A/N - JKR owns the idea, all of these characters etc.
A/N - Constructive criticism is encouraged. Don't apologize for it.
A/N - Star, possibly Harry didn't want everyone to know about the broom before the next quidditch game or possibly he forgot and acted out of habit, like I did. Your choice
Chapter 45
Suddenly Sirius
"THREE DAYS??!? Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"Harry, please try to calm down. You've had an extraordinarily hard year, even for you, and a particularly hard last weekend. Since you seldom see him during the week we were hoping he would return before we had to tell you. Please believe we did what we thought was best to include telling you about it now."
Harry stood in the headmaster's office with his arms folded across his chest. He knew that everything he had just heard was true, but it didn't make it any easier to calm himself down. Finally he asked, "Where was he last seen?"
"Here"
"In your office?"
Dumbledore shook his head slightly. "No Harry, here at Hogwarts. I didn't send him out to do anything, he just went missing."
This news surprised Harry more than anything. He had immediately assumed that some mission or errand of Dumbledore's had gone awry. But what Harry didn't know was whether this was good news or bad news. Perhaps Sirius just went to do some things to start putting his life back together, since he was now a free man. Maybe Sirius left a note explaining his absence but it got lost, or Peeves took it, or any of a thousand strange things that could happen to a note left unattended at Hogwarts. But if he had been on some business for Dumbledore at least everyone would have a place to start looking.
"I see you, like the rest of us, are not sure whether something has happened to him or not." Harry, shaken out of his thoughts, didn't speak but merely nodded his head. "I can only tell you that I do have people out looking for him and that it does no good to sit here worrying over the unknown. I assure you that you will be notified the moment we have any news. Please don't let this hamper your studies, particularly your extra studies."
Harry stared numbly at Dumbledore waiting for him to say more but he remained silent. Eventually, Harry left without saying another word. Unsure of what to do or where to go next, Harry heading back to his common room.
When he climbed through the portrait hole he saw that Ron and Hermione were waiting for him by the fireplace. He went over to them and slumped down in a chair.
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked when she saw the look on his face.
Harry looked between his two friends. They had every right to know. They helped or tried to help with every step of Sirius' freedom and they liked him almost as much as Harry did. But somehow saying the words out loud made it all the more real. He found he just couldn't tell them and instead he looked down at the floor.
Ron and Hermione were growing more concerned by the second. Harry's silence was deafening. Ron got up and walked over to Harry. Putting his hand on his best friend's shoulder he repeated Hermione's question. "What's wrong?"
Harry looked up. He opened his mouth to speak but no sound came out. Finally, he said in a soft voice that almost broke as he was speaking, "Sirius has been missing for three days."
Now that he had started it was a bit easier to continue. He told them about what little Dumbledore had told him a few minutes ago up in his office. He saw a look of total horror on Hermione's face but Ron's face was different. On Ron's face there was a different emotion, one Harry couldn't quite place yet.
"THIS IS WHERE I DRAW THE LINE!" Ron shouted so loudly that students were coming down from their bedrooms to see what was going on. What they saw was Ron's face turning completely red; his whole face was the color of a beet. He was starting to shake and Harry wondered if the expression "get someone's blood boiling" had any basis in fact. He had never seen his friend this angry - not even when he learned the truth about his pet rat Scabbers.
Hermione was looking on in fear. Those students who had come down to check things out were rapidly returning to their rooms. Neville was on the stairwell squeaking with fear. Unsure what to do or say to calm his friend down, Harry slowly started to stand up when a loud noise got his attention. Apparently Ron's anger had sent the door to their common room flying down the hall. This, at least, had the effect of calming Ron down even if only slightly.
"The Fat Lady!" Hermione screamed as she ran out of the tower toward the door. The two boys were on her heels. Apparently the noise had been just as loud outside the tower as it had been inside the tower because they were met almost immediately by Filch.
