Chapter 21: THE DEMIGUISE
Harry woke up the next morning feeling strangely fine. He dreaded walking into the Great Hall for breakfast, the feeling that the story had spread throughout the school already sitting firmly in his stomach.
But that aside, when Ron's hand went dangerously close to the drawer in Harry's bedside cabinet which contained Cho's letter, Harry cleared his throat suspiciously loudly so as to distract Ron and said "Fancy giving me my cloak on your bed?" which he put there behind Ron's back earlier.
"You okay?" Ron asked him as he handed Harry the cloak.
"Yeah," said Harry, trying to stop himself from blushing, "fine."
Although it wasn't a personal letter, he just didn't want anyone to stumble upon and read it. No, it was a personal letter, Harry argued with himself after a few seconds. "Oh stop being so sensitive about it," he mouthed soundlessly to himself as he descended to spiral staircase amidst some eyes watching him pass. "While you're at it, stop talking to yourself, you never used to before."
The more he did it, the more irritable with himself he became. And at that he stopped dead because he realized he hadn't ever talked to himself since... since Cho.
"C'mon, Raides!" he shouted up the stairs, suddenly remembering he had forgotten all about her.
"Cat got your tongue?" she said innocently, coming down the stairs behind him. "Or should I say, girl got your brain?"
"Shut up."
"I knew you had her letter in that drawer. It was so obvious, Harry."
He scowled at her.
Luckily, the story hadn't spread yet but by the end of breakfast, even Dudley was catching random stares at Harry.
"Suppose I ought to get used to it," said Harry, looking at Dudley who was still sitting at the Slytherin table as he had been for a while. "Do you two still think we messed up the Sorting Hat?" he asked, lowering his voice. "Or is Dudley the first Gryffindor ever to not like Gryffindors? Let alone the first person admitted to Hogwarts who doesn't mingle with people from his own house..."
Harry watched as Malfoy smacked Dudley on the back of the head to get his attention and didn't hear Ron and Hermione saying "yes."
Over the next two days, odd as it was, Harry was happy to see Dumbledore draw the H and P with his wand randomly again when people passed him in the corridors. He had stopped ever since the incident with the unicorn blood and doing it again meant things were back to normal... or at least, as normal as they ever were.
As Dumbledore promised, Harry was pulled over at the end of a Paladism class on Tuesday after Hagrid's primer on demiguises earlier that afternoon. Raides was standing next to Harry, sucking on a dead vole Hedwig had brought her to apparently show friendship. Rather, Hedwig was afraid she would get eaten after finding herself under Raides' paw after an incident involving Ron's owl, Pigwidgeon and Hermione's cat, Crookshanks.
Dumbledore explained that Harry just needed to follow what he did to prevent anyone with the Mark of Ancients from Apparating or Disapparating on school grounds. This was part of ancient magic, he told Harry, and that, obviously, with the Staff of Cybele, he would have no problems casting the charm.
And so with the entirety of Hogwarts on the front grounds of the school just in case something went horribly wrong, one swoop of Raides sent a ribbon of rainbow-colored light zooming towards the castle, covering every inch of it until it trickled down to the bottom of the castle. It snaked along the ground, covering every visible inch of that until the sight looked like nothing short of a strange dream, standing on a rainbow. At the same time, a short burst of rainbow-colored smoke had escaped Dumbledore's wand and expanded to cover all of the area the rainbow light from the staff had covered. This, Dumbledore explained, was the original charm. And then, at the exact same time, both the smoke and the light on the ground vanished instantly.
"Go on," said Dumbledore to Harry, "try to Disapparate."
Standing the staff on it's bottom, the full seven feet tall, Harry closed his eyes and tried for ten minutes, all the while Raides telling him in his head that it wasn't going to happen.
"Excellent," said Dumbledore as Peeves came flying out the castle, looking sulky and forlorn that nothing had blown up.
"It's a shame you won't be able to use that staff in the Triwizard Tournament!" said Ron excitedly in the Great Hall a few minutes later.
"It's a shame I won't be in the Triwizard Tournament!" said Harry, every word dripping with sarcasm.
"Are you still on about that, Ron?" said Hermione sharply.
"I'm not," said Harry, with one look at Ron through the top of his round glasses, munching happily on his dinner.
Wednesday evening's Charms class did bring a bit of cheer to Harry as tiny little Professor Flitwick explained what they would be learning next. In a word --
"Sewing."
"Sewing?" said Dean Thomas blankly.
Harry had a sudden vision of them knitting a large Gryffindor flag for when Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrive. And then he thought of the demiguises and his dad's cloak and wondered if there was any possibility that he couldn't be given his dad's cloak back if he promised to learn Sewing Charms to their fullest extent. This idea sat firmly lodged in the back of his head as Professor Flitwick demonstrated with his own wand and a rug that Raides had ripped up in chasing after Peeves earlier that morning.
"Yes, Mr. Thomas!" squeaked Professor Flitwick as the great claw marks filled in before their very eyes as two great big sewing needles worked furiously with some yarn. The white yarn mysteriously changed to the right color as it was set in place.
"D'you think my idea will work?" Harry asked after Ron and Hermione had been quite successful in making their needles work, though rather slowly, in knitting a miniature Gryffindor flag. He hadn't told them he wasn't trying very hard...
Harry had been silently pondering whether he should show that he can do it -- or not try at all and see if he can't convince Professor Flitwick to go for his idea. He shared it with Raides but she was up in his dormitory, absolutely no help.
"You really having trouble with this? I don't know, Harry," said Hermione cautiously, her needles crashing down as Neville's collided with them ("Sorry!"). "You aren't doing very well to begin with..."
At first hesitant, he decided to come clean -- with them, at least.
"I'm not trying at all. I figure -- I figure if he sees that I'm having trouble with it he might be a little more sympathetic," he said quickly, sounding very much like he didn't want to say it. "And maybe I can make a deal with him about knitting my dad's cloak on my own if I agree to learn this Charm really well."
Hermione's face went from being concerned to being horrified faster than it took Ron to tut. It wasn't helping that he already felt guilty about the idea and he informed Hermione of this.
"You better feel guilty," she whispered fiercely. "That's a horribly deceptive plan, Harry! Fooling with his emotions just to -- just to get something out of him!"
"Don't repeat it because you may just knock the idea out of me," Harry told her.
"He wants the thing back, Hermione," said Ron sympathetically.
