Disclaimer: Nothing in this belongs to me. Everything belongs to their
respective owners
A/N : Don't know if anybody notice that the other half of chapter 8 has been posted. If you have not, check it out before reading this.
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Chapter 9 Not Again?
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'Excuse me.' Harry approached the person and asked, 'Would you mind if I and my. . .dog sit here?'
The person realized who Harry was in fact speaking to and hence put down the newspaper. The person was frowning slightly at the newspaper before looking up at Harry. . . perhaps the news troubled her? The person looked like a handsome young man at first glance, but on closer inspection, Harry could tell without doubt that it was in fact a woman - her feature was too delicate and graceful for it to be a man's. The woman was in her mid- twenties and had short blonde hair. She was in a blue shirt and black jeans that fitted her just perfectly and it was fashionable. Her greenish-blue eyes would look beautiful to Harry if only she had not been fixing Harry with a calculating glance.
'No, I don't mind.'
The woman might not really mean to scare him, but Harry felt a bit unnerved. The woman seemed not to be in such a good mood. And Harry was sure that if the woman wanted, her glare could rival that of Snape's.
Harry, a bit nervously as the woman was still studying him, sat down and studied the menu. He ordered several sandwiches and a cup of coffee and also asked for a bowl of water for his 'dog'.
'It's stifling here, don't you think so? Why don't you take off your cloak?' asked the woman. Her voice was deep and there was a charm in it, which seemed to be able to mesmerize the listener. . .Harry suddenly understood why the woman appeared to be suspicious of him - his face was covered. However, taking off his cloak was definitely out of the question. Harry really could not imagine if someone had seen him here..
'No, it's fine enough for me.' Harry did think that it was hot and stifling in the room, but what else could he say to the woman other than that? As he looked at the woman to see if she was satisfied with his answer, Harry noticed that the woman's attention was no longer directed at him. Following the woman's gaze, Harry found out that she was staring at Sirius. And Sirius, as a dog, was too staring at the woman.
Harry looked at the woman, then to Sirius, and then back to the woman again. Something was definitely not right about the way they were staring at each other. . . There was something Harry could not make out in the woman's eyes. Harry's heart beat quicker and quicker. Irrational thoughts started to appear in Harry's somehow deoxygenated mind. What if the woman knew Sirius was only pretending to be a dog? What if she told the others about it? What if she was a Death Eater?.both of them were sitting so still. . .
The woman, while still staring at Sirius, said to Harry, 'Your dog. . .'
The awkward moment was broken when a plate of sandwiches, a cup of coffee and a bowl of water came flying very fast but steadily towards their table and landed neatly on its surface. The woman seemed to be a little taken aback by the sudden appearance of those things, but she only let her surprise be shown for the briefest moment. Harry released his breath - he didn't realize that he was holding it.
In order to avoid the woman's eyes, Harry looked downwards on the table and picked up the cup of coffee. He quickly gave it up once his lips came into contact with the brown liquid - it was way too hot. Then he nibbled at a sandwich - he was not really that hungry. However, after receiving a low growl and a glare from Sirius, Harry knew that he had to finish it. On the other hand, Sirius had gobbled down his share of sandwiches and water fairly quickly.
'You have a handsome dog.' While Harry was busy finishing his sandwich, the woman suddenly commented.
'Thank you.' Harry hastily swallowed the last bit of food in his mouth and replied. Then he suddenly found his face grew hot as the woman flashed a little smile at him. Harry was thankful that his face was covered with the hood. . . the woman could charm other people without really trying.
Padfoot had perhaps momentarily forgotten the previous tense moment and was apparently quite happy about being called a 'handsome dog'. He approached the woman slowly as she extended her hand to him. Harry noticed that the woman had long and slender fingers.
'Can I pat him?' the woman inquired politely.
'Of. . . of course!'
The woman then enjoyed patting the long and soft fur of Padfoot. This amazed Harry because most people would be intimidated by the sight of such a large black dog - Harry himself had been when he first saw his godfather's animagus form.
Harry was kind of curious about how his godfather was feeling.he looked as if he was enjoying the woman's pat too. How could he not be when he was patted by a woman? And the woman was a beautiful one. . .Harry suddenly found that this scene - his godfather being patted like a dog by a woman - was actually very amusing. He couldn't help but chuckled.
