Chapter 6: The Disappearance.
The man turned around. Harry felt the happiest he had ever felt, he was looking strait into his godfather's face.
"S—S—Sirius!" Harry gasped, tears of happiness and frustration running down his cheeks, "Is that really you?"
"Harry," said Sirius, in an echo-like voice, "Harry, use…" His voice was getting lower and lower, "Harry, use The Di…" His voice died.
Sirius looked wildly down at himself; he was becoming transparent, until, slowly he disappeared.
Harry rushed to the place where his godfather was seconds ago. His toe collided painfully with the foot of the bed, but he didn't care. He sat down at the same exact spot Sirius was sitting. Did he really see Sirius? Or was it just because he wanted to see him so badly that he imagined him? Was he really there? He talked to Harry, didn't he? What did he say? "Use the Di—."
"Use the what!" Harry spoke aloud to the ceiling, rubbing his aching toe. "Sirius! Sirius!"
It was no good, Sirius wasn't answering. Harry wasn't even sure he had seen Sirius. He was very confused, so confused that he had forgotten his anger towards Snape.
There was a small knock on the door.
"Leave me alone!" shouted Harry bitterly.
The knock came again. This time Harry got up and walked to the door; it might have been Sirius again. He was disappointed to find Ginny at the door.
"Can I come in?" She asked.
"Sure." Harry said in a voice that showed he didn't mean what he said.
"I came to talk to—." She began.
"I don't need to talk." Snapped Harry.
"To you," she continued as though he had not interrupted her, "about that poem I wrote. I wanted to know if you'd read it. You know the one that was put in the daily prophet on July 31st."
"Yeah," said Harry, suddenly feeling that he did in fact want to talk to her. "Yeah, I did"
"Did you like it? I wrote it as soon as Ron told me about what he was planning. It didn't take me long to write, all I did was put on paper what I felt. The hard part was making it rhyme." She stopped abruptly. There was a long pause in which they would look at each other, meet each other's eye, and then look away.
"Harry…" she continued, "Harry, I know you miss him, I miss him too. We all do. I loved Sirius as much as you loved him. Don't think it was just you." Harry felt a pang of guild deep in his stomach. "When Snape said that down in the kitchen, don't you think I wanted to blow his damn head off?"
"But you didn't—"
"Yes, I didn't! I controlled my anger, and I didn't want to show Snape that he'd gotten to me."
All she was saying made sense. He didn't know what to say. He raised his eyes to meet hers.
"Thanks." He said, a smile curling the sides of his lips.
"You're welcome." She said, smiling back "Let's go back down to dinner, everyone's waiting."
Everyone in the kitchen acted as if nothing had happened when Ginny and Harry entered the room. Four chairs were left empty at the table (two on either side of Snape.) Harry took the one beside Assia, and Ginny took the one between him and Snape (she sifted her chair away from Snape as she sat down.)
Ginny took Harry's plate and filled it with mashed Potatoes and steak, then took her own and did the same. Harry looked longingly at his plate; He hadn't eaten anything since last night. With immense pleasure Harry dug his fork into the potatoes and began eating.
After filling themselves up, everyone (except Snape who didn't eat but just sat there muttering something under his breath) chatted merrily amongst themselves. Hermione could be heard talking excitedly with Assia.
"How did you know that? Even most of the students at Hogwarts don't know that much about it and it's their school!" she said apparently amazed at something Assia had said. "I think I might be the only one in the whole school that knows."
"I read it in Hogwarts: A History," said Assia. "It's really interesting. Did you ever read it?"
"Yes I have! I didn't know you had too…"
Harry stopped listening to them, their subject of conversation wasn't of any interest to him, in fact the more he heard Hermione talk about Hogwarts, a History, the less he wanted to read it. Instead he looked further along the table where Charlie was talking to Ron.
"My favorite trick was always the Vertical Flip," Charlie was explaining, "of course I was never keeper so I never had a chance to try it, but you could."
"Vertical flip?" asked Ron "How's it done?"
"Well, it looks easy enough. You either flip forward or backwards on your broom then hit the Quaffle with the back end of your broom."
"Yeah, easy." Said Ron sarcastically, in a discouraged voice.
"Don't worry little bro, I'll teach you." Charlie said, ruffling Ron's hair as if Ron was a five year old.
"Really?" Ron said excitedly, apparently he didn't mind Charlie treating him as a little boy as long as he got to learn a cool Quidditch trick.
"Sure, whenever I have time."
"Great!" exclaimed Ron, beaming.
Across from Harry, Mr. Weasley was talking to Lupin and Moody in a hushed voice. Harry couldn't hear what they were saying over the blather. He turned around to see that Ginny had been looking, as he had, around the table.