"What trouble are you lot up to?" The caretaker asked as he approached. He froze when he realized that the three students were bent over trying to calm the Fat Lady down. "My, my you've done it this time. Surely you'll be expelled for this. Three Gryffindor Prefects harming the guardian to their tower. Wait till I --- "
"Just go get help," Ron snarled. Filch made a sudden move but seemed to think better of it and strolled away presumably to get help.
"Please just let us help you. Move your hands so we can heal you."
"My face, my face!" The Fat Lady was screaming. Her hands were covering her face. Blood was seeping down in between her fingers. No amount of persuading though would get her to remove her hands even though they offered to try to heal her.
"My face, my face!" She was practically hysterical, screaming that and only that over and over.
"What's going on here?"
The trio had been so quick to try to help their guardian that they only now realized they hadn't had time to think up a plausible story. They didn't have to answer the head of their house though because once she saw the blood coming through the Fat Lady's hands she lost all thoughts of them and turned her attention to the portrait on the ground which was becoming bloodier by the moment.
"My word," Professor McGonagall gasped before magicking the portrait in front of her as she quickly strode down the corridor. Not sure if they were supposed to follow along or not, they chased after her. Harry spoke up.
"We don't know what happened. We didn't see anyone."
Professor McGonagall might have thought it a bit strange that they were answering questions that she hadn't asked yet but she sent them all away saying that they would discuss this more later.
When they got back to their common room they found it brimming with excitement. Questions like "what happened?" and "did you see anything?" could be heard all around the room. Not wanting to field any of these questions, the group went up to Ron and Harry's bedroom. Fortunately it was empty so Hermione closed the door and put a locking charm on it before wheeling around toward Ron.
"What do you thing you were doing?"
"I told you, I've had it. I'm going to go find Sirius."
"Don't be stupid. You're not going anywhere. You don't even know where to look."
"I can look in all the places we hope he's not. At least then we'd know Voldemort doesn't have him."
"I can't believe you'd stand there and say such ridiculous things. Are you trying to get Harry killed?"
"I'm not trying to get Harry killed."
"Er --- I'm still here you know." Harry hated it when people talked like he wasn't in the room. His interjection didn't slow his friends down any though.
"Do you honestly think that if you went out there he'd stay here? You know he wouldn't. He'd go out with you and it's not safe for him out there. It's barely safe for him in here."
"I've had it. Voldemort has tried to kill my best friend four times in five years and he's tried to kill my baby sister after making her do horrible things that she still has nightmares about. Sirius was in Azkaban for twelve years for something my pet rat did and now that he's finally free he's missing. I draw the line here. No more suffering for Sirius."
"Did someone say my name?"
They were so wrapped up in their own argument that no one heard the unlocking charms and the door being opened. A familiar looking Sirius Black was smiling at them.
"OOF" was all he could say while being enveloped by three teen-agers who weren't gentle with the hugs. When they finally started to ease up he choked out, "What's the matter? Did something happen?"
"I'll say something happened. Dumbledore told me an hour ago that you had gone missing for three days."
"Missing? But I wasn't missing. I always knew where I was."
Hermione was not amused. "Be serious."
"I'm always Sirius," he answered with a big grin.
"Sirius," Hermione said in her most grown up voice that she used when lecturing Ron and Harry, "this isn't funny. We were worried something awful. Where were you and why didn't you tell anyone you were going somewhere?"
His eyebrows arched probably from the tone of her voice, he glanced at Ron and Harry before answering. "I did tell someone. I told Filch to tell Dumbledore for me that I had something to do and that I'd be back today. I was in a hurry and I couldn't find Dumbledore but I bumped into Filch when I was looking for him."
Ron, who was still angry but not as angry as earlier in the morning, spoke next. "Why would Dumbledore go and tell Harry that you were missing then? Filch must not have told him."
"Well then I guess I best go tell Dumbledore that I'm not lost." Sirius turned and started out the door when Harry stopped him.
"Wait. You never said. Where were you?"
