Chapter Eleven
'The Dream'
On December tenth, Professor McGonagall passed a sheet through the Gryffindor common room, the students who were staying at Hogwarts over the Christmas holiday were to sign it. This was the first time Harry had decided not to stay. He had sent an owl to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to ask if Cho Chang could stay at the burrow and be Harry's guest for the wedding. They had replied and said 'yes'. It was now December sixteenth, and the Weasleys were getting excited about attending the wedding. The twins were creating exploding rice to throw at Percy and Penelope after the wedding, they already had a jar full of it. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had just finished breakfast and were heading off toward Charms. They were following a couple of Gryffindor first years, Susan Baker and Patrick Malfoy. Harry saw Draco Malfoy standing in the doorway between the entrance hall and the Great Hall with Crabbe and Goyle. As the first years approached them, Draco Malfoy stuck his foot out and tripped Patrick Malfoy. The Slytherins laughed. Draco pulled Patrick up by the collar of his robes and dragged him into the entrance hall where no teachers could see him. He threw Patrick against the wall. Patrick hunched over trying to catch his breath. The Slytherins continued to laugh. "That is really sad, Draco, that the only kids you can physically bully are first years," Hermione said. She went to see if Patrick was all right. "This is family business, mudblood, I think you should butt out!" shouted Malfoy. Ron went over to Malfoy and shoved him so hard that he flew five feet across the room before landing on his bum. "Weasley! You are such a disgrace to the wizarding world, your whole family is!" he stood up, brushed himself off indignantly, and stomped away toward the charms room.
Ron glared off after him as he said, "I hate that son of a b-,"
"Ron!" Hermione shouted, cutting him off. "I think you're all right, aren't you, Patrick?" Patrick nodded and gathered his belongings that had scattered along the floor. He hurried off with a few other first years to the transfiguration classroom. Harry, Ron and Hermione went into the charms classroom where they received a very dirty look from Malfoy and the other Slytherins. Professor Flitwick was already standing on top of his desk ready to teach as they took their seats. After classes that day, they were resting in the squishy chairs in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room. Patrick Malfoy came over and sat on the floor next to them. "Hi," he said, "I just wanted to thank you for this morning. Draco would have pulverized me if you hadn't come along." Ron nodded. "Why does Malfoy.I mean Draco hate you so much," Harry asked sitting up in his chair. "Well, frankly because my father married a muggle. When that happened, my Uncle Lucius and the rest of the Malfoy side of my family disowned my father. And besides that, my father refused to join my Uncle in the death eaters' circle. That side of the family hates us." He told them with tears beginning to form in his eyes. Turning pale, he looked up at them and said, "Professor McGonagall received a letter from St. Mungo's last week. She told me that my father had been tortured by the death eaters until he lost his mind.and then they- they killed my mum." He wiped tears away from his cheek. "I am going to go and live with my mum's sister and her family after school is over. Excuse me, I'm going to go to bed now," he sniffed and went up the boys' dormitories staircase. Harry's mouth was hanging open. He knew that Lucius Malfoy was evil, but to do that to his own family.his thoughts trailed off. Hermione had tears in her eyes as she said goodnight to them and went upstairs. "Can you believe that, Harry?" Ron asked as he pulled himself up in his chair. "Can you believe those Malfoys? The whole lot of them deserve to be in Azkaban prison!" he shook his head in disbelief. He and Harry went upstairs to bed. The next few days went by quickly. The castle was full of students bustling around getting ready to go home for the holidays. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Cho Chang had packed their things and taken them down to the train station in Hogsmeade. They talked excitedly about Christmas on the train. The twins and their dates for the wedding had joined them, it was Ron, Hermione, Cho, Harry, Ginny, Fred, George, Alicia, and Katie all packed in the same compartment. They were laughing as Fred showed them the jar of exploding rice. Occasionally if the train would get bumpy, they could hear some tiny explosions coming from the jar. When they reached Kings Cross Station, they all met with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and filed into two ministry cars outside. Mrs. Weasley was asking Cho all kinds of questions. It made Harry feel good, he thought maybe his own mother would have done the same thing to make sure that Cho was good enough for him. She seemed satisfied with Cho by the time they reached the burrow. It was already dark when they arrived home. Charlie and Bill were there preparing dinner for everyone. They had Mrs. Weasley's cookbook on how to conjure everything, and had quite a feast ready by the time everyone sat down at the table. After dinner the kids all got ready for bed. The twins, Bill and Charlie, and Ginny were to sleep in the den, so that Katie and Alicia could sleep in the twins' beds and Hermione and Cho could sleep in Ginny's room. Harry was exhausted so he went up to bed before Ron, because Ron was playing chess with Percy. He could hear Cho and Hermione a few rooms down giggling about something or other, but he turned the light off and lay down. He took his glasses off and placed them on the nightstand that was plastered with orange Chudley Cannon posters, then he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. Harry didn't know what time it was when he woke up, but he sat up in pain. It was still dark outside. He gripped his forehead, which was hurting, so badly he could barely open his eyes. He heard whispering outside so he pulled on his glasses and he stumbled out of bed holding his scar and squinted out the window. He saw all of the Weasleys standing in a row looking out in the darkness. Harry got a very sick feeling in his stomach. It looked a lot like the dream he had had. He raised the window and felt the cool air on his face as he tried to see better. Then he saw them. One by one, death eaters were stepping out of the darkness. Harry saw Wormtail pull his hood off and sneer at the Weasleys. Then Harry fell to his knees in pain when Voldemort stepped out into the center of the circle. Harry decided that no matter how much pain he was in, he would not allow the Weasleys to suffer. He went to his trunk and grabbed his wand and his Firebolt. He mounted the broomstick and shot out the window. Circling high above, the death eaters hadn't heard him yet. One by one, he began whispering 'Stupefy!' and stunning the death eaters. He had gotten four of them before the others had turned up to look at Harry. He heard Voldemort yell out 'Avada Kedavra!' and a green light had shot up behind Harry. Voldemort had just missed him. The death eaters began to shout curses at Harry and he had sparks and flashing lights shooting all around him like bludgers. Harry decided this was going to be like flying around the Hungarian Horntail. Now that Harry had gotten Voldemort's attention, he heard Bill, Charlie, and Percy stun the rest of the death eaters. He saw that Wormtail had transfigured himself into a rat and scurried into the hedge. Without thinking, Harry flew straight toward Voldemort and ran smack into his chest. They went hurdling through the garden. They both lay on the ground for a moment with the air knocked out of them. Wormtail transfigured himself back into human form and ran around to the garden to see what had happened. 'Lumos!' Wormtail shouted as a light beamed into Harry's eyes. Harry stood up quickly and pointed his wand down at Voldemort. "Stupid boy," Voldemort muttered. Harry glowered down at him and breathing heavily, his wand pointed at Voldemort's heart, not moving a bit. "Master! What should I do?" Wormtail asked frantically. "Wormtail, you idiot! Unstun the death eaters now! And all of you disapparate! I'll take care of this boy." Voldemort commanded Wormtail. Wormtail rushed off and Harry could hear the counter curse being administered and people popping away. "Do you think it will be as easy as that to get rid of me, Potter? I am the greatest sorcerer this world has ever seen, it will take much more than a mere boy to get rid of me!" "Well, seems to me, I've done it four times already," Harry spat. Voldemort made a growling noise and with that he disapparated. "NO!" Harry shouted. Harry fell to his knees as the Weasleys came running to his side. Ron sat down on the ground next to Harry and the Firebolt and put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "Oh, Harry!" Ginny yelled and hugged Harry tightly around the neck. "That was very brave of you, Harry," Mr. Weasley told him. "We were prepared to stand up for you though. We knew that he came for you, we were not going to give in." Harry looked up at them appreciatively. They pulled him up to his feet and they went inside. Mrs. Weasley made them all hot chocolate. Harry told them all about the dream he had about them before school had started. He told them he knew he couldn't let them stand up for him like that. He wiped a tear off of his cheek and his face turned red. "I should have killed him when I had the chance. I had my wand pointed