'What's so funny?' the woman asked as Padfoot glared at Harry in a reproving way and barked. And the bark sounded suspicious like 'what?' to Harry.
'Err. . .I was just. . . thinking of something. . .' Harry had to take a deep breath to control himself.
'So,' after Padfoot walked back to Harry's side, the woman leaned forward and her tone deepened, 'I suppose you are waiting for the. . . network to work again? '
Harry nodded.
'Then why don't we get know to each other better? My name is Tenou Haruka. What's yours?'
'I'm - ' the sudden question nearly made Harry blurted out his true name. Thankfully Padfoot nudged Harry's legs sharply with his head and caused Harry to pause and think better of it.
'I'm Neville. . . Neville Longbottom.' Neville, sorry, thought Harry, but your name was the first that came into my mind.
The look on Haruka's face told Harry that she was not buying it. 'OK. . . if you said so. . . then, "Neville", what is the name of your dog?'
'He's Snuffle.'
'Snuffle?' Haruka looked bewildered by the name. But then it seemed that she decided to ignore it. 'Hmm. . . you are a native wizard, right?'
'Yes, I'm.'
'I came from Japan and the. . . wizarding society there is not like it here. Would you mind telling me something about it?'
'No, of course I don't mind.' Harry found it hard to turn down her polite request. Therefore he went on to answer her questions about the floo network, the main wizarding village, the Ministry of Magic, the largest magic school around - that is Hogwarts - and its headmaster and so on. They chatted more than half an hour during which Padfoot sat patiently at Harry's side. As time went by and the number of questions Haruka asked increased, Padfoot's pale eyes seemed to narrow in distrust again.
Harry was quite curious about Haruka and hence after she stopped asking questions, he decided to do something about his curiosity. 'Would you mind if I call you "Haruka"?'
'No, I'd not, "Neville".'
'Then may I ask why do you come to London? Are you a tourist?'
'Not exactly,' she paused for a while as if to contemplate on how much she could tell Harry, 'I was asked by someone to come here and find a person and help him,' the answer seemed pretty vague, but Harry supposed that he was not the one to protest about it - he himself had not told her his true name. 'But I don't know if I can ever find this person as he is. . .not where he was anymore.' Haruka then turned her gaze away from Harry and it fell on the folded paper on the table before staring into the space. She seemed lost in her own thought. Harry thought it was best not to disturb her yet.
Harry wanted to order another drink when a middle-aged man suddenly came bursting through the door of the inn and dropped to his knees on the ground. His hands clutched tightly at the doorframe and his eyes were widened in absolute horror. All eyes in the inn turned to the man.
'Death Eaters out there! Death - ' the door was thrown wide open and the man turned unconscious and fell to the ground. Harry had not really noticed what had happened to that man - his attention, just like the rest of the people in the inn, was wholly drawn to the those who appeared behind the fallen man - people in long dark robes with faces covered in hoods and wands raised.
Most people found that their worst nightmare came true and were numbed with shock for a short time. Then they screamed. This triggered the death eaters in motion - they ran into the inn and started to curse any moving things that came across their paths.
'Get Potter! ' someone shouted.
Padfoot barked frantically at Harry, but Harry was motionless with terror. What Harry could notice was only the horrible scene in front of him - one after another body fell down on the ground as those darkly robed monsters shot one after another curse. People dying because of him?
Those dark robes reminded Harry once again of the dead body of Mrs. Figg lying motionless in his arms. And her hollow eyes. Cedric's hollow eyes. His body lying oddly on the ground of the graveyard. Green flashes. His mum's plea. Voldemort's high-pitched cruel laughter. Mrs. Figg's silvery hair so close to him. . . no. . . not again. . . no. . .
Harry shut his eyes and covered his ears with his hands desperately to block all those screams and image and laughter and cries that were cracking his sanity. His mind refused to take him anywhere and his soul was no longer connected to the physical world outside his body. It sank lower and lower into to the darkness and coldness of despair.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Haruka watched transfixed as the man who burst through the door fell, then darkly robed figures came rushing in. The chaotic scene was familiar to Haruka: people cried and ran everywhere but to the exit as most of them were too shocked to tell the way out. Panic-stricken screams filled her ears. Some of those being chased suddenly collapsed onto the floor after being hit with a blast of light from the sticks, wands Haruka supposed, those Death Eaters held. And some of the people just all of a sudden disappeared - was it the Death Eaters' doing or by their own free will to escape?