"And you!" she snapped. "Taking his side. Just don't ask me for help."
Harry quickly became severely annoyed.
"I didn't ask for your help," he snapped back, grabbing the ball of yarn from his desk and, to his great surprise, squeezing it so hard it became thinner than the wand in his other hand.
Hermione desisted, now looking slightly alarmed -- the balls of yarn were thick and hard to squeeze. This also gave Harry cause for alarm. How many times before had he casted the Strength Charm on himself without realizing it?
He put the ball of yarn in his lap so no one else could see and jabbed it with his wand repeatedly, trying to force it back into a ball but after ten minutes, desisted, feeling even angrier.
Parvati Patil shrieked with joy five minutes later as her needles and yarn finally rose into the air and started knitting away.
"Excellent!" shrieked Professor Flitwick as well. "Two points for Gryffindor!"
"Hermione..." said Ron flatly, staring pointedly at her, Harry trying furiously again to get his stick of yarn back to a ball.
"Nothing," she said quickly.
Although Harry wasn't really listening, he knew Ron had said something only because Hermione was always the first one to get a charm to work. Ron then shook his head. Harry didn't care, being too busy in trying to make ball of yarn a ball again. He succumbed to casting the Strength Charm on himself and squeezed it back into a ball as best he could, Professor Flitwick staring curiously at him.
It was then that Harry noticed that Hermione, sitting next to him, Ron on her other side, was staring at him, too.
"Yes?" he said hotly, not looking at her and proceeding to lazily point his wand at his needles to make it look like he couldn't do it. His mind now set on the plan.
"It's just... you're acting very strange lately," she said in a quiet voice, scared that Harry would explode on her and explode he did.
"I'm acting like normal," he shouted loudly, making a few heads turn, making Neville jump, wondering what possessed him to say it like that and causing Hermione to clutch Ron's arm.
"M-mr. Potter?" said Professor Flitwick, staring curiously at Harry who had just torn the ball in two pieces. "Would you like to excuse yourself?"
Harry didn't speak as he packed up his bag, walked out of the classroom, out of the Charms corridor and headed towards Gryffinor Tower. If he wasn't so absorbed in trying to figure out why he had exploded twice now he would have noticed that two more pairs of footsteps were following him and they caught up to him at the Fat Lady.
"Priscus Veneficus," said Harry as Ron and Hermione both called out, "Harry!"
Harry walked through the portrait hole and threw his bag on a table by the fire, sitting down and hearing, but ignoring, Ron and Hermione.
Ron and Hermione sat opposite him, talking to each other in quiet, terse mutters and Harry couldn't make a word of it out. Still feeling hot all over -- and for no apparent reason which annoyed him even more -- he supposed they were going to ask him about what just happened. Then they both leaned forward in their seats and looked very seriously at Harry.
"All right, Harry," said Ron, putting his hands out in front of him and trying to get a handle on the situation, "we know something is up and, well, we both think there's something you're not telling us --"
"There's nothing I'm not telling you!" Harry shouted incredulously, turning his head to face the fire and wishing Sirius' head was poking out of it. He had once spoken to Sirius like this when Sirius was so far away and just wanted to do it again, even if he had no clue what he was going to talk about. "I've been telling you two everything ever since Sirius --" but he stopped talking abruptly because the thought of what had happened last year to Sirius was still painful.
"You didn't tell us about the unicorn --"
"I had a very good reason not to," Harry snapped hotly, only half believing it. It hadn't affected him and, at least right now, he didn't think it wasn't a good idea telling everyone. His insides did give a guilty squirm, the thought about him being able to possess people still being a secret.
"Harry --"
"I'm not hearing another word of this," Harry told her sharply, his head bursting with trying to find out why himself and then, making him slouch so much in the chair his bottom was in danger of falling off, he dropped the angry attitude so far it slipped into sadness. There was no point in trying to hide it, but he covered his face with one hand anyway and clutched the Order of Merlin plaque with the other, holding it over his heart, looking a mess. It did nothing.
He could hear Ron and Hermione talking in terse mutters again, still unable to make out a word. Hermione then stood up, crossed the room, removed the plaque from Harry's fingers and started to say something but Harry interrupted her.
"Professor Flitwick didn't mention my dad's cloak did he?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"No," said Hermione in a soft whisper. "And I honestly don't think anyone's any more keen on giving it back to you now, especially after that. Now come on. Dinner."
"Forget about it, Harry," said Ron reassuringly as they exited through the portrait hole. "You'll get the cloak back but you'll have to wait until the end of the year."
"Ron, you're not being very sensitive!" Hermione snapped. "You'd want it back, too!"
"Good, you two fight. That always makes me feel better," said Harry, not knowing whether it was true or not.
"I know he wants it back but you heard what Professor Flitwick said," Ron said irritably, walking on Harry's other side so he didn't have to stand next to Hermione as they got up to leave.
"And what did Professor Flitwick say?" Harry asked sarcastically curious.
"He said that he's going to speak with Professor --"
But Harry didn't get to hear which professor because Hermione kicked Ron in the back of the knee, making him lose his balance. Ron grabbed tightly on Harry's shoulder, making the pair of them to fall down. Hermione uttered an "I'm sorry," and pulled Harry to his feet, not giving a second thought to Ron.
Harry marched quietly in front of the two of them, the sad spell being exchanged for the angry one again and his fists clenched. He would have dearly liked to hit both of them but the thought of who they would go to next -- Dumbledore -- stopped him.
All he wanted was his dad's cloak back.
Or did he?
Several girls oohed and aahed at the demiguises in the next Care of Magical Creatures class, their big, mournful black eyes staring at each student, looking scared, their silver fur still unfortunately reminding Harry of his dad's cloak.
"Finally the big git is preparing proper lessons!" drawled a cold voice right behind Harry.
Hermione turned slightly red and thankfully, only the three of them knew that Hagrid hadn't been preparing the lessons on his own at all. Harry lazily turned around to see Crabbe and Goyle with Pansy Parkinson and her band of Slytherin girls all laughing stupidly at Malfoy's remark.
"Malfoy why don't you just go join your dad with a band of Death Eaters, betray Voldemort and then get yourself killed, will you, pretty please?" said Harry, annoyed. "What, you don't like hearing Voldemort's name either?" and they all flinch again at the name.
"Voldemort!" said Ron, laughing.
"Voldemort is just a name," said Hermione, smiling innocently.
