Chapter 4: Friend or Foe?
"Harry, Snape isn't going to be teaching us potions this year." Hermione explained.
"He isn't!" said Harry happily, but his happiness was overrun by curiosity. "Why?"
"Dumbledore gave him the whole year off because, well, because Snape is getting married." She said matter-of-factly.
"MARRIED!" said Harry loudly, he expected any answer but this one, "but who in their right mind would ever want to marry Snape?"
"Yes, he's getting married." Answered Hermione incompletely, throwing Ron a shifty look.
"But who would ever want to marry him?" Harry repeated, more urgently this time.
Hermione had a hesitant look on her face.
"Well, you see..." She shot Ron another look but this time it was more of a should-I-tell-him look. Harry took it by this look that they were keeping something from him and it was very displeasing. It didn't improve the way Harry was feeling when Ron shook his head.
"What's that supposed to mean!" Harry asked bitterly, shaking his head in a nasty imitation of Ron. "What are you hiding from me? TELL ME!" His anger was taking control again; it was rising at an alarming rate. He was tired of being kept in the dark, he wanted answers and he wanted them now.
"What are you getting angry for, mate? What's the big deal with who Snape's marrying anyway? Why should you care at all?" Ron was trying, without any success, to calm Harry down.
"Why should I care? Eh, why? You're asking why!" Harry's temper was rising by the second, "I'll tell you why! BECAUSE YOU DON'T WANT TO TELL ME THAT'S WHY! YOU TWO ARE ALWAYS KEEPING THINGS FROM ME AND I DON—"
"It's for your own good, Harry." Hermione cut him off.
"MY OWN GOOD? MY OWN GOOD! I CAN HANDLE IT, YOU KNOW! I'M 16 YEARS OLD AND I'VE BEEN THROUGH THINGS THAT PEOPLE WON'T GO THROUGH IN A LIFETIME, AND APPARENTLY IT'S NOT YET OVER! I THINK I'VE PROVED I CAN HANDLE IT, DIDN'T I? WHAT MAKES YOU TWO ABLE TO HANDLE IT AND NOT ME? GO ON; TELL ME, I'M VERY CURIOUS TO KNOW!"
"That's exactly why we can handle it, Harry, because we haven't been through what you have. This news would have a more powerful impact on you than it did on us."
Harry looked right into Hermione's tearful eyes as if searching for the answers to his questions, which Hermione always seemed to have.
"But why—" he took a deep breath. "Look, are you going to tell me or not—WHY CANT YOU TELL ME!"
"Because." Said Ron, whose temper also seemed to be rising.
"Because what?" asked Harry, irritated.
"Just because!"
"Because what!"
"BECAUSE!"
"BECAUSE WHAT!"
"BECAUSE IT'S BELLATRIX LESTRANGE!" yelled Ron.
"What?"
"BE-LA-TRIX LE-STRANGE!" Ron repeated pronouncing every syllable loudly and clearly "Snape is marrying Bellatrix Lestrange, The Death Eater! The one that killed your godfather, the one that killed Sir—!"
"Ron, stop!" Hermione pleaded. She had started crying now.
"He wanted to know!" Ron was furious now. His ears were as red as Harry had ever seen them, but Harry didn't care about Ron's anger.
"Snape is marrying that awful woman? But why? Why would he? She—she's the one that killed Sirius! It's both their faults. It's because of Snape that Sirius went to the ministry in the first place and she—she's the one that killed him there. They must have been plotting this all along! Snape always had it in for Sirius, that's probably why. I should have known!" Harry was saying this more to himself than to Ron and Hermione.
"Harry, you know that's not true, he wouldn't. Dumbledore trusts him, and so should we. There must be some good explication for this but unfortunately we don't know it," said Hermione, tears abating slowly.
"How do you know?" asked Harry.
"Know what?" answered Hermione.
"About
Snape and Lestrange?"
