Literary Dreams:
Harry and Hermione were open-mouthed. "What do you mean, he blames himself?" Harry asked. He couldn't imagine Snape blaming himself for anyone's death, least of all Sirius, who he had openly hated.
Professor Calabrone folded her hands together in her lap and sat down next to Hermione. "Professor Snape feels that had he acted differently, or perhaps had he stressed the importance of your godfather staying here at headquarters more, Black might still be alive today."
Harry knew Calabrone wasn't trying to insult Sirius, but he still felt the familiar jab of anger in his chest, making it difficult to breathe.
"Maybe if he'd tried to get along with Sirius, it wouldn't have been so hard for Sirius to obey his orders." He said quickly. He waited for her scolding. It didn't come.
"Maybe." She replied thoughtfully. "I'm afraid we'll never know. Though, for the short time I knew Black, he never struck me as the sort to follow instruction well."
Heading off Harry's anger, she continued, "He was far more the one to come up with the rules and instructions for others to follow."
Harry nods, happy by her description. Hermione, however, continues the questions.
"But, Professor, why couldn't Professor Snape tell Sirius it was a trap for Harry and that there would be Death Eaters there?"
Calabrone looked a little surprised, "You think Snape didn't tell him it would be a trap? That's why Sirius went, Miss Granger. His godson walked into a trap. He could not simply sit by and let that happen."
Harry didn't know what to say. It really was his fault, he thought. If he had listened to Hermione when she mentioned Voldemort knowing about his need to play the hero, or if he hadn't poked his nose into Snape's thoughts and gotten thrown out of Occlumency lessons, he could have closed him mind to the attacks.
"Harry, don't blame yourself. If you want someone to blame, place it in the right direction. Blame Voldemort." Professor Calabrone said gently resting her arm on Harry.
"Blame Voldemort?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes." She replied calmly. "Blame him. He is the one who started this whole thing."
"But that's not reasonable." Hermione pointed out. Harry agreed with her.
"No more unreasonable than Harry blaming himself." Calabrone said firmly.
"But to blame him is like blaming, oh, I don't know." Harry trailed off, unable to come up with a reasonable example.
"Perhaps a bit like blaming Salazar Slytherin for Draco Malfoy's behavior? Yes, I agree it is putting the blame in an odd place, but please think about it, Harry. This all stems back to Voldemort. To a dark wizard intent upon destroying the semblance of peace we wizards have come up with in the past century. Do not get distracted by your own pangs of guilt, Harry, or I feel by the time this war is over you will be overburdened by it. Do you blame yourself for Cedric Diggory's death?" she questioned.
Harry inhaled sharply. Not even Ron and Hermione knew about his occasional feelings of guilt for his dead schoolmate. Hermione looked at him curiously. He shook his head, but he thought he saw Calabrone raise her eyebrows at his answer.
"Good." She said briskly. "Mr. Weasley." She called to Ron, still seated at the table. He got up, putting his hand of exploding snap on the table, and came over to join the three of them by the fire. "Luck wasn't in your favor tonight, was it, Mr. Weasley?" she added, noticing the singe marks on the tips of Ron's hair.
Ron turned red and mumbled something. He sat down next to Hermione. "What are you talking about it?"
"I wanted to get the three of you together to see if you would help me prepare for the dueling club. I've managed to gather some information about the club, but I'm afraid it's rather old.
"There were three books in the library that mentioned it. I'd like you three to sift through it. I'm also expecting a letter back from Professor Flitwick. He was a dueling champion years ago."
"What do you have in mind?" Hermione asked.
"I want the three of you to find out how the club was conducted. Whether there were officers, official meeting times, what sorts of spells were used, what precautions were taken, etc. I fully recognize the importance of this club, however, I also know how miserably the last attempt failed. I wish to avoid that."
