Harry wondered why Sirius was mentioning that as he confirmed he did with a nod.
"While they were there they took the bones of Thomas Riddle…"
"Tom's Dad?" checked Harry surprised.
"Tom's Dad." Sirius repeated. "Bertie and Albus suggested that it pointed at a specific ritual to create a body for Voldemort, one that involves the bones of his father and two other ingredients."
Harry felt a sinking sensation in his stomach. "Why do I think I don't want to know what the other ingredients are?"
"One of them has to be taken from an enemy." Sirius said gravely.
"Me." Harry surmised immediately.
Sirius expelled a harsh breath. "We think so." He sighed. "The ritual is very long and very involved. But the final part requires something from an enemy who has been in fear of his life and tested for the majority of the nine months prior to the eve of the Summer solstice which is when the end of the ritual has to take place."
Harry felt his heart beating faster. "Is that why with the death threats and the…the kidnapping attempt…?"
Sirius nodded. "We think that it was a pre-emptive attempt and that entering you into the Tri-Wizard Tournament is likely to be the actual goal. The tournament holds all the right conditions to prepare you for the ritual without them doing anything else."
Harry wet his lips. "So everyone's working out a way to make sure I don't get entered?"
"It's one of the reasons why there's going to be a lot of security around the artefact, the Goblet of Fire, which is used to determine the Champions for each school competing." Sirius agreed.
But security wasn't a guarantee of success, Harry thought worriedly.
"Albus assures me that it won't happen; that Hogwarts is safe especially with all the security that Moody's put in place." Sirius sighed wearily. "But, well, we all know how safe you've been here at Hogwarts in the last few years."
Harry bit his lip at Sirius's scathing tone, knowing it wasn't really directed at him but feeling guilty anyway. But then another thought intruded and he frowned. "Wait, you said Peter and Voldemort picked up the bones when they went to Little Hangleton?"
Which meant that Sirius had known about the ritual and everything and not told him! Hurt shot through Harry like a knife.
Sirius met his eyes without hesitation. "Yes, I made the decision not to tell you about the ritual back then."
Harry surged to his feet, not sure what he was doing or wanted but not content to sit anymore.
Sirius slid off the desk to stand in front of him. "Are you willing to listen to my reasons?"
Harry folded his arms over his chest and nodded jerkily.
"We didn't know if the ritual was going to happen, whether Bertie's and Albus's suspicion of what the bones meant actually was true. There are a number of rituals that use bones of forefathers not just this one. And yes, it was the most probable but it wasn't certain." Sirius began. "I didn't want to tell you something that wasn't certain especially as you'd received the death threat on your birthday and had enough to worry about between that and the prophecy."
"And now?" Harry asked sharply.
"The bones need to seep in amniotic fluid – that's the fluid that's…"
"I know." Harry said blushing.
"Right," Sirius said hastily, "and so…Amelia had the DMLE put an alert out to Healers requesting they warn all pregnant women that there could be a threat to them but…Amelia found out one pregnant woman was missing on Thursday and at the tribunal we discovered a second pregnant woman had gone missing." He paused. "The brother of one of the missing women was discovered impersonating Dennis Travers at the tribunal. Travers is missing."
"Oh." Harry lowered his gaze as he absorbed what Sirius had told him. He understood in some ways why Sirius hadn't told him and why he was now being told since it was a certainty that the ritual was going to happen. But…
"I could have handled it." He said out loud. "I'm not a kid."
"And you're not an adult either." Sirius shot back. He held up a hand when Harry went to argue. "There is a reason why you're called a teenager, Harry." He shifted as he took a breath. "Admittedly you've been through a lot more than most teenagers and you have a lot more responsibility than the vast majority of your peers, all of which you handle brilliantly most of the time." He caught Harry's gaze again. "But I am not going to apologise for acting like a parent and deciding that my fourteen year old son doesn't need to worry about something that I know will do nothing but worry him, until it's absolutely necessary to tell him."
Harry shuffled a little under Sirius's understanding but unapologetic regard. "I just…" he sighed, "I already have Professor Dumbledore keeping secrets and now it feels like you're keeping secrets too and…" he shrugged unable to properly put into words what he meant.
Sirius took a step forward and tugged Harry into a hug. Harry went a little stiffly but he wasn't immune to Sirius's caring and he slowly put his arms his father and sank into the comfort.
"I know it feels like people are keeping secrets from you and, well, Albus is, at least until he and I have our little chat about the matter, but my intention here, and every time I make a similar decision, isn't to keep something secret so much as to protect you as much as I can from the craziness." Sirius murmured. "You have to know I debate everything a million times before I decide to tell you or not. It drives Moony bonkers."
Harry gave a muffled huff of laughter as he imagined Remus's face after being subjected to Sirius's debating.
"I thought about telling you when we got the second death threat but…" Sirius sighed heavily, "everyone still thought getting you into the tournament was the goal, and I wanted you to enjoy the rest of your holiday and have some fun without having something else to worry about. And truthfully would it have changed anything you did at the World Cup?"
Harry wanted to say that it would have done; that he would have stopped and thought about chasing after Ron to check on the Weasleys or that he definitely wouldn't have charged after the guy who'd targeted them, but his conscience wouldn't let him lie about it. Even if he'd known he would probably have still acted the way he'd acted.
.
.
.
🎉Subscribe and get access to all PDFs🎉
🎉ko-fi.com/gokublack444🎉