If I owned Harry Potter I wouldn't have to worry about going to College, but I do, so therefore I don't own Harry Potter.
Harry made his way towards the Gryffindor Tower, trying to avoid as many people as possible. He used whatever secret passages he knew, but there were inevitable times when someone would greet him. At that point he simply nodded and kept walking, feeling curious stares at his back.
He was a little surprised at his own reaction to being mute. He would have thought that he would become hysterically upset, of have a temper tanrum, or perhaps a large burst of accidental magic. But...he hadn't reacted like that at all. Maybe the full import of his predicament hadn't hit him yet?
Dinner in the Great Hall had apparently just finished, because there was a group of Gryffindors squeezing through the portrait hole as Harry arrived. He stayed at the back of the crowd, trying to avoid notice. But he couldn't get too far away, he realized. He had to squeeze into the common room after whoever was last. He couldn't say the password.
This new realization brought on a fresh wave of depression, but Harry hastily pushed it back. He needed to find Ron and Hermione. If he was lucky and kept his head down maybe he could find them before the others noticed his presence.
Harry slipped through the portrait hole right after Lavender Brown. The common room was filled with the usual noise of students studying, talking, and playing games. Hearing the noise, and realizing he couldn't be part of that anymore, made Harry pause in the entrance to the common room instead of his original plan to slip quickly up to the dorm.
Within a second, Dean Thomas noticed his presence.
"Harry! You're back! What was wrong with you, mate? No one would tell us!" Everyone stood and looked at Harry, who stood frozen, already beginning to panic.
Everyone was asking him questions he couldn't answer. He needed to find Hermione and Ron; they knew what had happened to him, they could explain to everyone why he wasn't speaking. But his friends were nowhere in sight.
People were beginning to wonder why Harry was so quiet, and appeared so terrified. The loud questions settled down, to be replaced with muttering and suspicious glances. Harry was about to turn and run when the portrait hole opened behind him and Neville came through, limping but otherwise fine. His ankle had apparently healed.
Harry sagged with relief and turned to Neville, who had paused to examine the mood of the room.
Harry gestured around the room, then pointed to Neville and then himself. Neville nodded, while Seamus asked, "What are you doing, Harry? Why won't you talk?"
Neville and Harry looked at each other and both took a deep breath.
"Harry can't speak." Neville said bluntly. The room was suddenly silent. "That was why he was in the infirmary. He was hit with some sort of curse that burned away his vocal chords. The damage was irreparable, so...Harry is now mute." Everyone's stares shifted from Neville to Harry, all eyes filled with disbelief. Harry nodded confirmation of Neville's words.
"You...you can't talk, Harry?" Ginny asked from behind. She had come into the common room just as Neville explained Harry's silence. Harry turned and shook his head sadly.
Ginny burst into tears and threw herself at Harry, wrapping her arms around him and crying into his shoulder. Harry patted her back a little awkwardly. Shouldn't she be the one comforting him, he wondered?
She pulled away after a few seconds and wiped her eyes.
"I'm sorry, Harry. I'll bet you want to see Ron and Hermione. Do they know?" she asked. Again, Harry nodded.
"Come on, I think they are in the library. I'll come with you, if that is alright?" Harry smiled and together, they left the common room filled with staring students behind.
Harry's arrival at the library went much smoother than his entrance to the common room. Everyone was busy studying, bent over books, and no one looked up. Ginny and Harry skirted around whatever students they saw, not wanting to have to deal with another uncomfortable explanation.
Harry spotted Ron and Hermione first.
"There they..." Harry began, forgetting that he no longer made a sound. Ginny looked at him sympathetically, having seen his mouth move and heard his suddenly erratic breaths. She placed her hand on his shoulder to comfort him. Drawing himself up, he pointed to where his friends were at a library table and led the way to them.
Ron looked up and saw them first.
"Harry!" he exclaimed. He leapt to his feet and clapped Harry on the shoulder. "You're out! We were wondering when Madam Pomfrey would release you. We were about to head up to the Hospital Wing to visit you again, but I guess we don't need to now, after all." Despite himself, Harry grinned and returned Ron's shoulder-clap.
