Chapter fourteen
Harry had packed his trunk, wondering what Headmaster Albus Brian Wulfric Dumbledore wanted him over at Hogwarts today than tomorrow. He picked up the mirror that had been a way of communicating to Sirius and smiled softly. This mirror had gotten Harry and Sirius much closer than they ever had in previous year and half or so. He was surprised at how far their relationship between Remus and Sirius had been. But now that he thought about it, it seemed so fitting for the two, and had supported their relationship from the moment he caught them holding hands and kissing. He packed the mirror away, with fond memories and had once been his father to talk to Sirius during detentions.
Harry chuckled at the thought of the two chatting during their detentions, but then frowned at his father's behavior towards Professor Snape. Well, he thought dully, Sirius did say we were all idiots at age of fifteen, okay so I admit that I am an idiot! he scolded himself, remembering how he'd acted at the Department of Mysteries and the Ministry itself. He then slammed closed the trunk half in anger but saw something was missing. His new journal was sitting on the table. Harry went to fetch it, along with his quills and ink bottle quite empty and opened the trunk again and set ontop of the mirror he had just put in moments ago. He stared at the journal a moment longer, thanking Sirius for the need to write. His emotions were unbearable as it is. He quietly put the trunk lid down again and locked it.
He went out of the room and found Remus reading the Daily Prophet. Harry coughed a little, to announce his appearance.
"Hey Harry," Remus looked up at him from the paper. "Ready?"
"I don't want to go back," he replied glumly.
"I don't want you to go back either, me and Sirius included," Remus set the paper down sadly. "We're going to miss you."
"Can't I visit you guys here? After all, we're finished with the O.W.L.s," Harry asked.
"I'm sorry, but there isn't any need for us to stay--"
"What about me Remus? Isn't that a reason enough?" Harry interrupted him. "Actually, nevermind, I don't have to hold you back," Harry went back to his room and levitated his trunk and led down to the hatch, followed by Sirius and Remus. "Well, I guess I'll see you two sometime later."
Without a word, Sirius leaned forward and hugged Harry, who was stunned for the moment. Never, ever he had felt a fatherly hug like this before. He didn't know what to think, since he never recieved any sort of loving phyiscal contact since his dad. Harry, awkwardly, hugged Sirius back.
"We're going to miss you Harry, but I have a feeling that the Ministry will free me soon, after all, did they not see Pettigrew at the Ministry?"
"I suppose so, he was the only one unmasked other than Voldemort, kind of hard to miss his face, so hang on Sirius," Harry grinned. It was true that Pettigrew was the only one without his mask, and had been the closest Death Eater to the Ministry representatives. He only hoped they would pardon Sirius any day now that they know Dumbledore and Harry had been telling the truth all along. Sirius ruffled Harry's hair, much to his distaste.
" Sirius! I don't like my hair ruffled up you know!" Harry complianed, flattening as much as he could to his hair.
"Oh cut it out Harry," Sirius scoffed as he tried to ruffle his hair again but Harry ducked in time. "All right, all right," Remus chuckled at the two.
"Well, you better go Harry," Remus leaned in and hugged him good bye. "I do suspect we'll see you again soon."
"Alright, bye Sirius, Remus," with that, he led down to the hatch with his trunk following him. He felt sad to leave Shrieking House. For past several weeks, he had come to think of this place as a home. Even staying there during the summer, spening great fun with Remus and Sirius. He knew that wouldn't happen, since Dumbledore wanted him to come back to Hogwarts and inevitably going to the damned Dursleys. Harry sighed as he walked along the tunnel and coming up towards the hole and disabled the Whomping Willow as he crawled out and his trunk followed. He made his way towards the front doors of Hogwarts. Today he would be near every student and actually see him visibly. He didn't want to face the student body today, it was still weekend and everyone was bound to ask him a lot of questions. Oh just great, everyone just had to be in the Entrancea Hall as I come in . . .
"Harry!" Nearly everyone shouted his name, most of them were Gryffindors and the D.A. and some Professors were there too. Obviously Dumbledore had told of them that Harry was coming back today.
'Couldn't he even let me come back silently!?' Harry groaned inwardly and smiled softly at his housemates, friends and acquaitances. "Hi everyone, I'm back," he grinned sheepisly. Everyone save the professors cheered for his return. He saw Ron and Hermione coming out of the crowd and hugged tightly to Harry.
"Oh I'm so happy you're finally here and okay," said Hermione, hugging him tightly.
"'ir 'Ermi-nee 'ir," breathed Harry.
"Oh! I'm sorry Harry!" she let him go, blushing.
"Well, how's everyone?" he asked Hermione, scanning everyone who were chattering loudly, trying to talk to Harry.
"Oh you know, the usual, except they're much happier. Well, Professor Dumbledore wishes to speak to you," she said. Harry nodded.
"Okay, hey, hey! I need to get to Gryffindor Tower unless someone can drop my trunk off!" No sooner he said that, he'd regretted the request. As there were more clamoring for his trunk. "Whoa! I think I'll ask one of my roommates to this task! Hey Dean!"
"Alright Harry?"
"Fine, take my trunk to our rooms, I need to see Dumbledore, well he needs to see me but what does it matter. Thanks mate, I'll talk to you later tonight," with that, he slowly made his way through the Entrance Hall, responding to people's questions such as 'You did awesome at the Ministry!' 'Where did you hide?' Which, of course, he didn't answer, as to protect his privacy should he need to hide again. He finally found silence several floors up away from the Entrance Hall, with Ron and Hermione on each side of him.
