A/N: I own nothing, JKR owns the characters and everything else but the
idea - so there.
A/N: Tell me your thoughts --- share with me.
A/N: I spent 20 minutes trying to get rid of the "Ha" at the end of the last chapter. I didn't type it and didn't even know it was there until I got Moonlight's post. I reposted but it stayed there. It's not on my word document. Just one of those mysterious things, I guess fanfiction.net didn't like my cliffhanger.
CH22 Worried Wizards
Harry remembered what Dumbledore had said last year about what caused his scar to hurt. He was pretty sure that he knew what his burning scar meant but he knew he should go back to the headmaster's office and let him know. He had to decide quickly what to tell the boys in his room because, after his scream, everyone was awake. The decision was easier than he thought. He had very little say in the matter because he was too tired to make anything up. It was Ron who finally asked the questions Harry was waiting for.
"What's wrong? Why'd you scream?"
"My scar hurts. I'm going to go tell Dumbledore." Most of the boys just say there at this revelation not even knowing the significance of it. Neville however, pulled his covers up over his head.
"You want me to come?" Ron asked.
Harry was torn. He wanted to be alone but he didn't want to keep pushing away his two best friends. Ron was the first friend he ever had in the wizarding world, well after Hagrid at least. "Yeah, come on."
When the two boys got down to the common room they found that Hermione was still sitting there. She heard them come down. "What are you two up to now?"Ha
"My scar hurt just a minute or two ago. We're going to go tell Dumbledore. Do you want to come with us?"
"Yeah." And with that the trio set out as they had done countless times in the past. Harry had been to the headmaster's office so many times this year that he felt he could find it while wearing a blindfold. They knocked when they reached Dumbledore's office. Sirius opened the door.
He smiled when he saw them. "Hey there, you three. It's kind of late. I can't really speak for Ron and Hermione but Harry, I know you have got to be exhausted. I thought you were going to try to get some sleep."
"I was but something happened shortly after I went to bed." He paused before telling Sirius the rest. When he had heard the whole story, Sirius reached the same conclusion that Harry did. Ron and Hermione were a tad bit slower to catch on.
Ron piped up, "What's the problem? Harry's scar has hurt before and we already know that You-Know-Who is on the rise. Why is this time worse than any other time?"
Sirius cast a quick glance around the room and then decided to explain so Harry wouldn't be forced to. "Dumbledore is sure that Harry's scar burns whenever Voldemort is nearby or feeling particularly murderous. Although there are multiple reasons that this could have happened, I think it's very likely that --- "
Hermione gasped. She figured it out and was able to finish Sirius's thought. " --- That the Ministry security wizard is dead."
Sirius didn't answer her one way or the other; he just stood there looking at them. Harry didn't like the way Sirius was stalling. He didn't know what else could possibly be wrong and then it occurred to him. "Sirius, where are Lupin and Dumbledore?"
Sirius didn't say anything for a while. Then he just started shaking his head very slowly and looked down toward the floor. "I don't know."
Harry had a very uneasy feeling. Things hadn't been going that well lately for the wizarding world. That simple truth coupled that with the fact that he'd been up for almost twenty hours and was still physically exhausted from the day's events pretty much assured that no one could be surprised that Harry wasn't able to hide his frustration.
"What do you mean you don't know? How could you not know? Were you here when they left or weren't you? They said --- oh no --- they said that they were going after Pettigrew. We have to go after them!"
Sirius grabbed Harry's shoulder. "Calm down Harry. Think about it. Nothing good would come of a wizard on the lam and three teen aged wizards going off into the night to chase dark wizards." As much as he wanted to be doing something, Harry had to admit that when he heard it out loud it sounded pretty stupid. He just sat there quietly and the others seemed to follow his lead.
Sirius was finally the one to break the silence. "Well if none of us are going to bed any time soon, at the least we should be doing something productive. Ron, why don't you and Hermione show Harry what you've been learning in your independent classes with McGonagall?"
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "I have been wondering what you two have been learning in your new class. You two used to talk about it at meals but you haven't discussed it in a long time. I'd like to see some of the magic McGonagall had taught you."
