Many thank to those who reviewed chapter three. Just as a notice/update, I have added new things to my profile page, and created a forum all about the ANP series so you can ask questions or discuss aspects of the story in another way other than reviewing _ although if you want to leave a review that would still be greatly appreciated... so lonely sometimes *sniff*... anyway, on with the story!
Chapter Four
Alastor Moody
The storm had blown itself out by the following morning, though the ceiling in the Great Hall was still gloomy; heavy clouds of pewter gray swirled overhead as Harry, Ron, Faykan and Hermione examined their new course schedules at breakfast. A few seats along, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan were discussing magical methods of aging themselves and bluffing their way into the Triwizard Tournament. Ron was annoyed by still being paired with the Slytherins for Care of Magical Creatures, while Harry personally was dreading double Divination that afternoon. Hermione was eating again, as Ron was quick to point out. Her reasoning was that there were 'better ways of making a stand about elf rights…"
"Yeah… and you were hungry," replied a grinning Ron.
There was a sudden rustling noise above them, and a hundred owls came soaring through the open windows carrying the morning mail. Instinctively, Harry looked up, but there was no sign of white among the mass of brown and gray. The owls circled the tables, looking for the people to whom their letters and packages were addressed. Harry was about to return to his plate when not one, but three large black ravens landed with a clatter right next to him, in front of Faykan. None of the birds carried letters, and Harry watched confused as they began to caw loudly. Faykan watched with rapt attention, while the growing noise began to attract more attention from surrounding people. After several minutes, the birds abruptly took off again, following the post owls up and out to the grounds.
"What the bloody hell was that about?" said Ron, uncovering his ears after the birds left.
"Oh, just a friendly little warning for me," Faykan replied with a small wicked grin as he turned to glance at the Head table.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Severus watched, surprised as the three ravens soared back out of the Great Hall. Undol had summoned the ravens of Germany to serve him… it was always that boy. Everything seemed to come back to point directly at him. How could one boy be the center of so much mystery and subterfuge? Albus leaned over toward him as the students started to disperse, "Severus, I think it's time for you to have a little chat with Mr. Undol." Severus nodded, groaning inwardly. He was not looking forward to being in close company with the boy outside of his classes again.
Never the less, Severus had questions of his own for Undol, and acting on Albus' request was the perfect alibi. Striding into the entrance hall behind a group of Hufflepuffs, Severus could see the Gryffindor quartet heading toward the oak front doors, "Undol!" he yelled, startling the students around him. The boy turned, and smiled as he saw Severus making his way toward his little group.
"Yes Professor?" he asked innocently. Severus sneered in return, they boys impudence was as unfailing as ever. "Come with me…" he said, motioning toward the dungeons. Potter, Granger and Weasley glared at their retreating forms, but Undol did not protest, which made Severus job much easier.
When they reached the Potions classroom, Severus bolted the door behind them to prevent students wandering in after breakfast for lessons. Undol was casually leaning against the stone wall, as if he had privet chats with his professors daily. "So… what is it you wanted to ask Professor?" he mused, grinning in that obnoxious way that reminded Severus so much of the boy's father.
"You know very well what. I know a fact that those were ravens from Germany that landed in front of you this morning, and I want to know why." Severus demanded. He was finished with using subtly with this boy; he was far too clever for it, so Gryffindor bluntness and force was needed.
"Simple," Undol replied, "they told me that you were in Fanghorn forest when I summoned them, harvesting Athelas I presume. Also they were giving me status reports of the security of the grounds."
Severus was shocked by the boy's honesty. The truth was in his eyes. "How? Why?" he attempted, unable to voice his questions through his astonishment.
"My family has long been able to command and understand the Crebain of Dunland and Fanghorn forest; it was simple to magnify my command for them to come to Hogwarts on the wind. As to why, you know and I know that the Headmaster does not trust me, so I decided that alternative means of communication were necessary for when he decides to halt my owl post."