It really was not the place or time for pondering such kind of things. Haruka wanted so much to pull out her transformation pen and transform. Only by doing so could the power within her be released and that she could stop and punish those Death Eaters with her long unused power. It angered her greatly to see those death eaters keep hurting innocent people. And did they just shout 'Get Potter'? Would it mean that Harry Potter was here?
Her heart had sank and her world turned black when she read the wizard newspaper called 'Daily Prophet' and knew that Harry was supposed to be captured by the Death Eaters. She feared that she had failed them - she had wasted too much time. All she could tell herself was that there had been no prove that Harry Potter had indeed been captured. And now those Death Eaters came looking for him.which would mean that she had not been too late and Harry, who she was meant to protect, was here.
As much as she wanted to find where Harry Potter was, Haruka could not ignore the condition the boy who called himself 'Neville' was in. Something was wrong about the teenage boy. He seemed oblivious to the chaos around him and just sat transfixed at his chair. His hand, while shaking madly, reached up and pressed the sides of the hood of his cloak tightly. She knew that she could not tend to her own business before getting the boy out of here.
With a few long strides, Haruka got in front of the boy. She shoved his dog out of her way and lay her hand firmly on the boy's skinny shoulder.
'Neville, Neville! You OK? We have to get out of here!' Haruka could get nothing out of the boy and hence shook him roughly. It was not the time for gentle action.
The boy continued to ignore Haruka and bent down slightly as if in pain. Haruka gave up the idea of waking the boy from his trance - the Death Eaters were already heading their way. Haruka pulled the boy up from his seat. Thankfully the boy had also lost his ability to resist and let Haruka dragged him out of attackers' way. They had barely been a few steps away from the table when blasts of red light hit the table and caused it to come apart.
Haruka had to dodge the Death Eaters' attack - she had no idea what would happen if she or the boy was hit by it - with great difficulty and found her way to the door in semi-darkness as all the sources of light inside the room had been destroyed. Haruka held the boy tightly against her.
It took her nearly five minutes to get herself and the boy out of the way of all those people, either lying on the floor or flying across the room just like many other knives and forks and cups and tables and chairs, and then out of the wooden door. Then Haruka hurriedly dragged the boy across the road. When Haruka finally stopped to catch her breath and turned back, fire burst through the window of the inn before her eyes. Haruka's heart immediately frozen - what if Harry Potter was still in there? She had got to get back in without delay. . .
'Neville, listen.' Haruka nearly yelled at the boy. She couldn't tell whether the boy was listening to her or not, but she had to make sure of his safety. 'Stay here. At least don't go back in the inn. I've to go.'
Haruka turned and intended to go back in but then someone got hold of her arm. It was the boy. It seemed that he had suddenly come out of his trance.
'Wait.' His voice was quivering. A gust of wind blew their way and made the hood of the long cloak he wore covered his face completely. The boy used his other hand to pull the hood off his head, and Haruka suddenly found herself under the gaze of a pair of brilliant green eyes. Why did they seem so familiar to her?
'What's happening?' the pair of emerald green eyes were turned to the burning inn.
Where exactly had she seen the same pair of beautiful green eyes?
The boy said something which Haruka was too occupied to hear clearly. And she was able to hear him again.
'Where is my dog? Where's him?'
The pair of horror-stricken green eyes reflected the light of the fire roaring in the inn. It was as if the eyes were shining. . . and the mob of wild black hair.
'Where's him? Where's my dog? Where's Padfoot?' Harry yelled and shook Haruka's arm furiously but Haruka was too shocked to answer - who would believe that she had been talking to the boy she was meant to find and protect for almost an hour? And she had thought that the chances of finding Harry would be slim, but now. . .
The removal of pressure from her arm made Haruka realized that Harry was no longer beside her. And she quickly spotted the back of Harry who was running as fast as he could towards the burning inn. Haruka without any hesitation sprang and ran towards Harry. She was glad that she could run so fast - this enabled her to outrun Harry before he managed to get to the inn. She spun Harry around by pulling at his arm.
