A/N - JKR owns everything familiar.
A/N -Read, enjoy, and review.
A/N - Sorry if I made folks thing the last chapter was it. I wouldn't make everyone wait so long and then only put a short chapter. We're still plodding along and I'm guessing another 2-3 chapters will follow. I tried to make this one longer to make up for the last short one.
Chapter 56
Telling Tales
Harry was not the least bit surprised when Dumbledore, Remus and Sirius made him relive the entire ordeal. Sirius, exceeding his role as dutiful Godfather, handed Harry a Butterbeer to help him recount his tale. By the looks of Sirius and the amount of Butterbeer left, Harry could tell that more of those would be in his future.
He launched into the long chronicle about the five tasks. He started with telling them about the Wizards Wager that he entered into. Although they were intrigued to hear that Voldemort would lose his immortality if he failed to honor his contract, everyone in the room pretty much agreed that Voldemort wouldn't risk that and would instead elect to remain a member of the Order of the Serpents.
Sirius and Remus launched into questions about the Order of the Serpents but Harry had very few answers. Truth be told, he had even more unanswered questions about it than they had.
When he mentioned what the Death Eater had risked on the Wager, Harry was surprised that Dumbledore didn't ask any questions. Harry was amazed at how unconcerned the Headmaster appeared about gleaning information about the traitor in his school. Sirius and Remus asked Harry the same questions he himself had thought about when he first learned that there was another wizard who could speak Parseltongue. Again though, Harry had precious few answers and many more questions.
Soon, armed with his fourth Butterbeer of the afternoon, he was once again telling them what had happened.
They interrupted him occasionally with minor questions about the first four tasks. Everyone in the room knew that Harry was building up to something big and tried their best now to interrupt him too much. However, when he told them about receiving the Cruciatus Curse during the fifth chore, Sirius jumped out of his seat and pelted Harry with questions.
"That bloody --- "
"Sirius, sit down. It was all right." Harry was finally able to interrupt the raving lunatic who was standing centimeters away from him.
"It most certainly is not all right."
"What's done is done Padfoot. Now be a good boy and heel. Let him tell the rest of what he has to tell us." Sirius shot Remus a long glare at his suggestion of "heeling".
Harry continued, "I didn't feel anything." Harry paused for a few moments trying to let this new information sink in.
Remus prodded Harry to continue the story. "Harry, please tell us what you mean before Padfoot here dies of a heart attack." Remus shot a grin towards his old school chum.
Harry looked around before continuing. "It was just as the snake said it would be. My body reacted like it normally would - you know falling to the ground and twitching - but I couldn't feel anything. It was all virtual just like they said it would be."
Sirius grabbed his shoulder rather harder than Harry would have liked. "Harry, are you sure that this virtue thing --- "
"Virtual," Harry corrected. "And yes. I am sure. I'm fine."
"Sirius, perhaps you could let Harry finish telling us what happened," offered the elder wizard from behind his half moon spectacles.
"Yeah Padfoot, perhaps we could finish before he's due to graduate from Hogwarts."
"Yeah!" Harry chimed in while sporting a slight grin. He realized that the Butterbeer was probably kicking in but he found that he really didn't care.
Sirius glared at Dumbledore first, Remus second, then Harry before resuming his seat. For good measure he shot another glare at Remus before he jumped in with any more unwelcome comments.
Finally, the story resumed.
It was Dumbledore that interrupted Harry the next time. "I see your mum has once again protected you from Voldemort. I knew we hadn't seen the last of her."
"You knew?" Three voices asked at once.
"I believe I mentioned something about that back when Harry was first learning to become an Animagus. I don't believe Lily's through protecting her son."
The room lapsed into silence while Harry, Remus and Sirius thought about what Dumbledore had just said. Finally, the Headmaster prodded him once again to continue his story.
Harry quickly finished his account and then, feeling that if he waited any longer he would be unable to summon the courage to confess, he launched into an apology for not finding out the identity of the Death Eater.