"Well it works both ways you know. We want to know what you --- "
"RON!" Hermione chastised in a voice that would have made Mrs. Weasley proud. "Come on Ron, let's go ahead and show him how we've been spending our free time. Besides," she continued without missing a beat, "Someone in this room could stand the practice." Hermione shot a quick smile to Harry while she was waiting for Ron to count to three.
Ron nodded his acquiescence and started the count to three.
"One" Hermione and Ron were standing about five feet apart facing each other. Each held their wands at the ready.
"Two" Harry was watching them intently, curious to see what was going to happen next.
"Provo Lingado"
Ron cast a spell at Hermione's wand hand that turned it into a taco shell. The wand escaped the useless corn product and fell to the floor.
Harry and Sirius were having a good laugh but Hermione was furious. "THREE RON --- you forgot to say three!"
"Oh. Did I? So sorry." However Ron, in fact, didn't look sorry at all.
Sirius performed the counter curse for Hermione who mumbled her thanks. This little exchange did cause Harry to start to get a little more curious about what his two friends had been learning. "So what else have you two learned?"
Hermione was the first to answer Harry's question. "Everything we've learned has been along these same lines. We've been practicing tons of spells to disarm people. We've been taught how to focus our attack on someone's wand or wand hand. Professor McGonagall spent the first couple of weeks teaching us when and why shielding spells weakened and since then she's been teaching us how to defeat them. She says attacking the wand or the wand hand is the best defensive spell there is because then it's extremely unlikely that the person can perform the counter-curse on themselves."
This all made sense to Harry now that he heard it but he never thought about it before. He briefly wondered why they hadn't learned that principle in one of their classes like Defense Against the Dark Arts. "You mean that both of you can defeat my shielding spells?"
Hermione shook her head. "It depends. Those spells are meant to be defensive so when you're just standing there we probably can't beat your spell. But when you move your arm away from your body, say to cast a spell, then you're making that part of your body more vulnerable and be probably could defeat your shielding spells." Harry was considering this. It all seemed logical enough but he was too tired to make sense out of it. He hoped he remembered later to ask them about it again.
Ron decided to use this opportunity to take another stab at Harry. "And what have you two been working on?"
Sirius answered, "This and that, mainly that." He paused to study the look on Ron's face. He noticed that Ron was not amused so he hurried on. "Ron, we've been teaching Harry a bunch of different types of spells that we think he should know in case he ever meets any more Death Eaters, like he did tonight."
"Like what?" Ron asked. Sirius could tell that he still wasn't convinced. Hermione didn't look convinced either but at least she didn't seem interested in pressing the issue. Of course he could only imagine what they felt like thinking that he and Harry were excluding them this year, and after all they were but not by choice. Sirius wanted to honor the Order and Dumbledore's wished but he also owed his freedom to these two teenagers as much as he did to anyone else. He turned back to Ron.
"Harry's learned --- "
Sirius was cut off as the door opened. Everyone turned to see Dumbledore and Lupin enter the office. They seemed unhurt, but unhappy.
Lupin walked over to Sirius. "I'm sorry. But we weren't able to get him Padfoot. We will though."
Sirius didn't seem very surprised and only nodded his response. Hermione looked up at the headmaster. "What about the Ministry wizard? Is she --- "
Dumbledore knew what was coming and spoke quickly to save her the pain of asking. "Yes. I'm afraid Bruno was killed tonight. How did you all know?"
"My scar was burning." Dumbledore turned to study Harry after he said that --- it did make sense.
"Ah. I'm afraid I'm going to have to once again insist that everyone go to bed. It's nearly sunup and we've all been through a lot. And some of us aren't as young as others. After lunch we'll all meet back here."
"Us too?" Ron asked tentatively.
Dumbledore chucked. "Yes both you and Hermione are invited. I think perhaps it's time to share a little information."
Sirius and Lupin waited for the door to close before asking Dumbledore what he meant. "Surely you aren't going to tell Ron and Hermione about the Order?"
"I must remind you that extreme events require extreme actions but no; it is not my intention to tell them about the Order, at least not yet. Now please let me get a little rest. I have many things to work out." Sirius transformed and then he and Lupin went to the room that they sometimes stayed in.