"Vol -- de -- mort! Vol -- de -- mort!!" Ron chanted, causing Hagrid to finally tell him to stop it.
"You think you're so popular, Potter," said Malfoy in a cold whisper next to Harry's ear.
"That would be because I am," said Harry coolly, suddenly feeling a strong urge to grab the plaque dangling from his neck.
"He's gonna kill you, Potter," Malfoy went on with an air of vindictive pleasure, his pale, pointed face curled into a malevolent smile, doing nothing more than irritating Harry. "You're only fooling yourself if you think you're gonna live! You know yours is coming, just like your parents did."
Malfoy would probably have continued speaking except he didn't get much of a chance to because Harry, in a split second's thinking, pulled his wand out and had Malfoy up in the air. His wand was pointed at Malfoy's throat where Malfoy was clutching it. Harry wasn't strangling him but the red sparks emitting from the wand did much more than just catch Hagrid's attention.
"Harry!" he said so loudly that a few people jumped, shocked that Harry was doing what he was doing.
Ron, Hermione, Crabbe, Goyle and everyone else had backed away from Harry. Raides instinctively put a smile on her face and stood at his side, ready to turn into the Staff of Cybele in a split second. Malfoy looked down at Raides, seeing the grin she was wearing and then at Harry. As scary as a seven foot lion smiling at your peril was, Malfoy was still more scared of the look of burning hatred on Harry's face.
"Put him down!" Hagrid shouted disbelievingly.
Harry put his wand down and Malfoy fell three feet to the floor in a crumpled heap of robes. But the dangers were't exactly over yet as Hagrid turned back to the demiguises and saw that one of the leashes tied to a tree was limp on the ground.
"What is it, Hagrid?" said Hermione as Hagrid sputtered incoherently. She also wanted a good excuse to step farther away from Harry.
"Now don' panic!" Hagrid shouted to a very alarmed class of seventh year Slytherins and Gryffindors. "They eat plants, not humans! You three, come in here an' help?" he added in an undertone to Harry, Ron and Hermione, pointing inside his cabin.
"It's right over there!" Harry shouted, pointing his wand (which was still spewing sparks of fury) at what was clearly a demiguise in his pumpkin patch, curled up in fright on the dirt, it's hands over it's eyes.
Ron, Hermione and Hagrid all turned their heads to look in the direction that Harry was pointing. They stared blankly for a few seconds before all turning, perfectly chorused, back to Harry.
"Harry," began Hermione, in a tone clearly showing that she now thought Harry had gone mad, "there's nothing there," she said slowly.
"What are you talking about," said Harry irritably, jabbing his finger at the demiguise. It did look strange, though. The fur was very silver, almost transparent, like it was...
"It's invisible, Harry," Ron said, "and unless you're telling me you can see things that are invisible then you aren't --" but Ron stopped dead and it hit them all like Malfoy falling on top of them.
It was invisible. And Harry could see it.
He pointed his wand at himself and shouted, "Incitarem!"
His legs moving much faster, Harry sprinted towards the demiguise (it gave a bad effort at out-running him), grabbed it by the hand and poked it with the Staff of Cybele, forcing the demiguise to make itself visible again. He dragged it over to Hagrid, who was too busy in gaping from the demiguise in Harry's hand to Harry himself, much like the rest of the class, to do much of anything.
"Well what do you want," said Harry irritably. "You have it back, now tie it up."
"You can --" Hermione began weakly, looking and pointing between Harry and the demiguise, "-- can see -- things that are invisible?"
"Brilliant," said Harry simply, feeling, yet again, all eyes staring at him and still more annoyed. "I can see things that are invisible, I'm an ancient, there's a scar on my forehead, I can control lightning. Did I tell you that I know when people are watching me?" He teetered on the edge of saying he could possess people, but seeing as how he hadn't even told Ron or Hermione about this, he didn't dare tell anyone else. He compromised and instead, said "D'you want me to sing the national anthem at next year's Fire Quidditch game?"
Harry refrained from walking out of that class, too, and endured people still catching glimpses at him. He occassionally jabbed a demiguise with the Staff of Cybele every time they went invisible while leashed down. The only thing he said until after dinner was during it and that was, "This has not been my week."
"Sure it hasn't," said Hermione loftily.
They weren't talking to Harry about what just happened and, in fact, weren't talking to him at all. After this one remark, Hermione went back to talking with Ron about how Hagrid wanted to bring in another set of Blast-Ended Skrewts, a horrible project they had to endure during their fourth year at Hogwarts, tending to horrible creatures that, as Malfoy (for once) perfectly put it, "could burn, sting, and bite all at once." Harry caught himself before he made a remark agreeing with Ron that he just might kill the Blast-Ended Skrewts before the first lesson with them again was up.
When dinner was over and Ron was now discussing with Hermione about how disgusting haruspicy was going to be on the way to Gryffindor Tower, Harry bursted out with something, interrupting Ron, after going over it again and again in his head. They aren't going to think any less of you," he told himself before he was going to say it, just tell them and maybe you'll stop feeling bad because nothing else is sure helping.
"There's still one thing I haven't told you, because, well, I think you'll know why when I do," he said aloud, making Ron and Hermione stop walking rather abruptly. He was several feet in front of them before he had noticed they stopped.
Ron blinked. "What is it?" he asked blankly.
"You'll like this one," growled Raides, grinning.
"You told her but you won't tell us?" said Hermione, giving Harry a look so reminiscent of Professor McGonagall that he turned to Raides and gave her his own impression of Professor McGonagall.
"Not telling you here," said Harry, looking ahead of him again. "Someplace quiet."
"Our dormitory?" Ron suggested.
"Wherever."
Harry wasn't at all pleased as they followed a few footsteps behind him all the way, even up the spiral staircase to the top of Gryffindor Tower.
"You remember Mr. Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris last year? How she moved and I have no idea how I did it?" Harry said, sitting on his four-poster and looking between the equally distressed faces of Ron and Hermione. "And I told you about that Muggle that nearly killed Cho and how he just walked away?"
Neither Ron nor Hermione said anything.
"Well now I know what happened," he said, leaning forward, his hands folded and his fingers moving uncomfortably. "I can possess people."
He didn't know what kind of reaction to expect but was at least happy to see they didn't run screaming. Ron stood up very suddenly, walked to the foot of his bed and spun around once, his hands on his hips. Hermione did the same thing except she had one hand on her hip, one hand holding her forehead.