'Harry, don't go back in! It's dangerous! Especially for you!'
Harry seemed not surprised at being called his real name. He was too worried about his 'dog' to notice.
'NO! Let me go! Let me GO!!!'
Harry struggled madly against Haruka's restricting hand. Haruka had to hold on with all her strength to keep him from running off again.
'No, I can't let you. It's just a dog, Harry! You have to run away from here for your life!'
'It's not "just a dog"! He's my. . . He's very important to me. You don't understand. Let go of me! I can't lose him!' something came up in Haruka's mind - hadn't James and Lily mentioned something about their friend who was Harry's godfather? Had they not mentioned that he had something to do with a dog? Maybe wizard could turn into animals at will? . . . and the name Padfoot. That must be it. The dog was Harry's godfather!
'Harry, stay here! I'll go and get him.' Haruka shouted at her top volume to get Harry listening to her. Harry stared at Haruka in a mixture of utmost anxiety and disbelief.
'But. . .'
'No buts, Harry. I'm sure that he would not want you to go back in. I promise you I'll get him out of there. ' Haruka could see that a great contest was taking place in Harry's heart - whether to jump into the burning inn himself or to trust the stranger in front of him. Haruka looked into Harry's eyes and could see the pain and affliction within. They were telling her that he could not bear to leave his godfather in danger and he would sacrifice his life for his godfather.
Haruka could tell that she had to act fast - she had to act before Harry decided to jump back in. She squeezed Harry's shoulder firmly and pushed him a few steps backwards. She gave a last determined gaze to Harry before turning and sped towards the broken wooden door from where dense smoke emerged.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry watched as Haruka entered the burning inn and wondered why had he let the woman stopped him. Then he told himself again and again that Sirius would be alright - maybe he had already gotten out of there.no matter how, he surely could look after himself. . . and he had not lost his wand just like Harry had. . . Wait.
Harry reached into his pocket and took out his godfather's wand.
And his heart frozen.
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the end of chapter 9! What will happen to the three of them?
A/N : Don't know if anybody notice that the other half of chapter 8 has been posted. If you have not, check it out before reading this.
*********************************************************************
Chapter 9 Not Again?
********************************************************************
'Excuse me.' Harry approached the person and asked, 'Would you mind if I and my. . .dog sit here?'
The person realized who Harry was in fact speaking to and hence put down the newspaper. The person was frowning slightly at the newspaper before looking up at Harry. . . perhaps the news troubled her? The person looked like a handsome young man at first glance, but on closer inspection, Harry could tell without doubt that it was in fact a woman - her feature was too delicate and graceful for it to be a man's. The woman was in her mid- twenties and had short blonde hair. She was in a blue shirt and black jeans that fitted her just perfectly and it was fashionable. Her greenish-blue eyes would look beautiful to Harry if only she had not been fixing Harry with a calculating glance.
'No, I don't mind.'
The woman might not really mean to scare him, but Harry felt a bit unnerved. The woman seemed not to be in such a good mood. And Harry was sure that if the woman wanted, her glare could rival that of Snape's.
Harry, a bit nervously as the woman was still studying him, sat down and studied the menu. He ordered several sandwiches and a cup of coffee and also asked for a bowl of water for his 'dog'.
'It's stifling here, don't you think so? Why don't you take off your cloak?' asked the woman. Her voice was deep and there was a charm in it, which seemed to be able to mesmerize the listener. . .Harry suddenly understood why the woman appeared to be suspicious of him - his face was covered. However, taking off his cloak was definitely out of the question. Harry really could not imagine if someone had seen him here..
'No, it's fine enough for me.' Harry did think that it was hot and stifling in the room, but what else could he say to the woman other than that? As he looked at the woman to see if she was satisfied with his answer, Harry noticed that the woman's attention was no longer directed at him. Following the woman's gaze, Harry found out that she was staring at Sirius. And Sirius, as a dog, was too staring at the woman.