Just like he knew they would, they all took turns trying to convince him that there was nothing he could do and that he did all he could. There was no point in trying to convince the three adults otherwise so he just sat there, sipping his drink, and letting the adults think they were convincing him of their points of view.
"Harry," Dumbledore called. He turned around slowly and waited for the Headmaster to continue.
"You may, of course, go up to Gryffindor Tower. But I must insist that you tell me or Sirius if anything else out of the ordinary happens to you. Of course," Dumbledore continued with a small chuckle, "for you nothing happening out of the ordinary is out of the ordinary itself."
He nodded his agreement and started making his way back down to the stone gargoyle. As he walked up to Gryffindor Tower, Harry wondered why Sirius and Dumbledore constantly treated him like a kid. He had messed up by not discovering the identity of the Death Eater and he knew it --- odd that the adults could not admit that. Slowly shaking his head, he realized that it didn't matter. He, Harry, was the leader of the Order of the Serpents and the Order of the Phoenix. The rest of the magical world now saw Harry as an adult even if those closest to him did not. He had messed up and now it was up to him to make it right.
He had been thinking so furiously about how to set things right that he realized he had no idea where he was. Checking to see that no one was around, he turned around and started heading back towards the Tower that he must have passed several minutes ago as he was currently in the Charms Corridor. Finally, Harry made his way in to his dorm. As today was Friday, he would have the dorm room to himself for the next few hours while the other fifth year Gryffindors attended their afternoon lessons. He needed the time alone if he was going to figure out how to find who the traitor was at Hogwarts.
Harry lay on his bed for hours trying to develop a plan. "THINK," he repeated to himself over and over. "THINK."
But it was no use. Nothing even remotely likely to work came to mind. The best idea he had had so far was to stand up in the middle of the Great Hall at breakfast and shout "WHOEVER IS THE TRAITOR RAISE YOUR LEFT HAND." But he reckoned that probably wouldn't work. Eventually he drifted off to sleep.
He was having a wonderful dream of being on a boat sailing across the ocean to America. The boat began rocking more and more violently though. Waves were crashing against the boat causing it to pitch violently. Then he heard a faint voice. "Harry, come on. Get up. Harry."
Soon he recognized the voice. He wasn't on a boat. He was being woken rather violently by ---
"Ron, that's enough. I'm awake." Harry started to reach for his glasses when he realized that he was already wearing them. All the memories of the afternoon came flooding back. He dozed off; not meaning to go to sleep he never removed his glasses.
"Harry, come on. Hermione's waiting down stairs. Tell us where you've been. We saw Sirius at dinner so we knew that you two were back --- "
"We were back?" Harry questioned.
"Yes. Dumbledore told us that you and Sirius went somewhere together but that's all he would tell us. Come on. I'll give you three minutes to get downstairs before I send Hermione up here to get you." And with that, Ron left the room leaving a confused and tousle haired Harry alone in the room.
Soon Harry realized that of course everyone would have noticed his absence. He was gone for days. Dumbledore must have told them that he and Sirius had gone off together. Clever, he thought to himself while descending the steps.
OOF
Hermione had embraced him in a big hug. "Harry, we were so worried. Thank goodness that you are all right. I know you were with Sirius and everything but at times he can be --- well --- let's just say that I'm glad you're back. Now tell us where you went. Oh and --- "
"OUCH!" Harry rubbed his arm where Hermione had just smacked him. He was sure it would leave a bruise.
"What do you go and do that for?" Harry demanded of Hermione. He also noticed that Ron, who he expected to be equally shocked with Hermione's erratic behavior, was smiling and seemingly in agreement with Hermione's actions.
"Because you deserved it - that's why."
Harry waited for her to explain but she didn't say anything else. "What do you mean? Why did you hit me ten seconds after trying to hug the stuffing out of me?"
She looked exasperated as if he had just asked her something any first year should know. "Harry, how could you go and leave for days without telling us? You can't ever know how worried we've been. At least an owl would have been nice."
