Disclaimer: (sigh) if only I owned Harry Potter and co.
A/N: Okay, so maybe its just me, but I have no clue how to change chapter names... Ya I kinda messed up the first time I posted this chapter, so now the title is all weird and I cant change it back! Bahh! (sighs) all well.
Anyway... hope you like it!... um... the chapter that is. Just ignore the title (smiles)
Chapter 7: A What's Going On?
-o0o-
The room was small and dark. Shadows flickered across the walls from the many candles floating in the room. There were no windows: just bare stone walls. It was a basement of some sort.
A cluttered desk sat to one side, two plush chairs sat opposite each other beside a blackened fireplace. The fire was dying out giving the room an even gloomier, depressing atmosphere than most basements possessed.
"What news?" a deep voice commanded, breaking the unnerving silence.
"I met with him." it was a woman's voice, soft and sexy. "You were right of course, he is at Hogwarts. Pity. I thought his travels would have taken him to Durmstang."
"Never doubt me, vampire."
"Hmm," she hummed.
He couldn't see them, just hear them. Then he caught a glimpse of black hair. A girl walked into his line of sight, the first thing he noticed was that she was deathly pale, unnaturally so. If he were to describe her it would be that she had a dark beauty about her.
"…and..." the voice was demanding again. "I am not a patient person."
"I will keep my end of the bargain, I have already sent out word, once we are ready I'll get you into your precious school." She smirked showing of pointed teeth that glinted in the shadows, "But... what you must remember, Lord Voldemort," she hissed the name, "is that we are only doing this to get the boy."
"Ahh yes, this Dayshadow, I am looking forward to seeing what he is truly capable of."
"What of the potion?" she asked urgently.
"It was a success. Any time you wish it, you can draw him out in the open, let the wizarding see him for what he truly is. Turn his friends against him... then maybe he will step to my side."
"No!" she hissed. "The Dayshadow has done nothing but murder my people. We have plans for him."
"We will have the pleasure of draining him dry," insinuated another vampire.
The vampiress looked back and frowned. "Mind your place, Mal. You are here as a courtesy, nothing more. I am in charge of this operation. And I want the Dayshadow… alive!"
aliveHe bolted up, back stiff and panting. His blue eyes flicked around in panic mode before he realised that he was in fact still in Hogwarts. Merlin, he hasn't had a vision of Voldemort in so long he almost forgot what it felt like. Which brought him to his next question. Why? His mind should be protected from any attacks. But that wasn't a forced vision, or a fake one, it was real, that much he knew.
Frowning, Neville rubbed his sore eyes and tried to remember exactly what happened in the vision. There was Voldemort and that woman... Who was she? They were talking about something, no someone. He knew it wasn't him, but who was it? Dayshadow. He didn't recognize the name. Then he remembered they said something about Hogwarts, this Dayshadow was here at Hogwarts? They were making plans... plans that had to do with this Dayshadow. They were planning on attacking him. Hang on, if they were going to attack Dayshadow, and if this mysterious person was here... then they were planning on attacking Hogwarts!
Neville vaulted out of bed, stumbling in his haste. He had to tell Professor Dumbledore.
-o0o-
It was around four thirty, five in the morning by the time Harry slumped back in to Hogwarts. He took his time coming back simply because he had way too much on his mind.
So much for working out his stress. Harry snorted at himself.
Yeah, cause that worked out so well.
All his dorm mates were still sleeping, although, he noticed that Neville was sleeping a little fitfully, having a nightmare.
And that's why I don't sleep that often. Thank you very much.
He silently made his way across the room towards the bathroom. When he got there he shut the door and immediately jumped in the shower. Letting the steaming beads of water relax his tense muscles, he closed his eyes and slowly tried to fill in the missing pieces. But it was useless; his life was like a friggin' jigsaw puzzle. Harry sighed and scrubbed his hair clean. He was back at Hogwarts, he wasn't going to worry about it till later. He would get his answers this weekend when he snuck out again.
Turning the water off and wrapping a fluffy white towel around his waist he cursed. He left his robes out in the dorm.
Still grumbling to himself he wrenched open the door intending to go to his trunk. But he stopped when he saw Neville gasp and sit straight up.
His eyebrows shot up in surprise as he watched Neville scramble out of bed and run out the door.
Well that was weird...
-o0o-
Neville ran full tilt in the direction of Professor Dumbledore's office.
He was panicking and he knew it. Hogwarts, Hogwarts was by far the best thing that ever happened to him, he couldn't just sit by and not say anything. Merlin it might not even be true. But if it was he was going to let it happen, he wouldn't.
He skidded to a halt in front of the Gargoyle, guarding the entrance to the headmaster's office.
"The password," he groaned, he didn't know the password!
"Look, could you just let me in... this is important!" the gargoyle must have sensed the urgency because as soon as Neville said that it sprang aside for him.
He stood, eyebrows disappearing into his hair line, dumbfounded. A split second later he was running up the stairs and pounded on the door.
"Dumbledore?!" he called hoping the headmaster would be awake.
