Wish Upon a Star
Disclaimer: Everything that is familiar in this story belongs to J.K. Rowling, sadly, if it had been up to me some of the people would've been still alive. Any other character is from my own mind, feel free to play with them if you want, but please let me know:)
Special thanks to: area808code, The Yoshinator, LeedsDresden
A/N: I am currently looking for a Beta reader, since I know that I make quite some grammar/spelling mistakes. If you know someone who would/could help me out, please send me a PM :)
The following weeks went by rather fast, it was quite easy to settle in the school routine, waking up at half 7, breakfast, lessons from 9 till 5, then dinner and time to do other things like home work or sports. My arm was fully healed after a week, and only the scars were a reminder of what happened.
As expected, the Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons soon became the populairst one's, they were largely practical, but also theoretical, giving us information about Dark Creatures and how we could defend ourselves or others against them. But all the other lessons were nice too, Charms and Transfiguration were both really interesting, and not too bad to follow, Arithmancy was difficult, but as long as you took notes in the lessons it wasn't too bad. Care for Magical Creatures had turned dull, after the first lesson Hagrid had lost his nerves and taught us instead how to take care of Flobberworms, and no one saw the use of feeding them, since they didn't do anything, the only use for them we could think about were ingredients for potions.
And well, Potions was a disaster. Snape had turned angry, the form of Neville's Boggart had travelled trough the school rather quickly, and I swear I had seen some pictures hanging around one or two times. No, Snape was meaner then ever, he flinched at Professor Lupin's name, and he bullied Neville more then ever. So far Neville had run crying out of the lessons at least 4 times.
Before everyone knew it, Halloween was around the corner, and the castle was buzzing with activity. Everyone in Third Year or above was looking forwards to the first Hogsmeade weekend, and the traditional Halloween meal in the evening. Personally I was exited to go to Hogsmeade too and try out the famous Butterbeer for myself, but I had other things to think about too. Halloween night was the moment that Sirius Black would try to break into the Gryffindor Common Room, which would mark the moment that I would start looking for him. I hadn't come up with a concrete plan before Thursday evening, so everything was a bit rushed, but I had good faith in it.
The idea so far was leaving the Halloween meal earlier, pretending that I wasn't feeling really well and the go outside and wait on the ground for Sirius. Because the only entrance into the school grounds was the Whomping Willow, a break-in in Honeydukes would noticed in an instant. No even though hanging around on the school grounds, hoping to come across Sirius Black wasn't the best idea, it was the only one I could think of.
On Halloween morning I joined the other students in the Great Hall for a quick breakfast before waiting in line in the courtyard to leave for Hogsmeade with Ron and Hermione. After promising Harry that we would bring loads of sweets, we passed Filch, who ticked of our names and walked towards Hogsmeade, enjoying the sun that managed to peak trough the clouds.
It seemed like Ron and Hermione had forgotten about their quarrel concerning their pets, Ron had accused Crookshank of trying to kill Scabbers. Once in Hogsmeade we made a quick decision of going to Honeydukes first, Ron had persuaded Hermione.
"'Mione, I swear, Honeydukes is amazing, you have to see it!"
When we stepped into Honeydukes, it was already buzzing with students, it seemed like all of them had the same idea as us, going in to Honeydukes before something else. There were literally hundreds and hundreds of different kind of sweets on display, varying from the well known Cocolate Frogs, Cauldron Cakes and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans to some strange one's like Bat's Blood Soup and Spindle's Lick'O'Rish Spiders. Along with the other students, we spend almost an hour browsing trough the shop, deciding what we would buy. In the end I ended up with several bars of different chocolate flavours (Orange, Coconut, Liquorice, Mint and normal Milk), 2 packages of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and a couple of packages of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum (I was really addicted to chocolate and gum). As we walked out of Honeydukes I went to Gladrags Wizardwear, the summer had been quite warm in London so I hadn't thought of buying enough sweaters for the winter, something I had deeply regretted, as soon as October was around the corner, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and it was cold and wet. Actually, today was the first day in October that it had been dry. There wasn't a big choice in 'Muggle' clothes as they called it, Gladrags mainly sold robes, but I didn't mind, as long as the clothes would keep me warm, I was happy. After trying several sweaters I bought a Dark green one, a Scarlet one , a Navy and an Orange one, along with warm socks, a Golden/Scarlet scarf and a Black hat. After making a quick stop at Ollivander's wand shop for a wand holster, it was really annoying to search for you want in the pockets of a robe, I set out to find Ron and Hermione again. It didn't take long before I noticed some bright orange and unruly brown hair in Zonko's, Ron and Hermione. After joining up with them we made a stop at the local bookshop, Hermione's request but I didn't mind before taking our now heavy bags to the Three Broomsticks for a Butterbeer so we could warm up again.