"Well," Ron began, "That was intersting."
"What was?" Harry inquired, unsure what part was interesting.
"Everyone in the Entrance Hall of course," replied Ron, looking at Harry. "We knew you didn't want to be welcomed like that, but we couldn't stop them," he said with a half shrug.
"Well, it can't be helped," Harry said, chuckling softly. "I was surprised to see everyone there though."
"Yeah mate, your face was priceless!" Ron laughed, and earned a playful punch by Harry. "Hey!"
"Couldn't help it, I picked that up from Sirius one too many time," he said, shaking his head. "Those two, I swear..." they finally reached the statue and uttered the password and went up the moving winding staircase and at the top. Harry knocked the door and heard a 'come in'. He pushed the door open and found Headmaster sitting at the desk, his fingers touching at the tips.
"Please sit," he asked, not an order. Harry sat down in one of the plush chairs, along with Hermione and Ron on either side of him. "I suppose you would like to know why you're here?" Harry nodded slowly, cautious. "Well, tonight I'm going to talk to the Ministry about what happened on Friday . . ."
"Why couldn't you do that on Saturday rather than on Sunday?" Harry asked.
"Minister was busy, and I was busy, and everyone at the Ministry was really busy. So you can imagine, but we're going to discuss of what you said on Friday night..."
"Do you need me to discuss about Friday's events as well?"
"No, not tonight, tomorrow, you will meet the Minister of Magic and several of the representatives. Tonight, I'm only going to give him some of the details briefly."
"A-are you going to tell him abou-about Bellatrix Lestrange?"
"I'm afraid so," he replied softly.
"Why couldn't you keep that a secret isir?/i" Harry's inside grew hot, Dumbledore was not looking at him, not even once! Of course, he knew the reasons, but he wouldn't look as much as stare at him.
"Because they are going to do a spell that reveals all of the spells you've done tomorrow for their precaution," he said sadly. Harry stared at him in horror. "The worse they could do is send you to Azkaban and have a Dementor's kiss. But I doubt that this warrants that extreme," he assured him, seeing the horrorfied look on Harry and his friends. "Even Fudge wouldn't be that stupid. . . . then again," he seems to have remembered something. He understood too, Fudge wouldn' trust him since his end of third year and thought him to be delusional, attention-seeking little boy. Harry shook his head.
"I hope I don't have to serve a lifetime..." Harry said softly, "How will I survive Dementors? You know how weak I get around them..."
"Yes I do," Dumbledore said, lost without a spark in his eyes. "Well, I suppose I'll let you go, persue every enjoyable thing you can today and tomorrow. The meeting is at 8 p.m. tomorrow. Don't be late," Harry knew that was a dismiss and got up from his chair and followed by Ron and Hermione.
"Bye sir," Harry said, leaving the room and went down the stairs. The three were silent for five corridors, and when Harry thought he couldn't handle the silence anymore. He slammed his fist into the wall next to him. "AUGHH!"
"Mate!?" Ron stared at him in shock, along with speechless Hermione.
"Damn this! Damn everything! I want my broom..." Harry said, calming down. "If I don't get on pitch today, I'm going to go nuts."
"R-right mate, I'll go back and ask Dumbledore," Ron said, running back towards the office, leaving the two in silence.
"H-Harry? A-are you okay? Well, of course you're not, but--" Hermione began.
"'Course I'm not . . ." Harry snarled, "sorry Hermione."
"Don't be, you have every right to be," she said. Harry sighed and looked outside in the window opposite him.
"It's a nice day," Harry said softly, watching the clouds slowly drifting by.
"Yes it is," she said, after looking out the window. The two watched outside in silence, watching the kids playing in the grass, some in the water splasing with their feet.
"It's amazing that out there, everyone is so carefree and I'm here--"
"Don't finish," Hermione said softly. "Just enjoy yourself today and tomorrow."
Harry nodded, and heard fast footfalls coming towards him and saw Ron with his iFirebolt./i His heart lurched at the sight of his broom, his throat forming a lump.
"Here mate! Let's go get my broom!" Ron said happily. Harry grinned and stared at the broom, which he had taken from his friend, staring in awe of his broom. He fingered every inch of the broom, each strand of wood at the end. Tracing the name of the Firebolt etched in the broomstick. "Come on Harry! The sooner we go out, the sooner we fly! . Harry grinned even more widely and shouldered his broom and ran after Ron, leaving Hermione in the dust who only laughed and soon they were outside.
"Race you to the pitch!" Harry yelled, mounting his broom from the stairs of Entrance hall. Ron laughed and mounted his as well and both were blasting into the sky. The kids around them pointed at the two, laughing as they flew. Harry felt so much happier, the wind whipping at his face, his hair flapping around, screwing his face against the cold breeze. The black robes flailing about, and urging his broom to go faster, making the enivornment around him blur in speed. His stomach free of all worries and pains, no apathy or depressing thoughts filled his mind. He soared straight up towards the clouds, leaving the ground far behind. He had already reached the pitch and was now waiting for Ron to catch up. Harry knew he'd left Ron in the dust as well.
