Chapter 10 - Secrets Revealed
The next day Harry awoke to a gentle tapping on a window of the Gryffindor tower. He opened his eyes and blinked, taking in the site of a fuzzy brown shape inside a square filled with light. With a groan he reached over and put on his glasses, then looked over again realizing there was an owl waiting to be let into the room.
Tap, tap, tap.
"Someone let that blasted bird in," Seamus mumbled. Before Harry could, Ron was walking over to the window and threw it open. The owl promptly flew over to Harry and perched on his nightstand. Harry reached over and untied the note that the owl was carrying and opened it.
Harry,
Feel free to come over any time after three this afternoon. I'll make us a cuppa' tea and biscuits. Send a message with Thatch, if ya can mak' it. Look forward ter seein' ya,
Hagrid
"Who's that from?" Ron asked interested.
"Hagrid," Harry replied, reaching into his trunk for a parchment and a quill. "Going to visit him this afternoon."
Harry quickly scratched a note saying, yes he would be able to make tea and would come by about three. He put his quill away and then tied up his letter and attached it to Thatch the owl and then told him to take his letter to Hagrid. Stretching his eyes wandered around the room before falling on Scabbers the rat.
"I'm getting dressed." he said then, walking to the bathroom.
"Doing something now?" Ron asked inquisitively.
"Library." Harry called back grabbing a toothbrush.
"Library?" Ron said unenthusiastically. "Why would you want to go there? I didn't think we had any homework that needed us to go there this weekend…do we?" he suddenly asked nervously.
"No I just wanted to..look up something. I'll probably only be an hour or so." he said around a mouthful of toothpaste.
"Oh, alright then. Hey we should play a game of wizard's chess when you get back!"
"Er, sure alright." Harry walked back into the dorm room and grabbed a pair of casual robes (he would definitely need to buy more soon) and changed into them and headed to the Great hall. He stopped at the Gryffindor table to grab a croissant and nodded to Parvati who was sitting and eating, before leaving again. Suddenly though, as he passed through the doors of the Great Hall, the croissant he was about to take a bite out of vanished.
"What the he-"
"Ah yes, I think the door to the Great Hall is charmed to vanish any food that crosses its path," James said.
"Why would they do that?" Harry asked in dismay.
"Yes James, just why would they do that?" Lily asked in mock sarcasm.
"Well," James started sheepishly, "it may have had something to do with the marauders."
"Really now?" Harry asked, half annoyed, half amused. "Do tell."
"Back in the day, food used to be allowed to leave the Great Hall." Lily said. "But then one day your father had the bright idea to charm the food to attack the students."
"Alright," Harry said walking back to the Gryffindor table, "but how does a small food prank warrant charming the doors to stop it from ever happening again?"
"Small?" James said indignantly. "I'll have you know that, that has gone down as one of Hogwarts greatest pranks of all time. And it is one of the few where we didn't get caught."
"Really?" Harry asked interestedly taking a seat back at the table.
"Definitely," James said, "You see it happened in the middle of our sixth year. Slytherin had just beaten Hufflepuff in their Quidditch match and it was rather brutal. Three Hufflepuffs were taken to the Hospital Wing during the game and a fourth Hufflepuff had to visit after as well to repair a sprained hand, which he played through."
"Ouch." Harry said.
"Yup," James said. "Anyway, the Slytherin's were all being a bunch a bloody wank-"
"James!" Lily warned.
"Er, that is to say they were being their usual foul selves, and we the Marauders felt we had to do something about it."
"Right." Harry said wondering where this was going.
"Now we knew that it was guaranteed that Slytherin would have a party to celebrate after and there would be food and drinks in their common room. Now it just so happened that we had learned some advanced inanimate transfiguration that week, courtesy of Professor McGonagall."
Harry started to see where this was going.
"So we hatched a plan. Remus, Sirius, Peter and I snuck into the kitchens where the house-elves make the food. We got the house-elves to quickly bring us whatever snacks were available. Then we had Peter distract the elves and the rest of us started charming the food. When we were ready we politely asked the elves if they would send the food to the Slytherin common room where the rest of the food was. And voila, like that it was done."
