Harry stared up at the ceiling. It was hard to think that it had been four days since he last saw his parents--bursting into flames. The memories were as sharp as yesterday...
Hermione and Ron, along with almost every other student, turned and stared at Harry. Hermione's eyes filled with tears, yet she struggled to hold them back. "Harry..." she said quietly.
He didn't stick around for her sympathy. In an instant, he turned around and walked in the direction of Gryffindor Tower, uncomfortably aware that every pair of eyes were on him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ron and Hermione exchange glances and then follow him. They didn't speak until they were back in the common room, and Harry collapsed in a chair. "Why?" he asked quietly.
"Why what, Harry?" Ron asked, freckles standing out on his pale skin.
"Why me?" he said softly. "Why am I the one who had to have their parents killed? Why am I the one Voldemort is after? Why am I the one he wants dead?" An eerie silence followed, and Hermione and Ron didn't answer. Frustrated, Harry stood up and made his was up to the dormitory and closed the hangings around his bed. No one bothered him that night.
But that was the past. Now Harry was listening to a storm raging outside, ignoring Ron and the others getting up and ready for classes.
"Harry! Come on, it's time for breakfast!" Ron called. He ripped open the curtains and rubbed his stomach for emphasis. "I'm starving." Reluctantly, Harry climbed out of bed and put on his robes. It had been another sleepless night, and he was sluggish and tired.
Still yawning, they met up with Hermione in the common room and went down to breakfast. Harry only picked around his plate, he wasn't very hungry. He saw Hermione and Ron shoot each other another worried glance, as they had been for the past week, and he couldn't help but feel annoyed.
"Look, you guys can quit giving each other those what-can-we-do looks already--" he started impatiently, but was interrupted by the owls flying in with letters in their talons. Hedwig was easy to spot among them, and he smiled when she landed next to him and held out her leg. He had written Sirius again, asking how everything was going, and was happy to have an answer. He carefully untied it from her leg and read it silently,
H,
I'm just fine, don't worry about me. I want to know how you're doing.
D told me about sleeping in the Wing, are they really that bad? Go to D,
ask for some sleeping draught or something. Right now, I won't take no
for an answer. Your safety and health are my number one priorities.
Meanwhile, Re and I are still making plans. Can you be in front
of the Gryffindor fire again at midnight on November 15? We need to talk.
Bring R and H, too.
S
Harry's smile grew bigger. He would get to see Sirius in about a week! He whispered the news to Hermione and Ron. Ron looked excited to see Sirius, like Harry, but Hermione looked worried. "Snuffles wouldn't just come to chat, would he? There must be something important he has to tell us!" she said anxiously. Her words put a damper on their moods.
"Thanks for bringing it up," Ron said grumpily.
"Honestly, Ron, I thought you would have thought about it!" Hermione snapped.
Ron turned red. "Well, excuse me, Miss Know It All."
"I'm not a Know It All! I'm just smart enough to realize that in these times there's almost no good news!" Hermione said darkly.
Harry groaned, another argument had surfaced between Ron and Hermione. They had been good about not arguing in front of him lately, but he should have known that it wouldn't last. Sighing, he pushed his goblet towards Hedwig, who drank gratefully and flew off to the Owlery.
"Guys!" he said loudly, causing almost half the table to look at him. He lowered his voice. "Guys, look, it's time for History of Magic. We should get going." Ron shoved a piece of bacon in his mouth and they set off.
***
Later that day as they were heading towards Care of Magical Creatures, Harry's mind felt like a sponge. In Potions, Snape had given a suprise pop quiz, and when he came to Harry, he eyed his potion and marked what suspiciously looked like a zero.
Transfiguration, which they had just come from, was by far the hardest class of the day, in Harry's opinion. McGonagall had talked about human transfiguration through complex spells and incantations. Harry almost feel asleep again, and Hermione nudged him hard in the ribs.
"These are some of the things your dad and Sirius had to learn to become Animagi!" she whispered when McGonagall's back was turned. Harry gave a sigh and started to pay attention again, but it was too late. McGonagall was already instructing them to perform the first set of spells, and it went downwards from there. He wound up having ten points taken away from Gryffindor and a stern lecture from McGonagall.
"Harry!" Ron said, snapping him from his thoughts of the day. "Come on, let's go see what new insults the Slytherins have thought for us--we have it with them again. Maybe I'll get to throw a punch at Malfoy, eh?"
Harry smiled slightly and greeted Professor Vale, who was beaming at them all.
