Finally, the long overdue chapter! I can't describe how bad I feel for making you wait so long and not posting like I should have done so days ago. The thing is, fanfiction had been a real ass really. They wouldn't let me lock in at first, then when I finally did, my uploaded doc never appears. Then the days after that, I could not get my hands on internet connection so that's why…I'm really sorry… Please don't kill me!

Chapter 7: Unexpected Assault

Harry dashed down the hallways, knocking students aside and receiving verbal abuses along the way. He had been so immersed in the library thinking up Quidditch tactics that he had not realised it was Transfiguration until he was nearly fifteen minutes late. Professor McGonagall was going to be so livid.

BAM!

He knocked into a young Ravenclaw boy who took the impact worse than Harry – he was flown a few feet down the corridor. Harry's book bag soared and split in midair. When his things finally touched down, they were in forms of books, quills and parchments.

"Sorry," Harry helped pick the boy up, who ran off immediately without saying a word. Harry gathered his possessions in annoyance. At this rate, Harry should probably consider missing class. He snatched up his things and shoved them into his spoilt bag quickly, consumed in anger. A man with shoulder-length hair – walked past him briskly. Harry stood up, his hands holding together his broken bag and stared after the man. Is - Is that?

Without a second thought Harry took off after him. However, the man seemed to be walking at inhuman speed. No matter how fast Harry ran, the man managed to keep his distance by walking even quicker.

BAM!

He was thrown off his feet the second time when someone collided into his side near a junction. Speak of a bad day.

"Harry!"

It was Janieve, looking flustered. She looked left and right and then crawled nearer to Harry. "Thank Merlin! I need to talk to you. It's urgent. Can I meet you at the room of requirement tonight?"

"Wha – Wha …" Harry stumbled over his words, feeling equally flustered at her bizarre behaviour.

"Sorry, Harry. No time for that. I'll tell you tonight. Promise me you'll go," she said all this very fast, her eyes darting around wildly.

"I…" Harry said.

"Good, I'll see you," she said briskly and stood up.

"Wait, tell me what happened first!" Harry called after her when he finally recovered, but she was already gone.

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"I swear I saw him!" Harry nearly yelled.

"But – but Harry, he – he's…" Ron stammered.

"Dead," Harry supplied, "I know. But he only fell through that veil. Who can be sure he was really dead?"

"But Lupin said…" Hermione said but was cut off by Harry. Nowadays, it seemed impossible to control his temper.

"Fuck what Lupin said!"

"Harry…" Hermione said warningly.

"Do you think it was his ghost?" Ron asked helpfully.

"No," Harry said firmly, "he wasn't translucent like Nick or Peeves."

"Maybe you were hallucinating," Hermione suggested.

"And maybe, I shouldn't have told you this after all," Harry snapped.

"I'm sorry, Harry," Hermione said rapidly, "It's not that I don't believe you. But we've all come to terms with his death and suddenly here you are, suggesting the possibility that he still might be alive."

"You've come to terms," Harry said quietly, "I've not."

Hermione looked like she had been slapped. Her face reddened in embarrassment. "Oh I'm sorry Harry," she moaned, "I didn't mean it like that. I don't know what…I…Oh I'm sorry!"

Before Hermione could burst into the torrent of sobs that was so ever ready to erupt in recent times, Ron asked, "But if he really is alive, and he's at Hogwarts, why hadn't he looked for you, Harry?

Harry furrowed his brows in thoughts. "I don't know," he admitted.

"Maybe you should ask Dumbledore," Hermione proposed, "If he's really at Hogwarts, then there's no way Dumbledore doesn't know about it."

"Yeah, Dumbledore would know," Ron agreed.

"So what if he knows? He wouldn't tell me anything!" Harry said despondently, "I overheard him and Lupin talking about Sirius as if he was still alive over the summer and I confronted them but they denied it completely to my face."

"This doesn't make any sense," Hermione said, "What are they trying to hide?"

Harry had no answers to that. However, that came as no surprise to Harry. All his life, they had been sheltering him and "protecting" him by keeping things from him. Perhaps, this was one of those times.

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Harry sat under his invisibility cloak in the common room, willing the door to open. He had not seen Janieve since earlier that afternoon and Hermione had informed him that Janieve was not in the common room either. Harry was getting antsy about Janieve's disappearance. He was perplexed as to why she had to meet him at the room of requirement. If it was so important, why couldn't she have just told him straight away?

When the clock stuck midnight, Harry decided he could not longer wait out in the common room. He climbed out of the portrait hole and climbed down the winding stairs that led out of the Gryffindor tower. Checking that he was covered completely by his cloak, he crept down the corridors and passageways that would lead him to his destination.

It was so dark that Harry had to lean against the walls as he made his way up the six flights of stairs. Upon landing, he saw that the room of requirement already had a door – a sign to show that someone had been there already.

"Jan?" Harry called out softly as he pushed the door open gently. The room was dark and something did not feel quite right. He fumbled his pockets for his wand.

"Lumos," he whispered and a glow of red orb lit up a portion of the room. He walked further into the room and waved his wand around, trying to make out the form of the room.

He heard someone or something moved behind him and he spun around. "Jan?"

Hiss…

Two yellow gleaming eyes stared up into Harry's piercing green ones.

Hiss!

It was a Boa Constrictor, long, thick, and not unlike the one he had seen in the zoo seven years ago. Except, this one looked less friendly.

The snake swung its head and smacked Harry across his side, sending him across the length of the room. His head connected with the wall and a dizzy spell hit him for a few seconds.

Racking his brains for an appropriate spell to use, Harry tried to pick up his fallen wand but realised it was too dark. I need light! He thought urgently. Immediately, the entire room lit up which dazzled Harry momentarily.

The room was square, empty except for the Boa Constrictor. It hissed again, its thin long tongue slithering in between its scaly lips – if it even had one. Harry spotted his wand and made a vault for it. However, the creature was faster. It swiped at it with its long greyish tail and Harry watched hopelessly as it flew towards the other end of the room.

The snake bared its fangs, as if it was grinning maliciously at Harry. It glided slowly closer to him, trapping him against the edge of the room. Think, Harry chided himself. And then it hit him.

When I open my eyes, I don't want to see this snake anymore, Harry told himself repeatedly in his head.

Finally, he raised his eyelids and the snake was gone. Harry breathed a sigh of relief but it was short-lived when a single thought entered his mind.

Janieve!

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Next Chapter: 12th May, this Wed, I swear!