He was soon so far high up that he saw every detail of Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and parts of Forbidden forest. He look straight down and saw Ron, he was only a speck of red against the green, flying seemingly slow around the pitch. Harry grinned and leaned forward, flying as fast as he could towards the ground. The wind around him whipping wildly as he flew faster than sound and saw horrofied look on Ron's face and nearby heard several screams and smirked as he flew even faster towards the ground but when he was only mere three feet from the ground, he leveled out and back up towards one of the goal hoops and let out a whoop.
"Whoo!"
"HARRY!" he heard several voices screaming his name and stared at the crowds and on the grass and grinned sheepishly
"Are you mad!?"
"You could have died!"
"That was wicked!"
"Harry's insane!"
"Mate! Were you trying to give us all a heart attack or shaving off two decades off our lives!?" Ron raged at him, but with laughter in his eyes. Harry laughed at him and shook his head.
"I was only enjoying myself, I wasn't rying to scare everyone..."
"Sure you were! You were grinning like a lunaitic!" said Ron laughing. Harry flew around the pitch, doing a lot of twists and loops and doing more Wronski Feint, but with an twist, of being at altitude of at least a thousand feet in the air which always gave others the scare and thought that it was funny to see their faces. Soon, someone was shouting for Harry.
"Oy Harry!"
"What Ron?" Harry flew towards him.
"It's nearly time for dinner, we've been out all day and I'm hungry mate!" It was true, they've been flying since before lunch and he was hungry himself as well.
"Yeah, I'm hungry too, you only reminded me, I had forgotten..."
"No kidding Harry," Hermione said smiling as they landed. "You seem to be in your own world in the air."
"Well, I am," Harry admitted, grinning, Hermione shook her head and the three walked back towards Hogwarts and entered the Great Hall. The three sat down with their broomsticks in front of them. Harry could've hid his Firebolt but the Creevy's insisted on seeing the broom so Harry gave in, redding in embarrassment. Soon the three had finished eating and headed back to the Gryffindor Tower, chatting to fellow Gryffindors about O.W.Ls, Quidditch, Malfoy and his secret voice in the head which Harry found really funny. And among other things like the summer.
"What're you going to do this summer Harry?" Seamus asked, as Ron said the password to the common room.
"Oh at my relatives I suppose," Harry replied glumly as they stepped in.
"You don't sound very happy," said Seamus.
"No, they despise anything magic," said Harry. "Well, I'm going to get something," he ran up the stairs to his dormitory and found his trunk safely at the end of his bed. He opened the trunk and took out his journal, quill and a new ink bottle and came back down to the common room and smiled at Hermione and Ron as he sat down.
"What you got there Harry?" Ron asked, staring at the journal.
"Oh, it's my new journal, Sirius gave it to me this morning."
"Oh . . ." is all Ron said and challenged Hermione to chess which she accepted for once. Harry inaudiobly said the password to his journal and opened to a new page and dot his quill into the ink and onto the parchment and began to write.
Soaring through the air
As a broomstick supports me through and through
Flying over the pitch
Leaving all my pains and grief
All my troubles and depressing thoughts
Flying in the air
Is truly the best way to leave the world of pain
Hair flipping around my face
Searching for something valuable
Spotting something glittery and gold
Snitch has been found
Manuvering through the air
Approaching fast
As the place around me blur
But the Golden Snitch
Skittering and desperately flying away
Reaching my hand into the air
Grabbing the small walnut-sized ball with wings
Flying is an exhilaration experience
Only to leave troubles behind on the ground.
Harry leaned back, sastify with himself, reading his poem. Smiling and stared over at Ron and Hermione who were staring back at Harry with confused looks.
"What?" Harry asked, a bit annoyed.
"What are you smiling about?" Ron asked.
"Oh, about flying today," Harry replied. Ron nodded and went back to his game, but Hermione stared at him a bit longer and refocused on the game once more. He stared at the second half of the pages, finding it to be empty and though of what to write next, and set his end point of the quill on the paper again.
Girl, you're clever and smart
Boy, so ill-tempered but fun
Guys, how can you two stick
With me for so long
How can you stand my temper
Blowing things up at you
So furious, yet . . .
You guys stick with me
But will that be to the end?
I don't want to lose you
I'll be lost
I've lost my parents
My school mate died in front of me
I acted rash again
And lost Neville in the process
I can't bear to lose anyone else
It's all my fault
But you say it isn't
Well, it's not that simple!
But do me a favor
Don't let me distance from anyone
I'll go mad if I do
Thanks, you two are the greatest friends
One could ever ask for.
Harry was still glancing down at the journal, desperately trying not to let his unshed tears to shed. 'Now how the hell did I go from a happy poem to a depressing one!? This is madness... but I suppose it's because of Ron and Hermione...' Harry thought angrily.
"Harry?" Hermione asked and looked up at her. She went from a look of concern to shock. "Harry, what's wrong?"
"N-nothing," he shut the journal close and began to stand up as Ron noticed Harry as well.
"No, it's ruddy not nothing!" Ron said indiginatly. Harry sighed and sat back down, remembering one of the lines he had just wrote.
Don't let me distance from everyone
"Alright, I was just writing a poem about you guys and kind of broke my heart, happy?" Harry glared at his two ofhis friends but soften a moment later. Hermione and Ron stared at him, half in surprise and in shock.
