Chapter 4 - REVERIE AND REALITY
The immense sun was sizzling against the pine-fresh windows of Grimmuald Palace. The fancy pink-laced curtains were going back and forth from the calm, but moving wind coming from outside. With it, entered a damp, but flower tonic smell into Harry's nose.
It was mid-afternoon, and he and Ron were playing wizard chess. He remembered back in his first year, when he had first witnessed the small figures moving forward and crashing the other pieces, making it appear as a battle.
Harry had told Ron about what Lupin had popped out earlier. Ron had reacted almost the same way that he, unfortunately, had.
"Guardian?? Well...that's out of the blue all right..." Ron had said, quite startled. "I've always liked Lupin, so there's no problem, right?" He had glanced at Harry curiously, pondering what was going inside his friend's head.
"Yeah, I guess." Harry replied, going into a deep trance. Lupin had always been a role model for Harry, ever since he had seen him on the Hogwarts Express before the start of his third year. But, if he had allowed Sirius to tell him everything, things wouldn't be as worse as they were. Harry wouldn't have been an idiot and storm off to the Department of Mysteries if he had been told why he had to practice Occlumency...
"Hermione should be here soon, Harry. She's taking the Knight Bus again, though I don't know why. I think we had a better time flying dad's old car in the sky..."
...He felt like kicking himself for not listening to half the things Hermione had advised him to do or not to do. Harry realized that he and Ron continually took Hermione for granted, copying off of her homework, annoying her all of the time, Ron more than me, he thought. Because of him, she had almost died a few weeks ago and Ron had gotten befuddled...
"...And she says that she's bringing something with her, a game, she told me in her letter. I wonder what it is. She said it'd cheer us up..."
...He would've killed Bellatrix Lestrange if he had gotten the chance to, the rage was bubbling up in him again, and, suddenly, his scar twitched slightly. Harry didn't even bother to react. This had been happening so often that it had become as normal as eating and sleeping. He had been getting dreams of the night that his parents had died, the same strand of shocking green light that he had visualized for years-
"Harry, Harry..." Ron was budging him.
"Huh?" Harry mumbled.
He pointed behind Harry. Harry instantly turned his head to find Hermione, Luna, and Neville standing about a few feet away from him. Luna was gazing outside the window, with deep interest. On her head was a green, scrawny looking hat that was the shape of small Green Welch Dragon. To match her ridiculous hat were deep green robes that went well past her feet. Next to her was Neville, goggling all around the room, obviously fascinated of the house. He looked nervous for some reason, and then turned his eyes to Harry.
"Hey, Harry." He said, in half a smile, and half remorse.
"Err...hi." Harry replied.
"Harry, are you all right?" Asked a voice, coming from the left side of Neville. It was Hermione, or, at least, he thought it was. On top of her worried face, was perfectly combed straight hair, its brown and blonde strands waving back and forth. Green eye shadow and light-rose colored lipstick was on her glimmering face. She was wearing Muggle clothes, a dull-red looking tank top with a short black skirt. Harry thought she looked stunningly pretty.
When Harry noticed that everyone was staring at him while he was staring at Hermione, he said, "I'm fine, but who are you?" Everyone laughed, including himself.
"Don't be silly. My cousin stayed with us for a couple of days, and she got me into this." She waved her hands down to her slim body.
"Well, you look beautiful." He murmured with delight. A small frown had appeared on Ron's face, and the others were trying not to giggle. Hermione's face had turned bright red.
"Hermione, was this the surprise you were going to bring?" Ron asked gleefully. Again, everyone snickered.
"Oh, shut up Ron. We put it in an empty room upstairs." She replied.
One of Luna's eyebrows rose, "An empty room? How big is this house anyway?" Harry noticed something different about her, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
Ron said, "Pretty big. It belonged to Sir-the Black family, but it's the headquarters of the Order of The Phoenix now."
They all sat down on the tan-leather sofa, and Ron and Harry stopped playing chess.
