Chapter Twenty
A Cry For Help
As the week crept by Malfoy still couldn't say a foul thing to anyone and the first Quidditch game was closing in on them. Katie was just as rough as Wood was, pushing, making practices extra long and even threatening Talker within an inch of his life if he didn't shut the hell up. Friday rolled around and the only lesson Harry had left was his animagius lesson with Angel.
He walked in the damp class room to find music playing. At first he knew it was from the same little radio from Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Then he second guessed himself. Angel was sitting on her desk, humming along to the song playing and she graded last week's essay.
"Angel." Harry started, setting his books down. "How did you get the radio to work?
"Put batteries in it." Angel said, not looking up from her paper.
"But electronics don't work at Hogwarts. all the magic messes it up." Harry argued.
At this Angel smiled and stacked her pages together. "It's a simple charm really, just a hard one to understand."
"What?"
"Well, technically, electronics are have some since of self and a brain for even just the small part."
"Okay."
"Well, all I did was jinx the radio to "think" it was still sitting in my drawing room back at the Order."
"How does that do anything?"
"Well, what it doesn't know doesn't hurt it. The radio "thinks" it still in London and away from all the magic interfering."
"You've lost me."
"Okay," Angel said, switching off the radio, "It's like mind over matter, since I jinxed the radio to have no doubt what so ever that it is in any place but in London, it can't be stopped by magic. It believes it's in London so much it can't see why it's not."
Harry thought about this and looked up at her. "So is this really about the radio?"
"Not really." She admitted, jumping off the desk.
"This is about Sirius isn't it?" Harry said sadly.
"Yes it is. I know he can't die that easy and not for one second have I ever thought he was dead, not one."
Harry sighed and felt sorry for her. She was so hurt by this, she was ignoring it.
The rest of the lesson Harry changed into and back from a stag. Though, it didn't feel right. It felt like he was in the wrong body. exactly how he felt when he drank the Polyjuice Potion and became Goyle. everything was out of balance. After this stress full Lesson, Harry dragged himself to dinner and then threw himself in bed.Quidditch tomorrow.
The next morning, Katie woke everyone up early and the seven players sat down at the Gryffindor table nibbling on their bacon and toast. Harry couldn't eat. he was feeling sick. the pit had fallen out of him sometime before and thinking about plunging to the ground in hope of catching a winged ball didn't make him feel much better. "You okay mate?" Ron asked patting his back.
"Fine." Harry breathed, taking a sideway glance at the staff table. He didn't know why, he knew Angel would hurry back to the Order to play around with the Veil, but he kind of wanted her to be there. He heaved a sigh and let Katie drag him out of the Great Hall.
The ground was firm, fast kick off Katie told them, the breeze was gentle and the sky was cloudless. Harry shook his head and messed with his hair. Last year he would have given anything to be in another Quidditch game, but then he didn't have something else weighing on him.
Thirty minutes later kids were hanging off the edges of the stands, cheering and screaming. Harry forgot everything that moment, standing out on the pitch wearing his scarlet robes and holding his firebolt his god father gave him. it was finding a lost friend. The Gryffindors started chanting Weasley is our King, with of course new lyrics than the Slytherins had and Luna was wearing her lion head.
"Captains, shake hands." Madam Hooch said briskly.
Katie held her hand out to the Slytherin captain who took her hand and jerked it. Katie stumbled forward, but instead of getting angry, she smiled. "On my whistle." And Madam Hooch blew her whistle.
"And it's a bea-UT-iful day for Quidditch, folks." Seamus said over the pitch. Since Lee was gone, someone had to commentate. Dean and Seamus had a head to head battle for it, but since Dean always yelled at Madam Hooch to give someone a red card, Seamus got the job. "And we're off. Harry Potter had rejoined the Gryffindor Team, that filthy old git Umbridge banded him last year." Everyone smile and Harry was half accepting McGonagall to yell at him, but she nodded. "Slytherin had a couple new ugly faces on their team."