"You're writing poems?" Ron asked awestrucked.
"Yeah, that's what I'm doing with this journal anyways, well I'm going to sleep," Harry tried getting up again, but Hermione spoke next.
"Can I read them sometime?" Hermone asked, and Harry turned his face slowly towards her. Looking as if she was crazy. "Well, only with your permission of course."
"It's private, and this certain journal has a password on it and only I can access to it, but maybe sometime in the future when I'm not so embarrassed with the way I wrote them . . ." Harry reddened a little, looking at the fireplace.
"Oh alright, good night Harry," finally Harry was able to go to his bed and did his occlumency and cleared his mind and fell asleep at once.
The next day came, and woke up fresh, but was at first disconcerted by where he is. Then he remembered that he wasn't staying at Shrieking Shack anymore and that he was back at Hogwarts. Now that he had come to think of it, where was that Umgridge woman? iOh well, the longer I don't see her, the better I'm off/i he thought as he got dressed and dug for his journal again. He liked to express how he felt around him and never revealing. He took out his quill and ink and sat on his bed. The more solace he is in, the better he would think and the silence suited him just fine. The sun was halfway up from the horizon and guessed to be about nine in the morning. He looked away from the window and stared at the paper, thinking and began to write down.
One of the corridors at Hogwarts
I walk alone in silence
Some can say I'm sulking
Let them say what they think
I like solitude as I think of the past
How Dursleys' treated me
Of entering a magical school
Having friends for the first time
Searching for clues of mystery
When there's somethign up at school
Of times I blew up at my friends
At school mates
Including my professors
When to trust anymore?
Especially when I carry so much weight
They all lied to me
I bet they still are
Prophecy, who cares?
It was made by that fraud of a woman
But I scold myself
Of course I do care
This drives me crazy
But now I bumped into a teacher
Of all people, it had to be the Professor Snape
Still, he kindly took off points
Pah, kindly? Yeah right
So I continue to walk
Forget muggles, Hogwarts and Prophecy
I'm going to hide.
Yeah sure, sounds Slytherin-y
But the hat did want me to put in there.
Maybe I should have been.
Looking back at the poem, and rereading. Harry was surprised with himself, he was writing blindly, and he didn't even know those kind of thoughts existed. It's like you were learning something completely new about yourself that you never knew about. Still staring at the by-product of the poem, and still wasn't sure what to think. Sure, he did agree to every part of the lines, albiet, reclunantly. He did feel that he wanted to hide, even though he was surrounded by loving people and friends.
Harry stood up, and kicked the bed he had sat in, throwing his book across the room and hit the opposite wall and landed with a thud, book still open. Bloody hell! What's wrong with me!? Harry yelled in his head, fuming. Then he realized how he wasn't so hungry for breakfast and felt glad. He didn't want to face anyone just yet. But he remembered that Dumbledore told him to enjoy himself as much as he could, there were chances of going to Azkaban after all... 'No! You wouldn't land yourself there, would I?' Harry was unsure of himself, wondering what would happen if he did land himself in Azkaban. Well, he would have to break out because he was the only one that could fulfill the Prophecy...
"Pah! Screw Prophecy, they shouldn't land all responsibility upon me and expect to treat me like a child!" Harry muttered to himself.
"What're you muttering about?" asked Pavarti worried as she entered the common room.
"Oh, nothing, nothing, just the usual rubbish, see you around Pavarti," with that, he left the common room and went to Astromony tower. 'Talking to yourself! Phinieas did say that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness... no, ignore him. He's nothing.'
He leaned agains the top of the stone wall, overlooking the Hogwarts grounds, listening to wind moving about and birds twittering. He was going to enjoy the fresh air, and the sights over the grounds and the lake towered by the cliffs. Exhaling deeply and stared up into the heavens, examining every shapes in the clouds. He swore one of them was that of Golden Snitch. Chuckling to himself, he never did anything like that, conciously anyways. He heard someone coming onto the balcony of Astromony Tower and turned around and saw Ron and Hermione there, and smiled.
"Harry, we've been looking all over for you!" Hermione scolded but returned the smile.
"What's up mate?" Ron asked, looking at his friend.
"Nothing, I'm just enjoying fresh air," he looke back at the lake and saw the Giant Squid swimming at the surface. The other two also looked out at the lake as well, enjoying themselves and the silence. No words was needed in their friendship.
"I really hope that you don't go to Azkaban," Hermione spoke up after what seemed half an hour.
"Me too Hermione, I won't last long in that place," Harry replied glumly. "I hear my mum's screaming everytime I go near one..."
"Oh, that bad?" Hermione asked sadly.
'Yeah, and of course, I keep getting knocked out, well most of the time when I don't manage to do an Patronus charm."
"But without your wand in that place...."
"I'll be out more than half the time," he finished for her. The threesome didn't speak again for another half hour, watching the treetops moving in the distance and birds flying around and Harry swore that he saw a threstral or two flew out of the treetops and back in.
"What're you looking at mate?" Ron asked.
"I saw some threstrals flying," he replied.
"Oh..." is all he said.
"I think we should eat lunch now," Hermione spoke after a moments silence. Harry was glad that none of the silence was awkward or he'd have already left. His mind drifted back to the recent poem he wrote and shook his head.
"Yeah, let's go get some food," Harry went down to the Great Hall.
