Chapter 9
Harry thanked Dumbledore again and entered the class room to be greeted by a sight he never thought he would have seen again. There in a chair by the fire sat one of Harry's oldest living friends. As the man looked up at the boy a wide smile formed on his face.
With a smile of his own Harry said in an even, but positive voice, "Ello Fletch."
Mundungus got up from his seat and said with a hint of pride, "Well well, look at you. All grown up."
"That tends ta happen over… What's I' been? T'ree years" Harry said as he walked over to shake the man's hand.
"Yeah, about that," Fletch answered.
After a moment of silence the man spoke again, "Ya look damn good kid."
"You too Fletch" Harry said in reply. "So wha'cha doin' aroun' here."
"Well can't a man check in on an ol' friend once and a while like I used to back in the day."
"Yeah, speakin' o' tha'. How come you never tol' me you was a wizard. All these years you had us all thinkin' you was a magician or sumthin'"
"Well you had me thinkin' you was just another street kid. How come you never tol' me you was Harry Potter."
"I never though' I' mattered, what's your story"
"Well ta be honest, I would 'ave loved ta tell ya, but I'm sure you know the laws of confidentiality and what not by now."
"And since when did you star' carrin' about da laws" Harry said good naturedly.
"Yeah, good point. But I didn't come hear to talk abou' me. I came hear ta see how you was doin'."
Harry smiled at the man's kindness. "No' to bad actually. I t'ink I could get used to it."
Mundungus smiled, "Good, good… If anyone disserves this place its you."
Harry smiled and shook his hair out of his face. Mundungus looked down at him for a moment and said, "I cant believe I didn' see it before. You could've been your ol' mans twin brother if you was abou' twen'y years older. Except fer your eyes. You got your mothers eyes. And the best of both personalities if ya ask me. All yer missin' is them black glasses James used ta wear."
Harry was looked up from the floor with a smile and said, "I use' ta t'ink I needed glasses when I was younger, bu' I can see fine now so I musta' grown outa it."
"That's weird", Mundungus shrugged.
The two continued to chat with each other and Remus for about ten minutes about everything that had happened over the last few days. When Remus told him with good humor about Harry pulling a knife on Dumbledore, the man lost control and broke down laughing. After he had regained control he simply said "that's my boy," and patted Harry on the back proudly.
Soon, to Harry's disappointment, Mundungus stood and said, "Well Raven, it was good seein' ya, but time is money, and righ' now I aint got much of either."
"Goo' bye Fletch, thanks fer coming ta see me" Harry said, not sounding nearly as disappointed as he really was.
After the man had left, Harry was silent.
Remus frowned at Harry's disappointment. But luckily, he had something else to cheer him up.
"You alright Harry" He asked.
Harry looked up and smiled kindly at him. "Yeah, 'm alrigh'"
"Good, get your coat."
Harry looked a little confused and asked "What for?"
Remus chuckled a little and said "Well it just occurred to me yesterday that your father would be spinning in his grave If he knew that his only son was thirteen and still hadn't ridden a broom."
Harry returned to the common room that night feeling quite good to put it lightly. Truth be told, he had just had the time of his life. He had never felt more free, soaring in the sky like an eagle. Remus said that he was a natural flyer, just like his father. The two had spent the last two hours or so playing catch hundreds of feet in the air with a tennis ball in the twilight.
Harry was still so excited about the flight that he didn't even realize how tired he was until he entered the common room. It had been quite an eventful day. In the past four hours he had mouthed off to the Minister, caught up with and old friend, learned to fly, and he even thought he saw Jack for a moment while he was flying, but he disappeared to quickly to tell for sure.
Not seeing any of his friends in the common room, Harry decided to turn in early. Walking up to his room he was thankful that it was empty. After lying down on his bed he fell into an immediate deep sleep.
Harry was dreaming. There was no doubt in his mind about that. But there is a big difference between a dream and a nightmare, and this was defiantly a dream. In fact this was a beautiful dream. It was the family again, his family.
Lily sat against James' chest holding the little Harry in her harms. The room was well lit which caused her hair to sparkle like a golden chandelier. But something about the picture was different this time.
Across from the family was a man sitting in a chair. He was tall and dark but his brown eyes showed intense life like that of James' eyes.
Next to the man was another man, Remus. He looked almost the same as he did now except his hair had no grey and his eyes held much more life than they do now.
There was one other person in the room who seemed to be set apart from the others. He was short, fat and definitely did not look like a man who possessed any confidence but that was not what made him seem so different. Everyone else in the room seemed to radiate a positive vibe. Every thing about the group seemed to say that they were all proud of what was happening and loved all that they had. But not this man. Harry somehow sensed a gloomy feeling from him. Like the feeling you get when you place your trust in someone you don't really trust. It wasn't evil, more like a potential of evil deep within that was slowly poisoning his mind and intentions.