Harry noticed that Hermione's eyes were shining brightly, no doubt excited about homework being assigned one full month before school even started. Excited though Harry was at the thought of the dueling club, he didn't really want to go to all the trouble of afternoons spent in the library. But, it seemed that's what he, Ron, and Hermione would be doing. Oh well, he thought. There were worse ways to spend the summer.
Then he remembered he still had Occlumency with Snape. He sighed loudly. Noticing this, Calabrone put a hand on his and Ron's shoulders.
"I know you two might not exactly be thrilled about this extracurricular assignment, but how about this—I will ask the two of you to come up with two hexes each that might be useful to use against certain members of Slytherin house," and she smiled conspiratorially.
The thought of having a school-sanctioned opportunity to again curse Malfoy, Harry's interest was again captured. He, Ron and Hermione all promised to begin work tomorrow.
In the meantime though, Harry was ready for bed. Ron and Hermione caught with him as he reached the upstairs landing.
"What time do you want to get started on research for the dueling club tomorrow?" Hermione asked.
For once, Harry was actually looking forward homework. He already had thoughts of spells they had used for the DA that would be great for the club.
"How about right after breakfast?" said Ron, surprising the both of them.
Hermione smiled brightly and agreed. They said their good nights and Harry followed Ron to their room. Changing in to their pajamas, Ron turned to Harry.
"Harry, mate, do you think the dueling club idea?"
Harry couldn't believe it. "What do you mean, Ron?"
"Well" he started, rubbing a hand through his red hair, "it's just that the club is going to have to open to everyone. That means Slytherin. That means Malfoy. I mean, the first time the two of you dueled, he threw the curse early. That was only our second year. Who knows what his father has managed to teach him since then. If the two of you duel..." he let the sentence hang there.
Harry shook his head. "You wouldn't be any safer, Ron. He hates you too, remember?" he said wryly. "Besides, Calabrone will be there, and I'm sure there will be other professors present. This will be good. I'll bet Professor Calabrone will show us all sorts of neat curses. Come on, let's go to bed."
With this, the two of them crawled under the covers. Harry listened as Ron's breathing grew softly and regular, signaling he was asleep. Allowing his thoughts to wander, Harry soon felt himself being tugged to his left.
Before he knew it, something, or someone tugging on his sleeve was pulling him down the hall. He couldn't see who or what was doing the pulling, but felt it would be useless to resist.
Before long, he found himself in the library, a book thrust into his left hand. He was led to the table. He squinted at the title, just barely visible in the faint light filtering in through the curtains from the streetlamp, but was unable to clearly make it out before the invisibly thing opened the book to a page about halfway through.
Harry found he couldn't read anything on either page of the book. Odd. He squinted, but it didn't change anything. He tried closing his eyes, shaking his head and opening them again. Still nothing. He let out a frustrated growl and was about to get up when he felt himself being shaken again.
Moving his eyes up, he was surprised to find Ron standing over him. When had he fallen on the floor? Becoming more aware of his surroundings, he realized he was still in bed. Sitting upright in bed, he looked at Ron, still standing at the side of his bed.
"What happened?" Harry asked.
Ron looked at him, concerned. You woke me up. You were moving your hands all weird, like you were trying to reach for something. Then you sounded like you got frustrated and started muttering to yourself. What were you dreaming about?"
"I didn't know it was a dream." Harry answered. "I was in the library, trying to read a book, but the words were all blurry so I couldn't."
"What was the name of the book?" Ron asked.
"I couldn't read that either. Hey, do you think that book could be in the library?" Harry wondered.
Ron shrugged. "Maybe. Let's look for it in the morning. G'nite, Harry." He said, crawling back into his own bed. Harry did the same, and before long was being shaken gently by Mrs. Weasley.
"Come along now, dear. Honestly, if you and Ron can't stop yourselves from chatting all night, I may have to separate the two of you. Neither of you get enough sleep as it is." She bustled over to Ron's bed and set about waking him up. "Come along, come along, you two. Hermione's been up for ages, she's looking for you two."
