusted Remus and that meant that anything told to Sirius would be as good as told to Remus. So that meant he couldn't tell Sirius anything either even if he was talking to him, which in any case Harry was in no mood to do at the current time.
...
"I wish I could get a hold of the newspapers at least," thought Harry, wishing yet again that he had had the foresight to arrange for a subscription. * As things stood the only place he knew of to get a hold of a copy was Diagon Alley and he was stuck at Privet Drive totally unable to go there.
Suddenly an unlikely name popped into his head - "Dobby, Dobby could get me a copy, after all he was willing to help me out with the gillyweed during the competion, I hope he's still willing to help out."
He quickly scribbled a note on a spare bit of parchment and let Hedwig out of her cage.
"Hi girl, could you please take this to Dobby."
"Master Harry Potter Sir called for Dobby," shouted a elf as he suddenly appeared at Harry's side causing Harry to fall over in shock.
"Dobby," said Harry, "How did you get here? I was just about to send you an owl."
"Master Harry Potter does not need to send Dobby an owl, Master Harry Potter Sir simply needs to call Dobby and Dobby will come."
"Really, that's great," said Harry. "Dobby I need some help and was hoping you could help me out."
"Of course, Dobby is always very happy to help out the great Harry Potter," said Dobby almost hyperventilating in his eagerness to serve his favorite wizard.
"Thanks Dobby, I really appreciate it. Now I've been stuck here without any news since the beginning of summer and I really need to find out what's happening. Do you think you'd be able to go to Diagon Alley and fetch me some newspapers?"
"Yes, Harry Potter sir, Dobby would be happy to go get you as many newspapers as you want," said Dobby popping away immediately.
"Damn, he didn't even wait for me to give him some money," thought Harry. "Oh well, I can always pay him once he gets back."
Five minutes later Dobby was back, his diminutive body dwarfed by a large pile of newspapers.
"Here you go Master Harry Potter Sir, Dobby do be getting you all the newspapers printed since the beginning of summer."
"Wow Dobby, that's way more than I was expecting," said Harry in shock. "I wish I'd thought of contacting you earlier, this is exactly what I need. How much do I owe you?"
"Oh no, Harry Potter Sir, Dobby is owing Harry Potter Sir for freeing him from wicked master, Dobby want to help you."
"Thanks Dobby, but I can't let you spend your money on me, I insist on paying you back. And no I won't hear another word about it, now how much did you spend."
"Dobby spent 5 Sickles and 4 knuts," said Dobby in a sulky voice.
"Here's 5 Galleons Dobby, could you keep the change in case I need you to fetch me something else?"
"Dobby would be happy to fetch anything that Harry Potter wants."
With that Harry hunkered down and began to read the papers from cover to cover. It was not long before he had to stop due to the increasing amount of rage he was feeling at the contents of the newspapers. He quickly skimmed through the rest of the papers and found that the rest of them were the same. He was being portrayed as a delusional attention seeking brat in more articles than he wanted to count.