O'Malley the Alley Cat, samhaincat = Thanks for your reviews!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
This chapter is mainly for the sake of moving the story along. But I still hope you like it, and after you're done reading, please review! I'd like to get my review count up to at least 14 before I update again. Anyway, here's the next chapter.
~*~
It had been about two months since that fateful night when Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall had died. Percy Weasley had then been hired as the new Potions teacher, and Tonks had been hired as the new Transfiguration teacher.
The morning afterwards, Dumbledore had told the school what happened. All of the teachers, and all of the students were horrified by what Dumbledore said. The next week, at the memorial services, Professor Lupin stepped up to the podium to say a few things, but he had to stop talking in the middle of what he had been saying because he broke down in tears, and had to be led back to his seat by Professor Dumbledore.
Also in the past two months there had been three quidditch games. The first one had been Gryffindor against Slytherin. Harry had caught the snitch in a record timing of two minutes. The second quidditch game had been Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw. Thirty minutes into the game, Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw Seeker and Harry's former crush, caught the snitch, which brought RavenclawÕs game points up to 210.
The third quidditch game had been Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. It was about an hour and a half into the game, and both houses were at a tie of 140 points. Harry and Cho were at opposite ends of the quidditch pitch, and Harry had spotted the snitch hovering about fifty feet above Cho. He acted as though he was doing a lap around the field, just to shake off nerves, but when he got about ten feet away from Cho he shot suddenly upwards. Cho did too, but she was too late, and Harry got the snitch.
~*~
It was morning, the day before Christmas vacation was to start, and Harry was eating breakfast with his two best friends, Ron and Hermione.
"So," Harry said to his friends as he took a bite of toast, "what should we do tomorrow once people go home?"
Ron and Hermione looked at each other.
"What?" said Harry.
"Well, Harry," said Hermione hesitantly, "please don't be mad, but Ron and I...well, we're not going to stay at Hogwarts this year for Christmas break."
Harry felt the heat rise in his face. Why weren't his two best friends staying at Hogwarts with him?
"Then where are you going to go?" said Harry.
"I'm going home to my parents, and Ron is going to go back to his parents."
"Great," said Harry, slamming down his piece of toast, "Just great. I get to stay at Hogwarts all alone."
"What about Luna? You can still hang out with her, can't you?"
"She going home to her dad!"
"Harry, calm down!" said Ron.
"I'm perfectly calm."
"No, you're not." said Ron, "I asked Dumbledore if you could come home with me, but he said that you couldn't because Hogwarts is the safest place for you, and if you go home with either of us, Voldemort is bound to come and get you." Then he stopped, his mouth open. "I...I just said You-Know-Who's name!" Ron said in disbelief.
"Very good, Ron," said Hermione smiling.
Harry smiled. "I guess you're right Ron," he said, "Hogwarts is the safest place for me."
At that moment, Luna came over to them and sat down.
"Hey Luna," said Harry, kissing her.
Luna smiled. "Hi Harry. How have you been?"
Hermione and Ron got up.
"Harry, Ron and I have to get back to our dorms and finish packing." Hermione said.
"All right," said Harry. "See you back in the common room."
"Yeah, see you," Hermione said, and waved at Harry and turned around and left, with Ron following her.
Harry took a bite of his scrambled eggs.
"What was it you asked me?" he said to Luna, who was twirling a strand of her hair around her fingers.
"What? Oh, I asked you how you've been," Luna said.
"Eh, I've been good, I guess," replied Harry.
"Are you sure? Sometimes I look over at you, and I see you looking sad." Luna paused, while Harry drank some of his pumpkin juice. "Is it because of what happened to, you know, Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall?" she asked in a quiet, caring voice.
"I guess you could say that," said Harry, also quietly, "And not only that. When Vol- when he killed them, the Dursleys, and the Evans', he killed my last remaining relatives, and when that happened...oh, I don't know..."
"He didn't kill your last remaining relatives, Harry," said Luna, and when Harry looked at her, she added, "You're related to Mark, remember?"