Ron stepped up, "Yeah, and how is it Mum and Dad knew where you were?"
Harry didn't know what Ron and Hermione knew so he decided to play it cagey. "What do you mean your Mum and Dad knew? Knew what?"
Ron shifted his weight to his other foot before answering. "Well --- I dunno exactly. But I owled Mum the morning after you disappeared and she answered back saying that we shouldn't worry and that you were probably gallivanting around and would turn up soon."
"So then --- what's the problem?"
"The problem is, the Mum I know would not have written anything of the kind and you know it. She would have been out of her mind with worry sending Howlers to all of us not to do anything stupid. She must have known. Now why is it that you'd tell my parents something you wouldn't tell me?"
Harry wasn't ready for this. These questions weren't unexpected, at least they shouldn't have been. Although he had to admit to himself that he felt rather daft for not planning a better alibi but still the dilemma remained and he had no answers that were good enough to satisfy Ron and Hermione. He decided to try to stall while he thought of the right answers.
"Listen, I'm sorry all right? I'll tell you both all about it but not here. I'm starving. Let's go down to the kitchens and we'll talk down there. All right?"
Exchanging a brief glance between themselves, Ron and Hermione nodded and fell into step along side Harry as he walked to the kitchens. Harry was walking so slowly that Hermione and Ron had to know he was stalling but he didn't care. He was doing some fast thinking and he wanted to take as much time as possible.
When they reached the picture of the giant pear Ron, being the tallest, reached out and tickled it. The trio went inside and was immediately engulfed by House Elves.
"Hello Sirs and Miss."
"Hullo," Hermione answered for the three of them.
"What can we be doing for you Sirs and Miss?"
Harry took the lead this time. "I missed the meal and I'm really hungry. You don't have anything extra that you could spare do you?"
In next to no time, dishes were piled up on the table in the middle of the great room. Roast pork, two kinds of potatoes, chicken, breads and pumpkin juice were sitting there waiting to be eaten.
Harry sat down and started eating. It was no surprise to him that he wasn't the only one.
"Ron," Hermione began. "You've just eaten a full meal."
"I know," he said in between large bites of roast pork, "but it all looks so good. Come on Hermione. Sit down and have a bite."
"No, thank you. I'd rather give Harry my full attention while he tells us where he was and who he was with."
"What do you mean who he was with? Dumbledore told us he was with Sirius."
Hermione shot Ron a glance cold enough to make a penguin feel at home. This look didn't go unnoticed by Harry. He was afraid that Dumbledore's story might not have convinced his friends and now he knew that Hermione at least wasn't convinced. Harry smiled. Sometime she was too smart for her own good. This time, he was sure she wouldn't find out. The secrets of the Orders were too important to keep.
For his part though, Ron didn't even notice the negative attention he was attracting from Hermione.
"Dumbledore said --- "
"RON!" Hermione interjected.
"Wazzt?" He answered through a mouth full of bread
Hermione pursed her lips so tightly that Harry thought she must have taken lessons from Professor McGonagall. "What's that again?"
"I said," Ron began after wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, "what is it?"
"Hmmm. Well, perhaps we should let Harry tell us in his own words."
Ron looked from Hermione to Harry and back again. He shrugged his shoulders and attacked a pumpkin pasty opting to remain silent.
Harry knew his time was up.
Hermione wasted no time. "So, Harry, you were saying."
"Hermione, don't get worked up. There isn't anything to tell. Sirius got Dumbledore to agree to let me spend a few days with him on a little mini- vacation so we could get a chance to know each other. I didn't tell you all because I was so anxious to leave when Sirius told me. I figured Dumbledore would tell you. I didn't think you all would be worried; I am sorry about that."
Ron smiled and said, "Good for you mate! About time that poor bloke had some fun in his life. What did you two do?"
"I'd rather not say."
Ron looked crestfallen.
"Ron, let me and Sirius have just this one secret." Ron looked undecided so he added, "Please."
