Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter… well at least not yet… evil smile
Chapter 3: Back to realityHarry landed with a huge thump beside Snape and Lupin, who were still standing. As soon as Harry got up, he heard a scream, and immediately was pushed back onto the floor. All he could see was a lot of brown, bushy hair, which was tickling his nose.
"Hermoine! Can't…breathe…" said Harry.
"Sorry Harry!" She took off her arms from his neck, and got up. "I just couldn't wait to see you! It's been such a long time!"
"It's been only 4 weeks!" said Harry.
"Well mate, for us, it seemed like an eternity," said Ron, who just walked into the hallway of number 12 Grimmauld Place.
"Hey Ron," replied Harry.
It looked like Ron had grew about another inch, and still had all his freckles on his face, with his bright, flaming red hair. Hermoine still looked pretty much the same, but her too she was a bit taller.
"Well Harry, you can speak to Ron and Hermoine later, we have some business to attend to right now," said Lupin.
Harry gave his friends a goodbye, and followed Lupin and Snape into the dark kitchen. There he was greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Professor McGonagall, and to his surprise, Professor Dumbledore.
"Hello Harry, hope you're doing well," said Dumbledore while shaking Harry's hand.
"Please sit down Harry," said Lupin, "we have a lot to discuss."
Harry took a seat at the end of the table, which gave everyone in the room a clear view of him. Lupin sat down next to him, as well as Dumbledore.
"Now Harry," Lupin started, "this has been a difficult summer for all of us here," he shot a glance at Snape and continued on, "but as you know, life goes on, and so do the problems that come with it. Getting over Sirius' death will be hard for the both of us, and talking about him now is very hard, but it's something that has to be done. So, with that being said, you might have guessed that this conversation will be about him."
Harry didn't want to start talking about Sirius, but it looked like he didn't have a choice; whatever they wanted to discuss, it looked important.
Lupin continued, "The first thing we need to talk about is Sirius' will. Just like muggles, wizards make wills too. When we first joined the Order of the Phoenix, we, meaning your parents, Sirius, Peter, and me, decided to make wills. Although we didn't have too much anyway at the time, we still thought it would be a good idea. Your parents, of course, made sure that whatever they had would go to their children, meaning you. At first, Sirius had signed everything over to James and I, and I did the same. But before last Christmas, Sirius and I went to change our wills. They now state that whatever we have, money, property, everything we own, will belong to you after we pass on."
Harry was shocked by this. "Why me?"
"Think Harry," Lupin said, "I have no family left, and the only person left in Sirius's family that he actually loved was you. So now… since Sirius is dead, the will comes into effect. You now inherit all of Sirius' money, belongings, and this house."
"I don't want it," Harry replied, "I don't want it, and I don't need it."
"Well Harry, this is where I come in," said Dumbledore. "I have come here today to ask you to give us permission to keep using this house as headquarters for the Order. It is now yours, so the choice is yours."
"Of course," Harry answered. "And now I have a request, I would like to give all the money I inherited to the Weasleys."
"Oh Harry, we could never accept that dear," said Mrs. Weasley, "it is your money to spend, not ours."
"Well then I choose to spend it all on you and your family. Please, it is the least I can do for all the years you have fed and took care of me. You treated me like your own son, and I will forever be grateful. Please Mrs. Weasley, take the money," said Harry.
Mrs. Weasley sat for a moment in silence, and then began to cry. Mr. Weasley hugged his wife and stayed silent, when he finally spoke,
"Thank you so much Harry, but we really can't take it…"
"No, I'm sorry, I'm not going to take no for an answer. Please, I'm begging you. At least take half, I'd rather you take the whole thing, but at least something, please!"
The Weasleys considered for a minute, looking at each other, almost like they were deciding with their eyes. With one final nod from Mrs. Weasley, Mr. Weasley responded,
"Alright Harry. We will accept your generous offer, but we will only take half of it."
Although Harry would have preferred them taking all of it, he decided just to agree, at this point he was so tired that all the wanted to was lie down. Talking about Sirius was beginning to drain him.
"Well then," said Dumbledore, "that pretty much covers everything. This is going to be a tough year, Harry. The challenges that we must all overcome will be getting harder and harder. We must stick together, united as one. Voldemort is getting stronger everyday, and when the time comes, we need to be ready to fight. But for the next few weeks, I wanted you and your friends to enjoy the remainder of your summer holidays."
With that, Dumbledore left the room, which ended the meeting. Lupin then turned to Harry and said,
"Harry, if you ever need to talk, about anything, you know you can come to me. You're the closest thing to family for me, consider me like a second godfather. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to replace Sirius, but think of it like you've always had two godfathers."
"Thank you, really. You're like family too for me, and if I ever need to talk, I know where to find you," Harry replied.
With a quick hug from Lupin, all the adults left the room, leaving Harry alone to let some new tears come leaking out of his eyes.
Harry tried to avoid people as much as possible over the next few days, he was getting sick of everyone treating him so delicately, as if he were something fragile that might fall to pieces if dropped. But as much as Harry tried, he was never totally alone. Ron and Hermoine tried to be around him most of the day, but the conversations were usually dull. So far, the only remotely interesting subject they had talked about was the results from their OWL's. No surprise, Hermoine had received 'Outstanding' in each subject, and Ron received 5 OWL's, that he was pleased with.
They tried to avoid the topic of Sirius, but besides that, there wasn't much left to talk about. Harry realized how hard it must be for them trying to put up with him, so he tried to look happy or smile or laugh when they would make a joke, but deep down he had no desire to laugh. Nothing seemed to be appropriate to laugh at.
Hermoine seemed to be picking up on that, she took Harry aside almost a week after his arrival at Grimmauld Place.
"Harry, please talk to me. I can see it in your eyes every time we try talking to you that you don't want to. School is coming up soon, and Ron and I really want the old Harry back."
"Yeah well… people don't always get what they want do they? And the old Harry has been gone for a long time now, and he probably won't be coming back," Harry said.
He didn't mean to sound mean, but they couldn't expect him to take all of these events without any emotion. There was a big hole in his heart, a hole that used to be filled by Sirius. It felt that he missed him more and more everyday and he doubted very much that the void in his heart would ever be filled again.
Hermoine, who was now close to tears, said, "Harry, remember what Sirius told you once? "The ones who leave us are never truly going, we can always find them, in here"," and as she said that she put her hand on his chest where his heart was, exactly the way Sirius had done almost 2 years ago.
Something inside clicked with Harry, as if those words were releasing him from the sorrow. Sirius wouldn't want him to be sulky like this, but he couldn't help it, and soon it would be time for him to move on. He would go on, but never forget. It might still take him a while, but in the end, he knew that eventually, he would have to get over it.
"Thank you, Hermoine, for those words. You have no idea what those words meant to me. It's going to take some time for me, but you're right, Sirius will always be a part of me, he will always be with me," Harry said.
Satisfied with his answer, she gave him a brief hug, and walked back into the kitchen where Ron was waiting for them. Harry then stood alone again, shedding, what he promised to himself, would be his last tears over Sirius.