"Oh yes, well to that --- er --- you see --- that's actually why I came up here just now --- er it's a bit of a surprise --- if you want to that is --- but --- well --- after everything that happened to you last weekend I told Dumbledore that if you wanted to that you were going to come live with me this summer. I told him that if we started working on it we'd have time to set up enough protections and that you had been through too much this year to go back to the Dursley's." Sirius had been kind of rambling on and now he was looking at Harry with nothing but hope in his eyes.
Harry met his godfather's eyes. "Well I don't know."
Sirius' face fell. Hermione and Ron wore matching expressions of shock. Both had their mouth wide open.
Harry started laughing. "Of course I want to live with you. I've wanted to live with you since you first asked me back in third year and probably even before that. I want to live with you more than anyone else in the world. How could you doubt that even a little bit? Don't be so gullible. Are you sure you were friends with my father?"
Sirius started laughing as he pulled Harry into a fierce hug. He tousled his hair saying, "I'll get you back. But now I have to go tell Dumbledore I'm all right."
"Wait, you never told me where you were."
Sirius smiled. As he left the room he said, "I went to work on our house."
Harry was positively beaming. He was on top of the world for the rest of the day. No amount of nagging, pleading or bribing could get Harry to study on this day, one of the best in his life. Eventually Harry and Ron, who needed no prodding to take the day off, finally convinced Hermione to take the day off. They argued with her all through breakfast and it wasn't until Harry suggested that she might burn herself out and fail all of her exams that she finally relented. He still chuckled when he thought about what Hermione's boggart turned into back in third year. Harry also secretly thought that both of his friends needed to blow off some steam - he knew for sure that he needed to.
They decided on their way outside to stop by Dumbledore's office and see why Filch didn't tell Dumbledore about Sirius being gone for a few days. They were very surprised to find Draco in the headmaster's office. He was not looking happy, of course he seldom did.
"Ah, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Dumbledore seemed genuinely pleased that they came by see him. Harry supposed he was in an especially good mood since Sirius had been "found".
"Professor," Harry began, "we were just wondering about --- er --- " Harry faltered glancing at Draco. He was unsure whether or not to talk in front of Draco but he decided to continue nevertheless. " --- about what happened to Sirius' message?"
"Well, what a happy coincidence. That's what Draco and I were just discussing. Mr Filch told me that he was coming up to tell me when a situation in one of the corridors arose. He told me that he passed the message to Draco and asked him to deliver it for him."
The trio was shocked. Ron was the first to speak, his mistrust toward the Slytherin as present as ever. "Why did you keep that from everyone?"
"I'm not keeping anything from anyone. Filch never said anything to me about anything like this. I haven't talked to him about anything at all for months."
"I don't believe that." Ron got to his feet while he speaking.
"I don't care Weasley; believe what you want." Draco also got to his feet.
Everyone was silent for a while when Dumbledore bid all the students a good morning, signifying that the discussion was over. The four students remained silent as they walked back down to the main corridor. Draco walked away without a word or a backward glance.
Harry, Ron and Hermione spent the day walking around the school grounds, occasionally throwing scraps of food into the lake for the giant squid. When they ran out of food, they skipped rocks and chatted about nothing. Eventually their talk turned to the mystery of Sirius' message between Filch and Draco and who had what to gain by lying. They couldn't come up with anything that even remotely made sense and were starting to get frustrated. Finally, Harry decided he couldn't stand being on the ground for another second. He summoned both of his broomsticks as well as Ron's from their room.
Harry felt more exhilarated than he had in a long time. They flew around for quite a while. For a while they were just flying and having but soon Ron and Harry had turned their enjoyable pastime into a competition. Hermione rolled her eyes realizing that two fifteen-year-old boys couldn't resist competing. At first they just raced around the quidditch pitch, then the castle, then they grew tired of racing.
Hermione was relieved when they told her they were tired of just racing around thinking that they were done using the broomsticks, which she had never been terribly comfortable on. She was distinctly unpleased when instead of stopping for the day the two boys decided to set up an obstacle course. She watched as Harry levitated sticks and branches to set up something similar to a Muggle slalom course. Ron didn't initially grasp the concept of the course so Hermione agreed to race Harry while Ron watched.