Ron's smile returned as he looked to Hermione for guidance on whether or not to grant Harry's request. But Harry noticed that she looked pensive. He didn't know whether or not Hermione would accept this story as easily as Ron had. He felt terrible for lying to his two best friends but he didn't have any choice. More important things were at stake and he was sure that if they were in his position that they would do the same thing. After all, he reasoned, Hermione had kept the Time-Turner a secret back in their third year. A little voice in the back of his head tried to remind him how hurt he was when he eventually found out she was keeping a secret but he ignored the voice focusing instead on Hermione.
"Harry," she began, "that still doesn't explain Mrs. Weasley's reaction. If she knew about you and Sirius she would have told us and if she didn't know then she should have been more worried."
Harry tried hard not to smile. Hermione was obviously trying to catch him in a lie. He would just have to be vague enough with his answers so he wouldn't have to worry about trying to keep up with his lies at a later date. "I don't know what Dumbledore told her. You'll have to ask one of them won't you?"
She sighed deeply and then nodded. Harry took that as a sign that she would accept his tale, for now at least. His next problem was how to ask for their help sniffing out the Death Eater without making them doubt his story about his disappearance.
There was no other way. He would have to wait.
And wait he did.
He waited two solid weeks. It was pure torture. He couldn't think about anything else but unfortunately nothing came to him either. He went through the motions of attending class but it was pointless. For starters, he didn't learn anything. Additionally, he earned a detention from Snape. He hadn't been paying close enough attention during one of the lessons and instead of testing his Engorgement Potion on a "white hair" he tested it on a "white hare".
Harry had felt that he really hadn't deserved a detention. After all, Snape himself had caused the worst of the effects. The enlarged rabbit had done nothing more than leave extremely large pellets on Goyle's desk --- which none of the Gryffindor's thought was that bad. But Snape must have had flashbacks from when Fred and George had gotten their experiment wrong.
The Potions Professor had jumped back so far that he knocked over --- of all the cauldrons --- Neville Longbottom's cauldron. The result of that was that everything that the liquid had touched caught the hiccups. The desks would hiccup and leap back about a meter landing on people's feet causing them to scream in pain. The chairs would hiccup causing the same screams that the desks did. However the people that had been touched by the liquid, which included Snape, hiccupped so violently that they actually left their feet every few seconds. As prefects, Harry, Ron, and Hemrione felt it their duty to help their fellow students and Potions Professor to the Infirmary since Snape was unable to direct the students given his current condition. Harry was sure that the detention was only the direct result of Snape being embarrassed.
He would have pled his case to Professor McGonagall but he knew that she would not be at all sympathetic since not even twenty four hours had passed since his lapse of attention to detail had caused him to accidentally transform her chair into a cactus during their last lesson.
It was when he was serving his detention with Snape that he decided to go ahead and tell Ron and Hermione about the Death Eater at Hogwarts. He had worked it out in his mind already. He would tell them the basic information and explain that he had dreamt it.
When he returned to the Gryffindor Common Room there were only a handful of people left. Ron and Hermione had waited for him by the fire. Hermione, to no surprise, had her nose buried in a book. Ron appeared to be playing Wizards Chess by himself. It was now or never.
Harry walked over to them. "Who's winning?" he asked Ron.
With a big grin, his friend replied, "I am."
Harry laughed but Hermione only rolled her eyes muttering something that sounded like, "Boys".
"Listen, I've got something I need to tell you two."
"What? Is it about your time with Sirius?"
"No. I told you that wasn't important. It's just that I like having something that's only between him and me. This IS important." He paused until he was sure that he had their full attention.
"Listen, I had another dream." And with that introduction he launched into a tale of a dream where Voldemort was talking to the Lestranges' about the Death Eater at Hogwarts.
As usual, his friends surprised him.
Ron sat there silently.
Hermione did too until he finished. Then she said, "Oh Harry, don't you see? It's so simple. I know how to find out who the Death Eater is."