Harry's focus turned away from the small man as he heard laughing from the group. Lily had just handed baby Harry to the tall dark man who was now tickling the child mercilessly. Harry looked at the man before him. He was so familiar, but he could not put his finger on who he was. The memory of the man seemed to be so close and yet it was impossible to grab onto.
Harry heard a faint click somewhere in the distance. It was not in the dream though, it was in reality. Harry forced his thoughts away from the group causing them to disappear. Forcing his heavy eyelids open he saw the moon shining through the small opening in his hangings. He was sure he heard the door opening. He could hear the snoring of his room mates but other than that there was silence. Looked down at his feet he saw Mag's eyes open and her ears perked. That was enough to make him suspicious. Slowly Harry slid out of his bed, not making a sound. He walked over to the other side of his bed and saw a large black shape over by the door. The shape walked forward into the moon light and reviled who he was. Jack.
Harry immediately became confused. How did Jack, a dog, open a door? Or even get into the tower for that matter. And the main question on his mind was why Jack would want to come here in the first place.
Jack made his way over to the first bed in the room and sniffed. Not satisfied he moved over to the next bed. Ron's bed. After sniffing it once he stood up strait and seemed to get excited. Then he did something that turned Harry's confusion to shock. He transfigured into a man.
Harry had seen a lot of things in his life but this was starting to get really weird. He had read about people who were animagus, but how could his companion of nearly six months be one? And why was he so interested in Ron's bed. Harry watched as the tall dark man slowly slid the curtains away from Ron's bed. What was he doing?
Harry watched as a grin formed on the man's face. He reached into his filthy rags and drew something shiny, a knife! Harry silently darted out of the shadows. If the man had acted right away Harry would not have made it. But when Harry was halfway there the man still hadn't acted on Ron. Harry took a few more steps before the man's head shot up and saw him charging at him. Harry drew his stiletto ready to plunge it into the man's chest. But the man suddenly did not seem hostile.
He backed up against the wall and held his hands up in front of him, palms out. The man was obviously not going to try to hurt him, so instead of stabbing him in the heart Harry shoved his shoulder into his chest and pinned him against the wall.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ron's voice rang out, splitting the silence as saw the two long haired people struggling against the wall.
The dark man was thin but he still outweighed Harry by fifty pounds of so. So before the man could get his balance back, Harry swung his fist into the man's face. He almost fell over but Harry held him to the wall as hard as he could and pressed his knife into the man's jugular. Not hard enough to cut, but just hard enough to let the man know that if he moved he would be dead.
Harry heard commotion all around him as his roommates finally woke. His mind was in overdrive trying to figure out the situation. Was this Black? If so why did he not want to hurt him? He had plenty of chances to kill him on the streets. And now he didn't even seem to be trying to defend himself.
"Who are you!!?" Harry hissed forcefully, not wanting the others to hear him. In the midst of such confusion, Harry didn't trust anyone.
The man's eyes were panicking. He looked over at the door and then back down at Harry and started to whisper franticly, "Harry, it's not the way you think. You have to…"
"E-Expelliarmus" the shaken voice of Dean yelled from behind Harry. But unfortunately for Harry, Dean's aim was bad in the dark and his curse struck him square in the back.
Harry was thrown forward and his knife went sailing back at dean, who was forced to duck to keep from loosing an eye. Know Harry was on the floor with a nasty bump and the intruder was scrambling to his feet.
In between him and the door was Seamus who looked ready to faint. The intruder ran past the boy who tried to utter a curse but was to scared to do it right, and vanished into the hall. None of them were about to go after them except maybe Harry. But unfortunately he was having trouble standing at the moment due to the waves of blackness he was trying to shake off to avoided unconsciousness.
As soon as Harry regained his bearings he turned to Dean. "What da fuck was that all abou'!"
"It's not my fault ass hole, it was dark! I'd like to see you do better!" Dean shouted as people started to gather around the dorm, woken by the commotion.
Harry flicked his wand at lamps which immediately flared to life and said, "I did do better. If you hadn' panicked you would 'ave noticed that. I'm da only reason he didn' ge' da chance ta carve up Weasley."
As Harry said this, a question seemed to float into his mind. 'Did he really want to hurt Ron?' The man's actions and the man's reputation didn't match up. Harry had met plenty of cold blooded Murderers, and black wasn't one of them. Maybe he was at one time but he wasn't now. With the whole world insisting he was murderous and Harry knowing that he wasn't. Young Raven was starting to feel vulnerable. He wasn't naïve and he new that things like this weren't always as they seemed. But one thing was for sure. After what had just happened, Harry wasn't trusting anyone anymore. He had a gut feeling that there was more to the situation than any of them knew. He would have to be on his guard from now on.