Meanwhile the young trio had returned to their bedrooms in silence. Each lost in his or her own thought, at the common room they parted without so much as a nod. This time, Harry was asleep almost before his head hit the pillow.
Ron had to wake Harry up so they could get to Dumbledore's office in time. Ron actually wouldn't have minded getting there a little early, he was anxious to finally get some answers to the questions he bad been asking for almost the entire first half of the school year. Waking Harry early that afternoon however was not an easy task. Ron yelled at him, shook him, kicked the bed, tossed a pillow or two, and finally had to resort to shooting a spray of water out of his wand.
Harry awoke still not feeling completely rested. After he dried off, the two boys met Hermione downstairs and they all went to the headmaster's office together.
They were surprised when no one answered their knock. Harry finally decided to go into the office anyway. It was empty, they looked around but there definitely wasn't anyone inside. They weren't sure what to do next. They waited for a little while but then Harry's stomach betrayed him. He couldn't even remember the last time he ate and he didn't put up much of a fight when Hermione insisted that they all go down to the Great Hall. "Don't worry, we'll come straight back but it won't help anything if we don't eat."
The entire time they were walking to the Great Hall, the trio kept looking around to see if Dumbledore, Sirius, or Lupin were just late heading up to the headmaster's office. They didn't see them or any professor on their way to a late lunch. They saw Fred and George and went to sit beside them.
Ron tried to start up a conversation. "Where have you two been hiding lately? We haven't seen much of you and the common room has been unusually quiet lately."
George glanced quickly at his twin before answering his other brother. "We've been studying you twit, we have NEWTs this this."
Ron almost spit out his Sheppard's Pie. "Yeah right. That's convincing. What? Can't you open a joke shop with less than ten NEWTs each?"
George realized it had been a stupid lie. He was furious with himself because he was usually much better at lying than that. Even he knew that trying to convince anyone, much less his own brother that they were studying was a hopeless cause. He knew that he had a better chance of convincing them that he and Fred were rehearsing for the Russian Ballet. He was trying to think of what else to say when he was interrupted.
Professor McGonagall stood up and made an announcement. "I need your attention please. I need all the prefects to gather up every student from their house and bring them back in here for another announcement. Go on now."
Ron, Harry, and Hermione just sat staring at each other until Fred's voice brought them back to reality. "Oy, aren't you three prefects?"
"Uh yeah," Harry said. "Hermione you go to the common room and then start counting heads back in here. Ron, you do a quick sweep outside and I'll sweep the rest of the castle. The 6th and 7th year prefects can catch the stragglers."
With a quick nod the three split up to find all the members of their house. Apparently Malfoy had the same assignment Harry did because they kept bumping into each other all over the school. Harry thought Malfoy seemed to have a smirk on his ugly face like maybe he knew something, but he couldn't be sure and he didn't have enough time to waste getting into a fight right now. He kept scouring the castle for stray Gryffindors. After finding a few in the library, and having been everywhere else he could think of, he decided to head back into the Great Hall.
Ron and Hermione were already sitting down when Harry went over to join them at the Gryffindor table. Everywhere he turned, he overheard students trying to guess what this was all about. Harry noticed that Professor McGonagall was the only teacher around and he hadn't even seen any while searching the castle. He also remembered not seeing any in the hallways when they first came down for lunch. He mentioned this little tidbit of information to Ron and Hermione.
Eventually, when each and every student was accounted for, Professor McGonagall once again took her place in the middle of the staff table. "Everyone is to go up to their rooms and pack. Christmas vacation is starting early this year. You all will be owled with the start date of the second semester. You will not leave your towers unless accompanied by a Hogwarts professor. You will be leaving tonight so go pack quickly and then wait in your common rooms for the head of your house to come and talk to you further. Well, what are you all waiting for? Shoo!"
Harry had a sinking feeling in his stomach. By the looks on his friends' faces, he wasn't the only one to feel that way. The three of them got up and walked towards the staff table.
A/N: So??? What does everyone think? I would like to thank my faithful reviewers. I only have three or four and one of those insists on questioning my sanity!
