O'Malley the Alley Cat: You go ahead and sing some wizard carols. :-) And thanks for your review!
The next two chapters after this should be a bit better, but I hope that this chapter was worth the wait!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
~*~
The morning after Christmas, Harry awoke in his dormitory. It was snowing, and so the room was very cold. Harry snuggled up in his sheets and remembered the dream that he had had right before he woke up. It had been about Luna, and she and Harry had been playing a game of quidditch together.
Harry went over the memory again, and then got out of bed. He shuddered. It was freezing cold, so Harry quickly got dressed and headed down to the common room, and when he got there, Harry found Mark sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace, which was full of a blazing fire. He was reading a book, which Harry guessed was the first of the Lord of the Rings books that he had given mark for Christmas the day before, called The Fellowship of the Ring.
"That book good so far?" said Harry, making Mark jump.
"Oh, Harry, you scared me," said Mark. "Yeah, this book is really good so far. Thanks a lot for getting it for me!"
"No problem, cousin. What chapter are you on?"
"I'm already halfway through the book."
HarryÕs jaw dropped. "Halfway?! When did you start reading it?"
"Last night. I stayed up all night reading it, because it's really interesting. You can read The Lord of the Rings when I'm done, if you want."
"Ok, cool," said Harry. "Hey, I'm going down to breakfast. You want to come with me?"
"Oh. No thanks. I can get something later, in the kitchens. I'm not even hungry right now, anyway. Thanks for asking, though," said Mark.
Harry left the Gryffindor common room through the portrait hole, and walked down the familiar hallways and down the marble staircase into the Entrance Hall. He headed into the Great Hall for breakfast, and found that he was the only one there. He sat down at the circular table and at the breakfast that appeared there (scrambled eggs, toast, and porridge).
Harry left the Great Hall after he was done eating. He suddenly decided that he would take a walk around the castle, though for no particular reason; he just felt like it. He headed towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts corridor, passing many windows through which bright, winter sunlight crept through. Harry stopped at one of the larger window, and looked out of it at the grounds of Hogwarts. Snow covered everything. HagridÕs hut looked as normal as ever (except for the snow covering it), and he could see smoke coming out of the chimney. Harry decided that heÕd go and visit Hagrid later, perhaps after lunch. His eyes traveled over to the Quidditch field, which was frozen over, and then on to the lake, whose water was very cold. He caught a glimpse of the Giant Squid before it went down under the water again. Harry drew in a breath of contentment, and continued on his way.
When he reached the Defense Against the Dark Arts corridor, he heard someone speaking. It was coming from LupinÕs office. Harry moved closer to the office door, and identified the voice as LupinÕs. Then he heard a second voice, and identified it as Tonks'. Harry put his ear closer to the door, the same way he had done when he had been in the Shrieking Shack just a few months before.
"When should we tell him?" Tonks was saying in a worried voice.
When should they tell who about what?, Harry thought. He pressed his ear so that it was right on the door.
"Not now," Lupin said in reply to Tonks. "I don't want to ruin his Christmas vacation. I'll have Dumbledore tell him when vacation is over."
"Are you sure we should wait that long to tell him?"
"Yes."
Harry heard one of them get up and walk towards the door. Harry quickly gave a couple of knocks on the door to make it seem as though he had only just arrived, and not been listening in. All the while he was wondering who on earth Tonks and Lupin had been talking about. The door opened.
"Oh, hello, Harry," said Tonks.
"Hi, Tonks," said Harry.
"Been having a good Christmas vacation so far?"
"Yeah, it's been pretty good. Right now, however, I'm just talking a walk around the castle," said Harry.
"Well that's good. I always find that taking a walk helps to calm me down," said Tonks.
There was a slight pause, and then Harry spoke up.
"Um...right before I knocked on the door, I heard you two talking about...someone. Who was it?"
Harry looked over at Lupin, who looked, for a moment, troubled, but then his face relaxed, so Harry was sure that he had imagined the troubled look on his teacherÕs face.
