than murdering all those poor people, you mean?" 

"I certainly do," said Fudge. 

"I can't believe that. What could possibly be worse?"  "You say you remember him at Hogwarts, Rosmerta," murmured Professor McGonagall. "Do you remember who his-best friend was?"

 "Naturally," said Madam Rosmerta, with a small laugh. "Never saw one without the other, did you? The number of times I had them in here -- ooh, they used to make me laugh. Quite the double act, Sirius Black and James Potter!" 

Harry dropped his tankard with a loud clunk. Ron kicked him. 

"Precisely," said Professor McGonagall. "Black and Potter. Ringleaders of their little gang. Both very bright, of course -- exceptionally bright, in fact -- but I don't think we've ever had such a pair of troublemakers --" 

Amelia hissed air through her teeth. She had read files on her dad and Black's pranks they had pulled during their time at Hogwarts. She didn't know how to tell Harry that his dad knew Black. So she hadn't.

"I dunno," chuckled Hagrid. "Fred and George Weasley could give 'em a run fer their money."

 "You'd have thought Black and Potter were brothers!" chimed in Professor Flitwick. "Inseparable!" 

"Of course they were," said Fudge. "Potter trusted Black beyond all his other friends. Nothing changed when they left school. Black was best man when James married Lily. Then they named him godfather to Harry. Harry has no idea, of course. You can imagine how the idea would torment him." 

"Because Black turned out to be in league with You-Know-Who?" whispered Madam Rosmerta.

 "Worse even than that, rn'dear...." Fudge dropped his voice and proceeded in a sort of low rumble. "Not many people are aware that the Potters knew You-Know-Who was after them. Dumbledore, who was of course working tirelessly against You-Know-Who, had a number of useful spies. One of them tipped him off, and he alerted James and Lily at once. He advised them to go into hiding. Well, of course, You-Know-Who wasn't an