"Ok," Harry said, "But how did you get the food to not attack yourselves?"
"That was the brilliant part. The first charm we cast on the food was a three minute delay-of-use charm. It's the same charm that is used to make portkeys leave at a set time."
"Ah," Harry said, "would eating the food before the three minute delay charm ended affect anything?"
"At the time we didn't actually think about what might happen if someone did that." James said. "But later on we realized that any food consumed would lose the spell effects on it. Much like a chocolate frog. So anyways, the elves happy as can be brought the food into the Slytherin common room. And roughly three minutes later every food item we sent there literally exploded into action. There were pastries bouncing around the room smacking people. Sandwiches that got up and started running around screaming at the students. An entire chocolate cake started rolling around the floor bumping into people. Pure chaos. I think we even got old Snapey with a custard pie. Our only shame is that we couldn't watch the prank unfold. By the time the spells wore off the entire Slytherin common room was a sticky mess and every Slytherin was dripping or had been pelted, with some sort of food product."
Harry thought about that while he grabbed a second croissant."That's actually quite brilliant. But why would the teacher's charm the doors to the Great Hall if the food came from the kitchens?"
"They didn't realized we used the elves to transport the food I believe. They had to have thought that somehow the food had been charmed at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall. Anyways, that my son is why the doors have been charmed to not allow food to pass through it."
Harry shook his head as he took a bite out of an egg sandwich. He suddenly thought about all the sweets he bought off the trolley on his ride on the Hogwarts Express and grinned thinking about what might happen if say 50 chocolate frogs that were charmed to attack people were released at once.
"Harry?" Harry was jerked out of his thoughts by Parvati. He briefly wondered if she'd been calling him for sometime. He hoped not.
"Yes?" he said turning quickly.
"Do you want to partner up again next potions class?" she asked biting her lip. "I mean.. if you want?"
"Sorry Parvati, I'm actually going to be pairing with Daphne next. How does the following class sound though?"
She seemed dismayed when he said he wouldn't be able to partner with her the next class, but brightened when he offered the class after.
"Sure that would be great," she said. "Who's Daphne?
Harry pointed over her shoulder. Parvati turned around to see a fair blond girl with aristocratic features sitting at the Slytherin table having her breakfast.
"Oh." she said turning around. "She's in Slytherin." she said, somewhat neutrally.
"Yep," Harry replied. Parvati looked like she wanted to say something about that, but didn't. Harry pretended not to notice as he finished his breakfast.
"Anyway's, I'm off. See you around Parvati."
"Bye Harry," she nodded back.
—
The Hogwarts library was a vast expanse of books, sacred tomes and archived files. A strong smell of old parchment assaulted Harry's nose as he entered. The floors and bookshelves were all made out of oak, smoothly sanded and stained dark brown. The library held different levels and stairs that brought you down into the dark recesses or up into the more brightly lit areas. The bookshelves rose high towards the ceiling which was twice as high as the normal classroom ceilings and was finished cathedral style. Towards the back half of the library was a roped off section with a sign hanging above that said, Restricted Section.
When Harry had first heard that Hogwarts had the largest library in the magical community, he had visions of reading through it in it's entirety, gaining wisdom beyond that of his peers and possibly his teachers. Learning long forgotten spells or ancient rituals filled him with excitement. Now that he was here though, he realized he could never hope to read all of it's contents even if he were to spend his whole life doing so. Rows upon rows, shelves upon shelves, it seems the creators of the library had put as many books inside as was magically possible. And that was saying something.
Harry was looking for something in particular. At first he started going shelf to shelf hoping to come across the section he was looking for before realizing it could take hours to find it. With some reluctance he paused and took a breath and slowed his breathing down. Trying not to reflexively tense his muscles like his body wanted to, he let an odd numbness crawl across his skin. It started at the tips of his hands and feet and rose through him. It gave him the feeling that his limbs were falling asleep, as if he had rested his hands and feet in an awkward position and the blood had stopped flowing through them. The numbness continued on until it rose up through his head and suddenly he could no longer feel his own body.
