Chapter 14

Disclaimer: This story is created on the basis of characters and situations found in the Harry potter books/ universe, which we lay no claim to and we are not making any money out of this so there is no point in suing us. This is the product of TWO minds….. Psychicpikachu and SilentShadow.

Dedicated to Lucy and Sophie, as always, and also with much thanks to P.A.R. for her/his mile-long review. You really helped us get back on track. Hopefully we should be getting some direction in the next chapters – we've started in this chapter.

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So here he was with a cold (most likely anyway) and on top of that he was bored out of his skull. What a jolly holiday it was.

Harry decided to organise his wardrobe out of sheer boredom, every 5 minutes getting up to look for Hedwig. He alphabetised his wardrobe according to the name of the garment, alphabetised it backwards and then re – organized it by colour, organised yet again it by how much he hated the garment, and finally alphabetically by the name of the colour.

By now it was time for dinner. He trudged down in a thoroughly bad mood.

Dinner was again excellent and he was slightly consoled by the fact at least he would have one holiday of decent meals, unlike the Dursleys.

Harry was by now feeling extremely bad and slightly dizzy, but his pride wouldn't let him appear ill to Snape and he made a determined effort to appear normal. Snape thankfully made no comment about his change of clothes. He said nothing whatsoever except to tell Harry to watch where he was going when he walked into the door.

Feeling woozy he made his way up the stairs, clasping tightly to the stair rail, and as soon as he got to his room he collapsed into bed, not even bothering to change into pyjamas. All night he tossed and turned, sinking into dozes only to be woken by bouts of coughing and sneezing. He just couldn't get comfortable on the pillow, and he felt far too hot even though he was shivering. Finally he slept lightly only to be woken by a knock on the door and the word of the house-elf that it was time for breakfast.

Feeling too rotten and tired for food Harry flopped back onto the bed and slept. He felt as though his head was being split open down the two halves of his brain with an extremely hot laser, and had a nasty looking bruise on his cheek from walking into the door yesterday at dinner, which was spreading purple along his cheekbone. He tossed and turned but he just couldn't sleep. He was lying there, miserable and thinking that he had had extremely bad luck lately, when he was suddenly startled out of his misery by Hedwig, who flew through the window and landed on his quilt.

Harry pulled the parchment off Hedwig's leg, and, smiling, read Sirius's letter.

Dear Harry,

How are you? I'm glad the Howler got that rotten toad to let you out. If that scum sucking rat does anything else to you, owl me and I'll be more than happy to come and beat him up for you.

I'm staying at Lupin's for now; so don't worry about my safety. Write back, I want to know that everything's alright.

-Sirius

Harry smiled weakly, and put the letter on the table next to his bed. He would write back later when he didn't have this awful headache.

He buried his head in the covers and rolled over, trying to get some sleep, and eventually managed to fall into a doze, when he was awoken by another owl flying through his window. Wondering if he would ever get any sleep, he took the letter off the owl, which he recognised as Hermione's Chandra.

Unrolling the parchment, Harry saw it had several tear marks, and the writing looked hurried.

Dear Harry,

I hope you're alright, and Snape isn't treating you too badly. I'm coming back to England soon, and I hope to see you sometime. Maybe if you can go to the Burrow again, I could come down too.

It may be a surprise to you, but me and Krum aren't going out anymore. He dumped me this morning. I mean, he was very nice about it, and I didn't really feel comfortable with him anyway, but it's still upsetting. I should have seen it coming. I only came to see him because my parents wanted a holiday, and well, if we stayed with Krum they wouldn't have to pay anything.

I'm coming back to England in a few days, which should be less of a strain on Chandra when I write to you and Ron.

Write to me, just so I know you're ok.

-Hermione

Harry read the letter through once more to see that he had understood it right the first time. Krum dumping Hermione was not good. She would be miserable for days, even weeks. Ron would be pleased though, no doubt about that. He hadn't liked Krum much since he had started going out with Hermione. He scribbled a sympathetic note on the back of the parchment with a handy quill, and said that he was still alright (he didn't mention the illness he had caught, not wanting to worry her) and sent Chandra out of the window.

