Harry Potter and Gryffindor's Secret
Chapter 14: What Book?
By: Lin-z
A/N: Aw, you *are* still reading this! Okay folks, this chapter is pretty packed – I'd say it's pretty much vital to the rest of the story (which I'm guessing will only be five or six chapters longer – but don't quote me on that because I'm not sure).
Disclaimer- I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters or places.
Thanx to my ever brilliant beta reader, ~*Dumbledore's True Love*~
**
"What do you mean, 'This could be worse than I thought!?' What's going on here!?" Sirius demanded, looking decidedly stricken.
"Perhaps it would be best if you sat down," Dumbledore suggested. He slid his half-moon shaped spectacles from his nose and rubbed his temples. Once he had replaced them snugly on his nose, he placed his elbows on the desk and leaned forward. "Okay, now tell me exactly what's been happening."
"Well," Sirius began, "Yesterday Harry seemed a bit under the weather. We performed the charm on him last night, and this morning, he woke up ill. A few moments ago, he woke up from resting saying something about Voldemort and how he was looking for a book. I'm supposing there was more, but he didn't say anything else about it."
"Was he in any physical pain when he woke?"
"You mean, aside from having a mammoth headache and a 104º fever? No, he didn't seem like it." Sirius paused. "This isn't just mono, is it." He said, more as a statement than a question.
Dumbledore stood and strode to Fawkes' perch, letting the Phoenix perch on his forearm. "What do you say we go pay Harry a visit so I can have a look at him myself, eh?"
Sirius followed him out the door and the two of them made their way to the hospital wing.
**
Harry was trapped in a fiery forest, running to escape from the trees that were trying to catch him. "No!" he shouted, "Go away you stupid trees!" All of a sudden one of the trees caught up with him and began shaking him. "Lemme go!" he said, trying to push the spindly tree away. Slowly Harry realised that the fire had faded away, and even though he was still hot, he was now back in the hospital wing. His parents were standing over him, looking concerned. "Mum? Dad?" he whispered hopefully.
"Harry, it's me, Sirius," Sirius said. It must be serious; he was asking for his parents. "Madam Pomfrey?" he called.
"Yes?" she said, wiping her hands on her apron as she made her way back over to Harry's bed. "Professor Dumbledore, good to see you! What's wrong, Sirius?"
"Look at him," Sirius said, turning to Harry, who was looking rather blank and talking to his invisible parents.
"Oh! The poor dear is delirious!" She ran to the other side of the bed, where the green globe hovered. "105º! Quick, grab the fever reducing potion!"
Fawkes the Phoenix fluttered from his perch on Dumbledore's arm and landed gracefully at Harry's shoulder. The brilliant bird lay its head on the boy's shoulder and shortly a few of its pearly silver tears slid to Harry's arm. Within a matter of minutes, Harry's view cleared and he was able to see the three people that were gathered around him.
"Hi," he smiled.
"Hey kiddo," Sirius said, putting a hand to Harry's forehead. "Wow, your fever's down! How do you feel?" Sirius took a seat on the side of the mattress.
"Dizzy and tired, but better!" Harry said, sitting up in bed and reaching for the glass of water on his bedside table. "Why are you guys looking at me like that?"
Sirius smiled. "You were delirious, let's leave it at that."
"Can you tell me anything about your dream Harry?" Dumbledore said, gently bringing everyone back to the task at hand. "Anything at all, even if it seems really insignificant."
For a minute Harry sat there with a frown on his face, concentrating hard. "I can't remember anything," he said at last.
"You said it was something about Voldemort and a book, if that helps," Sirius offered.
Harry concentrated hard for a few moments, then abruptly straitened up. "What was the book you got that charm from last night? You know, the Vinculum Obscuro charm."
"The book of Gryffindor?" Dumbledore said, a grim expression on his wise visage.
"No, but I think the title was similar. Sorry," Harry said, leaning back against the wall. He could feel the pounding in his head beginning to return. It was vague now, but Harry felt somewhat sure it would escalate soon.
