A/N: :-D I got my reviews, so I'll give you your story! =) I'm going to answer some reviews first!
Mahikah- Only I know! *evil grins*
Riestar- Well, I'd rather they come from different ppl, but its all good J
Farah- yayy! I'm happy you like my story! Thanx 4 all tha reviews!
Horus- *tear* I'm not that evil… I'm glad you like the story, though! Americans aren't that bad… *sniffle* We like British people and a lot of other people! But I do admit, most of us have problems with the French…
Tsusetsu- hmmm. More R/H should be coming soon, but they're a bit argumentive soon… And about Evelyn remembering, a good memory charm could've stopped that, and Robyn? Only I know=)
Dumbledave- I'm glad you like the story!
Jarvey- thank you!
Numba1- Yes, there definitely should be some traitor-sniffing about now…
Lil-angel-chik- Thanks so much for all the reviews!
Jbfritz- Thanks for all the reviews!
Okay, now for the chapter! :-D
Losebreath- Sorry! It was Lucius, not Draco…
~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Chapter 51:
When Harry woke up the next morning, he was panting. And, with a sinking feeling, he remembered how Voldemort knew about Lenore Felkes, heiress of Slytherin. He vaguely wondered if Voldemort knew about Acacia. He must, though… Somebody told Lucius Malfoy, which meant that somebody was a traitor. He laid awake in bed for several minutes, trying to think of who it could be….
Rita Skeeter, who was probably soaking up information at the Order?
Snape, who possibly never left the dark side?
Draco….? No… Harry was beginning to trust Draco. Ron probably would think it was Draco, though…
When Harry's mind landed on nobody in particular, he decided to get up. His trunk was gone, and had probably been taken to Hogsmeade station already, except a small bag he wanted to bring on the train and his robes for the day. Harry changed, still much shaken about his dream, and headed downstairs. It was still very early, just barely daybreak, and Lenore was the only one in the common room. She looked up as he headed down the stairs.
"Morning, Harry," she said quietly, smiling. But her eyes were red and Harry could tell she had been crying.
"Morning, Lenore," he said quietly, sitting next to his cousin in front of the window.
"Look at it outside," she whispered. Harry looked out the window. A pinkish glow was on the horizon of the black sky, which was littered with stars. The sunrise reflected off of the snow. It was beautiful. "Do you think they're up there?"
"Who?" he asked.
"My friends… and enemies… and teachers….. all of them." She didn't wait for Harry's answer for going on. "The Americans… none of them really knew about Voldemort… couldn't tell you one person he killed, most of us. It isn't fair. He killed them all…."
"Lenore, nobody ever did anything to Voldemort. Except me. I escaped, and because of that… he wants to kill me, and all of my friends, and all of their friends…"
"How do you do it?" she said in a voice that was hardly audible.
"Do what?" asked Harry, looking into the emerald eyes that matched his own.
"Deal with all of those deaths… so many, Harry."
"I-I don't really know, Lenore. But I know they're not gone… I'll see them again. And I still have family… you. You know?" Lenore nodded, smiling through some tears that had slipped down her face.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Several hours later, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Harry, Lenore, Draco, and Tabby were all stepping off of the train. Evelyn, Calista, and Lupin came out of one of the compartments, Gwen came out of another, and Mrs. Greenly came out of yet another. Harry had yet to really meet Tabby and Gwen's Mum, but she had joined the Order and seemed very nice. Tonks and Mad-Eye Moody had come to pick the group up.
Tonks seemed a bit different, though. Not in looks, of course; her hair was a violent shade of violet, and it was short and spiky, and she had a shirt on that read, "Muggle-Born and Proud of it." Hermione had been the first to point out that she wasn't Muggle-born, but Tonks had just grinned, saying that she like the shirt.
No, Tonks seemed different in another way. She seemed troubled, like she wasn't quite connected with reality, and she was caught glaring at Evelyn and she wouldn't make eye-contact with Remus.
But on the good side, she seemed to like her cousin once she was properly introduced to him. Malfoy seemed to think that she was cool as well, and they talked the whole, long car ride to Grimmauld Place. When the magically enlarged car arrived at Grimmauld Place, Harry remembered the piece of parchment, as Lupin showed it to everyone else. Then the Greenly's all gasped, seeing the house for the first time. And when Harry looked at it, even he was surprised.
It was- and there was no better word for it- huge. It looked about 8 or 9 stories tall! "Whoa," said Lenore. "Is it me or did this place get bigger?"
