Chapter 5 :
When Harry got off the train, carrying Hedwig's cage and his school trunk, he looked around at the strange, bat-winged horses. He felt a rush of ice go through his skin as he watched them. Ron looked as though he was trying to avoid bumping into them, and Neville seemed rather nervous. Tina, on the other hand, was trying to see what Harry was looking at.
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Tina hopped into the carriage one by oneas the raindrops continued crashing onto any reachable surface as the, carriage began to move towards the Hogwarts castle. Harry was eager to see Hagrid again, yet he didn't want to see Dumbledore at all.
When the carriages stoped, the four jumped out, pulled the hoods on their robes over their heads to keep the rain from falling on top of them, then followed the others towards the double oak doors that led inside the castle and into the Entrance Hall.
The Great Hall was as full as all the other years, yet there were more first-years than ever. Harry, Ron and Hermione went to take their seets at the Gryffindor table, while Tina left for her own house table.
Moments later, Proffessor McGonagall entered the Great Hall with the crowd of anxious-looking first-years trailing behind her. Whenever a few students would pass Harry, he could see them pointing at him and whispering to eacherother. Harry ignored them, and Proffessor McGonagall began calling out names of first-years so that they could get sorted and join their house tables.
'Katherine Abeth.' Called Proffessor McGonagall. And a blond-haired girl stepped foreward and waited to get sorted.
'Ravenclaw!' Shouted the Sorting Hat, seconds later. A roar of applause resounded throughout the Great Hall from the Ravenclaw table, and the girl ran off to sit with her fellow house-mates.
When Proffessor McGonagall called out the last student, and the last round of applause was released, she went to sit down at the staff table, and Dumbledore stood for his yearly announcement. Which was the same as every other year.
'I would very much like to welcome our new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, Proffessor Evelyn Willock.' He nodded towards a tall and skinny, pale-skinned woman with had long black hair that was almost as greasy as Snape's, who sat beside her. She was wearing entirely black robes and Harry noticed that her left hand was gloved. Her stormy grey eyes scanned the Great Hall and she nodded, and sat back down as the students gave a not-so-enthousiastic applause. Harry glared at her as she whispered something in Snape's ear, her mouth hidden by her gloved hand so that no one could read her narrow lips. The woman paused, then looked towards Harry, who's scar began to prickle faintly. The screeching noise returned in his head, and he took his eyes off of her and stared down at his plate, wincing quietly. The sound stoped. The dream that he had forgotten came back in his mind, like a fast-forewarded movie. The blood, the crows, the dead body…Everything was clear now.
'Sirius…' Harry muttered, absent-mindedly. Ron and Hermione both jerked their heads towards him.
'What?' Hermione said worriedly, just as Dumbledore finished his speech.
'I'll… explain later.' Harry said, jabbing his fork into his meat. He had no choice now; he had to tell them.
When all the students finished eating, and Ron and Hermione left for their Prefects duties, Harry rushed to the Gryffindor common room. He was lucky Neville was there : he had no idea what the password was.
'Password?' Said the Fat Lady, behind her portrait.
Neville took out a piece of parchement from his pocket inside his robes, and said 'Loturius Marituris' Said Neville. The portrait swung open, and the two of them crawled inside the Gryffindor Common room, which was almost empty : Most of the students were gone in their dormitories. Ron and Hermione were waiting for Harry and were both watching him eagerly.
'So?' Ron said, as Neville left.
Harry explained to them his dreams, and the ones about the pawprints as well.
'And then I started hearing this weird screeching noise.' Harry finished.
'Is that why you passed out?' Ron asked, apprehensivly.
Harry nodded slowly. 'Yeah.. But I don't know what it means, exacly.' He said, remembering the sensationg of having his godfather's skin between his teeth and the blood rushing through his gums.
Hermione stood up. 'Well, I'm off to bed. Don't want to be tired for tomorrow.' She said, stretching her arms and leaving off to the girls' dormitories.
'I don't know any more than you do, Harry.' Said Ron, shrugging and getting up to his feet as well.
'Just forget it.' Said Harry irritably, shaking his head. He headed up to the boy's dormitories after Ron, who yawned and rubbed his eyes sleepily.
Harry, on the other hand, wasn't feeling tired at all. There was so much to think about, and he still couldn't explain the screeching noise echoing through his mind. It went out every now and then, but whenever it would return, it'd be twice as worst as the previous time.