"You're joking," she said flatly as she did this.
"Nope," said Harry assuredly, laying flat on his back and slapping his upper legs with his hands, "I'm not. I possessed both of them. I was cringing after I read your essay on it, Hermione, and that's why I haven't told anyone." He was looking up, absorbed in staring at a fly bobbing up and down off the ceiling that just entered from the open window.
"I can imagine!" said Hermione in a very high pitched, panicky voice.
Ron, though he looked very anxious and worried at first, tried -- and succeeded -- at calming himself down a bit.
"W-well what's going to happen if we tell someone else?" he suggested calmly, sticking a hand out at Harry.
"I don't know," said Harry darkly. "Run screaming and get a pack of dementors to arrest me? So I don't wake up for three months and then when I'm released, I find out that I was supposed to have lost my wizard powers but didn't? And then I'm famous all over again?"
"Do not -- say that," said Hermione severely. "That is not funny and you know it."
"I know it's not funny," Harry informed her, "but that's probably what's going to happen. So you're not going to tell anyone," he added, "right?"
"Who else are you going to tell?" said Ron, doing another nervous spin.
Harry's mind immediately landed on two people. Well, four, really, but two of them were no longer alive.
"Sirius, Cho --" but he stopped himself before he got close to mentioning the other two. "I just have a nasty feeling that when I tell Cho she's going to -- to get scared --"
Ron dropped his arms and made an impatient noise in the back of his throat as Hermione said, "Give me a break, Harry," just as impatiently.
"She told you she loves you!" Ron shouted.
"You two spent half the summer together -- getting to know each other very well, I'm sure -- and you think, knowing very well that she loves you, that she's going to be bothered by that when I'm DAMN sure she knows you wouldn't use it for anything bad? Remember when she walked out on you, Harry," Hermione went on severely, Ron goggling at the back of her head at this point, "because not many people can be made to feel so guilty by someone else that their guilt gets the better of them. She didn't walk out because she was scared, she walked out because the feeling of guilt was just too much. You spilled your heart out to her and she just couldn't bring herself to be as honest as you were. Tell me, Harry, tell me again that you think she's going to respond the way you think she's going to."
As she was speaking, she was pointing a finger angrily at Harry and her bushy, brown hair shook with anger every time she swung the finger up and down.
"That one is on fire," said Raides, breaking the silence in which Hermione was staring down Harry like he had done the worst thing in the world that there was to do.
"Shut up," Harry snapped.
Raides, not looking remotely offended, changed into the Staff of Cybele all on her own and went lifeless. The tail wasn't wagging, the fur wasn't moving at all except for the flutter from the wind and the scarlet crystal was in the lion's mouth. Ron curiously went over to her.
"What's she done?" he asked, peering down at the staff and scratching his flaming red hair.
"Disabled, or something. She basically dead until I grab her again," Harry explained. "Forget about her, she's another story, making me feel -- it's like she wants me to go ahead and do Dark magic."
"Yes, forget about her," said Hermione, not dropping her tone. "Back to Cho."
"What are we so uptight about?" said Ron. "I mean, no one's going to think you'd use it for anything bad. It's you!"
"Ron, you remember how everyone was when the school found out Harry was a Parselmouth?" said Hermione.
"Yeah, they weren't exactly nice," Harry reminded him.
"Why should anyone take this any better? Harry, you write a letter to both Cho and Sirius," she said, facing him.
"All right," said Harry, completely unaware that Ron was looking around in his bedside cabinet and had discovered Cho's previous letter.
"Wow," said Ron. "Cho's mom didn't even want her to come see you?"
"What?" The blood then drained from Harry's face. "Gimme that -- " He reached over and snatched the letter from Ron's hands. "I'll write them both a letter then," said Harry quickly. "I'm fine now, thanks. Good-bye."
Hermione let out a giggle that made Harry turn so white it looked like he had been sprayed with chaulk. She did leave, taking Ron, who was also laughing, with her. Harry was feeling better, the anger that he had had at Malfoy no longer with him, but not as good as he hoped he would feel after sending letters to both Sirius and Cho. He was going to bite the bullet and tell Cho everything he was going to tell Sirius, trusting to the fact that Hermione was right and she wasn't going to react at all like he still had a nasty feeling she was going to.
As soon as Ron and Hermione were gone, Harry picked up that familiar pen on his bedside cabinet, took out some rolls of parchment from inside it and, without really knowing what he was going to write, started to.
Dear Sirius,
You better sit down because if you don't you're going to fall down. I don't know how to word it so i'll just say it flat out: I can possess people. I found out when I stopped that Muggle from killing Cho. I also did it last year with Mrs. Norris (long story).
I've only told Ron and Hermione and I'm going to tell Cho. The reaction that I got from Hogwarts finding out I'm a Parselmouth wasn't exactly warming so I think it's best if I just keep my mouth shut. I wonder where else I've used it without knowing it?
But I'm fine now.
Harry
He gave it the once-over, hesitantly added "mostly" at the end of the second to last line, was then satisfied with it and went to go write Cho's. His brain wasn't working very well after that first one, however, so he mostly just copied it.
Dear Cho,
Sit down because you're going to fall down after reading this. I've already told Ron and Hermione and Sirius is getting a letter like this, too.
You know why that Muggle just walked away? He wasn't feeling a stroke of kindness, I possessed him. That's why I fell down, that's why he just walked away. I know I've done it at least once before and I don't even want to know how many times before that I've done it without knowing.
But don't worry about me (too much). I'm fine.
Harry
He wasn't exactly fine as there was still the reaction he would get from Cho eating him up. But nevertheless...
"Hedwig," he called, turning to his snowy owl who was perched at the foot of his bed, her foot already sticking out, ready for him to tie the letters to. "Send Sirius his first, then go to Cho. I don't know, I just don't want him reading her reply, either."
He felt himself go red again when he walked Hedwig to the window. With an affectionate nip on his hand, a spread of her beautiful wings and a soft hoot, Hedwig soared out into the open afternoon sky, coloring her white feathers a dull, bluish gray.
He leaned against the wall next to the window, his hands pressed to the wall and the side of his face up against it, watching her go. A great weight in his stomach kept disappearing and reappearing each time she rose up and down in the air. All of it was worry over how Cho would react and whether, by some strange reason, Sirius already knew. That was the only thing that would make Harry feel better at this point as the plaque in his hand wasn't helping. Sirius, being Sirius, always knew what to say and what to do.