"Oh yeah," said Harry.
There was another pause, and Harry opened his mouth to speak again.
"Um...don't you have to go pack?" he said.
"Yeah, I do," said Luna, "Thanks for reminding me. Bye."
"Bye."
After Luna left, Harry sat for a while at the Gryffindor table, thinking about what had happened over the past few months. He remembered the talk between Voldemort and Wormtail that he and Luna had overheard. Harry remembered hearing something about the secret room. What was it? If he, Harry, had found out about the secret room...well, he already had...if he, Harry found out about it, there could be disasterous consequences for Voldemort and his followers. But...what were they? Harry made a mental note about it, and got up from the table.
When Harry had reached the top of the marble staircase, he suddenly decided to turn back around and go to the library, to see if he could find out anything about the secret room. He was about halfway to the library, when he heard some sniffing. It sounded as though someone was crying, and the sound was coming from the feet of a suit of armor.
"Mark?" Mark looked up, and Harry could see his tear-streaked face. "Are you all right?"
"No, I still miss my family." He sniffed.
"I can understand that," said Harry in a comforting voice, sitting down next to Mark.
"You can? Why? Do you miss the Dursleys?"
Harry snorted. "Them? They were no proper family. They gave me no new clothes; everything was hand-me-downs. Every day of my life they treated me as if I was an unwanted child."
Mark sniffed. "Oh," he said.
"But it wasn't the Dursleys I was talking about."
"Were you talking about your parents?"
Harry sighed. "Even though I don't remember them, I still miss them. But it wasn't my parents that I was talking about."
"Then who were you talking about?"
"Sirius. He was my godfather. He was the closest thing to a father I had."
"When did he-?"
"Die?" Harry asked. Mark nodded. "A few months ago, in June."
"Do you still miss him?"
"Everyday. But I know that, no matter what, when I die, I'll get to see him again. And my parents."
"Just like when I die, I'll get to see my mum and dad again."
"That's right," said Harry (who had by now forgotten about the library) as he got up. "Well," he said, "Seeing as how we're the only students who are staying at Hogwarts this Christmas, we can explore the castle, and I could show you some secret passages."
"All right," said Mark. "See you later, then."
Harry said bye, and again went up the marble staircase. When he walked past Professor Lupin's office, he decided to visit him. Harry turned around, and walked back to Lupin's office. He saw that the door was closed, so he knocked three times.
"Come in," said a hoarse voice.
Harry opened the door, and walked into his dad's best friendÕs office, and sat down in front of Professor Lupin's desk.
"Are you feeling all right, Harry?" Lupin asked.
"Yes," Harry said. "Why do you ask?"
"I'm concerned," Lupin replied. "I mean, after that whole incident with Professors Snape and McGonagall, you just haven't seemed yourself, really."
"Well, you know how when Sirius..." Harry shifted in his seat, "how when he fell through the veil, you remember how devestated I was?"
"Yes, I remember that clearly. It took all my strength to hold you back," Lupin replied.
Harry took a deep breath. "Well, when Professor McGonagall was killed, that whole thing with Sirius falling through the veil felt as though it had happened all over again. It brought back all the grief from that night."
"The same goes for me, Harry. I still haven't completley got over that night either."
"Oh." Harry then changed the subject, mainly because talking about Sirius still made him sad. "So," he said, "what are we doing next in Defense Against the Dark Arts?"
Harry noticed the Lupin seemed glad of the change of subject.
"Well, Harry," he said, "I was thinking about teaching all of you how to conjur a patronus." Lupin smiled at him. "Though I know you already know how to do one, and I know that thanks to your D.A. last year, some other students also know how to conjur patronuses."
"Yeah, that was pretty fun, teaching those other students how to do the Patronus Charm," said Harry. "Of course, what with the Dementors going over to Voldemort, it's good that you are going to teach it to us now. I mean, I certainly wouldn't want my soul to get sucked out of me."
"No, that would not be good," Lupin said.
"When did you first learn how to do the Patronus Charm?"