"I'm so glad you're awake, Harry." Hermione said, standing and giving him a hug. "I was beginning to wonder if there was something else that had gone wrong. You've been out for three days, you know."
Harry nodded. Madam Pomfrey had told him in response to his pantomimed question, he remembered.
He wondered if they would bring up his disability. After all, he wouldn't be able to mention it.
"How has it been, Harry?" Hermione asked quietly. He shrugged and motioned to Ginny, who took the cue.
"Neville had to explain everything in the common room. I think everyone had been bombarding Harry with questions and he was beginning to panic." Ginny said, and Harry nodded.
"How did Neville find out?" Ron asked.
"In the Hospital Wing, obviously. Ron, use a little logic. Neville was in for his ankle. If he was nearby Harry when Madam Pomfrey told him about...well, he would know, wouldn't he?" Hermione reasoned. Again, Harry nodded. He was beginning to feel a little stupid, doing all this nodding. He sat down at the table and unrolled his parchment.
Hermione's right. I woke up during dinner. Sort of panicked at first when I realized I couldn't talk, but I didn't know then that it was permanent. When Pomfrey told me that I sort of just got a bit depressed.
"Oh, Harry, I'm sorry we weren't there when she told you." Hermione said.
That's alright, you need to eat. Neville said that you had been sitting with me and skipping lunches.
"Yeah, we did. But Hermione made us look at books on sign language while we were there. She's already learning the advanced signs!" Ron commented, a tinge of disbelief in his voice.
"Harry, you need to get started on learning Sign Language right away. Ron has promised to do it, and I'm planning on asking the rest of the Gryffindor sixth-years to do it as well..." Hermione started, but Harry cut her off with a hand-motion.
I'm not staying for a seventh year.
"Harry, you can't let this discourage you. You need to continue your education." Hermione said.
It's not that. Dumbledore told me how Voldemort survived, and left me with a mission.
"But, Harry, Dumbledore is missing, along with Snape and Malfoy." Ginny said, confused.
He isn't missing, he is dead. Snape killed him, and ran off with Malfoy and the rest of their Death Eater pals. His body fell over the edge of the Astronomy Tower.
No one said anything.
I have to write what I saw so that the staff knows what happened. I am one of the witnesses to his murder; only I and several Death Eaters saw what happened.
"Is that how you got injured? The Death Eaters found you spying?" Ron asked hoarsely.
No, I was under the Invisibility Cloak, and under Petrificus Totalus. Wait, instead of writing it all piecemeal let me just write this down for McGonagall. You can read as I write.
His friends nodded, so Harry proceeded to write down everything he remembered about that night, starting from when he and Dumbledore had arrived back at Hogwarts and ending when he fell unconscious. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny read along as he wrote, occasionally making comments or muttering to themselves. He finished just in time; not a minute had passed from when he wrote the last letter to when McGonagall arrived, accompanied by the other two Heads of Houses. No one said a word. Harry merely handed over his parchment and watching as the teachers read his story, their faces grim.
After a minute, McGonagall looked up.
"Thank you, Harry. Is there any chance you could tell us what you were doing with Professor Dumbledore?"
Harry shook his head. He couldn't share the secret of Voldemort's immortality; if Voldemort got wind that his horecruxes had been discovered Harry's mission would become even harder.
The horecrux. Slytherin's locket.
It was with Dumbledore, at the base of the Astronomy tower. Harry had to get it before it was confiscated as Dumbledore's property and it disappeared into some vault at the Ministry. Harry's eyes widened and he stood quickly.
"Harry, what is wrong?" Ginny asked.
He took the parchment back from McGonagall and scrawled hurriedly:
Secret, with Dumbledore. Have to get it. He left the parchment on the table, his friends reading his message, as he ran out the library, through the Entrance Hall and the courtyard, all around the castle, until he reached the Astronomy Tower.
And Dumbledore's body.