"No one," said Lupin. "It...it doesn't really matter at the present time."
"Oh."
"Well, Harry," said Tonks. "I was just leaving to go back to my office. I need to make the lesson plans for next semester. Care to join me?" She smiled. "You can help, if you want."
Harry thought for a moment. "All right," he said.
"Great! Come on, then!"
Tonks left the room. Harry waved good bye to Lupin, and then followed.
When Harry and Tonks finally reached Tonks' office, Tonks sat down behind her desk, and took out a piece of parchment while Harry took a seat in front of the desk. Tonks got out a quill and stared at the parchment for a few seconds, and then at the pen for a few seconds. Suddenly she gave a sigh of frustration and put both the quill and parchment onto her desk.
"Oh, I donÕt feel like making lesson plans right now," she said.
"Then when are you going to do them?"
"Later, just not now. I just don't feel like it," said Tonks. She sighed again, and then smiled. "So," she said, "You want a Butterbeer?"
"Sure," Harry smiled.
Tonks waved her wand, and two Butterbeers appeared on her desk: one in front of her, and the other in front of Harry.
"So, Harry...there's something I've been curious about."
"Really? What's that?" Harry said, taking a sip of his Butterbeer.
"Well," said Tonks, "When you grew up with, well, you know...well, did anything interesting happen to yourself that seemed kind of strange?"
Harry looked at Tonks and took another sip of his Butterbeer.
"Not that I remember," he said, straining his memory for anything of that sort. Tonks sighed. "Well," Harry continued, "I do remember that one time I accidentally turned my teacher's wig blue, back before I had even heard of Hogwarts. And then another time, my Aunt cut my hair so short that I was almost bald, but then that night I was wishing and wishing that it would grow back, and then the next morning I found that my hair had indeed grown back- Why do you look so excited?" said Harry, catching sight of Tonks.
"Oh, Harry! Things similar to that happened before I found out that I was a metamorphagus!" said Tonks excitedly.
Harry was confused. "Wait- Are you saying that I'm-?"
"A metamorphagus? Yes, you might be. Try to change your physical appearance first, so I can be sure."
"How do I do that?"
"Picture yourself how you want to look. Then put all your concentration on changing yourself to look exactly the image you have in your head of how you want to look. You'll hear a slight pop when you've done changing."
Harry hesitated. "I dunno..."
"Don't be afraid."
Harry sighed, and thought for a moment. He'd always wanted to see what he would have looked like with red hair, so he closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could on turning his hair red. He heard a slight pop, and opened his eyes.
"Did it work?" Harry asked.
For response, Tonks handed Harry a mirror. Harry looked into it and gasped with surprise. His hair had changed to the exact color red that Ron's hair was.
"Wow!" said Harry. He looked at Tonks, who was grinning broadly. "This is really neat!"
"It looks good on you," said Tonks. "Now try something else."
Harry remembered how his godfather's hair had been down to his shoulders, and Harry thought that he's like to have his hair down to his shoulders, so Harry concentrated on turning his hair back to itÕs original color, and having it go down to his shoulders. There was a slight pop, and Harry opened his eyes and looked in the mirror. He looked up at Tonks, who was smiling even more broadly.
"Can I try something else?"
"Go ahead, but after that I need to work on my lesson plans."
"I thought that you didn't want to?"
"I changed my mind. I want to hurry up and get it over with," said Tonks. "Now, you said that you wanted to change your physical appearance again...?" Tonks smiled again.
"Oh- right."
Harry racked his brain, and remembered how people always said that he looked exactly like his dad, and that he had his momÕs eyes. 'Well,' thought Harry, 'I might as well try.'
Harry concentrated with all his might on making himself look exactly like his father had done when he was Harry's age. There was another slight pop, and Harry immediately grabbed the mirror and looked in it. Harry gasped. Staring back at him wasn't really him, but a pair of hazel eyes. Harry had changed his physical appearance to look exactly like his father had looked when he was sixteen.