"Flinnagan!" McGonagall said strongly.
"Sorry Professor, and its Bell with the quaffle and she passed it Jason Wood, and he scores. well. ten nothing Gryffindor!" Seamus proclaimed gladly.
"And it's Slytherin with the quaffle now. can't tell which ugly git it is but."
"Flinnagan. dear lord, your worse than Jordan!"
"Thank you Professor." Seamus said with a grin. And Harry couldn't help by grin too, Lee would be proud.
Ron did a kind of flip and caught the quaffle before Slytherin scored and the crowd erupted into a Weasley is out King, the good version, Seamus even stopped broadcasting to help sing along with a frog residing in his throat.
"All right sweet." Malfoy said. "What ever you did to me Potter, I'm going to kiss you for it."
"Thanks anyway Malfoy." Harry said laughing. Malfoy had turned red and flew off.
"And it's twenty forty Gryffindor!" Seamus announced, "And still no sign of the Snitch. Wait a moment.."
Harry fell into a dive. The snitch was hiding some inches from the ground, skimming the grass with its wings. Malfoy was following close behind Harry. It was then something happened.
Talker, seeing Malfoy try and jump on Harry's broom, threw the quaffle and hit Malfoy in the head, which made his spin, gripping his broom tightly. The snitch had disappeared and Harry leveled off, grinning at Talker.
"Penalty, none of that Wood." Madam Hooch yelled.
And there was a single, loud cheer coming from the teachers' stand. Harry looked up; Oliver Wood was standing on his seat. "Good job Jason, knock that stinking Malfoy off his broom!" Talker beamed at Oliver and did a flip.
"Wood!" McGonagall hissed, "Don't provoke him."
Oliver beamed and sat down. "Sorry Professor."
"And after our outburst form former Gryffindor Keeper and Captain, Oliver Wood. we resume the game." Seamus said quickly, trying not to get yelled at. "And Weasley blocks the penalty, still twenty, forty Gryffindor."
The game went on like this. Oliver would stand and cheer alone, sometimes sitting down and screaming it was weird watching and not playing. Most the kids who knew Wood. mainly Gryffindors, grinned and chuckled. Thirty minutes later (fifty to one hundred and fifty, Gryffindor) Harry spotted the snitch right behind Talker.
Well, naturally when Harry dove toward Talker, he thought Harry had gone insane and start racing to the other end of the field, with Oliver screaming at Harry to leave his brother alone. And strangle enough, as Talker raced away, so did the snitch, right above the straw of his broom. Of course, Harry's broom was faster and he easily caught up with him, but there was another problem. The beaters Jack Sloper and Andres Kirke had seen Harry "attacking" their chaser and began hitting bluggers at Harry.
"And Potter has gone mad, about time too I say." Seamus announced. "He is chasing his own chaser. that sounds odd." Seamus laughed at himself.
Finally, after getting hit in the head by a blugger, Harry threw himself at Talker's broom and caught the snitch. Trouble was, the only thing holding him onto the broom was his legs. Somehow, between getting knocked in the head and catching the snitch, Harry had been thrown upside down, his legs clinging to his broom.
"And Gryffindor wins three hundred to fifty. Slytherin got steam rolled I tell you! And Harry hasn't gone mad. it looks like the snitch was trailing Wood the whole time. sorry Potter." Seamus said half laughing. But Harry was dangling in mid air, his hair standing on end (it looked like) and the snitch was gripped firmly in his hand.
"Need help Harry?" Ron was flying beside him.
Harry looked at him, dumbfounded. Of course he needed help, look at him. "Naw, Just enjoying the view that's all!" Ron chuckled then gripped his hand and jerked him right up again. "Thanks Weasley."
"Welcome Potter."
The effect of the win put Gryffindor well out of reach in the house cup. The crowd was eating it up. When Harry and Ron touched down (there was barely any ground that wasn't covered with a screaming kid) they were rushed into the Gryffindor Common room.
