He sat next to a tree in a place he didn't know or remember. He
was looking over at some bushes nearby where a shadow was moving in a very
strange fashion. He stood up and moved forward to it. As he got closer he felt
his heart beating faster and faster until he reached it. The "shadow" was
merely a big, black, shaggy stray dog… or was it?
"Sirius." He breathed as he reached over to touch it. The dog took off
immediately even before he had the chance to touch it. Harry ran after it with
all his might. The dog entered an abandoned house that had all windows covered
with pieces of old wood. Harry went after him and found himself, not inside the
Shrieking Shack, but on a somewhat familiar looking corridor. He ran down the
corridor… looking for the "dog". He went back to where he came from when he
reached a dead end. He took a left and looked out of a tall, elegant window
from which the last rays of sun shone thru. He decided to try and keep looking
for Sirius even thought he had no idea of why he was running away from him.
He was walking, when suddenly, several heavy objects were sent his way; some
landing hard on his head, making him fall to the floor. Then he saw
them…staring back at him…a pair of beautiful eyes, that despite of their
cheerful color, were drowned by sorrow beyond description… emotional pain far
worst than anything he had ever encountered himself with… he knew it… he felt
it… and for the moment their eyes met, he lived it…
Harry
woke up with a start. His breathing was quick and unsteady. After taking off
his glasses (which he had forgotten to take off before going to sleep) he
swiped off the sweat on his forehead with his arm. He noticed that he had cold
sweat all over him and that his heart was beating painfully fast.
He sat on his bed for some time, as the sunrise was visible from his window. He
was thinking about Sirius, about the dream he had and about those eyes… that
for some reason, he was sure he was going to see again.
Harry finally snapped out of his thoughts when Aunt Petunia came
upstairs and started banging on his door.
"Breakfast is ready boy." –She said in a cold, hissing voice.- "I wont be
waiting for you all morning!" And then he heard her going back downstairs.
Harry, however, was not hungry at all. He had plenty of food the night before
with the Weasleys' but even if he hadn't, he was sure that he still wouldn't be
hungry. He decided to instead take a shower.
After showering and doing a couple of chores, Harry found himself organizing
his trunk compulsively every other hour. He thought that it wouldn't kill him
to do the Potions essay Snape assigned them so he decided to do it after all.
Besides, he didn't want to spend the first week of term in detention with
Snape.
The sun was no longer visible from his window. His eyes itched after spending
hours immersed on his Potions essay. He stood up and stretched, looking around
his room. He was looking for something to do to lessen his nerves and anxiety
but every thing was already packed and he was tired of reorganizing his trunk.
He walked towards the window and opened it, allowing the evening's cool wind to
stroke his face pleasingly, making him feel tired, exhausted, for the first
time on the day. He then, decided to call it a night. He had a long day ahead
of him. Tomorrow at this very same time, he would be at Hogwarts. His home.
He fell asleep almost immediately after his head had touched the soft, white
pillow; sending him to a night of dreamless sleep, free of Sirius and of those
mysterious eyes that had intruded on his dreams the night before.
When Harry woke up the next morning, it took him almost a minute
to realize what day it was. He smiled to himself as he got out of bed and went
to brush his teeth. Then he went back to his room, got dressed and decided to
go have breakfast with the Dursleys'. Harry was happier than he had been in months.
He went downstairs to the kitchen and sat down at the table, where the three
Dursleys' were already eating breakfast.
"Good Morning!" Harry said smiling, even surprising himself. The Dursleys'
raised their eyebrows at him.
"What crawled up your arse today?" Dudley asked confused, putting down
his fork.
"Dudders!" Aunt Petunia called with wide eyes. Obviously she thought that her
'Dudders' would never use an expression like that.
"What?" Dudley asked his mother.
"Let him have his word, Petunia. My Dudders here is almost a
man." Uncle Vernon said as he patted Dudley's arm proudly. Dudley smiled
between bites and nodded.
"And what a fine gentleman he's becoming too." Said Aunt Petunia,
pinching his cheek lovingly with teary eyes. This was obviously Harry's turn to
raise his eyebrows.