"Got some interesting creatures for you today," he said cheerfully. Hermione gave a start, in Hagrid's dictionary, the word 'interesting' meant 'dangerous', and they all assumed Hagrid told him what "things" to present. Meanwhile, Vale pointed to a section of the large yard which was fenced in. "Go on up and see what you think!"
Cautiously, they made their way forward. Harry took a deep breath and looked over the fence--and found himself looking at cats.
He did a double take, and then realized that they weren't cats. They had the same body structure as cats, and they were quite furry, but no cat had that long of a tail--it must have been two feet (and all of them were currently up in the air, swishing around). But there was one major attribute that set them apart from any other animal, even magical ones: there was a large stone set in the center of their foreheads.
The creatures suddenly started making peculiar noises, not unlike a bird's calls. Only these were much louder. Everyone covered their ears with their hands and shouted, "Shut them up!"
Vale rushed up and brought with them a large bag. He reached his hand in and pulled out Snitch-sized brown balls and threw them over everyone's heads and into the fence. The--creatures--stopped screeching and gobbled them up. Everyone slowly took their hands off their ears and sighed in relief. There was silence for a moment, then broken by Lavender.
"What are those?"
Malfoy brushed some imaginary dirt off his robes and said hauntily, "They're mangy and foul Phallins, that's what they are."
Hermione instantly brightened and whispered, "They're harmless!"
Vale laughed. "Yes--" he checked his roll "Miss Granger, they are harmless. They're a common pet for most wizarding families, and go back to the ancient times when Hogwarts was first founded. In fact, it is said that Helga Hufflepuff had one herself named Knealze." He smiled brightly.
"There's an old tale spinning around that Phallins are companions to the bronze dragons. The bronze dragon is said to be very dangerous if provoked, or if they do not trust you. However, if you gain their trust, then it will lead you out of harm's way--and I'm sure you figured out that a bronze dragon always guards something magnificent or of great importance. There are only supposedly five bronze dragons in the world to this date.
"See those stones on the Phallin's heads? That is the way a bronze dragon can tell if you have a pure heart. If the stone turns red, then you're a threat. If you ever encounter one with a dragon, you want it to turn green, for green is the color of loyalty and good."
Malfoy yawned loudly and said not-so-quietly, "If I wanted to learn History of Creatures I'd go to Binns." Vale's smile only faded slightly, and he acted like he didn't hear Malfoy, instructing them to each hold a Phallin and play with it for the day. He explained that they needed exercise from being cooped up all day.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione all picked up a random Phallin. Hermione was cuddling hers, and it was making a strange bird-like hum. Ron set his eager one down and it ran circles around him, obviously trying to catch its tail. Harry was lucky, his curled up into a ball at his feet and fell asleep.
Ron suddenly started laughing and hastily tried to change it into a hacking cough. He slightly pointed his finger in the direction of Malfoy, and Harry plus Hermione turned around to see Malfoy's Phallin licking him energetically on the face, much to his protests. "Oh, I wish I had a camera," Ron moaned. "This is better than a Ferret Frog any day!"
***
The next afternoon and lunch, the rain was still coming down strong. The ceiling covering the Great Hall was constantly dark; extra charms had to be put up just for everyone to see their hands in front of them. It didn't match Harry's mood at all, thanks to the Sleeping Draught (which kept filling itself back up when it got used), he had a good night's sleep.
While Ron was shoveling food into his mouth at top speed and Harry was talking about Ferret Frogs to Fred and George, Hermione pulled out some crumpled parchment from her bag. "What's that?" Harry asked, curious.
"Oh, it's the Daily Prophet. I didn't have time to read it this morning," Hermione said briskly, unfolding the paper. She scanned the first page and paled considerably. Then she started to cry nosily.
"Hermione? What's in the paper?" Ron asked concertedly. He gently pried it away from her hands and read the article. He, too, paled and put a comforting arm around her shoulder, mummering, "It'll be okay...shh..."
By now, Harry was itching to know what was awful. He snatched the forgotten paper up and read:
Dark Mark Appears Again! Is it the work of You-Know-Who?
This morning, the Dark Mark was found hovering over a 1289 Pitlock Avenue. The main occupants managed to escape the house unharmed, but one suffered the dreaded Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra. The unlucky resident was later identified as Sabrina Granger, daughter of Mark and Ellen Granger.
Harry stopped reading the article. He didn't need to read the rest, the answer of Hermione's trauma was in the first paragraph.
Her sister had been murdered.
