1 Chapter 6
there were no flowers
Harry, Ron, and Hermione called a desperate meeting in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom instead of going to breakfast. On the way, Ron crunched an apple with a smile.
Once they found themselves in the bathroom, Hermione took one quick (and blush-inducing) look at Harry and then at Ron, only to announce: "Ew! He ate the sticker!"
" Gross! Why don't you eat the core, too?" Harry turned to the bewildered Ron.
" Hey! Leave me be, okay?" Ron replied, taking another happy bite from his apple.
" Now, let's get this meeting to the point, shall we? You-Know-Who's attack!" Hermione said, threateningly, her eyes widening. She looked around at the two boys beside her. " Now, I know that everyone here most likely feels that You-Know-Who is on the rise, ready to go on a killing frenzy. But did you read who the Muggle killed was?"
" No." Harry whispered.
" It was a co-worker of Charlie, named Timothy Rower, who was in charge of the documents of English Whitescales. I did some digging and found this out quite incidentally." Hermione looked lost in thought for a second, then continued: " I only wonder why he'd want information on English Whitescales."
Ron and Harry exchanged guilty looks. Ron then mouthed: "Remember! You promised not to tell! It's a government thing, you know."
Harry had become quite good at reading lips to figure out what people meant from the way that their mouth would form words. Harry clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth in contemplation at whether some secrets have to be told, promise or not.
" Harry, this is just more proof that you HAVE to keep hidden." Hermione's grief-stricken face turned to him. " It's an Avada Kedavra curse that killed Timothy."
" The same that hit Charlie." Harry mouthed to Ron, covering the side of his mouth with his hand so that Hermione couldn't see the words his lips formed.
" You guys! What are you whispering about?" Hermione looked upset.
" We're saying how beautiful you are." Ron said, a fake and cheesy smile growing on his face.
Hermione looked untouched. In fact, she seemed angry. "Can't you two listen to anything semi-serious without turning it into a joke?"
" We don't think it's a joke!" Harry said, quickly.
" Then listen. I need to know any clues you can get about this. Perhaps you can find things out, Ron; Charlie is your brother. He might even have some clues on English Whitescales."
" Yeah." Ron laughed nervously. " Can we go now?"
" Yes, you can go now." Hermione smiled.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Harry had received a letter from Sirius, and he read it quickly. It had no new information other then his hopes on getting to be cleared. Harry wrote back and then sent Hedgwig with the letter.
He suddenly realized he'd forgotten to switch owls!
The queasiness in his stomach nearly smashed his stomach as he thought that Sirius might be traced and found now. The feeling in his stomach did not go away as lunchtime neared. As Harry walked into the lunchroom, Draco stopped him.
" So, Potter, were you the one who ordered the twins to spill that water on me?"
" No." Harry replied. " Did you write a threat letter to Hermione?"
Draco looked surprised. " What are you talking about?"
" Never mind." Harry pushed past Draco and into the dining hall. Hermione was sitting silently at the table with a great puzzled look on her face.
" What's wrong, Herm?" Harry asked her.
She looked at him and then held a small paper up to his nose. "Read this."
Harry looked at the note. It was another threat letter. This one read: 'Stop being so smart if you care what's good for you and Potter'.
" This is just ridiculous." Harry exclaimed. " Throw it away, and don't bother paying it any attention."
" I'll try not to." Hermione replied, but kept the note.
" Now, I want to tell you something awful. I had a dream today, and sometimes my dreams somewhat come true, though not always." Harry glanced around himself, and then continued: " It was about Voldemort."
" Shh!" Hermione cringed at the name.
" Sorry. Anyway, I saw You-Know-Who, but not his face. I just saw a shape and knew it was him. He told me to join him and I said no. Then I woke up with the most painful ache in my scar." Harry sighed. " It must be the most horrible pain in the world."
" No. Have you ever thought of a woman giving birth?" Hermione asked.
" What do you think I am, some kind of sicko?" Harry looked stricken.
" Harry, what I mean is, that's real pain. What you feel cannot compare to that. My mother told me enough about it, trust me." She shuddered.
" I'll take your word for it." Harry said.
" I need to find out if Draco wrote these letters. I'm starting to notice something. He hates how I'm a . . . know-it-all, supposedly. He even made fun of it in the hospital room, when I went to visit you. Remember?"
" Yeah." Harry agreed. " But I asked Draco about it and he was honestly completely bewildered by what I meant."
" He's a good actor, Harry. You don't think he'll come right out and say that he did it, do you?" She asked.
" Of course not."
" Well, then, my point is made." Hermione glanced at the food that was slowly appearing on the table and readied a fork to put some things onto her plate.
" We're going to Hogsmeade today, by the way, Harry. Do you remember?" Hermione asked him.
" I sure do." He replied.
" Do you think we should still be partners? It could be dangerous to have you out in town like that." Hermione looked doubtful.
" I'll just keep an eye out." Harry said.
" Well, if you're sure about it."
" I am." Harry then turned to see Ron sitting down, a bag of candy in his hands. " Wow, Ron, you struck gold!"
" I know! Look at all these sweets." Ron popped a chocolate frog into his mouth. " This was all a gift from Lavender to me. She told me to show you and Hermione so that you'd see what a happy couple we are."
" Uh . . . yeah." Harry said, softly. "That's great, Ron."
" Isn't it?" Ron pushed a few jellybeans in his mouth.
" Don't eat the whole bag at once. You'll get sick." Hermione warned.
" So?" Ron smiled mischievously and kept eating. Harry rolled his eyes and then asked Hermione: " Do you think You-Know-Who will attack other people, as well?"
" How do I know?" Hermione shrugged. " I just know one thing. You- Know-Who isn't going to attack for no reason at all and then stop attacking."
" I agree with that." Harry said, nodding.
" Is Hagrid back from Hogsmeade yet?" Ron suddenly asked, an abstract thought coming from him once again. Ron loved to change subjects.
" He is." Harry replied. " I spoke with him yesterday."
"Students!" Professor McGonagall said from the front of the room. " Eat quickly, we will be leaving for Hogsmeade soon."
Ron shoveled another handful of jellybeans into his mouth, then coughed. " Yuck! There was a dirt-flavored one somewhere in there . . ."
" Gross." Hermione ate a bit of her toast, then asked Harry: "Do you think Hogsmeade will be fun this year? I fear it could grow monotonous soon."
" It'll be fun. We're partners, aren't we?" Harry grinned.
" What? You are?" Ron choked on some unidentified candy and then glared at Hermione. " I'd like to know since when! I thought Harry and I would go together."
" Aw, I'm sorry, Ron." Harry said, softly. " I just wanted to go with Herm, that's all."
" Oh. Well, that makes it all fine, doesn't it?" Ron looked very hurt as he stood up. " I think I'll go find myself another partner. Hey Neville!"
Ron was walking away.
" Just what I needed: Ron to be mad at me." Harry put his head down on the table.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Hogsmeade glowed with a happy cheer that the town could only give. It was cold and a fog was rolling in, giving the lights in all the shop windows an extra glow. Harry stopped right away at the small trinket shop, with an ancient sign out front:
Buy All Your Strange Goods Here!
Though the sign didn't look promising to the quality of content the story might hold, Harry grinned lightly at Hermione and pushed the door open with the jingle of a bell.
" Pick something." He told her, reaching in his pocket to take hold of a few Galleons deep within.
" There's so many things!" She looked around in awe, her eyes filled with the light of the candles dancing in the room. The shopkeeper, an old man sitting in a leather-wrapped chair, looked up from the newspaper he was studying to give Harry a smile. "Why, you're Harry Potter!"
" True." Harry said, cocking his head lightly to the side.
Hermione had by now tried putting on various pretty rings from the racks. She especially liked a small golden one with a purple shiny gem, her favorite color.