Harry woke up the next morning feeling strangely fine. He dreaded walking into the Great Hall for breakfast, the feeling that the story had spread throughout the school already sitting firmly in his stomach.
But that aside, when Ron's hand went dangerously close to the drawer in Harry's bedside cabinet which contained Cho's letter, Harry cleared his throat suspiciously loudly so as to distract Ron and said "Fancy giving me my cloak on your bed?" which he put there behind Ron's back earlier.
"You okay?" Ron asked him as he handed Harry the cloak.
"Yeah," said Harry, trying to stop himself from blushing, "fine."
Although it wasn't a personal letter, he just didn't want anyone to stumble upon and read it. No, it was a personal letter, Harry argued with himself after a few seconds. "Oh stop being so sensitive about it," he mouthed soundlessly to himself as he descended to spiral staircase amidst some eyes watching him pass. "While you're at it, stop talking to yourself, you never used to before."
The more he did it, the more irritable with himself he became. And at that he stopped dead because he realized he hadn't ever talked to himself since... since Cho.
"C'mon, Raides!" he shouted up the stairs, suddenly remembering he had forgotten all about her.
"Cat got your tongue?" she said innocently, coming down the stairs behind him. "Or should I say, girl got your brain?"
"Shut up."
"I knew you had her letter in that drawer. It was so obvious, Harry."
He scowled at her.
Luckily, the story hadn't spread yet but by the end of breakfast, even Dudley was catching random stares at Harry.
"Suppose I ought to get used to it," said Harry, looking at Dudley who was still sitting at the Slytherin table as he had been for a while. "Do you two still think we messed up the Sorting Hat?" he asked, lowering his voice. "Or is Dudley the first Gryffindor ever to not like Gryffindors? Let alone the first person admitted to Hogwarts who doesn't mingle with people from his own house..."
Harry watched as Malfoy smacked Dudley on the back of the head to get his attention and didn't hear Ron and Hermione saying "yes."
Over the next two days, odd as it was, Harry was happy to see Dumbledore draw the H and P with his wand randomly again when people passed him in the corridors. He had stopped ever since the incident with the unicorn blood and doing it again meant things were back to normal... or at least, as normal as they ever were.
As Dumbledore promised, Harry was pulled over at the end of a Paladism class on Tuesday after Hagrid's primer on demiguises earlier that afternoon. Raides was standing next to Harry, sucking on a dead vole Hedwig had brought her to apparently show friendship. Rather, Hedwig was afraid she would get eaten after finding herself under Raides' paw after an incident involving Ron's owl, Pigwidgeon and Hermione's cat, Crookshanks.
Dumbledore explained that Harry just needed to follow what he did to prevent anyone with the Mark of Ancients from Apparating or Disapparating on school grounds. This was part of ancient magic, he told Harry, and that, obviously, with the Staff of Cybele, he would have no problems casting the charm.
And so with the entirety of Hogwarts on the front grounds of the school just in case something went horribly wrong, one swoop of Raides sent a ribbon of rainbow-colored light zooming towards the castle, covering every inch of it until it trickled down to the bottom of the castle. It snaked along the ground, covering every visible inch of that until the sight looked like nothing short of a strange dream, standing on a rainbow. At the same time, a short burst of rainbow-colored smoke had escaped Dumbledore's wand and expanded to cover all of the area the rainbow light from the staff had covered. This, Dumbledore explained, was the original charm. And then, at the exact same time, both the smoke and the light on the ground vanished instantly.
"Go on," said Dumbledore to Harry, "try to Disapparate."
Standing the staff on it's bottom, the full seven feet tall, Harry closed his eyes and tried for ten minutes, all the while Raides telling him in his head that it wasn't going to happen.
"Excellent," said Dumbledore as Peeves came flying out the castle, looking sulky and forlorn that nothing had blown up.
"It's a shame you won't be able to use that staff in the Triwizard Tournament!" said Ron excitedly in the Great Hall a few minutes later.
"It's a shame I won't be in the Triwizard Tournament!" said Harry, every word dripping with sarcasm.
"Are you still on about that, Ron?" said Hermione sharply.
"I'm not," said Harry, with one look at Ron through the top of his round glasses, munching happily on his dinner.
Wednesday evening's Charms class did bring a bit of cheer to Harry as tiny little Professor Flitwick explained what they would be learning next. In a word --
"Sewing."
"Sewing?" said Dean Thomas blankly.
Harry had a sudden vision of them knitting a large Gryffindor flag for when Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrive. And then he thought of the demiguises and his dad's cloak and wondered if there was any possibility that he couldn't be given his dad's cloak back if he promised to learn Sewing Charms to their fullest extent. This idea sat firmly lodged in the back of his head as Professor Flitwick demonstrated with his own wand and a rug that Raides had ripped up in chasing after Peeves earlier that morning.
"Yes, Mr. Thomas!" squeaked Professor Flitwick as the great claw marks filled in before their very eyes as two great big sewing needles worked furiously with some yarn. The white yarn mysteriously changed to the right color as it was set in place.
"D'you think my idea will work?" Harry asked after Ron and Hermione had been quite successful in making their needles work, though rather slowly, in knitting a miniature Gryffindor flag. He hadn't told them he wasn't trying very hard...
Harry had been silently pondering whether he should show that he can do it -- or not try at all and see if he can't convince Professor Flitwick to go for his idea. He shared it with Raides but she was up in his dormitory, absolutely no help.
"You really having trouble with this? I don't know, Harry," said Hermione cautiously, her needles crashing down as Neville's collided with them ("Sorry!"). "You aren't doing very well to begin with..."
At first hesitant, he decided to come clean -- with them, at least.
"I'm not trying at all. I figure -- I figure if he sees that I'm having trouble with it he might be a little more sympathetic," he said quickly, sounding very much like he didn't want to say it. "And maybe I can make a deal with him about knitting my dad's cloak on my own if I agree to learn this Charm really well."
Hermione's face went from being concerned to being horrified faster than it took Ron to tut. It wasn't helping that he already felt guilty about the idea and he informed Hermione of this.
"You better feel guilty," she whispered fiercely. "That's a horribly deceptive plan, Harry! Fooling with his emotions just to -- just to get something out of him!"
"Don't repeat it because you may just knock the idea out of me," Harry told her.
"He wants the thing back, Hermione," said Ron sympathetically.
"And you!" she snapped. "Taking his side. Just don't ask me for help."