right at him. Why did I hesitate?" Harry said, thinking out loud. "Don't worry about it, Harry. He'll be caught one day, and when he is.well, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't receive the dementor's kiss." Bill said. Harry shook his head and had a drink of hot chocolate. Percy sent an owl to Dumbledore to tell him what had happened. Harry wished that people could apparate on Hogwarts grounds, because he wanted Dumbledore and Sirius to be there immediately. He wasn't able to go back to sleep the rest of the night, so he and Ron played chess until Ron had fallen asleep at the chessboard. So Harry got out one of his books and read until the rest of the Weasleys had gotten up. Harry and Ron dressed in their dress robes and went downstairs to breakfast. The rest of the Weasleys were in their dress robes and Cho, Hermione, Katie and Alicia were in theirs too. Dumbledore had apparated earlier that morning and was sitting at the head of the table in canary yellow dress robes and a magenta wizard hat. His blue eyes sparkled as Harry came into the room. Harry saw a big black dog sitting at Dumbledore's feet. When Harry came in, the dog came wagging over to him. Mrs. Weasley had conjured breakfast for everyone, and everyone ate except Percy. He was nervously pacing back and forth in the den. "Arthur told us what happened last night, Harry. Once again you've shown courage beyond your years." Dumbledore said with a mouthful of porridge. Sirius had rested his big dog snout on Harry's leg. Harry passed him some bacon under the table. Even though the rest of the Weasleys knew that the dog was Sirius, Cho and some others who would be at the wedding didn't know, and as far as they knew Sirius was an escaped murderer. Cho and Hermione looked up confused by Dumbledore's words. "What happened last night, Harry?" Hermione asked with a concerned look on her face. Harry looked over at her with sad green eyes. Then he went on to tell her about everything that had happened. Cho gasped and grabbed Harry's hand. It was very comforting. "Oh, Harry! That's just like the dream you had!" Hermione said. She looked very worried, not only for Harry's safety, but for the Weasleys as well. Dumbledore patted Hermione's hand, as if he could read her mind. "As long as Snuffles and I are here, Hermione, I think nothing more will happen. We've decided to stay the duration of the Winter Break. I've left Professor McGonagall in charge at the school until I've returned." He said quietly. This made Harry feel relieved. "Er, Professor?" Harry asked. "You don't reckon that Voldemort and the death eaters will come back to the burrow once we've gone back to Hogwarts, do you?" Dumbledore shook his head and told him that they weren't after the Weasleys last night. "But, Professor, you don't think that they will come here for revenge, because they didn't get me last night?" Harry asked concernedly. "Well, Harry, we can only hope not." He said finally and finished his breakfast quietly.
'The Dream'
On December tenth, Professor McGonagall passed a sheet through the Gryffindor common room, the students who were staying at Hogwarts over the Christmas holiday were to sign it. This was the first time Harry had decided not to stay. He had sent an owl to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to ask if Cho Chang could stay at the burrow and be Harry's guest for the wedding. They had replied and said 'yes'. It was now December sixteenth, and the Weasleys were getting excited about attending the wedding. The twins were creating exploding rice to throw at Percy and Penelope after the wedding, they already had a jar full of it. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had just finished breakfast and were heading off toward Charms. They were following a couple of Gryffindor first years, Susan Baker and Patrick Malfoy. Harry saw Draco Malfoy standing in the doorway between the entrance hall and the Great Hall with Crabbe and Goyle. As the first years approached them, Draco Malfoy stuck his foot out and tripped Patrick Malfoy. The Slytherins laughed. Draco pulled Patrick up by the collar of his robes and dragged him into the entrance hall where no teachers could see him. He threw Patrick against the wall. Patrick hunched over trying to catch his breath. The Slytherins continued to laugh. "That is really sad, Draco, that the only kids you can physically bully are first years," Hermione said. She went to see if Patrick was all right. "This is family business, mudblood, I think you should butt out!" shouted Malfoy. Ron went over to Malfoy and shoved him so hard that he flew five feet across the room before landing on his bum. "Weasley! You are such a disgrace to the wizarding world, your whole family is!" he stood up, brushed himself off indignantly, and stomped away toward the charms room.