" I see you've come with a girl to buy her something nice?" The old man's grizzled face changed into an odd smile, the skin graft off to the side of his cheek white on his wind-burned face.
" I sure did." Harry put his hands in his pockets and tried to look confident and proud, though his stomach was floating with butterflies.
" She's a pretty girl." The old man leaned on his hand; his elbow propped up on the dusty desk. " Say, I'll let you buy two rings at the price of one. How about it?"
" Oh, thank you!" Harry beamed, then turned to Hermione, who was now studying a ring with a red stone in it. She nodded, and then turned to the man:
" Thank you very much, sir."
" You're quite welcome." The old man pulled out his old wizard's cash register and then said: " Have you chosen two, already?"
" Not yet." Hermione admitted. "They're all really pretty, and cheap, too. I suppose once rings like these could easily be made by magic nowadays."
" That's true." The old man ran a few fingers through the thinning hair on his head (mostly gray with currents of black running through it like the white crests on a river of blue), then clacked a few keys on the register, out of pure boredom. " So, Harry, you're studying at Hogwarts?"
Harry nodded.
" I've gone there. Nice school, it is. Dumbledore's hanging alright?"
" Yeah. Dumbledore's alright."
" Harry! I want these rings!" Hermione held her hand out with the purple-stoned ring, and on the pinkie she had a little red-stoned one with tiny sparkles inside.
" Oh! Those sparkles, so you know, are the frozen tears of a phoenix. Rings like these are considered to have healing powers." The old man smiled as he rang the price up. "That will be . . ."
Harry smiled and put down a few Galleons. " I'll pay for both of them, sir, and a little tip. Thank you."
Then, Harry walked out of the shop with Hermione as they just caught up with the end of the Hogwarts students that trailed behind. These included Draco, Crabbe (with new pearly-white teeth), and Goyle.
" Harry, I can't thank you enough. I'd always wanted some nice rings, like Lavender or Parvati!" Hermione sighed with joy, then gave him a warm hug. " Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
" You're welcome." He replied, shyly.
" How cute. If it isn't the odd couple." Malfoy sneered.
" Yeah." Crabbe agreed right off, giving an uneasy giggle. Goyle looked from Crabbe to Malfoy and then realized he was supposed to laugh too and gave an uneasy chortle.
" Yeah, I agree. We are a cute couple." Harry defended himself, which surprised Malfoy once again. This was Harry's method of fighting back, as mentioned before: by acting as if insults were compliments.
Malfoy waved his hand in disgust at Harry and murmured: "Ah, you're no fun, Harry."
Harry.
He hadn't called him Potter, as he so very much liked to, especially with a significantly exaggerated sneer on his handsome face. Harry had heard a lot of girls commenting on Draco's good looks - but they immediately added how his personality smudged away whatever his physical features gave.
Harry didn't really mind Draco as much as he used to, for some way or another growing a bit more mature at heart. Now he realized he might even try to attempt to make friends with the blond-haired young man.
" Harry, really, it would help if you listened to what I'm saying." Hermione said, testily.
" I'm sorry, Herm." He smiled at her. "Forgive me? I was thinking."
" At least you didn't listen to me for a good cause." Hermione said, softly, then continued: " I was just saying how great it would be if Draco could finally learn how to sort his brains and turn somewhat decent."
" Yeah." Harry nodded in agreement, then felt something cold pelt him in the back of the neck. He felt the mass of freezing ice and then held a handful of it to his face: " A snowball?"
He turned and saw Fred and George Weasley, their faces shining from laughter. " Gosh, Harry, your reflexes are quick. The snowball didn't even reach you and you flinched."
Hermione laughed.
" Where'd you get a snowball?" Harry asked.
" Its just a spell. Say 'Sphericus Precipitatius', wave your wand with a bit of a twist, and. . ." Fred sent another snowball from his wand, this time at Hermione. She wiped the snow off, still laughing.
" You guys are just impossible." She finally managed to say.
" I gotta hand it to you both, if there was ever a 'Most Annoying Prize'. . ." Harry couldn't help but grin.
" Thanks, Harry." They imitated the way Harry responded to Draco's insults.
" You're welcome." Harry replied impishly.
Suddenly, they realized that yet again they had fallen behind. Harry ran to catch up, Hermione's footsteps pattering close after him. He looked at her over his shoulder, her hand holding the back of her hair down so that it didn't fly into her face, her robes rustling in the wind.
" Harry! Watch where you're going, not me!" She told him, just as Harry nearly missed a collision with a first year. The first year looked at him, her eyes blue and filled with tears, and said:
" Why! Harry Potter!"
" I'm so sorry for running at you like that!" Harry felt very stupid as he stopped by the trembling first year. The eleven-year-old girl looked at Hermione, then back at him, and she smiled:
" You go to Hogwarts, right?"
" Right. How'd you get here? First years can't go to Hogsmeade." Harry asked.
The girl shrugged. " I sneaked out. Nobody noticed, and I got lost."
" Here, see over there? There's a girl named Parvati. She'll help you out. Professor McGonagall gave her the list of students on the trip and she'll write you in so you won't be forgotten on the way back. Alright?" Harry gave the girl an assuring grin. The girl nodded and then ran towards Parvati, two long braids spiraling as the wind carried them backwards.
" The wind's sharp today. Dragon-flying weather." Hermione commented.
"Dragon-flying weather?" Harry seemed intrigued.
" Yup. Dragons fly the best at winds like these. It's something to do with their wings, but I really can't quite say what it is. Aerodynamics?" She got lost in thought.
Harry wondered if this was the day Voldemort might go out flying his Whitescale dragon for some lost reason and do some more of his evil. Goosebumps prickled his skin and he wished he could tell Hermione what was bothering him, but he knew he was to remain true to Ron.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
It seemed like a long time in Hogsmeade, just walking and peeking into shop windows, their breaths making white clouds appear on the surface of the windows, when they stumbled upon a little café. " Are you hungry?" Harry asked Hermione. She nodded.
" Good, because I'm incredibly hungry." Harry pushed the door of the café open. He was surprised to find any Hogwarts students there already. Among them was Ron and Neville, sharing his bag of candies. Ron looked up at Harry, then turned away, his eyes filled with hurt.
Harry himself felt upset with the whole ordeal concerning Ron. He hadn't intentionally chosen Hermione as his partner. It was a quick reflex kind of thing, his mind simply snapping out the answer: "Yes!"
Now he wasn't so sure, and yet he couldn't understand Ron quite, well, either. Ron seemed to be alright with Harry's kiss to Hermione, in fact, he wanted all the details of how it was and how it felt and what it tasted like.
Then, all of a sudden, all of that evaporated like water from a pot left on the stove too long and all that was left was angry steam, which Ron seemed to show quite vividly.
" Let's sit here." Hermione pointed out a little table not far off from where Ron was sitting.
Harry tried not to look too upset by where they were sitting or about Ron, but his eyes kept trailing up to see if his red-haired friend would show some sign of forgiveness. None appeared on the boy's face, though.
" Hello, my name's Greta and I'll be your waitress this evening." A tall woman with a long and hooked nose said. "How may I help you?"
" Some butter beer, please. Two of them." Hermione told the waitress, then checked her money. " Shoot, I only have enough for one."
" Oh, no you don't! I'm supposed to pay. I'm the boy." Harry said to Hermione, then handed his money to the waitress and told her: "Two butter beers."
She took the money (this was a café that had you pay before dinner, not after, for many wizard kids had a way of teleporting themselves out before the tab would come), and then she said: "The butter beer will be here in a few minutes."
" Thank you." Harry told Greta as she walked off, her waitress dress showing a mustard stain on her behind. Hermione immediately took her wand and zapped the stain off to let Greta avoid any humiliation.