It was half way the afternoon when we decided to go back to Hogwarts, "Harry must be bored", Hermione had said, and neither Ron nor I could go against that, we had seen the things we wanted, so we drank the last bits of our Butterbeer and headed out again.
"Here", Ron said as he emptied his arms on Harry's lap, we had found him in the Gryffindor Common Room, relaxing on one of the armchairs near the fireplace.
"Thanks", Harry said as he picked up one of the packages to inspect it, Pepper Imps I recognised.
"So, how was your day", I asked as I sat down my bag next to one of the chairs and sat down.
"Not too bad", Harry said, taking the pile of sweets of his lap, "I spent most of the afternoon drinking tea with Professor Lupin he showed me the Grindlow he has for our next Defence lesson when Snape came in with a potion…"
Harry continued to tell us about the steaming goblet that Professor Snape had given to Professor Lupin, and as Harry continued with his story I noticed that Ron's mouth fell open.
"Lupin drank it?", Ron gasped, "Is he mad?"
"I don't think he is Ron", I said, "There must be a good reason he drank it, and Snape would never try to poison Lupin under the nose of Professor Dumbledore."
Ron nodded slowly, not really sure about what I said, when Hermione spoke up,
"We'd better go down, you know, the feast'll be starting in five minutes."
We stood up and hurried towards the portrait hole where I told the others to go on, I had to get some things from my rooms. Watching as Harry, Ron and Hermione left trough the portrait, I turned to the Lion portrait that was guarding the entrance to my rooms. It was designed so to only let me trough, other people who wanted to come had to wait for a reply from me to grand them entrance. After quickly getting my winter cloak, a scarf and a hat, which I shrunk and stuffed into my pocket, I ran back to the Great Hall for the Halloween Feast. When I got into the Great Hall, most students were already there, hurrying over to the Gryffindor table I sat down at one of the few empty spaces, next to Fred and George as I admired the decorations. Hovering about 10 foot above the tables were Hagrid's giant pumpkins, faces carved out and illuminated from the inside by magical light. Flying between the pumpkins were hundreds of bats, I couldn't see if they were real or not, but they looked real enough to me.
The House tables were loaded with any kind of food you can imagine, from some standard dishes like Shepherds' pie and Jacked potato's to cakes that looked like coffins of spiders, oh and the sweets, there were so much sweets on the table! Happily I started loading my plate with food while I waved at Harry, Ron and Hermione who sat a bit further down the table.
About half-way the meal I decided that it was time for me to take my leave. I told Fred and George that I wasn't feeling too well, and that I was going out for some fresh air. They only acknowledge me before they continued their conversation with Lee Jordan, they were planning some future pranks.
Before I left I quickly grabbed 2 sausages and some candy, I didn't know how long I would stay outside. Hurrying out of the Hall, I turned towards the Entrance doors and opened one of the carefully, immediately a cold wind blew in my face. Quickly taking my cloak, scarf and hat from my pocket I turned them back to their normal size and walked out, into the blowing cold, quickly making my way towards the Whomping Willow.
I'd sat down near the Whomping Willow, a bit out of the wind, for quite a long time, at least that's what I thought, when I checked on my watch I was surprised to see that only ten minutes had passed by. I shivered slightly as a particular cold wind blew past me, wishing that I had looked up some sort of warming spell, my cloak was keeping me quite warm, but the longer I stayed outside, the colder I got.