"Are Fred and George part of the Order yet?" Harry asked her, being reminded so much of them by looking at her face.
"Well, yes, but they don't get to go to the meetings yet so they don't know all that's been going on. Mum won't let them, but they'll be able to by next meeting. It took the combined efforts of Lupin, Mad-Eye, Tonks and Dad to convince mom to let them." She laughed.
"And, er," Harry lowered his voice dramatically "Percy? Has he come around?"
"Not yet" said Ginny in a voice as low as Harry's, throwing anxious looks over at her parents, "we haven't heard from him at all, Dad says he hasn't seen him at the Ministry since Fudge announced about You-Know-Who."
"Oh," said Harry, "I thought that by now—"
"Yes, we all did" she said, shaking her head sadly.
"No one's seen him?"
"Nope."
"Heard from him?"
"Nothing."
"You don't think something's wrong, do you?"
"No I don't, but Mum does. I keep telling her that if there was something wrong we would've heard, but she won't listen. She's been in a right state about Percy, Mum has."
Harry looked to his left where Mrs. Weasley was sitting Next to bill. They were having the usual argument about bill's hair. She looked very tired and about ten years older than she really was; she seemed to have lost a lot of weight since Harry had last seen her. Suddenly he remembered Mrs. Weasley's Boggart; he had seen it last year in the drawing room floor turn into a dead Percy.
"I only wish we knew!" Lupin's voice interrupted Harry's train of thought.
"We'll know by next meeting, Dumbledore's sending Snape isn't he? We'll find out, he always gets us the information that we need." Said Mr. Weasley.
This immediately reminded Harry of what he wanted to do to find out what Voldemort was up to. He turned back to his right where Hermione was sitting, caught her eye and gave her a look that she understood. She nodded and turned to Ron, It took a while before Ron understood what she wanted but when he did, he looked at Harry, and then nodded.
Harry got up and immediately Ron and Hermione followed.
"Where are you going, dears?" asked Mrs. Weasley.
"We're going to get our things out of the tent," said Hermione at once, "we've left them there since the morning, there's some food there that might have gone bad too."
"Alright then," said Mrs. Weasley, "can you set it up in the Drawing room when you finish please? We're going to have a few more arrivals tomorrow and we're going to need the space."
"Yeah, ok mum." Said Ron closing the kitchen door behind him.
They walked quietly up the narrow steps onto the landing, past the stuffed elf heads and up the other set of steps until they reached the second floor landing. Harry opened the door to his and Ron's room expectantly; last time he had done so, Sirius was sitting on the bed. This time Sirius was not there.
"What's up?" asked Ron looking questioningly over at Harry who stood frozen in the doorway.
"Sirius." Harry Breathed as they went inside and sat down. His plan about Voldemort pushed out of his mind yet again.
"You finally want to talk abou—" Hermione began.
"No, not that," said Harry, "before, when I came up, I saw…" Harry explained about what he saw before he went down to dinner.
There was a moment's silence in which Ron and Hermione exchanged looks that told Harry they thought he was insane. He knew they would think him insane, even he, Harry, thought he was insane as he heard himself talk.
"H—Harry," whispered Hermione as though to an overemotional infant "It couldn't—I mean are you sure it was Sirius?"
"Yes, I'm sure!" lied Harry "he talked to me didn't he? I couldn't have imagined that! He said ' Use the D—something!' then he disappeared."
"But Harry!" she said desperately "Sirius is—is, he's dead, Harry!"
"I know he is!" yelled Harry angrily," I'm not insane you've got to believe me! I know what I saw and I saw—SIRIUS!"
Sirius was once again appearing slowly, sitting on Harry's bed. He grinned widely at them.
"Don't worry you're not insane." He said casually.
"Sirius? Is—is that really you, mate!" said Ron, wide-eyed.
"Yes it is." Smiled Sirius.
"But you're—you're—" sputtered Hermione.
"Dead? Yeah, I know." Said Sirius.
He turned around as though looking at something behind his back, then he turned back to look at them with an alarmed look.
"Look, I haven't got much time," he said, "I just came to tell you to use the Dis—oh damn!" He looked down at his semi-transparent body.
"Use the what!" Harry urged.
"Use the Disappearance…" Sirius's voice still echoed as he disappeared.
"Use the Disappearance?" Repeated Hermione to herself, "The Disappearance…The Disappearance! Of course! He wants us to use the Disappearance!" and without another word she got up and left the room.
"Why does she always do that!" said Ron, irritated, and Harry shrugged his shoulders.
About a minute later, Hermione came back carrying the tent in her arms.
