Warm Night at Hogwarts
Chapter 7
"Odd Happenings"
Odd Happenings
"I have a family!" Harry walked throught the Fat Lady's portrait. He hadn't even realized he'd said anything. Ron was sitting over in his favorite chair by the fireplace.
"I would be hard pressed to call them a family Harry, but they are related to you." Ron replied speaking of the Dursleys.
Without thinking Harry threw his arms around Ron's neck and pressed his lips deeply into his boyfriend's. He pulled away quickly and sat down before the light headedness would cause him to faint. "No, I have a grandmother. She's a muggle, but she was accepting of my mother when they found out that she was a witch. So it can't be all bad, right?"
"So, you're not going to the Dusrsley's to stay for the summer?" Ron asked finally digesting all of the new information.
"No, I'm not going anywhere for the summer. I'm staying here at Hogwarts this summer. I guess she just found out how my mum died. How she really died. That's why Dumbledore wasn't at breakfast this morning. He was visiting her and getting everything all set up. So I'm staying here this summer and then I can go live with her since Sirius isn't around anymore." Harry stopped to catch his breath. He was speaking faster than he had ever spoken before. He had never been this excited about anything in his life.
"Oh Harry, I'm so happy for you mate." Ron said. "Athough, I guess there won't have to be any more rescure attempts." He added turning a little bit red.
"No, no more rescuing me from the horrid Dursley's. I fancy they'll be quite excited to learn that I'm not going to be there all summer. Dumbledore is sending them an owl tomorrow to let them know that I won't be staying there this year. Oh Ron, I'm so happy."
"I can tell mate. And I'm happy for you too. Really I am. It's just that..." Ron let his sentence trail off into the mid morning day.
"What Ron?"
"Well, since you're not staying at the Dursley's, then I guess you won't be coming to the Burrow either. So when we have to leave here, I guess I won't see you until we start our next term here. I'm not going to see you for the whole summer." Ron couldn't hide his pain from Harry. It was showing deep in his eyes. It was taking everything he had not to let the tears fall. He wanted to cry into his boyfriend's arms, on his shoulder, it didn't matter. He just wanted Harry close to him right now. He crawled up into the same chair that Harry was sitting in. He sat quietly on his lap and let the tears silently fall.
The tension in the room grew ten notches when Ron sat on Harry's lap. He put his arms around his boyfriend and held him. He knew that saying something would just ruin the moment. He never thought of the fact that he wouldn't be seeing Ron over the summer now that he'd be staying at Hogwarts. He too just wanted his boyfriend to be close to him. He pulled him close and wiped Ron's tears with his thumb.
Draco sat on the floor reading a book called "Hogwarts: A History". He was utterly amazed at everything that this book told him. He never knew that there was a school that taught witchcraft and wizardry. He also never knew that there was a wizarding world. Heck, the only world he knew of was the room that he was in. He still hadn't figured out how to get out of the room, and to be quite honest, he wasn't sure if he wanted to ever leave the room. Meals suddenly appeared before him when it was time to eat, he had a constant supply of some drink that he had no clue what it was, and all the reading material he could ever ask for. This room was perfect. Except for one thing. The room didn't have a bed. He thought of how nice it would be to sleep in a bed instead of the hard floor. Suddenly a king size bed appeared out of nowhere. The sheets where a dark green and it had silver pillows for decoration. Each of the silver pillows at a dark green snake on them, and the comforter had written in sterling sliver "Slytherin". He didn't know what it meant, but he really didn't care. It was a bed. He dove into it and quickly pulled the covers up to his chin and drifted off to sleep.
The two boys awoke when they heard the other students coming into the common room. Ron quickly jumped off of Harry's lap and into the other chair. Seamus ran over to them bombarding them with questions on why they weren't in their classes all day. Harry told them that Dumbledore excused them both for personal reasons regarding Harry's family. He knew that Seamus wouldn't understand. He was asked if everything was ok and Harry gave a complimentary reply. All of the students headed off to bed and left the two new lovebirds to themselves. Before anyone could stop him, Harry stood and walked up to the dormitory and sat on his bed and found the photo album closed. He figured that Ron had closed it earlier when he came in from classes while he waited for Harry.