"It was when your dad, Sirius, and I were in our last year at Hogwarts. James wanted to learn how to do a Patronus to impress you mother, Lily. So every night we went to this teacher, and we finally mastered the Patronus Charm after two months. Sirius's Patronus was a dog. It looked exactly like his animagus form. Mine was a coyote, and James's Patronus was an eagle."
"An eagle?" Harry said. "Wow. So did he ever show his Patronus to my mum?"
"Eventually," Lupin replied.
"So, how did he show it to her?"
"Well, it was the day before Christmas, and your father, James, had just asked your mother to go out with him for the hundredth time. Your mother, like she always did before, refused. And so your father yelled out EXPECTO PATRONUM, and out flew his eagle Patronus from his wand. I have no idea how James did this next part, and I still don't know how he did it, but he somehow made his eagle Patronus write, in mid-air, right infront of Lily, the words 'I love you, Lily Evans. Please go out with me!' inside a heart."
"So what did my mum do?" Harry asked excitedly.
"She turned around with a beautiful smile on her face, and she walked up to your father, looked him straight in the eyes, said that she would go out with him, and then she kissed him."
Harry smiled. "So that's how my mum stopped hating my dad."
"Yes, that's how," said Lupin. "Though I still feel sorry for your dad because of all the teasing Sirius did for the next few weeks."
"Wow," said Harry. "Thanks for telling that, Professor."
"Please Harry, call me Remus, but not during class, or in front of the other Professors."
"All right...Remus." Harry grinned.
Lupin smiled, and looked up at the clock that was hanging on the wall above the door.
"Well, it's lunchtime, and I daresay that you would like to get something to eat, and chat with your friends."
"Yeah, that's true," said Harry. "Aren't you going to go down to lunch?" Harry added, getting up from his seat.
"Yes, but I need to finish grading these essays. I promised the third years that I would hand them back after Christmas break."
"Oh, ok. Well, bye for now." Harry left Lupin's office, and went down to lunch. Lupin followed a few minutes later.
~*~
I won't be updating again until I get my review count up to 14, so PLEASE Review!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
This chapter is mainly for the sake of moving the story along. But I still hope you like it, and after you're done reading, please review! I'd like to get my review count up to at least 14 before I update again. Anyway, here's the next chapter.
~*~
It had been about two months since that fateful night when Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall had died. Percy Weasley had then been hired as the new Potions teacher, and Tonks had been hired as the new Transfiguration teacher.
The morning afterwards, Dumbledore had told the school what happened. All of the teachers, and all of the students were horrified by what Dumbledore said. The next week, at the memorial services, Professor Lupin stepped up to the podium to say a few things, but he had to stop talking in the middle of what he had been saying because he broke down in tears, and had to be led back to his seat by Professor Dumbledore.
Also in the past two months there had been three quidditch games. The first one had been Gryffindor against Slytherin. Harry had caught the snitch in a record timing of two minutes. The second quidditch game had been Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw. Thirty minutes into the game, Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw Seeker and Harry's former crush, caught the snitch, which brought RavenclawÕs game points up to 210.
The third quidditch game had been Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw. It was about an hour and a half into the game, and both houses were at a tie of 140 points. Harry and Cho were at opposite ends of the quidditch pitch, and Harry had spotted the snitch hovering about fifty feet above Cho. He acted as though he was doing a lap around the field, just to shake off nerves, but when he got about ten feet away from Cho he shot suddenly upwards. Cho did too, but she was too late, and Harry got the snitch.
~*~
It was morning, the day before Christmas vacation was to start, and Harry was eating breakfast with his two best friends, Ron and Hermione.
"So," Harry said to his friends as he took a bite of toast, "what should we do tomorrow once people go home?"
Ron and Hermione looked at each other.
"What?" said Harry.
"Well, Harry," said Hermione hesitantly, "please don't be mad, but Ron and I...well, we're not going to stay at Hogwarts this year for Christmas break."
Harry felt the heat rise in his face. Why weren't his two best friends staying at Hogwarts with him?
"Then where are you going to go?" said Harry.