"Thank you very much, Harry. Sirius, would you stay here for a while please while I go see if I can figure something out?" Dumbledore stood and asked.
"Gladly," Sirius said, pulling his godson into his lap and sitting back against the headboard. The headmaster thanked them once more and turned to leave the hospital wing.
Harry yawned and nestled into his godfather's embrace. The room felt awfully cold. "Can somebody shut the window? There's a draught," (a/n: pronounced draft) he mumbled sleepily.
Sirius felt Harry's forehead. Sure enough, the temperature was on the rise. He grabbed an extra blanket and wrapped it around Harry, who had begun to shiver slightly. 'Please be alright,' Sirius whispered to himself. 'I couldn't stand to lose you.' Sirius ran a hand through Harry's hair, playing with the errant black strands.
**
Harry woke up a few hours later, still in his godfather's loving embrace, in the midst of a coughing fit. With each cough his lungs and throat burned and ached. Sirius held up a goblet of potion, which he gratefully accepted, relaxing as the cool liquid soothed the whole way down. "Thanks," he mumbled when the coughing subsided.
Dumbledore came through the double doors at the far end of the wing and walked towards Harry and Sirius. "Sirius, if I could speak to you for a moment please, in my office," he said softly.
"I'll be back in a little while, okay kid?" Sirius said. Harry nodded lightly as the movement caused him pain. He slid out of his godfather's comforting embrace and snuggled deeper in the sheets. Sirius rose and followed the headmaster up to his office.
**
"So? Did you find anything out?" Sirius asked anxiously the moment they were both seated in the headmaster's office.
"Actually yes, but I'm afraid it's not altogether good news. I think I've figured out what book it is that Voldemort is looking for," he said grimly.
"Uh oh, what is it," Sirius asked.
"You know of the book of Gryffindor. What you probably didn't know was that Slytherin had a book of his own, into which he put all his dark potions and spells. For many years he tried to keep it a secret, showing only to his most promising pupils. Eventually, Gryffindor got wind of what he was doing, and tried to confiscate the book before some of the more dangerous potions were too widespread. One of the most dangerous, the Nullificus Draught, was supposed to render the recipient devoid of all magical abilities. In 1092, Gryffindor finally managed to sequester the Book of Slytherin. He tried to destroy it, but to no avail. He hid it as best he could, and eventually it faded from memory. Evidently Voldemort has found out about this book and is searching for it. For your own safety, I cannot tell you where it is, but my belief is that he thinks Harry knows where it is and is trying to get Harry to tell him where."
"How can he possibly think that *Harry* would know where this book is?! Harry's only a fifth year!" Sirius said in an outrage. "And even if he *did* know, he would never tell!"
"Have you seen Harry's animagus form?" Dumbledore enquired.
"Huh? What does that have to do with anything?"
"Everything. Have you?"
"I haven't seen it, but he said he turned into a Phoenix. It's never happened before though has it?" Sirius asked.
"Actually, it has happened once. Godric Gryffindor himself was a phoenix in his animagus form. An unregistered animagus, of course," he said with a wink. "Anyhow, it makes sense that Harry would become a Phoenix as well. It is the sign of the Heir."
Sirius was awestruck. His godson? The Heir? Sirius knew all too well what that meant. It meant that in some hidden recess of his brain, Harry did indeed know where the Book of Slytherin was hidden, as well as a great deal of other things that Sirius didn't even want to begin to think about. Sirius was saved from drowning in his thoughts by Dumbledore calling his name.
"Sirius, please," he said. "I'm almost positive that Voldemort is behind Harry's illness, and if he is, then the reason is probably so that he can get Harry to turn over the book. That's the bad news. The good news is that there is a way for us to block what he's doing. The Vinculum Obscuro charm was too weak to use against heirs, which is why it's not doing its job. It is my belief however, that once Harry is Initiated into the Order of the Phoenix, he will be able to fight it and eventually throw it off."