"Uncle Vernon… you wont have to take me to the Hog-" he was cut off when Vernon
snapped at him.
"I know..." He said, his mustache twitching "they left a note."
"They did?" Asked Harry.
"Yes." Said Uncle Vernon losing his temper. "They say they'll be here in half
an hour. So, why don't you go get ready or something?"
"Okay." Said Harry smiling. He was more than glad to be leaving to Hogwarts so
he didn't mind at all the fact that the Dursleys' seemed so eager to get rid of
him; he was just as happy to get away from them.
Time passed slowly as Harry sat on top of his trunk by the door.
It was after what seemed like hours that he heard a car pulling over on the
street in front of the house. He looked out the window and saw Lupin getting
out of a ruby-red car and walking to the door of the house. Harry opened the
door and greeted Lupin.
"Hi!" Harry said smiling.
"Hello Harry. Glad to be going back to Hogwarts, I see." Said Lupin with a
smile.
"When am I not? So… do we leave now?" Asked Harry eagerly.
"Um… Yeah… Did you say 'goodbye' to your Uncle and Aunt already?" He asked
almost sure of what the answer was going to be.
"Erm… No…I'll do that now…" Harry turned around and went to the living room,
where the Dursleys' were pretending to watch television. They were all sitting
next to each other and looked up when Harry entered the room.
"Goodbye Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley. I'm leaving for Hogwarts now."
He waved at them and left the room before even giving them a chance to say
anything. "Done." Harry said simply when he was back at the door.
Lupin shook his head smiling and grabbed one of the ends of
Harry's trunk while Harry grabbed the other and carried it to the car.
"Whose car is this?" Harry asked when he noticed that the car
that brought Lupin to pick him up wasn't a Ministry car.
"It belongs to a friend of Arthur… From the Ministry." Lupin
said as he started putting Harry's trunk and Hedwig's cage in the trunk of the
car. He closed the trunk and went over to the passenger's side of the small red
car and opened the back door.
"Lets go Harry. Or do you rather stay here?" Asked Lupin raising his eyebrows.
"No! I mean, no…sorry…" Said Harry as he finally entered the car. He noticed
that there was somebody else on the driver's seat.
"Hello, Harry!" Said Tonks turning around to face him.
"Hi Tonks!" Said Harry smiling at her. "So…the ministry didn't let you borrow
one of their cars this time?"
"Yes, they did. But they're too easy to
trace." Answered Tonks as she turned around and started the car.
"Easy to trace? What do you mean?" Asked Harry with his eyebrow raised.
"It means that if Voldemort has some of his followers infiltrated on the
Ministry of Magic, they're going to be very interested in reports of Ministry
cars sent to give transportation to Harry Potter." Answered Lupin carefully.
"Oh...yeah." Harry said.
"So, the less we use them, the better." Said Tonks simply.
Harry frowned. "And about Voldemort; what is he up to lately?"
"He hasn't been killing people, if that's what you mean. But The Order thinks
that he's waiting to gather more supporters and acquire more power before doing
anything…erm…" Lupin glanced meaningfully at Tonks. "…Big."
"And " -Harry asked- " what is the order doing? I mean… do you have any idea of
what his actual plans are?"
"Sorry Harry…but we can't really tell you nothing more than what we already
told you." Said Lupin as thought he didn't agree with the rules.
Harry sighed.
"Okay then…" He said although, he sounded rather disappointed.
An awkward silence followed this until the red car finally came to a stop by
the King Cross train station. The three of them unloaded Harry's things from
the trunk of the car and set them on a trolley. Harry pushed the trolley along
the station while Hedwig slept on her cage, which was on top oh Harry's trunk.
Lupin and Tonks, who looked like if they were Harry's inexpensive bodyguards,
followed him closely until they reached Platform nine and three quarters. Harry
looked around and saw nobody around him.
He walked towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten and
leaned unceremoniously against the wall. One second later he had fallen
sideways on to platform nine and three quarters, quickly followed by Lupin and
Tonks. He looked up and saw the Hogwarts Express, the scarlet train wheezing
smoke as students all around it greeted each other.
Harry smiled broadly and said: "Finally."