A/N -Read, enjoy, and review.
A/N - Sorry if I made folks thing the last chapter was it. I wouldn't make everyone wait so long and then only put a short chapter. We're still plodding along and I'm guessing another 2-3 chapters will follow. I tried to make this one longer to make up for the last short one.
Chapter 56
Telling Tales
Harry was not the least bit surprised when Dumbledore, Remus and Sirius made him relive the entire ordeal. Sirius, exceeding his role as dutiful Godfather, handed Harry a Butterbeer to help him recount his tale. By the looks of Sirius and the amount of Butterbeer left, Harry could tell that more of those would be in his future.
He launched into the long chronicle about the five tasks. He started with telling them about the Wizards Wager that he entered into. Although they were intrigued to hear that Voldemort would lose his immortality if he failed to honor his contract, everyone in the room pretty much agreed that Voldemort wouldn't risk that and would instead elect to remain a member of the Order of the Serpents.
Sirius and Remus launched into questions about the Order of the Serpents but Harry had very few answers. Truth be told, he had even more unanswered questions about it than they had.
When he mentioned what the Death Eater had risked on the Wager, Harry was surprised that Dumbledore didn't ask any questions. Harry was amazed at how unconcerned the Headmaster appeared about gleaning information about the traitor in his school. Sirius and Remus asked Harry the same questions he himself had thought about when he first learned that there was another wizard who could speak Parseltongue. Again though, Harry had precious few answers and many more questions.
Soon, armed with his fourth Butterbeer of the afternoon, he was once again telling them what had happened.
They interrupted him occasionally with minor questions about the first four tasks. Everyone in the room knew that Harry was building up to something big and tried their best now to interrupt him too much. However, when he told them about receiving the Cruciatus Curse during the fifth chore, Sirius jumped out of his seat and pelted Harry with questions.
"That bloody --- "
"Sirius, sit down. It was all right." Harry was finally able to interrupt the raving lunatic who was standing centimeters away from him.
"It most certainly is not all right."
"What's done is done Padfoot. Now be a good boy and heel. Let him tell the rest of what he has to tell us." Sirius shot Remus a long glare at his suggestion of "heeling".
Harry continued, "I didn't feel anything." Harry paused for a few moments trying to let this new information sink in.
Remus prodded Harry to continue the story. "Harry, please tell us what you mean before Padfoot here dies of a heart attack." Remus shot a grin towards his old school chum.
Harry looked around before continuing. "It was just as the snake said it would be. My body reacted like it normally would - you know falling to the ground and twitching - but I couldn't feel anything. It was all virtual just like they said it would be."
Sirius grabbed his shoulder rather harder than Harry would have liked. "Harry, are you sure that this virtue thing --- "
"Virtual," Harry corrected. "And yes. I am sure. I'm fine."
"Sirius, perhaps you could let Harry finish telling us what happened," offered the elder wizard from behind his half moon spectacles.
"Yeah Padfoot, perhaps we could finish before he's due to graduate from Hogwarts."
"Yeah!" Harry chimed in while sporting a slight grin. He realized that the Butterbeer was probably kicking in but he found that he really didn't care.
Sirius glared at Dumbledore first, Remus second, then Harry before resuming his seat. For good measure he shot another glare at Remus before he jumped in with any more unwelcome comments.
Finally, the story resumed.
It was Dumbledore that interrupted Harry the next time. "I see your mum has once again protected you from Voldemort. I knew we hadn't seen the last of her."
"You knew?" Three voices asked at once.
"I believe I mentioned something about that back when Harry was first learning to become an Animagus. I don't believe Lily's through protecting her son."
The room lapsed into silence while Harry, Remus and Sirius thought about what Dumbledore had just said. Finally, the Headmaster prodded him once again to continue his story.
Harry quickly finished his account and then, feeling that if he waited any longer he would be unable to summon the courage to confess, he launched into an apology for not finding out the identity of the Death Eater.
