Chapter 9: Owls

Harry woke up early one morning a few days later, and he felt a funny churning and flapping in the pit of his stomach. The first Quidditch game of the season started in three hours, and he was the new captain. This made him even more nervous than in past years because if the team lost, he would feel it was his fault.

He and Ron went down to breakfast that morning, but neither of them ate much, even though Hermione and Lauren tried to force them to eat. No one else on the team was eating much, either, so Harry called them all down to the field a little early.

The team got ready then sat down in the locker room to listen to Harry's pre-game speech. "I don't really know what to say except that we've been practicing hard and we're pretty good. We won the cup two years ago; let's see if we can win it again."

The teams went out onto the field. They were playing Ravenclaw. Madame Hooch opened the crate and released the Snitch and the Bludgers. Then she picked up the Quaffle, blew her whistle and the game began.

The first thing Harry noticed, watching his team play, was that Ron wasn't quite as good as Oliver Wood had been. Ravenclaw had grabbed the ball from the throw up and scored right away. It was, luckily, a clear day, so Harry could hear Lee Jordan's commentary as he flew around searching for the Snitch.

"Oh, another ten points for Ravenclaw. Come on Gryffindor!" Lee called. The score was 30 to 0 now. Finally Angelina caught the ball and scored on the Ravenclaw keeper. "Yes! Nice move, Angelina!" shouted Lee.

The game had been going on a while now, and it wasn't looking good for Gryffindor. Ravenclaw was up, 90 points to 20. Then suddenly, Harry saw the Snitch. Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw Seeker was much closer to it that he was. He'd have no chance of getting there before she did, even on the best racing broom in the wizarding world. So he did the only thing he thought would distract her, a Wronski Feint. Harry dove towards the ground in the opposite direction of the Snitch. Cho, thinking he had seen the Snitch there, dove after him. Harry pulled up right as he was about to hit the ground, hoping Cho wouldn't be able to stop herself. But she must have seen the Quidditch World Cup, too, because she didn't crash as Harry had hoped. However, he had succeeded in leading her away from the Snitch and allowing his team more time. Cheering brought him back to the game.

"Gryffindor scores, taking them to 30 points, and Ravenclaw is still in the lead with 120," Lee announced. Cho grinned at him, and started to fly away. Harry couldn't believe they were so behind. But suddenly he saw the Snitch again. He put on a burst of speed, but Cho was close behind. Harry had to catch it! He didn't want them to lose their first game. He stretched his arm out and caught the tiny ball.

Madame Hooch blew her whistle and the teams landed. Gryffindor fans were cheering. They had won, 180 points to 120.

As the weeks passed by, all the gang had to worry about was doing their homework and Quidditch practices. Harry was pushing the team even harder now that he had seen how badly out of practice they were. Another of the foursome's problem was Malfoy. Now that they were away from any immediate danger, he was being perfectly unfriendly again. He was sour about Gryffindor winning the match when they were so close to defeat. He was also giving them very dirty looks in the halls, now, because they knew two of his biggest secrets. He was always threatening them and telling them what he would do if they told. Most of the punishments were not too pleasant.

The next day, Hermione was skimming the Daily Prophet for Ministry news, when another headline caught her eye. "Durmstrang Headmaster Still Missing, Search Party Called Off," she read out loud to Harry, Ron, and Lauren.

"What?" said Harry.

"Igor Karkaroff, the Durmstrang Headmaster, was reported missing last June after the last task in the Triwizard Tournament, which took place at Hogwarts. A search party had been sent out to find his whereabouts after he didn't return to his school at the start of term, September 3. They have searched everywhere, but they have found no sign of Karkaroff. The search party gave up yesterday, after almost two months of searching with no luck," she finished.

"Well we already knew he was missing," said Ron. "He ran away because he was scared of You-Know-Who."

"What are you thinking about, Harry?" asked Lauren, looking at Harry, who appeared to be lost in thought.

"That night in the graveyard," he shuddered, thinking about it, "Voldemort said Karkaroff would pay. Think of the disappearances before. Dumbledore said that they always happened when Voldemort was coming to power the first time. Think about it…Bertha Jorkins, Mr. Crouch, that old Muggle… What if Karkaroff was the next?"

They thought about this for a while, but they had no other information to go by. They did not know if their theory was true or not. They could do nothing.