Harry had packed his trunk, wondering what Headmaster Albus Brian Wulfric Dumbledore wanted him over at Hogwarts today than tomorrow. He picked up the mirror that had been a way of communicating to Sirius and smiled softly. This mirror had gotten Harry and Sirius much closer than they ever had in previous year and half or so. He was surprised at how far their relationship between Remus and Sirius had been. But now that he thought about it, it seemed so fitting for the two, and had supported their relationship from the moment he caught them holding hands and kissing. He packed the mirror away, with fond memories and had once been his father to talk to Sirius during detentions.
Harry chuckled at the thought of the two chatting during their detentions, but then frowned at his father's behavior towards Professor Snape. Well, he thought dully, Sirius did say we were all idiots at age of fifteen, okay so I admit that I am an idiot! he scolded himself, remembering how he'd acted at the Department of Mysteries and the Ministry itself. He then slammed closed the trunk half in anger but saw something was missing. His new journal was sitting on the table. Harry went to fetch it, along with his quills and ink bottle quite empty and opened the trunk again and set ontop of the mirror he had just put in moments ago. He stared at the journal a moment longer, thanking Sirius for the need to write. His emotions were unbearable as it is. He quietly put the trunk lid down again and locked it.
He went out of the room and found Remus reading the Daily Prophet. Harry coughed a little, to announce his appearance.
"Hey Harry," Remus looked up at him from the paper. "Ready?"
"I don't want to go back," he replied glumly.
"I don't want you to go back either, me and Sirius included," Remus set the paper down sadly. "We're going to miss you."
"Can't I visit you guys here? After all, we're finished with the O.W.L.s," Harry asked.
"I'm sorry, but there isn't any need for us to stay--"
"What about me Remus? Isn't that a reason enough?" Harry interrupted him. "Actually, nevermind, I don't have to hold you back," Harry went back to his room and levitated his trunk and led down to the hatch, followed by Sirius and Remus. "Well, I guess I'll see you two sometime later."
Without a word, Sirius leaned forward and hugged Harry, who was stunned for the moment. Never, ever he had felt a fatherly hug like this before. He didn't know what to think, since he never recieved any sort of loving phyiscal contact since his dad. Harry, awkwardly, hugged Sirius back.
"We're going to miss you Harry, but I have a feeling that the Ministry will free me soon, after all, did they not see Pettigrew at the Ministry?"
"I suppose so, he was the only one unmasked other than Voldemort, kind of hard to miss his face, so hang on Sirius," Harry grinned. It was true that Pettigrew was the only one without his mask, and had been the closest Death Eater to the Ministry representatives. He only hoped they would pardon Sirius any day now that they know Dumbledore and Harry had been telling the truth all along. Sirius ruffled Harry's hair, much to his distaste.
" Sirius! I don't like my hair ruffled up you know!" Harry complianed, flattening as much as he could to his hair.
"Oh cut it out Harry," Sirius scoffed as he tried to ruffle his hair again but Harry ducked in time. "All right, all right," Remus chuckled at the two.
"Well, you better go Harry," Remus leaned in and hugged him good bye. "I do suspect we'll see you again soon."
"Alright, bye Sirius, Remus," with that, he led down to the hatch with his trunk following him. He felt sad to leave Shrieking House. For past several weeks, he had come to think of this place as a home. Even staying there during the summer, spening great fun with Remus and Sirius. He knew that wouldn't happen, since Dumbledore wanted him to come back to Hogwarts and inevitably going to the damned Dursleys. Harry sighed as he walked along the tunnel and coming up towards the hole and disabled the Whomping Willow as he crawled out and his trunk followed. He made his way towards the front doors of Hogwarts. Today he would be near every student and actually see him visibly. He didn't want to face the student body today, it was still weekend and everyone was bound to ask him a lot of questions. Oh just great, everyone just had to be in the Entrancea Hall as I come in . . .
"Harry!" Nearly everyone shouted his name, most of them were Gryffindors and the D.A. and some Professors were there too. Obviously Dumbledore had told of them that Harry was coming back today.
'Couldn't he even let me come back silently!?' Harry groaned inwardly and smiled softly at his housemates, friends and acquaitances. "Hi everyone, I'm back," he grinned sheepisly. Everyone save the professors cheered for his return. He saw Ron and Hermione coming out of the crowd and hugged tightly to Harry.
"Oh I'm so happy you're finally here and okay," said Hermione, hugging him tightly.
"'ir 'Ermi-nee 'ir," breathed Harry.
"Oh! I'm sorry Harry!" she let him go, blushing.
"Well, how's everyone?" he asked Hermione, scanning everyone who were chattering loudly, trying to talk to Harry.
"Oh you know, the usual, except they're much happier. Well, Professor Dumbledore wishes to speak to you," she said. Harry nodded.
"Okay, hey, hey! I need to get to Gryffindor Tower unless someone can drop my trunk off!" No sooner he said that, he'd regretted the request. As there were more clamoring for his trunk. "Whoa! I think I'll ask one of my roommates to this task! Hey Dean!"
"Alright Harry?"
"Fine, take my trunk to our rooms, I need to see Dumbledore, well he needs to see me but what does it matter. Thanks mate, I'll talk to you later tonight," with that, he slowly made his way through the Entrance Hall, responding to people's questions such as 'You did awesome at the Ministry!' 'Where did you hide?' Which, of course, he didn't answer, as to protect his privacy should he need to hide again. He finally found silence several floors up away from the Entrance Hall, with Ron and Hermione on each side of him.