Just like he knew they would, they all took turns trying to convince him that there was nothing he could do and that he did all he could. There was no point in trying to convince the three adults otherwise so he just sat there, sipping his drink, and letting the adults think they were convincing him of their points of view.
"Harry," Dumbledore called. He turned around slowly and waited for the Headmaster to continue.
"You may, of course, go up to Gryffindor Tower. But I must insist that you tell me or Sirius if anything else out of the ordinary happens to you. Of course," Dumbledore continued with a small chuckle, "for you nothing happening out of the ordinary is out of the ordinary itself."
He nodded his agreement and started making his way back down to the stone gargoyle. As he walked up to Gryffindor Tower, Harry wondered why Sirius and Dumbledore constantly treated him like a kid. He had messed up by not discovering the identity of the Death Eater and he knew it --- odd that the adults could not admit that. Slowly shaking his head, he realized that it didn't matter. He, Harry, was the leader of the Order of the Serpents and the Order of the Phoenix. The rest of the magical world now saw Harry as an adult even if those closest to him did not. He had messed up and now it was up to him to make it right.
He had been thinking so furiously about how to set things right that he realized he had no idea where he was. Checking to see that no one was around, he turned around and started heading back towards the Tower that he must have passed several minutes ago as he was currently in the Charms Corridor. Finally, Harry made his way in to his dorm. As today was Friday, he would have the dorm room to himself for the next few hours while the other fifth year Gryffindors attended their afternoon lessons. He needed the time alone if he was going to figure out how to find who the traitor was at Hogwarts.
Harry lay on his bed for hours trying to develop a plan. "THINK," he repeated to himself over and over. "THINK."
But it was no use. Nothing even remotely likely to work came to mind. The best idea he had had so far was to stand up in the middle of the Great Hall at breakfast and shout "WHOEVER IS THE TRAITOR RAISE YOUR LEFT HAND." But he reckoned that probably wouldn't work. Eventually he drifted off to sleep.
He was having a wonderful dream of being on a boat sailing across the ocean to America. The boat began rocking more and more violently though. Waves were crashing against the boat causing it to pitch violently. Then he heard a faint voice. "Harry, come on. Get up. Harry."
Soon he recognized the voice. He wasn't on a boat. He was being woken rather violently by ---
"Ron, that's enough. I'm awake." Harry started to reach for his glasses when he realized that he was already wearing them. All the memories of the afternoon came flooding back. He dozed off; not meaning to go to sleep he never removed his glasses.
"Harry, come on. Hermione's waiting down stairs. Tell us where you've been. We saw Sirius at dinner so we knew that you two were back --- "
"We were back?" Harry questioned.
"Yes. Dumbledore told us that you and Sirius went somewhere together but that's all he would tell us. Come on. I'll give you three minutes to get downstairs before I send Hermione up here to get you." And with that, Ron left the room leaving a confused and tousle haired Harry alone in the room.
Soon Harry realized that of course everyone would have noticed his absence. He was gone for days. Dumbledore must have told them that he and Sirius had gone off together. Clever, he thought to himself while descending the steps.
OOF
Hermione had embraced him in a big hug. "Harry, we were so worried. Thank goodness that you are all right. I know you were with Sirius and everything but at times he can be --- well --- let's just say that I'm glad you're back. Now tell us where you went. Oh and --- "
"OUCH!" Harry rubbed his arm where Hermione had just smacked him. He was sure it would leave a bruise.
"What do you go and do that for?" Harry demanded of Hermione. He also noticed that Ron, who he expected to be equally shocked with Hermione's erratic behavior, was smiling and seemingly in agreement with Hermione's actions.
"Because you deserved it - that's why."
Harry waited for her to explain but she didn't say anything else. "What do you mean? Why did you hit me ten seconds after trying to hug the stuffing out of me?"
She looked exasperated as if he had just asked her something any first year should know. "Harry, how could you go and leave for days without telling us? You can't ever know how worried we've been. At least an owl would have been nice."