About two weeks after the Wormtail kidnapping incident, Harry, Ron, Lauren, and Hermione were sitting in the library, poring over books about the original Ministry of Magic for one of their homework assignments. "This is hopeless. I can find who the first head of Department of Magical Games and Sports was," Harry said, shutting So you want to be the Minister of Magic? so loud that it echoed around the empty library. Madame Pince, who hadn't noticed that there were any students left in the library, shooed them away.

"Let's go to bed. It's late." Ron shut The Book of the Department of International Magical Cooperation and Other Departments and walked to the door. The others followed him. They walked back up the their common room. It was so late that the common room was completely empty. The boys and girls split and went up to their dormitories to sleep.

Harry crawled into his four poster bed, now changed into his pajamas. He put his glasses on the side table, and it wasn't long before he had dozed off….

"Wormtail, it looks like you have done it again," said a cold, high-pitched voice.

Harry was in that same room again. He had been there twice before in his dreams. It was a dark room, with the fire being the only source of light. There was a large armchair sitting toward the fire, and a short, cowering Wormtail standing by it, whimpering.

"I'm very sorry, My Lord. It will not happen again!" Wormtail cried.

"I believe I've heard that before from you. Again, you have failed to capture Harry Potter. Last time, it could be fixed, but this time… He is watchful of me, Wormtail. Knows I'm after him. It will be hard to get my hands on him again."

"I'm very sorry, My Lord."

"I'll let you off this time, but next time… I might have to find another to take your place…"

"It won't happen again, master! It won't!"

"Very well, then. You did the other task I asked you, then? Karkaroff?"

"Yes, Master, he is dead." Voldemort smiled wickedly.

"And the letters, Wormtail?"

"Uh…." Wormtail looked uncomfortable. "I don't remember any letters, My Lord."

Lord Voldemort sighed heavily. "The letters to the giants and the dementors, Wormtail," he said impatiently.

"Oh, yes, well no, I…"

"You didn't do them? I shall have to do them myself, then. Of course, I suppose it saves time. After all, you would only screw them up anyway." Voldemort got up, walked across the room, sat down a desk in the corner, took some parchment and ink from a drawer in the desk, and began writing.

After a while, Voldemort looked up from his writing. "You do remember the plan, Wormtail?"

"Yes, uh, well, parts of it, My Lord," said Wormtail hopefully.

"How many times will I have to tell you before you remember? As soon as we have word from the dementors, whether they choose to stay loyal or not, we will go to Azkaban, sneak in if we have to, and free everyone who is worth saving."

Wormtail cut in. "Worth saving? I don't understand."

"Prisoners in Azkaban often go crazy. But some can fight it. If they aren't worth saving, we'll just kill them all off."

"Then what, master?"

"Then I replace you," said Voldemort, his voice even colder than usual. "Then I will think of a plan from then, considering what I have to work with. But the giants will be very helpful in any plan. Too bad our Minister is too stupid to realize what I am planning. Dumbledore suspects, though, and we have to be careful of that. He might have already sent word to the giants. But I'm sure I'll be able to offer them more than he can. I predict we'll be showing ourselves off by the summer time. Then we can get Harry while he is out of Dumbledore's protection."

"Ah, that is a very good plan, My Lord. No problems at all!"

"Well, we shall see what responses we get from these letters," Voldemort said, holding up two pieces of parchment, and tying them to two barn owls.

The room suddenly started to get brighter, and Harry realized that it was morning, and the sun was shining in his face. He sat up and put his glasses on, a dull pain in his scar. He had had these kinds of dreams before, but this one made him even more scared than the other two. If what he had seen in the dream was true, the world was in a whole lot of trouble. If Voldemort had all his most loyal servants again, who knows what would happen? The only thing to do now was go to Dumbledore before he forgot.

Ron was sitting up in bed. He saw Harry dressing faster than usual and hurried towards the door. "Why are you in such a hurry?" Ron asked.

"I had another one of those dreams," Harry said. Ron's eyes grew wide and he quickly pulled on some clothes and raced after Harry.

"Where are we going?" asked Ron, catching up.

"Dumbledore's office," Harry said shortly. He began to tell Ron all the details of his dream. Ron flinched every time Voldemort's name was mentioned.

When Harry had reached the point in his dream where he had woken up, Ron said, "Wow, if that's really true, then we've gotta do something before You-Know-Who gets all his power back!"

