Tempers Flare

"Come in!"  April Flamel's voice rang out from the other side of the door.  Harry let himself into the office of his Care of Magical Creatures teacher.

"Harry! What a surprise!" April greeted him warmly.

Harry was glad that she did not point out that he should be in class. He looked into her eyes and saw encouragement in them.  Soon, Harry was telling her everything he had learnt from Dobby's visit the night before. April listened attentively, and Harry felt relieved after he had given his account.

"Dumbledore is away from the school today.  The last two times he was away, Voldemort was back at Hogwarts," Harry added anxiously.

April was deep in thought.  "Perhaps we should question the house-elf?  What's its name again? Windy?"

"Winky." Harry corrected her.  "But if Winky refused to tell Dobby, I doubt she'll reveal anything to us."

April nodded in agreement. "House-elves are such strange creatures. They have strong powers and ways of finding out the best-kept secrets.  And yet, they keep these close to their hearts.  Hardly utilising the benefits they have, I would say."

"Do you think we should look for Professor Dumbledore?" Harry asked.

"No," she replied quickly.  "Albus is at the Ministry now. It's important.  We mustn't bother him now."

Again, Harry sensed that something was not quite right.  "Is something wrong?" he ventured.

She avoided his eyes and gave a troubled sigh.  "I'm afraid so, Harry.  The Dark Mark was spotted just before dawn this morning.  It was hovering above the Browns' home."

"The Dark Mark at the Browns'?" Harry echoed dully.  He had expected bad news, but he still wasn't prepared to hear about the Dark Mark.  A cold shiver ran down his spine as he remembered the first and only time he had seen the Dark Mark – at the Quidditch World Cup.

"Both Christopher and Betty Brown are dead," April continued in a soft voice.  "Lavender is with Madam Pomfrey right now, but I'm afraid there's nothing much Madam Pomfrey can do to make her feel better.  Poor girl…she's still in an awful state of shock."

Harry's mouth went dry.  He was never very close to Lavender Brown, but he felt deeply sorry for her…sorry that she had to share almost the same terrible fate as him - losing both parents overnight to Voldemort's deadly curse.

"Albus is at the Ministry of Magic.  Now that the Death Eaters strike again, he has to convince Fudge to counteract as soon as he can.  It seems that the old fool is still in denial and refuses to believe that Voldemort is back.  He's even trying to cover up the attack by dismissing the Browns' deaths as a case of some magic backfiring."

Harry felt a sudden shot of pain on his forehead.  His hand flew to cover his scar.

"What is it? Are you alright, Harry?" April asked with concern.

"Yes," Harry lied to the same question for the second time that morning. "I want to see Sirius," he said suddenly.

April stared at Harry in disbelief. "No," she replied flatly.

Harry was a little surprised to hear himself make the request. But his voice was only verbalising what he had longed for and badly wanted ever since Sirius left him after the Triwizard Competition.  He noticed April's glare and his self-control snapped.

"I WANT TO SEE MY GODFATHER AND YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO STOP ME!"

Her eyes widened. "Yes, I have no right.  Do as you please. Go ahead and get your darling godfather and favourite professors into trouble." Her voice was hard and cold.

Harry opened his mouth to speak, but he could not find the words.

April felt her anger rising. "You'll be doing us all a big favour, Harry Potter," she said, voice dripping in sarcasm. "Let Sirius get the kiss of death.  Let Remus be thrown into Azkaban for harbouring a prisoner.  And Fudge will soon send Albus to keep him accompany in that living hell."

She walked to the door, held it open, and glared at Harry.  "Please go.  I have nothing more to say to you."

*

Harry was walking down the school corridor, oblivious to the jostling crowd. 

"Harry! Wait up!" Harry came out of his reverie and saw Hermione running towards him. 

"Where's Ron? Has your lesson ended early too?" she asked, slightly out of breath.

"Erm…he's at Divination," Harry replied.

Hermione frowned in disapproval. "Are you telling me that you've missed another Divination class?" 

Harry quickly filled her in on his conversations with Dobby and April, trying to keep his voice as low as possible. 

"YOU DID NOT! That was rude, Harry!  That's not the way to speak to a professor!"

