Title: Harry Potter and the Staff of Merlin
Author: Legolas-gurl88
Disclaimer: Crazy (yet flattering) you are to think that we is J.K. Rowlingses, preciousss!
Author Note: Thank you SO much to those who read my story! It made me EXTREMELY HAPPY to see three new reviews come up, but I would like some more people to read it. It's pretty crucial to later chapters and stories of Harry Potter because this is how I see Harry's past. Thanks again, guys!
Story time!
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20. Christmas, Coins and Confusions
The rest of the days before the Christmas holidays started were terribly dreadful all the way from Defense Against the Dark Arts classes to helping Hagrid with Grawp and Sarff to thinking about Rita's article. Ever since what had happened in the Three Broomsticks, Luna hadn't approached him, which was, what Harry thought, slightly rude, even if he knew that he was the one who ran out on everyone.
Ron and Hermione hadn't brought it up either and though it was nagging in the back of Harry's mind, he didn't want to bring it up either. He hated yelling at his friends, especially when they hadn't done anything wrong.
The Holidays had started and, once again, all the boys in the Dormitory except Harry and Ron went home. Hermione, too, left for the Holidays, leaving Harry and Ron alone in the Common Room with only a few others.
Soon, Christmas morning came and Harry was, once again, sleeping soundly. Suddenly, he felt a jabbing in his shoulder. Subconsciously, he knocked whatever it was away, but it just came back and prodded him again. Harry turned his face into his pillow and moaned.
"Ron, stop. I'm too tired…"
"Huh?" Ron's gruff voice asked from the bed beside his own.
"Harry Potter, sir!" a high-pitched voice said loudly.
"Go away, Dobby, I'm too tired…" Harry said again. Then he realized what he'd said and sat up. "Dobby?"
"Yes, Harry Potter, sir!" Dobby the House-Elf said, his long pointed nose barely reaching the top of the mattress. "Dobby has come to see you, sir. Dobby is wanting to wish Harry Potter a Merry Christmas and to give him his present!"
Dobby was dressed in the exact clothes Harry had seen him in two Christmases ago, wearing one ugly yellow sock and one maroon one, which matched the small sweater Dobby was wearing. However, Dobby also has a few new additions to his collection which included a sweat band around his head, going under his chin and attaching the tea cozy to the top of his head tightly. He was also wearing an apron that had the words Kiss The Cook on the front of them, but he was wearing it in the style of a cape.
"Oh. Thanks, Dobby." Harry said, taking the present from Dobby's long fingers. "I have something for you too." Harry threw himself across his bed and opened his trunk upside-down, reaching in and pulling out a wrapped present (socks-- un-matching, of course) he just barely managed to remember.
Dobby's huge eyes filled with tears as Harry handed him his present.
"Harry Potter is too kind to Dobby!" Dobby wailed. At this, Ron jolted awake.
"What the-- oh," he said, seeing Harry and Dobby, "sorry. Merry Christmas, Dobby."
"Merry Christmas, Ronald Wheezy!" Dobby replied. Ron's ears turned pink.
"That's 'Ron Weasley'." he corrected bashfully. To save himself from more embarrassment, he looked down at his huge pile of presents and began unwrapping.
"Your present, Harry Potter, sir!" Dobby said, pointing to the present in Harry's hands that remained wrapped. Harry pretended to be incredibly enthusiastic about opening the present, which would probably end up to be socks or something.
But it wasn't. It turned out to be a book. Harry read the title; Easy and Difficult Defenses for the Defenseless by Sarah Nomes.
"I is hearing of your teachings from the ghosts, Harry Potter, sir!" Dobby commented. "Dobby is thinking you would like help, sir!"
"I-- wow-- thanks, Dobby!" Harry said, opening the cover and flipping though pages, finding spells and hexes he'd never heard of.
"Dobby is glad you is liking his present, Harry Potter!" Dobby said.
"Wow, Harry! Thanks!" Ron said, opening Harry's present of a whole new chess set. "My set was getting pretty old. The pieces were starting to get grumpy…"
"Dobby is thankful for Harry Potter's present!" Dobby said, waving Harry's present to him. "But I is being needed in the kitchens, sir. Dobby will open his present later."