By this time, they had reached the statue of the gargoyle. Harry said the password, and walked up to Dumbledore's office. No one was there. "Professor?" Harry called, but there was no answer.

They had walked around the office for a while, hoping to run into Dumbledore, when they heard footsteps on the stairs. It was Professor McGonagall. "What are you two doing in here?" she asked sternly.

"We were looking for Professor Dumbledore," said Harry. "Where is he?"

"The Headmaster has been called away on urgent business. Now you two should get on to class."

"But…" Harry started, but Professor McGonagall's look told him that he should follow the order. Then made their way down to the classroom for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"You are late, boys," Fleur said as they entered the room. "But since it is the first time, I will let it go."

Harry and Ron went to their seats. "Where were you guys?" asked Hermione. Harry told her and Lauren about his dream and Professor McGonagall.

"And Dumbledore wasn't there?" asked Lauren. "That's strange. Maybe you should send him an owl."

"I think I should try to send Sirius and owl, too," said Harry. "Lots of strange stuff has been happening and he'd want to know."

"We could try to send a school owl," suggested Hermione. It might take a while, but it will also take a while for the Dementors to get back to You-Know-Who. Maybe Sirius and Lupin can do something about it."

"It's worth a try," said Ron.

After class, the four of them walked up to the owlery. Harry had written two notes. One to Sirius, and one to Dumbledore. Both explained about the dream and Karkaroff, and Sirius's also included the tale of the kidnapping. Harry tied Dumbledore's letter to Hedwig and told her to find him as soon as possible. He attached the letter to Sirius to a school barn owl, and it flew off quickly out the glassless window.

Harry knew the owl was going to take a long time to get to Sirius, but he still could not stop wondering if it would be too late. It was two weeks later, and Dumbledore had not yet returned to the school, or responded to his letter. He was beginning to think the dream he'd had was completely useless. He wondered if he should tell Professor McGonagall about the dream. She'd heard Barty Crouch's confession, and Dumbledore had probably told her about Harry's meeting with Voldemort. But he couldn't be sure she would believe him. In the end, he decided not to tell.

It was at breakfast, three weeks after the letters had been sent that the school owl came into the Great Hall. It was carrying a letter, which it dropped into Harry's lap. Harry gave it a piece of bacon from his plate, and it sped off to the owlery. Harry quickly unfolded the letter and read it aloud, though softly, to the others.

Dear Harry,

I'm very surprised your owl made it here, but I am very glad you wrote. It is not too late to stop Lord Voldemort. He has not, that we know of, taken over Azkaban yet. Lupin lives fairly close to Azkaban, and we'll try to be there to stop him, whatever he plans to do, and whenever he plans to do it. Dumbledore is here, too. He arrived shortly after the day you had the dream. He is, of course, very sorry he left at the exact wrong time. Here's some advice to you. Be careful, Harry. Don't hang out with Malfoy anymore. He might not have been acting when he said all those things. Don't do anything stupid. I will write you again when something happens.

Sirius

"Well, now we know Dumbledore is doing something about it," said Lauren, when Harry had finished reading.

"Yeah, but what? Sirius didn't say. We don't know what will happen. For all we know, You-Know-Who could have taken over Azkaban without anyone noticing," Ron said drearily.

"Wait!" said Harry suddenly. "There's something on the back!"

Dear Harry,

As Sirius said, I am very sorry for leaving the school, but it can not be helped. Had I known you would have this dream, I would have stayed a few days longer. However, it was extremely helpful, as I have been wondering what to do next. We, meaning Sirius, Professor Lupin, myself, and a few others, have formed a plan. I can not say what the plan is right now, in case Dark wizards intercept this letter.

The reason for this letter is that we need you to come here. You will miss school, yes, but it is a small price to pay for the help you can give us. Three weeks is too long for owl correspondence. By the time we get your letters, something else could have already happened. Your connection with Voldemort is very important now. I will be back shortly after you receive this letter. I will come and get you. Be ready to leave at any time. Oh, and you can bring Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, and Miss Marshall if you like. No doubt they can be of some assistance, too. Tell them to be ready. I will arrange the transportation. I'm sure you've already heard this from Sirius, but be careful. There are some who can't be trusted.

Professor Dumbledore

Harry stared at the letter he had just read. "They want me to go…there?" he asked.

"Not just you, all of us," said Hermione.