"Woah," he heard his own voice say. Although it wasn't him that said it. As Harry had released his control over his person, Lily had been in place to receive it. The feeling she had just had, was that of blood flow returning to its place. Harry would have the same feeling when he took back control. He watched fascinated as his hands and feet moved at Lily's will. His vision which he had been in control of, suddenly took on the role of a television screen as Lily moved his eyes around. It was a dizzying feeling.
"I missed this place," Lily said. Although it was his voice, Harry could hear his mothers inflections through it. Her emphasis on words in sentences was slightly different than his own and he listened in amusement as he heard his voice with his mom's tone speaking.
"Think you can find it?" Harry asked. He watched as she started moving shelf to shelf and her eyes roved over the texts at dizzying speeds.
"I think so. Now let's see I believe Newspaper archives were kept on one of the shelves back here…"
"Wait! I think I saw something back there." James said. "A little to the right…there!"
"I knew it was here," Lily exclaimed. She reached into the bookcase that was chalk full of old Daily Prophets and drew one out.
"December 23, 1988," Harry noted. "We need to go back a few years."
Lily (or Harry) put the newspaper back on the shelf and started drawing out other papers at random.
"November '88, August '88, March '88, October '87,"
"We're on the right track, try the next shelf up," Harry said.
Lily reached up and pulled out another paper, "September '86. We're in 1986 now."
"One row up only got us back about 2 years," James said, "trying going up two rows."
Lily reached over and grabbed a step stool, meant for reaching the higher shelves. Stepping up it she went a couple rows above where they had been and grabbed the first magazine.
"Lets see..January 1, 1981, I think we are on the right shelf." She took a look at the headline, New Year's Eve festivities dampened as You-Know-Who strikes again."
She started going through the papers until at last she pulled out one, "November 1,1981."
"Grab the next day's paper as well." Harry suggested.
Grabbing both, Lily made her way down the ladder and sat down at a nearby table. Grabbing the first paper she noted the headline, "You-Know-Who Gone! Harry Potter the Boy-Who-Lived."
All three of them read the paper in silence as Lily turned the pages. After 15 minutes of skimmed reading they came to the end. She grabbed the next day's edition and his mum let out a sound of surprise.
"Tragedy in London - Sirius Black arrested, 13 muggles and 1 wizard confirmed dead"
She rushed to turn the newspaper to the next page where the article was. Centred on the page was a moving picture of a man Harry had heard about but never seen. Sirius Black was laughing maniacally. Another picture below showed a street scene. In it they could see the backside of a dark figure drawing a wand and pointing it at another short man who was facing them. Suddenly the entire street seemed to just blow up where the short man had been standing. He seemed to disappear as the explosion hit him. The view switched back to the dark man who had fallen to his his knees and was laughing manically until he was arrested. The picture then repeated the scene. Lily began reading the article.
Yesterday evening, in downtown muggle London, Obliviators and Aurors alike were called in to a most disturbing scene. Muggle eye witnesses (who have since been obliviated) state that Sirius Black (see photo) was seen drawing his wand on former classmate Peter Pettigrew, before the entire street seemed to blow up. It is believed that Black cast a dark explosive curse that ended the lives of the innocent muggles. Muggle authorities have been charmed to believe that the cause of the explosion was a gas leak.
Before being obliviated, the muggles reported that the shorter stout man (Pettigrew) seemed to be accusing Black of something.
"Lily and James, how could you Sirius?"
Indeed the muggles obviously would not know that Lily and James Potter had been murdered by You-Know-Who the night previous. From Pettigrew's last words we can derive that Black, had one way or another given the Potters over to You-Know-Who.
The betrayal of Sirius Black comes with mixed reaction. Some thought he was firmly on the side of the light, while others thought it was unsurprising that he would side with You-Know You, given his colourful family upbringing. Many sources claim that Sirius Black and James Potter and were as close as friends could be during their Hogwarts years.