It came as no surprise that Harry won easily. By the time she reached the makeshift finish line Harry was slumped in his broomstick pretending to snore. Ron could be heard laughing from several meters away where he watched.
"Ouch!" Harry rubbed his arm where Hermione had just hit him.
"Don't make fun of me. You know I don't like flying all that much."
"Oh is that what you call what you were doing."
"Ouch!"
Harry and Ron raced a couple of times before changing the course around. Hermione begin to view changing the course as an academic challenge and she begin to take over that particular task. Everyone was in his or her element now. Ron and Harry were flying through obstacle courses. Hermione was charming and transforming everything in sight creating progressively longer and more difficult courses for her two friends.
Hermione couldn't resist. While the boys were racing through the previous course she began working on one she had been thinking about for a while. She was excited and waiting very impatiently for them to start the new one. Finally they did.
"Hermione!" Ron and Harry shouted at almost the same instant. She laughed realizing they must have reached the first obstacle at the same time, a makeshift door that wouldn't let them pass until they answered a question about goblin rebellions.
It had been a long time since Harry had had such a wonderful day. That's why later he realized that he shouldn't have been surprised that it came crashing to an abrupt end.
As every good seeker knows, you don't slow down until you have the Snitch in your hand. Harry knew that the same concept applied to racing so as he neared the end of every race he concentrated as flying as fast as he possibly could. He didn't want to develop a habit of letting up too early. This coupled with the fact that Hermione's racecourses were getting progressively longer (and more difficult) made Harry fly over part of the Forbidden Forest after finishing the last race. When he finally slowed up, he realized that he had suddenly become very cold.
Looking around he didn't see anything out of the ordinary so he flew further over the Forbidden Forest. Hermione and Ron were now flying over to him trying to figure out what he was doing when they saw him abruptly turn his broom and fly towards the castle as fast as he could.
"COME ON!" He shouted at them as he zoomed by. With a slight shrug, they both followed him. Harry didn't slow up as he glanced over his shoulder to make sure that they had followed him. He flew at breakneck speed all the way to the castle doors.
Ron and Hermione were surprised when he didn't wait for them before entering the school. Harry was running as fast as he could towards Dumbledore's office. Fortunately he glanced in the Great Hall as he was running by the doors and saw the headmaster sitting down at the staff table. At first no one noticed Harry sprinting to the staff table but by the time he got there most of the students and all of the staff sitting at the table were watching him.
"De --- De --- Dementors"
Professor McGonagall visibly paled. Professor Dumbledore however, wasted no time acting. He told the heads of the houses that they were to get all of their students back in to their towers and make sure that everyone was accounted for. He assigned two professors to go outside, ensure that there weren't any students outside and to bring Hagrid into the castle. He assigned the rest of the professors to scour the school and help get all the students to their respective towers. The entire faculty was to meet back in the Great Hall when they had finished their assignments. Finally, Dumbledore announced to the students, who still didn't know what was going on, that they were to proceed quickly and orderly back to their towers.
Dumbledore told Harry to stay there with him but that's all he said. Harry stood there quietly, figuring that Dumbledore didn't want to question him until all the students were gone. He did have one question about his friends' safety though so he turned to Dumbledore, "Who's guarding the Gryffindor Tower?"
"The Fat Lady has been restored. She's no worse for wear except for being a bit jumpy but that might be a good thing this year."
Harry saw Ron and Hermione entering the Great Hall trying to see what all the commotion was about. They spotted Harry and tried to come over to him but apparently Professor McGonagall had also seen that because she went over to the two of them and pointed to the exit, obviously telling them to go to Gryffindor Tower.
Harry realized then that he hadn't told Ron and Hermione what he had seen. They had no idea and now they were being ushered back to the tower. Oh well, in this case not knowing was probably better than knowing.
When all the students had left the Great Hall, Dumbledore turned to Harry. "Tell me what you saw."