"And what do you think will stop me from informing Professor Dumbledore about you little secrets?" Severus threatened, his vehemence returning.
"What secrets? He is aware of the Crebain, and my animagus form, and other than those, you both are blissfully ignorant of my doings." Undol snickered, "Oh by the way Sev, I'm sorry that I put you to sleep last year, I could not permit Sirius to be captured, he is needed…"
Severus' rage exploded at the use of his childhood nickname. He seized the front of Undol's robes, yanking the boy off his feet and knocking his head against the wall. "You dare to call me that!" he hissed at Undol, shaking in his fury. The boy's eyes were wide, and alarm was evident in them, "I'm sorry Professor, please… you're hurting me… please, put me down…" for some reason, Undol's terror wasn't satisfying to watch, if anything it was rather painful for Severus to see. He released the boy immediately, and seconds later heard the slam of the classroom door as Undol fled.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Draco watched as Faykan ran down to join the rest of the class for Care of Magical Creature several minutes late. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked concerned as he arrived, muttered an apology to Hagrid, and joined then at their box of Blast-Ended Skrewts. "Where were you?" Harry asked, "Why didn't you make it to Herbology?" Faykan just shook his head, but Draco noticed that his hands were shaking slightly as he attempted to feed the horrid little creatures the variety of food Hagrid had supplied them with.
"Faykan, are you okay?" Draco asked, stopping Faykan by grabbing one of his trembling hands. Faykan jerked away, "I'm fine Draco!" he said angrily. Behind them, Draco could hear Theodore Nott sniggering, but they ignored him. "No Fay, your not. Look, your hands are shaking; please tell us what's wrong." Hermione pleaded. "Did Snape say or do something?" Ron suggested. "It's nothing, I did something stupid but it's not important. Can we please drop it?" Faykan retorted irritably. Draco glanced at the other Gryffindors, knowing that it was futile to try and get Faykan to budge on speaking about personal things. The words of Blaise Zabini from the previous year sounded in his head, "Don't you find it odd, that you know very little about such a close friend?"
Draco decided that it was past time for them all to have a long chat with Faykan about himself, whether he liked it or not. He would need to plan with Harry, Ron and Hermione to organize this, or it would never work though.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Hermione caught up with Harry, Ron and Faykan as they headed down the marble staircase for dinner. "Lots of homework?" she said, catching the sour look on Ron's face, "Professor Vector didn't give us any at all."
"Well, bully for Professor Vector," said Ron moodily.
Hermione rolled her eyes as Harry and Faykan sniggered at Ron's displeasure. They reached the entrance hall, which was packed with people queuing for dinner. They had just joined the end of the line, when a loud voice rang out behind them.
"Weasley! Hey, Weasley!"
They all turned to find Nott, Crabbe and Goyle standing there, each looking thoroughly pleased about something.
"What?" said Ron shortly.
"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" said Nott, brandishing a copy of the Daily Prophet and speaking very loudly, so that everyone in the packed entrance hall could hear. "Listen to this!
'FURTHER MISTAKES AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC'
'It seems as though the Ministry of Magic's troubles are not yet at an end, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Recently under fire for its poor crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup, and still unable to account for the disappearance of one of its witches, the Ministry was plunged into fresh embarrassment yesterday by the antics of Arnold Weasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office.'
Nott looked up.
"Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley. It's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?" he crowed.
Everyone in the entrance hall was listening now. Nott straightened the paper with a flourish and read on:
'Arnold Weasley, who was charged with possession of a flying car two years ago, was yesterday involved in a tussle with several Muggle law-keepers ("policemen") over a number of highly aggressive dustbins. Mr. Weasley appears to have rushed to the aid of 'Mad-Eye' Moody, the aged ex-Auror who retired from the Ministry when no longer able to tell the difference between a handshake and attempted murder. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Weasley found, upon arrival at Mr. Moody's heavily guarded house, that Mr. Moody had once again raised a false alarm. Mr. Weasley was forced to modify several memories before he could escape from the policemen, but refused to answer Daily Prophet questions about why he had involved the Ministry in such an undignified and potentially embarrassing scene.'
