The Missing People
Harry was relieved when the weekend finally came and he had time to talk to Hermione and Ron. It had been a very hard week. They were getting much more homework than usual. Hermione pointed out because they were 5th year and they would be taking O.W.L.s.
It was nighttime and mostly everyone was just sitting around relaxing because they had been doing homework most of the day. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting near the fire playing a very lax game of chess. It was the seventh time Ron had beaten Harry but he really didn't care at all. He was too busy thinking. Harry found that he would just lose concentration completely sometimes and just think about everything for hours.
"Harry, your turn," said Ron.
"Oh, sorry," he said telling one of the pieces to move without thinking.
"Checkmate," said Ron. "Harry, are you okay? You're not even trying to beat me anymore."
"I guess I've just been doing a lot of thinking. I'm not really paying attention anymore."
"Harry, is this about the message?" Hermione asked. She had been sitting in an armchair, of course, reading a book.
"Well, not just that. I mean yeah, it's part of it but..." he trailed off. He didn't really know if he wanted to share his personal feelings with them.
"What?" Hermione said. "We're your friends, Harry. We're here to listen."
"I've just been reliving last year a lot. I keep thinking about what happened. And in my past when my parents died, and my dreams. There's just so much going on right now. I feel like I need a pensieve."
They all knew what a penseive was. Harry had seen Dumbledore's last year. It's all of your thoughts put into a large container to free your mind. When you've got too much to think about.
"Harry! That's a great idea!" Ron said. "You could put everything into a pensieve like Dumbledore." Hermione gave him a don't-be-so-stupid look.
"He can't do that. It's very advanced magic."
They were all silent after that. Ron beat Harry five more times in chess and they all went to bed. Neither Harry nor Ron said anything when they got upstairs. They just changed, got into bed, and went to sleep.
"So, Harry Potter," said a high-pitched evil sounding voice, "you are not worried by my message? You will pay. I have many servants and all will do their best to deliver you to me. The one who does will be praised beyond all others. Watch you step, Harry Potter," said the voice and his dream was filled with more high-pitched laughter.
Harry awoke the next morning. He remembered the dream. He wondered why he didn't wake up. He looked at his watch and saw that it said 6:15. He decided that he might as well stay up and dressed. He didn't wait for Ron to wake up because that might take hours. He just went downstairs and went out of the common room.
As he walked to the Great Hall to have some breakfast he saw that he wasn't the only one up that early. Pansy Parkinson and some of her Slytherin friends were all talking. He expected them to throw some nasty comment at him but they hadn't even noticed that he was there.
As he neared he could see that Pansy was sobbing. "I got an owl from him just this morning saying 'I won't be at Hogwarts this year. I must fulfill my duties. Love Draco,'" she cried. Harry was shocked. He knew that they had not come into his compartment of the train but he hadn't even noticed that he wasn't there at Care of Magical Creatures.
But of course that was when he had just gotten back from Dumbledore's office and had his mind on other things. He wondered what sort of duties he had to fulfill.....
But as he wandered into the Great Hall he saw Hermione was already eating breakfast and reading her newspaper.
"Well, your up early," she said as he sat down.
"Do you know where Malfoy is?" he asked.
"I was just going to tell you that they have an article about it in the Daily Prophet. They say that many Hogwarts students, particularly from Slytherin, are not going to be attending school this year. It's very secret information," she said showing him the paper.
"I heard Pansy Parkinson outside crying over Malfoy."
"Crabbe and Goyle are gone, too. Harry, I'm worried this has to do with..." she said not being able to finish her sentence.
"
I agree," Harry said. "Well, we can talk about this later when Ron wakes up."
"Okay." They finished eating breakfast in silence and were about to go back to the common room when Ron came running in the Great Hall.
"Another..........message. Gotta.....read it....before......lessons," Ron panted.
"Did you run all the way down here?" Hermione asked pulling out a chair for him to sit down. He nodded. Harry didn't care about how far he ran he just wanted to know what happened.
"What do you mean?" he asked Ron eagerly.
"Another message. Near the Defense Against the Dark Arts room this time," he said.
"You eat. We'll go check it out," Hermione said stuffing a piece of toast in his mouth.
"No way!" he said spitting it out. "If your going I'm going with you."
"Okay, let's just go," Harry said impatiently.
"Fine," said Ron and they all left the Great Hall.
As they walked past some of the Slytherins yelled things like, "Beware, Potter!" and
"You better watch your back, Potter." Harry had learned the hard way how to ignore these types of things. Last year Rita Skeeter had written a lot of untrue things about him and all of the Slytherins made fun of him nonstop.
As they reached they Defense Against the Dark Arts room they could see the message. A crowd of students were gathered around it whispering.
beware! My master is stronger everyday and
his followers have returned. You will not live to
see the end of this year!
"Harry, I just noticed something," Hermione said.
"What?"
"This is written in unicorn's blood!" she said.
"So?" he and Ron said at the same time. Hermione wasn't even paying attention. She was talking to herself like she does when she has an idea.
