A/N: 31 July – Happy Birthday to Harry Potter & JK Rowling! Both of them may dream of Sirius tonight. Harry will have a happy reunion with this godfather in his dreams, while JKR will be asked a thousand times "WHY???"
Dawn Umbridge
Harry gritted his teeth as he watched Professor Snape sweep out of the dungeon.
Potions was the class Harry dreaded most. It was even worse than Divination. At least at Divination, Harry could keep Professor Trelawney happy by predicting the worst misfortunes onto himself. That was harmless. But in Potions, Harry was certain that Professor Snape wished with all his heart that those misfortunes would really befall him.
This day, Professor Snape was as usual, scrutinising Harry's work and was quick to criticise. And the more closely Professor Snape watched him, the more Harry was unable to concentrate and fumbled. The assigned potion was supposed to be the shade of sky blue, but Harry's turned out a bright shade of violet.
I'm never going to get my O.W.L. for Potions at this rate, Harry thought to himself as he packed his things into his bag slowly. Most of his classmates had already cleared their tables and left the room. Hermione was observing Harry's slow actions with a little impatience.
Just then, Draco Malfoy who had already left the dungeon earlier, stuck his head into the doorway and called in a loud voice, "Hey Potter!"
Harry was certain Malfoy was going to ridicule him for his failed concoction again, and eyed Malfoy warily.
True enough, Malfoy was wearing the familiar smirk, "Potter, your godmother is waiting for you outside."
As Malfoy's head disappeared into the corridor, Ron said excitedly, "Harry! Do you think April is back?"
Hermione tsked loudly. "Since when is Professor Flamel Harry's godmother?" Then she frowned thoughtfully and told Harry, "Something's wrong. If it is April, Malfoy would not have looked so damn pleased. Be careful, Harry."
Harry slung his bag over his shoulder and frowned deeply. "There's only one way to find out. Let's go."
The three friends trooped out of the dungeon. To their surprise, the corridor was deserted, save for a short plump woman in a turquoise dress that was at least two sizes too small for her.
"You must be Harry!" The woman hurried towards Ron, and locked the shocked boy into a tight embrace.
"Erm…actually, I'm Harry," Harry managed to say.
The woman immediately loosened her grip on Ron, and exclaimed in the same high-pitched enthusiastic voice, "Oh Harry! You look just like your father!" She started to pounce on Harry but failed to give him the same painful hug she had given Ron as the boy had quickly stepped behind Hermione.
"Who are you?" Harry asked, suspicion in his voice.
"Oh, how silly of me!" The woman's hollow laughter sent a chill down Harry's spine. "I should have introduced myself earlier! Oh please forgive me, dearie."
She paused to give Harry a smile so wide that it stretched her mouth almost from ear to ear. "I'm Dawn Umbridge. I'm a special friend of your godfather's."
"Special friend? What do you mean?"
Dawn Umbridge gave the same annoying laugh again. "Why, I'm surprised darling Sirius hasn't mentioned me to you yet. Maybe he's just too shy!"
Hermione drew herself straight to bring herself at least an inch taller than Dawn Umbridge. "Did you tell Malfoy that you're Harry's godmother? We all know that Sirius has not gotten married."
Dawn Umbridge threw the girl a fleeting look of dislike. "Why yes! It's only a matter of time, and I really don't mind if Harry starts calling me godmother earlier."
Harry, Ron and Hermione stared at the woman for a long time, obviously at a loss for words.
Hermione was the first to recover and she spoke coldly to the older woman, "It has been nice meeting you, Ms Umbridge. Unfortunately, we are almost late for our next lesson now, and we really have to run."
With that, Hermione grabbed Harry and Ron and pulled the stunned young men up the stairs.
"Hermione! We don't have a class now! Charms will only begin in two hours' time!" Ron told her as soon as they were out of earshot.
"How dense can you get, Ron?" Hermione chided. "That was just an excuse to get away from that horrible woman!"
"Oh," Ron said sheepishly when the truth sank in.