Ron stepped up, "Yeah, and how is it Mum and Dad knew where you were?"
Harry didn't know what Ron and Hermione knew so he decided to play it cagey. "What do you mean your Mum and Dad knew? Knew what?"
Ron shifted his weight to his other foot before answering. "Well --- I dunno exactly. But I owled Mum the morning after you disappeared and she answered back saying that we shouldn't worry and that you were probably gallivanting around and would turn up soon."
"So then --- what's the problem?"
"The problem is, the Mum I know would not have written anything of the kind and you know it. She would have been out of her mind with worry sending Howlers to all of us not to do anything stupid. She must have known. Now why is it that you'd tell my parents something you wouldn't tell me?"
Harry wasn't ready for this. These questions weren't unexpected, at least they shouldn't have been. Although he had to admit to himself that he felt rather daft for not planning a better alibi but still the dilemma remained and he had no answers that were good enough to satisfy Ron and Hermione. He decided to try to stall while he thought of the right answers.
"Listen, I'm sorry all right? I'll tell you both all about it but not here. I'm starving. Let's go down to the kitchens and we'll talk down there. All right?"
Exchanging a brief glance between themselves, Ron and Hermione nodded and fell into step along side Harry as he walked to the kitchens. Harry was walking so slowly that Hermione and Ron had to know he was stalling but he didn't care. He was doing some fast thinking and he wanted to take as much time as possible.
When they reached the picture of the giant pear Ron, being the tallest, reached out and tickled it. The trio went inside and was immediately engulfed by House Elves.
"Hello Sirs and Miss."
"Hullo," Hermione answered for the three of them.
"What can we be doing for you Sirs and Miss?"
Harry took the lead this time. "I missed the meal and I'm really hungry. You don't have anything extra that you could spare do you?"
In next to no time, dishes were piled up on the table in the middle of the great room. Roast pork, two kinds of potatoes, chicken, breads and pumpkin juice were sitting there waiting to be eaten.
Harry sat down and started eating. It was no surprise to him that he wasn't the only one.
"Ron," Hermione began. "You've just eaten a full meal."
"I know," he said in between large bites of roast pork, "but it all looks so good. Come on Hermione. Sit down and have a bite."
"No, thank you. I'd rather give Harry my full attention while he tells us where he was and who he was with."
"What do you mean who he was with? Dumbledore told us he was with Sirius."
Hermione shot Ron a glance cold enough to make a penguin feel at home. This look didn't go unnoticed by Harry. He was afraid that Dumbledore's story might not have convinced his friends and now he knew that Hermione at least wasn't convinced. Harry smiled. Sometime she was too smart for her own good. This time, he was sure she wouldn't find out. The secrets of the Orders were too important to keep.
For his part though, Ron didn't even notice the negative attention he was attracting from Hermione.
"Dumbledore said --- "
"RON!" Hermione interjected.
"Wazzt?" He answered through a mouth full of bread
Hermione pursed her lips so tightly that Harry thought she must have taken lessons from Professor McGonagall. "What's that again?"
"I said," Ron began after wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, "what is it?"
"Hmmm. Well, perhaps we should let Harry tell us in his own words."
Ron looked from Hermione to Harry and back again. He shrugged his shoulders and attacked a pumpkin pasty opting to remain silent.
Harry knew his time was up.
Hermione wasted no time. "So, Harry, you were saying."
"Hermione, don't get worked up. There isn't anything to tell. Sirius got Dumbledore to agree to let me spend a few days with him on a little mini- vacation so we could get a chance to know each other. I didn't tell you all because I was so anxious to leave when Sirius told me. I figured Dumbledore would tell you. I didn't think you all would be worried; I am sorry about that."
Ron smiled and said, "Good for you mate! About time that poor bloke had some fun in his life. What did you two do?"
"I'd rather not say."
Ron looked crestfallen.
"Ron, let me and Sirius have just this one secret." Ron looked undecided so he added, "Please."
