Chapter 374: Harry's Fury
"That's just how he is," Lupin said.
"Sounds like you know him well," Dudley asked.
Something flickered across Lupin's face, but he did not answer. Instead, he turned his wheelchair towards the inner room.
"I need to rest."
He had only just downed the Wolfsbane Potion, and his stomach was already churning. The potion might blunt a werewolf's danger after transformation, but it was foul beyond words.
"I'll stay a few more minutes," Dudley said. "No point walking out and running straight into Snape."
"Heh…" Lupin's laughter drifted back, and he said no more.
About ten minutes later, Dudley left Lupin's quarters. He passed through the corridor without seeing Snape again and went straight to the Great Hall.
Most people had already finished lunch. Harry and the other two had eaten and stayed behind, waiting.
The moment Harry spotted Dudley, he ran over. Of all of them, he cared most about Sirius Black.
"Well? Did Professor Lupin tell you?" Harry demanded the instant he sat down.
"He did," Dudley said plainly. "But I'll say this first. What I'm about to tell you might hit you hard. Think it through, then decide if you still want to hear it."
He did not hide anything, and he left the right to know with Harry himself. Harry was thirteen now, old enough to choose whether he wanted the truth.
"Of course!" Harry said at once, even more urgent than before.
"Don't answer in a rush," Dudley replied. "I'm eating first. When I'm done, you can tell me what you've decided."
With that, Dudley began eating at an unhurried pace.
Hermione and Ron exchanged a look. From Dudley's tone alone, they could already tell that once it was spoken aloud, it would shake Harry badly.
"Harry, maybe we shouldn't know," Hermione urged.
"Yeah," Ron added. "Let the Ministry of Magic deal with Black. We don't have to get involved at all."
Harry shook his head, stubborn and resolute.
"I need to know the truth!"
"You can't understand what it's like, losing your parents so young and having everything kept from you."
"I don't want to live like that anymore. I want to know what really happened. I'm not a little kid."
He sounded steady, but the words cut. In two years at Hogwarts, he had lived through more than most people managed in a lifetime, and he was tired of being protected like something fragile. He had his own thoughts, and he had the will to act on them.
Dudley ate quietly, saying nothing.
Hermione and Ron looked at each other again. They knew they could not talk him out of it, so they had no choice but to stop.
Before long, Dudley finished his meal.
"Now," Dudley said, "give me your answer."
"I want to know," Harry said, serious to the point of stubbornness. "Tell me. Please."
"Fine. Come with me."
Dudley led Harry, Ron, and Hermione up to the eighth-floor corridor and into the Room of Requirement. This was the space the Kingdom of Order normally used for training.
"What I'm about to say," Dudley told Harry, "you're not just going to listen. You're going to think."
"Do you understand?"
"I do," Harry said, nodding.
Then Dudley began, telling them what Lupin had told him. He spoke of the bond between Harry's father and the other three, of Sirius Black's betrayal, and of how it all ended.
As Dudley spoke, Hermione kept lifting a hand to her mouth, her face pale with shock. Ron looked equally stunned, and anger tightened his expression.
Only Harry was calm, the calmest of them all.
His face barely changed, as if he were hearing a stranger's story. Only at certain points did his fists clench, hard and unconscious, knuckles paling with the effort.
When Dudley finished, the Room of Requirement fell into absolute silence. Only their breathing remained.
"Harry…" Hermione reached out with a trembling hand, wanting to comfort him, but she did not even know where to begin.
Ron did not know what to say either.
In truth, they had already placed themselves inside it. James Potter had been one of four. They were four as well. They could not imagine what it would do to them if one of them betrayed the others. The blow was so immense that even thinking about it made their chests ache.
"If you want to let it out," Dudley said, "you can cast whatever you like in here."
That was why he had brought Harry to this room.
"They treated him like a brother," Harry suddenly roared, "and he betrayed him. Why? Why would he do that? Why!"
His voice was so loud Hermione nearly jumped. Even Ron went pale at the outburst.
With a violent motion, Harry flung up his hand, and a spell burst out, blasting the training dummy into fragments.
The next moment, the dummy knitted itself back together.
Harry did not stop.
He cast again and again, like someone unhinged, hurling spell after spell into the dummies as if they were Sirius Black himself.
It was the first time Hermione and Ron had ever seen Harry like this. They were shocked, and they ached for him.
"Harry…" Hermione's eyes reddened as she tried to speak, but Dudley stopped her.
"Let him vent," Dudley said.
So they fell silent and watched, while Harry unleashed powerful magic again and again, tearing the dummies apart only for them to reform, over and over.
Ten minutes passed before he finally stopped, drained to the bone.
"Feel any better?" Dudley walked over and patted his shoulder.
Harry nodded.
"A lot better."
"At least I can use magic to burn off the anger in me," he said, voice rough, "instead of sitting here helpless, doing nothing."
"Thank you, Dudley."
If he were just an ordinary third-year at Hogwarts, faced with all this, he could only rage uselessly and do nothing at all. But now he had the means. He could act according to his own will.
"You're planning to take revenge on Black?" Dudley asked.
Harry did not answer directly. "Are you going to stop me?"
"No," Dudley said, shaking his head.
"Good," Harry replied.
"But before that," Dudley said, his tone turning guiding, "you need to calm down and think about what I told you. Look for what doesn't make sense. Look for what makes you uneasy."
"Use your reason," Dudley added, "and don't let personal feelings drag you into a single story."