Ron looked over at Harry. Once Mrs. Weasley had left the room they got dressed and headed down to the kitchen. Tonks greeted them warmly. As they sat down, Mrs. Weasley carried over two plates laden with bits of warm breakfast.
"Wotcher, Harry, Ron. Just finishing up myself, but seeing as the two of you are up, I might stay around for a while. What do you have planned for today?" she asked, mopping up the remaining bits of egg yolk with a corner of toast.
"We're supposed to help Professor Calabrone with some research for the dueling club. Is she up yet?" Ron asked enthusiastically around a mouthful of eggs.
Tonks looked up at him, puzzled. "Didn't she tell you?"
"Tell us what?" Harry asked, helping himself to a second helping of toast from the plate Mrs. Weasley had placed on the table.
"She and Remus left in the middle of the night. Special orders from Dumbledore. They knew they were going, just not when. No one knows what it's about."
Harry looked over at Ron. Calabrone had known she might be going away and hadn't told them. Why not? "When will they be back?" he asked Tonks.
Tonks shrugged and called over her shoulder to Mrs. Weasley.
"What's that dear?" she called, walking out of the pantry to hear better. "Oh, I don't know. The headmaster came last night after you lot had gone to bed and told Sofia and Remus they needed to leave immediately. They seemed to know what it was about."
"Sorry I don't know any more," Tonks apologized.
"S'all right" Harry assured her, his mouth filled with egg. "It's just odd. Oh well. I'll guess we'll just have to start on our own. I don't think that'll cause a problem for Hermione.
And with perfect timing, Hermione entered the room, clutching three books to her chest.
"Oi, Hermione, you hear we got ditched?" Ron said as she sat down next to him.
"What?" she responded distractedly. "Oh, Professor Calabrone? Yes, your mother told me this morning. It's odd, isn't it? I hope it's nothing too serious. No one has any idea where they've gone or when they'll be back."
"It could always have something to do with werewolves." Tonks offered.
Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment, "Maybe, but then when send Professor Calabrone? She's not a werewolf."
Harry nodded, and tried to think of where Dumbledore could have sent them that was so secretive that even the other members of the order didn't know. He couldn't think of anything, but stored it in the back of his mind to keep thinking about it. Tonks said a quick goodbye, saying she was expected at the Ministry and left, leaving the three of them alone at the table.
"What about that book from your dream, Harry?" Ron asked him.
Hermione's head whipped around. "What book? What dream?" she demanded.
"Relax, Hermione." Ron told her. "Harry just had a dream he went and pulled a book from the library. I thought it'd be comforting to know someone other than you has that dream." He teased her.
"Ron!" she admonished. "Well, Harry?" she prompted.
"It's nothing, Hermione. I just had this dream I was trying to look through a book from the library. I doubt it's even there. It was a dream."
"Well," said Hermione, obviously doubting him, "did you remember to clear your mind, like Professor Snape instructed?"
Harry felt a pang of guilt. It had worked so well when he remembered. "No." he admitted.
"Harry! What if it was Voldemort last night? What if there's some book he wants? Oh, Harry you've got to start doing the mind exercises every night!" she finished, wringing her hands.
Ron rolled his eyes. "'Mione." He began, "Do you honestly think you-know- who has nothing more sinister to do than look at dusty books in someone else's library?"
Hermione looked hurt. "Just because you don't enjoy books doesn't mean the rest of us can't, Ron!"
"He's right, though, Hermione. I couldn't even read it. What good could that do?"
Hermione chewed on her lip and thought, "I have read somewhere that sometimes, in dreams, people are unable to read. Especially if it's something they've never read before, because their eyes and mind aren't awake to process everything properly. Maybe that's what happened. But Harry, do you think maybe Voldemort did want something from that book?"
Harry shrugged. "Until we find out what that book is, we'll never know. Shall we try and find it?"
Ron and Hermione nodded at him. Thanking Mrs. Weasley for the breakfast, they set off for the library.