Harry looked at the woman, then to Sirius, and then back to the woman again. Something was definitely not right about the way they were staring at each other. . . There was something Harry could not make out in the woman's eyes. Harry's heart beat quicker and quicker. Irrational thoughts started to appear in Harry's somehow deoxygenated mind. What if the woman knew Sirius was only pretending to be a dog? What if she told the others about it? What if she was a Death Eater?.both of them were sitting so still. . .
The woman, while still staring at Sirius, said to Harry, 'Your dog. . .'
The awkward moment was broken when a plate of sandwiches, a cup of coffee and a bowl of water came flying very fast but steadily towards their table and landed neatly on its surface. The woman seemed to be a little taken aback by the sudden appearance of those things, but she only let her surprise be shown for the briefest moment. Harry released his breath - he didn't realize that he was holding it.
In order to avoid the woman's eyes, Harry looked downwards on the table and picked up the cup of coffee. He quickly gave it up once his lips came into contact with the brown liquid - it was way too hot. Then he nibbled at a sandwich - he was not really that hungry. However, after receiving a low growl and a glare from Sirius, Harry knew that he had to finish it. On the other hand, Sirius had gobbled down his share of sandwiches and water fairly quickly.
'You have a handsome dog.' While Harry was busy finishing his sandwich, the woman suddenly commented.
'Thank you.' Harry hastily swallowed the last bit of food in his mouth and replied. Then he suddenly found his face grew hot as the woman flashed a little smile at him. Harry was thankful that his face was covered with the hood. . . the woman could charm other people without really trying.
Padfoot had perhaps momentarily forgotten the previous tense moment and was apparently quite happy about being called a 'handsome dog'. He approached the woman slowly as she extended her hand to him. Harry noticed that the woman had long and slender fingers.
'Can I pat him?' the woman inquired politely.
'Of. . . of course!'
The woman then enjoyed patting the long and soft fur of Padfoot. This amazed Harry because most people would be intimidated by the sight of such a large black dog - Harry himself had been when he first saw his godfather's animagus form.
Harry was kind of curious about how his godfather was feeling.he looked as if he was enjoying the woman's pat too. How could he not be when he was patted by a woman? And the woman was a beautiful one. . .Harry suddenly found that this scene - his godfather being patted like a dog by a woman - was actually very amusing. He couldn't help but chuckled.
'What's so funny?' the woman asked as Padfoot glared at Harry in a reproving way and barked. And the bark sounded suspicious like 'what?' to Harry.
'Err. . .I was just. . . thinking of something. . .' Harry had to take a deep breath to control himself.
'So,' after Padfoot walked back to Harry's side, the woman leaned forward and her tone deepened, 'I suppose you are waiting for the. . . network to work again? '
Harry nodded.
'Then why don't we get know to each other better? My name is Tenou Haruka. What's yours?'
'I'm - ' the sudden question nearly made Harry blurted out his true name. Thankfully Padfoot nudged Harry's legs sharply with his head and caused Harry to pause and think better of it.
'I'm Neville. . . Neville Longbottom.' Neville, sorry, thought Harry, but your name was the first that came into my mind.
The look on Haruka's face told Harry that she was not buying it. 'OK. . . if you said so. . . then, "Neville", what is the name of your dog?'
'He's Snuffle.'
'Snuffle?' Haruka looked bewildered by the name. But then it seemed that she decided to ignore it. 'Hmm. . . you are a native wizard, right?'
'Yes, I'm.'
'I came from Japan and the. . . wizarding society there is not like it here. Would you mind telling me something about it?'
'No, of course I don't mind.' Harry found it hard to turn down her polite request. Therefore he went on to answer her questions about the floo network, the main wizarding village, the Ministry of Magic, the largest magic school around - that is Hogwarts - and its headmaster and so on. They chatted more than half an hour during which Padfoot sat patiently at Harry's side. As time went by and the number of questions Haruka asked increased, Padfoot's pale eyes seemed to narrow in distrust again.
Harry was quite curious about Haruka and hence after she stopped asking questions, he decided to do something about his curiosity. 'Would you mind if I call you "Haruka"?'
'No, I'd not, "Neville".'
'Then may I ask why do you come to London? Are you a tourist?'