"Well," Ron began, "That was intersting."
"What was?" Harry inquired, unsure what part was interesting.
"Everyone in the Entrance Hall of course," replied Ron, looking at Harry. "We knew you didn't want to be welcomed like that, but we couldn't stop them," he said with a half shrug.
"Well, it can't be helped," Harry said, chuckling softly. "I was surprised to see everyone there though."
"Yeah mate, your face was priceless!" Ron laughed, and earned a playful punch by Harry. "Hey!"
"Couldn't help it, I picked that up from Sirius one too many time," he said, shaking his head. "Those two, I swear..." they finally reached the statue and uttered the password and went up the moving winding staircase and at the top. Harry knocked the door and heard a 'come in'. He pushed the door open and found Headmaster sitting at the desk, his fingers touching at the tips.
"Please sit," he asked, not an order. Harry sat down in one of the plush chairs, along with Hermione and Ron on either side of him. "I suppose you would like to know why you're here?" Harry nodded slowly, cautious. "Well, tonight I'm going to talk to the Ministry about what happened on Friday . . ."
"Why couldn't you do that on Saturday rather than on Sunday?" Harry asked.
"Minister was busy, and I was busy, and everyone at the Ministry was really busy. So you can imagine, but we're going to discuss of what you said on Friday night..."
"Do you need me to discuss about Friday's events as well?"
"No, not tonight, tomorrow, you will meet the Minister of Magic and several of the representatives. Tonight, I'm only going to give him some of the details briefly."
"A-are you going to tell him abou-about Bellatrix Lestrange?"
"I'm afraid so," he replied softly.
"Why couldn't you keep that a secret isir?/i" Harry's inside grew hot, Dumbledore was not looking at him, not even once! Of course, he knew the reasons, but he wouldn't look as much as stare at him.
"Because they are going to do a spell that reveals all of the spells you've done tomorrow for their precaution," he said sadly. Harry stared at him in horror. "The worse they could do is send you to Azkaban and have a Dementor's kiss. But I doubt that this warrants that extreme," he assured him, seeing the horrorfied look on Harry and his friends. "Even Fudge wouldn't be that stupid. . . . then again," he seems to have remembered something. He understood too, Fudge wouldn' trust him since his end of third year and thought him to be delusional, attention-seeking little boy. Harry shook his head.
"I hope I don't have to serve a lifetime..." Harry said softly, "How will I survive Dementors? You know how weak I get around them..."
"Yes I do," Dumbledore said, lost without a spark in his eyes. "Well, I suppose I'll let you go, persue every enjoyable thing you can today and tomorrow. The meeting is at 8 p.m. tomorrow. Don't be late," Harry knew that was a dismiss and got up from his chair and followed by Ron and Hermione.
"Bye sir," Harry said, leaving the room and went down the stairs. The three were silent for five corridors, and when Harry thought he couldn't handle the silence anymore. He slammed his fist into the wall next to him. "AUGHH!"
"Mate!?" Ron stared at him in shock, along with speechless Hermione.
"Damn this! Damn everything! I want my broom..." Harry said, calming down. "If I don't get on pitch today, I'm going to go nuts."
"R-right mate, I'll go back and ask Dumbledore," Ron said, running back towards the office, leaving the two in silence.
"H-Harry? A-are you okay? Well, of course you're not, but--" Hermione began.
"'Course I'm not . . ." Harry snarled, "sorry Hermione."
"Don't be, you have every right to be," she said. Harry sighed and looked outside in the window opposite him.
"It's a nice day," Harry said softly, watching the clouds slowly drifting by.
"Yes it is," she said, after looking out the window. The two watched outside in silence, watching the kids playing in the grass, some in the water splasing with their feet.
"It's amazing that out there, everyone is so carefree and I'm here--"
"Don't finish," Hermione said softly. "Just enjoy yourself today and tomorrow."
Harry nodded, and heard fast footfalls coming towards him and saw Ron with his iFirebolt./i His heart lurched at the sight of his broom, his throat forming a lump.
"Here mate! Let's go get my broom!" Ron said happily. Harry grinned and stared at the broom, which he had taken from his friend, staring in awe of his broom. He fingered every inch of the broom, each strand of wood at the end. Tracing the name of the Firebolt etched in the broomstick. "Come on Harry! The sooner we go out, the sooner we fly! . Harry grinned even more widely and shouldered his broom and ran after Ron, leaving Hermione in the dust who only laughed and soon they were outside.
"Race you to the pitch!" Harry yelled, mounting his broom from the stairs of Entrance hall. Ron laughed and mounted his as well and both were blasting into the sky. The kids around them pointed at the two, laughing as they flew. Harry felt so much happier, the wind whipping at his face, his hair flapping around, screwing his face against the cold breeze. The black robes flailing about, and urging his broom to go faster, making the enivornment around him blur in speed. His stomach free of all worries and pains, no apathy or depressing thoughts filled his mind. He soared straight up towards the clouds, leaving the ground far behind. He had already reached the pitch and was now waiting for Ron to catch up. Harry knew he'd left Ron in the dust as well.