"We heard Ron's parents talking
about it when I went to the Burrow to pick him up. I'm assuming this
is just a plan from the Order of The Phoenix"
"I still don't trust him. He's always been jealous of Sirius! If he had just left Sirius alone he'd still be alive. I don't trust him!" said Harry.
"Well, I think we should trust him. Dumbledore must have good reasons to trust an ex-death eater. Don't you trust Dumbledore?"
This calmed Harry down. He trusted Dumbledore, and he trusted Hermione's judgment. He knew that she was almost always right.
"I'm sorry Harry, mate, about er—before—" Ron blurted out unexpectedly.
"No, it was my fault, I shouldn't have yelled at you tw—"
"—I shouldn't have said all those horrible thin—"
"—You wouldn't have if I didn't—"
"--Yeah but I shouldn't have gone that far—"
"—it's ok, really—"
"—No it's not—"
"Will you two just drop it?" Said Hermione, but Harry was glad to see that there was a smile on her face.
There was a moment's silence before Ron started talking. When he did, he said, "Shall we go down to dinner? I'm starved!"
"I think that we should set up the tent first," said Hermione bossily.
"Fine." Said Ron, rolling his eyes.
Seconds later, they started setting up the tent. They pushed all of Harry's furniture to the far corner of the room (this took very little time since the Dursleys never bothered to furnish his room.). Hermione then picked up what looked to Harry like a schoolbag, tapped it lightly with her wand, and put it down in the middle of the floor. What Harry took to be a bag turned out to be the tent, which sprang to life quickly taking up about half of Harry's already small room.
As they entered the tent to put Harry's trunk in, Harry's jaw dropped; inside was a three-story house. A spiral staircase ran through all three floors, starting from the first floor living room.
"Each floor has a living room, a bathroom, a toilet, two bedrooms, and a kitchen." Hermione read out loud of the booklet that came with the tent.
"What are we going to need all that for?" asked Ron.
"Well, we could each take one floor to ourselves, it'll be like having our own apartment, and it says here that it's already furnished." She answered.
"Wicked!" said Ron, "my own apartment, I've always wanted one."
"Really!" Said Hermione excitedly.
"No...But now I think it'd be cool" said Ron. It was Hermione's turn to roll her eyes. "Can we eat now?"
Dinner that night was a silent affair except for Ron who started a little conversation by saying: "I don't think Mad-Eye would be happy if he heard this is what they feed you, Harry." Talking about the dietary food Aunt Petunia served them, while Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia exchanged frightened looks.
"Do you want me to make you something else boy—er—I mean Harry?" she said.
"It's too late now," Ron answered for Harry, "but do try harder next time."
Aunt Petunia looked as if she wanted nothing more than to blow Ron's head off and beat whatever was left of him to a pulp. Harry and Hermione exchanged grins and immediately looked down at their plates so as to not laugh.
When dinner was over, the three of them when up to Harry's Room to get ready for bed. Hermione chose to take the third floor of the tent, Ron took the second, and Harry was left with the first.
As they each got ready for bed, Harry heard someone walking in the hallway outside his room. The person was saying "Filthy Muggles!" in a voice Harry recognized but couldn't decipher who it belonged to. As quickly as he could, Harry left the tent curious to know whom the voice belonged to. He stuck his head out of his bedroom door just in time to see the figure of a tall blonde man entering Dudley's room. Harry recognized him immediately: it was Lucius Malfoy.
"But what's Lucius Malfoy doing here? Isn't he supposed to be in Azkaban?" Asked Ron as Harry dragged both he and Hermione out of the tent telling them what he had seen and hurrying to Dudley's room. They crossed the hall quickly and Harry, who arrived first, rammed his knuckles on Dudley's bedroom door.
"Dudley, open the door!" Harry commanded urgently.
A small cough came from Dudley's room.
"I'm coming." said a voice that sounded little like Dudley.
Harry couldn't wait any longer, pointing his wand to the door he said "Aloham—"
"Harry
stop!" Hermione said taking Harry's wand away. "We're
not to do magic outside of school, remember!"