Harry and Hermione were open-mouthed. "What do you mean, he blames himself?" Harry asked. He couldn't imagine Snape blaming himself for anyone's death, least of all Sirius, who he had openly hated.
Professor Calabrone folded her hands together in her lap and sat down next to Hermione. "Professor Snape feels that had he acted differently, or perhaps had he stressed the importance of your godfather staying here at headquarters more, Black might still be alive today."
Harry knew Calabrone wasn't trying to insult Sirius, but he still felt the familiar jab of anger in his chest, making it difficult to breathe.
"Maybe if he'd tried to get along with Sirius, it wouldn't have been so hard for Sirius to obey his orders." He said quickly. He waited for her scolding. It didn't come.
"Maybe." She replied thoughtfully. "I'm afraid we'll never know. Though, for the short time I knew Black, he never struck me as the sort to follow instruction well."
Heading off Harry's anger, she continued, "He was far more the one to come up with the rules and instructions for others to follow."
Harry nods, happy by her description. Hermione, however, continues the questions.
"But, Professor, why couldn't Professor Snape tell Sirius it was a trap for Harry and that there would be Death Eaters there?"
Calabrone looked a little surprised, "You think Snape didn't tell him it would be a trap? That's why Sirius went, Miss Granger. His godson walked into a trap. He could not simply sit by and let that happen."
Harry didn't know what to say. It really was his fault, he thought. If he had listened to Hermione when she mentioned Voldemort knowing about his need to play the hero, or if he hadn't poked his nose into Snape's thoughts and gotten thrown out of Occlumency lessons, he could have closed him mind to the attacks.
"Harry, don't blame yourself. If you want someone to blame, place it in the right direction. Blame Voldemort." Professor Calabrone said gently resting her arm on Harry.
"Blame Voldemort?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes." She replied calmly. "Blame him. He is the one who started this whole thing."
"But that's not reasonable." Hermione pointed out. Harry agreed with her.
"No more unreasonable than Harry blaming himself." Calabrone said firmly.
"But to blame him is like blaming, oh, I don't know." Harry trailed off, unable to come up with a reasonable example.
"Perhaps a bit like blaming Salazar Slytherin for Draco Malfoy's behavior? Yes, I agree it is putting the blame in an odd place, but please think about it, Harry. This all stems back to Voldemort. To a dark wizard intent upon destroying the semblance of peace we wizards have come up with in the past century. Do not get distracted by your own pangs of guilt, Harry, or I feel by the time this war is over you will be overburdened by it. Do you blame yourself for Cedric Diggory's death?" she questioned.
Harry inhaled sharply. Not even Ron and Hermione knew about his occasional feelings of guilt for his dead schoolmate. Hermione looked at him curiously. He shook his head, but he thought he saw Calabrone raise her eyebrows at his answer.
"Good." She said briskly. "Mr. Weasley." She called to Ron, still seated at the table. He got up, putting his hand of exploding snap on the table, and came over to join the three of them by the fire. "Luck wasn't in your favor tonight, was it, Mr. Weasley?" she added, noticing the singe marks on the tips of Ron's hair.
Ron turned red and mumbled something. He sat down next to Hermione. "What are you talking about it?"
"I wanted to get the three of you together to see if you would help me prepare for the dueling club. I've managed to gather some information about the club, but I'm afraid it's rather old.
"There were three books in the library that mentioned it. I'd like you three to sift through it. I'm also expecting a letter back from Professor Flitwick. He was a dueling champion years ago."
"What do you have in mind?" Hermione asked.
"I want the three of you to find out how the club was conducted. Whether there were officers, official meeting times, what sorts of spells were used, what precautions were taken, etc. I fully recognize the importance of this club, however, I also know how miserably the last attempt failed. I wish to avoid that."