"Once the Initiation takes place, how long until he's able to fight it off successfully?" Sirius asked, relieved.
"It depends. With Harry, I'd guess a few days until he starts to show improvement, and another few days to a week before he's mostly over it." Dumbledore finished.
"And how soon until we can get him Initiated?" Sirius asked excitedly. Knowing that Harry would be able to recover was like having a thousand pound weight removed from his shoulders. He was barely able to keep from jumping out of his chair and shouting with excitement.
Dumbledore knew well how much self control Sirius was having to use to keep in his seat and smiled at him – how much enthusiasm this man had! "We simply need to get all the members of the Order here, which could take a couple of days. The reason we need to Initiate him is so that he can have the combined strength of the whole Order fighting on his side, so they all need to be here."
"Thank you so much, Professor Dumbledore," Sirius said, jumping up to shake his hand. "I *really* appreciate this!"
"My pleasure," Dumbledore said, watching as Sirius practically skipped from the office.
**
"Let's go visit Harry now," Hermione said, once classes had ended for the day. Ron had told her Harry was ill when she had asked him why he was late to Flitwick's class.
"Spot on," Ron replied. "I wonder if he's doing any better now. He seemed pretty bad this morning, and Madam Pomfrey wouldn't let me stay to see how he was."
The two of them wound their way through the halls to the hospital wing and knocked on the door. Madam Pomfrey came to the door a few moments later looking slightly haggard. "Yes?" she said as she pulled the door open.
"We were, er, wondering if we could see Harry now," Hermione said.
"He's not been overly coherent today, and I'm afraid he's asleep right now," the matron replied.
"Please?! Just for a few minutes, I promise," Ron pleaded.
Madam Pomfrey hesitated. Harry was asleep at the moment, but as long as they stayed quiet they probably couldn't wake him… there weren't any other patients either on the second day of school… "Okay, I suppose you can come in for a few minutes. But you need to be quiet, alright? He's quite ill and he still needs his rest." She stepped aside and allowed Harry's two closest friends to enter.
They found him in the back of the wing, looking slightly better than he had when Ron had found him earlier that morning. He was asleep; his cheeks were bright red and his hair was slightly damp, but he was sleeping peacefully. Ron pulled the curtains closed for privacy and walked to his friend's bed. He took Harry's hand in his, Hermione on the other side holding his right hand. "Harry, are you awake?" he asked.
Harry stirred but didn't open his eyes. "Mm hmm," he mumbled.
"Oh Harry, how are you?" Hermione asked worriedly, squeezing his hand.
Harry tried to open his eyes but found that the light made it rather painful. "Alive, that's something," he said, cracking half a smile.
"Yeah, I suppose that's a start," Ron agreed with a grin. "Can we get you anything?"
"Water would be nice," Harry said, trying to hoist himself into a sitting position and still not opening his eyes. "And could you turn down the lights? It's so bright in here!"
Hermione handed Harry the goblet of water on his bedside table. "Thanks," he said.
They heard the curtain slide open and turned around to see Sirius pulling it back.
"Hi Sirius," Hermione and Ron said. "We just came to see how Harry was. We can leave now if you need us to," Hermione added.
"I'm sorry, it's just that I have something private to tell Harry. Otherwise I'd let you stay," Sirius said. "Thanks for coming to visit him!"
"Yeah, thanks," Harry added as his friends left.
"Harry, I've got some good news and some bad news," Sirius began. He proceeded to tell him everything that Dumbledore had said. By the time he had finished, Harry was having to struggle to stay awake.
"So the order is coming in a few days?" he asked tiredly.
"Yep," Sirius said happily. "And then it's all up to you."
"Wonderful," Harry said, finally falling back on the covers and back to sleep.
**
A/N: I really wish I could reply to every one of your amazing reviews, but I'd probably get in trouble with ff.n for doing so (there've been over a hundred since I posted the last chapter!). Just know that I really appreciate each and every one! =) If you have a question that you want answered, leave an e-mail address in your review or e-mail me and I'll answer if I can.