A/N: Tell me your thoughts --- share with me.
A/N: I spent 20 minutes trying to get rid of the "Ha" at the end of the last chapter. I didn't type it and didn't even know it was there until I got Moonlight's post. I reposted but it stayed there. It's not on my word document. Just one of those mysterious things, I guess fanfiction.net didn't like my cliffhanger.
CH22 Worried Wizards
Harry remembered what Dumbledore had said last year about what caused his scar to hurt. He was pretty sure that he knew what his burning scar meant but he knew he should go back to the headmaster's office and let him know. He had to decide quickly what to tell the boys in his room because, after his scream, everyone was awake. The decision was easier than he thought. He had very little say in the matter because he was too tired to make anything up. It was Ron who finally asked the questions Harry was waiting for.
"What's wrong? Why'd you scream?"
"My scar hurts. I'm going to go tell Dumbledore." Most of the boys just say there at this revelation not even knowing the significance of it. Neville however, pulled his covers up over his head.
"You want me to come?" Ron asked.
Harry was torn. He wanted to be alone but he didn't want to keep pushing away his two best friends. Ron was the first friend he ever had in the wizarding world, well after Hagrid at least. "Yeah, come on."
When the two boys got down to the common room they found that Hermione was still sitting there. She heard them come down. "What are you two up to now?"Ha
"My scar hurt just a minute or two ago. We're going to go tell Dumbledore. Do you want to come with us?"
"Yeah." And with that the trio set out as they had done countless times in the past. Harry had been to the headmaster's office so many times this year that he felt he could find it while wearing a blindfold. They knocked when they reached Dumbledore's office. Sirius opened the door.
He smiled when he saw them. "Hey there, you three. It's kind of late. I can't really speak for Ron and Hermione but Harry, I know you have got to be exhausted. I thought you were going to try to get some sleep."
"I was but something happened shortly after I went to bed." He paused before telling Sirius the rest. When he had heard the whole story, Sirius reached the same conclusion that Harry did. Ron and Hermione were a tad bit slower to catch on.
Ron piped up, "What's the problem? Harry's scar has hurt before and we already know that You-Know-Who is on the rise. Why is this time worse than any other time?"
Sirius cast a quick glance around the room and then decided to explain so Harry wouldn't be forced to. "Dumbledore is sure that Harry's scar burns whenever Voldemort is nearby or feeling particularly murderous. Although there are multiple reasons that this could have happened, I think it's very likely that --- "
Hermione gasped. She figured it out and was able to finish Sirius's thought. " --- That the Ministry security wizard is dead."
Sirius didn't answer her one way or the other; he just stood there looking at them. Harry didn't like the way Sirius was stalling. He didn't know what else could possibly be wrong and then it occurred to him. "Sirius, where are Lupin and Dumbledore?"
Sirius didn't say anything for a while. Then he just started shaking his head very slowly and looked down toward the floor. "I don't know."
Harry had a very uneasy feeling. Things hadn't been going that well lately for the wizarding world. That simple truth coupled that with the fact that he'd been up for almost twenty hours and was still physically exhausted from the day's events pretty much assured that no one could be surprised that Harry wasn't able to hide his frustration.
"What do you mean you don't know? How could you not know? Were you here when they left or weren't you? They said --- oh no --- they said that they were going after Pettigrew. We have to go after them!"
Sirius grabbed Harry's shoulder. "Calm down Harry. Think about it. Nothing good would come of a wizard on the lam and three teen aged wizards going off into the night to chase dark wizards." As much as he wanted to be doing something, Harry had to admit that when he heard it out loud it sounded pretty stupid. He just sat there quietly and the others seemed to follow his lead.
Sirius was finally the one to break the silence. "Well if none of us are going to bed any time soon, at the least we should be doing something productive. Ron, why don't you and Hermione show Harry what you've been learning in your independent classes with McGonagall?"
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "I have been wondering what you two have been learning in your new class. You two used to talk about it at meals but you haven't discussed it in a long time. I'd like to see some of the magic McGonagall had taught you."