Harry noticed that Hermione's eyes were shining brightly, no doubt excited about homework being assigned one full month before school even started. Excited though Harry was at the thought of the dueling club, he didn't really want to go to all the trouble of afternoons spent in the library. But, it seemed that's what he, Ron, and Hermione would be doing. Oh well, he thought. There were worse ways to spend the summer.
Then he remembered he still had Occlumency with Snape. He sighed loudly. Noticing this, Calabrone put a hand on his and Ron's shoulders.
"I know you two might not exactly be thrilled about this extracurricular assignment, but how about this—I will ask the two of you to come up with two hexes each that might be useful to use against certain members of Slytherin house," and she smiled conspiratorially.
The thought of having a school-sanctioned opportunity to again curse Malfoy, Harry's interest was again captured. He, Ron and Hermione all promised to begin work tomorrow.
In the meantime though, Harry was ready for bed. Ron and Hermione caught with him as he reached the upstairs landing.
"What time do you want to get started on research for the dueling club tomorrow?" Hermione asked.
For once, Harry was actually looking forward homework. He already had thoughts of spells they had used for the DA that would be great for the club.
"How about right after breakfast?" said Ron, surprising the both of them.
Hermione smiled brightly and agreed. They said their good nights and Harry followed Ron to their room. Changing in to their pajamas, Ron turned to Harry.
"Harry, mate, do you think the dueling club idea?"
Harry couldn't believe it. "What do you mean, Ron?"
"Well" he started, rubbing a hand through his red hair, "it's just that the club is going to have to open to everyone. That means Slytherin. That means Malfoy. I mean, the first time the two of you dueled, he threw the curse early. That was only our second year. Who knows what his father has managed to teach him since then. If the two of you duel..." he let the sentence hang there.
Harry shook his head. "You wouldn't be any safer, Ron. He hates you too, remember?" he said wryly. "Besides, Calabrone will be there, and I'm sure there will be other professors present. This will be good. I'll bet Professor Calabrone will show us all sorts of neat curses. Come on, let's go to bed."
With this, the two of them crawled under the covers. Harry listened as Ron's breathing grew softly and regular, signaling he was asleep. Allowing his thoughts to wander, Harry soon felt himself being tugged to his left.
Before he knew it, something, or someone tugging on his sleeve was pulling him down the hall. He couldn't see who or what was doing the pulling, but felt it would be useless to resist.
Before long, he found himself in the library, a book thrust into his left hand. He was led to the table. He squinted at the title, just barely visible in the faint light filtering in through the curtains from the streetlamp, but was unable to clearly make it out before the invisibly thing opened the book to a page about halfway through.
Harry found he couldn't read anything on either page of the book. Odd. He squinted, but it didn't change anything. He tried closing his eyes, shaking his head and opening them again. Still nothing. He let out a frustrated growl and was about to get up when he felt himself being shaken again.
Moving his eyes up, he was surprised to find Ron standing over him. When had he fallen on the floor? Becoming more aware of his surroundings, he realized he was still in bed. Sitting upright in bed, he looked at Ron, still standing at the side of his bed.
"What happened?" Harry asked.
Ron looked at him, concerned. You woke me up. You were moving your hands all weird, like you were trying to reach for something. Then you sounded like you got frustrated and started muttering to yourself. What were you dreaming about?"
"I didn't know it was a dream." Harry answered. "I was in the library, trying to read a book, but the words were all blurry so I couldn't."
"What was the name of the book?" Ron asked.
"I couldn't read that either. Hey, do you think that book could be in the library?" Harry wondered.
Ron shrugged. "Maybe. Let's look for it in the morning. G'nite, Harry." He said, crawling back into his own bed. Harry did the same, and before long was being shaken gently by Mrs. Weasley.
"Come along now, dear. Honestly, if you and Ron can't stop yourselves from chatting all night, I may have to separate the two of you. Neither of you get enough sleep as it is." She bustled over to Ron's bed and set about waking him up. "Come along, come along, you two. Hermione's been up for ages, she's looking for you two."
