Chapter 6:

Chapter 7: The News
Harry woke the next day to hear voices from his fellow Gryffindors around him. "Oh" He said groggily "Wats the ma'er" Ron hit him with a pillow. "Wake up!" He said almost tensely "Cornelius Fudge has been murdered!" Ron shoved a copy of the 'Daily Prophet' in front of Harry. Harry pulled on his glasses and read the headline. MINISTER MURDERED BY THE DARK LORD He gasped.
"That's not it," Said Ron quickly "Read on." Harry looked down at the paper and Read: The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge was murdered by the Dark Lord just last night. He or should we say 'it' took on 50 body guards to meet Fudge Harry gasped again, and he didn't read on. It seemed that everyone knew about this incident by the time Harry reached the Great Hall for breakfast, some people were looking worried, other people were talking excitedly. Harry took his usual seat and tried to ignore the loudness of the Hall that day. The Lesson Harry and the group were waiting for came first in the line of lessons, Potions was the only subject taught in a dungeon and the old teacher, Professor Snape had been terrible, but Sirius, hopefully, would be a lot better. "Welcome" Said Sirius, as the last person had been seated "To your fifth year of potions. We will start by looking back on what you have done in the past." "Why?" Asked Draco Malfoy instantly.
"Don't be cheeky, Malfoy" said Sirius "5 points from Slytherin" All the Gryffindors started smiling at each other. After 10 minutes of explaining what had happened in the past, the class finally got to work at making a Learning Potion, a potion that made the drinker intelligent for 10 minutes. "Remember to put the Bats ears in first" Sirius was saying. He winked at Harry as he walked past. Then he looked over to Malfoys cauldron "Malfoy, what are you doing?" Draco seemed to be relaxing, without doing a thing. "20 Points from Slytherin!" Sirius bellowed "And you should be glad it isn't more" It was such a good lesson that Harry almost forgot that they had to ask for Sirius' advice on the markings that they had seen the night before- he had definitely forgotten about the Minister of Magic being murdered. The group waited until the dungeon was cleared out before going to Sirius.
"Um, Sirius?" Asked Harry. Sirius looked up from some homework he was marking. "
Yes, Harry?" He replied curiously. Harry stepped forward and began to tell Sirius about what had happened last night. "We were just coming back from charms and Ron spotted these funny markings near the staircase, so we thought you might have an idea of what they mean. Sirius looked quite excited
"Well I'd have to see it first Show me!" Harry, Ron- without Hermoine (she'd gone on some prefect business) made their way back down to the charms corridor and showed the strange markings to Sirius. They were still there shining bright.

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"Hmmmm" Said Sirius "I've never seen those type of markings before, I'll ask Remus, maybe he knows" Harry and Ron nodded "Anyway" Said Sirius "You'd better be off to your next lesson!" All of the lessons went quickly- except history of magic, which was very boring. The three made their way up Gryffindor tower to get to their common room. "Do you think we should go to the library to seek out what those markings mean?" Asked Hermoine. "Maybe, bu-" He stopped abruptly as the three walked inside the Gryffindor common room. Harry usually thought this was a rather jolly place, but it wasn't now. All the people were in deadly silence, some people were even crying. Harry, Ron and Hermoine didn't speak another word as they made their way over to Fred and George, although they were normally bright and cheerful what ever, they definitely weren't now. "What happened?" Ron whispered and George looked up. "Professor Dumbledore was- was murdered by yo-you know who" The three gasped and collapsed into the chairs next to Fred and George's, and then went silent like the rest of the students. Harry started to remember all the things Dumbledore had done for him- Harry had probably been the closest to Dumbledore, but for some reason he didn't feel sad, he still felt that Dumbledore was still out there somewhere. The next morning all lessons were cancelled, but Harry, Ron and Hermoine went down to the Library to look up the Markings, and to try and take their mind off Dumbledore's death. But it was no use. They just couldn't concentrate.