"I couldn't believe that I got invited here." Neville stated. "Gran told me yesterday that I had to go on the Knight Bus and ride to this place."
After a few minutes of chitchat about the thing that Hermione brought (she had said that they should open it after dinner), and Quidditch, Harry knew that he couldn't keep the huge secret inside himself anymore.
"Guys, I have to tell you something..." He started to tell them everything that Dumbledore had informed him in his office right after their little trip. He hesitated when he started to talk about the details of the prophecy, and Neville looked as horrified as if he had just been petrified.
"You mean...it could have been me? But...but...how is that possible? I'm just a stupid nut!" Neville muttered, absolutely shocked at the possibility that he could have been the one that the prophecy had stated. Harry looked at Luna, wondered at how she was taking this. Her eyes were fixed on Harry, sinking in every word he was saying.
"Harry, why didn't you tell this to us earlier?" Ron asked, absolutely mortified.
Before he had the chance to answer, Hermione said, "Ron, you are so dim sometimes. He was terrified at the thought of it. Imagine if you knew that you were the only one in the world who could overcome V-Voldemort." Everyone flinched, no one more than Neville though, whose hands seemed to have locked together.
Hermione continued, "Of course, when Voldemort heard the first part of the prophecy, he set right out to kill him, no matter what might happen. But why did he choose you, Harry? Why not Neville?" Her head looked up high in the ceiling, in deep thought.
"I do." Came a short reply from Luna. Harry knew that it wasn't a thing that Luna was planning to say, and that it had just slipped out. This was the first thing she had said after entering the room. Everybody's heads pivoted to her, startled.
"I'm...adopted." She slowly said. For the first time, Harry was seeing Luna in a sort of frightened and scared way. Usually, she would act unique and weird, but now...
"Yeah...so?" Ron said, amusingly. Hermione gave him a dirty look, and said, "Ok, you're adopted. How do you know that Voldemort chose Harry, not Neville?"
Luna stared at Harry with her gray eyes, and after a moment, "I...I'm adopted. Harry scowled, as well as Ron. There is something seriously wrong with this girl, Harry thought.
Hermione softly put her hand on Luna's, and said, "It's ok, Luna. We won't tell anyone." Hermione fixed her eyes on her, showing deepest sympathy.
A small voice came out of Luna, "My mother was a Death Eater, and...and...then she...mar...married, and...and...turned good...right...and she...she..."
A soft droplet of tears trickled down her gaunt face. "My mother was your mother." She finished, still staring vividly at Harry. Perturbed, Harry stood straight up, not knowing that he had, and glared at Luna. "You're lying."
More tears came out of Luna's eyes, which were trying to hold them back. Neville was looking all around, and trying to avoid looking at Harry. Hermione had moved closer to Luna and was trying to comfort her, which was useless. Luna was now sobbing really hard. Hermione's eyes widened, and never would have expected this.
Ron got up and beckoned Harry to sit down, "Calm down, Harry. Sit."
"No, not until she says it's a lie. My mother was NOT A DEATH EATER!" He bellowed, completely ignoring the second thing that Luna had told them. The next second, his scar hurt, more than it had in days, and, for a second, he felt like taking his wand out of his pocket and pointing it straight at Luna. But, he realized that he didn't have his wand. It was still in his bag.
Hermione calmly said, "Sit down, Harry, and let Luna explain." Harry took a deep breath, and sat down back on his chair. What was Luna talking about? He thought.
Luna looked up, her face full of tears, and uttered, "I have to go to the bathroom."
Harry got up, too, but to go upstairs. "Harry!" Hermione scowled, but Harry avoided her. He paced himself upstairs, having to go through the kitchen, where Mrs.Weasley and Lupin were talking. Both of them stopped talking and looked at Harry. Harry had to stop walking, more like running, or he would end up having to answer loads of questions. He tried not to appear so furious, and grabbed a Chocolate Frog lying on the table for an excuse.
