A Harry Potter Fan Fiction

I don't own Harry Potter

Pre-Chapter Wind - Gryffindor versus Slytherin Quidditch match. Slytherin comes out the loser and Malfoy gets a ride out of Harry leading to a fight that breaks out on the pitch. Later, Noel and Harry severs their friendship.

-Taking His Place-

The first day of not being Harry's anything anymore was difficult because I was so used to talking to him and making jokes with him during the middle of a boring class, like Divination, that suddenly just being nothing to one another was tough. It was really lonely being cut off from the table now days, but it was a price I had to pay for the decision I made.

"I don't like this." Hermione says on our way down to Care of Magical Creatures, the first class with Hagrid back at Hogwarts.

"Aww come on Hermione. I never knew you liked Professor Grubbly-Plank that much that you'd miss her once Hagrid returned." I tease.

"No, I meant I don't like this thing going on between you and Harry." She motions to Ron and Harry walking ahead of us. Oh, that. I'm surprised she didn't say anything sooner about it.

"You don't like what exactly?" I ask.

"I don't like it that my two best friends aren't talking to one another anymore. I had to deal with it with Ron and Harry last year and now you two this year."

"What? Harry got all green over Ron dancing with Malfoy?" I joke.

"I'm being serious here and you're making everything out to be a big joke. I just wish you two would work it out already."

"Work what out? I think you're making a big deal out of nothing. Harry and I aren't friends, so what? It's not the end of the world just because we aren't talking."

"Wait, you aren't even friends anymore? I just thought you two had another tussle, like Ron and I have tussles all the time, and weren't talking. I didn't know you stopped being friends."

"Well...surprise!"

"Noel." She groans.

"What?"

"I would have thought you'd be more...I don't know, disappointed. Right now it seems like you don't even care. I know you two had a rough time, but to cut each other off completely is stupid. Yes Harry is an idiot-"

"Now there's an understatement."

"-but can you say you don't or won't miss him at all? Not even a little?" Not even a little? Well...maybe...

"I can't say that I won't miss him at all later because I don't know how I'll feel later."

"Then there is still hope for you two to pick things up again, isn't there?"

"No there isn't. Even if in the distant future I had wanted to be friends with him again, he doesn't want to be mine."

"You can never be sure."

"I'm sure because he told me not to come back. I'm fine with it okay so just let it rest." I say as we reached the edge of the forest to find Hagrid waiting for us. He must have just gotten back from wherever Dumbledore had sent him to, because one day he was here this summer at the castle and then the next he was gone. Hopefully the class was interesting today, or at least safe.

"That was an interesting class." I muse as we made our way back to the castle.

"It would have been if that monster Umbridge woman wasn't there. Hagrid chose a great lesson being the way he is and she made him out to be an idiot." Hermione fumes before turning to me. "Although it was a shock to hear you could see the thestrals too."

"Did you really mean it when you told Hagrid you don't remember seeing anyone die?" Ron asks.

"Yeah. I was shocked myself that I could see them." I say, deeply confused by the news.

"Well, do you think it could have happened when you were younger that you don't remember?" Hermione asks.

"No." I shake my head. "I haven't seen anyone die that I can remember. The only death I've been though was my Mothers, but she was already dead when I found her."

"Your Mother is dead?" Hermione asks. The three of them stop, but Harry was looking away like he was not paying attention or was pretending not to be hearing what we were talking about.

"Oh, yeah, months ago." I shrug. "Still doesn't answer why I can see the thestrals though."

"Oh Noel." Hermione says, hugging me. "I'm sorry to hear about your Mother."

"It's all right." I say, patting her shoulder.

"But you asked about my parents and I didn't even ask you about yours." She says, pulling away so we could continue the walk back to the castle.

"What about your Dad?" Ron asks. "Is he still alive?"

"I dunno...maybe. He wasn't there with me growing up so I don't really know if he's alive or not. I just assume that he is."

"But you're going to find him right? With your Mom dead, you'd want to find out who your Dad is don't you? I would." They were all looking at me now, even Harry for some reason.

"I haven't thought about it. He probably doesn't know I exist or he would have asked to see me at least, but he didn't. Either way, it was my Mom who took care of me and my Mom who loved me. That's all I care about right now." I say, marching ahead of the group. Mom, I wish you were here.