They sat there in silence, Harry looking out the window at the groups of students walking by, some of them he recognized but most he couldn't. Then, Rebecca Crick walked by the window with Malfoy trailing after her, his smug smile facing Harry, then his eyes looked back at Rebecca, who was in the middle of some wild story, her hands gesticulating madly.
Just as the butter beer finally arrived, Harry realized that something wasn't right. The air seemed stiff and cold, and his scar was tingling oddly and he could feel his heart beat in it. Then, it lessened.
Harry must have looked confused for Hermione asked:
" Harry, what's wrong?"
" Nothing." He replied, his eyes lowering, his dark eyelashes covering the fearful look in his eyes.
She took a drink, and then her nostrils flared as she burst out: " Look, I know something's wrong, or something's up and you don't want to tell me. You've been hiding something from me for a while now and I didn't want to say anything until now about it. I just really want you to be honest with me. I'm honest with you."
" Hermione, there's nothing. Really!" Harry realized he was torn apart between his two friends.
" Well, alright then. I still feel there must be something up, but I'll let it, ah, slide." She bit her lower lip lightly, suddenly mesmerized in the bubble pattern on the top of her butter beer.
Harry drank down a bit of his butter beer, too, then felt shivers go up his spine as a voice startled him from behind: "Hey, Harry! What's going on?"
It was Colin, without a camera around his neck. He looked different, almost not himself, for the camera had begun to associate with Colin inside Harry's head. Colin didn't look too happy without his camera, either.
" We were just drinking butter beer." Harry told Colin. "Here, sit down." He scooted over and the boy sat down beside Harry, his bright and eager eyes taking in the café and the surroundings.
" Gosh, its fancy in here." He said, after a while. " Is butter beer good?" Colin added, looking hungrily at what Harry and Hermione were consuming.
" It is. Here, I'll get you one. Greta?" Harry looked around for the waitress. She glanced up from the counter, a notepad in her hands, and she smiled.
" I'll be right over!" She called out, then added: " Mr. Potter."
Harry still got a bit of a surprise with how easily people recognized him. Hermione broke through his thoughts by asking:
" When do we get to go back?"
" They want us in Hogwarts by five or so, so I suppose we'll leave in a few minutes." Colin replied for Harry, for Harry obviously didn't know the answer.
" I wish I could stay here longer. It's a great place, this town." Hermione sighed happily, taking another deep drink. " This place really brings out this childish glow, sort of like Christmas."
" Yeah, I agree." Harry said.
Ron was having a great time with Neville nearby. Both were laughing and pounding their table with their fists. Harry couldn't help but feel a bit mad.
" Yes, you called for me?" Greta the waitress was standing by their table again.
" Could you please bring Colin here a butter beer?" Harry asked, then handed the pay over to the waitress. She nodded and then walked off, the money jangling in her hand.
" Wow, thanks Harry." Colin looked about as excited about the butter beer as most kids would be if you handed them a bag of money. Harry supposed that Colin was just a grateful, neat kind of guy. Annoying, yet at the same time alright.
" I guess once we finish up we should get going. Do you still have your rings, Herm?" Harry asked.
" Yup." She showed her ornate fingers to Colin. "Harry bought me some rings. Aren't they simply lovely?"
" I guess." Colin replied, not anymore interested in the rings then any boy would be in jewelry at that age.
" Colin, would you be getting a new camera anytime soon?" Harry asked, a bit curious, knowing that he actually just meant if Colin would be snapping pictures of him some more anytime soon.
" I don't know. I haven't told anyone back home yet that my camera's gone, so my family will take quite a shock. Cameras are expensive." Colin looked down at the desk with a bit of a disappointed sigh.
" I'll say." Harry suddenly turned to find the waitress (Greta) setting down a butter beer mug. The three students thanked her and then returned to drinking.
They waited for Colin to finish, then went outside.
Hogwarts students were all lining up outside by now, getting ready to leave, so Harry stood, squeezing by Colin, and returned the mug to the front of the café so they could clean it out and reuse it, then went outside, his companions following.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Hogwarts waited, a dark and tall castle in the distance. Soon it came closer and closer, and in the illusions of the night that wandered and crept at all who had ever taken a late evening walk, it seemed it was Hogwarts coming closer, not the students.
As the mass of students crowded through the bronze arches of the door, Rebecca Crick waited ahead, helping Parvati write down the list of students going to Hogsmeade. Rebecca's eyes scanned the names with a bit of an interest, while Parvati seemed tired and worn out. The blue-eyed first year that had asked Harry for directions was standing by Parvati, clutching the older girl's wrist.
Harry passed by the girls and they checked his name off, when all of a sudden his scar seemed to give a leap in his forehead. He turned to Hermione, but she wasn't walking near him anymore. She had gone off to see what a large group of other students were doing, crowded around Dumbledore.
" Children! Go listen to Dumbledore! There's an emergency!" Madame McGonagall cried out.
Harry shook his head in surprise, then made his way through the scattered students to see what was going on. Dumbledore's long gray beard was being twisted nervously around his finger, and his somber eyes made out Harry in the crowd, then turned to the rest of the students:
" Hogwarts students! This is an emergency notification. You-Know-Who is on the rise and very powerful. There had been one murder already, of a Timothy Rower. This had been released to the public for the Ministry of Magic simply couldn't cover it any further. Timothy Rower had been found with the Avada Kedavra curse, and it appears he was in his room flipping through manuscripts on English Whitescales." Dumbledore raised his voice to a shout as a clamor arose.
" Muggles are reporting, recently, to have seen a white dragon in the sky. Everyone is working overboard trying to erase memories. If you yourself sight something, report it to me immediately. This could help track You-Know-Who. Any clues can be a great help." Dumbledore then looked at Harry again, and said: " Harry, I'd like to see you in the office, if you do not mind. In about an hour?"
" Alright." Harry said, cold fingers of fright wrapping around him.
Then, the students dispersed, leaving Harry standing there, dazzled. Dumbledore looked extremely upset, and if someone as powerful as that was worried, then Harry most certainly was worried, as well.
Ron was standing nearby, entertaining Lavender and Parvati with a joke:
" Man, can you imagine? Muggles complain if a bird poops on their car. Imagine a dragon! There wouldn't be a car!" Ron laughed rather in a fake way, trying to cheer the girls up despite how he didn't truly feel too happy. Harry by now knew how to tell Ron's feelings from his face.
Harry turned to walk over to Hermione. She was having a conversation with Rebecca Crick, and both didn't seem to happy with each other.
Harry caught the words of the conversation from far off already:
" You say that you have a book on English Whitescales? Can I see it?"
Rebecca turned pale. " Vhat? I don't have one!"
" I heard you saying it to Draco." Hermione countered.
" Vell, I lied." Rebecca said.
" You're lying right now! I need to see the book, just for a few minutes. I only want to look up one thing. I promise I'll give it back unharmed." Hermione wailed desperately.
" Herm, let's go." Harry told her, seeing that Rebecca was unbending at her will and wouldn't allow Hermione to take her book for all its worth.
" Yes, vhy don't you go?" Rebecca said in agreement.
" Maybe I will." Hermione stormed off, dragging Harry along. "Come on, Harry, we're gonna go straight to the library and look up an infinity of books that even mention English Whitescales."
" As long as infinity lasts under an hour . . . I have a meeting with Dumbledore." Harry grinned as she pulled him into the library and then raced through the shelves. Harry asked: " Don't you think you're taking this all too far? I mean, good for you that you're trying to keep on top, but I'm sure the Ministry has everything taken care of."
" No, they don't." She pulled a dusty white book down and then opened it. " Harry, I just have one thing to ask you. Promise me you'll notify me if you know anything new on English Whitescales. Trust me, I can help with this case. I have a lead but I need support before I can say it."
Harry didn't know if he should make this promise. It wouldn't be quite fair to Ron or to Hermione, putting a promise over another one.
