Please don't be harsh in your reviews because this is my
first story. I hope you enjoy it.
'It's good to be back,' sighed Harry as he scanned over the Great Hall. The four long house tables were laden with tureens of porridge, plates of kippers, mountains of toast and dishes of egg and bacon.
Harry and Ron sat at the Gryffindor table next to Hermione who, as usual, had a book propped up in front of her and was reading attentively.
'Post's here in a minute,' said Ron looking at his watch for the third time that morning.
'Are you expecting something?' asked Harry.
'Maybe,' Ron muttered, now looking embarrassed.
At that moment a rushing sound came overhead and about one
hundred owls came rushing in, dropping packages and letters on the chattering
crowd.
Ron's eyes scanned over the enchanted ceiling looking for
any sign of Pidwigeon but the small owl did not appear.
'Stupid owl.' Ron said, looking disappointed and angry.
'What's the matter?' asked Hermione, looking up from Spells for the Advanced for the first time that morning.
'It doesn't matter. Mum is sending me a new wand that's
all.' He looked down at the floor looking ashamed.
'What happened to your old one?' Hermoine asked with a note of disapproval in her voice.
'Oh, it got lost,' he replied, looking quite pleased.
Suddenly above them there came a small fluttering noise and a second later a small, rather exhausted looking owl collapsed on to the table dropping a small bundle and a letter.
'My wand!' exclaimed Ron, examining the wand with inspection, as it seemed to have suffered a rough journey in Pidwigeons claws.
Thankfully there was little to worry about as it was only the brown paper bag that the wand was wrapped in that seemed to have taken damage.
Ron reached out to open the letter that had came with it but stopped when he noticed it was addressed to Harry.
'This is for you Harry, it's probably from Sirius.'
Harry read the letter and waited while Ron and Hermione did the same.
'What do you think he wants to speak to you about?' asked Ron.
'Don't know. I guess I'll find out,' replied Harry.
'We're coming too,' said Hermione.
That night Harry, Ron and Hermione woke up only to realise that they had slept through their owl alarms.
'I don't know how we managed to sleep through that screeching,' whispered Ron violently tugging at his dressing gown.
'We'll use my invisibility cloak to sneak to the west wing. I hope Sirius has waited for us. He did say to be there at two sharp and that it was important.'
They quietly ran down the corridor and stopped only once, to give the new password to the portrait of the Fat Lady-flying pigs.
When they finally arrived at the west wing, all seemed to be strangely quiet.
'Do you think he's forgot? I'm sure he wouldn't just leave,' said Ron.
'Maybe he heard one of the teachers or something. We'll wait for 5 minutes and if he doesn't come then I suppose he'll get in touch with us. I just hope it wasn't that important,' replied Harry frowning.
But after 5 minutes there was no sign of anyone and the tired party decided to leave.
But what was this? Something didn't want them to leave the room. Blocking the exit was an invisible wall.
'Gorandees escripeindum,' shouted Harry pointing his wand at nothing in particular.
A blazing fire appeared.
'What did you do that for?' choked Ron as thick smoke filled the air.
'That wasn't him, don't you know anything? The spell for that fire can only be carried out by a powerful wizard. It's black magic,' Hermione cried in horror.
The green flames now rose higher and shot out burning purple ash.
'Where are you? I can't see you anymore. Stay beside each other,' Harry coughed.
'Lumos.' Their wands lit, barely making out the shadows of each other as the red smoke grew thick and ugly.
'Try something. Anything,' Ron cried helplessly.
As Hermione murmured, trying to remember any spell that may help decrease the fire's strength or get rid of it altogether, there came a noise from the fire. All around the room was filled with voices. Three voices, the voices of Harry's parents. The terrified screams that Harry had heard all summer in his nightmares were back to taunt him. But what was more, there were now new voices added to the scene.
A lot quieter but still loud enough to pick up, the voices were crying. Horrible sobs of pain and hurt. The voices were those of Hermione and Ron's parents.
'Noooo…' shrieked Hermione. 'What is he doing to my mum?' she cried.
As if in respondance to Hermiones question, the fire glowed a brighter purple. The almost blinding light now was taking the form of a figure.
It was Hermiones mother. Lying still and pale, it was clear she was dead.
'No, it can't be true.' Sobbed Hermione crying and choking at the same time.
With a moment of panick, fear and stupidity, she ran into the fire to the picture of her mother and was gone.
The fire immediately disappeared and a small, limp body was lying on the floor. Hermione's body was white and deadly still. Harry felt for a pulse but it was plain that she was dead.
'Go get Dumblemore,' ordered Harry his voice wavering, as he stood frozen beside Hermione.
'Quickly,' he said, his eyes still fixed to the body of his best friend.
When he returned, Ron's face was now a ghostly white and he looked as if he was going to be sick.
'That fire was meant to kill me,' Harry said repeatedly.
'Go to Madame Pomfrey. You're tired and in shock,' replied Dumblemore calmly.