'Not exactly,' she paused for a while as if to contemplate on how much she could tell Harry, 'I was asked by someone to come here and find a person and help him,' the answer seemed pretty vague, but Harry supposed that he was not the one to protest about it - he himself had not told her his true name. 'But I don't know if I can ever find this person as he is. . .not where he was anymore.' Haruka then turned her gaze away from Harry and it fell on the folded paper on the table before staring into the space. She seemed lost in her own thought. Harry thought it was best not to disturb her yet.
Harry wanted to order another drink when a middle-aged man suddenly came bursting through the door of the inn and dropped to his knees on the ground. His hands clutched tightly at the doorframe and his eyes were widened in absolute horror. All eyes in the inn turned to the man.
'Death Eaters out there! Death - ' the door was thrown wide open and the man turned unconscious and fell to the ground. Harry had not really noticed what had happened to that man - his attention, just like the rest of the people in the inn, was wholly drawn to the those who appeared behind the fallen man - people in long dark robes with faces covered in hoods and wands raised.
Most people found that their worst nightmare came true and were numbed with shock for a short time. Then they screamed. This triggered the death eaters in motion - they ran into the inn and started to curse any moving things that came across their paths.
'Get Potter! ' someone shouted.
Padfoot barked frantically at Harry, but Harry was motionless with terror. What Harry could notice was only the horrible scene in front of him - one after another body fell down on the ground as those darkly robed monsters shot one after another curse. People dying because of him?
Those dark robes reminded Harry once again of the dead body of Mrs. Figg lying motionless in his arms. And her hollow eyes. Cedric's hollow eyes. His body lying oddly on the ground of the graveyard. Green flashes. His mum's plea. Voldemort's high-pitched cruel laughter. Mrs. Figg's silvery hair so close to him. . . no. . . not again. . . no. . .
Harry shut his eyes and covered his ears with his hands desperately to block all those screams and image and laughter and cries that were cracking his sanity. His mind refused to take him anywhere and his soul was no longer connected to the physical world outside his body. It sank lower and lower into to the darkness and coldness of despair.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Haruka watched transfixed as the man who burst through the door fell, then darkly robed figures came rushing in. The chaotic scene was familiar to Haruka: people cried and ran everywhere but to the exit as most of them were too shocked to tell the way out. Panic-stricken screams filled her ears. Some of those being chased suddenly collapsed onto the floor after being hit with a blast of light from the sticks, wands Haruka supposed, those Death Eaters held. And some of the people just all of a sudden disappeared - was it the Death Eaters' doing or by their own free will to escape?
It really was not the place or time for pondering such kind of things. Haruka wanted so much to pull out her transformation pen and transform. Only by doing so could the power within her be released and that she could stop and punish those Death Eaters with her long unused power. It angered her greatly to see those death eaters keep hurting innocent people. And did they just shout 'Get Potter'? Would it mean that Harry Potter was here?
Her heart had sank and her world turned black when she read the wizard newspaper called 'Daily Prophet' and knew that Harry was supposed to be captured by the Death Eaters. She feared that she had failed them - she had wasted too much time. All she could tell herself was that there had been no prove that Harry Potter had indeed been captured. And now those Death Eaters came looking for him.which would mean that she had not been too late and Harry, who she was meant to protect, was here.
As much as she wanted to find where Harry Potter was, Haruka could not ignore the condition the boy who called himself 'Neville' was in. Something was wrong about the teenage boy. He seemed oblivious to the chaos around him and just sat transfixed at his chair. His hand, while shaking madly, reached up and pressed the sides of the hood of his cloak tightly. She knew that she could not tend to her own business before getting the boy out of here.
With a few long strides, Haruka got in front of the boy. She shoved his dog out of her way and lay her hand firmly on the boy's skinny shoulder.
'Neville, Neville! You OK? We have to get out of here!' Haruka could get nothing out of the boy and hence shook him roughly. It was not the time for gentle action.
The boy continued to ignore Haruka and bent down slightly as if in pain. Haruka gave up the idea of waking the boy from his trance - the Death Eaters were already heading their way. Haruka pulled the boy up from his seat. Thankfully the boy had also lost his ability to resist and let Haruka dragged him out of attackers' way. They had barely been a few steps away from the table when blasts of red light hit the table and caused it to come apart.