Chapter 8: The Haunting Of The Portrait

Harry finally got to sleep. When he did he dreamt of Dumbledore- and then a dungeon deep in the depths of somewhere, he didn't know what this meant.
The meeting with Remus and Sirius had been cancelled last night and Harry had a very bad headache, that magic couldn't cure.
Harry and a few more people were starting to cope with Dumbledore's death, although it still was shocking, and if Voldemort could murder Dumbledore, surely he could murder anyone? Lessons were cancelled again and people just sat around doing nothing again- the occasional game of Wizards Chess were played, but they lacked enthusiasm, Harry couldn't stand all the sad and sorrowful faces any longer so he went to see Sirius. Sirius had told him where his office and bedroom was, but Harry had never been there. He went up the portrait of a pure white Hippogriff and said "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs" The Hippogriff flew out of site and the door opened, straight away. Harry walked in.
"Hullo?" He asked as he entered.
"Harry?" Came Sirius' voice from somewhere
"Yeah, its me - where are you?" Asked Harry curiously
"Down here!" Sirius popped out of a hatch that had just sprang open from the ground. "I thought you would be in your common room" Said Sirius- from Harry eyes he looked haggard as though he didn't get any sleep as well.
"Let me get you some butter beer" Said Sirius, trying to be merry, it wasn't working very well.
"Sirius, don't bother trying to be jolly," Said Harry.
Sirius did stop looking jolly- and Harry saw how Sirius looked for the first time when he was sad and totally tired out.
"Hmmm" Said Sirius
"What were you doing?" Asked Harry curiously.
"Oh, come down if you want" Said Sirius.
"OK" Said Harry He climbed down a ladder to a weird dungeon type place. It was HUGE. Harry gasped and jumped off the ladder as soon as he got to a suitable spot.
"It's good, isn't it?" Asked Sirius kind of nervously.
"Why look so nervous?" Asked Harry, "I love it!"
Sirius' face brightened, "Because, well this, Harry, can be our Hideout, come here whenever you want!"
"Thanks" Said Harry "Now tell me what you were doing here"
"Oh, said Sirius flatly "Well, I was looking at these" He took Harry over to some chairs, past a few beds to a Album of something he opened it and Harry gasped.
"Whoa" Harry said with enthusiasm.
"Yeah, said Sirius, I've had that since I was 18"
There was an album covered with pictures of a young James Potter (Harry's dad) Remus, Lupin and there were slots where Harry thought there had been pictures of Wormtail, but it was he that led to the murder of Harry's Mum and Dad, it was he that was working for Voldemort now. Harry shuddered. He also saw some pictures of Lily Potter, his Mum and even a few of Albus Dumbledore.
"Cool" Said Harry, sipping some Butter Beer that Sirius handed him. After a few hours with Sirius, they both seemed to forget about Dumbledore's death. Harry waved goodbye to Sirius as he left the room. It was then that he saw something. A wisp of very fine smoke was drifting around the corridor. As soon as Harry looked at it, though, it flew into a picture of a Sorceress, who screamed and fainted. Harry looked around again, but the Ghost seemed to be hidden in the Picture 'This is great' Said Harry in his thoughts, 'normally I'd go to Dumbledore about this'
He rushed up to Gryffindor common room and said 'Bonanza' and the fat lady swung forward to open the door, she seemed to be very sad as well.
As Harry entered the common room the faces he saw before were the exact same shapes as they were before.
"Oh, come" He said "You could at least try and be cheerful" Only coughs and sobs came as replies.
Lessons were back on for those that felt like it the next day. Harry and Ron made their way down to Potions; Hermoine didn't want to come. Surprisingly, Neville came with them along with Dean Thomas. As they entered the Potions dungeon they noticed NONE of the Slytherins turned up, Harry and Ron knew this wasn't because they were sad, it was because they would have the day off when ever the chance came up.
"Well, a very big audience" Said Sirius, as the four sat down. "I don't think there's any point in actually doing a proper Potions lesson, so read through page twenty in your books and then you can talk among yourselves, but Harry and Ron I would like to see you after you've read the page"
Reading through the page took only 30 seconds, even for Neville it was easy. Harry and Ron made their way up to Sirius' desk.
"Yes, sir?" Said Harry, smiling.
Sirius laughed quietly, then said even more quietly "Meet us tonight at nine, hopefully nothing else will stand in our way this time"
Harry and Ron sat back down and had another chat about what they would turn into.
"Oh, I dunno," said Ron, "you don't get to pick what you turn into, anyway"

