Star and Lightning

4th Chapter – Report and OWL-Results

When Minerva arrived at Grimmauld Place 12, the headquarter of the Order of Phoenix, she was exhausted, both physically and mentally. In the hallway she saw Albus Dumbledore standing, talking to Molly Weasley.

"Albus, I need to talk to you." When she saw his hesitation, she added: "At once and alone, it is important."

Molly left, but not without looking worried and a bit curious at Minerva. "So, Minerva. What is it?" Albus asked while they were heading to a little conference room, they always used for important and secret conversations because it was the one best protected from overhearing. When they were in it and Albus had closed the heavy door, Minerva took a seat and began explaining:

"I was in Diagon Alley today, getting some books and other stuff, where I saw a young girl. She was about 15 or 16 years old, but she's not a Hogwarts student, I have never seen her before. She looked so much like Lily. It was incredible. Except that she had very dark, almost black, eyes and her hair was darker and less red, but she had the same face and the same petite figure. And she had a star-shaped scar on her forehead. But what happened then is unbelivable. You'll read it in the Daily Prophet tomorrow. She disappeared from my view again, she probably didn't like me staring at her. She tried to steal books from Flourish and Blotts. Of course, the alarm went off and Flourish chased her. And then she did wandless magic." She stopped talking for a moment and looked at him expectantly.

Albus scratched his nose, then asked: "Are you sure?"

"Yes, completely sure. At first, she produced a protection field around her, that protected her from Flourish's hexes and curses. And then she did some magic I didn't recognise as any spell. Beams of magic floated from her hands. And there was definitely no wand in her hand."

"And she managed to flee?" Albus asked.

"Yes. Everybody was a bit too shocked from her show of wandless magic to go on chasing her. She left through the Leaky Cauldron. Albus, who is this girl?"

He looked at an imaginary spider at the oppostie wall and said slowly: "I am wondering, wether it could be… Her dead body was never found."

Minerva gasped at this and looked like she had seen a ghost. Albus had just confirmed what she had been wondering all the time. When she had found her voice again, she said quietly: "But it can't be. If she was alive, her name would have appeared on the school list. Maybe not on Hogwart's list, but on any list. But it didn't, we checked it."

"I don't know who this girl is, but we must find her before Voldemort does. Wandless magic is a very powerful gift. You said, she was stealing books?" Minerva nodded. "Maybe she can't buy them, because she has no money. In this case, I am sure she will come back to steal more books. I must see this girl. We need to talk about this in the Order meeting. One Order member should always stay in Diagon Alley to call me when she comes back. I will be prepared to stop her and talk to her." With this plan made they got up to tell the other Order members about it.

Harry got up this morning like the mornings before. He was still tired but couldn't go back to sleep because he was being haunted by nightmares. Now he didn't only see his parents die, he also saw Sirius and his sister die. When he had put on his glasses, he saw a second owl in Hedwig's cage. He didn't know this owl, it was a quite small, black owl. While dressing, Harry couldn't stop wondering what this owl had brought. When he untied the letter from her leg and let the owl fly away again, he saw that it had brought his OWL-results. Though he had told himself a thousand times, that nothing mattered anymore and OWL-results didn't matter at all, he opened them curiously:

Dear Mister Potter,

We're glad to send you your OWL-results. Please note, that the Astronomy Practical Test has been interupted and therefore was judged differently.

Potions: Exceeds Expectations

Transfiguration: Outstanding

Charms: Exceeds Expectations

Defence against the Dark Arts: Outstanding

Herbology: Acceptable

Care of Magical Creatures: Exceeds Expectations

History of Magic: Dreadful

Astronomy: Acceptable

Divination: Dreadful

You have received 12 OWLs, where is: Acceptable 1 OWL, Exceeds Expectaions 2 OWLs, Outstanding 3 OWLs. Please note, that you have not passed the subjects, for which you received no OWL, and won't be able to continue them next term.

12 OWLs. That was really good. Only two subjects he hadn't passed and he had expected not to pass those. He was curious how many OWLs Ron and Hermione had got. Harry sat down at his desk to write letters to his friends. Without himself realising it, he had gotten over his grief and was ready to live again.

After sending Hedwig off with the first letter, Harry went down to eat breakfeast with the Dursleys. They weren't friendly to him and didn't help him overcome his grief but they didn't annoy him too much either. They remembered Moody's threat only too well and therefore let Harry alone most of the time. After breakfeast, Harry went up in his room to look wether Hedwig was back already and if he could send his second letter, but she wasn't. So he decided to go outside for a while. The sun was shining and it was comfortably warm outside. He took the book, Hermione had sent, with him, sat down on a bench in the park nearby and began reading.