Disclaimer: Really I don't own Harry Potter. All I own is my car (well the part I've paid for so far, the rest is owned by the lovely bank people). If I were J. K. Rowling I would be busy getting ready for the release of book 6 not writing fanfiction.
AN: Here's some more Trio summer. I'm trying to time cut but this was important to events later in the story and it was some interesting dialogue to write.
The conversation with Dumbledore was short. The Headmaster wanted to set up a time during the weekend for Harry's first Occlumency lesson. The trio headed outside to feed toast to the giant squid, and to find out that Hagrid wasn't back from his mission, presumably to talk to the giants again. "I do hope he has better luck this time. His face looked horrible last time he came back from the giant's camp," Hermione said.
"I just hope he wasn't slowed down by the injuries he got from the stupid Ministry officials in June. He was hit a few times when Umbridge tried to fire him," Harry said, ducking as the giant squid attempted to splash at him.
"We should probably go in and get Divination out of the way," Hermione said.
The rest of the day passed quickly with the trio studying intensely for their Divination OWL and waiting to see if Sirius and Remus would come by to chat. They wanted to hear from Sirius how he had gotten out of the veil, and more importantly how he had convinced Fudge to not immediately call for the Dementors and instead give him a trial. By the end of the day all three of them had earned O's on the Divination OWL and had begun to study for Ancient Runes which they would test on the next day.
Sirius and Remus didn't come by that night, but sent a letter with a handsome screech owl that they would be there by dinner time the next night to bring Harry, Hermione, and Ron the things they had asked for.
Friday passed much the same way as Thursday had and another OWL was added to their records. "Well now, only three more to go and the potions we wanted to brew. Maybe since we finished early we can start getting things together and read the instructions a few times, especially on the Wolfsbane. Are we just going to brew it here? I was thinking, if this is a room of requirement, we could just ask it for a room suitable for brewing potions," Harry said, thinking aloud.
"Good idea, Harry, and I think we'll have time to start the brewing anyway before our company comes by. We still have 3 hours or so until dinner. Oh, and Ron, we want to try something one of these nights. Harry and I found out we're telepaths and there is a way to add someone else to the connection. We figured it would be useful in battle," Hermione said.
"And for other things, like Potions class," Ron said.
"What is it with you two and cheating in Potions?" Hermione said jokingly.
"It might save house points, since you know the answer all the time and he never calls on you unless he has to. Next time you can just let us see the answers through our link and we won't have to say 'I don't know Professor,' all the time," Ron said.
Just then three owls fluttered into the room and dropped letters in front of them. "Well, here's our lists and prefect badges," Hermione said, opening the seal and pulling a silver prefect badge and the letters from the envelope. "Let's see, normal notice about the Hogwarts Express. I'm thinking we won't be riding it this year. If the Death Eaters are going to attack that would be the most obvious place. Here's our prefect information. If we don't ride the train the other prefects will have even more work," Hermione said.
"Hey, here's the course selection list," Harry said.
The trio were so absorbed with looking at their lists that they didn't hear the portrait door open to let Sirius and Remus in.
"Students may enroll in no more than six classes at NEWT level. NO EXCEPTIONS will be made," Hermione read.
"No time turner this year," Ron said.
"I wouldn't do that anyway. Dumbledore would have to ask a favour from the Ministry and after last year I doubt that the Minister would be so willing," Hermione said.
"And if Umbridge somehow collected her wits after the centaurs got done scrambling them I am sure she would refuse the request and try to have you arrested for even asking to borrow a time turner in the first place," Harry said.
"Let's see what we should take," Ron said.
"Well, I'll be taking DADA, Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration to be able to be an Auror. That leaves two electives. Hey, there's a few new classes on the list," Harry said.
"It looks like we'll all have the same four main classes," Hermione said, looking at Ron's list and her own and noticing that they were identical to Harry's. "We've all chosen to be Aurors," she said.
"Should we continue in Care of Magical Creatures? I would rather not if Hagrid's not the teacher. Grubbly-Plank really isn't all that interesting," Harry said.