"Do you think she was telling the truth?" Harry asked. "About Sirius and her…"
Hermione gave a loud snort. "I trust Sirius to have better taste than that."
"But of course, after twelve years at Azkaban, he may have developed peculiar taste," Ron mused.
Harry was really disturbed. He did not like this Dawn Umbridge, and felt uneasy with her. But it was Sirius' life afterall, and Harry would respect Sirius' choice. But if what the woman said was true, why didn't Sirius tell Harry about her? Did Sirius think it was not necessary to let Harry know more about himself?
"Let's go to the library. We have tons of Transfiguration and Potions homework to do," Hermione suggested.
"The two of you can go ahead. I'll look for you later, " Harry said, looking determined.
"Where are you going?" Ron asked.
"I'm going to look for Sirius," Harry replied before walking away purposefully.
*
Harry slowly made his way across the Entrance Hall towards the main door, carefully ensuring that he was well-hidden under the invisibility cloak.
As he was thinking hard about the best way to pry open the heavy door in the most unnoticeable way possible, the doors were flung wide open and who else but Sirius and Remus entered through them.
"Sirius!" Harry cried, forgetting that he was under the invisibility cloak.
Sirius and Remus both stopped dead in their tracks and looked around, obviously startled by the voice.
Then a little smile crept into their faces at almost the same moment.
"Harry?" Remus called out in a whisper, looking around him.
"Get out of James' cloak, Harry." Sirius said in a louder voice.
Harry removed the cloak and came face-to-face with the two grinning Marauders.
"Why are you sneaking around under the cloak in broad daylight? Aren't you supposed to be in class?" Sirius asked. There wasn't a trace of reproach in his voice. Instead, he actually sounded pleased that his godson could be up to some mischief.
Harry returned Sirius' grin and told him, "I was about to look for you at the Shrieking Shack."
"Is anything wrong?" Sirius asked, frowning slightly.
When Harry quickly assured him that nothing was wrong, Sirius turned seriously and said, "Look, Harry. I'm sorry, but we have to run. We were supposed to meet Dumbledore five minutes ago."
Sirius gave Harry's shoulder a quick squeeze as he went past the young man and before Harry could protest, the two men had disappeared up the stairs.
Harry could not help but feel some frustration and annoyance that he did not get to speak to Sirius. At the back of his mind, he knew that Sirius must have more important things to attend to and that he was behaving like a spoilt child to demand Sirius' full attention. But Harry didn't care. He had longed for the day when Sirius was free, expecting his godfather to spend time with him. Instead, Sirius had become more elusive than ever. At least Sirius had always made it a point to reply his letters then. But now, it had been almost a week since the trial but Harry had yet to spend time alone with Sirius. Most of the time, Harry had been occupied with his lessons and endless assignments in preparation for his O.W.L.s. And during whatever little pockets of time he had left, Sirius was always busy.
Was Sirius busy helping Professor Dumbledore against Voldemort? Or…Harry hated the thought that came to his mind but he half-believed it to be true. Sirius seemed to have time for everyone except himself – he had time for Professor Dumbledore, for Remus and now, he even had time for the unpleasant Dawn Umbridge. If Sirius really wanted to spend time with me, Sirius would have found a way to do so, Harry thought to himself as he felt his first tinge of resentment against his godfather.
"Harry dearie!"
Harry's thoughts were interrupted by a high-pitch voice. Harry signed as he located its source and made a mental note on how fake the enthusiasm sounded.
"Harry!" Dawn Umbridge called out again. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in class?"
Harry remembered the lie that Hermione gave just in time to check himself, "We…er...remembered the wrong time. I thought I could have a break and take a short walk. I'm on my way to the library now."
Dawn Umbridge narrowed her almost protruding eyes and observed Harry, as though trying to read his thoughts. As Harry squirmed under her unblinking stare, she asked, "Where's Sirius? You met him?"
"Yes, briefly. He was in a hurry to meet Professor Dumbledore," Harry admitted grudgingly.
Dawn Umbridge smiled knowingly and eyed Harry again, "Now, Harry, I didn't want to tell you this initially as it may be too cruel. But I don't think I should hide it from you any longer."