"And there's a picture, Weasley!" said Nott, flipping the paper over and holding it up. "A picture of your parents outside their house… if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?"
Ron was shaking with fury. Everyone was staring at him.
"Get stuffed, Nott," said Harry. "C'mon, Ron..."
"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter?" sneered Nott. "So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"
"At least Ron still has a mother Nott. What happened? Did yours kill herself when she saw you were going to be her child?" Faykan said furiously.
Nott's face contorted with rage. "Don't you dare insult my mother Undol."
"Then keep your fat mouth shut then…" Faykan replied, turning away.
BANG!
Several people screamed, a curse sail right past Faykan's face, missing by inches. Hermione, Harry, and Ron all whipped out their wands, but there was a second loud BANG, and a roar that echoed through the entrance hall.
"OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!"
Everyone spun around. Professor Moody was limping down the marble staircase. His wand was out and it was pointing right at a pure white hare, which was shivering on the stone flagged floor, exactly where Nott had been standing.
There was a terrified silence in the entrance hall. Nobody but Moody was moving a muscle. Moody turned to look at Faykan, at least, his normal eye was looking at Faykan; Hermione saw that the other one was pointing into the back of his head.
"Did he get you?" Moody growled. His voice was low and gravelly. Faykan shook his head, eyeing Moody with suspicion.
"LEAVE IT!" Moody shouted, whirling on Crabbe, who froze, about to pick up the white rabbit. Moody started to limp toward the two Slytherins and the hare suddenly gave a terrified shriek and ran toward the dungeons, Faykan the fox dashing after it from between Moody's mismatched legs.
"I don't think so!" roared Moody, pointing his wand at the hare again. It flew ten feet into the air, fell with a smack to the floor, and then bounced upward once more; Faykan snapping at it ever time it came within reach.
"I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back's turned," growled Moody as the rabbit bounced higher and higher, squealing in pain. "Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do..."
He then sent the rabbit soaring through the air, landing with a smack on the stone floor. Faykan bounded after it, his teeth gleaming white. The rabbit shrieks and darted off around the entrance hall, Faykan keeping up easily, nipping at the hare's heels to frighten it further.
"Professor Moody!" said a shocked voice.
Professor McGonagall was coming down the marble staircase with her arms full of books.
"Hello, Professor McGonagall," said Moody calmly, watching the two animal dash around the floor.
"What, what are you doing?" said Professor McGonagall, her eyes following the squealing rabbit in circles.
"Teaching," said Moody.
"Teach… Moody is that a student?" shrieked Professor McGonagall, the books spilling out of her arms.
"Which one?" Moody asked uncaringly.
"Either!" Professor McGonagall shouted.
"Well, the bunny rabbit is… no idea where the fox came from though…"
"No!" cried Professor McGonagall, running down the stairs and pulling out her wand; a moment later, with a loud snapping noise, Theodore Nott had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor. He got to his feet, wincing.
"Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" said Professor McGonagall, looking for where Faykan the fox had disappeared to. "Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"
"He might've mentioned it, yeah," said Moody, scratching his chin unconcernedly, "but I thought a good sharp shock…"
"We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head of House!"
"I'll do that, then," said Moody, staring at Nott with great dislike. "Come on you…"
And he seized Nott's upper arm and marched him off toward the dungeons.
Professor McGonagall stared anxiously after them for a few moments, then waved her wand at her fallen books, causing them to soar up into the air and back into her arms.
"Don't talk to me," Ron said quietly to Harry, Faykan and Hermione as they sat down at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later, surrounded by excited talk on all sides about what had just happened.
"Why not?" said Hermione in surprise.
"Because I want to fix that in my memory forever," said Ron, his eyes closed and an uplifted expression on his face. "Theo Nott, the amazing, shrieking bunny rabbit." They all burst out laughing, and Hermione began doling beef casserole onto all of their plates.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
The Gryffindor fourth years were looking forward to Moody's first lesson so much that they arrived early on Thursday lunchtime and queued up outside his classroom before the bell had even rung. The only person missing was Hermione, who turned up just in time for the lesson.