" Well?" Hermione looked up from the book. " Promise?"
Harry had no way out. If he didn't promise, Hermione would be mad and suspect him for hiding things and then he wouldn't have both his close friends. If he did promise, he wouldn't be keeping it since he couldn't say Ron's secret.
" I promise." Harry said, quietly.
" Good." Hermione slammed a book down on the table. A thin mist of dust flew from the crusty old spine. " Now, it says here that English Whitescales have a way of deceiving people. IF one possesses the scale, they can transform to another form in order to go by undetected. Works great for criminals like You-Know-Who, right?"
" Right." Harry agreed.
" But there must be more reason to it. You-Know-Who probably knows spells which would do the same job for him, and yet he took papers on English Whitescales. From what I know, he might have somehow gotten one." Hermione looked puzzled. " But how?"
Harry swallowed hard. " Maybe he made one by magic."
" You can't make dragons." Hermione protested. " Listen, Ron has a brother, Charlie, in the dragon business. If Charlie recovered from his illness, would you be able to speak with Ron about it? Perhaps he'd picked a thing or two up about these animals."
" I'll try." Harry tried to sound optimistic.
" Now, you can go find Ron and speak with him. I have important research to do." Hermione said, and then added: "Unless you want to flip through books, too."
" I'd rather talk to Ron." Harry said.
" I knew it." Hermione smiled as she looked away, her eyes scanning the words on the page.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Harry found Ron in the common room playing a little game of chess against Neville. Neville was losing drastically.
" Hey, Ron. Hi, Neville." Harry said, nervously.
Ron looked up at Harry and barely gave a nod in acknowledgement while Neville grinned and replied: "Hey, Harry!"
" So. . . chess." Harry sat down to look at the game the two boys were actively playing. " Nice move, Ron." Harry added, as Ron knocked over one of Neville's bishops with the queen.
" Mmf." Ron grumbled out.
" Ron, can we talk? Neville, would you let me talk to Ron in private? Much appreciated." Harry watched Neville get up and leave rather willingly, knowing he'd lose quite badly if he didn't withdraw from the game.
" Ron, listen. I'm sorry that Hermione was my partner on the trip, not you." Harry began.
" It's alright." Ron replied. " I'm not mad at all."
" You aren't?" Harry was puzzled.
" Not really. I'm just. . . I guess I'm jealous, all right? I'd love to have someone like Hermione. Lavender's alright, but she doesn't care too much about me."
" Oh." Harry moved one of the chess pieces for Neville so that Neville had a chance of avoiding Ron's knight. Then, he continued: "In that case, I hope you find someone."
" Yeah." Ron shrugged.
" I have a question, by the way. Is there anything new with Charlie? Any new developments, perhaps any leads?" Harry asked.
" Not that I know of. Except one." Ron leaned forwards: "That scar, shaped like the dark mark, is bleeding."
" Bleeding?" Harry repeated, disbelieving.
" That's right. And the blood's BLACK." Ron grimaced.
" That's disgusting! Why is it doing that?"
" I don't know. Charlie's really freaked out. They bandaged the area up to keep him from losing blood but it's pretty bad." Ron said.
" What else?" Harry asked, after a while passed.
" Charlie isn't acting like himself. He's jittery and sometimes he sleepwalks in the night and tries to get outside. The Ministry of Magic is afraid that Voldemort's power is beckoning him to join his followers now that he's beginning another uprising."
" This is all getting out of hand."
" I don't know anything else, though, just those facts. My mother sent me a letter about it and she sort of had me read between the lines to figure things out, because she didn't want anyone else to find these things out." Ron leaned back in his chair and then moved a pawn. "Why do you need to know?" Ron added.
" No big reason. I'm just concerned." Harry couldn't tell Ron that Hermione needed to know, and Harry wouldn't tell Hermione about what Ron said. Harry was going to try to solve things himself, if he had to.
" I hope they find You-Know-Who fast." Ron commented.
" They will." Harry assured him. " Well, I should go. I have to see Dumbledore."
" Really? What for?" Ron asked.
" I'm not sure myself. I think that he might have something important to say, he looked real serious when he told me to come see him." Harry said, then left the common room, feeling dazzled and confused with all the recent events.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Harry knocked on to the room in which Dumbledore spent most of his time. Dumbledore's voice replied:
" Who is it?"
" It's me, Harry."
" Ah, yes. Come in, Harry." Dumbledore replied, and then looked up from a stack of papers to see Harry timidly slip inside and then sit down onto a chair in the corner of the room.
" I'd like to know the reason for my visit." Harry said, after exchanging a long glance with Dumbledore.
" Hmm." Dumbledore seemed to think hard. "Harry, I have unfortunate news. Hopefully, these news will turn out to be untrue. But nevertheless, you need to hear it."
" What is it?" Harry asked, now completely worried.
" I'm getting there." Dumbledore tried to smile, then gently ran his hand over his snow-white beard and added: " It seems an owl was found, not far from here, by a wizard traveling around. A trader, per say."
Harry felt his stomach drop. It couldn't be!
" The owl was horribly mangled, and seemed to have the shreds of a letter left in its poor talons. The traveler had never seen such an awful sight." Dumbledore sighed. " The owl was white, Harry."
Harry asked: " Hedgwig! But why?"
" It might not be Hedgwig. It was too. . . distorted. . . to tell." Dumbledore searched for the right word. " Someone, or something, had brought it down to track where it was going. The owl wouldn't cooperate, obviously, and so. . ." Dumbledore stopped. "Harry, I'm sorry. I most certainly hope that this is a mistake, and that the owl they found wasn't Hedgwig."
" Well, I hope so too!" Harry cried out, tears stinging his eyes. "Where is the owl? Maybe I can identify it."
" I'm afraid the man cremated it and scattered its ashes already, for it was the only proper way to treat a deceased servant of the wizard world. I didn't want you to see it, anyhow, for it would have been devastating for you." Dumbledore explained.
" No! So you mean. . . IF it was Hedgwig, then her poor ashes are just being blown about outside now?"
" I'm afraid so."
" No." Harry whispered the world. " It can't be."
" Do you know where the letter might have been heading, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.
" Yes." Harry lowered his voice. " Sirius Black."
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Harry walked to his room in the dark of Hogwarts, his mind flowing with images of the beautiful white owl of his, Hedgwig. It had to be a mistake. Hedgwig was fine, over with his godfather. Because if not, then Sirius Black's location could be traced now, for its quite a simple spell put on an owl to determine the location it was going to. A master wizard could easily then find the source of a letter, just through an owl.
If it were true, then Harry had both given away the location of his godfather and had literally caused the death of his owl.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
In the light of the moon, a black-haired boy sat writing something. His quill worked furiously across a scrap of paper, the light of his green eyes flashing with tears.
Then, once the writing was done, the boy opened the window in front of him, quietly, not letting the sleeping boys in the room hear, and let the scrap of paper float out.
It floated across the deserted Quidditch field and then flattened itself on an old fence post. The dry rattle of leaves played a soulful serenade as the words of the letter were formed:
When you died there were no flowers,
there was no handsome oak casket.
Nobody there was crying
As flames swallowed you up.
And your ashes were finally discarded
As if they were petty dust.
Nobody bothered to bury
A poor little owl like you!
Wherever your ashes settled,
Was it in litter or flowers?
There is no tombstone to mark it
No grave to put flowers on...
Nobody is weeping over your ashes
There's probably no one who cares
That this one bit of dirt over there
Is the silent grave of my friend.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Author's Note:
I tried to make it sad. Poetry and grammar are my Achilles' heel, though, so forgive. ^_^ Those who are outraged, remember that it might not have been Hedgwig. My imagination will have to decide what happens next, if I want it to be Hedgwig or not.