Ron looked over at Harry. Once Mrs. Weasley had left the room they got dressed and headed down to the kitchen. Tonks greeted them warmly. As they sat down, Mrs. Weasley carried over two plates laden with bits of warm breakfast.
"Wotcher, Harry, Ron. Just finishing up myself, but seeing as the two of you are up, I might stay around for a while. What do you have planned for today?" she asked, mopping up the remaining bits of egg yolk with a corner of toast.
"We're supposed to help Professor Calabrone with some research for the dueling club. Is she up yet?" Ron asked enthusiastically around a mouthful of eggs.
Tonks looked up at him, puzzled. "Didn't she tell you?"
"Tell us what?" Harry asked, helping himself to a second helping of toast from the plate Mrs. Weasley had placed on the table.
"She and Remus left in the middle of the night. Special orders from Dumbledore. They knew they were going, just not when. No one knows what it's about."
Harry looked over at Ron. Calabrone had known she might be going away and hadn't told them. Why not? "When will they be back?" he asked Tonks.
Tonks shrugged and called over her shoulder to Mrs. Weasley.
"What's that dear?" she called, walking out of the pantry to hear better. "Oh, I don't know. The headmaster came last night after you lot had gone to bed and told Sofia and Remus they needed to leave immediately. They seemed to know what it was about."
"Sorry I don't know any more," Tonks apologized.
"S'all right" Harry assured her, his mouth filled with egg. "It's just odd. Oh well. I'll guess we'll just have to start on our own. I don't think that'll cause a problem for Hermione.
And with perfect timing, Hermione entered the room, clutching three books to her chest.
"Oi, Hermione, you hear we got ditched?" Ron said as she sat down next to him.
"What?" she responded distractedly. "Oh, Professor Calabrone? Yes, your mother told me this morning. It's odd, isn't it? I hope it's nothing too serious. No one has any idea where they've gone or when they'll be back."
"It could always have something to do with werewolves." Tonks offered.
Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment, "Maybe, but then when send Professor Calabrone? She's not a werewolf."
Harry nodded, and tried to think of where Dumbledore could have sent them that was so secretive that even the other members of the order didn't know. He couldn't think of anything, but stored it in the back of his mind to keep thinking about it. Tonks said a quick goodbye, saying she was expected at the Ministry and left, leaving the three of them alone at the table.
"What about that book from your dream, Harry?" Ron asked him.
Hermione's head whipped around. "What book? What dream?" she demanded.
"Relax, Hermione." Ron told her. "Harry just had a dream he went and pulled a book from the library. I thought it'd be comforting to know someone other than you has that dream." He teased her.
"Ron!" she admonished. "Well, Harry?" she prompted.
"It's nothing, Hermione. I just had this dream I was trying to look through a book from the library. I doubt it's even there. It was a dream."
"Well," said Hermione, obviously doubting him, "did you remember to clear your mind, like Professor Snape instructed?"
Harry felt a pang of guilt. It had worked so well when he remembered. "No." he admitted.
"Harry! What if it was Voldemort last night? What if there's some book he wants? Oh, Harry you've got to start doing the mind exercises every night!" she finished, wringing her hands.
Ron rolled his eyes. "'Mione." He began, "Do you honestly think you-know- who has nothing more sinister to do than look at dusty books in someone else's library?"
Hermione looked hurt. "Just because you don't enjoy books doesn't mean the rest of us can't, Ron!"
"He's right, though, Hermione. I couldn't even read it. What good could that do?"
Hermione chewed on her lip and thought, "I have read somewhere that sometimes, in dreams, people are unable to read. Especially if it's something they've never read before, because their eyes and mind aren't awake to process everything properly. Maybe that's what happened. But Harry, do you think maybe Voldemort did want something from that book?"
Harry shrugged. "Until we find out what that book is, we'll never know. Shall we try and find it?"
Ron and Hermione nodded at him. Thanking Mrs. Weasley for the breakfast, they set off for the library.