Ron glared off after him as he said, "I hate that son of a b-,"
"Ron!" Hermione shouted, cutting him off. "I think you're all right, aren't you, Patrick?" Patrick nodded and gathered his belongings that had scattered along the floor. He hurried off with a few other first years to the transfiguration classroom. Harry, Ron and Hermione went into the charms classroom where they received a very dirty look from Malfoy and the other Slytherins. Professor Flitwick was already standing on top of his desk ready to teach as they took their seats. After classes that day, they were resting in the squishy chairs in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room. Patrick Malfoy came over and sat on the floor next to them. "Hi," he said, "I just wanted to thank you for this morning. Draco would have pulverized me if you hadn't come along." Ron nodded. "Why does Malfoy.I mean Draco hate you so much," Harry asked sitting up in his chair. "Well, frankly because my father married a muggle. When that happened, my Uncle Lucius and the rest of the Malfoy side of my family disowned my father. And besides that, my father refused to join my Uncle in the death eaters' circle. That side of the family hates us." He told them with tears beginning to form in his eyes. Turning pale, he looked up at them and said, "Professor McGonagall received a letter from St. Mungo's last week. She told me that my father had been tortured by the death eaters until he lost his mind.and then they- they killed my mum." He wiped tears away from his cheek. "I am going to go and live with my mum's sister and her family after school is over. Excuse me, I'm going to go to bed now," he sniffed and went up the boys' dormitories staircase. Harry's mouth was hanging open. He knew that Lucius Malfoy was evil, but to do that to his own family.his thoughts trailed off. Hermione had tears in her eyes as she said goodnight to them and went upstairs. "Can you believe that, Harry?" Ron asked as he pulled himself up in his chair. "Can you believe those Malfoys? The whole lot of them deserve to be in Azkaban prison!" he shook his head in disbelief. He and Harry went upstairs to bed. The next few days went by quickly. The castle was full of students bustling around getting ready to go home for the holidays. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Cho Chang had packed their things and taken them down to the train station in Hogsmeade. They talked excitedly about Christmas on the train. The twins and their dates for the wedding had joined them, it was Ron, Hermione, Cho, Harry, Ginny, Fred, George, Alicia, and Katie all packed in the same compartment. They were laughing as Fred showed them the jar of exploding rice. Occasionally if the train would get bumpy, they could hear some tiny explosions coming from the jar. When they reached Kings Cross Station, they all met with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and filed into two ministry cars outside. Mrs. Weasley was asking Cho all kinds of questions. It made Harry feel good, he thought maybe his own mother would have done the same thing to make sure that Cho was good enough for him. She seemed satisfied with Cho by the time they reached the burrow. It was already dark when they arrived home. Charlie and Bill were there preparing dinner for everyone. They had Mrs. Weasley's cookbook on how to conjure everything, and had quite a feast ready by the time everyone sat down at the table. After dinner the kids all got ready for bed. The twins, Bill and Charlie, and Ginny were to sleep in the den, so that Katie and Alicia could sleep in the twins' beds and Hermione and Cho could sleep in Ginny's room. Harry was exhausted so he went up to bed before Ron, because Ron was playing chess with Percy. He could hear Cho and Hermione a few rooms down giggling about something or other, but he turned the light off and lay down. He took his glasses off and placed them on the nightstand that was plastered with orange Chudley Cannon posters, then he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. Harry didn't know what time it was when he woke up, but he sat up in pain. It was still dark outside. He gripped his forehead, which was hurting, so badly he could barely open his eyes. He heard whispering outside so he pulled on his glasses and he stumbled out of bed holding his scar and squinted out the window. He saw all of the Weasleys standing in a row looking out in the darkness. Harry got a very sick feeling in his stomach. It looked a lot like the dream he had had. He raised the window and felt the cool air on his face as he tried to see better. Then he saw them. One by one, death eaters were stepping out of the darkness. Harry saw Wormtail pull his hood off and sneer at the Weasleys. Then Harry fell to his knees in pain when Voldemort stepped out into the center of the circle. Harry decided that no matter how much pain he was in, he would not allow the Weasleys to suffer. He went to his trunk and grabbed his wand and his Firebolt. He mounted the broomstick and shot out the window. Circling high above, the death eaters hadn't heard him yet. One by one, he began whispering 'Stupefy!' and stunning the death eaters. He had gotten four of them before the others had turned up to look at Harry. He heard Voldemort yell out 'Avada Kedavra!' and a green light had shot up behind Harry. Voldemort had just missed him. The death eaters began to shout curses at Harry and he had sparks and flashing lights shooting all around him like bludgers. Harry decided this was going to be like flying around the Hungarian Horntail. Now that Harry had gotten Voldemort's attention, he heard Bill, Charlie, and Percy stun the rest of the death eaters. He saw that Wormtail had transfigured himself into a rat and scurried into the hedge. Without thinking, Harry flew straight toward Voldemort and ran smack into his chest. They went hurdling through the garden. They both lay on the ground for a moment with the air knocked out of them. Wormtail transfigured himself back into human form and ran around to the garden to see what had happened. 