As soon as they got there, Ron and Harry left again. Gryffindor had little to celebrate lately and it was about time something like this happened. But since Fred and George, who normally brought treats to the tower, had left, it was self appointed to Ron, Harry, Seamus and Dean to retrieve the treats.
Like always the house elves in the kitchen were more than happy to give away any and all their food. Seamus and Dean's eyes got huge when the house elves handed them baskets.
"Master Weasleys tell us to have food ready for when Gryffindor wins." One said as it shoved a bag of butter beer in Ron's arms.
They were just about to leave when the oddest thing happened.
Harry was following a giggling Dean to the door when something landed in his bucket of pastry and it fell to the floor scattering filling and treats everywhere.
"Harry Potter." Dobby said, running to his side, "What has hap.." But he cut off. "KREACHER!" Dobby pushed Harry out of the way and hugged the other house elf around the neck.
"You know Kreacher?" Ron asked popping his head back in.
"Of course sir. Kreacher is Dobby's cousin!" Dobby squealed releasing the sticky Kreacher.
"Hi Dobby." Kreacher said tonelessly, wiping the goop off of him. "Master Harry," He said, his eyes bugging out as though he had forgotten something very important and just remembered it. "Mistress Sirius Angel. she is in trouble!" He piped. At this Ron dropped his bag of candy.
"What?"
"She. oh, never mind. Mistress Sirius Angel told me to come and get you if anything happened." Kreacher said, shaking now.
"Let's go tell Dumbledore." Harry said, turning to the door.
"NOOO!" Kreacher screamed. "She asked for Master Harry Potter and no one else. She said she can trust no one else." Kreacher bended down on his knees. "Please, please, Harry Potter, oh wise and brave and loyal, please help my Mistress."
"I think I'd like me a house elf." Seamus said before Ron elbowed him in the gut.
"Where is she?" Harry asked, looking down at the crying house elf the other house elves where staring at and Dobby had thrown his arm around.
"In the veil." Kreacher said with discuss.
As the week crept by Malfoy still couldn't say a foul thing to anyone and the first Quidditch game was closing in on them. Katie was just as rough as Wood was, pushing, making practices extra long and even threatening Talker within an inch of his life if he didn't shut the hell up. Friday rolled around and the only lesson Harry had left was his animagius lesson with Angel.
He walked in the damp class room to find music playing. At first he knew it was from the same little radio from Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Then he second guessed himself. Angel was sitting on her desk, humming along to the song playing and she graded last week's essay.
"Angel." Harry started, setting his books down. "How did you get the radio to work?
"Put batteries in it." Angel said, not looking up from her paper.
"But electronics don't work at Hogwarts. all the magic messes it up." Harry argued.
At this Angel smiled and stacked her pages together. "It's a simple charm really, just a hard one to understand."
"What?"
"Well, technically, electronics are have some since of self and a brain for even just the small part."
"Okay."
"Well, all I did was jinx the radio to "think" it was still sitting in my drawing room back at the Order."
"How does that do anything?"
"Well, what it doesn't know doesn't hurt it. The radio "thinks" it still in London and away from all the magic interfering."
"You've lost me."
"Okay," Angel said, switching off the radio, "It's like mind over matter, since I jinxed the radio to have no doubt what so ever that it is in any place but in London, it can't be stopped by magic. It believes it's in London so much it can't see why it's not."
Harry thought about this and looked up at her. "So is this really about the radio?"
"Not really." She admitted, jumping off the desk.
"This is about Sirius isn't it?" Harry said sadly.
"Yes it is. I know he can't die that easy and not for one second have I ever thought he was dead, not one."
Harry sighed and felt sorry for her. She was so hurt by this, she was ignoring it.
The rest of the lesson Harry changed into and back from a stag. Though, it didn't feel right. It felt like he was in the wrong body. exactly how he felt when he drank the Polyjuice Potion and became Goyle. everything was out of balance. After this stress full Lesson, Harry dragged himself to dinner and then threw himself in bed.Quidditch tomorrow.