Harry quickly became severely annoyed.
"I didn't ask for your help," he snapped back, grabbing the ball of yarn from his desk and, to his great surprise, squeezing it so hard it became thinner than the wand in his other hand.
Hermione desisted, now looking slightly alarmed -- the balls of yarn were thick and hard to squeeze. This also gave Harry cause for alarm. How many times before had he casted the Strength Charm on himself without realizing it?
He put the ball of yarn in his lap so no one else could see and jabbed it with his wand repeatedly, trying to force it back into a ball but after ten minutes, desisted, feeling even angrier.
Parvati Patil shrieked with joy five minutes later as her needles and yarn finally rose into the air and started knitting away.
"Excellent!" shrieked Professor Flitwick as well. "Two points for Gryffindor!"
"Hermione..." said Ron flatly, staring pointedly at her, Harry trying furiously again to get his stick of yarn back to a ball.
"Nothing," she said quickly.
Although Harry wasn't really listening, he knew Ron had said something only because Hermione was always the first one to get a charm to work. Ron then shook his head. Harry didn't care, being too busy in trying to make ball of yarn a ball again. He succumbed to casting the Strength Charm on himself and squeezed it back into a ball as best he could, Professor Flitwick staring curiously at him.
It was then that Harry noticed that Hermione, sitting next to him, Ron on her other side, was staring at him, too.
"Yes?" he said hotly, not looking at her and proceeding to lazily point his wand at his needles to make it look like he couldn't do it. His mind now set on the plan.
"It's just... you're acting very strange lately," she said in a quiet voice, scared that Harry would explode on her and explode he did.
"I'm acting like normal," he shouted loudly, making a few heads turn, making Neville jump, wondering what possessed him to say it like that and causing Hermione to clutch Ron's arm.
"M-mr. Potter?" said Professor Flitwick, staring curiously at Harry who had just torn the ball in two pieces. "Would you like to excuse yourself?"
Harry didn't speak as he packed up his bag, walked out of the classroom, out of the Charms corridor and headed towards Gryffinor Tower. If he wasn't so absorbed in trying to figure out why he had exploded twice now he would have noticed that two more pairs of footsteps were following him and they caught up to him at the Fat Lady.
"Priscus Veneficus," said Harry as Ron and Hermione both called out, "Harry!"
Harry walked through the portrait hole and threw his bag on a table by the fire, sitting down and hearing, but ignoring, Ron and Hermione.
Ron and Hermione sat opposite him, talking to each other in quiet, terse mutters and Harry couldn't make a word of it out. Still feeling hot all over -- and for no apparent reason which annoyed him even more -- he supposed they were going to ask him about what just happened. Then they both leaned forward in their seats and looked very seriously at Harry.
"All right, Harry," said Ron, putting his hands out in front of him and trying to get a handle on the situation, "we know something is up and, well, we both think there's something you're not telling us --"
"There's nothing I'm not telling you!" Harry shouted incredulously, turning his head to face the fire and wishing Sirius' head was poking out of it. He had once spoken to Sirius like this when Sirius was so far away and just wanted to do it again, even if he had no clue what he was going to talk about. "I've been telling you two everything ever since Sirius --" but he stopped talking abruptly because the thought of what had happened last year to Sirius was still painful.
"You didn't tell us about the unicorn --"
"I had a very good reason not to," Harry snapped hotly, only half believing it. It hadn't affected him and, at least right now, he didn't think it wasn't a good idea telling everyone. His insides did give a guilty squirm, the thought about him being able to possess people still being a secret.
"Harry --"
"I'm not hearing another word of this," Harry told her sharply, his head bursting with trying to find out why himself and then, making him slouch so much in the chair his bottom was in danger of falling off, he dropped the angry attitude so far it slipped into sadness. There was no point in trying to hide it, but he covered his face with one hand anyway and clutched the Order of Merlin plaque with the other, holding it over his heart, looking a mess. It did nothing.
He could hear Ron and Hermione talking in terse mutters again, still unable to make out a word. Hermione then stood up, crossed the room, removed the plaque from Harry's fingers and started to say something but Harry interrupted her.
"Professor Flitwick didn't mention my dad's cloak did he?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"No," said Hermione in a soft whisper. "And I honestly don't think anyone's any more keen on giving it back to you now, especially after that. Now come on. Dinner."
"Forget about it, Harry," said Ron reassuringly as they exited through the portrait hole. "You'll get the cloak back but you'll have to wait until the end of the year."
"Ron, you're not being very sensitive!" Hermione snapped. "You'd want it back, too!"
"Good, you two fight. That always makes me feel better," said Harry, not knowing whether it was true or not.
"I know he wants it back but you heard what Professor Flitwick said," Ron said irritably, walking on Harry's other side so he didn't have to stand next to Hermione as they got up to leave.
"And what did Professor Flitwick say?" Harry asked sarcastically curious.
"He said that he's going to speak with Professor --"
But Harry didn't get to hear which professor because Hermione kicked Ron in the back of the knee, making him lose his balance. Ron grabbed tightly on Harry's shoulder, making the pair of them to fall down. Hermione uttered an "I'm sorry," and pulled Harry to his feet, not giving a second thought to Ron.
Harry marched quietly in front of the two of them, the sad spell being exchanged for the angry one again and his fists clenched. He would have dearly liked to hit both of them but the thought of who they would go to next -- Dumbledore -- stopped him.
All he wanted was his dad's cloak back.
Or did he?
Several girls oohed and aahed at the demiguises in the next Care of Magical Creatures class, their big, mournful black eyes staring at each student, looking scared, their silver fur still unfortunately reminding Harry of his dad's cloak.
"Finally the big git is preparing proper lessons!" drawled a cold voice right behind Harry.
Hermione turned slightly red and thankfully, only the three of them knew that Hagrid hadn't been preparing the lessons on his own at all. Harry lazily turned around to see Crabbe and Goyle with Pansy Parkinson and her band of Slytherin girls all laughing stupidly at Malfoy's remark.
"Malfoy why don't you just go join your dad with a band of Death Eaters, betray Voldemort and then get yourself killed, will you, pretty please?" said Harry, annoyed. "What, you don't like hearing Voldemort's name either?" and they all flinch again at the name.
"Voldemort!" said Ron, laughing.
"Voldemort is just a name," said Hermione, smiling innocently.