Tonks, who couldn't see HarryÕs face because his head was down, wondered at the reason for Harry's gasp. Harry looked up at Tonks, who's eyes widened.
"Wow! I've seen pictures of your dad, but to have you here, now, looking exactly like him, it's..."
"Awkward, I know."
"Well, yeah!"
They didn't get to say anything more, because there was a knock at the door.
Tonks broke her gaze from Harry. "Come in!" she called.
Harry turned around right when the door opened, and saw Lupin. Lupin's jaw dropped.
"Wh- what- ?"
"Sorry!" said Harry immediately, turning back around. With a slight pop, he changed back into his normal self. He turned back around and looked apprehensively at Lupin. "Sorry," said Harry again.
"It's all right, Harry. It was just such a shock to see you looking exactly like you father had done when he was your age," said Lupin.
To relieve the awkwardness of the situation, Tonks spoke up.
"Harry's just found out that he's a metamorphagus, Remus," she said.
"That's what I figured," Lupin replied. He smiled. "Well, Harry," he said, "I hope you make good use of your...talent, shall we say."
Harry, relieved to see that Lupin was smiling, smiled also. "Don't worry, I will," said Harry.
~*~
A few days after his conversation with Tonks, it was the day before everyone was due to come back to Hogwarts, and Harry was to be found zooming around the quidditch field on his Firebolt. He had let out the Snitch, and was trying to catch it as fast as he could. Whenever he did catch it, he let go of it again, and resumed his chase after it.
After Harry was done doing this, he put his broom away in his trunk, and looking at his watch, and finding that it was time for lunch, he headed towards the Great Hall. When he got there, he found that Dumbledore and Lupin were already eating lunch, so Harry went over and joined them. They stopped talking the moment they saw Harry.
"Hello, Professors," said Harry. He took a hamburger bun, hamburger patty, and some ketchup, mayonnaise, and a slice of cheese, and proceeded to make himself one of his favorite foods.
"Hello, Harry," said Dumbledore. "Professor Lupin here was just telling me of your newfound ability."
"That I'm a metamorphagus?"
"Yes," said Dumbledore. "It's quite amazing."
Harry took a rather large bite of his cheeseburger, and swallowed it after having chewed it a few times. He suddenly thought that he would like his hair to be red, and for it to not stick up at the back like his hair always did. He concentrated on that image, and with a pop, his hair turned to the desired style. Harry took another bite of his cheeseburger, and looked up.
"How extrodinary!" said Dumbledore.
Harry smiled, and finished off his cheeseburger. He change his hair back to it's original state, and with a wave goodbye to Dumbledore and Lupin, he left the Great Hall.
As soon as Harry entered the Entrance Hall, he decided that he'd go see how Dobby was doing, so he changed his direction, but he hadn't gone far when he noticed Percy come out of the dungeons. Harry thought that Percy was acting very suspicious, for he kept glancing shiftily about him. He didn't notice Harry, who was hiding in the shadows. Percy headed towards the large oak doors, and exited the Entrance Hall, and after summoning his invisibility cloak, Harry followed him.
Harry exited the Entrance Hall, and not far from him, he saw Percy, who was walking very fast towards the Forbidden Forest. Harry ran to catch up with him, taking care to be quiet. When Percy reached the Forest, he took a path that Harry knew lead to Aragog's lair. Harry wondered why Percy was taking this path. Percy rounded a corner, and disappeared from sight. Harry, too, rounded the the corner, and when he had, he saw nothing of Percy. 'Weird,' thought Harry. 'I'll definitely have to keep a closer eye on him.'
Harry exited the Forbidden Forest, and when he reached the Entrance Hall, he took of his invisibility cloak. Right when he did, however, he heard a voice.
"Harry?"
Harry looked to his right, and saw Dumbledore standing there, looking grave.
"Professor! You scared me!"