I almost gave up my plan when I couldn't feel my hands or face any more, when suddenly I saw a black dog running away from the castle. Forgetting about the cold hands and feet I stood up and started to walk around slowly, like I was taking an evening stroll and made my way to the Whomping Willow, keeping a safe distance from it. From my peripheral vision I noticed the dog slowing down and looking curiously at me, cocking its head to one side. I turned around so that I was facing the dog now fully, and looked at him for a moment. He looked bad, his black hair was uneven, and looked really dirty, prominent ribs poking trough the skin and black eyes that looked dull.
Slowly I walked towards him, trying not to make any sudden movements that could startle him.
"Hello there", I said softly, "What are you doing here?"
The dog, Sirius I was quite sure that it was him, kept on looking at me, but didn't move as I got closer to him, but his muscles tensioned up.
"I won't harm you", I said, now almost close enough to touch him, while crouching down so that I was on eye level with him, tentatively stretching out my hand.
Sirius growled when I almost touched him, but I didn't stop and slowly placed my hand on his side. Like I had expected, I could feel his muscles trough the think skin, along with his bones, he was really, really thin. As I slowly stroked his back, I felt the muscles relax slightly underneath my hand, and smiled a little bit. It was a first step.
While I stroked his back, the dog looked at me curiously, but didn't do anything. Suddenly I remembered the sausages I had taken from the Great Hall and I reached into the pocket of my cloak where I'd kept them. My sudden movement made Sirius tense up again, but I shushed him quietly, crawling my right fingers between his ears.
"Don't worry, I have something for you", I said as my fingers closed around the sausages. Slowly moving my hand out of the pocket, I noticed that Sirius eyes were fixed on my hand. When I showed him the sausages, his mouth fell open and a pink tongue liked his nose while his tail started moving rapidly.
"I knew that you would like them", I said as I laid the sausages on the ground, "I'm sorry that they're cold, but it looks like you can use them better then me."
As I moved my hand back from the sausages, Sirius' head moved down fast and within seconds the sausages were gone and I found him looking at me expectantly, seeing if I maybe had more hidden in my pockets.
"I'm sorry boy", I said, still scratching his head, "I only have candy left, but I don't think that you would like that."
Sirius looked at me with those puppy eyes, and I laughed at him, "I told you I haven't got more, but you know what, if you come back here tomorrow evening I will get try to get you some more, okay?"
From the rapid movement of his tail I knew that he had understood what I said. Still petting him I sat down in the ground and looked at him.
"You know", I said, "I don't know what you are doing here on your own, don't you have a boss that takes care of you?"
No real reaction came from Sirius.
"Well, I don't think you have a boss, you don't have a name tag either. How should I call you then, I don't want to call you dog, that sounds stupid."
I thought for a moment, a lot of dog names I knew were actually quite stupid one's, after all, who would call there dog Blackie? Actually, I had one name in mind, Orion, even though it was Sirius' middle name, it was also the constellation which contained the dog star, Sirius, if I remembered correctly.
"What do you think about Orion, you like that name?"
Sirius', or Orion's, tail moved rapidly while he let out a soft bark.
"I take you like it", I said ruffling his head.
It was quite for a moment, the only sound coming from the rustling of the wind, then suddenly the Entrance Doors opened with a bang and loud voices were heard.
"He can't be far away!", someone shouted.
I looked up at Orion, and saw him standing tensed up, looking at the direction of the noise.
"Oh, oh", I said, "I have to go Orion, I will see you tomorrow here then."
Orion gave one soft bark before he turned around and ran away in the dark. I only could see his retreating form for a couple of seconds before it was blended in with the darkness. Quickly I stood up and walked towards the Enterance, I hadn't walked that far when I was almost run over by Professor Lupin.
"Yvette", he said loudly, "What are you doing outside?"
"Walking", I said, shrugging my shoulders, "I didn't feel really well during the feast so I decided to go out for some fresh air."
"Well, het inside quickly and go to the Great Hall, everyone will be there shortly."
I looked at him, pretending to be confused, although I had the suspicion that it didn't look that convincing, but Lupin didn't seem to notice it.
"Sirius Black has tried to break into the Gryffindor Common Room, all students will gather in the Great Hall for the night while we look for him."