"Alright," Harry said kindly. "Thanks for the present, Dobby."
As soon as Dobby disappeared out the door, Harry turned to his pile of presents at the foot of his bed, which had been scattered when Harry opened his trunk.
From the Order, Harry got another book on Defensive Spells with a reminder note from Lupin that they weren't just to teach others, but to learn himself; Mr. And Mrs. Weasley sent a box of homemade fudge and a red and gold sweater knitted by Mrs. Weasley. The Dursley's hadn't sent anything at all. Harry reminded himself that they probably made a note of it. From Hermione, he got a new set of fancy plumed quills, all from different species of birds and Ron gave him a tiny model of a Snitch that flew around a single goal post with a player following it. Hagrid sent him a box of rock candy (as usual, Harry set these aside) and also a box of chocolate frogs. Soon, Harry had opened all his presents except one.
He reached for it and tore the paper apart. A small coin, no larger than a galleon dropped onto Harry's covers. Along with it came a not. Harry unfolded the note and read.
Merry Christmas, Harry!
We found this on the floor of our store right after you left back for you-know-where. We can't make fizzing whizbees of it, so we decided to give it to you because you usually like that kind of stuff.
Fred and George
"What's that?" Ron asked, stopping the unwrapping of his second-to-last present.
"It's a coin." said Harry, picking it up from it's place on the bed and examining it. "Fred and George gave it to me."
"Really?" Ron asked. "Give it here." he said, extending an arm and Harry tossed him the coin. "Weird. Wonder what it is."
"Me too." Harry said, taking the coin back, "We'll have to ask Hermione when she gets back."
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The rest of the day, Harry and Ron sat in the Common Room with the few others that had decided to stay for Christmas, playing with Ron's new chess set. Harry was, of course, losing greatly to Ron and the pieces were a bit more helpful than Ron's old set and gave Harry advice on where to move, so he didn't lose as badly as he usually did.
The feast was at the end of the day. When Harry and Ron walked in the Great Hall, they found that, once again, all the house tables had been moved and there was a giant table right in the middle of the room. Dumbledore sat in one chair; McGonagall sat at his right, Frost at his left. Snape was sitting next to Frost and Flitwick was sitting next to McGonagall. The other teachers were scattered around in other various parts of the table, the spaces in between them filled with students. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were sitting next to Snape, so Harry and Ron chose seats as far away as they could from them.
The feast came in six different courses and Harry began to think of the House Elves as he chewed on some steak in the fourth course. Finally, the feast was over and Harry and Ron made it back to the Common Room where Harry pulled out the coin in which Fred and George had given him. He and Ron sat down near the fire and examined it.
"Looks real old." said Ron, squinting his eyes to see if the coin in his fingers would look any different that way. "Like-- Moody old-- or Dumbledore old."
"Older than that." Harry said, taking the coin back. "What's this writing, here? It's not even English. And it sort of curves--"
"D'you think this is a joke from Fred and George?"
"If it is, it's a good one."
"Ah, let's worry about it later. I feel like beating you at chess again." Ron said happily as he stood up and walked up to the boys dormitory to fetch his chess board and Harry sat with a smile on his face.
"Hi, Harry." Mark Evans said, walking up to Harry.
"Hi, Mark. You staying here too, then?" Harry said.
"Yeah. My step-parents are nice, but I just wanted to see how wizards celebrate Christmas."
"Nice." Harry said, glancing at the coin again.
"What's that?" asked Mark, interested.
"We're not sure."
"It looks like a coin--"
"We know it is, we just don't know what it--"
"Here, Harry, you can be whites-- oh." Ron said, coming back down the stairs again, his chessboard under his arm, noticing Mark. "Hello, Evans."
"Hi, Ron." Mark said without a trace of nervousness in front of his Quidditch Captain. "So, you like chess?"
"Yeah…" Ron said, suspiciously.
"Can I watch?"
"Sure." Harry butted in. "You can help me-- I'm horrible."