While some might think that with the defeat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, his supporters would scatter (as many have) some have yet to accept that without the Dark Lord, the doctrine on pure-blood supremacy they wish to push through is likely to fail. Sirius Black, it seems is one such supporter, believing that the war is still winnable. His tenaciousness to fight a losing battle, makes one wonder if he is perhaps You-Know-Who's greatest supporter.
Lily stopped reading and the three of them sat in silence for a moment. Harry watched the picture of Sirius blowing up the street over and over.
"It just doesn't make sense," James finally said.
"I don't think so either," Lily said.
"What part?" asked Harry.
"I offered Sirius to be the secret keeper, when we cast the fidelius charm on our hideaway cottage. But he turned it down. We knew there was a spy in the Order that knew we were going to cast that charm. Sirius said that it would be obvious that he would have been made the secret keeper because we were best friends. He suggested we tell everyone that he was the secret keeper, but make it somebody else. He suggested Peter Pettigrew."
"The man Sirius killed," Harry said.
"Right." James said, "But only a few months after we made Peter the secret keeper, Voldemort attacked our home."
"You think Peter betrayed you." Harry said matter of factly.
"It is the most likely scenario."
"And if Sirius and Peter got into a fight…then it must have been because Sirius knew Peter betrayed you…which means he was going after Peter for revenge, not the other way round, like the paper says," Harry commented, "but why would he kill all those muggles too?"
"He wouldn't." James said confidently. "But Peter might have… if he was desperate enough. He could have cast an exploding hex and turned into his animagus form. The muggles that gave their testaments would've just seen him disappear. And with Sirius pointing his wand at him the Aurors would have assumed he cast it."
"Alright," Harry thought. "I'm going to take my limbs back now if you don't mind….Ah," Harry shifted uncomfortably for a few moments as the sensation of pins and needles went through him.
"I'm never going to get used to that," he said. He grabbed the newspapers and put them back on the shelf and stepped down off the ladder. "Alright. Let's learn that animagus revealing spell.
—
Hermione Granger walked briskly down the stone walled hallway. It was a warm day and the castle had a light breeze running through it. Small groups of students were milling around, either standing talking, or walking though like she was. She was careful to not get bumped by anyone, as a first year girl she was small enough to get knocked over by most students whether inadvertently or not.
She reached her destination and stepped through the large double doors and took in the rich smell of oak and parchment. She had been here a few times (ok more than a few times) now and it was was easily her favourite place in the school. Here, social status and popularity were overcome by those who shared one thing in common, learning.
She was actually here, not to pull out a new book, but rather to get a head start on the next chapter of the transfiguration course book, they were working through in class.
She stopped when she thought she heard a familiar voice drift through the shelves.
"…know if it work.."
She rose from the table she just sat down at and listened carefully and moved towards it.
"..till we try it….We'll have to get in touch with the DMLE quickly…"
'Was that, Potter?' she thought.
She finally caught site of him after passing another bookshelf. He had a frown of concentration on his face and had his wand out as though he were casting something. He seemed to be muttering to himself.
"Harry?" she said.
He glanced up quickly in surprise and lowered his wand. "Oh hey Hermione, how goes it?"
"I'm fine," she answered. "What are you doing in Magical Archives?"
"Oh just looking up some old information. What brings you here?"
"Transfiguration." she said.
"Homework?" he asked confused, "I thought we didn't.."
"Oh no," she said quickly, "I was actually looking over what we will be learning next lesson."
"Ah."
"Were you just talking to someone?" she asked.
"Er no, just a- reading something aloud." he said gesturing to the newspapers.
"Oh. And your wand is out because?" she said raising her eyebrows.
"I was just practicing some wandwork."
"In the Library?" she asked.
"Well, now that you say it like that I should probably practice somewhere else. Madam Pince would be upset if I pulled a Finnegan and set a book on fire or something."