"Harry, what's wrong? Was that you yelling?" Lupin asked, with full concern. He was examining Harry, as Mrs.Weasley said, "You all right, Harry, dear?"
Harry gulped, "Yeah...I'm fine. Just tired. I'm going to go to sleep upstairs."
Mrs.Weasley glimpsed at him, "Okay. Just- " Before she got a chance to finish that sentence, Harry had marched up the stairs. He passed the same small heads of the house elves he had at Christmas, and went into his bedroom. He had meant to do what he had said to Mrs.Weasley and Lupin.
For a moment there, he had denied what Luna had said. But, in the pit of his stomach, he knew it was true. Why was would Luna be crying? How could his mother have been a Death Eater? It was impossible, Harry thought. Another absurd thing was that his mother had had another child...
Harry's eyes got heavy, and before he knew it, they had closed.
Suddenly, a rumbling noise got Harry's attention as he opened his eyes. He stood up, walking around the room, inspecting it.
The noise had been inside the walls. Harry knew it.
After finding nothing, he went back to lie on the bed. As soon as he did this, something popped out of the wall, and a purple shot of light hit his forehead, and he fainted.
Harry's emerald green eyes opened. He was sitting down on the bare wooden floor. In front of him was a huge granite fireplace, alive with its red-orange flames. On top of it was a portrait of Kreacher, the house-elf, smirking and glaring despicably at Harry. Where am I? He thought. The room, or whatever this place was, was dark and gloomy, with only one torch flaming next to the portrait of Kreacher. The walls were made of brick, and uneven cement was sticking out of all the places. The room smelled like coal and rotten socks, making Harry's nose twitch. But what was twitching more than his nose was his scar. It was on fire, literally.
Harry stared around his surroundings, murmuring, "What the...?"
Then, in all of a sudden, something cool touched his back that made Harry recoil. Looking at it, he realized it was a wand, but hard to realize since it was so dark. Furthermore, Harry's eyes rose up. Right in front of him, was the hollow face of Bellatrix Lestrange gawking at him.
The immense sun was sizzling against the pine-fresh windows of Grimmuald Palace. The fancy pink-laced curtains were going back and forth from the calm, but moving wind coming from outside. With it, entered a damp, but flower tonic smell into Harry's nose.
It was mid-afternoon, and he and Ron were playing wizard chess. He remembered back in his first year, when he had first witnessed the small figures moving forward and crashing the other pieces, making it appear as a battle.
Harry had told Ron about what Lupin had popped out earlier. Ron had reacted almost the same way that he, unfortunately, had.
"Guardian?? Well...that's out of the blue all right..." Ron had said, quite startled. "I've always liked Lupin, so there's no problem, right?" He had glanced at Harry curiously, pondering what was going inside his friend's head.
"Yeah, I guess." Harry replied, going into a deep trance. Lupin had always been a role model for Harry, ever since he had seen him on the Hogwarts Express before the start of his third year. But, if he had allowed Sirius to tell him everything, things wouldn't be as worse as they were. Harry wouldn't have been an idiot and storm off to the Department of Mysteries if he had been told why he had to practice Occlumency...
"Hermione should be here soon, Harry. She's taking the Knight Bus again, though I don't know why. I think we had a better time flying dad's old car in the sky..."
...He felt like kicking himself for not listening to half the things Hermione had advised him to do or not to do. Harry realized that he and Ron continually took Hermione for granted, copying off of her homework, annoying her all of the time, Ron more than me, he thought. Because of him, she had almost died a few weeks ago and Ron had gotten befuddled...
"...And she says that she's bringing something with her, a game, she told me in her letter. I wonder what it is. She said it'd cheer us up..."
...He would've killed Bellatrix Lestrange if he had gotten the chance to, the rage was bubbling up in him again, and, suddenly, his scar twitched slightly. Harry didn't even bother to react. This had been happening so often that it had become as normal as eating and sleeping. He had been getting dreams of the night that his parents had died, the same strand of shocking green light that he had visualized for years-
"Harry, Harry..." Ron was budging him.
