Episode Seventy Four
Harry used his new status as a project member to visit Gwen's office regularly.
On one sunny afternoon he was seated across from her, gazing at the way her shorter hair swished as she turned her head to look at the book shelf.
"You read almost as much as Hermione does." He said.
"You have to respect the written word. It's so powerful." She said, in awe as she stood and gingerly lifted a volume of poetry from the shelf. "There are some fabulous poems in here I'd like to translate into Ouranian."
"What for?" He frowned. "The language sounds so funny."
"That's just it, I think it would sound almost dignified in poetry."
He laughed as she flipped through the pages, trying to find her favorite poem. This particular book had been her first, a fifth birthday present from her father. Her mother had thought the gift ridiculous; what five year old could read college level poetry? But Henry LeFey didn't seem convinced that Gwen couldn't understand. He read her a new poem every night and he found that after a while she developed favorites and she'd ask him to read them over and over again.
Her most favorite had been the very first poem he had read out loud to her. It was about traveling over the sea, the hardships of the journey and the ending, coming out on the other side much better for the experience. She touched the page lovingly, happy memories springing into her mind.
Harry gazed at her, not sure what to say.
She looked up, surprised that he was looking at her so deeply. "It was from my dad." She explained, showing him the book. "This is the very first poem he ever read to me."
Harry smiled. "That's nice that you have something to remind you of him."
"Sort of like your dad's invisibility cloak. It lets you feel close to him."
"Yeah." Harry said, glad that she could understand the attachment he felt to that useful piece of cloth. "It's nice to know that I can connect to him still, even though he's gone."
Gwen was thinking about what she knew of Harry's torpid past. She had cried in the dream world when she read about the first successful Patronus he had conjured, the Stag, like his father. He was a lot like his father, even though he'd never been around him.
"Harry your dad was an animagus." Gwen said as if she finally understood something.
"How did you know that?"
"The books." She continued at the blank look on his face: "the books my mother made up in the dream world so that I'd be up to date on current events in the wizarding world."
"Oh." He said remembering vaguely that Gwen had explained this to him very early on in their relationship. "But how did she know?"
"I don't know about that. She was never very forthcoming with me and now that she's dead I'm certain there are things about her I'll never know."
Harry looked shocked by her casualness.
"It's ok Harry. I've made my peace with her." She looked up, a hopeful glint in her eye. "But something just struck me Harry. Your dad was a stag when he transformed."
"Yes?" Harry said, failing to see the importance of this fact.
"The faerie king is sometimes known as the Stag King. There has to be a connection." She exhaled heavily, chewing her lip in thought.
"Couldn't it just be a really big coincidence?"
"I don't believe in coincidence." She sighed. Ever since she'd read The Celestine Prophecy coincidence had lost its charm. She felt that there was a unifying force in the world and that every thing happened for a reason (although what reason exactly escaped her). Coincidence was a human word to explain something unexplainable. If there was a connection she would find it.
Harry frowned at her. "Well, I've got tons of work to do." He heaved a sigh and dragged himself to her office door. "I'll see you tomorrow."
She smiled in a distracted kind of way. "Night Harry."
As he exited he ran headlong into the last person he ever wanted to run into.
"Another student-teacher conference?" Draco asked, dripping with sarcasm as Harry closed the door to Gwen's office.
"And since when are you a gossip monger Malfoy?" Harry asked, a swaggering undertone to his voice.
"Feeling mighty confidant now that one of your girlfriends is on the staff?"
"Oh drop it Malfoy. You're just not worth the trouble tonight." He turned his back and sauntered off to Gryffindor Tower.