I stare at my parchment paper in frustration, hoping the words would magically appear on the paper on its own because I really wasn't in the mood to be writing an essay for DADA. I could be out, lodging snowballs at innocent bystanders, and yet I was inside writing an essay for a useless class. Ugh, this is stupid. I crumple up what I had so far and pull out a new one.

"What eating at you little Noel?" Fred asks, joining me at the table and I break out into a smile when I see him.

"DADA. It's kinda hard to write an essay for a class when we're learning what we should learning in class from somewhere else." I say.

"You mean what everyone else is learning. I don't see you gaining anything from what we've been going over so far in the group. Most of the time it's you sitting on a desk busying yourself when you aren't occupying yourself with helping Neville."

"What can I say? I'm a giver." I say when Hermione walks up to our table.

"Can I borrow Noel for a moment?" Hermione asks Fred.

"It's up to her, but what for?" He asks.

"I wanted her help on the planning for our next meeting at my table."

"Weren't you sitting with Harry when I passed by?"

"Is Harry sitting by you right now? Do you really need my help?" I ask suspiciously.

"I'm trying to help you." She admits, breaking under my gaze. "It's been a month. A month is long enough."

"Not long enough for me." I mutter and immediately regret it after she gives me a very Hermione look of hers. "And this is where I tune you out."

"Help me Fred." Hermione says desperately.

"I just remembered I had to do something away from here. See you." Fred says, walking away.

"Deserter." I say. Hermione walks over and takes the empty seat in front of me.

"You two are meant to be friends." Not this again.

"You and Harry are meant to be friends. Him and I are merely housemates."

"He misses you." I scoff at her. "He does."

"Lying won't get you anywhere."

"I'm not lying. He really does miss you."

"I find it hard to believe he doesn't when he hasn't spoken a word to me in over a month."

"And if he did tell you that he misses you?"

"I still wouldn't believe him."

"But he does and you miss him."

"I don't miss him at all." I lie. I sort of missed him...a very very small amount of missing though.

"Yes you do. That's why you walk behind him on the way to class. You do it so you can watch him walking without him knowing." I did that? I didn't do that. That's weird and slightly creepy.

"That's crazy."

"Then how about when you pick your seat in the Great Hall at meal times with him in your line of sight."

"Okay, that I know I don't do because I'm always in the Great Hall before him and out before him."

"So you admit that you walk behind him on the way to class to look at him then?" I grind my teeth, giving her a frustrated look. I was getting tired of this constant need of hers to fix Harry and I when we were beyond fixing. "You know how I can tell he misses you? He always chooses seats next to you in class."

"That's because he wants to cheat off my work since he's mentally incapable of thought."

"It's because he misses you and wants to be near you again."

"Why must you always have to hassle me with this?"

"It's because I'm persistent and I think it's stupid that you guys are wasting your time missing each other when you guys could be talking. The only reason that hasn't happened yet is because you both are so stubborn that you want the other person to give first before you say anything."

"Look, I'm fine where we are now."

"But I'm not. Ever since Ron heard from Fred that you declined his invitation to go to the Weasleys for winter break, I've been worried about you being here alone."

"I won't be alone. I made up with Sev right after Halloween."

"Still...this will be your first Christmas without your Mom. If I could stay back with you I would, but my parents are already expecting me."

"So being friends again with Harry connects to this how?"

"I thought because Harry was going, that's why you decided not to go to the Weasleys." That was partly it. If I went, Harry would be here by himself just to avoid me. If I stayed, it was only to avoid him. Also, I knew Sev wasn't particularly welcomed at the Weasleys.

"So you thought you could kill two birds with one stone?" I ask.

"Am I overreaching a bit here?"

"A bit, but I promise I won't be lonesome on my own this Christmas."

"So I guess asking you to make up with Harry for my Christmas gift this year is out of the question." She says glumly.

"Pretty much since I already got you your gift." I laugh.

"Did you get Harry a gift?"

"Hermione!"

"Alright. I won't ask."

"Good." Because I sort of did.

After hearing from Angelina that she was going to hold team tryouts, just days before the holidays, I knew I had to tryout. On the day of the tryout, I reach the pitch a little early and wait for everyone to arrive.

"Ginny?" I was shocked when I see her coming down toward the field.

"Hi Noel." She greets me.