He turned over in bed, and eventually fell into a light sleep. He slept through lunchtime, and was only awoken when Pig landed rather rudely on his bed, carrying his third letter of the day.

Grumbling slightly and rubbing his sore head, he reached out and took the letter, hushing Pig who was squawking excitedly. Couldn't Sirius have given Ron a quieter owl?

Dear Harry,

Have you heard yet? Krum dumped Hermione! She's really upset, I'll kill that hook nosed git for this! Her letter was covered in tear marks. I swear I'll murder that Krum for hurting my Hermione! I'd rather throw myself in a vat of boiling acid than shake his hand.

I'm glad she only went to stay with him because that way she could get a free holiday. I never understood why she liked that rotten toad in the first place. He's so ugly! You-Know-Who would run screaming at the sight of him. He's probably the missing link between ape and man.

I reckon we should beat him up for hurting Hermione. Or learn some really horrible Dark spell and cast it on him. Or pull all his toenails out and make him eat them with sludge. Care to help?

-Ron.

Harry laughed to himself as he re-read Ron's letter. But there was something strange about it. Surely he was a bit too angry? I mean, Hermione had said that she had seen it coming. He was definitely being a bit too over protective. And the 'my Hermione' bit just sounded rather strange. There was something he just didn't get, something important… His mind was too fuzzy with tiredness and headaches to think about it. He put the letter down on his table, rolled over and fell asleep in five minutes.

When he woke up, he suddenly knew, perfect and crystal clear, what had sounded so strange about the letter. He laughed to himself, picked up Ron's letter, and scribbled a very short note on the back.

Do you fancy Hermione?

-Harry.

P.S. I'd love to help you beat up Krum. Lets introduce him to Voldemort. If we're lucky, he'll die of fright, having just enough time to kill him first.

He sent the letter off with Pig, who had fallen asleep on Harry's desk and got one of his feathers dyed blue in the inkpot. Harry shook his head, and then lay down to sleep off this infernal headache. He wasn't sure what the time was but it looked to be about mid-afternoon. He tried to walk round the room but as he staggered upright he was seeing double. Misjudging his balance he walked into the door and hit his bruise on the doorframe painfully again. He flopped on the bed and crawled in. He'd try to get up later. First sleep.

No sooner had his head hit the pillow than he heard Snape's footsteps outside his door. No doubt he was coming to see why he hadn't been downstairs today. Harry pulled the blanket over his head, in case the sight of Snape made him more ill. The door creaked open.

"Sorry, I'm not dead yet." Harry muttered from under the blanket, adding in a quieter voice, "Better luck next time."

Snape left the room without comment, shutting the door behind him. Harry rolled over, and eventually fell asleep again.

He woke up to golden streams of sunlight pouring in over his floor, and realised it was morning. His headache had gone and he felt much better. He smiled sleepily to himself, and sank into a light blissful doze, before being fully awoken by the house elf's squeak of "Breakfast, sir!"

Having not eaten anything the day before, he was starving, and made his way down the stairs. Before he could enter the room, however, he heard voices from inside, and paused to listen.

"Headmaster." It was Snape's voice. Harry frowned. How could Dumbledore be here? And, more importantly, why?

He turned slightly so he could see into the room through the door, which was about an inch open. Dumbledore's head was in the fireplace, probably by the same magic as when he had spoken to Sirius in fourth year, just before the first task with the Hungarian Horntail.

"I'm glad I found you alone." came Dumbledore's voice, sounding tired and careworn, no doubt with all the worries after Voldemort had risen. "How is Harry?"

"Potter is fine." said Snape impatiently. "I presume that is not the only reason you are here?"

"No." replied Dumbledore. "I received some information today from another of our operatives." Harry could have sworn he glanced towards the door where he stood, and he pulled back to be more hidden from inside the room.

"What information, and what do you want me to do?" Snape was brief and to the point.

The next words Dumbledore said echoed around Harry's head again and again like an infernal horde of demons. "The Death Eaters have captured Sirius Black. I believe they mean to use him as a lure for Harry."

Harry slumped against the wall, his heart sinking.

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