"Weird," said Ron. For a while, they all sat there looking at the letter and each other. After classes that day, they packed so they were ready to leave when Dumbledore came for them.

They did not have to wait long. The day after the next, Dumbledore came into the Great Hall, where they were sitting at the Gryffindor table, eating dinner. He had just gotten back. The four of them walked up to their common room, and Dumbledore followed.

"Hurry, there's no time to waste," said Dumbledore, as they climbed into the common room and grabbed their bags. Then they walked out the main entrance.

"How are we getting there?" asked Ron.

"Knight bus," said Dumbledore. He stuck out his wand hand, the way to attract the wizard bus. A bus suddenly burst out in front of them and stopped to let them on. Luckily for Harry, it was not the same bus that had taken him to Diagon Alley two years ago after he had blown up his Aunt Marge. This bus had different people working on it, who didn't recognize him as the boy who was Harry Potter, but pretended to be Neville.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Lauren, and Professor Dumbledore were ushered upstairs, and given a bed each. "This is the fastest way for us to get to Professor Lupin's house," Dumbledore explained. "We should be there late tomorrow evening."

The four were chatting until Dumbledore asked Harry to retell his dream. He could give many more details when he was talking than when he was writing. When he was finally finished, Dumbledore suggested they all go to sleep, since they had a late day ahead of them tomorrow.

When Harry awoke the next morning, he read the newspaper, which Dumbledore had bought. They were served some sort of brunch, which didn't look too appetizing, that none of them ended up eating. After several hours of doing nothing, the dropped them off outside a small, wooden house. Dumbledore knocked on the door.

"Hello!" said Lupin, answering the door and invited them inside. "How was your trip?"

"Fine," they all muttered. It was late and they were tired. Lupin led them inside into the kitchen, where they were getting ready to eat a very late dinner.

"Hey," said Sirius, who was putting dishes on the table.

A woman was standing by the stove, heating water in a kettle. "Oh, good, you're here. Dinner is ready," she said cheerfully. She took the kettle off the stove and poured the water into mugs.

"Good, I'm starving!" said Ron. They chuckled.

They all sat down around the rectangular table. The woman sat across from Harry. He couldn't think of the reason, but she looked strangely familiar.

"Kids, this is Ms. Arabella Figg," said Sirius, referring to the lady. Harry understood immediately why he recognized the lady. She was the Dursleys' neighbor who used to take him in when the Dursleys went places. She smiled at him.

"You're a witch?" he asked slowly.

"Yes. I know you must think it's strange that when you came over I always said nothing, but I was covering up. If your aunt and uncle knew I was a witch, they wouldn't let you see me anymore. I'm sorry if I bored you," she said.

"That's okay."

"What are you talking about?" asked Ron and Hermione.

"I used to take care of Harry when his aunt and uncle wanted to go out," explained Ms. Figg.

"So what's the plan?" Ron asked.

"The plan? The plan is, we wait for Voldemort to make the first move," explained Dumbledore.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Ron.

"It means that either we get some kind of signal from Harry," added Lupin, smiling at Harry, "or we wait for him to do what he does."

"But, I might not get a signal," said Harry.

"That's one drawback to the plan. But if we don't get a signal, there's nothing we can do. We can't wait around Azkaban for him, because we don't know when he's coming. But for now, the only thing we can do is stay put and wait."

By the time they finished eating their dinner, it was very late. "It's time for bed," said Dumbledore. "It's late."

"Where are we supposed to sleep?" asked Ron, yawning.

"There are three bedrooms," said Lupin. He led them back a little ways into a short hallway with two doors on one side, and one on the other. Lupin opened the first door on the side with two. "This is where the girls will sleep," he said. There were two beds in the room. "One of you girls will have to sleep on the floor."

"I will," said Lauren. Hermione took the open bed, and Ms. Figg had already taken the other bed.

Lupin closed the door behind him, and opened the door on the other side of the hall. "This will be Dumbledore's room, and Fletcher's, too, when he gets here." Dumbledore went into the room and shut the door.

They walked to the last door in the hall. It looked identical to the other two rooms. "This last room will be a little crowded," said Lupin. "Me and Sirius will sleep on the beds, and you two boys will have to sleep on the floor."

Ina few minutes, everyone was situated and in bed. Many "goodnights" were called, and then the lights went out. They were soon fast asleep.