"You're trying out?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Thought I should. Good luck today." I say.

"You too." She says and we head over to sit down with the other hopefuls on the way here. For the tryout, each person trying out was called up one by one to show what they had to the rest of the team. After watching Ginny, I get a little bit anxious. I haven't been on a broom in months, what if I suck? Ginny's tryout comes to an end and they call me up. I get on the broom and things naturally click into place with my old Seeker instincts kicking in. Once I get really into being on a broom again, I do some complicated catches to show them how good I really was. They didn't call me the best back home for nothing, especially since Jake wanted the group to be perfect at whatever we participated in. I hear the whistle, which snaps me out of my zone, and touch ground before returning to my seat next to Ginny. Angelina, Katie, and Alicia fly up out of hearing range to review what they just saw.

"You were awesome!" Ginny whispers. "It was like watching a performance up there."

"You were too. I didn't know you flew and from what I saw, you flew really well."

"Whenever my Brothers would play, I would too. After all that time, I just got the hang of it. What about you?"

"I was the Seeker on my old team. With Jake as our Captain, every game was a chance for a performance in one way or another." I say. Soon Angelina, Katie, and Alicia flies back down to face us. They made up their minds pretty fast.

"We've saw some pretty good potential teammates out there today, and we saw some really good potential teammates out here today. As you know, we can't pick all of you, so we want to thank you all for trying out. Without further ado, we'd like to welcome Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper as our new Beaters." Angelina says as said boys get up to cheer for making the team. "For our Seeker, we had two really good flyers that will have really big shoes to fill in. I know that the one we chose will do just fine though. Welcome to the team Noel Dumbledore." My heart practically stops. I made it? I made it! I was now the Gryffindor Seeker. I jump up and jog over to Andrew and Jack. "Welcome to the team you three." Angelina says once we get huddled. "I'll make this quick because of the DA meeting. We will start training as soon as we get back from break and we will need to put a lot of time in to be ready before our first match back, even if it's against Hufflepuff." We all nod. "There is more I could go into, but I'll hold that off until we return so enjoy the holidays while you can. You're all free to go." I watch them leave, when Ron hangs back. He was awfully quite throughout the whole tryout.

"Hey." Ron says.

"Hey." I say.

"You did really good today, I voted for you."

"Thanks."

"That's all I wanted to say."

"Okay." I nod, and climb on my broom.

"Aren't you coming to DA practice?" He asks, watching me.

"I'll think I'll fly around for a while before coming. See you there."

"Sure." He says, walking off. I really didn't want to tell Ron the reason why I wasn't going right away. I didn't want to go now because I didn't want to be there when Harry finds out who will be taking his place on the team. Knowing him, he'd probably twist it around as a form of me stabbing him in the back or even that I let myself be caught dancing with Malfoy as a ruse to get him angry so he would get kicked off the team so I could steal his spot from him. Yeah, no thank you. I fly around the pitch for a while, getting distracted by the setting of the sun when I realized how late it was getting. Crap, if I didn't go now I will miss the meeting entirely and Hermione'll kill me. I bolt back up to the castle and to the ROR. The door finally shows and I hear crying coming from inside when it does. I open the door a bit to see Cho and Harry very close to one another. They were way too close for my liking.

"I really like you Harry." She says, leaning in to kiss him. What's worse wasn't the fact that she was kissing him, it was that he wasn't pulling away. Not that he would because it was Cho. I bet if it were me, he would have pulled back. I must have missed the meeting, which meant a mad Hermione was inevitable, but watching this was even worse than Hermione at her most furious time. I, unknowingly, had pulled out my wand and was gripping it so tightly that sparks were shooting out the end of it violently. They were kissing and I was standing here with a tight heart and I felt like an electric current was shooting throughout my body. This reaction was so alarming that I had to stumble away and lean against a wall to stay standing up right. They were kissing.

"Noel? What are you doing all alone in this empty corridor?" A familiar voice asks from behind me. I turn and see Dumbledore standing there. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know. I don't feel well."

"Would you like to come to my office to rest there for a moment?" Dumbledore asks. I nod, letting him lead me in silence to his office and move to sit huddled on one of his cushy chairs to try to erase what I hade seen from my mind. They were kissing and they weren't supposed to be. "Feeling better?"

"Not really."