Harry spent most of the night thinking, and staring up at the ceiling with eyes half-opened. Besides, even if he'd sleep, he was sure that he'd have that horrible dream again. Harry blinked : He saw something black fly above him, its wings outstretched. Harry saw it fly nearer and nearer to his face, and everything went completely pitch black.
Before he knew it, he was sitting up on his bed, his hands over his head as though he was afraid the entire roof was about to collapse on top of him.
'Umm… Harry?' Ron said, watching him awkwardly. 'What just happened?'
Harry opened his eyes, which had been shut tight. He loosened his arms and looked around him. The black bird was gone. 'N-Nothing.' Said Harry, trying to sound as though he was fine.
'You were trying to hit something with your pillow.' Said Ron, pointing at his pillow which was now at the other end of the dormitory. Ron kept speaking, but all Harry could hear was that head-aching sreech and throbbing pain was hitting Harry's forehead.
'Didn't you see it?' Harry said, once the sound went fainter and fainter throughout his mind.
'See what?' Ron said, looking worried.
'I did.' Interrupted Neville, who was sitting in a crouched position on his bed, looking terrified. Both Ron and Harry turned their heads towards him.
'It flew right over my head.' Neville said fearfully. '…And then it vanished.'
'What did it look like?' Harry asked, wondering if what Neville saw was just a dream and Harry only imagined something else.
'It looked like a big black bird.' Neville said, still looking frightened.
Harry looked at him with raised brows. It was the very first time Neville could see something, that only Harry could see, too. Ron looked from Neville, to Harry, and back again, looking completely puzzled and confused.
'Maybe it's just a coincedence and you both dreamed the same thing.' Ron said, with a nervous laugh.
'No. Maybe it was real, except you didn't see it. You sleep like a log, Ron, so it could be possible.' Harry said. 'Come on, I'm starving.' He added, after a long and awkward pause where everyone stared at eachother. Once they all got dressed, Harry hopped out of bed and headed down to the common room, then went down the corridors to the Great Hall for breakfast. Ron, Hermione and Neville followed.
As they entered the Great Hall, they each took seats at the Gryffindor table and began eating. Harry glanced towards the staff table, and his eyes narrowed as he spotted Proffessor Willock, her silver eyes scanning the four house tables in the Great Hall. Proffessor McGonagall gave everyone their appropriate timetable, and Ron spat his pumpkin juice all over his plate and around it as he read it.
'Great!' He said, sounding upset.
Harry looked at his own timetable, and dropped his toast in his eggs. 'Double Potions again? I thought we were done with that already!' He said, groaning angrily.
'Isn't tha ' Hermione said, cut off by Ron. She glared at him viciously, then puffed and took a sip of her pumpkin juice.
'Then we've got, History of Magic, double Defence against the Dark Arts and then… well, at least we've got Care for Magical Creatures saved for last.' Ron said, sighing. He rolled up his timetable, stuffed it in his schoolbag, then clapped his hands together. 'Well, I'm ready for a full day's vacation in Hell. ( 'It's not that bad Ro' ) Coming, Harry?' Ron tapped him on the shoulder, standing up behind him already. Ron looked rather excited (Harry wasn't sure if it was his imagination playing tricks on him again) to start a new school year with a horrible timetable, and seemedd to be up for the challenge. Harry exchanged looks with Hermione, then shrugged and followed him towards the dungeons for Potions.
Author's comments:
Yays! There goes chapter 5! I've decided to put in little comments at the end of each chapter in this fanfic. If you thught it a bit dissapointing for me to add in a made-up (I mean Tina, By the way) in the fanfic, please continue reading anyways! I've got great plans for the upcoming chapters, and I really adore reading all of your lovely reviews! I'm trying my best for Tina to fit into the fic. But I also don't want her to be too much of a burden. I understand it gets kind of annoying when fanfic authors include their made-up characters too much. Don't worry, I dislike that as well. It bugs me so much when they chatter more about their own characters than the actual original ones. I forgot to mention, there WON'T be ANY slash included in this fanfic. I don't even think I'll hook up Harry with Tuna… I mean Tina. Besides, Rowling didn't describe Harry being good-looking, right? So why bother? I don't even know why everyone's fighting for him… how pathetic.
Ehem… Anyways, as said earlier, I've got loads of ideas buzzing around in my brain for the next chapters, and I really want you all to keep reading!
Oh, and please forgive me if you recognise any quotes from other movies… as said on my profile, I'm a movie-fanatic… and I can't help it.