A/N -Share your thoughts with me
A/N - Constructive criticism is encouraged. Don't apologize for it.
A/N - Star, possibly Harry didn't want everyone to know about the broom before the next quidditch game or possibly he forgot and acted out of habit, like I did. Your choice
Chapter 45
Suddenly Sirius
"THREE DAYS??!? Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"Harry, please try to calm down. You've had an extraordinarily hard year, even for you, and a particularly hard last weekend. Since you seldom see him during the week we were hoping he would return before we had to tell you. Please believe we did what we thought was best to include telling you about it now."
Harry stood in the headmaster's office with his arms folded across his chest. He knew that everything he had just heard was true, but it didn't make it any easier to calm himself down. Finally he asked, "Where was he last seen?"
"Here"
"In your office?"
Dumbledore shook his head slightly. "No Harry, here at Hogwarts. I didn't send him out to do anything, he just went missing."
This news surprised Harry more than anything. He had immediately assumed that some mission or errand of Dumbledore's had gone awry. But what Harry didn't know was whether this was good news or bad news. Perhaps Sirius just went to do some things to start putting his life back together, since he was now a free man. Maybe Sirius left a note explaining his absence but it got lost, or Peeves took it, or any of a thousand strange things that could happen to a note left unattended at Hogwarts. But if he had been on some business for Dumbledore at least everyone would have a place to start looking.
"I see you, like the rest of us, are not sure whether something has happened to him or not." Harry, shaken out of his thoughts, didn't speak but merely nodded his head. "I can only tell you that I do have people out looking for him and that it does no good to sit here worrying over the unknown. I assure you that you will be notified the moment we have any news. Please don't let this hamper your studies, particularly your extra studies."
Harry stared numbly at Dumbledore waiting for him to say more but he remained silent. Eventually, Harry left without saying another word. Unsure of what to do or where to go next, Harry heading back to his common room.
When he climbed through the portrait hole he saw that Ron and Hermione were waiting for him by the fireplace. He went over to them and slumped down in a chair.
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked when she saw the look on his face.
Harry looked between his two friends. They had every right to know. They helped or tried to help with every step of Sirius' freedom and they liked him almost as much as Harry did. But somehow saying the words out loud made it all the more real. He found he just couldn't tell them and instead he looked down at the floor.
Ron and Hermione were growing more concerned by the second. Harry's silence was deafening. Ron got up and walked over to Harry. Putting his hand on his best friend's shoulder he repeated Hermione's question. "What's wrong?"
Harry looked up. He opened his mouth to speak but no sound came out. Finally, he said in a soft voice that almost broke as he was speaking, "Sirius has been missing for three days."
Now that he had started it was a bit easier to continue. He told them about what little Dumbledore had told him a few minutes ago up in his office. He saw a look of total horror on Hermione's face but Ron's face was different. On Ron's face there was a different emotion, one Harry couldn't quite place yet.
"THIS IS WHERE I DRAW THE LINE!" Ron shouted so loudly that students were coming down from their bedrooms to see what was going on. What they saw was Ron's face turning completely red; his whole face was the color of a beet. He was starting to shake and Harry wondered if the expression "get someone's blood boiling" had any basis in fact. He had never seen his friend this angry - not even when he learned the truth about his pet rat Scabbers.
Hermione was looking on in fear. Those students who had come down to check things out were rapidly returning to their rooms. Neville was on the stairwell squeaking with fear. Unsure what to do or say to calm his friend down, Harry slowly started to stand up when a loud noise got his attention. Apparently Ron's anger had sent the door to their common room flying down the hall. This, at least, had the effect of calming Ron down even if only slightly.
"The Fat Lady!" Hermione screamed as she ran out of the tower toward the door. The two boys were on her heels. Apparently the noise had been just as loud outside the tower as it had been inside the tower because they were met almost immediately by Filch.