"It got bigger," said Ginny, stumbling out of the car to look at it.
Harry then decided to go in. He got out of the car, following Ginny, and the two hurried up to the door, and Harry opened it. You can imagine his surprise when the hallway was no longer dark and gloomy. It was lighted cheerily and was painted a warm yellow.
Ginny groaned. "What is it?" asked Harry, smiling.
"I bet Mum's been decorating…" Harry laughed, and called out, "We're here!" Suddenly, though, the window where Mrs. Black's portrait had been turned out not to be a window, but a disguised curtain, as it opened, revealing Mrs. Black.
"FILTHY BLOOD TRAITORS! GET OUT; BEGONE FROM THE NOBLE HOUSE OF BLACK! NOW, I SAY!"
At this time, Tabby, Ron, and Hermione were entering, all holding their ears. "Someone's PMSing!" yelled Tabby as she screwed her eyes shut. "My God, take a chill pill!" Mrs. Black paused a moment to critically look Tabby over.
"AMERICANS? BLOOD-TRAITORS, FILTHY MUDBLOODS AND HALF-BREEDS! GET OUT! OUT, I SAY- OUT!" By this time, Lupin, Evelyn, and Mad-Eye had entered the room carrying several trunks. They quickly walked over to the portrait and pulled the window-curtain shut over the screams.
"What the hell?" asked Tabby, in disbelief, looking around as if everyone else had gone mad. Her amber eyes were darting around, looking at everyone critically.
"What?" asked Tonks, who seemed to be taking a disliking to the American. "It isn't exactly like we want a senile portrait living here, now is it?"
Tabitha muttered something under her breath and rolled her eyes as Lenore, Mrs. Greenly, and Gwen came in, with Calista bringing up the rear.
"This is nice," said Mrs. Greenly, smiling, and looking around her. Mrs. Greenly seemed nice. She had shoulder-length brown hair, was a medium height, and had amber eyes, lighter than Tabby's but darker than Gwen's.
"You didn't have to hear the freakish picture woman," said Tabby under her breath.
"What was that, sweetie?" asked Mrs. Greenly.
"Nothing, nothing…" At that moment, Mrs. Weasley came bustling into the room.
"Welcome back, dears!" she said happily, embracing first Ginny, then Ron, and then Harry and Hermione. Harry smiled.
"Hi, Mrs. Weasley."
Lupin then introduced her to the Greenly's, and he, Evelyn, Moody, Calista, and Mrs. Greenly followed her into the kitchen. Tonks, however, muttered something about finding Mundungus.
"Why do you need to find Dung?" called Ron as Tonks disappeared into the basement.
"I need some dodgy cauldrons!" she called back sarcastically.
Ron, Harry, and Hermione exchanged worried glances. "What's gotten into her?" asked Ron loudly. Hermione frowned.
"Oh, well," said Harry. "Come on; let's all go get settled into our rooms for a bit…" Harry lead the way up the stairs, to the third floor, where the individual bedrooms were starting. Lenore and Tabby and Gwen were staying in the first one, and Ginny and Hermione would be staying next to them. Hermione, however, put her stuff down and ran up to one of the higher floors to find her parents.
"I forgot they were staying here," said Ron thoughtfully as he, Harry, and Draco dropped off their stuff in their room. Malfoy immediately began unpacking, but Ron ran upstairs to meet Hermione's parents. Harry settled on going to see Buckbeak for a few moments.
He was still in the same room, thrashing around boredly. Harry tentatively bowed upon entering the room, and Buckbeak immediately bowed back. Harry sat down and began stroking his feathers, and he couldn't help but notice that the Hippogriff seemed depressed. "You miss him, don't you?" asked Harry softly. Buckbeak looked up into Harry's eyes as if to agree.
"I miss Sirius too," said Harry quietly. "I... I loved him. He was my Godfather, you know, Buckbeak… He went the way he'd've liked to; battling." Buckbeak looked up at Harry once again. "Who feeds you now? Remus?" Buckbeak didn't answer, but his tail twitched. "Does Hagrid ever stop by? I haven't seen Hagrid in awhile either…. I should go visit him soon. See how the dragon eggs are coming along. The dragons should be here soon." Harry paused for a little while, looking around. This seemed to be the only room that wasn't improved upon. "Hagrid didn't want to give you up… Neither did Sirius. If they had the choice, they would've stayed with you. You're a lucky Hippogriff, Buckbeak."