"Vol -- de -- mort! Vol -- de -- mort!!" Ron chanted, causing Hagrid to finally tell him to stop it.
"You think you're so popular, Potter," said Malfoy in a cold whisper next to Harry's ear.
"That would be because I am," said Harry coolly, suddenly feeling a strong urge to grab the plaque dangling from his neck.
"He's gonna kill you, Potter," Malfoy went on with an air of vindictive pleasure, his pale, pointed face curled into a malevolent smile, doing nothing more than irritating Harry. "You're only fooling yourself if you think you're gonna live! You know yours is coming, just like your parents did."
Malfoy would probably have continued speaking except he didn't get much of a chance to because Harry, in a split second's thinking, pulled his wand out and had Malfoy up in the air. His wand was pointed at Malfoy's throat where Malfoy was clutching it. Harry wasn't strangling him but the red sparks emitting from the wand did much more than just catch Hagrid's attention.
"Harry!" he said so loudly that a few people jumped, shocked that Harry was doing what he was doing.
Ron, Hermione, Crabbe, Goyle and everyone else had backed away from Harry. Raides instinctively put a smile on her face and stood at his side, ready to turn into the Staff of Cybele in a split second. Malfoy looked down at Raides, seeing the grin she was wearing and then at Harry. As scary as a seven foot lion smiling at your peril was, Malfoy was still more scared of the look of burning hatred on Harry's face.
"Put him down!" Hagrid shouted disbelievingly.
Harry put his wand down and Malfoy fell three feet to the floor in a crumpled heap of robes. But the dangers were't exactly over yet as Hagrid turned back to the demiguises and saw that one of the leashes tied to a tree was limp on the ground.
"What is it, Hagrid?" said Hermione as Hagrid sputtered incoherently. She also wanted a good excuse to step farther away from Harry.
"Now don' panic!" Hagrid shouted to a very alarmed class of seventh year Slytherins and Gryffindors. "They eat plants, not humans! You three, come in here an' help?" he added in an undertone to Harry, Ron and Hermione, pointing inside his cabin.
"It's right over there!" Harry shouted, pointing his wand (which was still spewing sparks of fury) at what was clearly a demiguise in his pumpkin patch, curled up in fright on the dirt, it's hands over it's eyes.
Ron, Hermione and Hagrid all turned their heads to look in the direction that Harry was pointing. They stared blankly for a few seconds before all turning, perfectly chorused, back to Harry.
"Harry," began Hermione, in a tone clearly showing that she now thought Harry had gone mad, "there's nothing there," she said slowly.
"What are you talking about," said Harry irritably, jabbing his finger at the demiguise. It did look strange, though. The fur was very silver, almost transparent, like it was...
"It's invisible, Harry," Ron said, "and unless you're telling me you can see things that are invisible then you aren't --" but Ron stopped dead and it hit them all like Malfoy falling on top of them.
It was invisible. And Harry could see it.
He pointed his wand at himself and shouted, "Incitarem!"
His legs moving much faster, Harry sprinted towards the demiguise (it gave a bad effort at out-running him), grabbed it by the hand and poked it with the Staff of Cybele, forcing the demiguise to make itself visible again. He dragged it over to Hagrid, who was too busy in gaping from the demiguise in Harry's hand to Harry himself, much like the rest of the class, to do much of anything.
"Well what do you want," said Harry irritably. "You have it back, now tie it up."
"You can --" Hermione began weakly, looking and pointing between Harry and the demiguise, "-- can see -- things that are invisible?"
"Brilliant," said Harry simply, feeling, yet again, all eyes staring at him and still more annoyed. "I can see things that are invisible, I'm an ancient, there's a scar on my forehead, I can control lightning. Did I tell you that I know when people are watching me?" He teetered on the edge of saying he could possess people, but seeing as how he hadn't even told Ron or Hermione about this, he didn't dare tell anyone else. He compromised and instead, said "D'you want me to sing the national anthem at next year's Fire Quidditch game?"
Harry refrained from walking out of that class, too, and endured people still catching glimpses at him. He occassionally jabbed a demiguise with the Staff of Cybele every time they went invisible while leashed down. The only thing he said until after dinner was during it and that was, "This has not been my week."
"Sure it hasn't," said Hermione loftily.
They weren't talking to Harry about what just happened and, in fact, weren't talking to him at all. After this one remark, Hermione went back to talking with Ron about how Hagrid wanted to bring in another set of Blast-Ended Skrewts, a horrible project they had to endure during their fourth year at Hogwarts, tending to horrible creatures that, as Malfoy (for once) perfectly put it, "could burn, sting, and bite all at once." Harry caught himself before he made a remark agreeing with Ron that he just might kill the Blast-Ended Skrewts before the first lesson with them again was up.
When dinner was over and Ron was now discussing with Hermione about how disgusting haruspicy was going to be on the way to Gryffindor Tower, Harry bursted out with something, interrupting Ron, after going over it again and again in his head. They aren't going to think any less of you," he told himself before he was going to say it, just tell them and maybe you'll stop feeling bad because nothing else is sure helping.
"There's still one thing I haven't told you, because, well, I think you'll know why when I do," he said aloud, making Ron and Hermione stop walking rather abruptly. He was several feet in front of them before he had noticed they stopped.
Ron blinked. "What is it?" he asked blankly.
"You'll like this one," growled Raides, grinning.
"You told her but you won't tell us?" said Hermione, giving Harry a look so reminiscent of Professor McGonagall that he turned to Raides and gave her his own impression of Professor McGonagall.
"Not telling you here," said Harry, looking ahead of him again. "Someplace quiet."
"Our dormitory?" Ron suggested.
"Wherever."
Harry wasn't at all pleased as they followed a few footsteps behind him all the way, even up the spiral staircase to the top of Gryffindor Tower.
"You remember Mr. Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris last year? How she moved and I have no idea how I did it?" Harry said, sitting on his four-poster and looking between the equally distressed faces of Ron and Hermione. "And I told you about that Muggle that nearly killed Cho and how he just walked away?"
Neither Ron nor Hermione said anything.
"Well now I know what happened," he said, leaning forward, his hands folded and his fingers moving uncomfortably. "I can possess people."
He didn't know what kind of reaction to expect but was at least happy to see they didn't run screaming. Ron stood up very suddenly, walked to the foot of his bed and spun around once, his hands on his hips. Hermione did the same thing except she had one hand on her hip, one hand holding her forehead.
"You're joking," she said flatly as she did this.