"But
Lucius Malfoy's in there! The Ministry of Magic won't say anything if
it's a Death Eater we're dealing with!"
"Harry, are you sure it's Malfoy? I mean, its like Ron said, isn't it? Isn't Lucius Malfoy supposed to be in Azkaban?" Hermione said thoughtfully. She knocked on the door more urgently than Harry did before and said, "Dudley let us in—!" But before she could finish her sentence, Dudley appeared at the door.
"Yes?" Dudley asked a bit too politely, "How can I help you?"
"Where is he?" Harry asked pushing Dudley aside walking into the room and starting his frantic search for Lucius Malfoy.
"Where's who?" Dudley asked, his face slightly bewildered because Harry was tearing his room apart. "Hey! Stop that!"
Harry searched the whole room twice, then when he found nothing, he took his wand back from Hermione and pointing it directly at Dudley he said: "Where is Malfoy!"
"Malfoy? Lucius Malfoy?" Dudley repeated with a slightly nervous laugh, then looking at Harry, Ron, and Hermione in turn he continued, "What makes you think he's there? You know very well that Mr. Malfoy is in Azkaban. I can assure you Lucius Malfoy is not in this room nor is he in this house. Mr. Malfoy is a respectable wizard that wouldn't be caught dead in a Muggle home."
"You said you were in trouble with him, you never got a chance to finish your story. Well, here is your chance." Said Ron.
Dudley heaved a great sigh.
"Sure, I'll continue my story, but not here, my parents will suspect something."
"Fine then, let's go to Harry's room, there is plenty of room in the tent and no one will be able to hear us in there," Ron said and he led the way back to Harry's room and into the tent.
Harry was amazed at Dudley's reaction to the tent: absolutely nothing. Harry expected at least a gasp, but there was none. Dudley acted as if he was entering a regular Muggle tent. Harry first thought this was suspicious but decided to forget it. Maybe Dudley had seen a magic tent before.
"Ok then, enlighten us with your story." Ron said rather coolly.
"Where was I again?" He took a minute to ponder and said, "Ah yes! On that day in June, when the Dark Lord put that vision into your head of your god father dying, Mr. Malfoy was not supposed to go to the Ministry of Magic, I was." At this Hermione clapped her hands to her mouth. "You see, the Dark Lord, in his brilliance, knew that if it was I you saw that day, you would have been so surprised that you would drop your guard. That would have been our chance to seize you and get the prophecy. But that brilliant plan was ruined because I cowered. Lucius Malfoy had to take my place and now, he is in Azkaban. So both he and the Dark Lord are out to find me and you," He said pointing to Harry, "you are my only hope of getting out; you have got to help me."
During Dudley's whole speech Harry was looking down at the floor so that none of them could see his face. A soon as Dudley, finished Harry looked up, tears flowing from his bloodshot eyes. "You knew their whole plan! You were part of the plan! THEY KILLED MY GODFATHER! YOU KILLED MY GODFATHER! WHY SHOULD I HELP YOU! TELL ME, WHY SHOULD I HELP YOU!"
"Harry I've said this before, I'm sorry! I was really stupid; I didn't really know what I was doing. I tried to get out as soon as I realized. I—I—I'm really sorry Harry, I really am."
"It's too late for apologies," Harry said tonelessly, almost robot-like, looking down again. "Get out of my room."
"But Harr—"
"GET OUT!"
Dudley left the room without another word.
For the next ten minutes, Ron and Hermione would occasionally look at each other, open their mouth as if to say something then close them again. Finally, Hermione broke the silence.
"Harry, we know—we know what it feels like. We miss Sirius too. It helps if you talk about it. Harry please..." Harry got up and left for one of the two bedrooms on his floor of the tent. He didn't feel like talking about it, there was nothing to talk about.