I got the name of the chapter from the poem, the first line.
there were no flowers
Harry, Ron, and Hermione called a desperate meeting in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom instead of going to breakfast. On the way, Ron crunched an apple with a smile.
Once they found themselves in the bathroom, Hermione took one quick (and blush-inducing) look at Harry and then at Ron, only to announce: "Ew! He ate the sticker!"
" Gross! Why don't you eat the core, too?" Harry turned to the bewildered Ron.
" Hey! Leave me be, okay?" Ron replied, taking another happy bite from his apple.
" Now, let's get this meeting to the point, shall we? You-Know-Who's attack!" Hermione said, threateningly, her eyes widening. She looked around at the two boys beside her. " Now, I know that everyone here most likely feels that You-Know-Who is on the rise, ready to go on a killing frenzy. But did you read who the Muggle killed was?"
" No." Harry whispered.
" It was a co-worker of Charlie, named Timothy Rower, who was in charge of the documents of English Whitescales. I did some digging and found this out quite incidentally." Hermione looked lost in thought for a second, then continued: " I only wonder why he'd want information on English Whitescales."
Ron and Harry exchanged guilty looks. Ron then mouthed: "Remember! You promised not to tell! It's a government thing, you know."
Harry had become quite good at reading lips to figure out what people meant from the way that their mouth would form words. Harry clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth in contemplation at whether some secrets have to be told, promise or not.
" Harry, this is just more proof that you HAVE to keep hidden." Hermione's grief-stricken face turned to him. " It's an Avada Kedavra curse that killed Timothy."
" The same that hit Charlie." Harry mouthed to Ron, covering the side of his mouth with his hand so that Hermione couldn't see the words his lips formed.
" You guys! What are you whispering about?" Hermione looked upset.
" We're saying how beautiful you are." Ron said, a fake and cheesy smile growing on his face.
Hermione looked untouched. In fact, she seemed angry. "Can't you two listen to anything semi-serious without turning it into a joke?"
" We don't think it's a joke!" Harry said, quickly.
" Then listen. I need to know any clues you can get about this. Perhaps you can find things out, Ron; Charlie is your brother. He might even have some clues on English Whitescales."
" Yeah." Ron laughed nervously. " Can we go now?"
" Yes, you can go now." Hermione smiled.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Harry had received a letter from Sirius, and he read it quickly. It had no new information other then his hopes on getting to be cleared. Harry wrote back and then sent Hedgwig with the letter.
He suddenly realized he'd forgotten to switch owls!
The queasiness in his stomach nearly smashed his stomach as he thought that Sirius might be traced and found now. The feeling in his stomach did not go away as lunchtime neared. As Harry walked into the lunchroom, Draco stopped him.
" So, Potter, were you the one who ordered the twins to spill that water on me?"
" No." Harry replied. " Did you write a threat letter to Hermione?"
Draco looked surprised. " What are you talking about?"
" Never mind." Harry pushed past Draco and into the dining hall. Hermione was sitting silently at the table with a great puzzled look on her face.
" What's wrong, Herm?" Harry asked her.
She looked at him and then held a small paper up to his nose. "Read this."
Harry looked at the note. It was another threat letter. This one read: 'Stop being so smart if you care what's good for you and Potter'.
" This is just ridiculous." Harry exclaimed. " Throw it away, and don't bother paying it any attention."
" I'll try not to." Hermione replied, but kept the note.
" Now, I want to tell you something awful. I had a dream today, and sometimes my dreams somewhat come true, though not always." Harry glanced around himself, and then continued: " It was about Voldemort."
" Shh!" Hermione cringed at the name.
" Sorry. Anyway, I saw You-Know-Who, but not his face. I just saw a shape and knew it was him. He told me to join him and I said no. Then I woke up with the most painful ache in my scar." Harry sighed. " It must be the most horrible pain in the world."
" No. Have you ever thought of a woman giving birth?" Hermione asked.
" What do you think I am, some kind of sicko?" Harry looked stricken.
" Harry, what I mean is, that's real pain. What you feel cannot compare to that. My mother told me enough about it, trust me." She shuddered.
" I'll take your word for it." Harry said.
" I need to find out if Draco wrote these letters. I'm starting to notice something. He hates how I'm a . . . know-it-all, supposedly. He even made fun of it in the hospital room, when I went to visit you. Remember?"
" Yeah." Harry agreed. " But I asked Draco about it and he was honestly completely bewildered by what I meant."
" He's a good actor, Harry. You don't think he'll come right out and say that he did it, do you?" She asked.
" Of course not."
" Well, then, my point is made." Hermione glanced at the food that was slowly appearing on the table and readied a fork to put some things onto her plate.
" We're going to Hogsmeade today, by the way, Harry. Do you remember?" Hermione asked him.
" I sure do." He replied.
" Do you think we should still be partners? It could be dangerous to have you out in town like that." Hermione looked doubtful.
" I'll just keep an eye out." Harry said.
" Well, if you're sure about it."
" I am." Harry then turned to see Ron sitting down, a bag of candy in his hands. " Wow, Ron, you struck gold!"
" I know! Look at all these sweets." Ron popped a chocolate frog into his mouth. " This was all a gift from Lavender to me. She told me to show you and Hermione so that you'd see what a happy couple we are."
" Uh . . . yeah." Harry said, softly. "That's great, Ron."
" Isn't it?" Ron pushed a few jellybeans in his mouth.
" Don't eat the whole bag at once. You'll get sick." Hermione warned.
" So?" Ron smiled mischievously and kept eating. Harry rolled his eyes and then asked Hermione: " Do you think You-Know-Who will attack other people, as well?"
" How do I know?" Hermione shrugged. " I just know one thing. You- Know-Who isn't going to attack for no reason at all and then stop attacking."
" I agree with that." Harry said, nodding.
" Is Hagrid back from Hogsmeade yet?" Ron suddenly asked, an abstract thought coming from him once again. Ron loved to change subjects.
" He is." Harry replied. " I spoke with him yesterday."
"Students!" Professor McGonagall said from the front of the room. " Eat quickly, we will be leaving for Hogsmeade soon."
Ron shoveled another handful of jellybeans into his mouth, then coughed. " Yuck! There was a dirt-flavored one somewhere in there . . ."
" Gross." Hermione ate a bit of her toast, then asked Harry: "Do you think Hogsmeade will be fun this year? I fear it could grow monotonous soon."
" It'll be fun. We're partners, aren't we?" Harry grinned.
" What? You are?" Ron choked on some unidentified candy and then glared at Hermione. " I'd like to know since when! I thought Harry and I would go together."
" Aw, I'm sorry, Ron." Harry said, softly. " I just wanted to go with Herm, that's all."
" Oh. Well, that makes it all fine, doesn't it?" Ron looked very hurt as he stood up. " I think I'll go find myself another partner. Hey Neville!"
Ron was walking away.
" Just what I needed: Ron to be mad at me." Harry put his head down on the table.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Hogsmeade glowed with a happy cheer that the town could only give. It was cold and a fog was rolling in, giving the lights in all the shop windows an extra glow. Harry stopped right away at the small trinket shop, with an ancient sign out front:
Buy All Your Strange Goods Here!
Though the sign didn't look promising to the quality of content the story might hold, Harry grinned lightly at Hermione and pushed the door open with the jingle of a bell.
" Pick something." He told her, reaching in his pocket to take hold of a few Galleons deep within.
" There's so many things!" She looked around in awe, her eyes filled with the light of the candles dancing in the room. The shopkeeper, an old man sitting in a leather-wrapped chair, looked up from the newspaper he was studying to give Harry a smile. "Why, you're Harry Potter!"
" True." Harry said, cocking his head lightly to the side.
Hermione had by now tried putting on various pretty rings from the racks. She especially liked a small golden one with a purple shiny gem, her favorite color.