"What trouble are you lot up to?" The caretaker asked as he approached. He froze when he realized that the three students were bent over trying to calm the Fat Lady down. "My, my you've done it this time. Surely you'll be expelled for this. Three Gryffindor Prefects harming the guardian to their tower. Wait till I --- "
"Just go get help," Ron snarled. Filch made a sudden move but seemed to think better of it and strolled away presumably to get help.
"Please just let us help you. Move your hands so we can heal you."
"My face, my face!" The Fat Lady was screaming. Her hands were covering her face. Blood was seeping down in between her fingers. No amount of persuading though would get her to remove her hands even though they offered to try to heal her.
"My face, my face!" She was practically hysterical, screaming that and only that over and over.
"What's going on here?"
The trio had been so quick to try to help their guardian that they only now realized they hadn't had time to think up a plausible story. They didn't have to answer the head of their house though because once she saw the blood coming through the Fat Lady's hands she lost all thoughts of them and turned her attention to the portrait on the ground which was becoming bloodier by the moment.
"My word," Professor McGonagall gasped before magicking the portrait in front of her as she quickly strode down the corridor. Not sure if they were supposed to follow along or not, they chased after her. Harry spoke up.
"We don't know what happened. We didn't see anyone."
Professor McGonagall might have thought it a bit strange that they were answering questions that she hadn't asked yet but she sent them all away saying that they would discuss this more later.
When they got back to their common room they found it brimming with excitement. Questions like "what happened?" and "did you see anything?" could be heard all around the room. Not wanting to field any of these questions, the group went up to Ron and Harry's bedroom. Fortunately it was empty so Hermione closed the door and put a locking charm on it before wheeling around toward Ron.
"What do you thing you were doing?"
"I told you, I've had it. I'm going to go find Sirius."
"Don't be stupid. You're not going anywhere. You don't even know where to look."
"I can look in all the places we hope he's not. At least then we'd know Voldemort doesn't have him."
"I can't believe you'd stand there and say such ridiculous things. Are you trying to get Harry killed?"
"I'm not trying to get Harry killed."
"Er --- I'm still here you know." Harry hated it when people talked like he wasn't in the room. His interjection didn't slow his friends down any though.
"Do you honestly think that if you went out there he'd stay here? You know he wouldn't. He'd go out with you and it's not safe for him out there. It's barely safe for him in here."
"I've had it. Voldemort has tried to kill my best friend four times in five years and he's tried to kill my baby sister after making her do horrible things that she still has nightmares about. Sirius was in Azkaban for twelve years for something my pet rat did and now that he's finally free he's missing. I draw the line here. No more suffering for Sirius."
"Did someone say my name?"
They were so wrapped up in their own argument that no one heard the unlocking charms and the door being opened. A familiar looking Sirius Black was smiling at them.
"OOF" was all he could say while being enveloped by three teen-agers who weren't gentle with the hugs. When they finally started to ease up he choked out, "What's the matter? Did something happen?"
"I'll say something happened. Dumbledore told me an hour ago that you had gone missing for three days."
"Missing? But I wasn't missing. I always knew where I was."
Hermione was not amused. "Be serious."
"I'm always Sirius," he answered with a big grin.
"Sirius," Hermione said in her most grown up voice that she used when lecturing Ron and Harry, "this isn't funny. We were worried something awful. Where were you and why didn't you tell anyone you were going somewhere?"
His eyebrows arched probably from the tone of her voice, he glanced at Ron and Harry before answering. "I did tell someone. I told Filch to tell Dumbledore for me that I had something to do and that I'd be back today. I was in a hurry and I couldn't find Dumbledore but I bumped into Filch when I was looking for him."
Ron, who was still angry but not as angry as earlier in the morning, spoke next. "Why would Dumbledore go and tell Harry that you were missing then? Filch must not have told him."
"Well then I guess I best go tell Dumbledore that I'm not lost." Sirius turned and started out the door when Harry stopped him.
"Wait. You never said. Where were you?"
