Since Kevin had come back early, the few days before the start-of-term feast unfolded at a pace he could actually manage. He sorted the Gryffindor dormitory, split off from Draco at the staircase — Slytherin, other direction — and once everyone's trunks were stowed, went up to Dumbledore's office alone.
"Kevin, welcome back. Good summer, on the whole?"
"If everyone had kept their hands out of it, yes." Kevin sat down at the desk with the ease of someone who had long since decided this was a reasonable thing to do.
Fawkes was sitting on his perch, full-feathered and magnificent. Kevin tried to say hello. Fawkes burst into flames and was gone.
"That bird remembers everything."
"He does rather," Dumbledore agreed.
The warmth in his face settled into something more serious as he folded his hands.
"I assume Severus gave you the basics. Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban. He's heading here, and Azkaban's guard — the Dementors — have followed, which is rather a problem since they make no distinction between their target and bystanders."
"We ran into seven of them on the train. I dealt with it."
"So I heard. Thank you." Dumbledore looked at him steadily. "Kevin, that's not entirely why I asked you up. It's about Harry."
"Then tell him yourself."
"We can't. Not yet. He needs time to process, or he'll do something reckless and get himself killed."
"He does something reckless every year, specifically because he doesn't have the information he needs," Kevin said. "The pattern holds."
Dumbledore tilted his head. "We approach the raising of children differently."
"Get to the point."
Dumbledore stood, moved to the window, and sighed — the long, considered exhale of someone choosing words carefully.
Then he laid it all out. Sirius's history. His friendship with Harry's parents. The betrayal. The things Harry would eventually piece together by eavesdropping in corridors, because no one had ever sat him down and told him.
"You don't think this will break him," Kevin said. It wasn't a question.
"No. He's resilient. The critical piece is what came before — I've always doubted the betrayal story. James, Lily, and Sirius were inseparable. It doesn't fit."
Dumbledore looked at him directly. "Sirius is coming for Harry, Kevin. Whatever the truth turns out to be, I need you to help him find it. Keep him from acting on incomplete information."
Kevin thought about this. In the story, it was Dumbledore who quietly handed Harry and Hermione the Time-Turner that saved Sirius in the end. He'd believed Sirius all along.
"Fine. But I'm telling Harry everything up front. He makes his own choices with the full picture."
"As you like." Dumbledore's mouth curved slightly. "Though it does take some of the adventure out of it."
"Only you could call 'wandering around in mortal danger' an adventure."
Dumbledore only shrugged — an admission, if not quite a concession.
"Kinder egg? I just got a new batch." He opened the desk drawer.
"Dog mess-flavoured?"
"The finest quality."
Dumbledore produced several with the gravity of a man presenting something genuinely valuable. Kevin took them. They sat in companionable silence for a moment, two people who operated in entirely different registers but had somehow arrived at an understanding.
"Don't tell Harry they came from me," Dumbledore said.
"Obviously."
Kevin took the eggs and left. The headmaster's grumpy look followed him all the way to the door.
Back in the common room. Harry, Ginny, and Ron were waiting. Ginny had come along for reasons involving Ron's inability to leave his little sister anywhere.
"Kevin, what did Dumbledore say about Sirius? About the Dementors?"
"He said to eat these first. For your nerves."
"I'm fine. Talk."
"Candy first."
"...Fine." Harry ate one. Made a sound. Pressed a hand to his mouth and ran.
Kevin laughed hard enough that his eyes watered.
Ron and Ginny stared.
"Just lightening the mood," Kevin said, waving them to sit while Harry finished making his feelings known to the corridor bathroom.
Harry came back. He looked at Kevin with the purity of someone who had fully committed to long-term remembering.
"Dumbledore said to give you those," Kevin said. "His idea."
"I see."
"All right. Here's everything."
He told them everything — Sirius's background, his friendship with Harry's parents, the betrayal, the twelve years in Azkaban. The others had pieces already, but this was the complete picture, and Kevin didn't soften any of it.
He finished with Dumbledore's doubts — the part that didn't fit, the part that needed investigating.
Harry sat without speaking. His jaw was tight. His hands were folded in his lap in a way that suggested he was very carefully choosing not to do anything with them.
"So Sirius might not be the one who betrayed them," Harry said at last.
It came out raw.
One moment he'd been building toward justice. Now the foundation was uncertain, and there was nowhere to aim the anger.
"That's why we find out," Kevin said. "That's what Dumbledore wants — clarity before action. Because once you've done something you can't take back, you can't take it back."
Harry wasn't hearing it yet. Still working through it.
Kevin slid onto the seat beside him.
"Harry. Forget Sirius for a moment. The real question isn't whether he did it or someone else did. The real question is you." He waited until Harry looked at him. "Don't let the anger get in front of your brain. Every enemy you'll ever have will try to use that. Even people who look like friends. Think first. Always think first."
He held Harry's eyes.
"If Sirius is guilty, we find that out and deal with it. If he's not, we find the real traitor and deal with that. But either way, we do it right."
The words landed. Kevin could see them landing, could see Harry's face change as the fury drained down into something quieter and harder.
"I understand," Harry said finally. He let out a long breath. "Sorry, Kevin. And — thank you."
"Here." Kevin offered the last egg. "We'll call it even."
Harry looked at it. "...Is that also —"
"Best quality."
Harry took it. Made a face. Went to the bathroom again.
The mood in the room lifted considerably.
[Ding! Detected that the host has gained the complete approval of a key figure — Albus Dumbledore.]
[Reward: Spellcasting Talent +5, Magic Power +5, Intelligence +5]
Kevin stared at nothing for a moment.
Dumbledore had been following him the whole time. He'd been using an Illusion Charm, same as Snape. These people were extraordinary.