"Huh?" Harry mumbled.
He pointed behind Harry. Harry instantly turned his head to find Hermione, Luna, and Neville standing about a few feet away from him. Luna was gazing outside the window, with deep interest. On her head was a green, scrawny looking hat that was the shape of small Green Welch Dragon. To match her ridiculous hat were deep green robes that went well past her feet. Next to her was Neville, goggling all around the room, obviously fascinated of the house. He looked nervous for some reason, and then turned his eyes to Harry.
"Hey, Harry." He said, in half a smile, and half remorse.
"Err...hi." Harry replied.
"Harry, are you all right?" Asked a voice, coming from the left side of Neville. It was Hermione, or, at least, he thought it was. On top of her worried face, was perfectly combed straight hair, its brown and blonde strands waving back and forth. Green eye shadow and light-rose colored lipstick was on her glimmering face. She was wearing Muggle clothes, a dull-red looking tank top with a short black skirt. Harry thought she looked stunningly pretty.
When Harry noticed that everyone was staring at him while he was staring at Hermione, he said, "I'm fine, but who are you?" Everyone laughed, including himself.
"Don't be silly. My cousin stayed with us for a couple of days, and she got me into this." She waved her hands down to her slim body.
"Well, you look beautiful." He murmured with delight. A small frown had appeared on Ron's face, and the others were trying not to giggle. Hermione's face had turned bright red.
"Hermione, was this the surprise you were going to bring?" Ron asked gleefully. Again, everyone snickered.
"Oh, shut up Ron. We put it in an empty room upstairs." She replied.
One of Luna's eyebrows rose, "An empty room? How big is this house anyway?" Harry noticed something different about her, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
Ron said, "Pretty big. It belonged to Sir-the Black family, but it's the headquarters of the Order of The Phoenix now."
They all sat down on the tan-leather sofa, and Ron and Harry stopped playing chess.
"I couldn't believe that I got invited here." Neville stated. "Gran told me yesterday that I had to go on the Knight Bus and ride to this place."
After a few minutes of chitchat about the thing that Hermione brought (she had said that they should open it after dinner), and Quidditch, Harry knew that he couldn't keep the huge secret inside himself anymore.
"Guys, I have to tell you something..." He started to tell them everything that Dumbledore had informed him in his office right after their little trip. He hesitated when he started to talk about the details of the prophecy, and Neville looked as horrified as if he had just been petrified.
"You mean...it could have been me? But...but...how is that possible? I'm just a stupid nut!" Neville muttered, absolutely shocked at the possibility that he could have been the one that the prophecy had stated. Harry looked at Luna, wondered at how she was taking this. Her eyes were fixed on Harry, sinking in every word he was saying.
"Harry, why didn't you tell this to us earlier?" Ron asked, absolutely mortified.
Before he had the chance to answer, Hermione said, "Ron, you are so dim sometimes. He was terrified at the thought of it. Imagine if you knew that you were the only one in the world who could overcome V-Voldemort." Everyone flinched, no one more than Neville though, whose hands seemed to have locked together.
Hermione continued, "Of course, when Voldemort heard the first part of the prophecy, he set right out to kill him, no matter what might happen. But why did he choose you, Harry? Why not Neville?" Her head looked up high in the ceiling, in deep thought.
"I do." Came a short reply from Luna. Harry knew that it wasn't a thing that Luna was planning to say, and that it had just slipped out. This was the first thing she had said after entering the room. Everybody's heads pivoted to her, startled.
"I'm...adopted." She slowly said. For the first time, Harry was seeing Luna in a sort of frightened and scared way. Usually, she would act unique and weird, but now...
"Yeah...so?" Ron said, amusingly. Hermione gave him a dirty look, and said, "Ok, you're adopted. How do you know that Voldemort chose Harry, not Neville?"
