Harry Potter and the Guardian of Magic
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This is purely fan-fiction, and I, in NO way, take credit for the character or places, except those that are my own, but I DO take credit for the ideas, because I've spent my personal time writing these and then typing these, so no flames or anything, or you won't get anymore (well..except for those people who want more, I'll type it for them, but the others can go and just drive off a steep cliff that have jagged rocks at the bottom!)
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This story takes place after Order of the Phoenix
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Chapter Three: Aftershock
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Harry slid into his room, still slightly out of breath due to his encounter with Hermione.
What was he thinking? Was it his fault? It wasn't as if he had planned it or anything… it just happened..
Harry sat down on his bed with a sigh, looking over at the side table for the first time since he had entered the room.
There was a rather large letter with Mrs. Weasely's tiny handwriting saying that this was a small gift from them to him.
Harry reached across the bed and grabbed the letter and opened it, his eyes tearing slightly at the picture he saw: A picture of the Weasely's, with the exception of Percy, and Ron, himself.. and Hermione.
Harry's breath caught in his throat as he looked at her, smiling up at him, the picture-Hermione totally oblivious at what had happened downstairs just a few minutes ago..
Harry set the picture carefully against the books on the table and lay down, trying to sort out his thoughts, but ending up falling asleep.
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He was in the Department of Mysteries again, standing in the middle of the circular room with the revolving doors, wondering where to go when a door to his right opened up and what looked like a great black dog slipped in.
Sirius. That's the only person it could be. He had taken his dog form to sneak in. That had to be it.
Harry ran towards the door, watching in horrification as the door started to swing shut.
His hand plunged into his robe pocket, grabbing his phoenix-tail core wand and pulling it out, leveling it at the door, wondering which spell he could cast to stop it.
Words of flame burned in his minds inner-eye as he opened his mouth and spoke them before they could disappear, "DURTENOTICS!"
A streak of blue and crimson flame flew from the tip of his wand and slammed into the door, making it glow with a sickly yellow light before bursting apart.
Harry ran blindly through the ashes, trying to catch Sirius before he got too far away.
Harry opened his eyes just in time to see a large black statue looming above him before he crashed into it, his wand bouncing a few feet away.
As quickly as he dared, Harry stood up, the blood rushing into his head as he grabbed his wand, noticing for the first time that the tip was lightly coated with soot.
Shaking his head, Harry made his way around the statue, and looking around the room spotted another door that had just begun to swing close.
Harry ran for it, knowing that he couldn't recall the words to the spell if he had to, reaching the door just before snapped closed and pushing it back open.
This was the room. He could hear the fighting, see the misguided spells, hear the screams of the Death Eaters, and hear Sirius taunting voice.
Harry rushed to the steps and look down, expecting to see Sirius emerging from behind the curtain with a smile, or at least see him fighting so that Harry might have a chance to save him, but no one was there.
Harry descended the steps to the veil, his wand again level in front of him, words of fire beginning to burn in his minds eye again, although these were slightly hazed, as if he wasn't supposed to know the words..
Harry's eyes snapped closed as he concentrated on the spell, his lips moving silently as he tried to find the correct inflection to cast it correctly.
"COSSORA….w…ds.."
He tried to no avail to cast the spell, feeling the anger well up inside of him at thought of being so close to seeing Sirius, but being denied it because of a stupid spell..
Suddenly, he knew what it was, knew it like he had cast it thousands of times.
"COSSORAWSELDO-!" As he began the last wand movement, he could feel the dream world sliding away, taking his hope from him..
All he needed was to make the flick of his wrist and the last sound, but before he could a painful poke in the ribs fully awoke him.
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With an unspoken curse Harry sat up in bed, grabbing his glasses from his bedside table, glaring around at Ron, who was standing anxiously beside his bed.
"What? What is it? I was so close.." he yelled, whispering the last under his breath.
"It's Hermione.. she's acting weird." Ron said, slightly taken back by his friend's outburst.
Harry, now feeling sorry for striking out at Ron, tried to get his attention back on Hermione, "What's wrong with her?"
"I got up to go to the bathroom, and when I got to the door, she burst out, crying and talking something about cats and dumb boys.. do you know what she meant?"
Harry looked down at the ground sadly, extremely sorry about not talking to Hermione, "Erm..no mate, no idea.. I'll go and talk to her, though.."
Before Ron could make a move to stop him, Harry hopped out of bed and was out the door, silently cursing himself at making Hermione cry.
Harry lessened his pace as he neared the room where Hermione was staying, feeling very foolish indeed at not thinking of something to tell her before he rushed off.
He came to a dead stop at the door, his knuckles inches from rapping on the old wood, his eyes fixed where hers would be when she opened it.
He didn't know exactly why he was stopping, he was sure that all he had to do was explain, but that still didn't seem like it was enough.
Slowly he lowered his hand to his side and turn away, sighing and shaking his head.
Before he could two steps, he froze in terror as he heard the door behind him creak open, stiffening slightly and he turned to look, knowing she was looking at him.
"Erm.. I just wanted to say.. that.." he shuffled his feet nervously at he looked at her, shutting his eyes tightly when she continued to stare at him.
"Yes?" she asked, only a hint of anger seeping into her voice.
"I just wanted to… say.. that I'm sorry for just walking out earlier.." Harry cast another worried glance up at her, looking for a twinge of compassion.
"I see…" she said, sighing slightly as she stepped out from the doorway to stand in front of him, "Look.. I know you feel weird about it, but so do I.. but it's late, so can we talk about this later?"
Harry opened his mouth to reply but no sound came out, only an icy feeling in the pit of his stomach, reminding of how it felt when Mad-Eye had cast the Disillusionment Charm on him earlier this year.
Finally he was able to mutter out a squeaky "Okay," before turning back towards his room and walking away, cringing when he heard her door shut with a rather soft, but peeved, sound.
He threw himself back down onto the sheets, thankful that Ron had already gone back to his own room to sleep. With a final glance at the window, he put his face into his pillow and fell into a restless sleep.