A/N: (Hey guys! I was actually going to post this almost two days ago but my internet completely died and would not even let me sign in! Grr. Anyway, here's the next chapter! Hope this one's more up to par than the others! Luv ya lotz, laterz! -Writing Fairy-)
Chapter 6, Worldly Issues
Harry sighed as he loaded some last few random items in his trunk. Across from him Ron was still sleeping even though Harry -and Hermione- had woken him up at least four times already. Harry, finally sick of Ron's laziness and, most of all, his snoring, whipped out his wand and lazily flicked it at his best mate's feet, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Ron let out a yell as he flipped upside down, "Harry!" He hollered angrily.
"What's going..." Hermione began, popping her head in the room, then grinned, "Glad to see you're finally up Ron." Harry dropped Ron and snapped his trunk shut, snickering.
"That wasn't funny Harry." Ron grumbled, untangling himself from his sheets and falling to the ground, cursing.
"We're leaving in an hour." Harry said tightly before walking briskly out of the room with his trunk. As he entered the kitchen Mrs. Weasley gave him a very stiff look and no good morning.
Harry just blew, "I know you think this was my idea Mrs. Weasley, but Ron and Hermione wanna make this trek. If I had my way we'd be here 'til the end of the week." with that Harry walked right out of the house to a surprised and flustered, "Oh!" from Ron's mum.
Harry stalked outside and walked slowly around the Weasley house. It surprised Harry when, when he looked up, he saw the grey owl with the vivid green eyes flying towards him. It hovered over him, as if waiting for something. Or someone. Harry then realized it was waiting patiently for him to hold out his arm. He obliged and it landed gently on his wrist. It -wait, didn't Tonks call it Mystic?- Mystic held out her leg and Harry claimed the red envelope from it. When he did so, Mystic flew up and surprised him mildly when she landed on his head and starting running her beak through his hair.
"Wotcher Harry! Glad to hear you've decided to pay me a visit." The Sage hologram told him with a grin, "I have no doubt you would like to get here on your own, but if you do want to make this easy on yourself -and everyone else, I might add- Tonks has offered to give you a lift, and it would be in all of our best interests if you took it." Sage sighed, "But I'm not certain you will. But good luck and you are welcome here anytime! Cheers, Sage."
The note burned to a crisp and wafted away in the wind. Harry watched it go with a rather blatant curiosity. Sage seemed very powerful. Not unlike Dumbledore. Seemed to believe that with magic anything was possible, just from the state of her letters you could tell. It made Harry all the more nervous to meet her.
"Wotcher Harry."
Harry jumped and spun around. Sage?
"You alright there Harry?" Tonks asked him oddly, and Harry breathed freely again.
"Yeah. Yeah. What are you doing here?" Harry shook his head to stop the throbbing beating that was bouncing from one temple to the other. He had given himself a right scare and it seemed not to be sitting with him very well.
"Just checking on you." Tonks grinned, "Received another howler from Sage?"
"Yeah." Harry responded. Tonks held up a letter and smiled, "Me too." she pause, looking at him for a moment before saying, "I'm glad you've decided to visit Sage. You could learn something from her Harry, you really could." She was so sincere about it that Harry was completely taken aback. Sage? Around early twenties, from a family of Ravenclaw's but in Gryffindor, skilled in hidden messages? What could he learn from her? But then again he remember the Dumbledore-like feel she held about her letters. And Mystic. The owl. She didn't seem normal either. Just then said-spoken-of owl popped her head in his and hooted softly. Almost...encouragingly.
Tonks smirked, "Looks like Mystics gonna be with you three."
"What?" Harry asked startled, reaching up to stroke her.
"Sage's owl isn't exactly...normal." Tonks fudged. There was obviously more to this story. Mystic looked straight at her with those deadly vivid green eyes, almost like a warning. "Alright, alright Mystic. I get it." She rolled her eyes, then she turned to Harry and said apologetically, "Sorry to leave ya hanging, but Sage'll have to answer that one in more detail."
But now Harry's interest was peeked. What was it about that owl? It was certainly...unique. "She's staying with us?"
"He." Tonks corrected.
"But I thought you said she?" Harry asked confused.
"I'm so used to owls being she's, I've only had girls. Habit. Sorry. But the owl's a he." Tonks responded, rather distractedly. But she shook her head and refocused on Harry, "SO, would you like a lift or no?"
Harry thought about. This was his battle. He'd have to learn to be on his own at some point or another... "I think we'll manage, but thanks."
"That's exactly what Sage said you'd say." Tonks sighed, but she was grinning. "That girl knows everything, I swear. No lying to her. But Harry," She continued, apparently trying to pick her words carefully as she continued, "Just remember you are never alone. I don't think any of us will be relieved until you're with Sage and doing this without me will give Mrs. Weasley a nervous breakdown." She warned.
"We have to learn to be on our own sometime." Harry told her firmly.
"And they say Seeing's a crock." Tonks shook her head a walked off, a small smile playing on her lips.
"You guys ready?" Hermione asked with a deep breathe as they drove to the train station.
"I don't know what there is to be ready for." Harry snorted. Mystic seemed to have found his head a very comfortable perch and he had dosed off there. Needless to say, Hedwig was not happy. She stayed on Hermione's shoulder hooting derisively at Mystic who very clearly did not care. His instructions were to stay with Harry, and stay with Harry he was. At least that's what Hermione offered.