"Hey, they're offering Duelling, and look, Harry, it says that Sirius is the teacher," Ron said.
"What! Hey, why didn't he tell us he was going to be teaching here?" Harry said.
"Maybe because I wanted it to be a surprise, at least until you got your book lists anyway," Sirius said from his chair near the fire.
"Sirius, Remus, when did you get here?" Harry asked, noticing them sitting by the fire.
"Right after you got your letters. We were waiting for you to finish choosing your electives, or at least to notice the Duelling class anyway," Sirius said.
"We come bearing gifts, but first choose two classes so the letters can return to Professor McGonagall's office," Remus said.
"Oh, look they're offering Healing as well. That could be useful with the war and all," Hermione said.
"I agree. I'm picking Duelling and Healing. They're far more important than another two years of Trelawny telling me that she sees a Grim in my teacup," Harry said, checking the flashing boxes for Duelling and Healing and watching as the letter folded itself and disappeared in a puff of blue smoke. Ron and Hermione also checked Duelling and Healing and watched their letters disappear.
"You three will enjoy my class," Sirius said, unshrinking the parcels in his pockets and handing them to the trio. "Here you are. Oh, and here's a little something for you, Hermione, and one for Ron," Sirius said, handing each of them a money bag full of Galleons. "Here's yours, Harry, and your key," Sirius said.
"This is far too much," Hermione said, noticing that the pouch was full.
"Thank you, Sirius, but I shouldn't accept this. Mum wouldn't be happy," Ron said.
"Take it, both of you. Like I said, I'll never spend it all and neither will Remus, especially since I had to force him to get new robes as it was. It's the money the Ministry gave me for having mistakenly locked me in Azkaban for twelve years and then chasing me for another two," Sirius said.
"That reminds me. How did you get set free anyway, Sirius?" Hermione asked, putting her money bag with the book she had asked for and her new robes.
"Good question. I mean besides the obvious of how you got out of that veil thing, how did you ever convince Fudge to give you a trial?" Ron asked, also putting his money bag aside with his sweets and robe.
"Let's go eat dinner and I'll tell you what I can. It's a rather long story and there are parts of it that involve Order work, so I can't tell you the whole thing, but there are parts that everyone knows so that should be okay to tell you," Sirius said, gesturing to the table which was already set waiting for their orders.
As soon as they had ordered their food, Harry looked at Sirius, wanting to hear how he had gotten away and why Remus hadn't been surprised to see Sirius in Dumbledore's office. "So, the last thing I saw was Bellatrix blasting you through the veil and seeing you fall backwards. Everyone told me you were gone for good. I even tried the mirror you gave me but you didn't answer so I smashed it," Harry said.
"Oh Harry. I heard you in the mirror. I just couldn't answer. For the first bit of time I couldn't move at all from where I had landed. It was as if all my muscles were frozen. Then all of a sudden something gave me a push towards the curtain that I could see in the distance and I could move again. I started walking towards the curtain, but there was something pulling me backwards. I knew somehow that I couldn't let it get me or I wouldn't be able to get back to you. I thought it had only taken me a few hours to get out but it actually took me about ten days. I was thrown out of the veil and smashed into the floor in front of the dais. I laid there for another day before some Unspeakable found me. He didn't recognize me, but I told him that I had fallen behind the veil and that it had thrown me out. I begged him to help me out of the Ministry because I needed to talk to Dumbledore and he let me out through one of the side exits. I made my way back to Grimmauld Place and scared everyone half to death when I just walked in. Dumbledore was actually speechless for a full minute," Sirius said.
"So how did you get a trial? You said they caught Wormtail, but he wasn't one of the Death Eaters caught at the Department of Mysteries was he?" Harry asked.
"Actually he was, the little rat was hiding in the prophecy room after you and Dumbledore beat Voldemort in the atrium. Kingsley found him there and took him to an Order safe house instead of letting him be sent to Azkaban with the rest. He figured they could use him to at least clear me posthumously. By the time they got around to questioning him I had reappeared. Snape actually made an extra strong dose of Veritaserum to use on him and Dumbledore hauled Fudge and Amelia Bones in to question Wormtail. I think Dumbledore intimidated Fudge into finding me innocent. He's on his way out as minister anyway," Sirius said.