Luna stared at Harry with her gray eyes, and after a moment, "I...I'm adopted. Harry scowled, as well as Ron. There is something seriously wrong with this girl, Harry thought.
Hermione softly put her hand on Luna's, and said, "It's ok, Luna. We won't tell anyone." Hermione fixed her eyes on her, showing deepest sympathy.
A small voice came out of Luna, "My mother was a Death Eater, and...and...then she...mar...married, and...and...turned good...right...and she...she..."
A soft droplet of tears trickled down her gaunt face. "My mother was your mother." She finished, still staring vividly at Harry. Perturbed, Harry stood straight up, not knowing that he had, and glared at Luna. "You're lying."
More tears came out of Luna's eyes, which were trying to hold them back. Neville was looking all around, and trying to avoid looking at Harry. Hermione had moved closer to Luna and was trying to comfort her, which was useless. Luna was now sobbing really hard. Hermione's eyes widened, and never would have expected this.
Ron got up and beckoned Harry to sit down, "Calm down, Harry. Sit."
"No, not until she says it's a lie. My mother was NOT A DEATH EATER!" He bellowed, completely ignoring the second thing that Luna had told them. The next second, his scar hurt, more than it had in days, and, for a second, he felt like taking his wand out of his pocket and pointing it straight at Luna. But, he realized that he didn't have his wand. It was still in his bag.
Hermione calmly said, "Sit down, Harry, and let Luna explain." Harry took a deep breath, and sat down back on his chair. What was Luna talking about? He thought.
Luna looked up, her face full of tears, and uttered, "I have to go to the bathroom."
Harry got up, too, but to go upstairs. "Harry!" Hermione scowled, but Harry avoided her. He paced himself upstairs, having to go through the kitchen, where Mrs.Weasley and Lupin were talking. Both of them stopped talking and looked at Harry. Harry had to stop walking, more like running, or he would end up having to answer loads of questions. He tried not to appear so furious, and grabbed a Chocolate Frog lying on the table for an excuse.
"Harry, what's wrong? Was that you yelling?" Lupin asked, with full concern. He was examining Harry, as Mrs.Weasley said, "You all right, Harry, dear?"
Harry gulped, "Yeah...I'm fine. Just tired. I'm going to go to sleep upstairs."
Mrs.Weasley glimpsed at him, "Okay. Just- " Before she got a chance to finish that sentence, Harry had marched up the stairs. He passed the same small heads of the house elves he had at Christmas, and went into his bedroom. He had meant to do what he had said to Mrs.Weasley and Lupin.
For a moment there, he had denied what Luna had said. But, in the pit of his stomach, he knew it was true. Why was would Luna be crying? How could his mother have been a Death Eater? It was impossible, Harry thought. Another absurd thing was that his mother had had another child...
Harry's eyes got heavy, and before he knew it, they had closed.
Suddenly, a rumbling noise got Harry's attention as he opened his eyes. He stood up, walking around the room, inspecting it.
The noise had been inside the walls. Harry knew it.
After finding nothing, he went back to lie on the bed. As soon as he did this, something popped out of the wall, and a purple shot of light hit his forehead, and he fainted.
Harry's emerald green eyes opened. He was sitting down on the bare wooden floor. In front of him was a huge granite fireplace, alive with its red-orange flames. On top of it was a portrait of Kreacher, the house-elf, smirking and glaring despicably at Harry. Where am I? He thought. The room, or whatever this place was, was dark and gloomy, with only one torch flaming next to the portrait of Kreacher. The walls were made of brick, and uneven cement was sticking out of all the places. The room smelled like coal and rotten socks, making Harry's nose twitch. But what was twitching more than his nose was his scar. It was on fire, literally.
Harry stared around his surroundings, murmuring, "What the...?"
Then, in all of a sudden, something cool touched his back that made Harry recoil. Looking at it, he realized it was a wand, but hard to realize since it was so dark. Furthermore, Harry's eyes rose up. Right in front of him, was the hollow face of Bellatrix Lestrange gawking at him.