Dumbledore didn't respond. Harry noticed the grave look on Dumbledore's face.
"What's wrong, Professor?"
Dumbledore hesitated. "It's best if I tell you this in my office. Come."
Harry, who was very bewildered, followed Dumbledore to the stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to DumbledoreÕs office. Dumbledore said the password ('Sherbert lemon'), and together he and Harry stepped onto the moving staircase.
"Please Harry, take a seat," said Dumbledore once they had reached the office. Harry took a seat, and, still very confused as to what was going on, looked up at Dumbledore questioningly.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked.
"I am afraid that I have some bad news, Harry," said Dumbledore, sitting down in the chair behind his desk.
Harry started to get worried. "What's the bad news?" he said quickly. "What's wrong? It isn't Ron or Hermione, is it? They're not...?"
"They're not dead, but this isn't about them."
"Then who...?"
"It's about Luna, Harry," said Dumbledore. "You see, on Christmas morning, Death Eaters appeared at her house. They went for her father first, he put up a fight, and he was killed. Luna heard the racket that was being made, and she decided to see what was going on. She saw the Death Eaters, but unfortunately, right when she turned around to go for help-"
"One of the Death Eaters killed her?" Harry asked in a shaky voice. He tried to keep the tears from coming.
Dumbledore paused. "I am afraid so, Harry."
Harry sat there, not wanting to believe what had happened. He jumped up from his chair, and bolted towards the door.
"Harry!" Dumbledore called.
Harry turned around, tears in his eyes. "Don't you talk to me about it. Don't say a word to me about it," said Harry, his voice shaking with sadness and anger. "First Sirius, and now her! Everyone I care about dies!" Harry yelled this last bit out, and ran from the office.
He reached the Gryffindor common room, and ran past Mark, who said, "Harry?"
"Don't talk to me!" Harry said loudly, crying. "Just leave me alone!" He ran up the stairs, and into his dorm, where he fell on his four-poster bed, and cried and cried until he fell asleep.
~*~
Please read & review!
The next two chapters after this should be a bit better, but I hope that this chapter was worth the wait!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
~*~
The morning after Christmas, Harry awoke in his dormitory. It was snowing, and so the room was very cold. Harry snuggled up in his sheets and remembered the dream that he had had right before he woke up. It had been about Luna, and she and Harry had been playing a game of quidditch together.
Harry went over the memory again, and then got out of bed. He shuddered. It was freezing cold, so Harry quickly got dressed and headed down to the common room, and when he got there, Harry found Mark sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace, which was full of a blazing fire. He was reading a book, which Harry guessed was the first of the Lord of the Rings books that he had given mark for Christmas the day before, called The Fellowship of the Ring.
"That book good so far?" said Harry, making Mark jump.
"Oh, Harry, you scared me," said Mark. "Yeah, this book is really good so far. Thanks a lot for getting it for me!"
"No problem, cousin. What chapter are you on?"
"I'm already halfway through the book."
HarryÕs jaw dropped. "Halfway?! When did you start reading it?"
"Last night. I stayed up all night reading it, because it's really interesting. You can read The Lord of the Rings when I'm done, if you want."
"Ok, cool," said Harry. "Hey, I'm going down to breakfast. You want to come with me?"
"Oh. No thanks. I can get something later, in the kitchens. I'm not even hungry right now, anyway. Thanks for asking, though," said Mark.
Harry left the Gryffindor common room through the portrait hole, and walked down the familiar hallways and down the marble staircase into the Entrance Hall. He headed into the Great Hall for breakfast, and found that he was the only one there. He sat down at the circular table and at the breakfast that appeared there (scrambled eggs, toast, and porridge).