"We're going off on our own!" Ron exclaimed, "That's gotta be a first Harry."
"Not really." Harry responded sarcastically. Since when was he not on his own? The Dursley's were not exactly his piece-de-resistance.
A/N: (Sorry, I couldn't the accents in an gave up. Ooh, how dedicated am I?)
"Now I want you three to be very careful, and follow your ticket to the letter, understand you three? I am putting a load of faith in you Ronald, now I can't speak you Harry and Hermione..." Mrs. Weasley had been rambling for the past fifteen minute but was being very much ignored by the three who were supposed to be paying attention as they continued their own conversation.
"I'm still not sure this the best idea." Harry informed them doubtfully.
"We know that Harry." Hermione sighed, "But she seems like she really needs to talk to us. And Harry! She could have..." Hermione made a gesture, like you-know-what-I-mean.
"But we don't know that for sure." Harry argued. (Yet again.)
"I think we do." Hermione responded unfalteringly. Harry just sighed and let it go. He and Hermione had been bickering all morning, Ron just watching on. Harry was his best mate but he agreed with Hermione. He had to stay out of it.
They made it to the train station, Mrs. Weasley still blathering on and on about Ronald and how she was trusting him and how they were getting so big and becoming so responsible and... "Oh! Just be careful!" Mrs. Weasley cried flinging her arms around them while they were standing in front of their train, ready to board.
"We will Mrs. Weasley." Hermione choked out through the crushing affect of Mrs. Weasley's killer strangle -uhm, hug.
"Ronald will be fine, too." Harry snickered breathily. Ron elbowed him hard in the side, not a mean feat when so squished together.
"Molly. Molly dear." Mr. Weasley told her softly. "Molly." He finally repeated very firmly, prying her away from the trio. "They have to go or they're going to miss their train."
"Oh, yes. Of course." Mrs. Weasley sniffed, wiping at her eyes.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione waved good bye out the window before heading off to find a seat.
Harry looked out the window, at the steam pouring out of the smoke stack, at the gloomy sky that looked ready to open up at any moment, to their small little compartment, and realized something for the first time, "We're on our own."
They weren't heading off to Hogwarts. They weren't heading home from Hogwarts. They weren't going to Diagon Alley. They weren't going to the hospital. They were alone. On their own. Going somewhere that wasn't exactly normal. Or very well prearranged, but they were on their own. It hit Harry kind of hard. Yeah, he knew in the end it would be just him. Just him, Hermione, and Ron to some extent, but in the very, very end, it would be just him. And it didn't take him long realize just how scary a prospect that was. That feeling of alone. Each death he had faced had brought a similar loneliness feeling with it, but this time it hit him in one huge wave. It was the way things were supposed to be and just then he realized how unprepared he was for it all. He shook his head and brushed away those particular thoughts. Pointless now.
Mystic hooted and Harry, Ron, and Hermione jerked awake. Hermione listened to the man speaking over the intercom and quickly realized that they were where they were supposed to be. They quickly grabbed their trunks and hurried off the train before it started up again.
"Thanks Mystic. I don't know where we'd be without you." Hermione told him gratefully running a finger over his oddly all-grey feathers.
They lugged their trunks through the station ad headed for the street outside. They had a few hours before they had to catch the next train. Harry watched all the people bustling through the station, their feet pounding against the hard concrete floor and echoing off of the metal walls, and felt overwhelmed as he realized that all the people in this station -everywhere- were dependant on him. A slip of a sixteen year old boy with a stick in a bathrobe. Great. That was exactly what the world needed.
When they made it outside with their Hogwarts trunks they finally realized that what they had thought was the pounding of feet was actually rain against the roof. They hurried quickly into the nearest cafe and sat down. They ordered some lunch and ate in silence. As the minutes wore on the cafe grew colder and colder and all three of them started to shiver.
Harry looked up and asked tensely, "Did it just get...cold...in here?" Mystic was tense on his shoulder and dropped the sausage she had just swiped from his plate. Hedwig fluttered off and hovered next to Mystic who hooted quietly at her. Hedwig dropped to the table and Mystic flew up to the window, peering out. He flew back immediately, landing heavily on Harry's shoulder and squeezing his shirt tightly in his claws. He hooted in an eerie voice and Harry knew exactly what was going on. His hands tightened on the table as a piercing scream filled his ears.
"HHAAAAARRRRRYYYYYY!" The windows frosted over and Hermione and Ron paled completely.
"Why would dementors be here?" Hermione asked wanly. Both Hermione and Ron looked at Harry frightened. They were all thinking the same thing, they just hoped it wasn't true. The dementors must have finally swayed over to Voldemort, it had only been a matter of time. That meant no one was watching Azkaban, and that meant nothing good. But for the moment they were left to wonder why the dementors were in some small random town. The answer came to them quicker than they would have liked: The dementors were their for Harry.
A/N: (Sorry I haven't updated in while. School started and I just couldn't get into the story and the plot completely escaped me, but I think I've got it now. I hope this one's better than the others! Please review! Lotz of luv, laterz! -Writing Fairy-)