Ron's smile returned as he looked to Hermione for guidance on whether or not to grant Harry's request. But Harry noticed that she looked pensive. He didn't know whether or not Hermione would accept this story as easily as Ron had. He felt terrible for lying to his two best friends but he didn't have any choice. More important things were at stake and he was sure that if they were in his position that they would do the same thing. After all, he reasoned, Hermione had kept the Time-Turner a secret back in their third year. A little voice in the back of his head tried to remind him how hurt he was when he eventually found out she was keeping a secret but he ignored the voice focusing instead on Hermione.
"Harry," she began, "that still doesn't explain Mrs. Weasley's reaction. If she knew about you and Sirius she would have told us and if she didn't know then she should have been more worried."
Harry tried hard not to smile. Hermione was obviously trying to catch him in a lie. He would just have to be vague enough with his answers so he wouldn't have to worry about trying to keep up with his lies at a later date. "I don't know what Dumbledore told her. You'll have to ask one of them won't you?"
She sighed deeply and then nodded. Harry took that as a sign that she would accept his tale, for now at least. His next problem was how to ask for their help sniffing out the Death Eater without making them doubt his story about his disappearance.
There was no other way. He would have to wait.
And wait he did.
He waited two solid weeks. It was pure torture. He couldn't think about anything else but unfortunately nothing came to him either. He went through the motions of attending class but it was pointless. For starters, he didn't learn anything. Additionally, he earned a detention from Snape. He hadn't been paying close enough attention during one of the lessons and instead of testing his Engorgement Potion on a "white hair" he tested it on a "white hare".
Harry had felt that he really hadn't deserved a detention. After all, Snape himself had caused the worst of the effects. The enlarged rabbit had done nothing more than leave extremely large pellets on Goyle's desk --- which none of the Gryffindor's thought was that bad. But Snape must have had flashbacks from when Fred and George had gotten their experiment wrong.
The Potions Professor had jumped back so far that he knocked over --- of all the cauldrons --- Neville Longbottom's cauldron. The result of that was that everything that the liquid had touched caught the hiccups. The desks would hiccup and leap back about a meter landing on people's feet causing them to scream in pain. The chairs would hiccup causing the same screams that the desks did. However the people that had been touched by the liquid, which included Snape, hiccupped so violently that they actually left their feet every few seconds. As prefects, Harry, Ron, and Hemrione felt it their duty to help their fellow students and Potions Professor to the Infirmary since Snape was unable to direct the students given his current condition. Harry was sure that the detention was only the direct result of Snape being embarrassed.
He would have pled his case to Professor McGonagall but he knew that she would not be at all sympathetic since not even twenty four hours had passed since his lapse of attention to detail had caused him to accidentally transform her chair into a cactus during their last lesson.
It was when he was serving his detention with Snape that he decided to go ahead and tell Ron and Hermione about the Death Eater at Hogwarts. He had worked it out in his mind already. He would tell them the basic information and explain that he had dreamt it.
When he returned to the Gryffindor Common Room there were only a handful of people left. Ron and Hermione had waited for him by the fire. Hermione, to no surprise, had her nose buried in a book. Ron appeared to be playing Wizards Chess by himself. It was now or never.
Harry walked over to them. "Who's winning?" he asked Ron.
With a big grin, his friend replied, "I am."
Harry laughed but Hermione only rolled her eyes muttering something that sounded like, "Boys".
"Listen, I've got something I need to tell you two."
"What? Is it about your time with Sirius?"
"No. I told you that wasn't important. It's just that I like having something that's only between him and me. This IS important." He paused until he was sure that he had their full attention.
"Listen, I had another dream." And with that introduction he launched into a tale of a dream where Voldemort was talking to the Lestranges' about the Death Eater at Hogwarts.
As usual, his friends surprised him.
Ron sat there silently.
Hermione did too until he finished. Then she said, "Oh Harry, don't you see? It's so simple. I know how to find out who the Death Eater is."