Harry left the Great Hall after he was done eating. He suddenly decided that he would take a walk around the castle, though for no particular reason; he just felt like it. He headed towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts corridor, passing many windows through which bright, winter sunlight crept through. Harry stopped at one of the larger window, and looked out of it at the grounds of Hogwarts. Snow covered everything. HagridÕs hut looked as normal as ever (except for the snow covering it), and he could see smoke coming out of the chimney. Harry decided that heÕd go and visit Hagrid later, perhaps after lunch. His eyes traveled over to the Quidditch field, which was frozen over, and then on to the lake, whose water was very cold. He caught a glimpse of the Giant Squid before it went down under the water again. Harry drew in a breath of contentment, and continued on his way.
When he reached the Defense Against the Dark Arts corridor, he heard someone speaking. It was coming from LupinÕs office. Harry moved closer to the office door, and identified the voice as LupinÕs. Then he heard a second voice, and identified it as Tonks'. Harry put his ear closer to the door, the same way he had done when he had been in the Shrieking Shack just a few months before.
"When should we tell him?" Tonks was saying in a worried voice.
When should they tell who about what?, Harry thought. He pressed his ear so that it was right on the door.
"Not now," Lupin said in reply to Tonks. "I don't want to ruin his Christmas vacation. I'll have Dumbledore tell him when vacation is over."
"Are you sure we should wait that long to tell him?"
"Yes."
Harry heard one of them get up and walk towards the door. Harry quickly gave a couple of knocks on the door to make it seem as though he had only just arrived, and not been listening in. All the while he was wondering who on earth Tonks and Lupin had been talking about. The door opened.
"Oh, hello, Harry," said Tonks.
"Hi, Tonks," said Harry.
"Been having a good Christmas vacation so far?"
"Yeah, it's been pretty good. Right now, however, I'm just talking a walk around the castle," said Harry.
"Well that's good. I always find that taking a walk helps to calm me down," said Tonks.
There was a slight pause, and then Harry spoke up.
"Um...right before I knocked on the door, I heard you two talking about...someone. Who was it?"
Harry looked over at Lupin, who looked, for a moment, troubled, but then his face relaxed, so Harry was sure that he had imagined the troubled look on his teacherÕs face.
"No one," said Lupin. "It...it doesn't really matter at the present time."
"Oh."
"Well, Harry," said Tonks. "I was just leaving to go back to my office. I need to make the lesson plans for next semester. Care to join me?" She smiled. "You can help, if you want."
Harry thought for a moment. "All right," he said.
"Great! Come on, then!"
Tonks left the room. Harry waved good bye to Lupin, and then followed.
When Harry and Tonks finally reached Tonks' office, Tonks sat down behind her desk, and took out a piece of parchment while Harry took a seat in front of the desk. Tonks got out a quill and stared at the parchment for a few seconds, and then at the pen for a few seconds. Suddenly she gave a sigh of frustration and put both the quill and parchment onto her desk.
"Oh, I donÕt feel like making lesson plans right now," she said.
"Then when are you going to do them?"
"Later, just not now. I just don't feel like it," said Tonks. She sighed again, and then smiled. "So," she said, "You want a Butterbeer?"
"Sure," Harry smiled.
Tonks waved her wand, and two Butterbeers appeared on her desk: one in front of her, and the other in front of Harry.
"So, Harry...there's something I've been curious about."
"Really? What's that?" Harry said, taking a sip of his Butterbeer.
"Well," said Tonks, "When you grew up with, well, you know...well, did anything interesting happen to yourself that seemed kind of strange?"
Harry looked at Tonks and took another sip of his Butterbeer.
"Not that I remember," he said, straining his memory for anything of that sort. Tonks sighed. "Well," Harry continued, "I do remember that one time I accidentally turned my teacher's wig blue, back before I had even heard of Hogwarts. And then another time, my Aunt cut my hair so short that I was almost bald, but then that night I was wishing and wishing that it would grow back, and then the next morning I found that my hair had indeed grown back- Why do you look so excited?" said Harry, catching sight of Tonks.
"Oh, Harry! Things similar to that happened before I found out that I was a metamorphagus!" said Tonks excitedly.