" I see you've come with a girl to buy her something nice?" The old man's grizzled face changed into an odd smile, the skin graft off to the side of his cheek white on his wind-burned face.
" I sure did." Harry put his hands in his pockets and tried to look confident and proud, though his stomach was floating with butterflies.
" She's a pretty girl." The old man leaned on his hand; his elbow propped up on the dusty desk. " Say, I'll let you buy two rings at the price of one. How about it?"
" Oh, thank you!" Harry beamed, then turned to Hermione, who was now studying a ring with a red stone in it. She nodded, and then turned to the man:
" Thank you very much, sir."
" You're quite welcome." The old man pulled out his old wizard's cash register and then said: " Have you chosen two, already?"
" Not yet." Hermione admitted. "They're all really pretty, and cheap, too. I suppose once rings like these could easily be made by magic nowadays."
" That's true." The old man ran a few fingers through the thinning hair on his head (mostly gray with currents of black running through it like the white crests on a river of blue), then clacked a few keys on the register, out of pure boredom. " So, Harry, you're studying at Hogwarts?"
Harry nodded.
" I've gone there. Nice school, it is. Dumbledore's hanging alright?"
" Yeah. Dumbledore's alright."
" Harry! I want these rings!" Hermione held her hand out with the purple-stoned ring, and on the pinkie she had a little red-stoned one with tiny sparkles inside.
" Oh! Those sparkles, so you know, are the frozen tears of a phoenix. Rings like these are considered to have healing powers." The old man smiled as he rang the price up. "That will be . . ."
Harry smiled and put down a few Galleons. " I'll pay for both of them, sir, and a little tip. Thank you."
Then, Harry walked out of the shop with Hermione as they just caught up with the end of the Hogwarts students that trailed behind. These included Draco, Crabbe (with new pearly-white teeth), and Goyle.
" Harry, I can't thank you enough. I'd always wanted some nice rings, like Lavender or Parvati!" Hermione sighed with joy, then gave him a warm hug. " Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
" You're welcome." He replied, shyly.
" How cute. If it isn't the odd couple." Malfoy sneered.
" Yeah." Crabbe agreed right off, giving an uneasy giggle. Goyle looked from Crabbe to Malfoy and then realized he was supposed to laugh too and gave an uneasy chortle.
" Yeah, I agree. We are a cute couple." Harry defended himself, which surprised Malfoy once again. This was Harry's method of fighting back, as mentioned before: by acting as if insults were compliments.
Malfoy waved his hand in disgust at Harry and murmured: "Ah, you're no fun, Harry."
Harry.
He hadn't called him Potter, as he so very much liked to, especially with a significantly exaggerated sneer on his handsome face. Harry had heard a lot of girls commenting on Draco's good looks - but they immediately added how his personality smudged away whatever his physical features gave.
Harry didn't really mind Draco as much as he used to, for some way or another growing a bit more mature at heart. Now he realized he might even try to attempt to make friends with the blond-haired young man.
" Harry, really, it would help if you listened to what I'm saying." Hermione said, testily.
" I'm sorry, Herm." He smiled at her. "Forgive me? I was thinking."
" At least you didn't listen to me for a good cause." Hermione said, softly, then continued: " I was just saying how great it would be if Draco could finally learn how to sort his brains and turn somewhat decent."
" Yeah." Harry nodded in agreement, then felt something cold pelt him in the back of the neck. He felt the mass of freezing ice and then held a handful of it to his face: " A snowball?"
He turned and saw Fred and George Weasley, their faces shining from laughter. " Gosh, Harry, your reflexes are quick. The snowball didn't even reach you and you flinched."
Hermione laughed.
" Where'd you get a snowball?" Harry asked.
" Its just a spell. Say 'Sphericus Precipitatius', wave your wand with a bit of a twist, and. . ." Fred sent another snowball from his wand, this time at Hermione. She wiped the snow off, still laughing.
" You guys are just impossible." She finally managed to say.
" I gotta hand it to you both, if there was ever a 'Most Annoying Prize'. . ." Harry couldn't help but grin.
" Thanks, Harry." They imitated the way Harry responded to Draco's insults.
" You're welcome." Harry replied impishly.
Suddenly, they realized that yet again they had fallen behind. Harry ran to catch up, Hermione's footsteps pattering close after him. He looked at her over his shoulder, her hand holding the back of her hair down so that it didn't fly into her face, her robes rustling in the wind.
" Harry! Watch where you're going, not me!" She told him, just as Harry nearly missed a collision with a first year. The first year looked at him, her eyes blue and filled with tears, and said:
" Why! Harry Potter!"
" I'm so sorry for running at you like that!" Harry felt very stupid as he stopped by the trembling first year. The eleven-year-old girl looked at Hermione, then back at him, and she smiled:
" You go to Hogwarts, right?"
" Right. How'd you get here? First years can't go to Hogsmeade." Harry asked.
The girl shrugged. " I sneaked out. Nobody noticed, and I got lost."
" Here, see over there? There's a girl named Parvati. She'll help you out. Professor McGonagall gave her the list of students on the trip and she'll write you in so you won't be forgotten on the way back. Alright?" Harry gave the girl an assuring grin. The girl nodded and then ran towards Parvati, two long braids spiraling as the wind carried them backwards.
" The wind's sharp today. Dragon-flying weather." Hermione commented.
"Dragon-flying weather?" Harry seemed intrigued.
" Yup. Dragons fly the best at winds like these. It's something to do with their wings, but I really can't quite say what it is. Aerodynamics?" She got lost in thought.
Harry wondered if this was the day Voldemort might go out flying his Whitescale dragon for some lost reason and do some more of his evil. Goosebumps prickled his skin and he wished he could tell Hermione what was bothering him, but he knew he was to remain true to Ron.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
It seemed like a long time in Hogsmeade, just walking and peeking into shop windows, their breaths making white clouds appear on the surface of the windows, when they stumbled upon a little café. " Are you hungry?" Harry asked Hermione. She nodded.
" Good, because I'm incredibly hungry." Harry pushed the door of the café open. He was surprised to find any Hogwarts students there already. Among them was Ron and Neville, sharing his bag of candies. Ron looked up at Harry, then turned away, his eyes filled with hurt.
Harry himself felt upset with the whole ordeal concerning Ron. He hadn't intentionally chosen Hermione as his partner. It was a quick reflex kind of thing, his mind simply snapping out the answer: "Yes!"
Now he wasn't so sure, and yet he couldn't understand Ron quite, well, either. Ron seemed to be alright with Harry's kiss to Hermione, in fact, he wanted all the details of how it was and how it felt and what it tasted like.
Then, all of a sudden, all of that evaporated like water from a pot left on the stove too long and all that was left was angry steam, which Ron seemed to show quite vividly.
" Let's sit here." Hermione pointed out a little table not far off from where Ron was sitting.
Harry tried not to look too upset by where they were sitting or about Ron, but his eyes kept trailing up to see if his red-haired friend would show some sign of forgiveness. None appeared on the boy's face, though.
" Hello, my name's Greta and I'll be your waitress this evening." A tall woman with a long and hooked nose said. "How may I help you?"
" Some butter beer, please. Two of them." Hermione told the waitress, then checked her money. " Shoot, I only have enough for one."
" Oh, no you don't! I'm supposed to pay. I'm the boy." Harry said to Hermione, then handed his money to the waitress and told her: "Two butter beers."
She took the money (this was a café that had you pay before dinner, not after, for many wizard kids had a way of teleporting themselves out before the tab would come), and then she said: "The butter beer will be here in a few minutes."
" Thank you." Harry told Greta as she walked off, her waitress dress showing a mustard stain on her behind. Hermione immediately took her wand and zapped the stain off to let Greta avoid any humiliation.