The next morning, Katie woke everyone up early and the seven players sat down at the Gryffindor table nibbling on their bacon and toast. Harry couldn't eat. he was feeling sick. the pit had fallen out of him sometime before and thinking about plunging to the ground in hope of catching a winged ball didn't make him feel much better. "You okay mate?" Ron asked patting his back.
"Fine." Harry breathed, taking a sideway glance at the staff table. He didn't know why, he knew Angel would hurry back to the Order to play around with the Veil, but he kind of wanted her to be there. He heaved a sigh and let Katie drag him out of the Great Hall.
The ground was firm, fast kick off Katie told them, the breeze was gentle and the sky was cloudless. Harry shook his head and messed with his hair. Last year he would have given anything to be in another Quidditch game, but then he didn't have something else weighing on him.
Thirty minutes later kids were hanging off the edges of the stands, cheering and screaming. Harry forgot everything that moment, standing out on the pitch wearing his scarlet robes and holding his firebolt his god father gave him. it was finding a lost friend. The Gryffindors started chanting Weasley is our King, with of course new lyrics than the Slytherins had and Luna was wearing her lion head.
"Captains, shake hands." Madam Hooch said briskly.
Katie held her hand out to the Slytherin captain who took her hand and jerked it. Katie stumbled forward, but instead of getting angry, she smiled. "On my whistle." And Madam Hooch blew her whistle.
"And it's a bea-UT-iful day for Quidditch, folks." Seamus said over the pitch. Since Lee was gone, someone had to commentate. Dean and Seamus had a head to head battle for it, but since Dean always yelled at Madam Hooch to give someone a red card, Seamus got the job. "And we're off. Harry Potter had rejoined the Gryffindor Team, that filthy old git Umbridge banded him last year." Everyone smile and Harry was half accepting McGonagall to yell at him, but she nodded. "Slytherin had a couple new ugly faces on their team."
"Flinnagan!" McGonagall said strongly.
"Sorry Professor, and its Bell with the quaffle and she passed it Jason Wood, and he scores. well. ten nothing Gryffindor!" Seamus proclaimed gladly.
"And it's Slytherin with the quaffle now. can't tell which ugly git it is but."
"Flinnagan. dear lord, your worse than Jordan!"
"Thank you Professor." Seamus said with a grin. And Harry couldn't help by grin too, Lee would be proud.
Ron did a kind of flip and caught the quaffle before Slytherin scored and the crowd erupted into a Weasley is out King, the good version, Seamus even stopped broadcasting to help sing along with a frog residing in his throat.
"All right sweet." Malfoy said. "What ever you did to me Potter, I'm going to kiss you for it."
"Thanks anyway Malfoy." Harry said laughing. Malfoy had turned red and flew off.
"And it's twenty forty Gryffindor!" Seamus announced, "And still no sign of the Snitch. Wait a moment.."
Harry fell into a dive. The snitch was hiding some inches from the ground, skimming the grass with its wings. Malfoy was following close behind Harry. It was then something happened.
Talker, seeing Malfoy try and jump on Harry's broom, threw the quaffle and hit Malfoy in the head, which made his spin, gripping his broom tightly. The snitch had disappeared and Harry leveled off, grinning at Talker.
"Penalty, none of that Wood." Madam Hooch yelled.
And there was a single, loud cheer coming from the teachers' stand. Harry looked up; Oliver Wood was standing on his seat. "Good job Jason, knock that stinking Malfoy off his broom!" Talker beamed at Oliver and did a flip.
"Wood!" McGonagall hissed, "Don't provoke him."
Oliver beamed and sat down. "Sorry Professor."
"And after our outburst form former Gryffindor Keeper and Captain, Oliver Wood. we resume the game." Seamus said quickly, trying not to get yelled at. "And Weasley blocks the penalty, still twenty, forty Gryffindor."