The book still lay on the foot of the bed. The black leather taunting him to open it. He resisted the urge for as long as he could. He opened it again to the first page and looked down at his father and his godfather. The tears stung the back of his eyes again. He couldn't say that he missed his father as much as he missed Sirius. He hadn't had the chance to get to know his father, as he had with Sirius. He knew that the rumors were still going around about Sirius but he did his best to nullify them as quickly as he heard about them. He let his fingers trace over the picture again as he lost the battle to keep his tears. The storm raging inside of him was more than he could handle. He broke down. The tears were coming in waves now, almost threatning to flood him. By the time that Ron had come up, Harry's night shirt was soaking wet with tears.
An arm reached out in the air and touched Harry on the shoulder and gave a knowing squeeze. Ron had noticed that Harry had not cried over Sirius, and he naturally assumed that he hadn't cried over the loss of his parents either. It was all he could do to stay strong for Harry, but he knew that he had to. It wouldn't do any good for him to loose it because his boyfriend was loosing it. He sat on the bed and pulled Harry into his arms. He could feel Harry give up resistance and fall into him. It broke Ron's heart to see his boyfriend this way, crumbling before his eyes. With his free hand, he reached up and brushed Harry's hair back and kissed him gently on the forehead. He let his lips remain there as a tear fell from his eye.
The silence in the dormitory was deafening. It seemed that as soon as all of the other boys came up here, they fell asleep. It must have been an extremely hard day for classes. Without saying a word, Harry tilted his head and met Ron's lips with his own. They sat sharing a kiss so intimate that not even Hermione would have understood it. Both of their eyes were closed. They were in complete oblivion, sharing eachother's love. They didn't even hear the door to the dormitory being opened. Or the hard footsteps across the stone floor leading to Harry's bed. Neither of them saw the curtains being drawn back.
Draco Malfoy awoke feeling more refreshed than he could ever remember feeling. Sitting on the table was a silver platter with crumpets and tea. He carefully made his way over to the table and picked up a crumpet. He inspected it and then sniffed it. He knew that it wouldn't case him any harm, but he was just being careful. He took a bite and his knees went weak. These were even better than the breakfast he ate eariler that day. The tea was already sweetened to his liking and the meal was simply amazing. Although he could hardly call that a meal, maybe just a snack. He ate his fill and then picked up a new book. He sat staring at the cover of people riding around on broomsticks throwing some kind of ball around. He thought he was going crazy, it seemed that the people in the picture were moving. He opened the book and read aloud, "Quidditch Through the Ages".
Harry awoke feeling more restless and tired than he did the night before when he fell asleep. He also felt empty. He reached over and grabbed his glasses off of his night table and put them on. When his eyes adjusted to the morning light, he realized that Ron wasn't in bed with him. Harry scrambled to get out of bed to check over in Ron's bed but he hit is foot on something sitting at the end ot it. He automatically recoiled his foot as close to his body as he could and held the toe that collided with the object. He looked at the foot of his bed and saw another package. He leaned over to pick it up, but he couldn't get enough leverage to hoist it up on his lap. It was too heavy to do anything with. He lifted himself on top of the covers and crawled down to the box. It was in the same type of wrapping that the photo album came in. He carefully untied the rope twine and laid it out on all four sides of the box. It seemed like it was taunting him. Almost begging him to open it as soon as he could. He reached down and carefully pulled the paper down from one side. He didn't want to know what it was. He closed his eyes and unwrapped the rest of the box. He slowly opened up one eye and saw that the box was made of metal. On the top, there was a key attached to it. He pried the key off and put it in the lock. He slowly turned it and heard the locking mechanism click. He lifted the top and peered inside. Inside the box was full of unopened letter, all adressed to one Harry Potter. The envelopes had no address on them since whoever wrote them didn't know where to send them. The letters seemed to be growing out of the box. How many letters are in here? Harry thought to himself. He sat there and watched the pile grow to amazing heights. One letter fell at his lap. To H. Potter. Harry flipped it over and saw that so far this letter seemed the oldest. There was no seal holding it together, just some sort of adhesive that was the back of the flap. He opened it carefully. On the inside of the flap there was a note. "In the beginning I knew I wouldn't see you. But you had to know of my love. So these are the many letters I wrote to my grandson. I just hope you will get to read them one day. Love, Grandma."