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Seven games of chess and several hours later (into which Harry and Mark lost horribly to Ron) Harry, Ron and Mark staggered up the stairs to their dormitories and Mark said farewell at the first floor, turning into the first-year dormitory. Ron looked tired, but Harry felt slightly sick-- probably from the six-course meal. He and Ron walked into the dormitory. They were the only two people in the room, seeing as the other boys had gone home for Christmas. He didn't even undress when he got into bed and fell right to sleep without even drawing the hangings…
"The plan is ready, My Lord…"
Ready?
"Very good, Wormtail… now give me my wand… I want to be the one…"
The one?
There was a bursting of a door as someone kicked it open. Voldemort… he walked quietly up some stairs as chimes sounded, telling him-- and Harry-- that it was three o'clock in the morning. Voldemort paused, waiting for any movement from upstairs.
There was none.
Closing his eyes, he concentrated and Harry felt himself turn into a snake, which slithered up the last of the stairs. He stuck out his forked tongue and smelled human flesh, and glided through an open doorway, finding two people in the room, sleeping…
Changing back into the form of a man-- could you call Voldemort a man?-- he walked to the person nearest the door. It was a man and the other was a woman. Both sleeping soundly. Not for long…
Voldemort pointed his wand at the man's throat and whispered the fatal words "Avada Kedavra". The man screamed, waking the woman, but it was too late-- the man was dead. The woman looked around for any sign of threat, but found none-- Voldemort had gone without a trace. Instead, she looked at the man beside her, his eyes wide open, as was his mouth…
The horrible sight of this made Harry forget how to feel, how to breathe-- how to do anything but stand and watch the woman vainly wake the man, sobbing, her tears falling onto his face. The complete dead of the man's open eyes petrified Harry so he could not move. Then, a snake jumped out of nowhere and bit Harry's leg. He fell to the ground and tried to stem the flow of blood, but it was too late-- poison was acting up and Harry's eyes began to see nothing but white. The woman didn't even notice him-- not even when he screamed for help. She sat, her body over the man's, sobbing uncontrollably as Harry sat on the floor, dying as well…
"NO!" Harry screamed, sitting bolt upright in bed, his body covered in sweat. He pulled the covers off his feet to see if there was any sign of a snake bite. There wasn't. It was just a dream.
But still, adrenaline coursed through Harry's body and he shook all over. There was a chime from downstairs that told him it was ten in the morning.
"Ron," Harry croaked pulling the hangings open from his bed which Ron probably did up for him the night before. "Ron-- I need to tell you--"
But when he ripped the hangings open, Ron wasn't there.
So Harry got up, not bothering to dress out of his clothes from the previous day, but instead, walking down the stairs into the dorm. It was empty.
"Ron?" Harry called.
Maybe he's at breakfast. Harry thought, opening the portrait hole and walking to the Great Hall. When he was there, he looked down the tables which had been replaced, for red hair. He couldn't even see Ginny.
Maybe he called for a Quidditch Meet for the team members who stayed and I didn't get the note…
Harry ran to the front doors and threw them open, running to the Quidditch pitch. Ron, nor anyone else, for that matter, was there either.
Feeling slightly nervous, Harry ran a hand through his mussed-up hair, trying with all his might to think of where else Ron could be.
In the course of the next two hours, Harry checked everywhere from the Owlery to the Dungeons and there was no sight of Ron anywhere. So, Harry went back to the Common Room and waited there for the rest of the day, pulling out his Quidditch Pitch model and seeing how the Chudley Cannons would do against the Gryffindor Team, but every time one of the Chudley Cannons Chasers got near the goal, the tiny model of Ron would ask for their autograph and let the Quaffle in. When the score was 7,840 to 0, Harry got bored and put it away, looking at the clock. It was five o'clock and Harry wasn't even hungry for dinner.
He was more worried about Ron and why he hadn't seen him all day. He kept thinking Ron might be sick, but he'd check the Hospital Wing twice and Madame Pomfrey told him to beat it if he wasn't sick.
He hadn't even thought of his dream all day.