After about half of an hour, Harry left the room and headed downstairs. When he was passing the second floor, he ran into Rita Skeeter. She stiffened upon seeing him. "Hello, Harry," she said civilly. Her hair was in banana curls, bobbing up and down; however, her rhinestones on her glasses were never replaced, and her lilac robes were rather wrinkled.
"Nice to see you, Rita…" lied Harry. Rita sniffed before continuing.
"So… Do you have any idea how long I'm to remain locked up here?" she asked accusingly.
"Uh… maybe until Voldemort's dead?" said Harry sarcastically. Rita hiccupped at the name. She then threw Harry the dirtiest look she could muster and stalked off.
"Just wait until I get out of here," she threatened.
"Rita; to me you're like a little bug that can be squished whenever I so choose… write one word, and I can have you in Azkaban. You don't have much choice in this."
"Hmph," she said. Right before she stalked away, though, she added, "I never thought the famous Harry Potter would be one to blackmail people…"
Harry rolled his eyes and continued down the stairs. When he reached the entrance hall, he ran into none other than Fleur, who was muttering something about maniacal mother-in-laws. Harry couldn't help but chuckle. "Hi, Fleur," he said smoothly. She looked up at him in surprise and smiled.
"Oh! 'Arry! I did not see you! "Ow are you doing? I trust school eez going vell?" Harry noticed that her stomach was bulging a bit and wondered if Veelas could get fat.
"Yeah… School's the same, ya know?"
Fleur smiled warmly. "How do you like being married?" asked Harry politely. Fleur smiled even more.
"It eez vonderful, seemply vonderful! It eez good; Bill has transferred to Gringotts; now he eez not spending all of zat valuable time in zee desert…"
"That's good," said Harry. "I'll talk to you later, then," he said before heading towards the kitchen.
"All right, 'Arry…"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
In the kitchen, Mrs. Weasley was engaged in a conversation with Calista, and Remus and Evelyn seemed to be flirting. Harry was just about to leave when Mrs. Weasley stopped him.
"So, Harry, dear, how is school going?"
"Good," said Harry, grinning.
"I hear you're seeing Ginny?" Harry began smiling uncontrollably and Lupin, Calista, and Evelyn all looked surprised.
"Yeah…" he said.
"Told you," whispered Evelyn to Remus. Remus just rolled his eyes in mock annoyance.
Mrs. Weasley smiled broadly. "It's about time! But, they aren't overworking you, Harry, are they? You have Quidditch, 5 NEWT classes, and God only knows how many other extra classes you have going on… Are you managing all right? You look so tired, Harry."
"He's fine, Molly," said Evelyn, reminding Harry strongly of Sirius. "But we can always talk Snape into not being so hard on the poor boy…"
"I'm all right," said Harry, suddenly yawning accidentally. Mrs. Weasley looked doubtful.
"Well, I want you to go to bed early tonight, Harry; get a good night's rest. We'll talk Hermione into allowing all you kids to have a break before doing all your schoolwork…" Harry smiled gratefully.
"Harry's doing very well in his extra defense lessons. The other three are doing rather well, but Harry is definitely leading the group," said Lupin, smiling, to Mrs. Weasley. "But, next semester, instead of defensive spells, we'll have to teach some offensive spells. Dumbledore's orders…"
"You're teaching him dark magic?" asked Mrs. Weasley dangerously. Lupin nodded.
"Yes, Molly, but only because Dumbledore wants Harry to have some for his, er… the final battle…" Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips.
"Well, I will certainly be having a little talk with Dumbledore…"
"And, oh yeah, that reminds me, Harry," said Calista suddenly.
"Yeah?" he asked, turning around to face her.
"Seve- Snape said to tell you that you'll finally be starting Legilimency and wandless magic this semester…"
"When did Snape tell you this?" asked Evelyn suspiciously. "Snape talked to you? Alone?"
Calista suddenly flushed pink. "Evelyn; you don't need to know every matter of my private life…"
"You're seeing Snivellus!" shouted Evelyn suddenly.
"No, I-"
"Remus!" she shouted, twirling around for some backup, "Do you hear this?"
"Evelyn, no, I'm not seeing Severus, now would you PLEASE shut up?"
Evelyn spun around and stared at her friend accusingly. She then huffed out of the kitchen. Mrs. Weasley tutted and turned back around.
"Evelyn really needs to learn to be a bit more mature- she's nearly worse than Sirius…"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*
A/N: Did ya like it? Please review!