"You better not set a book on fire. Especially as this room is filled with paper and wood."
"Yeah that wouldn't be good. Any way I've got what I need." He started to walk towards the exit. "You coming?"
She shook her head. "Just got here actually. I'll see you later."
"Right, see you around."
Hermione stood there as his footsteps retreated. She looked around and noticed the ladder sitting a little further down the aisle. 'Had Harry put it there?' She walked over to it and looked up at the neatly stacked newspapers. High above her she saw one magazine that was not tucked away as well as the others were. She stepped up the ladder, careful not to trip over her dress robes and pulled the copy out. She began to read,
Tragedy in London..
—
It was a sunny afternoon that saw Harry walking down to Hagrid's hut. He knocked on the hut's door which promptly set off a loud series of barks followed by rapid scratching at the door.
"Back Fang, back!" Hagrid's voiced boomed out from inside.
"Sound's like Hagrid's got a dog," James remarked.
"Well lets hope it's well fed." Harry responded nervously.
The door swung open for Harry to see Hagrid's oversize frame taking up the entire doorway.
"Harry!" Hagrid beamed. "Com' on in. Never mind Fang now, he's a harmless little fella."
Harry stepped inside and was almost knocked over by the smell of dog. Fang, a large black boar hound, let out an excited bark and bounded up to Harry and jumped up putting his front paws on his chest. Harry grinned and gave Fang's head a tussle.
"Down Fang, get down boy!" Hagrid ordered. "Why don't yeah grab a seat, Harry, anywhere is fine. I'm just gonna take the biscuits out of the oven."
Reluctantly Fang lowered himself off Harry who took an armchair in front of a small wood stove to sit at. Now that he adjusted to the smell of canine he could smell underneath it the scent of over-done biscuits cooking in an oven. A few minutes later Hagrid gave him a mug of tea and set a tray of biscuits down on a small table, before sitting down in an armchair himself on the other side of the table. Fang decided to curl up on Harry's feet.
"You look just like your da'," Hagrid said, "but with your mum's eyes."
"Did you know them well, sir?" Harry asked, even knowing that he did.
Hagrid nodded and took a sip of tea. "Your da', he was a heck of a wizard. He was a natural on a broomstick and played on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Was made Head Boy in his final year at Hogwarts too. But don't yea' think he was all about rules, now. 'Fore he was Head Boy, him and his friends were some of the greatest pranksters Hogwarts had ever seen."
Harry grinned. Sure James had told Harry much about himself, but to hear it from somebody else was a new experience.
"And what about my mum?" he asked grabbing a biscuit
"She was a brilliant witch too," he said, "Like your da', she was Head Girl. She was one of the brightest in her generation, or so Prof. Flitwick likes to say and I'd have to agree. She sure had a temper though and no one could rile her up like yer' da' could."
"Really?" Harry asked, taking a bite out of a biscuit. Or at least he tried too.
"Oh sure. Being a Quidditch star, and one of the best spell casters may have given your da' a bit of an ego though. But then sometime over 5th or 6th year your dad realized that he fancied yer mum. Him and his friends started to grow up a bit and then before you know it James and Lily were together."
"That's pretty cool." Harry finally gave up trying to eat the rock hard biscuit and discreetly slipped it to Fang. Hagrid told him all he could about his parents which wasn't much but was more than Harry had heard from anyone else in his life.
"But how about you Harry? I've been hearing that your already one of the best students of the year!" Hagrid said enthusiastically.
"Oh that's not such a big deal." Harry said downplaying things. "And it's only first year stuff anyway."
Hagrid grinned. "Yer' too modest Harry. It seems yea' got more than yer' eyes from yer' mum."
Harry blushed with praise. Now he figured was the time to see if he could find out anything about the third floor.
"So Hagrid what do you do at Hogwarts, I don't think you are a professor, or are you?"
"No, no. Not a Professor, much as I would love ter' be one. I'm the Groundskeeper and Keeper o' Key's here at Hogwarts."