"I'm going home to my parents, and Ron is going to go back to his parents."
"Great," said Harry, slamming down his piece of toast, "Just great. I get to stay at Hogwarts all alone."
"What about Luna? You can still hang out with her, can't you?"
"She going home to her dad!"
"Harry, calm down!" said Ron.
"I'm perfectly calm."
"No, you're not." said Ron, "I asked Dumbledore if you could come home with me, but he said that you couldn't because Hogwarts is the safest place for you, and if you go home with either of us, Voldemort is bound to come and get you." Then he stopped, his mouth open. "I...I just said You-Know-Who's name!" Ron said in disbelief.
"Very good, Ron," said Hermione smiling.
Harry smiled. "I guess you're right Ron," he said, "Hogwarts is the safest place for me."
At that moment, Luna came over to them and sat down.
"Hey Luna," said Harry, kissing her.
Luna smiled. "Hi Harry. How have you been?"
Hermione and Ron got up.
"Harry, Ron and I have to get back to our dorms and finish packing." Hermione said.
"All right," said Harry. "See you back in the common room."
"Yeah, see you," Hermione said, and waved at Harry and turned around and left, with Ron following her.
Harry took a bite of his scrambled eggs.
"What was it you asked me?" he said to Luna, who was twirling a strand of her hair around her fingers.
"What? Oh, I asked you how you've been," Luna said.
"Eh, I've been good, I guess," replied Harry.
"Are you sure? Sometimes I look over at you, and I see you looking sad." Luna paused, while Harry drank some of his pumpkin juice. "Is it because of what happened to, you know, Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall?" she asked in a quiet, caring voice.
"I guess you could say that," said Harry, also quietly, "And not only that. When Vol- when he killed them, the Dursleys, and the Evans', he killed my last remaining relatives, and when that happened...oh, I don't know..."
"He didn't kill your last remaining relatives, Harry," said Luna, and when Harry looked at her, she added, "You're related to Mark, remember?"
"Oh yeah," said Harry.
There was another pause, and Harry opened his mouth to speak again.
"Um...don't you have to go pack?" he said.
"Yeah, I do," said Luna, "Thanks for reminding me. Bye."
"Bye."
After Luna left, Harry sat for a while at the Gryffindor table, thinking about what had happened over the past few months. He remembered the talk between Voldemort and Wormtail that he and Luna had overheard. Harry remembered hearing something about the secret room. What was it? If he, Harry, had found out about the secret room...well, he already had...if he, Harry found out about it, there could be disasterous consequences for Voldemort and his followers. But...what were they? Harry made a mental note about it, and got up from the table.
When Harry had reached the top of the marble staircase, he suddenly decided to turn back around and go to the library, to see if he could find out anything about the secret room. He was about halfway to the library, when he heard some sniffing. It sounded as though someone was crying, and the sound was coming from the feet of a suit of armor.
"Mark?" Mark looked up, and Harry could see his tear-streaked face. "Are you all right?"
"No, I still miss my family." He sniffed.
"I can understand that," said Harry in a comforting voice, sitting down next to Mark.
"You can? Why? Do you miss the Dursleys?"
Harry snorted. "Them? They were no proper family. They gave me no new clothes; everything was hand-me-downs. Every day of my life they treated me as if I was an unwanted child."
Mark sniffed. "Oh," he said.
"But it wasn't the Dursleys I was talking about."
"Were you talking about your parents?"
Harry sighed. "Even though I don't remember them, I still miss them. But it wasn't my parents that I was talking about."
"Then who were you talking about?"
"Sirius. He was my godfather. He was the closest thing to a father I had."
"When did he-?"
"Die?" Harry asked. Mark nodded. "A few months ago, in June."
"Do you still miss him?"
"Everyday. But I know that, no matter what, when I die, I'll get to see him again. And my parents."
"Just like when I die, I'll get to see my mum and dad again."
"That's right," said Harry (who had by now forgotten about the library) as he got up. "Well," he said, "Seeing as how we're the only students who are staying at Hogwarts this Christmas, we can explore the castle, and I could show you some secret passages."