Haruka had to dodge the Death Eaters' attack - she had no idea what would happen if she or the boy was hit by it - with great difficulty and found her way to the door in semi-darkness as all the sources of light inside the room had been destroyed. Haruka held the boy tightly against her.
It took her nearly five minutes to get herself and the boy out of the way of all those people, either lying on the floor or flying across the room just like many other knives and forks and cups and tables and chairs, and then out of the wooden door. Then Haruka hurriedly dragged the boy across the road. When Haruka finally stopped to catch her breath and turned back, fire burst through the window of the inn before her eyes. Haruka's heart immediately frozen - what if Harry Potter was still in there? She had got to get back in without delay. . .
'Neville, listen.' Haruka nearly yelled at the boy. She couldn't tell whether the boy was listening to her or not, but she had to make sure of his safety. 'Stay here. At least don't go back in the inn. I've to go.'
Haruka turned and intended to go back in but then someone got hold of her arm. It was the boy. It seemed that he had suddenly come out of his trance.
'Wait.' His voice was quivering. A gust of wind blew their way and made the hood of the long cloak he wore covered his face completely. The boy used his other hand to pull the hood off his head, and Haruka suddenly found herself under the gaze of a pair of brilliant green eyes. Why did they seem so familiar to her?
'What's happening?' the pair of emerald green eyes were turned to the burning inn.
Where exactly had she seen the same pair of beautiful green eyes?
The boy said something which Haruka was too occupied to hear clearly. And she was able to hear him again.
'Where is my dog? Where's him?'
The pair of horror-stricken green eyes reflected the light of the fire roaring in the inn. It was as if the eyes were shining. . . and the mob of wild black hair.
'Where's him? Where's my dog? Where's Padfoot?' Harry yelled and shook Haruka's arm furiously but Haruka was too shocked to answer - who would believe that she had been talking to the boy she was meant to find and protect for almost an hour? And she had thought that the chances of finding Harry would be slim, but now. . .
The removal of pressure from her arm made Haruka realized that Harry was no longer beside her. And she quickly spotted the back of Harry who was running as fast as he could towards the burning inn. Haruka without any hesitation sprang and ran towards Harry. She was glad that she could run so fast - this enabled her to outrun Harry before he managed to get to the inn. She spun Harry around by pulling at his arm.
'Harry, don't go back in! It's dangerous! Especially for you!'
Harry seemed not surprised at being called his real name. He was too worried about his 'dog' to notice.
'NO! Let me go! Let me GO!!!'
Harry struggled madly against Haruka's restricting hand. Haruka had to hold on with all her strength to keep him from running off again.
'No, I can't let you. It's just a dog, Harry! You have to run away from here for your life!'
'It's not "just a dog"! He's my. . . He's very important to me. You don't understand. Let go of me! I can't lose him!' something came up in Haruka's mind - hadn't James and Lily mentioned something about their friend who was Harry's godfather? Had they not mentioned that he had something to do with a dog? Maybe wizard could turn into animals at will? . . . and the name Padfoot. That must be it. The dog was Harry's godfather!
'Harry, stay here! I'll go and get him.' Haruka shouted at her top volume to get Harry listening to her. Harry stared at Haruka in a mixture of utmost anxiety and disbelief.
'But. . .'
'No buts, Harry. I'm sure that he would not want you to go back in. I promise you I'll get him out of there. ' Haruka could see that a great contest was taking place in Harry's heart - whether to jump into the burning inn himself or to trust the stranger in front of him. Haruka looked into Harry's eyes and could see the pain and affliction within. They were telling her that he could not bear to leave his godfather in danger and he would sacrifice his life for his godfather.
Haruka could tell that she had to act fast - she had to act before Harry decided to jump back in. She squeezed Harry's shoulder firmly and pushed him a few steps backwards. She gave a last determined gaze to Harry before turning and sped towards the broken wooden door from where dense smoke emerged.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry watched as Haruka entered the burning inn and wondered why had he let the woman stopped him. Then he told himself again and again that Sirius would be alright - maybe he had already gotten out of there.no matter how, he surely could look after himself. . . and he had not lost his wand just like Harry had. . . Wait.
Harry reached into his pocket and took out his godfather's wand.
And his heart frozen.
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the end of chapter 9! What will happen to the three of them?