Harry was confused. "Wait- Are you saying that I'm-?"
"A metamorphagus? Yes, you might be. Try to change your physical appearance first, so I can be sure."
"How do I do that?"
"Picture yourself how you want to look. Then put all your concentration on changing yourself to look exactly the image you have in your head of how you want to look. You'll hear a slight pop when you've done changing."
Harry hesitated. "I dunno..."
"Don't be afraid."
Harry sighed, and thought for a moment. He'd always wanted to see what he would have looked like with red hair, so he closed his eyes and concentrated as hard as he could on turning his hair red. He heard a slight pop, and opened his eyes.
"Did it work?" Harry asked.
For response, Tonks handed Harry a mirror. Harry looked into it and gasped with surprise. His hair had changed to the exact color red that Ron's hair was.
"Wow!" said Harry. He looked at Tonks, who was grinning broadly. "This is really neat!"
"It looks good on you," said Tonks. "Now try something else."
Harry remembered how his godfather's hair had been down to his shoulders, and Harry thought that he's like to have his hair down to his shoulders, so Harry concentrated on turning his hair back to itÕs original color, and having it go down to his shoulders. There was a slight pop, and Harry opened his eyes and looked in the mirror. He looked up at Tonks, who was smiling even more broadly.
"Can I try something else?"
"Go ahead, but after that I need to work on my lesson plans."
"I thought that you didn't want to?"
"I changed my mind. I want to hurry up and get it over with," said Tonks. "Now, you said that you wanted to change your physical appearance again...?" Tonks smiled again.
"Oh- right."
Harry racked his brain, and remembered how people always said that he looked exactly like his dad, and that he had his momÕs eyes. 'Well,' thought Harry, 'I might as well try.'
Harry concentrated with all his might on making himself look exactly like his father had done when he was Harry's age. There was another slight pop, and Harry immediately grabbed the mirror and looked in it. Harry gasped. Staring back at him wasn't really him, but a pair of hazel eyes. Harry had changed his physical appearance to look exactly like his father had looked when he was sixteen.
Tonks, who couldn't see HarryÕs face because his head was down, wondered at the reason for Harry's gasp. Harry looked up at Tonks, who's eyes widened.
"Wow! I've seen pictures of your dad, but to have you here, now, looking exactly like him, it's..."
"Awkward, I know."
"Well, yeah!"
They didn't get to say anything more, because there was a knock at the door.
Tonks broke her gaze from Harry. "Come in!" she called.
Harry turned around right when the door opened, and saw Lupin. Lupin's jaw dropped.
"Wh- what- ?"
"Sorry!" said Harry immediately, turning back around. With a slight pop, he changed back into his normal self. He turned back around and looked apprehensively at Lupin. "Sorry," said Harry again.
"It's all right, Harry. It was just such a shock to see you looking exactly like you father had done when he was your age," said Lupin.
To relieve the awkwardness of the situation, Tonks spoke up.
"Harry's just found out that he's a metamorphagus, Remus," she said.
"That's what I figured," Lupin replied. He smiled. "Well, Harry," he said, "I hope you make good use of your...talent, shall we say."
Harry, relieved to see that Lupin was smiling, smiled also. "Don't worry, I will," said Harry.
~*~
A few days after his conversation with Tonks, it was the day before everyone was due to come back to Hogwarts, and Harry was to be found zooming around the quidditch field on his Firebolt. He had let out the Snitch, and was trying to catch it as fast as he could. Whenever he did catch it, he let go of it again, and resumed his chase after it.
After Harry was done doing this, he put his broom away in his trunk, and looking at his watch, and finding that it was time for lunch, he headed towards the Great Hall. When he got there, he found that Dumbledore and Lupin were already eating lunch, so Harry went over and joined them. They stopped talking the moment they saw Harry.
"Hello, Professors," said Harry. He took a hamburger bun, hamburger patty, and some ketchup, mayonnaise, and a slice of cheese, and proceeded to make himself one of his favorite foods.