They sat there in silence, Harry looking out the window at the groups of students walking by, some of them he recognized but most he couldn't. Then, Rebecca Crick walked by the window with Malfoy trailing after her, his smug smile facing Harry, then his eyes looked back at Rebecca, who was in the middle of some wild story, her hands gesticulating madly.
Just as the butter beer finally arrived, Harry realized that something wasn't right. The air seemed stiff and cold, and his scar was tingling oddly and he could feel his heart beat in it. Then, it lessened.
Harry must have looked confused for Hermione asked:
" Harry, what's wrong?"
" Nothing." He replied, his eyes lowering, his dark eyelashes covering the fearful look in his eyes.
She took a drink, and then her nostrils flared as she burst out: " Look, I know something's wrong, or something's up and you don't want to tell me. You've been hiding something from me for a while now and I didn't want to say anything until now about it. I just really want you to be honest with me. I'm honest with you."
" Hermione, there's nothing. Really!" Harry realized he was torn apart between his two friends.
" Well, alright then. I still feel there must be something up, but I'll let it, ah, slide." She bit her lower lip lightly, suddenly mesmerized in the bubble pattern on the top of her butter beer.
Harry drank down a bit of his butter beer, too, then felt shivers go up his spine as a voice startled him from behind: "Hey, Harry! What's going on?"
It was Colin, without a camera around his neck. He looked different, almost not himself, for the camera had begun to associate with Colin inside Harry's head. Colin didn't look too happy without his camera, either.
" We were just drinking butter beer." Harry told Colin. "Here, sit down." He scooted over and the boy sat down beside Harry, his bright and eager eyes taking in the café and the surroundings.
" Gosh, its fancy in here." He said, after a while. " Is butter beer good?" Colin added, looking hungrily at what Harry and Hermione were consuming.
" It is. Here, I'll get you one. Greta?" Harry looked around for the waitress. She glanced up from the counter, a notepad in her hands, and she smiled.
" I'll be right over!" She called out, then added: " Mr. Potter."
Harry still got a bit of a surprise with how easily people recognized him. Hermione broke through his thoughts by asking:
" When do we get to go back?"
" They want us in Hogwarts by five or so, so I suppose we'll leave in a few minutes." Colin replied for Harry, for Harry obviously didn't know the answer.
" I wish I could stay here longer. It's a great place, this town." Hermione sighed happily, taking another deep drink. " This place really brings out this childish glow, sort of like Christmas."
" Yeah, I agree." Harry said.
Ron was having a great time with Neville nearby. Both were laughing and pounding their table with their fists. Harry couldn't help but feel a bit mad.
" Yes, you called for me?" Greta the waitress was standing by their table again.
" Could you please bring Colin here a butter beer?" Harry asked, then handed the pay over to the waitress. She nodded and then walked off, the money jangling in her hand.
" Wow, thanks Harry." Colin looked about as excited about the butter beer as most kids would be if you handed them a bag of money. Harry supposed that Colin was just a grateful, neat kind of guy. Annoying, yet at the same time alright.
" I guess once we finish up we should get going. Do you still have your rings, Herm?" Harry asked.
" Yup." She showed her ornate fingers to Colin. "Harry bought me some rings. Aren't they simply lovely?"
" I guess." Colin replied, not anymore interested in the rings then any boy would be in jewelry at that age.
" Colin, would you be getting a new camera anytime soon?" Harry asked, a bit curious, knowing that he actually just meant if Colin would be snapping pictures of him some more anytime soon.
" I don't know. I haven't told anyone back home yet that my camera's gone, so my family will take quite a shock. Cameras are expensive." Colin looked down at the desk with a bit of a disappointed sigh.
" I'll say." Harry suddenly turned to find the waitress (Greta) setting down a butter beer mug. The three students thanked her and then returned to drinking.
They waited for Colin to finish, then went outside.
Hogwarts students were all lining up outside by now, getting ready to leave, so Harry stood, squeezing by Colin, and returned the mug to the front of the café so they could clean it out and reuse it, then went outside, his companions following.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Hogwarts waited, a dark and tall castle in the distance. Soon it came closer and closer, and in the illusions of the night that wandered and crept at all who had ever taken a late evening walk, it seemed it was Hogwarts coming closer, not the students.
As the mass of students crowded through the bronze arches of the door, Rebecca Crick waited ahead, helping Parvati write down the list of students going to Hogsmeade. Rebecca's eyes scanned the names with a bit of an interest, while Parvati seemed tired and worn out. The blue-eyed first year that had asked Harry for directions was standing by Parvati, clutching the older girl's wrist.
Harry passed by the girls and they checked his name off, when all of a sudden his scar seemed to give a leap in his forehead. He turned to Hermione, but she wasn't walking near him anymore. She had gone off to see what a large group of other students were doing, crowded around Dumbledore.
" Children! Go listen to Dumbledore! There's an emergency!" Madame McGonagall cried out.
Harry shook his head in surprise, then made his way through the scattered students to see what was going on. Dumbledore's long gray beard was being twisted nervously around his finger, and his somber eyes made out Harry in the crowd, then turned to the rest of the students:
" Hogwarts students! This is an emergency notification. You-Know-Who is on the rise and very powerful. There had been one murder already, of a Timothy Rower. This had been released to the public for the Ministry of Magic simply couldn't cover it any further. Timothy Rower had been found with the Avada Kedavra curse, and it appears he was in his room flipping through manuscripts on English Whitescales." Dumbledore raised his voice to a shout as a clamor arose.
" Muggles are reporting, recently, to have seen a white dragon in the sky. Everyone is working overboard trying to erase memories. If you yourself sight something, report it to me immediately. This could help track You-Know-Who. Any clues can be a great help." Dumbledore then looked at Harry again, and said: " Harry, I'd like to see you in the office, if you do not mind. In about an hour?"
" Alright." Harry said, cold fingers of fright wrapping around him.
Then, the students dispersed, leaving Harry standing there, dazzled. Dumbledore looked extremely upset, and if someone as powerful as that was worried, then Harry most certainly was worried, as well.
Ron was standing nearby, entertaining Lavender and Parvati with a joke:
" Man, can you imagine? Muggles complain if a bird poops on their car. Imagine a dragon! There wouldn't be a car!" Ron laughed rather in a fake way, trying to cheer the girls up despite how he didn't truly feel too happy. Harry by now knew how to tell Ron's feelings from his face.
Harry turned to walk over to Hermione. She was having a conversation with Rebecca Crick, and both didn't seem to happy with each other.
Harry caught the words of the conversation from far off already:
" You say that you have a book on English Whitescales? Can I see it?"
Rebecca turned pale. " Vhat? I don't have one!"
" I heard you saying it to Draco." Hermione countered.
" Vell, I lied." Rebecca said.
" You're lying right now! I need to see the book, just for a few minutes. I only want to look up one thing. I promise I'll give it back unharmed." Hermione wailed desperately.
" Herm, let's go." Harry told her, seeing that Rebecca was unbending at her will and wouldn't allow Hermione to take her book for all its worth.
" Yes, vhy don't you go?" Rebecca said in agreement.
" Maybe I will." Hermione stormed off, dragging Harry along. "Come on, Harry, we're gonna go straight to the library and look up an infinity of books that even mention English Whitescales."
" As long as infinity lasts under an hour . . . I have a meeting with Dumbledore." Harry grinned as she pulled him into the library and then raced through the shelves. Harry asked: " Don't you think you're taking this all too far? I mean, good for you that you're trying to keep on top, but I'm sure the Ministry has everything taken care of."
" No, they don't." She pulled a dusty white book down and then opened it. " Harry, I just have one thing to ask you. Promise me you'll notify me if you know anything new on English Whitescales. Trust me, I can help with this case. I have a lead but I need support before I can say it."
Harry didn't know if he should make this promise. It wouldn't be quite fair to Ron or to Hermione, putting a promise over another one.
" Well?" Hermione looked up from the book. " Promise?"
