Chapter 4- Back to the House of Black
Mrs. Weasley smiled kindly at Harry. "Hello Harry dear," she cooed, "Sorry, can't talk right now. There's a meeting going on." With that she hurried down the hallway and out of site.
"There's been meetings of the Order here almost every other night," Ron explained as he and Cassie helped him carry his things to his room. "People have just been coming in and out of the house, even in the middle of the night."
At the top of the stairs, on the second landing, Ron and Harry dragged his trunk to the room on the right, Cassie following behind with Hedwig's cage. The room was just as he remembered it. Kind of dark and damp, but somewhat homey in an ancient castle kind of way. Harry collapsed onto his bed, taking in the scenery. Pig's cage was in the corner of the room. The dresser it was on top of was shaking from his fluttering around.
Harry closed his eyes. He listened to Ron and Cassie talking in the corner about school shopping in Diagon Alley and progress on clearing the house of as many odd creatures as they could. Harry felt oddly relaxed. He had expected to feel awkward at Grimmauld Place but he found himself peaceful. Harry felt the swish of a hairy tail against his ankles which were hanging off the bed. He looked down and saw Crookshanks prowling around the room. He was moving slower than Harry remembered.
"He is getting kinda old," he heard Cassie say from across the room, "Hermione's had him for a while and he was pretty old when she got him."
"How did..." Harry began.
"Sorry," she said apologetically, "I have a bit of a cold. I sometimes accidentally sorta... read minds."
"So whatever you do don't think anything bad about her until she's healed," called a familiar voice from the doorway. It was Hermione. "Hi Harry," she said walking over to him and giving him a hug. "How've you been?"
"Fine I guess," said Harry sort of dumbstruck. Usually Hermione just attacked with her hugs. This time he was glad he could still breathe.
"So what have you guys been up to? Got any ideas about what Voldemort's up to?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ron wince slightly.
"Well we don't know much," Hermione answered. "We can't really get much with the Extendable Ears. We just know that he's after something. Something he needs to give him more strength. There's only one in the world. But we have no idea what it is."
"Diamond," Harry said under his breath. Ron and Hermione stared at him. Cassie was lying on Ron's bed, staring into space. She didn't seem to notice the conversation at all.
"How do you know this?" Ron finally said.
"I had a dream," Harry sighed. "I sent a letter to Lupin about it and he said they were suspecting things and that I had confirmed something."
Ron and Hermione still stared. An uncomfortable silence followed. "What?" Harry asked at last. "It's not like this hasn't happened before."
"But that's why you were taking Occlumency," Hermione replied in a hushed tone.
"So what? It helped the Order didn't it?"
"That's not the point! The point is if you keep having these dreams nobody knows what could happen. You could get possessed or who knows what! Voldemort knows that you to can share thoughts, he knows you're linked by that scar. It's bad for you to keep having these dreams. That's why you have to block them out."
Harry was getting angry now. How could Hermione be telling him what to do? She hadn't done anything to help the Order. She hadn't been forced to suffer through the tiring Occlumency lessons with Snape. She didn't understand you can't just block out the dreams. His temper was rising.
"Are you okay Harry?" Hermione asked inquisitively.
"Oh yeah, I'm fine!" He spat. "I'm stuck at Privet Drive unable to do anything or be close to the action or anything! The one thing I'm able to do for the Order I'm not supposed to be doing!"
"Harry, you don't have to yell..."
"YES I DO! I'M THE ONE WHO'S SUPPOSED TO KILL HIM! IF I CAN'T DO ANYTHING TO HELP UNDERSTAND HIS PLAN THEN HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT TO DO IF THE TIME COMES WHEN I HAVE FAC E HIM AGAIN!?! IF I JUST LET HIM KILL ME THEN IT'LL BE THE END! EVERYTHING'S ON MY BACK SO DON'T TELL ME NOT TO HELP! DO YOU HEAR ME!?!"
"I think people in America heard you..." muttered Cassie.
Harry glared at her darkly. She wouldn't even look at him. She confused him. Here he was talking about how he was supposed to kill the most dangerous person in the wizarding world and she was talking about how long he was being.
"Don't expect you to understand," Harry scoffed.
"What's there not to understand?" She questioned him. She was looking at him now.
"You're mad because all your friends are here and at least have an idea about what's going on. Finally you have a dream and you have an idea about what Voldemort's after and you're proud you helped the Order. Then you come here to find that how you obtained the information was 'bad for you.' And now you're offended because you believe that you've helped the Order so much and here's Hermione telling you that shouldn't have done what you have done. So now you're crushed."
"THINK YOU'VE GOT IT FIGURED OUT DO YOU!?! HAS HE TRIED TO KILL YOU MULTIPLE TIMES!?! DID HE KILL YOUR PARENTS!?! DO YOU HAVE A STUPID SCAR ON YOUR FOREHEAD THAT BURNS EVERYTIME HE FEELS EVIL!?! ARE YOU THE ONE THAT HAS TO EITHER KILL OR BE KILLED!?!"
"Yes, only once, yes, no, and no," she replied coolly, looking away again.
Harry couldn't believe it. How could she just sit there and listen to him shout and sit there like she knew everything. He was fuming, he was sweating from all the anger he was building up. He wanted to punch her, even if he knew she was right.
"Whatever," he muttered under his breath. His back was facing her now. Ron and Hermione were standing in the corner. Terror was in their faces.
"Well?" He said intriguingly, "Don't you have something to say too Ron?"
He looked from Hermione, to Harry, to Cassie, then back to Harry again.
"Well!?" He said impatiently.
"Yeah," Ron managed to say, "I think....I think you should stop yelling at everybody," he finished quietly. Harry marched over to Ron and stared him in the face.
"You think so?" He said angrily. Ron managed a terrified nod. He opened his mouth to say something more but he was interrupted,
"Leave him alone," said Cassie sternly.
"What did you just tell me?" Harry said through clenched teeth.
"You heard me. Stop getting in his face. None of us are trying to hurt you."
"So what are you trying to do?"
"Help you," they all said in unison. Harry rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah, fine, whatever."
"You need to relax Harry," Cassie said. Her eyes were glowing green. So was Harry. He didn't know what was going on. He didn't have control over his muscles anymore. He was floating. He glided over to his bed and was lying down on his pillows. His body stopped glowing, as did Cassie's eyes.
He looked over at her. She raised her eyebrows at him. "Well?"
Harry sighed. There was no arguing with her. In the corner he saw Ron and Hermione looking at him hopefully. "Yeah, relax. Okay," he said grimly.