Another five seconds later, he lost that tiny piece of patience he had left and burst through the door. He got two steps into the office before he stopped. It was dead quite. The only source of light was a small candle sitting on the headmaster's desk. Surely Dumbledore would have been here. He was always here. Neville walked up to the desk and it was there that he noticed Fawkes was gone, the beautiful bird wasn't asleep on its perch like it always was.
If Fawkes is gone that must mean that Professor Dumbledore is gone too.
Neville sighed and smacked himself on the forehead. The order was having a meeting! He cursed his stupidity and slumped down on the plush chair in front of the desk.
Hang on... The sun was almost up... Surely the Order wouldn't be in a meeting all night. Unless Dumbledore had already gotten a tip about Hogwarts. Neville nearly ripped his hair out, he hated not knowing what was going on.
"Neville?"
The voice startled Neville so much that he literally fell out of the chair he was sitting in with an undignified grunt.
He was on his feet a nanosecond later. He whipped around and whispered a relieved, "Professor... "
-o0o-
Harry sat at breakfast, toying with his food. He wasn't in the mood to eat. Again.
He looked over and noticed that Ron, Hermione and Neville were seated down at the other end of the table. He really should apologize; he kind of overreacted a bit. Even though a part of his mind was screaming at him that friends were overrated he did like the prospect of having them, and besides they were being genuinely nice to him.
They only want to be friends.
But what if they are really just trying to find out your secret and use it against you.
Harry shook his head and almost laughed out loud. Where the hell did that thought come from? Maybe he was slightly out of his mind.
How do you know you're out of your mind? Maybe you only think you are, so then you're really not, unless of course you really are. And then you'd never know because you're out of your bloody mind.
Quiet you.
He started when he felt something tapping him on the shoulder. He tilted his head back and almost groaned. Professor McGonagall was looking down at him with a stern expression.
"Mr. Potter, the Headmaster wishes to see you." Harry flipped around so he was facing the deputy headmistress. "Now, Mr. Potter," she said sternly. Harry's shoulders slumped for a second before he took a deep breath and straightened himself out.
"Alright," he nodded, not bothering to give his breakfast food another glance. He'd need to ask the elves to supply him with some cold pizza for breakfast tomorrow. All this healthy food was a little… weird.
-o0o-
"I have it on good confidence that you left the castle altogether yesterday afternoon, Mr. Potter." Harry refused to meet the man's eye. Something in him told him that it would be a bad idea to do that. It was the same with Snape. Don't look him in the eye. When Harry had been a first year, he'd been in Potions and started to look the man in the eye only the hairs on his neck stiffened and he knew something was off. An attack of some sort. As soon as he put his head down to start planning a way out of it, the sensation let off. Since then, avoiding eye contact with him had been the name of the game.
Now, it was similar with the Headmaster. Great. Another adversary.
He was sitting in front of the Headmaster in his office. He had never been in his office before and if he knew he wasn't in so much trouble he probably would have snooped around a bit. But be that as it may, his eyes were firmly planted on the floor. Besides, Dumbledore had some sort of freaky ability to know when a person was lying or telling the truth, or so he'd overheard rumor. Probably had to do with looking into his eyes.
He hated to say it but he was regretting his actions.
"I went for a walk," he said in a small voice, staring at his fingernails. It wasn't a complete lie. He had walked. And run. And fought.
"Regardless, you are going to be serving detention on Saturday morning with Mr. Filch," Professor Dumbledore said in a tone of finality as he gathered up all the loose parchments on his desk.
"Saturday?" Harry whispered. Oh for the love of a... why oh why did he decide to leave? He knew ditching school was going to come back and bite him in the ass.
"Is there a problem Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore was peering at him through his half moon spectacles. He seemed honestly curious.
"No sir," Harry ground out, forcing a smile on his face he stood up and headed out of the Headmaster's office. He briefly wondered why the Headmaster hadn't questioned him on his whereabouts.
Well this is great, just great.
-o0o-
"Harry, can I talk to you for a minute?" Sirius shouted over the hustle and bustle of students getting their things together and pilling out of the defence classroom. Sirius decided that he would tell Harry today, like Remus told him last night, he can't keep putting this off. He just wished he knew how Harry was going to react to the news.
Harry just gave a half hearted grunt in response, he was too lost in his mind to really acknowledge the fact that he was just asked to stay after class for the first time. Well there's a first time for everything. Those firsts seem to be happening a lot lately. But nevertheless he stayed where he was while everybody moved down to the Great Hall for lunch.
His mind kept rewinding and replaying the conversation he had with that whatever the hell her name was vampire. It really was just a bother to get a vamp's name right before he dusted 'em. He had a nagging feeling in the back of his head that last night wasn't going to be the last time he would be seeing that particular vampire.
But if what was said is true, it just made things a whole hell of a lot more complicated.
He stayed seated even after everyone cleared out of the room. He vaguely noted that Professor Lupin wasn't in the room anymore either. If he wasn't so busy concentrating on the problem in his head then he might have been a little nervous about being in the same room as Professor Black, alone. Harry blinked as he realised that he was in the room alone with Professor Black. Said Professor was standing at the front of the room. He was staring at the floor chewing on his fingernails.