'Lumos!' Wormtail shouted as a light beamed into Harry's eyes. Harry stood up quickly and pointed his wand down at Voldemort. "Stupid boy," Voldemort muttered. Harry glowered down at him and breathing heavily, his wand pointed at Voldemort's heart, not moving a bit. "Master! What should I do?" Wormtail asked frantically. "Wormtail, you idiot! Unstun the death eaters now! And all of you disapparate! I'll take care of this boy." Voldemort commanded Wormtail. Wormtail rushed off and Harry could hear the counter curse being administered and people popping away. "Do you think it will be as easy as that to get rid of me, Potter? I am the greatest sorcerer this world has ever seen, it will take much more than a mere boy to get rid of me!" "Well, seems to me, I've done it four times already," Harry spat. Voldemort made a growling noise and with that he disapparated. "NO!" Harry shouted. Harry fell to his knees as the Weasleys came running to his side. Ron sat down on the ground next to Harry and the Firebolt and put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "Oh, Harry!" Ginny yelled and hugged Harry tightly around the neck. "That was very brave of you, Harry," Mr. Weasley told him. "We were prepared to stand up for you though. We knew that he came for you, we were not going to give in." Harry looked up at them appreciatively. They pulled him up to his feet and they went inside. Mrs. Weasley made them all hot chocolate. Harry told them all about the dream he had about them before school had started. He told them he knew he couldn't let them stand up for him like that. He wiped a tear off of his cheek and his face turned red. "I should have killed him when I had the chance. I had my wand pointed right at him. Why did I hesitate?" Harry said, thinking out loud. "Don't worry about it, Harry. He'll be caught one day, and when he is.well, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't receive the dementor's kiss." Bill said. Harry shook his head and had a drink of hot chocolate. Percy sent an owl to Dumbledore to tell him what had happened. Harry wished that people could apparate on Hogwarts grounds, because he wanted Dumbledore and Sirius to be there immediately. He wasn't able to go back to sleep the rest of the night, so he and Ron played chess until Ron had fallen asleep at the chessboard. So Harry got out one of his books and read until the rest of the Weasleys had gotten up. Harry and Ron dressed in their dress robes and went downstairs to breakfast. The rest of the Weasleys were in their dress robes and Cho, Hermione, Katie and Alicia were in theirs too. Dumbledore had apparated earlier that morning and was sitting at the head of the table in canary yellow dress robes and a magenta wizard hat. His blue eyes sparkled as Harry came into the room. Harry saw a big black dog sitting at Dumbledore's feet. When Harry came in, the dog came wagging over to him. Mrs. Weasley had conjured breakfast for everyone, and everyone ate except Percy. He was nervously pacing back and forth in the den. "Arthur told us what happened last night, Harry. Once again you've shown courage beyond your years." Dumbledore said with a mouthful of porridge. Sirius had rested his big dog snout on Harry's leg. Harry passed him some bacon under the table. Even though the rest of the Weasleys knew that the dog was Sirius, Cho and some others who would be at the wedding didn't know, and as far as they knew Sirius was an escaped murderer. Cho and Hermione looked up confused by Dumbledore's words. "What happened last night, Harry?" Hermione asked with a concerned look on her face. Harry looked over at her with sad green eyes. Then he went on to tell her about everything that had happened. Cho gasped and grabbed Harry's hand. It was very comforting. "Oh, Harry! That's just like the dream you had!" Hermione said. She looked very worried, not only for Harry's safety, but for the Weasleys as well. Dumbledore patted Hermione's hand, as if he could read her mind. "As long as Snuffles and I are here, Hermione, I think nothing more will happen. We've decided to stay the duration of the Winter Break. I've left Professor McGonagall in charge at the school until I've returned." He said quietly. This made Harry feel relieved. "Er, Professor?" Harry asked. "You don't reckon that Voldemort and the death eaters will come back to the burrow once we've gone back to Hogwarts, do you?" Dumbledore shook his head and told him that they weren't after the Weasleys last night. "But, Professor, you don't think that they will come here for revenge, because they didn't get me last night?" Harry asked concernedly. "Well, Harry, we can only hope not." He said finally and finished his breakfast quietly.