"Hello, Harry," said Dumbledore. "Professor Lupin here was just telling me of your newfound ability."
"That I'm a metamorphagus?"
"Yes," said Dumbledore. "It's quite amazing."
Harry took a rather large bite of his cheeseburger, and swallowed it after having chewed it a few times. He suddenly thought that he would like his hair to be red, and for it to not stick up at the back like his hair always did. He concentrated on that image, and with a pop, his hair turned to the desired style. Harry took another bite of his cheeseburger, and looked up.
"How extrodinary!" said Dumbledore.
Harry smiled, and finished off his cheeseburger. He change his hair back to it's original state, and with a wave goodbye to Dumbledore and Lupin, he left the Great Hall.
As soon as Harry entered the Entrance Hall, he decided that he'd go see how Dobby was doing, so he changed his direction, but he hadn't gone far when he noticed Percy come out of the dungeons. Harry thought that Percy was acting very suspicious, for he kept glancing shiftily about him. He didn't notice Harry, who was hiding in the shadows. Percy headed towards the large oak doors, and exited the Entrance Hall, and after summoning his invisibility cloak, Harry followed him.
Harry exited the Entrance Hall, and not far from him, he saw Percy, who was walking very fast towards the Forbidden Forest. Harry ran to catch up with him, taking care to be quiet. When Percy reached the Forest, he took a path that Harry knew lead to Aragog's lair. Harry wondered why Percy was taking this path. Percy rounded a corner, and disappeared from sight. Harry, too, rounded the the corner, and when he had, he saw nothing of Percy. 'Weird,' thought Harry. 'I'll definitely have to keep a closer eye on him.'
Harry exited the Forbidden Forest, and when he reached the Entrance Hall, he took of his invisibility cloak. Right when he did, however, he heard a voice.
"Harry?"
Harry looked to his right, and saw Dumbledore standing there, looking grave.
"Professor! You scared me!"
Dumbledore didn't respond. Harry noticed the grave look on Dumbledore's face.
"What's wrong, Professor?"
Dumbledore hesitated. "It's best if I tell you this in my office. Come."
Harry, who was very bewildered, followed Dumbledore to the stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to DumbledoreÕs office. Dumbledore said the password ('Sherbert lemon'), and together he and Harry stepped onto the moving staircase.
"Please Harry, take a seat," said Dumbledore once they had reached the office. Harry took a seat, and, still very confused as to what was going on, looked up at Dumbledore questioningly.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked.
"I am afraid that I have some bad news, Harry," said Dumbledore, sitting down in the chair behind his desk.
Harry started to get worried. "What's the bad news?" he said quickly. "What's wrong? It isn't Ron or Hermione, is it? They're not...?"
"They're not dead, but this isn't about them."
"Then who...?"
"It's about Luna, Harry," said Dumbledore. "You see, on Christmas morning, Death Eaters appeared at her house. They went for her father first, he put up a fight, and he was killed. Luna heard the racket that was being made, and she decided to see what was going on. She saw the Death Eaters, but unfortunately, right when she turned around to go for help-"
"One of the Death Eaters killed her?" Harry asked in a shaky voice. He tried to keep the tears from coming.
Dumbledore paused. "I am afraid so, Harry."
Harry sat there, not wanting to believe what had happened. He jumped up from his chair, and bolted towards the door.
"Harry!" Dumbledore called.
Harry turned around, tears in his eyes. "Don't you talk to me about it. Don't say a word to me about it," said Harry, his voice shaking with sadness and anger. "First Sirius, and now her! Everyone I care about dies!" Harry yelled this last bit out, and ran from the office.
He reached the Gryffindor common room, and ran past Mark, who said, "Harry?"
"Don't talk to me!" Harry said loudly, crying. "Just leave me alone!" He ran up the stairs, and into his dorm, where he fell on his four-poster bed, and cried and cried until he fell asleep.
~*~
Please read & review!