Harry was drawn out of his thoughts by Hermione who had just arrived at the scene. "Harry! What happened… Oh god you're bleeding like crazy."
She grabbed a towel off the floor, ran to him and pressed it into his head to try and stop the bleeding. Harry opened his mouth to answer her question but before he could say anything he was cut off by the stern voice of Professor McGonagall. "What is going on here? All of you get back to… OH! Harry what happened to your head."
Harry was still too aggravated and dizzy to go into any detail so he told her bluntly, "Black came in hear and Dean cursed ME into the wall."
McGonagall looked shocked. "BLACK! In here! Mr. Potter, are you sure you weren't dreaming. You, Longbottom, did you see what happened?"
Neville looked at all the people in the door nervously and said, "I-I heard Ron scream and then I l-looked up and saw Harry punch Black in the face. Then Dean sent a disarming c-curse into Harry's back and he flew into the wall, and Black ran away."
"Impossible" She muttered before turning back to Harry. "Potter…" She started before once again noticing his gushing head wound, "Oh, Miss Granger take Harry to the Hospital wing."
Harry got up immediately, not wanting to have to answer more questions. Hermione stood up with him and tried to hold the towel to his head but he took it from her and held it on his own. Harry all but ran out of the room and into the hall.
"Harry! What's wrong with you! You need to take it easy," Hermione said worriedly.
"'m fine Mione'" Harry insisted. But immediately after he said this, as they were descending the stairs, He missed a step and fell down face first. Luckily, Hermione was quick and she caught him before he hit the ground.
"Harry! Slow down before you kill yourself. You probably have a concussion."
Harry slowed down to the pace Hermione was setting and they continued to walk together out into the castle.
"Why did you run out of there like that Harry? What happened?" Hermione asked.
Harry paused a moment before answering, "I woke up and saw him over by Ron's bed, with a knife. So I ran over and punched him into the wall and pinned him. I had him till Dean cursed me."
It wasn't that Harry didn't trust Hermione with the full story. Hell, for some reason she was the only one he did feel he could trust. But for now he decided that he would keep his suspicions to himself. 'No sense getting her involved in my problems' he thought reasonably.
"Well thank god your okay! I mean honestly Harry! You punched SIRIUS BLACK! What were you thinking!?!" Hermione yelled at him, but finished softly, "he could have killed you". She had been scared to death when she came into the dorm full of people yelling about Back and saw Harry on the ground openly bleeding. She had thought for a moment that Harry was dying and had never been more relieved when he looked up at her with eyes that were still full of life.
By the time they got to the Hospital wing both Harry and Hermione's hands were covered in blood, but they had managed to stop most of the bleeding.
As soon as they walked threw the door Madam Pomfrey immediately rushed over and set to work on Harry's wounds. When she was finished she insisted that Hermione leave and forced Harry to spend the night in the hospital wing.
After a few minutes, weather it was from exhaustion or blood loss, Harry fell into a deep sleep, despite everything that was on his mind.
The next day Harry woke to see twinkling blue eyes behind half moon spectacles. "Good mourning Mr. Potter. I hope you slept well."
Harry sat up in bed as everything that had happened yesterday came back to him. "Goo' mournin' Sir" Harry said to the old wizard.
"Harry, I need you to tell me exactly what happened last night. Don't leave anything out. It could be very important to catching him in the future."
Harry new this would come sooner or later and he already new what he had to tell him.
"I woke up las' nigh' an' heard something movin' so I looked up an' saw Black, jus' standin' over by Ron's bed. I didn' know what he was goin' ta do until I saw him pull out his knife. So den I ran over an' punched 'im into da wall. But then Dean cursed me in the back an' I hit my head and black got away."
As Harry finished, Dumbledore looked into his eyes in a way that made Harry's heart skip a beat. "Thank you Harry," The old Wizard said with a little less twinkle than usual, "If you remember anything else you want to tell me, come see me immediately please." With that he walked out of the room, leaving a confused, shocked, and even a little guilty Harry behind. "Damn" Harry mumbled, "How da fuck did he know I was lying."
END OF CHAPTER NINE
(A/N) Hi everyone, thanks for reading. I just want to say once again that I am sorry for my lateness. But the good news is that I have no more writer's block. Now that I'm back in school I have plenty of time to write fanfiction. Nothing gets my imagination going like a nice and boring trig class. Reviews would be helpful. Bye.