"Really?" Harry asked. "What does that mean?" he asked politely.
"Well I help out 'round the castle and grounds and keep em' from fallin' outta repair."
"And the Key's?" Harry asked.
Hagrid pull open his brown overcoat to show a large set of keys on a ring that looked to be almost the size of a dinner plate.
"That's a lot of keys, " Harry murmured.
"Yep," Hagrid said pulling his jacket shut. "Helps me get 'round the castle and into rooms they don't want the students to be gettin' into."
"What kind of rooms?" Harry asked, hoping the conversation might steer toward a room in particular on the third floor corridor.
"Mostly just unused classrooms. A few for storage like with them Hallowe'en decorations, which I'm sure I'll have to be gettin' out soon actually."
Harry waited for Hagrid to go on, but after a moment he realized that was all he was going to say.
"Hey what about the room on the third floor?" Harry asked, hoping to put just the right amount of childish eagerness into his voice.
Hagrid gave him a sharp look for a moment before softening his gaze.
"Now Harry, you know yer' not supposed to be going there…"
"Oh yes," he responded quickly. "I was just wondering it was that was in there."
"I'm 'fraid I can't tell yea'," Harry tried not to let his disappointment show. "But Professor Dumbledore is right, if yea like yer' limbs attached to yer' body, yea wouldn't want to be going in there."
Harry grimaced. Hagrid was right on the mark on that one. Harry racked his brain trying to find another way to get an answer.
"Hey did you hear Gringott's was broken into?" he said gauging Hagrid's reaction.
"How'd you know 'bout that," Hagrid asked looking anywhere but Harry.
"The Prophet," Harry said, putting some enthusiasm into his voice, hoping to draw Hagrid in. "And it was on my birthday too."
Hagrid grunted in response.
"Just think, if you hadn't removed the package that day, the thief might have gotten to it first."
Hagrid nodded for a moment before he suddenly stopped and looked at Harry piercingly.
"Now wait just a minute, who told yea' that?"
Harry grinned. "You did just now." Hagrid looked quite upset with himself.
"That's what in the third floor corridor isn't it?" he decided to ask while he was on a roll.
Hagrid's darkening face told him he was right again.
"Now what on earth could be so valuable that someone would risk breaking into Gringotts of all places to steal it."
"Now look here Harry, I know what you're thinking and I'm warning you now to stay away from that room."
"I just-"
"I mean it Harry, what's hidden in that room is between Dumbledore, Nicholas Flamel and I."
"Nicholas Flamel?"
"Gah!" Hagrid looked furious with himself again. "Look at the time! Harry I think it's time for you to go, I'll need to be going into the forest now anyway."
Hagrid stood up and took Harry's teacup and ushered him toward the door.
"Oh ok. Thanks for the tea Hagrid."
"Yer' welcome, Harry. Enjoy yer' afternoon now."
Hagrid shut the door and breathed a sigh of relief.
—
Harry entered the Gryffindor tower that afternoon with the intention of seeking out Hermione. Before he could look for her though he was confronted by Ron and whole host of older Gryffindor students.
"Harry! Why didn't you tell us you're on the Quidditch team!"
"Er, I didn't-"
Ron was butted aside by an older student. "Potter you're really the new seeker?"
"Er yeah," But before he could finish the person had rushed off to tell his friends and another person was talking to him.
"Wood says you were the best flyer he'd ever seen."
"He was actually grinning when he put up the list." another student said.
"List?" Harry asked. And then he saw a new item written in red on what looked like gold parchment on the Gryffindor notice board.
Gryffindor Quidditch Team
Chasers
Johnson
Spinnet
Bell
Beaters
Weasley (Fred)
Weasley (George)
Keeper
Wood
Seeker
Potter
Captain: Wood
"Mate that is bloody awesome." Ron said. "You must be the youngest seeker ever. Man I can't wait to watch a game!"
"Hey Harry." Ron and Harry turned to see a group of three taller older girls approaching them.
"Welcome to the team. I'm Angelina Johnson," said the darkest skinned witch said.