Harry had no way out. If he didn't promise, Hermione would be mad and suspect him for hiding things and then he wouldn't have both his close friends. If he did promise, he wouldn't be keeping it since he couldn't say Ron's secret.
" I promise." Harry said, quietly.
" Good." Hermione slammed a book down on the table. A thin mist of dust flew from the crusty old spine. " Now, it says here that English Whitescales have a way of deceiving people. IF one possesses the scale, they can transform to another form in order to go by undetected. Works great for criminals like You-Know-Who, right?"
" Right." Harry agreed.
" But there must be more reason to it. You-Know-Who probably knows spells which would do the same job for him, and yet he took papers on English Whitescales. From what I know, he might have somehow gotten one." Hermione looked puzzled. " But how?"
Harry swallowed hard. " Maybe he made one by magic."
" You can't make dragons." Hermione protested. " Listen, Ron has a brother, Charlie, in the dragon business. If Charlie recovered from his illness, would you be able to speak with Ron about it? Perhaps he'd picked a thing or two up about these animals."
" I'll try." Harry tried to sound optimistic.
" Now, you can go find Ron and speak with him. I have important research to do." Hermione said, and then added: "Unless you want to flip through books, too."
" I'd rather talk to Ron." Harry said.
" I knew it." Hermione smiled as she looked away, her eyes scanning the words on the page.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Harry found Ron in the common room playing a little game of chess against Neville. Neville was losing drastically.
" Hey, Ron. Hi, Neville." Harry said, nervously.
Ron looked up at Harry and barely gave a nod in acknowledgement while Neville grinned and replied: "Hey, Harry!"
" So. . . chess." Harry sat down to look at the game the two boys were actively playing. " Nice move, Ron." Harry added, as Ron knocked over one of Neville's bishops with the queen.
" Mmf." Ron grumbled out.
" Ron, can we talk? Neville, would you let me talk to Ron in private? Much appreciated." Harry watched Neville get up and leave rather willingly, knowing he'd lose quite badly if he didn't withdraw from the game.
" Ron, listen. I'm sorry that Hermione was my partner on the trip, not you." Harry began.
" It's alright." Ron replied. " I'm not mad at all."
" You aren't?" Harry was puzzled.
" Not really. I'm just. . . I guess I'm jealous, all right? I'd love to have someone like Hermione. Lavender's alright, but she doesn't care too much about me."
" Oh." Harry moved one of the chess pieces for Neville so that Neville had a chance of avoiding Ron's knight. Then, he continued: "In that case, I hope you find someone."
" Yeah." Ron shrugged.
" I have a question, by the way. Is there anything new with Charlie? Any new developments, perhaps any leads?" Harry asked.
" Not that I know of. Except one." Ron leaned forwards: "That scar, shaped like the dark mark, is bleeding."
" Bleeding?" Harry repeated, disbelieving.
" That's right. And the blood's BLACK." Ron grimaced.
" That's disgusting! Why is it doing that?"
" I don't know. Charlie's really freaked out. They bandaged the area up to keep him from losing blood but it's pretty bad." Ron said.
" What else?" Harry asked, after a while passed.
" Charlie isn't acting like himself. He's jittery and sometimes he sleepwalks in the night and tries to get outside. The Ministry of Magic is afraid that Voldemort's power is beckoning him to join his followers now that he's beginning another uprising."
" This is all getting out of hand."
" I don't know anything else, though, just those facts. My mother sent me a letter about it and she sort of had me read between the lines to figure things out, because she didn't want anyone else to find these things out." Ron leaned back in his chair and then moved a pawn. "Why do you need to know?" Ron added.
" No big reason. I'm just concerned." Harry couldn't tell Ron that Hermione needed to know, and Harry wouldn't tell Hermione about what Ron said. Harry was going to try to solve things himself, if he had to.
" I hope they find You-Know-Who fast." Ron commented.
" They will." Harry assured him. " Well, I should go. I have to see Dumbledore."
" Really? What for?" Ron asked.
" I'm not sure myself. I think that he might have something important to say, he looked real serious when he told me to come see him." Harry said, then left the common room, feeling dazzled and confused with all the recent events.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Harry knocked on to the room in which Dumbledore spent most of his time. Dumbledore's voice replied:
" Who is it?"
" It's me, Harry."
" Ah, yes. Come in, Harry." Dumbledore replied, and then looked up from a stack of papers to see Harry timidly slip inside and then sit down onto a chair in the corner of the room.
" I'd like to know the reason for my visit." Harry said, after exchanging a long glance with Dumbledore.
" Hmm." Dumbledore seemed to think hard. "Harry, I have unfortunate news. Hopefully, these news will turn out to be untrue. But nevertheless, you need to hear it."
" What is it?" Harry asked, now completely worried.
" I'm getting there." Dumbledore tried to smile, then gently ran his hand over his snow-white beard and added: " It seems an owl was found, not far from here, by a wizard traveling around. A trader, per say."
Harry felt his stomach drop. It couldn't be!
" The owl was horribly mangled, and seemed to have the shreds of a letter left in its poor talons. The traveler had never seen such an awful sight." Dumbledore sighed. " The owl was white, Harry."
Harry asked: " Hedgwig! But why?"
" It might not be Hedgwig. It was too. . . distorted. . . to tell." Dumbledore searched for the right word. " Someone, or something, had brought it down to track where it was going. The owl wouldn't cooperate, obviously, and so. . ." Dumbledore stopped. "Harry, I'm sorry. I most certainly hope that this is a mistake, and that the owl they found wasn't Hedgwig."
" Well, I hope so too!" Harry cried out, tears stinging his eyes. "Where is the owl? Maybe I can identify it."
" I'm afraid the man cremated it and scattered its ashes already, for it was the only proper way to treat a deceased servant of the wizard world. I didn't want you to see it, anyhow, for it would have been devastating for you." Dumbledore explained.
" No! So you mean. . . IF it was Hedgwig, then her poor ashes are just being blown about outside now?"
" I'm afraid so."
" No." Harry whispered the world. " It can't be."
" Do you know where the letter might have been heading, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.
" Yes." Harry lowered his voice. " Sirius Black."
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Harry walked to his room in the dark of Hogwarts, his mind flowing with images of the beautiful white owl of his, Hedgwig. It had to be a mistake. Hedgwig was fine, over with his godfather. Because if not, then Sirius Black's location could be traced now, for its quite a simple spell put on an owl to determine the location it was going to. A master wizard could easily then find the source of a letter, just through an owl.
If it were true, then Harry had both given away the location of his godfather and had literally caused the death of his owl.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
In the light of the moon, a black-haired boy sat writing something. His quill worked furiously across a scrap of paper, the light of his green eyes flashing with tears.
Then, once the writing was done, the boy opened the window in front of him, quietly, not letting the sleeping boys in the room hear, and let the scrap of paper float out.
It floated across the deserted Quidditch field and then flattened itself on an old fence post. The dry rattle of leaves played a soulful serenade as the words of the letter were formed:
When you died there were no flowers,
there was no handsome oak casket.
Nobody there was crying
As flames swallowed you up.
And your ashes were finally discarded
As if they were petty dust.
Nobody bothered to bury
A poor little owl like you!
Wherever your ashes settled,
Was it in litter or flowers?
There is no tombstone to mark it
No grave to put flowers on...
Nobody is weeping over your ashes
There's probably no one who cares
That this one bit of dirt over there
Is the silent grave of my friend.
*¤*.¸¸.·´¨`»*«´¨`·. ¸¸.*¤*
Author's Note:
I tried to make it sad. Poetry and grammar are my Achilles' heel, though, so forgive. ^_^ Those who are outraged, remember that it might not have been Hedgwig. My imagination will have to decide what happens next, if I want it to be Hedgwig or not.
I got the name of the chapter from the poem, the first line.