"Been in the…"
"…Library." Harry finished her sentence for her. "C'mon, quick, or we won't get decent seats."
They hurried into four chairs right in front of the teacher's desk, took out their copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, and waited, unusually quiet. Soon they heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. They could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.
"You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."
They returned the books to their bags, Ron looking excited.
Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled gray hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swiveled around, fixing upon each student as he or she answered.
"Right then," he said, when the last person had declared themselves present, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures - you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"
There was a general murmur of assent.
"But you're behind… very behind, on dealing with curses," said Moody. "So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark…"
"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out.
Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled, the first time Harry had seen him do so. The effect was to make his heavily scarred face look more twisted and contorted than ever, but it was nevertheless good to know that he ever did anything as friendly as smile. Ron looked deeply relieved.
"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody said. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago... Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favor to Dumbledore... Just one year, and then back to my quiet retirement." He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.
"So, straight into it… Curses… They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking."
Lavender jumped and blushed. She had been showing Parvati her completed horoscope under the desk. Apparently Moody's magical eye could see through solid wood, as well as out of the back of his head.
"So... do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"
Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Faykan's, Ron's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender.
"Err," said Ron tentatively, "my dad told me about one... Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"
"Ah, yes," said Moody appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."
Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Harry felt Ron recoil slightly next to him, Ron hated spiders.
Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio!"
The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.
Everyone was laughing, everyone except Faykan and Moody.
"Think it's funny, do you?" he growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"
The laughter died away almost instantly.
"Total control," said Moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats..."
Ron gave an involuntary shudder.
"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody, and Harry knew he was talking about the days in which Voldemort had been all-powerful. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will. The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked, and everyone jumped.
Moody picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar.
"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"
Faykan's and Hermione's hand flew into the air again and so, to Harry's slight surprise, did Neville's. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology which was easily his best subject. Neville looked surprised at his own daring.
"Yes?" said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville.
"There's one, the Cruciatus Curse," said Neville in a small but distinct voice. Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes.
"Your name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.
Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move.
"The Cruciatus Curse," said Moody. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," he said, pointing his wand at the spider. "Engorgio!"
The spider swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula. Abandoning all pretenses, Ron pushed his chair backward, as far away from Moody's desk as possible.
Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider, and muttered, "Crucio!"
At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Harry was sure that if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently… "Stop it!" Hermione said shrilly.
Harry looked around at her. She was looking, not at the spider, but at Neville, and Harry, following her gaze, saw that Neville's hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white and his eyes wide and horrified.
Moody raised his wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch. "Reducio," Moody muttered, and the spider shrank back to its proper size. He put it back into the jar.
"Pain," said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse... That one was very popular once too."
"Right... anyone know any others?"
Harry looked around. From the looks on everyone's faces, he guessed they were all wondering what was going to happen to the last spider. Both Hermione and Faykan raised their hands again, but Hermione' was shaking.
"Yes?" said Moody, pointing at Faykan.
"Avada Kedavra…" he whispered, looking at his desk.
Several people looked uneasily around at him, including Ron.
"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra... the Killing Curse."
He put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface.
Moody raised his wand, and Harry felt a sudden thrill of foreboding.
"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.
There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air, instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead. Several of the students stifled cries; Ron had thrown himself backward and almost toppled off his seat as the spider skidded toward him.
Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor.
"Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."
Harry felt his face redden as Moody's eyes (both of them) looked into his own. He could feel everyone else looking around at him too. Harry stared at the blank blackboard as though fascinated by it, but not really seeing it at all...
They spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang - but when Moody had dismissed them and they had left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Most people were discussing the curses in awed voices, "Did you see it twitch?" "…and when he killed it, just like that!"