He was soon so far high up that he saw every detail of Hogwarts, Hogsmeade and parts of Forbidden forest. He look straight down and saw Ron, he was only a speck of red against the green, flying seemingly slow around the pitch. Harry grinned and leaned forward, flying as fast as he could towards the ground. The wind around him whipping wildly as he flew faster than sound and saw horrofied look on Ron's face and nearby heard several screams and smirked as he flew even faster towards the ground but when he was only mere three feet from the ground, he leveled out and back up towards one of the goal hoops and let out a whoop.
"Whoo!"
"HARRY!" he heard several voices screaming his name and stared at the crowds and on the grass and grinned sheepishly
"Are you mad!?"
"You could have died!"
"That was wicked!"
"Harry's insane!"
"Mate! Were you trying to give us all a heart attack or shaving off two decades off our lives!?" Ron raged at him, but with laughter in his eyes. Harry laughed at him and shook his head.
"I was only enjoying myself, I wasn't rying to scare everyone..."
"Sure you were! You were grinning like a lunaitic!" said Ron laughing. Harry flew around the pitch, doing a lot of twists and loops and doing more Wronski Feint, but with an twist, of being at altitude of at least a thousand feet in the air which always gave others the scare and thought that it was funny to see their faces. Soon, someone was shouting for Harry.
"Oy Harry!"
"What Ron?" Harry flew towards him.
"It's nearly time for dinner, we've been out all day and I'm hungry mate!" It was true, they've been flying since before lunch and he was hungry himself as well.
"Yeah, I'm hungry too, you only reminded me, I had forgotten..."
"No kidding Harry," Hermione said smiling as they landed. "You seem to be in your own world in the air."
"Well, I am," Harry admitted, grinning, Hermione shook her head and the three walked back towards Hogwarts and entered the Great Hall. The three sat down with their broomsticks in front of them. Harry could've hid his Firebolt but the Creevy's insisted on seeing the broom so Harry gave in, redding in embarrassment. Soon the three had finished eating and headed back to the Gryffindor Tower, chatting to fellow Gryffindors about O.W.Ls, Quidditch, Malfoy and his secret voice in the head which Harry found really funny. And among other things like the summer.
"What're you going to do this summer Harry?" Seamus asked, as Ron said the password to the common room.
"Oh at my relatives I suppose," Harry replied glumly as they stepped in.
"You don't sound very happy," said Seamus.
"No, they despise anything magic," said Harry. "Well, I'm going to get something," he ran up the stairs to his dormitory and found his trunk safely at the end of his bed. He opened the trunk and took out his journal, quill and a new ink bottle and came back down to the common room and smiled at Hermione and Ron as he sat down.
"What you got there Harry?" Ron asked, staring at the journal.
"Oh, it's my new journal, Sirius gave it to me this morning."
"Oh . . ." is all Ron said and challenged Hermione to chess which she accepted for once. Harry inaudiobly said the password to his journal and opened to a new page and dot his quill into the ink and onto the parchment and began to write.
Soaring through the air
As a broomstick supports me through and through
Flying over the pitch
Leaving all my pains and grief
All my troubles and depressing thoughts
Flying in the air
Is truly the best way to leave the world of pain
Hair flipping around my face
Searching for something valuable
Spotting something glittery and gold
Snitch has been found
Manuvering through the air
Approaching fast
As the place around me blur
But the Golden Snitch
Skittering and desperately flying away
Reaching my hand into the air
Grabbing the small walnut-sized ball with wings
Flying is an exhilaration experience
Only to leave troubles behind on the ground.
Harry leaned back, sastify with himself, reading his poem. Smiling and stared over at Ron and Hermione who were staring back at Harry with confused looks.
"What?" Harry asked, a bit annoyed.
"What are you smiling about?" Ron asked.
"Oh, about flying today," Harry replied. Ron nodded and went back to his game, but Hermione stared at him a bit longer and refocused on the game once more. He stared at the second half of the pages, finding it to be empty and though of what to write next, and set his end point of the quill on the paper again.
Girl, you're clever and smart
Boy, so ill-tempered but fun
Guys, how can you two stick
With me for so long
How can you stand my temper
Blowing things up at you
So furious, yet . . .
You guys stick with me
But will that be to the end?
I don't want to lose you
I'll be lost
I've lost my parents
My school mate died in front of me
I acted rash again
And lost Neville in the process
I can't bear to lose anyone else
It's all my fault
But you say it isn't
Well, it's not that simple!
But do me a favor
Don't let me distance from anyone
I'll go mad if I do
Thanks, you two are the greatest friends
One could ever ask for.
Harry was still glancing down at the journal, desperately trying not to let his unshed tears to shed. 'Now how the hell did I go from a happy poem to a depressing one!? This is madness... but I suppose it's because of Ron and Hermione...' Harry thought angrily.
"Harry?" Hermione asked and looked up at her. She went from a look of concern to shock. "Harry, what's wrong?"
"N-nothing," he shut the journal close and began to stand up as Ron noticed Harry as well.
"No, it's ruddy not nothing!" Ron said indiginatly. Harry sighed and sat back down, remembering one of the lines he had just wrote.
Don't let me distance from everyone
"Alright, I was just writing a poem about you guys and kind of broke my heart, happy?" Harry glared at his two ofhis friends but soften a moment later. Hermione and Ron stared at him, half in surprise and in shock.