Harry gloomily lowered his head, staring absently at the ground. 

"April is the sweetest person.  How can you say such awful things to upset her?" Hermione's liking for her Care of Magical Creatures teacher had ballooned ever since she received the Recording Quill. 

"I do not know what came over me," Harry said miserably. "She said she does not want anything to do with me anymore."

"She said that?"

"Well, sort of…she said she has nothing more to say to me."

"Oh." Hermione was deep in thought.  "I think you should apologise to her."

Before Harry could reply, they heard Ron's voice behind them. "There you are! Why are the two of you standing here? Harry, where were you? I can't say Professor Trelawney is too pleased about you missing her class for the second time in a row."

"Shh…let's talk when we're back in the Gryffindor Tower," Hermione said in a hushed whisper as a fresh crowd of students joined them along the corridor.

*

Ron sat back into his chair and moaned, "That's a whole lot of terrible news.  The Death Eater killed Lavender's parents and now they're after Harry."  He looked somewhat accusingly at Harry and added, "and now you have to upset April."

"How could we not realise that Professor Dumbledore and Professor Lupin will both be implicated if Sirius gets caught?" Hermione mumbled, annoyed at herself for not having thought about this before.

"So what do you intend to do about it?" asked Ron.

"About what?" Harry replied defensively.

"You don't want April to stay angry with you, I reckon?"

"I've told Harry that he should apologise!" Hermione chipped in.

Harry suddenly stood up, climbed the stairs and slammed the door to his dormitory after him.

*

Dumbledore was back at Hogwarts the next day and Harry felt reassured by his presence. 

Perhaps it's all part of Dobby or Winky's imagination, Harry thought to himself.  He was in a much better mood, and was relieved that his two friends did not bring up the incident that took place in the Gryffindor common room the day before. 

In fact, his friends were happily chatting about their visit to Hogsmeade that weekend.

"Cool! I can stock up at Honeydukes.  Fred and George gave me five Galleons in the summer," Ron was saying happily.

"Where did they get the money from?" Hermione asked.  Harry was trying hard to appear curious too.

"Fred said Bagman has returned them their winnings," Ron replied, and Harry stopped holding his breath.

"Oh no!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed, stopping dead in her tracks.  Harry and Ron followed her glance and all smiles on their faces were completely gone.

Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown's best friend, had just walked past.  With a sinking feeling, they realised that they had not noticed Lavender's absence at breakfast.  They had pushed all thoughts of the Death Eaters' attack to the back of their minds.

"Did you read about the attack in the Daily Prophet today?" Harry directed the answer at Hermione.

She shook her head, and said in a grave voice, "This means that Professor Dumbledore did not succeed in convincing the Ministry that Voldemort is back."

***

I know I had promised more action in this chapter.  But Harry and April refused to co-operate and had a little tiff.  Hopefully, they can make up soon so that I can get on with the action.  Please don't hex me!  : )

I'm grateful to each and every one of you who took the time to read and review my fic.  Your reviews and words of encouragement are really spurring me on. 

Kylena / padfootsgurl4eva / Wishkres / LadyLupin / brandon / Sunshine*girl-Hermione / Lil Lupin / cestari / Sparkle / Juliana / Katie Black / silver-moon / barbarataku / Star06 / Tiger Lily / Megami & Yami / Audrey / Jen / padfoots girl / Senshichan14 / stormyweather457 / Starbaby & many others: THANKS!!!

Ms Padfoot: Thanks for your regular reviews and constant encouragement!

Fire'N'Ice:  Thanks for being one of my regular reviewers! Hope that you've enjoyed your trip : )  There'll be more of Sirius soon, so you'll have more reasons to smile/giggle/laugh!

Ainsley Sloan: Where are you? I miss your reviews ; )

azndaisy: I share your views about the casting.

Ann Rosemary McSommers: send me an email if you still want to know how to reach JKR : )

Destructor-of-peace: You know the answer now.  Hope that you're not too disappointed : )

an-angel36 / Shakhed: JKR said in some interview that the character who dies in Book Five will not return…not even as a ghost.  So I guess it's better not to bear high hopes.