"So were you at Grimmauld, Remus, when Sirius just showed up? Is that why you weren't surprised in Dumbledore's office when he transformed?" Hermione asked.
"No I wasn't at Grimmauld that day. I was off doing something for the Order. I didn't find out until about 15 minutes before you did, Hermione. That's one of the reasons I was crying. Part of it was worrying over Harry, but it was mostly happy tears that I had Padfoot back," Remus said.
"I don't know what I'm going to do if I lose you again. I'm scared of being alone after this war is through," Harry said, sharing a bit of the newest round of dreams that were plaguing him the last few nights, even with Hermione helping him to sleep.
"Oh Harry, are you still having that same nightmare?" Hermione asked.
"What nightmare?" Sirius asked.
"Everyone dies one by one until I'm the only one left. It has to do with the...I don't know if I can tell you...Hermione only knows because we have a telepathic link. I guess Ron will find out when we add him to the link," Harry said, his thoughts scattering.
"What is it, pup?" Sirius asked, concern showing in his eyes.
"If you're worried about Voldemort finding out, we both know Occlumency. Please tell us, cub, it's tearing you apart," Remus said.
"It's the prophecy. The one that Voldemort was after...that you nearly died for, Sirius," Harry said.
"What about it?" Sirius said.
"Didn't it break when Neville dropped the little ball?" Ron asked.
"Yes, but I heard it anyway," Harry said.
"How? The room was far too noisy to hear anything properly," Ron said.
"Dumbledore was the one the prophecy was told to in the first place. He told me in his office after I thought I lost Sirius. This one little prophecy is the reason that Voldemort killed my parents and has been after me since I came back to the wizarding world," Harry said.
"What does it say?" Sirius said, his concern rising. Dumbledore had never said anything about a prophecy concerning Harry.
Harry took a deep breath and remembered the words of the prophecy. "The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches...Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...And the dark lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the dark lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord will be Born as the seventh month dies," Harry said quietly.
"But that means...you have to kill him?" Ron said.
"I'm the only one who can defeat him, although I'm not so sure about the power the dark lord knows not," Harry said.
"Maybe that's why Dumbledore gave you Gryffindor's sword, Harry, after the third task you found out that you can't really use your wand against him all that well. Maybe you're meant to duel with swords, or at least surprise him with the sword anyway," Hermione said, thinking about Harry's growing wandless magic and his connection to the sword, being the heir of Gryffindor and all.
"We'll be here for you, Harry, as long as we can be," Sirius said.
"We could always have a portrait painted, in case we are killed then you could have us around like your parents," Remus said, tears in his eyes from hearing the hopelessness in Harry's voice. 'Why on earth hadn't Dumbledore told them about this before now?' Remus asked himself.
"It might just be Voldemort feeding me dreams again, although it doesn't feel the same as the dream about the Department of Mysteries did. I just keep seeing everyone die during the battle and you're all staring at me with your eyes wide open and you're not moving. I can even feel how cold the bodies are at the end of the dream and I wake up shaking and crying," Harry said.
Remus' tears fell faster as he listened to what Harry was forced to see every night. "I'll ask Severus for some Dreamless Sleep for you, cub. You need to rest before school starts and while you haven't mastered Occlumency.
"Do you think he'll make any for me? I'm not his favourite person, especially since he's stuck with me in Potions for two more years," Harry said.
"He will if he knows what is good for him. I'll be back in a moment, I'll go get the potion for you, Harry. We'll be back tomorrow to maybe play a quick game of Quidditch since you haven't flown in awhile," Remus said.
"That sounds great. We'll be brewing potions in the morning, but we have the afternoon free don't we, Mione? They have to simmer for a few hours anyway," Harry said.
"We should have some time to take a break," Hermione said, smiling as Harry's face lit up at the thought of flying again.