"Nope," said Harry assuredly, laying flat on his back and slapping his upper legs with his hands, "I'm not. I possessed both of them. I was cringing after I read your essay on it, Hermione, and that's why I haven't told anyone." He was looking up, absorbed in staring at a fly bobbing up and down off the ceiling that just entered from the open window.
"I can imagine!" said Hermione in a very high pitched, panicky voice.
Ron, though he looked very anxious and worried at first, tried -- and succeeded -- at calming himself down a bit.
"W-well what's going to happen if we tell someone else?" he suggested calmly, sticking a hand out at Harry.
"I don't know," said Harry darkly. "Run screaming and get a pack of dementors to arrest me? So I don't wake up for three months and then when I'm released, I find out that I was supposed to have lost my wizard powers but didn't? And then I'm famous all over again?"
"Do not -- say that," said Hermione severely. "That is not funny and you know it."
"I know it's not funny," Harry informed her, "but that's probably what's going to happen. So you're not going to tell anyone," he added, "right?"
"Who else are you going to tell?" said Ron, doing another nervous spin.
Harry's mind immediately landed on two people. Well, four, really, but two of them were no longer alive.
"Sirius, Cho --" but he stopped himself before he got close to mentioning the other two. "I just have a nasty feeling that when I tell Cho she's going to -- to get scared --"
Ron dropped his arms and made an impatient noise in the back of his throat as Hermione said, "Give me a break, Harry," just as impatiently.
"She told you she loves you!" Ron shouted.
"You two spent half the summer together -- getting to know each other very well, I'm sure -- and you think, knowing very well that she loves you, that she's going to be bothered by that when I'm DAMN sure she knows you wouldn't use it for anything bad? Remember when she walked out on you, Harry," Hermione went on severely, Ron goggling at the back of her head at this point, "because not many people can be made to feel so guilty by someone else that their guilt gets the better of them. She didn't walk out because she was scared, she walked out because the feeling of guilt was just too much. You spilled your heart out to her and she just couldn't bring herself to be as honest as you were. Tell me, Harry, tell me again that you think she's going to respond the way you think she's going to."
As she was speaking, she was pointing a finger angrily at Harry and her bushy, brown hair shook with anger every time she swung the finger up and down.
"That one is on fire," said Raides, breaking the silence in which Hermione was staring down Harry like he had done the worst thing in the world that there was to do.
"Shut up," Harry snapped.
Raides, not looking remotely offended, changed into the Staff of Cybele all on her own and went lifeless. The tail wasn't wagging, the fur wasn't moving at all except for the flutter from the wind and the scarlet crystal was in the lion's mouth. Ron curiously went over to her.
"What's she done?" he asked, peering down at the staff and scratching his flaming red hair.
"Disabled, or something. She basically dead until I grab her again," Harry explained. "Forget about her, she's another story, making me feel -- it's like she wants me to go ahead and do Dark magic."
"Yes, forget about her," said Hermione, not dropping her tone. "Back to Cho."
"What are we so uptight about?" said Ron. "I mean, no one's going to think you'd use it for anything bad. It's you!"
"Ron, you remember how everyone was when the school found out Harry was a Parselmouth?" said Hermione.
"Yeah, they weren't exactly nice," Harry reminded him.
"Why should anyone take this any better? Harry, you write a letter to both Cho and Sirius," she said, facing him.
"All right," said Harry, completely unaware that Ron was looking around in his bedside cabinet and had discovered Cho's previous letter.
"Wow," said Ron. "Cho's mom didn't even want her to come see you?"
"What?" The blood then drained from Harry's face. "Gimme that -- " He reached over and snatched the letter from Ron's hands. "I'll write them both a letter then," said Harry quickly. "I'm fine now, thanks. Good-bye."
Hermione let out a giggle that made Harry turn so white it looked like he had been sprayed with chaulk. She did leave, taking Ron, who was also laughing, with her. Harry was feeling better, the anger that he had had at Malfoy no longer with him, but not as good as he hoped he would feel after sending letters to both Sirius and Cho. He was going to bite the bullet and tell Cho everything he was going to tell Sirius, trusting to the fact that Hermione was right and she wasn't going to react at all like he still had a nasty feeling she was going to.
As soon as Ron and Hermione were gone, Harry picked up that familiar pen on his bedside cabinet, took out some rolls of parchment from inside it and, without really knowing what he was going to write, started to.
Dear Sirius,
You better sit down because if you don't you're going to fall down. I don't know how to word it so i'll just say it flat out: I can possess people. I found out when I stopped that Muggle from killing Cho. I also did it last year with Mrs. Norris (long story).
I've only told Ron and Hermione and I'm going to tell Cho. The reaction that I got from Hogwarts finding out I'm a Parselmouth wasn't exactly warming so I think it's best if I just keep my mouth shut. I wonder where else I've used it without knowing it?
But I'm fine now.
Harry
He gave it the once-over, hesitantly added "mostly" at the end of the second to last line, was then satisfied with it and went to go write Cho's. His brain wasn't working very well after that first one, however, so he mostly just copied it.
Dear Cho,
Sit down because you're going to fall down after reading this. I've already told Ron and Hermione and Sirius is getting a letter like this, too.
You know why that Muggle just walked away? He wasn't feeling a stroke of kindness, I possessed him. That's why I fell down, that's why he just walked away. I know I've done it at least once before and I don't even want to know how many times before that I've done it without knowing.
But don't worry about me (too much). I'm fine.
Harry
He wasn't exactly fine as there was still the reaction he would get from Cho eating him up. But nevertheless...
"Hedwig," he called, turning to his snowy owl who was perched at the foot of his bed, her foot already sticking out, ready for him to tie the letters to. "Send Sirius his first, then go to Cho. I don't know, I just don't want him reading her reply, either."
He felt himself go red again when he walked Hedwig to the window. With an affectionate nip on his hand, a spread of her beautiful wings and a soft hoot, Hedwig soared out into the open afternoon sky, coloring her white feathers a dull, bluish gray.
He leaned against the wall next to the window, his hands pressed to the wall and the side of his face up against it, watching her go. A great weight in his stomach kept disappearing and reappearing each time she rose up and down in the air. All of it was worry over how Cho would react and whether, by some strange reason, Sirius already knew. That was the only thing that would make Harry feel better at this point as the plaque in his hand wasn't helping. Sirius, being Sirius, always knew what to say and what to do.