"Well it works both ways you know. We want to know what you --- "
"RON!" Hermione chastised in a voice that would have made Mrs. Weasley proud. "Come on Ron, let's go ahead and show him how we've been spending our free time. Besides," she continued without missing a beat, "Someone in this room could stand the practice." Hermione shot a quick smile to Harry while she was waiting for Ron to count to three.
Ron nodded his acquiescence and started the count to three.
"One" Hermione and Ron were standing about five feet apart facing each other. Each held their wands at the ready.
"Two" Harry was watching them intently, curious to see what was going to happen next.
"Provo Lingado"
Ron cast a spell at Hermione's wand hand that turned it into a taco shell. The wand escaped the useless corn product and fell to the floor.
Harry and Sirius were having a good laugh but Hermione was furious. "THREE RON --- you forgot to say three!"
"Oh. Did I? So sorry." However Ron, in fact, didn't look sorry at all.
Sirius performed the counter curse for Hermione who mumbled her thanks. This little exchange did cause Harry to start to get a little more curious about what his two friends had been learning. "So what else have you two learned?"
Hermione was the first to answer Harry's question. "Everything we've learned has been along these same lines. We've been practicing tons of spells to disarm people. We've been taught how to focus our attack on someone's wand or wand hand. Professor McGonagall spent the first couple of weeks teaching us when and why shielding spells weakened and since then she's been teaching us how to defeat them. She says attacking the wand or the wand hand is the best defensive spell there is because then it's extremely unlikely that the person can perform the counter-curse on themselves."
This all made sense to Harry now that he heard it but he never thought about it before. He briefly wondered why they hadn't learned that principle in one of their classes like Defense Against the Dark Arts. "You mean that both of you can defeat my shielding spells?"
Hermione shook her head. "It depends. Those spells are meant to be defensive so when you're just standing there we probably can't beat your spell. But when you move your arm away from your body, say to cast a spell, then you're making that part of your body more vulnerable and be probably could defeat your shielding spells." Harry was considering this. It all seemed logical enough but he was too tired to make sense out of it. He hoped he remembered later to ask them about it again.
Ron decided to use this opportunity to take another stab at Harry. "And what have you two been working on?"
Sirius answered, "This and that, mainly that." He paused to study the look on Ron's face. He noticed that Ron was not amused so he hurried on. "Ron, we've been teaching Harry a bunch of different types of spells that we think he should know in case he ever meets any more Death Eaters, like he did tonight."
"Like what?" Ron asked. Sirius could tell that he still wasn't convinced. Hermione didn't look convinced either but at least she didn't seem interested in pressing the issue. Of course he could only imagine what they felt like thinking that he and Harry were excluding them this year, and after all they were but not by choice. Sirius wanted to honor the Order and Dumbledore's wished but he also owed his freedom to these two teenagers as much as he did to anyone else. He turned back to Ron.
"Harry's learned --- "
Sirius was cut off as the door opened. Everyone turned to see Dumbledore and Lupin enter the office. They seemed unhurt, but unhappy.
Lupin walked over to Sirius. "I'm sorry. But we weren't able to get him Padfoot. We will though."
Sirius didn't seem very surprised and only nodded his response. Hermione looked up at the headmaster. "What about the Ministry wizard? Is she --- "
Dumbledore knew what was coming and spoke quickly to save her the pain of asking. "Yes. I'm afraid Bruno was killed tonight. How did you all know?"
"My scar was burning." Dumbledore turned to study Harry after he said that --- it did make sense.
"Ah. I'm afraid I'm going to have to once again insist that everyone go to bed. It's nearly sunup and we've all been through a lot. And some of us aren't as young as others. After lunch we'll all meet back here."
"Us too?" Ron asked tentatively.
Dumbledore chucked. "Yes both you and Hermione are invited. I think perhaps it's time to share a little information."
Sirius and Lupin waited for the door to close before asking Dumbledore what he meant. "Surely you aren't going to tell Ron and Hermione about the Order?"
"I must remind you that extreme events require extreme actions but no; it is not my intention to tell them about the Order, at least not yet. Now please let me get a little rest. I have many things to work out." Sirius transformed and then he and Lupin went to the room that they sometimes stayed in.