"All right," said Mark. "See you later, then."
Harry said bye, and again went up the marble staircase. When he walked past Professor Lupin's office, he decided to visit him. Harry turned around, and walked back to Lupin's office. He saw that the door was closed, so he knocked three times.
"Come in," said a hoarse voice.
Harry opened the door, and walked into his dad's best friendÕs office, and sat down in front of Professor Lupin's desk.
"Are you feeling all right, Harry?" Lupin asked.
"Yes," Harry said. "Why do you ask?"
"I'm concerned," Lupin replied. "I mean, after that whole incident with Professors Snape and McGonagall, you just haven't seemed yourself, really."
"Well, you know how when Sirius..." Harry shifted in his seat, "how when he fell through the veil, you remember how devestated I was?"
"Yes, I remember that clearly. It took all my strength to hold you back," Lupin replied.
Harry took a deep breath. "Well, when Professor McGonagall was killed, that whole thing with Sirius falling through the veil felt as though it had happened all over again. It brought back all the grief from that night."
"The same goes for me, Harry. I still haven't completley got over that night either."
"Oh." Harry then changed the subject, mainly because talking about Sirius still made him sad. "So," he said, "what are we doing next in Defense Against the Dark Arts?"
Harry noticed the Lupin seemed glad of the change of subject.
"Well, Harry," he said, "I was thinking about teaching all of you how to conjur a patronus." Lupin smiled at him. "Though I know you already know how to do one, and I know that thanks to your D.A. last year, some other students also know how to conjur patronuses."
"Yeah, that was pretty fun, teaching those other students how to do the Patronus Charm," said Harry. "Of course, what with the Dementors going over to Voldemort, it's good that you are going to teach it to us now. I mean, I certainly wouldn't want my soul to get sucked out of me."
"No, that would not be good," Lupin said.
"When did you first learn how to do the Patronus Charm?"
"It was when your dad, Sirius, and I were in our last year at Hogwarts. James wanted to learn how to do a Patronus to impress you mother, Lily. So every night we went to this teacher, and we finally mastered the Patronus Charm after two months. Sirius's Patronus was a dog. It looked exactly like his animagus form. Mine was a coyote, and James's Patronus was an eagle."
"An eagle?" Harry said. "Wow. So did he ever show his Patronus to my mum?"
"Eventually," Lupin replied.
"So, how did he show it to her?"
"Well, it was the day before Christmas, and your father, James, had just asked your mother to go out with him for the hundredth time. Your mother, like she always did before, refused. And so your father yelled out EXPECTO PATRONUM, and out flew his eagle Patronus from his wand. I have no idea how James did this next part, and I still don't know how he did it, but he somehow made his eagle Patronus write, in mid-air, right infront of Lily, the words 'I love you, Lily Evans. Please go out with me!' inside a heart."
"So what did my mum do?" Harry asked excitedly.
"She turned around with a beautiful smile on her face, and she walked up to your father, looked him straight in the eyes, said that she would go out with him, and then she kissed him."
Harry smiled. "So that's how my mum stopped hating my dad."
"Yes, that's how," said Lupin. "Though I still feel sorry for your dad because of all the teasing Sirius did for the next few weeks."
"Wow," said Harry. "Thanks for telling that, Professor."
"Please Harry, call me Remus, but not during class, or in front of the other Professors."
"All right...Remus." Harry grinned.
Lupin smiled, and looked up at the clock that was hanging on the wall above the door.
"Well, it's lunchtime, and I daresay that you would like to get something to eat, and chat with your friends."
"Yeah, that's true," said Harry. "Aren't you going to go down to lunch?" Harry added, getting up from his seat.
"Yes, but I need to finish grading these essays. I promised the third years that I would hand them back after Christmas break."
"Oh, ok. Well, bye for now." Harry left Lupin's office, and went down to lunch. Lupin followed a few minutes later.
~*~
I won't be updating again until I get my review count up to 14, so PLEASE Review!