CHAPTER 7

~Midnight Stroll~

After his strange trip to Professor Kasender's office, Harry made his way to Potions, glad that he was on time or Snape would have gladly taken fifty points from Gryffindor. He sat down at the very back of the dark classroom with Hermione and Ron.

"Today we will be making Veritaserum--the Truth Potion." he said in his usual greasy voice. "You must take into account many things as one formulates the potion in the mind before even beginning with the making of the potion." He walked around towards the back of the classroom and fixed Harry a cold stare. "When everyone has finished making their potion, we shall test someone's and see if they have done it properly. But I doubt any of you can make a strong Veritaserum…strong enough to reveal that person's innermost secrets. I was given special permission to teach you this, as I believe that it is important to learn how to make difficult potions as they are most rare and valuable…" he said in barely a whisper, giving each student a piercing look.

"So take out your textbooks!" he snapped through the silence and there was a shuffle as people grabbed their own copies of A Guide to Vital Potions. "Flip to page three hundred and eleven. There you will find the ingredients needed."

Everybody scanned the page. Harry noticed that half of the ingredients needed, he didn't have. But Snape said, "As you may have noticed if you had the brains, most of the ingredients listed, you do not have…they are here on top of my desk, so quietly line up…"

The Gryffindor and Slytherin students slowly got to their feet and started to form a line at the front of the classroom. Hermione and Ron took the chance to talk to Harry without being spotted.

"What did she want you for Harry?" Ron asked.

"Well--," Harry replied, then seeing the of curious look on Malfoy's face, he said, "Tell you later."

"It is essential that you are careful with these particular ingredients," Professor Snape was saying. "The cost of these are worth more—"

There was a sound of breaking glass at the front of the line.

"Longbottom!" Snape growled. "What have I just been saying?"

Neville was trembling. "I-I'm so sorry, s-sir…"

"Twenty points from Gryffindor and a detention for you Longbottom," Snape said, his voice venomous. "Those Pegasus wing feathers you just ruptured cost more than all the money you have in your Gringotts safe. I shall be writing to your grandmother about this. Honestly boy, you are brainless enough to attend St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries."

Neville's lip trembled and Harry was sure  he was on the verge of crying. All the Slytherins were all looking like they were fighting the desire to laugh out loud.

As he sat back down, Harry started to cut up his lace wings and his dead caterpillar.

"Tell me what happened at Kasender's class Potter," Draco's voice said from behind him.

"Shut up Malfoy, it's none of your business." Harry replied, not bothering to look behind him.

"'Course, it'd be easy to find out…I could just trick you into swallowing this potion, Potter, and the whole truth will come out."

Harry didn't answer.

"I s'pose you had another dream about your Mudblood mother and your dim-witted father? Maybe that's what made you fall off your chair? Is it Potter?"

Harry was shaking with anger by now.

"Ignore him, Harry," Hermione said from beside him. But Harry couldn't.

"At least my parents don't walk around blackmailing other people," as soon as the words came out of his mouth, he knew he had said the wrong things. As he turned around, Professor Snape was looking straight at him.

"Another ten points from Gryffindor, Potter," he said, baring his ugly, yellow teeth. "For bullying other students."

Malfoy smirked.

When the bell rang for the end of Potions, Harry couldn't feel more relieved. The trio  walked together to Charms.

"So, tell us, what happened?" Hermione whispered.

"Well, Kasender led me into her office right," Harry explained, suddenly forgetting about Malfoy. "And when we got there, well…you should have seen her office! It's full of these birds…about fifty of them I think…"

"Her office is full of birds?" Ron asked, puzzled.            

"Yeah…and there were all these pictures of birds—I think she's obsessed with them—and get this: one photo was of the exact phoenix we saw on the way here!" he said excitedly. "The colour of the feathers were like the ones on the phoenix we saw—"

"What? Are you sure, Harry? Maybe…maybe, it was a different bird but looked similar?"   

Ron rolled his eyes at Hermione.

"Don't be stupid! I reckon there's something going on here…I mean, you heard the phoenix on the Express, then you attend one of Kasender's classes and you hear it again…then when you were in her office…you heard it again!

Hermione gasped. "Harry what words did you hear when the phoenix's song nearly died?"

"Oh…um…well, the first time, it said Voldemort's name—" Ron winced at the sound of the Dark Lord's name but Harry overlooked it and continued. "Then the second time—when we were in Defence Against the Dark Arts—I heard him laughing…then the last time, I heard this voice…"

"What did the voice say?" asked Hermione, her eyes large.

"I think it said…yeah—"

"The voice said 'yeah'?"

"No. It said…kill him."

"Kill who?"

"I dunno…that's just what it said…"

"I think we better write down everything you hear Harry, so next time, if you ever hear the phoenix singing again, write down what you hear at the end of it okay?" Hermione said.

"Why?"

"Well, it could be trying to tell you something you know?" she said.

They had entered the Charms classroom and tiny little Professor Flitwick was standing on his usual stack of books.