At seven o'clock the portrait hole opened and Harry stood up automatically from his spot in front of the fire place, turning to face the portrait hole in hopes that Ron would come through. He didn't. Instead, it was McGonagall. She was looking pale and her hair was, surprisingly, not up in a bun, but down as though she'd been too busy to dress. She was also wearing a tartan dressing gown as usual, but her lower lip was quivering.
"Potter… please-- please come with me."
"Where's Ron?" Harry asked, walking to her.
"You will know in good time, Potter." She said, her eyes filling with tears. It was then that Harry knew something was seriously wrong. If McGonagall was crying and her hair was down, then something wasn't right.
"Where's Ron? Is he hurt? Where is he?" Harry asked.
"He's fine, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said as she and Harry climbed out of the portrait hole together. "It's just-- well, you will know in time…"
Harry followed her down the corridors when he recognized the path as the way to Dumbledore's office. When they reached the gargoyles, they didn't even make a snide comment.
"Dumbledore's Army." McGonagall said and they jumped aside allowing her and Harry to climb inside. They climbed up the moving stairs, past the same pictures that had been there when Harry and Cho walked up these same steps.
McGonagall opened the door to Dumbledore's office, allowing Harry to step in before herself.
The first thing he saw when he walked in, was Ron and Ginny as well as Fred, George, Percy, Bill and Charlie. Ginny was sobbing into her hands as Ron rubbed her shoulder, looking really pale and staring straight past Harry. Fed and George just stood there, their heads bowed. The three oldest brothers all had silent tears running down their faces.
"Good evening, Harry." Dumbledore said and Harry directed his attention to the Headmaster who sat behind his desk, his hands folded, but his face looking remorse. "Please sit down. I need answers from you, so please do not hesitate with your replies."
Before Dumbledore had spoken, Harry had started to make his way to the Weasleys to ask them what was wrong and turned to Dumbledore at the last minute, sitting in the chair in front of Dumbledore's desk.
"Harry," Dumbledore began. "Did you have any strange dreams last night?"
Harry was shocked. Without thinking, he answered.
"Y-yeah!"
"Please tell me what it was about."
The Weasley children became silent. Harry gulped, but then began.
"It was about Voldemort. He told Wormtail that he must do-- something. He snuck into some place and turned into a snake. I followed him-- but I was also in the snake…"
"Go on, Harry." Dumbledore said as Harry trailed off.
"Anyway, I followed him and he went into a room and killed a man and woke a woman but he hid from her. When I was watching her cry over the man, Voldemort jumped out and he-- he bit me-- my leg. I woke up."
The whole office was silent and Harry began to feel uncomfortable, so he decided to break it.
"But what does this have to do about anything?"
"It has to do with everything, Harry." Dumbledore said, lowering his gaze from Harry to the Weasley's.
"Why?"
"You're dream is the only thing that gives us even an inkling of evidence as to what happened."
"What are you talking about? Why are you talking in circles-- what does this have to do with me?"
"It has a great deal to do with you." Dumbledore repeated, looking grave. "Because, Harry, last night, Arthur Weasley was murdered."
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Is it just me or is this one of the biggest cliffies in this story?
Anyway, thanks for waiting and I'm happy I have this story up sooner! I would have had it up Sunday, but was having that thing happening, so I couldn't. I don't have much to say that isn't old news except I'm getting a new flute for my b-day and I'm really happy! YAY!
Review time!
Mistopurr- Thanks a bunch, mellon-nin! I take it you like those show! LOL! Yes, Rita is VERY annoying, yet I really like her character. Actually, I looked it up and 'Rita' means 'nosy.' It really fits, doesn't it? Did you like the bad news? Waaaaa? I know what you mean about after you write 'princess' you feel you need to write your real name!
Constance Truggle- I'm glad you liked it and you are very close on all of those! Oh, also, your question about Frost being Tonks… I am sorry to say that Frost is just Frost and not Tonks, but I sort of based her character on Tonks, but not fully! Glad you asked, though!
Shelly101- EVIL RITA SKEETER! Lol! Thanks a bunch!