"Oh yes, well to that --- er --- you see --- that's actually why I came up here just now --- er it's a bit of a surprise --- if you want to that is --- but --- well --- after everything that happened to you last weekend I told Dumbledore that if you wanted to that you were going to come live with me this summer. I told him that if we started working on it we'd have time to set up enough protections and that you had been through too much this year to go back to the Dursley's." Sirius had been kind of rambling on and now he was looking at Harry with nothing but hope in his eyes.
Harry met his godfather's eyes. "Well I don't know."
Sirius' face fell. Hermione and Ron wore matching expressions of shock. Both had their mouth wide open.
Harry started laughing. "Of course I want to live with you. I've wanted to live with you since you first asked me back in third year and probably even before that. I want to live with you more than anyone else in the world. How could you doubt that even a little bit? Don't be so gullible. Are you sure you were friends with my father?"
Sirius started laughing as he pulled Harry into a fierce hug. He tousled his hair saying, "I'll get you back. But now I have to go tell Dumbledore I'm all right."
"Wait, you never told me where you were."
Sirius smiled. As he left the room he said, "I went to work on our house."
Harry was positively beaming. He was on top of the world for the rest of the day. No amount of nagging, pleading or bribing could get Harry to study on this day, one of the best in his life. Eventually Harry and Ron, who needed no prodding to take the day off, finally convinced Hermione to take the day off. They argued with her all through breakfast and it wasn't until Harry suggested that she might burn herself out and fail all of her exams that she finally relented. He still chuckled when he thought about what Hermione's boggart turned into back in third year. Harry also secretly thought that both of his friends needed to blow off some steam - he knew for sure that he needed to.
They decided on their way outside to stop by Dumbledore's office and see why Filch didn't tell Dumbledore about Sirius being gone for a few days. They were very surprised to find Draco in the headmaster's office. He was not looking happy, of course he seldom did.
"Ah, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Dumbledore seemed genuinely pleased that they came by see him. Harry supposed he was in an especially good mood since Sirius had been "found".
"Professor," Harry began, "we were just wondering about --- er --- " Harry faltered glancing at Draco. He was unsure whether or not to talk in front of Draco but he decided to continue nevertheless. " --- about what happened to Sirius' message?"
"Well, what a happy coincidence. That's what Draco and I were just discussing. Mr Filch told me that he was coming up to tell me when a situation in one of the corridors arose. He told me that he passed the message to Draco and asked him to deliver it for him."
The trio was shocked. Ron was the first to speak, his mistrust toward the Slytherin as present as ever. "Why did you keep that from everyone?"
"I'm not keeping anything from anyone. Filch never said anything to me about anything like this. I haven't talked to him about anything at all for months."
"I don't believe that." Ron got to his feet while he speaking.
"I don't care Weasley; believe what you want." Draco also got to his feet.
Everyone was silent for a while when Dumbledore bid all the students a good morning, signifying that the discussion was over. The four students remained silent as they walked back down to the main corridor. Draco walked away without a word or a backward glance.
Harry, Ron and Hermione spent the day walking around the school grounds, occasionally throwing scraps of food into the lake for the giant squid. When they ran out of food, they skipped rocks and chatted about nothing. Eventually their talk turned to the mystery of Sirius' message between Filch and Draco and who had what to gain by lying. They couldn't come up with anything that even remotely made sense and were starting to get frustrated. Finally, Harry decided he couldn't stand being on the ground for another second. He summoned both of his broomsticks as well as Ron's from their room.
Harry felt more exhilarated than he had in a long time. They flew around for quite a while. For a while they were just flying and having but soon Ron and Harry had turned their enjoyable pastime into a competition. Hermione rolled her eyes realizing that two fifteen-year-old boys couldn't resist competing. At first they just raced around the quidditch pitch, then the castle, then they grew tired of racing.
Hermione was relieved when they told her they were tired of just racing around thinking that they were done using the broomsticks, which she had never been terribly comfortable on. She was distinctly unpleased when instead of stopping for the day the two boys decided to set up an obstacle course. She watched as Harry levitated sticks and branches to set up something similar to a Muggle slalom course. Ron didn't initially grasp the concept of the course so Hermione agreed to race Harry while Ron watched.