Meanwhile the young trio had returned to their bedrooms in silence. Each lost in his or her own thought, at the common room they parted without so much as a nod. This time, Harry was asleep almost before his head hit the pillow.
Ron had to wake Harry up so they could get to Dumbledore's office in time. Ron actually wouldn't have minded getting there a little early, he was anxious to finally get some answers to the questions he bad been asking for almost the entire first half of the school year. Waking Harry early that afternoon however was not an easy task. Ron yelled at him, shook him, kicked the bed, tossed a pillow or two, and finally had to resort to shooting a spray of water out of his wand.
Harry awoke still not feeling completely rested. After he dried off, the two boys met Hermione downstairs and they all went to the headmaster's office together.
They were surprised when no one answered their knock. Harry finally decided to go into the office anyway. It was empty, they looked around but there definitely wasn't anyone inside. They weren't sure what to do next. They waited for a little while but then Harry's stomach betrayed him. He couldn't even remember the last time he ate and he didn't put up much of a fight when Hermione insisted that they all go down to the Great Hall. "Don't worry, we'll come straight back but it won't help anything if we don't eat."
The entire time they were walking to the Great Hall, the trio kept looking around to see if Dumbledore, Sirius, or Lupin were just late heading up to the headmaster's office. They didn't see them or any professor on their way to a late lunch. They saw Fred and George and went to sit beside them.
Ron tried to start up a conversation. "Where have you two been hiding lately? We haven't seen much of you and the common room has been unusually quiet lately."
George glanced quickly at his twin before answering his other brother. "We've been studying you twit, we have NEWTs this this."
Ron almost spit out his Sheppard's Pie. "Yeah right. That's convincing. What? Can't you open a joke shop with less than ten NEWTs each?"
George realized it had been a stupid lie. He was furious with himself because he was usually much better at lying than that. Even he knew that trying to convince anyone, much less his own brother that they were studying was a hopeless cause. He knew that he had a better chance of convincing them that he and Fred were rehearsing for the Russian Ballet. He was trying to think of what else to say when he was interrupted.
Professor McGonagall stood up and made an announcement. "I need your attention please. I need all the prefects to gather up every student from their house and bring them back in here for another announcement. Go on now."
Ron, Harry, and Hermione just sat staring at each other until Fred's voice brought them back to reality. "Oy, aren't you three prefects?"
"Uh yeah," Harry said. "Hermione you go to the common room and then start counting heads back in here. Ron, you do a quick sweep outside and I'll sweep the rest of the castle. The 6th and 7th year prefects can catch the stragglers."
With a quick nod the three split up to find all the members of their house. Apparently Malfoy had the same assignment Harry did because they kept bumping into each other all over the school. Harry thought Malfoy seemed to have a smirk on his ugly face like maybe he knew something, but he couldn't be sure and he didn't have enough time to waste getting into a fight right now. He kept scouring the castle for stray Gryffindors. After finding a few in the library, and having been everywhere else he could think of, he decided to head back into the Great Hall.
Ron and Hermione were already sitting down when Harry went over to join them at the Gryffindor table. Everywhere he turned, he overheard students trying to guess what this was all about. Harry noticed that Professor McGonagall was the only teacher around and he hadn't even seen any while searching the castle. He also remembered not seeing any in the hallways when they first came down for lunch. He mentioned this little tidbit of information to Ron and Hermione.
Eventually, when each and every student was accounted for, Professor McGonagall once again took her place in the middle of the staff table. "Everyone is to go up to their rooms and pack. Christmas vacation is starting early this year. You all will be owled with the start date of the second semester. You will not leave your towers unless accompanied by a Hogwarts professor. You will be leaving tonight so go pack quickly and then wait in your common rooms for the head of your house to come and talk to you further. Well, what are you all waiting for? Shoo!"
Harry had a sinking feeling in his stomach. By the looks on his friends' faces, he wasn't the only one to feel that way. The three of them got up and walked towards the staff table.
A/N: So??? What does everyone think? I would like to thank my faithful reviewers. I only have three or four and one of those insists on questioning my sanity!