Allie- You were the only one to realize that he thought it tasted funny as far as I know, so good reading! And thanks for the review!
Mei1105- That's cool that you've shown it to your friends, because I like so see what people think about it! Thanks a bunch!
Cariluv- Thanks! Yes, Voldemort does suck, doesn't he? Lol!
JoeHundredaire- Very, very, very, very, VERY good point! I didn't really catch that, but if you'll read just a bit further, you'll notice he starts being able to sleep a bit better, and I guess I was focusing on his getting better when he was, scientifically, supposed to be getting worse! Thanks for pointing that out!
r- Interesting name! Here is the passage from Harry Potter, and I quote, from page 725 of the American version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
"Harry stared fixedly at the first question. It was several seconds before it occurred to him that he had not taken in a word of it; there was a wasp buzzing distractedly against one of the high windows. Slowly, tortuously, he began to write an answer.
He was finding it very difficult to remember the names and kept confusing dates. He simply skipped question four: In your opinion, did wand legislation contribute to, or lead to better control of, goblin riots of the eighteenth century? thinking that he would go back to it if he had time at the end. He had a stab at question five: How was the Statute of Secrecy breached in 1749 and what measures were introduced to prevent a recurrence? but had a nagging suspicion that he had missed sever important points. He had a feeling vampires had come into the story somewhere….
He looked ahead for a question he could definitely answer and his eyes alighted upon number ten."…
Anyway, it goes on and on and he did finish at least five questions. I'm not sure how many problems were there, so that's just my account on how well he did. Anyway, if I'm wrong, it's just a simple mistake, because J.K. Rowling didn't give any details on that. Thanks for reviewing!
Emikae- Thanks a bunch for your review! I enjoyed reading it! And you'll just have to see if Rita did anything or not! Lol!
Gogglehead Lover- Sawyer is evil! But I was so mad that they completely skipped over this weeks episode due to Thanksgiving! I want to know what happens to Sayid and Claire! WAAAAA! Alas, I have no MSN!
Kiara32- Thanks for your review! Yes, evil Rita! I dislike her, in general, but her character is cool, wouldn't you say?
Trinityelf- Be prepared for a short review! Evil Rita! Anyway, you already know how everything is going to end, so I'm not even going to answer your question about Rita! Sorry, mellon-nin! Lol! We watched 'Macbeth' in Brit. Lit. and it was disturbing 'cause there were a bunch of naked people in it and one girl was being raped by, like, five guys! I was sitting there, with my head down, reading something, then I just glance up and every time I glanced up, someone was naked or being raped or having his head chopped off ::cough:: Macbeth ::cough::. LOL!
Laen- Well, I just sorta think that Luna and her dad are kinda… outta there, therefore, they wouldn't know anything fishy was going on. And Harry was too panicked about Sirius to think that someone might have poisoned him… and what if it wasn't something in the drink that made him tell the truth?
A. M. bookworm247- Slave labor… you mean 'homework'. Grrr… I have to read a whole book over the weekend, then do a book report on it and have three writing journals that are three pages long and have a visual aid and everything, so I have to work hard this weekend! Was this chapters as frighteningly sickening-ly as you thought?
Jeanee2- You'll just have to see! Lol, sorry! I just don't want to give too much away!
Thephantom114- Well, Harry's "love interest" at the moment is Cho, but I wouldn't really call it a 'love interest' because I'm not focusing my time on just Harry and Cho… I'm not much of a romance writer, to tell you the truth!
Fuji the Hobbit- Thanks for the review!
Bookluva629- Yes, I hope Hermione gets Rita, too! Lol! Also, I checked on my computer and none of the dividers worked except for the --------. For some reason, it won't let me do any of the stars or arrows or anything and I'm getting really frustrated!
Thanks for the reviews, guys and I hope you liked this chapter! I got POA on Tuesday and I love it so much! YAY!
Also, I'm Flute hunting and I've found two good ones and I have to decide between them, so wish me luck for choosing the right one!
May broomsticks be in your dreams!
Luv,
Legolas-gurl88