It came as no surprise that Harry won easily. By the time she reached the makeshift finish line Harry was slumped in his broomstick pretending to snore. Ron could be heard laughing from several meters away where he watched.
"Ouch!" Harry rubbed his arm where Hermione had just hit him.
"Don't make fun of me. You know I don't like flying all that much."
"Oh is that what you call what you were doing."
"Ouch!"
Harry and Ron raced a couple of times before changing the course around. Hermione begin to view changing the course as an academic challenge and she begin to take over that particular task. Everyone was in his or her element now. Ron and Harry were flying through obstacle courses. Hermione was charming and transforming everything in sight creating progressively longer and more difficult courses for her two friends.
Hermione couldn't resist. While the boys were racing through the previous course she began working on one she had been thinking about for a while. She was excited and waiting very impatiently for them to start the new one. Finally they did.
"Hermione!" Ron and Harry shouted at almost the same instant. She laughed realizing they must have reached the first obstacle at the same time, a makeshift door that wouldn't let them pass until they answered a question about goblin rebellions.
It had been a long time since Harry had had such a wonderful day. That's why later he realized that he shouldn't have been surprised that it came crashing to an abrupt end.
As every good seeker knows, you don't slow down until you have the Snitch in your hand. Harry knew that the same concept applied to racing so as he neared the end of every race he concentrated as flying as fast as he possibly could. He didn't want to develop a habit of letting up too early. This coupled with the fact that Hermione's racecourses were getting progressively longer (and more difficult) made Harry fly over part of the Forbidden Forest after finishing the last race. When he finally slowed up, he realized that he had suddenly become very cold.
Looking around he didn't see anything out of the ordinary so he flew further over the Forbidden Forest. Hermione and Ron were now flying over to him trying to figure out what he was doing when they saw him abruptly turn his broom and fly towards the castle as fast as he could.
"COME ON!" He shouted at them as he zoomed by. With a slight shrug, they both followed him. Harry didn't slow up as he glanced over his shoulder to make sure that they had followed him. He flew at breakneck speed all the way to the castle doors.
Ron and Hermione were surprised when he didn't wait for them before entering the school. Harry was running as fast as he could towards Dumbledore's office. Fortunately he glanced in the Great Hall as he was running by the doors and saw the headmaster sitting down at the staff table. At first no one noticed Harry sprinting to the staff table but by the time he got there most of the students and all of the staff sitting at the table were watching him.
"De --- De --- Dementors"
Professor McGonagall visibly paled. Professor Dumbledore however, wasted no time acting. He told the heads of the houses that they were to get all of their students back in to their towers and make sure that everyone was accounted for. He assigned two professors to go outside, ensure that there weren't any students outside and to bring Hagrid into the castle. He assigned the rest of the professors to scour the school and help get all the students to their respective towers. The entire faculty was to meet back in the Great Hall when they had finished their assignments. Finally, Dumbledore announced to the students, who still didn't know what was going on, that they were to proceed quickly and orderly back to their towers.
Dumbledore told Harry to stay there with him but that's all he said. Harry stood there quietly, figuring that Dumbledore didn't want to question him until all the students were gone. He did have one question about his friends' safety though so he turned to Dumbledore, "Who's guarding the Gryffindor Tower?"
"The Fat Lady has been restored. She's no worse for wear except for being a bit jumpy but that might be a good thing this year."
Harry saw Ron and Hermione entering the Great Hall trying to see what all the commotion was about. They spotted Harry and tried to come over to him but apparently Professor McGonagall had also seen that because she went over to the two of them and pointed to the exit, obviously telling them to go to Gryffindor Tower.
Harry realized then that he hadn't told Ron and Hermione what he had seen. They had no idea and now they were being ushered back to the tower. Oh well, in this case not knowing was probably better than knowing.
When all the students had left the Great Hall, Dumbledore turned to Harry. "Tell me what you saw."
A/N -Share your thoughts with me