"Hurry up," she said tensely to Harry and Ron.
"Not the ruddy library again?" said Ron.
"No," said Hermione curtly, pointing up a side passage. "Neville." Neville was standing alone, halfway up the passage, staring at the stone wall opposite him with the same horrified, wide-eyed look he had worn when Moody had demonstrated the Cruciatus Curse.
"Neville?" Hermione said gently.
Neville looked around.
"Oh hello," he said, his voice much higher than usual. "Interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm… I'm starving, aren't you?"
"Neville, are you all right?" said Faykan.
"Oh yes, I'm fine," Neville gabbled in the same unnaturally high voice. "Very interesting dinner… I mean lesson… what's for eating?"
Ron gave Harry a startled look.
"Neville, what…?"
But an odd clunking noise sounded behind them, and they turned to see Professor Moody limping toward them. All four of them fell silent, watching him apprehensively, but when he spoke, it was in a much lower and gentler growl than they had yet heard.
"It's all right, sonny," he said to Neville. "Why don't you come up to my office? Come on... we can have a cup of tea..."
Neville looked even more frightened at the prospect of tea with Moody. He neither moved nor spoke. Moody turned his magical eye upon Harry.
"You all right, are you, Potter?"
"Yes," said Harry, almost defiantly.
Moody's blue eye quivered slightly in its socket as it surveyed Harry. Then he said, "You've got to know. It seems harsh, maybe, but you've got to know. No point pretending... well... come on, Longbottom, I've got some books that might interest you."
Neville looked pleadingly at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but they didn't say anything, so Neville had no choice but to allow himself to be steered away, one of Moody's gnarled hands on his shoulder.
"What was that about?" said Ron, watching Neville and Moody turn the corner.
"I don't know," said Hermione, looking pensive.
Hermione did not join in with Harry's, Faykan's and Ron's conversation during dinner, but ate furiously fast and then left for the library again.
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Hermione returned from the library to find the three boys sitting around the common room fire, working on their Divination homework, at least, Ron and Harry were, Faykan was laughing at them both as they made up their predictions.
"Hello," she said, "I've just finished!"
"So have I!" said Ron triumphantly, throwing down his quill.
Hermione sat down, laid the things she was carrying in an empty armchair, and pulled Ron's predictions toward her.
"Not going to have a very good month, are you?" she said sardonically as Crookshanks curled up in her lap. Faykan's sniggers began anew.
"Ah well, at least I'm forewarned," Ron yawned.
"You seem to be drowning twice," said Hermione, tapping the duplicated line on the parchment.
"Oh am I?" said Ron, peering down at his predictions. "I'd better change one of them to getting trampled by a rampaging hippogriff."
"Don't you think it's a bit obvious you've made these up?" said Hermione.
"How dare you!" said Ron, in mock outrage. "We've been working like house elves here!"
Hermione raised her eyebrows in exasperation.
"It's just an expression," said Ron hastily.
Harry laid down his quill too, "What's in the box?" he asked, pointing at it.
"Funny you should ask," said Hermione, with a nasty look at Ron. She took off the lid and showed them the contents.
Inside were about fifty badges, all of different colors, but all bearing the same letters: S. P. E .W.
"Spew?" said Harry, picking up a badge and looking at it. "What's this about?"
"Not spew," said Hermione impatiently. "It's S-P-E-W. Stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare."
"Oh no…" Faykan moaned.
"Never heard of it," said Ron.
"Well, of course you haven't," said Hermione briskly, "I've only just started it."
"Yeah?" said Ron in mild surprise. "How many members have you got?"
"Well, if you three join… four." Hermione replied hopefully.
"And you think we want to walk around wearing badges saying 'spew,' do you?" said Ron.
"S-P-E-W!" said Hermione hotly. "I was going to put Stop the Outrageous Abuse of Our Fellow Magical Creatures and Campaign for a Change in Their Legal Status - but it wouldn't fit. So that's the heading of our manifesto."
She brandished the sheaf of parchment at them.