As soon as he arrived at his room, he reached under his pillow for July 31st's issue of the Daily Prophet which he kept there and read over every night. During the daytime, many things happen that distract Harry from thinking about Sirius, but at nighttime, when he was all alone, all he could think about was Sirius. He started reading Ginny's poem again, even though he didn't need to anymore. He had it memorized from reading it so many times before.
He read the poem over and over until he fell asleep with the newspaper slipping from his hand.
Next morning, Harry woke up earlier than Ron and Hermione, got dressed and left the tent. With his destination in mind, Harry automatically went through the kitchen, which he found unusually deserted, and out into the backyard. His legs were pulling him across the lawn to the bench where four years ago, he first saw Dobby the house-elf.
Dudley's a Death Eater...? He thought...He was part of the plan to kill Sirius, but he got out as soon as he could...should I trust him...? Should I trust Snape? Snape is marrying Bellatrix Lestrange...Hermione must be right, this must be a plan from the Order, how else could two Death Eaters get married without anyone noticing?...How are they getting married, anyway?
Thoughts were running through his head, one on top of the other. He didn't know which ones to listen to first. Shaking his head in attempt to rid his mind of all thoughts, he looked up at the early morning sky. If only his head was as clear as the sky above. Thinking only brought him pain and misery, and he was tired of it. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop his thoughts.
Harry sat there for a long time, thinking hopelessly. Little did he know, Lucius Malfoy was looking at him through Dudley's bedroom window, watching his every move, with a malicious smile across his face. Harry suddenly had a feeling he was being watched. It sent a shiver down his spine to see that he wasn't as alone as he thought. Dudley (and as far as Harry could see, Dudley was alone,) was staring at him through the window. Harry didn't like the look on Dudley's face and thought it best to go back up to the tent. With more thoughts rushing through his mind at the discovery of Dudley's watch over him, Harry got up and left the back yard.
As he entered the tent, Harry was greeted by the smell of a delicious breakfast. Following the scent, he climbed the steps where his nose led the way to the third floor kitchen. There, he found Ron and Hermione hunched over the stove cooking a breakfast of what seemed to be Harry's favorite foods.
Hermione was first to notice Harry's arrival. "Good Morning," She said a timid smile creeping across her face, "I hope we didn't wake you with all this noise. Ron and I thought I'd be nice if we had our breakfast together, without the Dursleys."
"Brilliant!" Said Harry, a smile spreading across his face. His friends always knew how to cheer him up; he didn't know what he'd do without them. "Everything smells delicious!"
"Ron made mostly everything; He cooks almost as good as his mom!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Really!" said Harry, "then he wont mind making us dinner." Ron's embarrassed grin turned immediately into a mock frown, than back into a cheerful laugh shared by all three.
Their laughter suddenly ceased as a burst of fire formed in the air on top of the table. Fawkes the phoenix appeared to them out of thin air, a piece of parchment rolled up in the bird's beak. Hermione quickly took the note and read:
"Change of plans, get yourselves packed. You will be leaving today. As soon as you are ready, each of you grab onto Fawkes and you'll be transported to your destination. We'll tell you more when you get here, signed: Moody."
"We're leaving today?" said Ron putting a piece of sausage in his mouth, "I wonder why."
"We've no time to wonder now!" Hermione snapped, "or to eat for that matter!" She took Ron's plate away while Ron stared at it longingly.
"D'you think Fawkes will be able to take me with my trunk and everything? Isn't it a bit too heavy?" Harry asked two minutes later as they started packing.
"We can put everything in the tent and take the tent with us." Said Ron. "When we get there, we'll open the tent and take everything out. Magic tents are bewitched so that they weigh little even if you put a dragon in there."
"Good thinking Ron! Come on, quick, let's hurry!" said Hermione.
With the help of his two best friends, Harry was packed and ready to go in no time at all. They put everything back in the tent then Hermione tapped it with her wand. The tent sprang to life again, it became smaller and smaller until it was returned to its original schoolbag size. When they were ready, they each grabbed onto one of Fawkes's long golden tail feathers—Ron carrying the tent—and disappeared in a flash of flames.