Why's he so nervous? Harry wondered as he stood and made his way to the front, now a little wary. He visualized a quick escape if it came to it. His eyes darted around to see if anyone was going to pop out with a nasty surprise.
Professor Black looked up when Harry approached, but he didn't look Harry in the eye. He cleared his throat. "Hey... uh Harry... do you mind if I call you Harry?" he asked in a small voice.
Harry just shook his head. "No, s'alright."
"Well I kind of wanted to talk to about something," he stated in that small voice again refusing to look Harry in the eye. "Something important."
By now Harry had no idea what he was supposed to say since he got the feeling this confrontation wasn't exactly about his schoolwork, so he just nodded his head.
"You probably didn't know this but I knew your parents; I was your dad's best mate all through our Hogwarts years," he smiled. His eyes got a faraway look in them, like he was remembering his own Hogwarts days. "I was even best man at their wedding."
At the mention of his parents, Harry's ears perked up a bit. He never knew a whole lot about his parents - just that they were top aurors and how they died. Besides he had read that in a book. He couldn't deny that there was a tiny part of him that craved for that knowledge. He did secretly want to know who his parents were. What were they like? When did they get married? What was their favourite colour? Anything, like personal information that wasn't in any book that he read.
Oh oops... Professor Black was still talking. Harry mentally smacked himself in the head for zoning out like that. Blinking he pulled his concentration back to what Professor Black was saying.
"... and well you see before Lily and James... died... they made me your... uh..." Sirius took a deep breath and let it out. "I'm your godfather, Harry," he finished.
Harry froze.
Wait... what?
He was staring wide eyed at his newest defence professor.
Sirius Black is my freakin' Godfather?! Did I just hear that right?
"Look Harry... I wanted to tell you sooner. I can understand how you must be feeling right now and I just want you to know that I'm not asking you to move in with me or anything. You probably already have a nice family taking care of you, but I would like to be your friend. If that's okay with you?" Sirius finally got the guts to look up at Harry only to find him looking utterly gob smacked. His eyes were wide and his lips were parted. Sirius would have to remember that look for later on, since now wasn't exactly the time to be laughing.
There were a couple minutes of awkward silence where Harry continued to stare at his long lost godfather. Now Sirius was getting decidedly nervous.
This has got to be some kind of joke. I swear even Merlin himself has something against me.
"I... uh... I gotta go..." Harry trailed off, not knowing what else to say. He blinked stupidly before turning and walking out of the room. Leaving a very distraught looking Sirius behind.
When the door shut behind him he couldn't help but cry out "what?" in confusion. He couldn't even go through one day, just one day of peace. Merlin, he already had big enough problems to deal with, why not add one more to the list? What had he ever done to piss off the gods this much?! He had gotten used to being on his own, what if this new professor wanted to know about him? His life... his past? Not to mention the fact that he seemed like good friends with Professor Lupin, who already had his suspicions that something wasn't quite right about Harry.
I knew it; I totally jinxed myself!
He walked away looking at his feet. Next thing I know I'm gonna find out that Professor Snape is my real friggin' father! He thought sarcastically before involuntarily shivering at the image. If he was paying attention he would have noticed that he walked past the golden trio, who were looking at him with worried expressions. Three of them all shared a glance with each other prior to running back the way Harry had come.
-o0o-
"Did you tell him?"
"What did he say?"
Hermione sighed; Neville and Ron weren't the most considerate at times.
Sirius stood and watched as Neville, Ron and Hermione smiled hesitantly over at him. Not twenty minutes ago he had told Harry he was his godfather. Then Remus came in to comfort him as he was silently listening in on their conversation, followed by Ron, Hermione and Neville. Who were, by the way, looking at him expectantly.
"Yes, I told him."
Remus couldn't help but feel sorry for his friend. He still looked dazed and confused about what had happened.
"What happened?" Hermione asked kindly as she caught on to the look Sirius had on his face.
"He walked away," he said in a whisper. He turned his head to look at Hermione with a pained expression. "I don't get it – what did I do? I told him and he said he had to go and he just walked away"
"Can't say I blame the guy." Four eyes turned to look at Ron like he grew another head. "What?" he asked blushed slightly at being the center of all four stares.
"Could you repeat that Ron? Don't think we're hearing you right, mate," Neville asked frowning at his best mate.
"Well it's just that it's not every day you find out that The Sirius Black is your godfather," he shrugged.
There were a couple minutes of silence as everyone thought it over.
"He's got point," Hermione said, looking at Sirius sympathetically. "You do have a pretty big reputation."
Sirius blinked at her then sighed defeated. "You're right."
"Just give it time Padfoot, he'll come around," Moony stated confidently squeezing Padfoot's shoulder for comfort. Sirius looked at Moony and gave a small smile.
"Professor Lupin is right, let him come to you Padfoot," Hermione gave him a warm smile. Good old Hermione, she really was too smart for her own good.
He just had to give it some time.
-o0o-
Well, another one bites the dust... Hope you like it!
...reviews are always nice too...
Peace\//