"If I'm right...." she said. "I'll be back in time for classes I've got to go to the.."
"Library," Harry and Ron finished together for her. She nodded eagerly and ran off.
"If I had a Galleon for every time she disappeared to the....." Ron started but Harry cut him off.
"Let's get to class. We've got Divination and it'll take a while to get there," Harry said.
They climbed to the North Tower and entered the dark smoky room where Lavender, Parvati, and their friend Lune were sitting. Lavender was whispering to Lune while Parvati just sat looking very eager for the lesson to begin. As the class began to show up it started to get even more hot in the smoky room.
"Hello once again," said the familiar misty voice as Professor Trelawney entered out of the shadows. "Today we're going to start dreams. There is always a logical explanation behind the dreams we have," she said.
"What would it mean if you turned into a monkey and ruled the world in your dream?" Ron whispered to Harry who almost burst out laughing. He tried to turn his giggles into a cough but was having a hard time.
".....turn to page 115 in your books," she said not noticing Harry. "Study the different signs please until you think your ready to try out someone's dream. I would like to start by analyzing some of your dreams. How about you first dear," she said to Harry. Somehow he just knew this was coming. Professor Trelawney had been predicting Harry's death for two years now. "Tell me of your dreams."
"Well, er," said Harry. He didn't want to tell her one of his real dreams so he just made one up. "I had a dream once that I was flying on my broomstick once and I crashed into a dragon," Harry said and a lot of the class cracked up. Lavender and Parvati however glared at Harry. When he looked up at Professor Trelawney she had a look of pure horror on her face. Oh great here it comes Harry thought.
"This means that you will die a slow and agonizing death before then end of the Quidditch season!" she said very dramatically while Dean and Seamus sniggered behind her back. "I see that you all think this is funny," she said going back to the front of the room. "Well then, let's have everyone read the whole section on dreams and predict one of your own. Oh, except for you Miss Brown, Miss Patail, and..I don't believe I know your name," she said to Lune.
"I am Lune Delacour. I 'ave just moved 'ere from France with my cousin Fleur," she said rather shyly.
"Oh, how wonderful to have you with us Miss Delacour!" Professor Trelawney said and then walked back to the front of the room. "Class dismissed."
Ron and Harry left as soon as they could.
"Why didn't you tell her about your real dreams?" Ron asked him.
"What? Are you crazy?" Harry said to Ron. "Why would I tell her and the whole class about my dreams of my dead parents?"
"Yeah your right I can see why you didn't," Ron said and they were silent the rest of the way to Potions. When they got there they weren't late but Snape was already talking to the class. They try to enter as quietly as they could but Snape saw them.
"Ten points from Gryffindor," he said and they sat down.
"What took so long?" Hermione whispered as they sat down.
"Professor Trelawney," the said together. "She's predicting Harry's going to die because of his dreams now," said Ron.
"Harry, you didn't tell that old quack about your dreams did you?!" Hermione asked an exasperated look on her face.
"Of course not!" said Harry. "We were doing dreams and she asked me about one of mine. I made one up, and said I ran into a dragon during a Quidditch game. She said I would die before the Quidditch season was over."
Hermione tried to stifle her laugh but wasn't very successful. "Miss Granger," said Snape, "is there something that you would like to share?" Hermione stopped laughing at once and shook her head. "Then I suggest you remain silent."
The rest of potions was horrible. Snape bullied Neville worse than ever, Ron and Harry got more points taken for messing up their potions, and Hermione got more points taken for trying to help Neville and being a 'good for nothing showoff' as Snape called her.
When they went to the common room after dinner Hedwig came in the window with a letter for Harry. He hurriedly opened it thinking that the something good had finally happened to Sirius but he was very very wrong.
Dear Harry,
Things are looking very bad, Harry. I'm at the Ministry doing
everything I can to keep myself out of Azkaban. I keep telling them I can show them that Pettigrew's alive but Fudge won't have anything to do with it. Some of the people want to give me a chance like Ron's dad but most of them think the dementors should just finish me off. I know where Pettigrew is hiding and it's very close to Hogwarts. Voldemort is not with him. He's not the one writing the messages, though. I don't know who is. I just need your help to capture Pettigrew. I'll give you the information later.
Hermione finished the letter slightly after Harry and gasped. Harry's mind was racing. How could he possibly help Sirius? Ron looked very white but said nothing. They decided to talk to Dumbledore right away in the morning.
Ron and Harry said goodnight to Hermione and climbed the boy's staircase to the dormitory.
"D'you think Sirius will be okay?" said Ron nervously. He cared as much about Sirius probably almost as much as Harry did.
"He's pretty careful. He just better not do anything stupid like try to run off," Harry said. Ron nodded and he climbed into bed. As he drifted off to sleep voices filled his head.
"You cannot capture me, Harry Potter."
"Never give in, Harry."
"My servant will always be faithful."
"Get me out of here!!" Harry was very afraid but he didn't wake up, and a good thing he didn't either.
A/N:
~*hermione*~