"Come on." She said as though Harry and Ron knew everything that was going on.
"Come where?" said Ron.
"The Drawing room to set up the tent."
"But—but—" Ron uttered, mutely pointing to the place where Sirius sat minutes ago.
"Yes, I know, just come! We can talk about it in the tent."
She walked out and they followed suite. As they walked to the drawing room, Harry and Ron exchanged looks of curiosity; what on earth was Hermione up to?
They arrived to the first floor with still no explanation from Hermione. They entered the long, high-ceilinged drawing room, its olive green walls still covered in dirty tapestries. While Hermione set up the tent, Harry walked across the room to where The Black Family tapestry hung.
"Wait a second…" whispered Harry slowly "LOOK!" he added pointing out a spot at the bottom of the family tree.
"Look at what?" said Hermione and Ron in unison.
"That!" Harry jabbed his finger at the spot. The words: Bellatrix Black were connected by a double gold line to Rodolphus Lestrange
"Of course!" exclaimed Harry "I saw this last year! Bellatrix Lestrange is already married!"
"But if so, how could she marry Snape? She can't possibly have 2 husbands!" asked Ron.
"I don't know…" said Hermione ponderously.
"How long does it take to set up a bloody tent!" came a voice from behind. Mrs. Weasley was standing at the doorway looking impatiently at them all.
"We were just about to set it up mom." Said Ron.
"Just now! You came up here more than half an hour ago, what on earth were you doing!"
"We were looking for the tent." Said Hermione at once, "Ron forgot where he put it, but I found it in my room" Ron shot her an angry look before reluctantly turning to his mother and nodding.
"Well, you best not linger now, go on set it up."
"Okay, mum." Said Ron closing the drawing room door behind his mother then turning around to face Harry and Hermione he added "We have to find out what Snape's up to!"
"No we don't." spoke Harry, surprising both Ron and Hermione.
"What do you mean?" asked Ron, staring at Harry as though he had an extra eye. "Why not?"
"Because," uttered Harry "Us meddling in things we ought not to is what got Sirius killed in the first place."
Ron was about to reply but stopped by the look Hermione shot him. After a couple of minutes, Hermione thought it acceptable to speak again.
"Let's set up the tent before Mrs. Weasley comes back again."
After setting it up (which only took about a second,) Harry, Ron and Hermione entered the tent. Inside Hermione directed them into the third floor and into one of the rooms. There Hermione took out her trunk and opened it. From the depths of her trunk she pulled out a book the size of a matchbook and looked back at Harry and Ron.
"What's that?" asked Harry.
"A very interesting book that is going to come in very handy for us!" she answered.
"You read books that are less than five hundred pages long!" Ron asked sarcastically.
"Yes, anyway, Harry this book is called Converse with the Departed, Professor McGonagall gave it to me last term for some research I was doing."
"And how does that help us?" asked Ron.
"Don't you get it Ronald? This book is about talking to the dead, and it has a whole section about The Disappearance." She answered.
"So Sirius wants us to talk to him?" asked Harry
"Yes" answered Hermione; she opened the book, took out a magnifying glass and held it up to page twelve. The writing was so minuscule that it was still hard to distinguish, even with the magnifying glass. "It says here: 'The Disappearance is an object that none see similarly, like a boggart it forms for each special individual. Its powers are many and only little are known. One of its most popular powers is its ability to form a connection between deceased and alive. We that roam the earth can communicate with those who have moved on. This power's mysteries are many; those who have studied The Disappearance cannot yet manage to fathom how it functions. None know what dangers this powerful object may hold, thus it is kept away from wizards, hidden well by The Ministry of Magic.'"
Her words echoed in Harry's head, this bit of information made him so happy that he felt lightheaded. He never loved Hermione's bookishness more than now. "That is the single best piece of news I've ever heard in my life!" He said more to himself than to his friends, "There's still hope, there's still hope!"
Hermione smiled wide, and Ron grinned at them both. This had to be the happiest moment Harry's spent with his friends since Sirius's death. It felt like everything was back to normal again, just like how it used to be.
NOTE: GUYS I'M SO SORRY I TOOK SO LONG! I'VE BEEN REALLY BUSY THROUGHOUT THE YEAR TO POST THIS UP, SCHOOL'S REALLY TOUGH, AND I'VE HAD REALLY DIFICULT CLASSES.But now that summer's here, i've had time to put up chapter 6 after the biggest cliffhanger so far in ch 5!
DONT EVER THINK THAT I'LL STOP WRITING MY FANFIC, CAUSE I WONT TILL I FINISH! I'm currently working on ch 7. hope you enjoyed...REVIEW!