Harry's curiosity got the better of him. "What is it you want to tell me?" he asked.
"Well…how should I put it?" Dawn Umbridge was trying hard to pretend that she was in a dilemma but it was obvious that she was savouring the moment and enjoying the growing discomfort in the young man before her. "Well, I'll say it then. This is for your own good. And of course, for Sirius' well-being as well. You see, Sirius darling is very busy now. There are so many things that he has to attend to. You must understand that the poor darling was not in the position to do as he wished for the past many years. Now that he has regained his freedom, he can do all that now. You see…"
"What is it you're trying to say?" Harry was becoming impatient.
"Well, to put it simply, Harry dear, Sirius has lost many years of his life and now he wants to make up for lost time. There are many things he wants to do, Harry, and I'm afraid…" Dawn Umbridge made the action of sobbing into her handkerchief, though her eyes were plainly dry. "…I'm afraid, Harry dear, that you're not on his priority list."
Harry felt a lump in his throat.
Dawn Umbridge continued mercilessly, "But of course, Sirius darling was feeling a little guilty that he could not spend time with you, but he couldn't help it. He must live his own life you know. And I suggest that you don't…"
"That I don't inconvenience Sirius or be a burden to him?" Harry asked, his mouth was turning dry.
Dawn Umbridge breathed a huge exaggerated sign of mock relief. "Oh dearie, I'm so glad you understand! Sirius was troubled as to how to break the news to you. I'm sure a big boy like you will understand that he needs to lead his own life and not be burdened by someone else's kid. Of course in future, Sirius and I will have kids of our own to take care of and it'll be too cruel to shower you with false hopes now and neglect you then!"
Harry felt sick. He did not want to hear anymore. Grabbing his invisibility cloak close to him, Harry ran up the stairs as fast as he could.
*
Before he knew it, Harry was back in his dormitory. He was alone. His breath was coming on hard and fast and his heart was throbbing not just from the effort of rushing to his room, but more because of the words he had just heard.
"No. Sirius doesn't think I'm a burden," Harry said aloud. But Dawn Umbridge's voice reminding him that he was just someone else's kid kept echoing in his ears.
Harry flung himself onto his bed and buried his face into his pillow. In no time, the pillow was soaked with hot angry tears - tears that Harry had been trying to force back for as long as he could remember.
Harry could not recall when was the last time he broke down, but he knew that this moment of realisation was too much to bear. It was more painful than his guilt at Cedric's death, his unhappiness when he was ignored by Ron a year ago, and his tiring constant battles against Voldemort. This was more painful as Harry felt that he had lost the only family he ever knew and could ever hope to have.
There was nothing Harry Potter could look forward to anymore.
***
Ms Padfoot : You're a hard taskmaster! This chapter is longer :)
Tiger Lily : I will, I will! I've already written a chapter on just that. You'll probably read about that in Chap 23 or 24.
black-cat-on-the-wall : Yes, I did.
Star06 : Thanks for reviewing. Keep doing so, ok? :) :) :)
Katykat1010 : I hate the Umbridges too!
Rainie : Harry would have said "YUCKS!!!" to Umbridge liking his godfather! LOL
Someone Reading : The Devil's Snare and Giant Squid are nice? Now I've finally met someone more evil than me! Hooray!
Sunshine*girl-Hermione : Actually, I've already decided on the pairing and have written that particular chapter. You'll find out later :)
Senshichan14 : Your review was so funny!!! Had me laughing aloud for a long time. Oh yeah, I was feeling very full for days (thanks to all your goodies) and have been spending the past few days exercising (so that I'll never reach Dawn Umbridge's weight). And, your latest threat is my favourite so far…I'll not mind listening to Sirius sing for the rest of my life, even if it's that annoying Barney song!
peachgirl1608 : Umbridge is going to continue throwing herself at dear Sirius until…LOL, I'm not telling just yet!
Destructor-of-peace : Fanfiction.net is giving me problems as well! It's often down or overloaded. And I'm no longer getting author alerts and review alerts. It's so annoying! :(