The game went on like this. Oliver would stand and cheer alone, sometimes sitting down and screaming it was weird watching and not playing. Most the kids who knew Wood. mainly Gryffindors, grinned and chuckled. Thirty minutes later (fifty to one hundred and fifty, Gryffindor) Harry spotted the snitch right behind Talker.
Well, naturally when Harry dove toward Talker, he thought Harry had gone insane and start racing to the other end of the field, with Oliver screaming at Harry to leave his brother alone. And strangle enough, as Talker raced away, so did the snitch, right above the straw of his broom. Of course, Harry's broom was faster and he easily caught up with him, but there was another problem. The beaters Jack Sloper and Andres Kirke had seen Harry "attacking" their chaser and began hitting bluggers at Harry.
"And Potter has gone mad, about time too I say." Seamus announced. "He is chasing his own chaser. that sounds odd." Seamus laughed at himself.
Finally, after getting hit in the head by a blugger, Harry threw himself at Talker's broom and caught the snitch. Trouble was, the only thing holding him onto the broom was his legs. Somehow, between getting knocked in the head and catching the snitch, Harry had been thrown upside down, his legs clinging to his broom.
"And Gryffindor wins three hundred to fifty. Slytherin got steam rolled I tell you! And Harry hasn't gone mad. it looks like the snitch was trailing Wood the whole time. sorry Potter." Seamus said half laughing. But Harry was dangling in mid air, his hair standing on end (it looked like) and the snitch was gripped firmly in his hand.
"Need help Harry?" Ron was flying beside him.
Harry looked at him, dumbfounded. Of course he needed help, look at him. "Naw, Just enjoying the view that's all!" Ron chuckled then gripped his hand and jerked him right up again. "Thanks Weasley."
"Welcome Potter."
The effect of the win put Gryffindor well out of reach in the house cup. The crowd was eating it up. When Harry and Ron touched down (there was barely any ground that wasn't covered with a screaming kid) they were rushed into the Gryffindor Common room.
As soon as they got there, Ron and Harry left again. Gryffindor had little to celebrate lately and it was about time something like this happened. But since Fred and George, who normally brought treats to the tower, had left, it was self appointed to Ron, Harry, Seamus and Dean to retrieve the treats.
Like always the house elves in the kitchen were more than happy to give away any and all their food. Seamus and Dean's eyes got huge when the house elves handed them baskets.
"Master Weasleys tell us to have food ready for when Gryffindor wins." One said as it shoved a bag of butter beer in Ron's arms.
They were just about to leave when the oddest thing happened.
Harry was following a giggling Dean to the door when something landed in his bucket of pastry and it fell to the floor scattering filling and treats everywhere.
"Harry Potter." Dobby said, running to his side, "What has hap.." But he cut off. "KREACHER!" Dobby pushed Harry out of the way and hugged the other house elf around the neck.
"You know Kreacher?" Ron asked popping his head back in.
"Of course sir. Kreacher is Dobby's cousin!" Dobby squealed releasing the sticky Kreacher.
"Hi Dobby." Kreacher said tonelessly, wiping the goop off of him. "Master Harry," He said, his eyes bugging out as though he had forgotten something very important and just remembered it. "Mistress Sirius Angel. she is in trouble!" He piped. At this Ron dropped his bag of candy.
"What?"
"She. oh, never mind. Mistress Sirius Angel told me to come and get you if anything happened." Kreacher said, shaking now.
"Let's go tell Dumbledore." Harry said, turning to the door.
"NOOO!" Kreacher screamed. "She asked for Master Harry Potter and no one else. She said she can trust no one else." Kreacher bended down on his knees. "Please, please, Harry Potter, oh wise and brave and loyal, please help my Mistress."
"I think I'd like me a house elf." Seamus said before Ron elbowed him in the gut.
"Where is she?" Harry asked, looking down at the crying house elf the other house elves where staring at and Dobby had thrown his arm around.
"In the veil." Kreacher said with discuss.