Chapter Forty-Three: Memories
As Harry sat at his desk, he thought about his little sister Sarah and wondered how she would enjoy her first day of classes. He already knew that she was extremely excited about her first flying lesson later on that afternoon. Harry looked all around at each of the desks, and it appeared as if they were about to have a tea party since a teacup rested upon the top of each one of their desks.
A few moments later their teacher entered the room. She was rather short, had a pair of wide spectacles on her face and had long curly hair. She introduced herself as Professor Twarlney and automatically locked eyes with Harry and started staring at him. Harry was used to this of course, but by the way she was looking at him it was as if he was a ghost.
Before either one of them could say a word, Ron let out a horrified shriek as Hermione appeared inside the desk beside him and everybody instinctively turned over to look at them. "Where the bloody hell did you come from!?" Ron cried out snapping Professor Twarlney out of her trance.
"Ten points from Gryffindor for speaking out of turn Mr. Weasley." She told him before she started speaking about what a seer truly was and not everybody possesses an inner eye and that it would be rather difficult to those of them who didn't possess one to succeed in the class. At that moment Harry wished he could trade places with his sister and be in potions class.
Eventually they split into groups and took turns reading the symbols in their teacups. Harry had discovered from Professor Twarlney that he had had the grim inside his teacup and it was an omen of death. "Gee, I wonder if any other cheerful thoughts will be planted into our heads." Ron said once the bell had rung and he, Harry, and Hermione gathered all of their things and headed to transfiguration class.
Harry found that he could barely concentrate in his lesson even though he found it rather exciting that he could learn how to be an animagus (a wizard that turns into an animal) if he wished. Once he finally made it to potions class his father could tell that something was wrong since he had never seen his son that pale before while he entered the room.
"Alright, you three in my office now." He began as he started walking towards him and pointing at him and Ron and Hermione. Neither of them thought that it would be wise to argue with him, so they immediately obeyed and followed Snape inside his office. "Now, what happened? He looks terrible." He pointed out and then Ron and Hermione started to talk over at each other and Snape rolled his eyes. "One at a time! One at a time!" He cried out.
"Well, you see Professor, Professor Twarlney just told Harry that he had the grim in his teacup." Hermione told him.
"The grim?" He questioned her back.
"Yeah, you know,.. the omen of death." Ron told him.
"Oh for heaven's sake! I knew that we shouldn't let that woman into the castle she's worse than Quirrell was in the sense that she's certainly loonier than he was. Don't listen to her son, she's completely mad." He told him before turning to look over at Ron and Hermione. "Thank you. For telling me the truth you will both have ten points awarded to each of you." He told them as they suddenly gaped their mouths open in shock. "Well, get back to your seats before I change my mind. I wish to speak to my son alone for a minute." He explained as Ron and Hermione silently both nodded before leaving the room and then Severus turned back to face Harry.
"How was Sarah?" Harry wondered.
"Oh she was a natural. She's her mother's daughter for sure and with her brains it's no wonder that she was placed into Ravenclaw." His father replied. "Anyways Harry, I owe you an apology." He began.
"For what?" Harry questioned him with uncertainty.
"I know that was a lot to take in about your godfather and I'm truly sorry you had to find that out, but you had to know the truth." He replied as he slowly turned his head away from him.
"Umm,.. are you okay?" Harry inquired.
"I'm many things Harry, but okay isn't one of them. Time has gotten away from me. It's gotten away from both of us. Sarah is starting her first year of Hogwarts this year and now you have turned from a boy to a young man. It's just a lot for me to get used to." He confessed before heaving a bit of a sad sigh and then turning back to smile sadly at him. "Ah well, there's no sense in worrying about me. You have an exciting year this year and I really don't want to spoil it for you." He told him as Harry watched as he left the room and he suddenly realized that his father was hurting and wasn't ready for him to grow up.
Harry found that he wasn't really all that hungry at lunch that afternoon and was feeding his dog more than he was feeding himself. At least directly afterwards Harry would be able to watch Sarah's first flying lesson a little bit for he would be going to Hagrid's hut for his very first care of magical creatures lesson. Meanwhile, Severus was busy grading papers in his classroom when he turned his head to look over at the picture of Harry at five years old on his desk.
He slowly picked it up and smiled down at the small little boy and sighed while he remained attached to his mother's hip and they both smiled and waved up at him. A tear trickled down his cheek while he set the picture back down and went back to work. There was nothing else that he could do. That Harry was gone and he was never coming back and he just had to face the facts. He loved this one too and knew that he would still always be there for him in one way or another.