"Alicia Spinnet," said the witch beside her. She was dark also, thought not as much as Angelina was.
"Katie Bell. We're the Gryffindor Chasers." the last girl said. Unlike the other two she was fair skinned.
"Harry Potter." he said needlessly, introducing himself. "Seeker."
"We look forward to seeing what you can do out there," Angelina said, "Wood has been shut in his room drawing up new plays, because of you."
"Really?" Ron said. Harry could see the crazed gleam in his friend's eyes and knew he would love to see some of those plays.
"Yeah," Angelina said, "He's fanatical about winning the cup. He'd be having us practicing dusk till dawn if he could."
"Sometimes we're actually grateful for classes, otherwise he'd be hauling us onto the Quidditch pitch every day." Alicia added.
"Sounds like a real taskmaster." Harry said.
"You have no idea." Angelina said. "Any way, we just wanted to say welcome to the team and now we've done so. See you on the pitch."
"Looking forward to it." Harry replied before the girls left.
"Mate, I still can't believe you're on the team. This is going to be wicked. Do you think I'll be able to watch some practices? They wouldn't mind would they?"
Ron went on to talk about the various Quidditch plays and tactics that he knew of and was hoping Gryffindor would use in a game. Harry simply grinned and nodded his head when needed as Ron went on. He then saw Hermione walk into the common room.
"Hey hold that thought Ron, I need to ask Hermione something."
"Yeah sure thing mate. What are we asking her?" he said.
Harry paused realizing Ron thought he was invited in to a conversation, he really didn't want him getting involved in.
"Oh, actually it's something between just me and her." At Ron's slightly betrayed look he quickly added. "And afterwards I'll let you beat me in a game of chess."
"Let me beat you!" Ron said indignantly, before seeing Harry's grin. "Oi, you're on mate. I'll get my set right now." he said running upstairs, presumably to get his chess set.
Harry chuckled and walked over to Hermione.
"Hey."
"Hi Harry," she said, quickly, almost but not quite meeting his eyes.
It took Harry a moment to realize Hermione seemed uncomfortable.
"Umm, everything alright?" he asked.
"Oh no, everything's fine." Again not meeting his eyes, and her cheeks seemed to be flushing slightly.
"Alright. Hey I talked to Hagrid this afternoon."
"Really, what did you find out?" she said eagerly and it seemed like she was back to herself.
"Well it turns out that he did bring something back from Gringotts and it was from the same vault that was broken into."
"Really?" she gasped.
"Yeah. And whatever it is, it's what's being guarded by Fluffy."
"Do you know what it is?" she asked.
"No but I did get a clue. He said that whatever the item is, it's between him, Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel."
"Nicholas Flamel?" she said.
"Yeah. Tell me, have you heard of him?"
She frowned in concentration. "No I don't think so. But if he's a notable wizard we might be able to find out in the Library."
Harry nodded. "That's what I was thinking."
Hermione went quiet again.
"Are you sure everything's ok?"
Hermione was about to answer, when Ron walked over to them.
"Oi, game's ready Harry. Granger," he said acknowledging Hermione, who just looked at him.
"Go ahead." she said, "I'm going to finish some studying anyway. Goodnight Harry, Weasley." She headed to her dorm.
"That girl seriously needs a hobby," Ron said, shaking his head. "C'mon, how about a best out of three?"
While Ron was beating him at chess, Harry thought about what might be bothering Hermione.
"Maybe she's not even upset with you at all." James said.
"No I'm pretty sure it had something to do with me. I didn't realize it at first, but as soon as she saw me her face went kind of blank."
"Maybe she feels you're holding out on her." Lily offered. "After all you both know you're keeping secrets from her. That could be bothering her."
"Maybe." Harry replied, wincing as a bishop was reduced to chess piece rubble.
"Checkmate," Ron announced. "Three out of five?"
"Nah I'm knackered mate. I'm gonna get some shut-eye." Harry got up and stretched.
"Night Harry."