"I've been researching it thoroughly in the library. Elf enslavement goes back centuries. I can't believe no one's done anything about it before now."
"I'm not joining," said Faykan. Hermione looked at him indignantly, "and why not!" she said hotly.
"Well, for one thing, both me and Harry own house elves… and for another you clearly don't understand them. They literally live to serve wizards. If you demeaned that to them with payment or time off, they'd hate it, they'd lose their purpose in life…"
~~Sina tea kirma : This is a line break~~
Harry had to cover his ears when Faykan told Hermione that both he and Harry owned house elves. You would have thought that a howler had gone off in the common room. Faykan tried to explain, but couldn't get a word in between Hermione screaming her head off at him.
Finally, Faykan stood, anger exploding from him like intense heat, "IF YOU REFUSE TO LISTEN HERMIONE, THEN I'LL JUST STOP SPEAKING TO YOU ENTIRLY!" and he stormed up to the dormitories, causing several windows to shatter behind him.
There was a long silence in which Hermione fumed in her chair, broken finally by a soft hooting near one of the shattered windows. Harry looked across the now empty common room and saw, illuminated by the moonlight, a snowy owl perched on the windowsill.
"Hedwig!" he shouted, and he launched himself out of his chair and across the
Room as Hedwig gingerly stepped over the broken glass and soared down onto a table near their homework.
"About time!" said Harry, hurrying after her.
"She's got an answer!" said Ron excitedly, pointing at the grubby piece of parchment tied to Hedwig's leg.
Harry hastily untied it and sat down to read, whereupon Hedwig fluttered onto his knee, hooting softly.
"What does it say?" Hermione asked breathlessly.
The letter was very short, and looked as though it had been scrawled in a great hurry. Harry read it aloud:
Harry,
I'm flying north immediately. This news about your scar is the latest in a series of strange rumors that have reached me here. If it hurts again, go straight to Dumbledore, they're saying he's got Mad-Eye out of retirement, which means he's reading the signs, even if no one else is.
I'll be in touch soon. My best to Ron, Faykan and Hermione. Keep your eyes open, Harry.
Sirius
"He's flying north?" Hermione whispered. "He's coming back?"
"Dumbledore's reading what signs?" said Ron, looking perplexed. "Harry - what's up?"
For Harry had just hit himself in the forehead with his fist, jolting Hedwig out of his lap.
"I shouldn't've told him!" Harry said furiously.
"What are you on about?" said Ron in surprise.
"It's made him think he's got to come back!" said Harry, now slamming his fist on the table so that Hedwig landed on the back of Ron's chair, hooting indignantly.
"Coming back, because he thinks I'm in trouble! And there's nothing wrong with me! And I haven't got anything for you," Harry snapped at Hedwig, who was clicking her beak expectantly, "you'll have to go up to the Owlery if you want food."
Hedwig gave him an extremely offended look and took off for the open window, cuffing him around the head with her outstretched wing as she went.
"Harry," Hermione began, in a pacifying sort of voice.
"I'm going to bed," said Harry shortly. "See you in the morning."
Upstairs in the dormitory he pulled on his pajamas and got into his four-poster, but he didn't feel remotely tired.
"Harry?" Faykan peered through the bed curtains, "What's wrong? Did Hermione go after you when I left?"
"No…" Harry said, making room for his best friend to climb onto his bed. Faykan wandlessly cast privacy wards around Harry's bed, and Harry showed him Sirius' letter.
"It's not your fault Harry." Faykan said after he read the letter three times through. "Harry, we all care about you. Think about it, your scar hurts, Ministry workers disappear, Death Eaters at the World Cup, the Triwizard Tournament returns… it doesn't bode well Harry. Sirius isn't a fool, he'll be safe."
Those words were what Harry needed, and he felt all his anger and worry melt away. Faykan ran his hands through Harry's hair several times, messaging his scalp, and Harry felt drowsiness finally overtake him.
\/
\/
\/
\/
\/
\/