I let out a small gasp, "How did he get in sir?", I asked.
"That we do not know", Lupin said, "But get inside now before they will lock the doors."
"Yes sir", I nodded and quickly walked back into Hogwarts, sighing as I felt the warmth flood over me. I hadn't realised how cold I really was until I stepped inside.
As I walked into the Great Hall I noticed that the whole of Gryffindor House was there already. I made my way over to the other Third Years as I heard noise coming from the Hall, the Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin students had arrived too.
"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore said once everyone was in the Great Hall.
"I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately", he added and I noticed that Percy looked immensely proud as he puffed out his chest, showing of his Head Boy badge
. "Send word with one of the ghosts."
Professor Dumbledore paused, about to leave the hall, and said, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing…"
One casual wave of his wand and the long tables flew to the edges of the hall and stood themselves against the walls; another wave, and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.
"Sleep well," said Professor Dumbledore, closing the door behind him.
As soon as Professor Dumbledore had left, a noise erupted, every one wanted to know what had happened, and the Gryffindors were only to glad to fill them in on the nights events. 10 minutes later everyone knew what had happened to the Fat Lady, even the Slytherin students, who had heard it from the Ravenclaw or Hufflepuf students since they didn't talk to the Gryffindor students.
Percy tried to get everyone into there sleeping bags, but he wasn't really successful, and I was starting to think that people would never go to sleep, seeing how much candy had been eaten during the feast, every students was just high on sugar.
Slowly people started to drag their sleeping bags towards the sides of the room, sticking together with their friends and looking excited and fearful at the same time. It took a couple of more minutes everyone had found themselves a spot to sleep and people started speculating how exactly Sirius Black had gotten onto the school grounds. I laughed quietly about some of the theories people had, Apparating was said, flying into the ground, disguising himself. One person even suspected him of turning into one of Madame Sprout plants, and being brought into the castle that way.
It became quite in the Great Hall when Percy announced that the lights were going out, and after a couple of seconds all of the candles went out at once, the only light coming from the ghosts and the stars from the ceiling. I laid on my back in the puffy sleeping backs, trying to make myself comfortable as I placed my hands behind my head, looking op at he starry ceiling.
After sleeping in my own, quite room for the last few months, it seemed really noisy in the Great Hall, sleeping with all the other students. Students kept on whispering to each other, but as the night progressed it got more quite, instead of the soft murmurs, the only sounds heard was the breathing of the students, and once an hour the squeaking of the doors when a Professor came in the see how it was going.
I guessed that it was about three in the morning when Professor Dumbledore came in, walking straight over to him, followed by a hushed conversation., I was too far away to hear it, but I knew that is was about the Fat Lady. Then I heard another pair of footsteps approaching, well, actually I heard them only when they walked past me
"Headmaster?" It was Snape. I should've know that, he was the only one that could walk so quietly.
"The whole of the third floor has been searched. He's not there. And Filch has done the dungeons; nothing there either."
"What about the Astronomy tower? Professor Trelawney's room? The Owlery?"
"All searched…"
"Very well, Severus. I didn't really expect Black to linger."
"Have you any theory as to how he got in, Professor?" asked Snape.
Harry raised his head very slightly off his arms to free his other ear.
"Many, Severus, each of them as unlikely as the next."
It was quite for a moment, but then Snape spoke up again, "You remember the conversation we had, Headmaster, just before — ah — the start of term?"
"I do, Severus", Dumbledore said, his voice low.
"It seems — almost impossible — that Black could have entered the school without inside help. I did express my concerns when you appointed —"
"I do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped Black enter it", Dumbledore said, his tone making it clear that the subject was closed.
"I must go down to the Dementors", Dumbledore said, "I said I would inform them when our search was complete."
"Didn't they want to help, sir?" said Percy.
"Oh yes", Dumbledore said coldly, "But I'm afraid no Dementor will cross the threshold of this castle while I am Headmaster."
All three stood quietly there for a moment before one pair of footsteps led away, Dumbledore I suspected, shortly followed by another, more quite pair.
Still thinking about the events that just happened I drifted off into sleep, for now there was nothing more I could do.