"You're writing poems?" Ron asked awestrucked.
"Yeah, that's what I'm doing with this journal anyways, well I'm going to sleep," Harry tried getting up again, but Hermione spoke next.
"Can I read them sometime?" Hermone asked, and Harry turned his face slowly towards her. Looking as if she was crazy. "Well, only with your permission of course."
"It's private, and this certain journal has a password on it and only I can access to it, but maybe sometime in the future when I'm not so embarrassed with the way I wrote them . . ." Harry reddened a little, looking at the fireplace.
"Oh alright, good night Harry," finally Harry was able to go to his bed and did his occlumency and cleared his mind and fell asleep at once.
The next day came, and woke up fresh, but was at first disconcerted by where he is. Then he remembered that he wasn't staying at Shrieking Shack anymore and that he was back at Hogwarts. Now that he had come to think of it, where was that Umgridge woman? iOh well, the longer I don't see her, the better I'm off/i he thought as he got dressed and dug for his journal again. He liked to express how he felt around him and never revealing. He took out his quill and ink and sat on his bed. The more solace he is in, the better he would think and the silence suited him just fine. The sun was halfway up from the horizon and guessed to be about nine in the morning. He looked away from the window and stared at the paper, thinking and began to write down.
One of the corridors at Hogwarts
I walk alone in silence
Some can say I'm sulking
Let them say what they think
I like solitude as I think of the past
How Dursleys' treated me
Of entering a magical school
Having friends for the first time
Searching for clues of mystery
When there's somethign up at school
Of times I blew up at my friends
At school mates
Including my professors
When to trust anymore?
Especially when I carry so much weight
They all lied to me
I bet they still are
Prophecy, who cares?
It was made by that fraud of a woman
But I scold myself
Of course I do care
This drives me crazy
But now I bumped into a teacher
Of all people, it had to be the Professor Snape
Still, he kindly took off points
Pah, kindly? Yeah right
So I continue to walk
Forget muggles, Hogwarts and Prophecy
I'm going to hide.
Yeah sure, sounds Slytherin-y
But the hat did want me to put in there.
Maybe I should have been.
Looking back at the poem, and rereading. Harry was surprised with himself, he was writing blindly, and he didn't even know those kind of thoughts existed. It's like you were learning something completely new about yourself that you never knew about. Still staring at the by-product of the poem, and still wasn't sure what to think. Sure, he did agree to every part of the lines, albiet, reclunantly. He did feel that he wanted to hide, even though he was surrounded by loving people and friends.
Harry stood up, and kicked the bed he had sat in, throwing his book across the room and hit the opposite wall and landed with a thud, book still open. Bloody hell! What's wrong with me!? Harry yelled in his head, fuming. Then he realized how he wasn't so hungry for breakfast and felt glad. He didn't want to face anyone just yet. But he remembered that Dumbledore told him to enjoy himself as much as he could, there were chances of going to Azkaban after all... 'No! You wouldn't land yourself there, would I?' Harry was unsure of himself, wondering what would happen if he did land himself in Azkaban. Well, he would have to break out because he was the only one that could fulfill the Prophecy...
"Pah! Screw Prophecy, they shouldn't land all responsibility upon me and expect to treat me like a child!" Harry muttered to himself.
"What're you muttering about?" asked Pavarti worried as she entered the common room.
"Oh, nothing, nothing, just the usual rubbish, see you around Pavarti," with that, he left the common room and went to Astromony tower. 'Talking to yourself! Phinieas did say that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness... no, ignore him. He's nothing.'
He leaned agains the top of the stone wall, overlooking the Hogwarts grounds, listening to wind moving about and birds twittering. He was going to enjoy the fresh air, and the sights over the grounds and the lake towered by the cliffs. Exhaling deeply and stared up into the heavens, examining every shapes in the clouds. He swore one of them was that of Golden Snitch. Chuckling to himself, he never did anything like that, conciously anyways. He heard someone coming onto the balcony of Astromony Tower and turned around and saw Ron and Hermione there, and smiled.
"Harry, we've been looking all over for you!" Hermione scolded but returned the smile.
"What's up mate?" Ron asked, looking at his friend.
"Nothing, I'm just enjoying fresh air," he looke back at the lake and saw the Giant Squid swimming at the surface. The other two also looked out at the lake as well, enjoying themselves and the silence. No words was needed in their friendship.
"I really hope that you don't go to Azkaban," Hermione spoke up after what seemed half an hour.
"Me too Hermione, I won't last long in that place," Harry replied glumly. "I hear my mum's screaming everytime I go near one..."
"Oh, that bad?" Hermione asked sadly.
'Yeah, and of course, I keep getting knocked out, well most of the time when I don't manage to do an Patronus charm."
"But without your wand in that place...."
"I'll be out more than half the time," he finished for her. The threesome didn't speak again for another half hour, watching the treetops moving in the distance and birds flying around and Harry swore that he saw a threstral or two flew out of the treetops and back in.
"What're you looking at mate?" Ron asked.
"I saw some threstrals flying," he replied.
"Oh..." is all he said.
"I think we should eat lunch now," Hermione spoke after a moments silence. Harry was glad that none of the silence was awkward or he'd have already left. His mind drifted back to the recent poem he wrote and shook his head.
"Yeah, let's go get some food," Harry went down to the Great Hall.