Chapter 9: Þ±ð} ì

Halloween lacked its usual enthusiasm this year, and Harry knew nothing would change through out the whole year. The group made their way to Sirius' every week at Fridays and learned, slowly to become amanigus. It was the day, finally, that they could hopefully turn into their animal. Harry went first.
"Right, Harry" Said Sirius sharply "When I pour this potion on you, I want you to think of an animal, any animal at all"
"Will it turn me into that animal?" Asked Harry.
"No" Said Sirius, "But if it goes wrong, me and Remus can fix you, ok?"
"Ok" Said Harry
Sirius began to drip a dark purple potion on to Harry's skin, Harry thought of a chocolate coloured Labrador- and fixed on it with all his might. The potion seemed to be burning his skin, but he didn't say anything. Then the next thing he saw was white, all white, then his vision cleared.
He saw Hermoine and Ron give a whoop and Sirius And Remus beaming at each other. And then he looked down, and gasped, well it didn't come out in a gasp, more of a quiet screech. He was a hawk.
"Now, Harry" said Sirius "Focus on a human being" Harry focused on a human body in his thoughts, and landed on the floor, he was back in his usual form.
Hermoine, in the end turned into a Ginger cat, not unlike her cat, and Ron, after much hard work changed into a Golden Retriever. Everyone was excited.
"They're some hard animals to change into!" Said Remus "Well done!"
"Now" Said Sirius "If you want to change into your animal, think it into your thoughts, try it now"
Harry thought about his Hawk, and suddenly he rose into the air, he had done it, looking down he saw that Ron and Hermoine had done it too.
"Then," said Sirius "Focus on your Human Form" Harry did just that, and he fell to the floor.
"I think you lot have cracked it" Sirius said happily "Now, the next full moon's next Thursday, so we'll go then. But let's go for a training lesson on Wednesday to practice"
Harry and the group made their way back up the corridor, but then stopped. The sign they saw before was still there. But it was glowing a funny looking red and kept shivering. Harry, Ron and Hermoine made their way back to Sirius' place and told Remus and Sirius who rushed out to have a look.
"Wow" Said Remus.
"Hmmm, I wonder what it could be?" Said Sirius "It must mean something"
"Just when we need Dumbledore!" Said Ron quickly looking at the Symbol- Harry thought it was all to weird. For a while everyone was silent just looking at the Symbol.

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"Well," Said Harry to brake the silence "We better be off, its 11 o'clock"
"Yeah, you better" Replied Sirius, "I'll see you next Potions lesson, ok?"
"Yeah," Said Ron
"See You"
"Bye"
As Harry, Ron and Hermoine trooped back up to the Gryffindor Common Room, they couldn't help feeling weird, They'd learned how to be Animagus and found the charm on the wall had grown even bigger, what a strange night.
Harry got to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. It might have been because he was excited the night before, but he had a very weird dream.
His vision was of a Temple, with solid stone walls; he couldn't get in through the door. The same markings as could be seen in the charms corridor were on the door. Harry said something- but he couldn't hear himself. The door sprang open and revealed a light- blinding white. Harry stepped into the light and everything was white. Then all he could see was his pillow. What a weird dream. It kept him awake the rest of the night, he had heard Sirius talk of 'Prophetic Dreams' But surely Harry was too young to have these dreams?
The next morning, Harry forgot about the dream and had to sit through a terrible History of Magic lesson- he hated these lessons as the first lesson of the day. They always made you want to go straight back to bed. The group were excited about themselves turning to Animagus and whispered excitedly all through History of Magic. Unfortunately the next lesson was Transfiguration, so they couldn't speak through that lesson at all, all they could focus on was turning a table into a pig.
But all through Charms (they stopped to have a look at the markings again after) and Lunch, they Talked about Animagi, Animagi, and did I forget? Animagi. Their first run would be Wednesday, where they were doing a 'Practice Run' With Sirius.
Harry was looking forward to flying around the Grounds as a Hawk, but he was also looking forward to the Quidditch Season, which would start soon also, but the Gryffindor team wasn't organized. No captain of the team had been sorted out yet- nor any tactics.