"A lemon drop for your thoughts?"

"You know my thoughts are free for you, but I think I would like a lemon drop." I say, taking what he offered and pop it in my mouth. I suck on the little candy, it's sourness coating my tongue, before trying to figure out what to say.

"So?"

"I'm in distress over a former friend of mine."

"Why is that?"

"Because he hates me."

"Mr. Potter doesn't hate you."

"Who said I was talking about Harry?"

"Because you were my dear, to which I believe he doesn't."

"He did Halloween night."

"Yet a lot of time has passed since then."

"That's basically what Hermione said."

"Miss Granger is very smart."

"Smart and persistent. I mean, no wonder I feel the way I'm feeling right now. It's all because of her meddling and prodding." Really, if she wasn't bugging me all the time over this, I doubt it would feel as bad as it does at the moment.

"And how are you feeling?"

"I feel like my innards are going to explode out of my belly button."

"And that is because of what Hermione said?"

"That and because of what I saw...mostly because of what I saw."

"What did you see?"

"They were kissing...Harry and Chang. I saw them just before you came. It doesn't feel all too comfortable." I say, fidgeting in my seat. We sit in silence for a long time before he opens his mouth to speak.

"Do you still care for him as a friend would?"

"...yes."

"Do you still like him?" I frown. How did he- "I see a lot from my spot at the Teacher's table Noel." So, did I still like him?

"I'm not sure. There are a lot of things I don't know. Like I don't know the distance around the Earth at the top of my head or why I can see thestrals or why my Dad didn't come looking for me all my life."

"24,901.55 miles, you forgot, he didn't know."

"What?"

"The circumference to Earth is 24,901.55 miles, but you'll find your answer to the second question in here." He says, reaching into his desk and pulls out a long piece of parchment. I take it from him and realize that it was a letter.

Deal Future Noel,

Hi, it's me or past you. You're writing to yourself because you were looking for answers. What's the better place to get answers from than from yourself?

First things first. The reason why you're here at Hogwarts. You think that Mom had died right? Well, she didn't just die. She was killed. Why can't you remember? It's because I had Gramps and Sev put a strong magical block in us since just obliviating the memory was repelled by our powers. The magical block would cage up the memory of what happened after we found Mom since we couldn't get rid of it entirely. You have to understand, I put a lot of thought into it, but the thought of going to school with our hands dripping red was plaguing my mind so much that I had to.

The memory was of us killing someone. That someone was the person who killed Mom. He killed her off in cold blood and waited for us to come home to do the same to me, except bit off more than he could chew. We defended ourselves with our powers that resulted in his death. I know I did what I had to for us to survive, but I couldn't take it. Evil man or not, we still killed someone. What if he had a family? What if some girl out there was waiting for him to return home for him to never return home? What if we stole him away from a kid just like us who now had their parent taken away from them like us? With that, Gramps and Sev gave us a fresh slate...our fresh start. They refused at first until I threatened to do it myself and everyone knows you shouldn't perform that kind of magic on oneself. They really didn't want to do it to us, but I made them.

Anyway, I'm sorry for this what happened and not coming home fast enough that day. If I did, then maybe she'd be alive.

Past Noel

P.S. Dad is still alive. Gramps said so, much to Sev's distaste.

I look up at Dumbledore.

"You knew this whole time…I killed someone. How?"

"We still don't know how it came to pass because over the past six months you haven't shown any spike in your powers that matched the power from that night."

"I've been in a blissful blissfulness." I mumble, re-reading my letter. "I guess I now know why my Father didn't come to find me. He's alive, but he didn't know...wait a minute. He didn't know? Does that mean he knows now? He knows I'm alive? Is there a chance I could possibly meet him during the holidays?"

"You've met him already."

"I have?"

"Yes."

"Then who is he? Sev? Hagrid? Please don't tell me it's Filch."

"No, it is not Argus. Your Father is Sirius Black."

AN: And a cut off. Sorry.

AN2: You know what's funny? Thinking that one can be on track, and then the worlds like 'screw you, I'm gonna mess with you again' because guess what's coming up tomorrow? Thanksgiving. Oh, the holidays. Anyway, happy early Thanksgiving everyone. I know I have a lot to be thankful for, like for instance that I'm thankful anyone spends their time reading this Fic. So thank you!