Harry Potter and the Quest for the Unknown
Harry lay there for a moment trying to understand what it all meant. All he
managed to do was get himself even more confused, his thoughts bombarded with
questions in which he had no answers. Finally he decided to get up and try to
rewrite the verses he was shown. He got up and quickly grabbed a piece of
parchment and his quill and using the faint light that was now trickling
through the window began to rewrite the riddle.
Harry was shocked to find the verses perfectly clear in his mind and it took
him but a few minutes to right out the whole thing. Once he had the whole
riddle in front of him he puzzled himself of what to do next. The riddle said
that he only had 14 days to find this thing, and he had not the vaguest idea
what it was all about. The only thing he knew for sure was that Sirius was
involved and if the dream had really had a meaning then he had some serious
explaining to do.
Harry sighed as he scrunched up his 12 piece of parchment. He wasn't sure how he could tell Sirius without getting him worried. Many hours later, on his 34th piece of parchment Harry finally had got it write.
Dear Sirius,
I thought I might just write to you and tell you how things are, and plus
Hedwig really looks like she's bored so she could do with a bit of a fly.
The Dursley's have been O.K compared to usual but holidays have just started
and they still have plenty of time to make up for their slow start.
The main reason I wrote was to tell you about this weird riddle that came to me
while I was dreaming. It said stuff about a treasure and needing to find you,
here's the bit about you...
You must find a man named Sirius Black
Once you have found him there's no turning back
He will give you the important clue
But finding me is up to you
What do you think it means? Do you reckon I imagined it or is there really some
quest I need to go on? Do you think Voldemort is involved?
I hope Hedwig finds you soon, the riddle said I only had 14 days to find you.
I hope you and Buckbeak are safe and you are where Dumbledore said you should
lie low, DON'T COME OUT HERE JUST CAUSE I HAD A FUNNY DREAM!
Harry
Harry knew that that the
letter wasn't too informative and he knew that only writing one verse meant it
would leave a lot of loose ends but he didn't want to risk giving too much away
and getting Sirius worried over nothing.
He got up and went over to where Hedwig was perching, on top of her cage, and
tied the letter to her let. "Get this to Sirius as quick as you can"
he said, and with a affectionate nip of his finger to show she understood,
Hedwig spread her wings and soared out the open window.
He was turning his head to watch her go, when suddenly he saw a ball of fluff
the size of a tennis ball speeding towards him and before he could move the
ball of fluff slammed into his head. " OUCH... SLOW DOWN PIG" he
yelled rubbing his forehead where Pig had just hit him, "Come here and let
me have that letter". That ball of fluff had turned out to be Ron's
miniature owl, and he was now flying in circles around the room and twittering
madly for no apparent reason. Harry grabbed the owl as it was hovering over
Hedwig's cage and relinquished it of its letter. He tore open the envelope and
an untidily written note fell out
Harry
I thought we might ask you to come and stay nice and early this holiday's,
Mum's been worried sick about you ever since that whole thing with You-Know-Who
last term. I think she really wanted you to come stay with us all holidays, I
don't think she can go much longer without having you here to worry about in
person.
Dad's says Fudge has tried to totally covered up the whole You-Know-Who thing
but I heard him talking to mum and he was saying that some wizards he talked to
were thinking about a revolt against Fudge after finding out he was trying to
hide it from them.
So on the whole it's chaos in our house, Percy is even more bad-temper than
usual (maybe it's more cauldron bottoms) and Fred and George have hardly been
out of their room. Anyway send Pig back with a an answer and get over here as
quick as you can
Get here soon- Ron
Harry once again seized his quill and some more parchment and wrote
Ron
How am I meant to get to your house!! I can't use the fire the Dursley's
boarded it up and you know I can't just apparate there. Anyway write back with
any ideas and be quick there's something really important I need to tell you
and see if you can get Hermione to come and stay again, I think she better hear
it too.
Tell you mum to stop worrying I'm OK- Harry
The letter finished Harry jumped up, snatched Pig clean out of the air, roughly
tied the letter to his leg and half threw him out the window. He hoped Ron knew
of a way for him to get to the Burrow because any day at the Dursley's was a
bad one and it was now 8:30am which meant they would be waking up soon, Harry
liked them much better asleep.
The remainder of Harry's
day was spent relentlessly going over the riddle, trying to make sense of it.
He was lucky enough only to see the Dursley's twice in the whole day and little
was said between them anyway. After tea Harry went back up to his room and
tried to made his mind off things with Flying with the Canons, a book about
Ron's favourite Quidditch team. But even Quidditch couldn't distract him from
the riddle and he found himself going over and over it, waiting for
inspiration. Many hours later he still had no idea what it was about, but for
some reason he new if it was important. He slipped quietly into bed still quizzing
himself about it's meaning, but it didn't take long for him to fall into a
dreamless deep sleep.
Harry slept long into the morning until the sun began to shine so brightly
through his window he couldn't possibly sleep. When he finally did get up he spent
the remainder of the morning doing homework (Snape had given him an essay on
Antidotes because he missed the exams) and avoiding Dudley.
When the afternoon came he began to get restless and paced up and down his room
searching for any signs of Pig with Ron's reply. At last after going for
another check out the window he saw a dot on the horizon that seemed to be
moving rather abnormally. Harry realised it was Pig just in time and ducked,
managing to avoid another collision. Pig however was not so lucky and unable to
stop in time and flew straight into the wall and promptly slide down the wall,
unmistakeably knocked out.
"Serves you right" muttered Harry as he scooped Pig off the floor and
placed him on the floor of Hedwigs cage, but taking the letter from his leg
before shutting the door.
He realised that Ron had obviously written the note very quickly but he could
still manage to read the untidy writing.
Harry,
Dad has told me that an old friend of his can come pick you up tonight, Dad's
friend will knock on the window at 9:00pm tonight so be ready to leave then.
Just leave the Dursley's a note; I don't think they would really care about you
coming here anyway. Hermione can come and stay, she'll be here the day after
tomorrow, but what so important that you have to tell us in person? Anyway see
you soon
Ron
Harry put down the letter; glad he would be
leaving the Dursley's early this year. So happy was he in fact he didn't hear
Pig let out a few feeble chirps to show he had woken up. He rushed around the
room and began to gather up all his possessions that he would need for his next
term at Hogwarts, and throw them in his trunk at the end of the bed. When he
was finished he double-checked he had everything and made sure he hadn't left
anything under the loose floorboard. Once he was certain he had everything, he
went down for tea with the Dursley's and after finishing his rather small
portion quickly he returned to his room and began the anxious wait for the
mystery person who was coming to collect him.
Harry's nerves grew as 9:00pm approached, he quickly wrote a note to the
Dursley's using ordinary paper and a pen explaining his sudden and rather
fortunate absence from their house. But 9:00pm came and went and there was
still no sign of anyone. Finally at 10:45 when he had almost given up hope he
heard a distinct tap at the window, he turned to greet the person and let out a
gasp of shock and jumped back. For hovering near his windowsill was none other
than Mrs Figg from across the street.