"You will be learning something different today," he said in a squeaky voice. "The Dream Charm. The Dream Charm, when performed properly, will enable the person which the spell has been casted on, to remember the very last dream they had and to retell it. Different as it may be, this particular charm can be useful at times especially back in the middle ages, when dreams were a way of telling the future to people."

Everyone looked curious and Hermione looked like she couldn't wait to start on Dream Charms. Professor Flitwick continued, "The incantation is this,"—he cleared his throat—"Obduro somnius!"

"Obduro Somnius!" the class bellowed.

"Very good, now please divide into twos or threes and perform these spells on each other." He sat back down and started flicking through a thick book, as though looking for something.              

Harry turned to Ron and Hermione.

"This sounds like fun," he said.

"Yeah I feel sorry for the people who had embarrassing dreams," said Ron. "I don't fancy telling someone that I had a dream of the person I liked…" he shuddered. "and lucky thing too I didn't…I think."

Hermione laughed and said, "Well, we'll be able to find out soon…won't we?" She pointed her wand at Ron who was rolling up his sleeves. "Obduro somnius!" she yelled and at once, Ron's eyes rolled, then he seemed to come back to reality.

"I had a dream, a dream about Draco Malfoy…he confessed to me that he had a strong crush on Hermione Granger," Ron said in a flat tone. Harry doubled with laughter while Hermione flushed scarlet. Ron's eyes rolled again and he seemed back to normal because he demanded, "What did I say?"

Harry was too busy laughing and so Hermione decided to answer the question.       

"Well, you said—oh shut up Harry—you said that…"   

"That what?"

"That Malfoy told you he had a strong crush on me."

She blushed again and Harry laughed even harder now accompanied with Ron. By the time they had calmed down, both of them had tears in their eyes from laughing so hard.

"It's your turn now, Hermione!" Ron said, jumping up. With a swish of his wand, he yelled, "Obduro somnius!" Hermione however, didn't do anything unusual.

"I don't think your spell worked."

"Oooohhh no! I wanted to know what dream you had last night too," Ron said, disappointed.

When class had ended, Hermione, Ron and Harry set off to the Great Hall for dinner, feeling extremely happy.  Everybody in Harry's Charms class seemed to be talking of nothing but each other's dreams. Ron even told his fellow class mates about his dream and when Hermione found out, she seemed frustrated.

"I don't see anything funny," she said, frowning at the boys who were all laughing their heads off.

Dinner was great and to Harry's relief, Hermione's anger didn't last long. The three of them stayed up late playing a game of wizard chess in which Ron kept beating both Harry and Hermione.

"I'm going to bed," Harry yawned to the pair of them and as if his yawn was contagious, they too, did the same.

"Yes I think that's a splendid idea…" Hermione got up, helped Harry and Ron pack up the chess set and walked to the girl's dormitories, rather like a zombie, her eyes half shut. Ron and Harry went straight to bed after saying goodnight to each other. Harry heard Ron snore right away…

But Harry suddenly didn't feel sleepy at all. On the contrary, he felt wide awake. His mind had gone back to the rainbow coloured phoenix…what was it all about? He thought about going to the library to see whether there was a book about phoenixes…but he didn't want to be caught wandering around at the dead of the night again. Then he remembered the Invisibility Cloak he had inherited from his father. Yes…no one would ever know…

Slowly and very quietly, he got up and pulled the silvery cloak from his trunk. The soft, watery material ran through his hands, light as air. He threw it around himself and made sure that every part of him was covered then started to look for the Marauders Map. This map showed the whole of Hogwarts. But that wasn't all. It also showed tiny dots which were labelled people's names so that bearer would know whether he or she would be running into someone or not.

He tapped the map with his wand and whispered, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." The map revealed itself and Harry saw that Snape was in his office…walking around…pausing here and there…Filch the care taker was in his office too…with Mrs Norris, his scrawny cat.

He tiptoed out of the Common Room ("Huh? Who's there?" said the Fat Lady looking around) and made his way silently to the library…making sure he checked the map rightly…

Minuted passed and soon, Harry arrived at the library. He took off his cloak and started going up and down the narrow isles, between vast shelves which held numerous books. He reached the Phoenix section and read the titles of each book…looking for the right one. He pulled off a few from shelves and brought them to a round table.

"Lumos," he murmured. The tip of his wand shone with light, almost blinding him…

Harry started to read books with titles such as What's Behind Those Glittery Tails?, Phoenix Stories, Beautiful Birds of the Magical World…

An hour passed.

Just as he was starting to read Phoenixes Don't Need Wands Because They Have Their Own Powers he heard footsteps just outside the library door. Heart pounding, he quickly examined the Marauders Map and saw a tiny dot labelled "Leanne Kasender". Harry grabbed his Invisibility Cloak, hastily put away the books and sneaked outside.

He checked the map once more and saw that the dot "Leanne Kasender" was heading straight for the Forbidden Forest.  Knowing that he, Harry, had to get up at the Gryffindor Tower before anyone else came, started to head for the door which led to the Hogwarts grounds. He didn't plan to follow her, instead, he stood by the doors and watched her disappear into the dark forest.