AUTHORS NOTE :P
Dia duit! That's hello in Irish!
I am really sorry I haven't updated, in like, forever, but I was studying every night last week for my tests, and playing gaelic in my spare time, so I didn't have much time to go in fanfiction... I'm sorry.
I am glad to inform you all that as of today, I am on my summer holidays!
And you all know what that means...
MORE FANFICTION! :D
Oh, yes, and I would thank everyone that reviewed, we now have more than 100 reviews! I love you guys so much! thank you!
Anyhow, I shall answer some reviews from the last chapter...
jdr ride: of course there's going to be a twist :) i need to keep it interesting! :P
Arkell26: damn i hate when I make mistakes! but don't feel like a jerk, I always appreciate it when people point out my mistakes, and it was like, 12 at night when I wrote that chapter. And thanks for the good luck :)
AnikaandAj: aw lucky! you got out of school ages ago! and thanks :)
signofthemoon: yup my name is HallowSpirit154 add me if you want :)
The Girl With the Angel Wings: thank you for being the 100th reviewer :D you get extra cookies and buttbeer now :D
Pyro and Darnet: thank you very much :) i appreciate that a lot :D
and thank you to everyone else that reviewed, you're all awesome!
and here is the next chapter, enjoy!
-Rach ;)
Max's POV
Two days passed without much happening, which is saying something at Hogwarts. Well, there was the incident where Neville melted his sixth cauldron in Potions. Professor Snape, who seemed have become even more vicious over the summer. I never thought it was possible. Snape gave Neville detention, and when Neville returned to the Gryffindor common room close to midnight, he was in a nervous state. He barely managed to tell us that he had to disembowel a barell full of horned toads.
"You know why Snape's in such a bad mood?" Ron asked, watching as Hermione and Fang were teaching Neville how to do a Scouring Charm, to get rid of all the frog guts from under his fingernails.
"Yeah," Harry said, "Moody."
It was obvious that Snape wanted the Dark Arts job, but he never got it. He failed to get it for the fourth year in a row. Snape had hated all the old Dark Arts teachers, and had showed it- but he seemed a bit hesitant to show any obvious dislike towards Moody. I even noticed that whenever they passed in the corridors, or at mealtimes, that Snape avoided Moody's eyes.
"I think Snape is a bit afraid of him," I said.
"Imagine in Moody turned Snape into a horned toad," Ron said, his eyes sparkling happily, "then bounced him around his dungeons..."
The fourth-year Gryffindor's were looking forward to their class with Moody so much that we all arrived early on Thursday and queued outside the classroom before the bell even rung. The only person that wasn't there was Hermione. She turned up a few minutes before the bell rang, out of breath and she said, "Sorry. I've been in-"
"Library," we all said together, rolling our eyes. "C'mon, quick, we need to get decent seats," Harry said.
We hurried to the large desks at the top, right in front of the teachers desk, where there were enough seats for the six of us and took out our books and quills and waited for Moody to show up.
Soon after, we heard the distinctive clunking footsteps approaching the classroom, then Moody entered, looking as frightening and strange as ever. We could see his wooden leg producing from under his cloak.
"You can put those away," he said, indicating to Iggy's Dark Arts book. "the books. You're not going to need them." We put our books back into our bags, and I couldn't help but feel a flutter of excitement in my stomach as my looked up at the scarred face of our new teacher.
Moody took out a register and began to call out everyone's names while his magical eyes swiveled around the class onto each person as they answered.
"Right then," he said, when the last person said they were present, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin telling me everything you did last year. Seems you have a thorough understanding on how to fight against Dark creatures- you've tackled Red Caps, Kappas, Boggarts, hinkypunks, grindylows and werewolves- am I correct?"
There was a small muttering of agreement.
"But you are very, very behind on dealing with curses," Moody said, "So I'm here to teach you all the different things wizards and witches can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you all how to deal with Dark-"
"What, you're not staying?" Ron blurted.
Moody's magical eye swung around to stare at Ron. Ron blushed furiously, his face matching his hair and he looked very apprehensive. But Moody smiled- the first time I've ever seen him do anything of the sort, and it made his face look even more twisted and contorted than it ever was. But it was comforting to know to know that he did something as friendly as a smile. Ron looked relived.
"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son?" Moody said, still grinning, "Your father got me out of a sticky situation the last day. Yeah, I'm only staying for the one year...Special favor of Dumbledore. One year, and back to my quiet retirement." He gave a harsh laugh and clapped his hands together.
"So-straight into it. Curses. They come in many strength and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm meant to teach you countercurses and that's it. I'm not supposed to show you what Dark Magic looks like until you're in sixth year. You're not meant to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Dumbledore has a higher opinion of your nerves than the Ministry, and I say the sooner the better. How are you supposed to be able to protect yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard that's about to put an illegal curse on you won't tell you what he's doing. He won't be nice and polite to you're face. You need to be prepared and watchful.
"You need to put that away when I'm talking, Miss Brown," he said, his magical eye flickering over to where Lavender and Parvarti were sitting together. Lavender jumped and blushed. She had just been showing Parvarti her finished horoscope under the desk. Apparently, Moody's eye can see through wood.
"So...do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished in wizards law?"
Several hands rose into the air, including Ron and Hermione's. I could tell Fang knew them, but he never put his hand up in class. Fang only spoke when spoken to, or else when he really wanted to say something.
Moody pointed at Ron, even though his magical eye was still on Lavender.
"Er..." Ron said, "my dad did tell me about on. The Imperious Curse, or something?"
"Ah, yes," Moody said, nodding his head and shaking out his grizzly grey hair. "Your father would know about that one. Gave the Ministry a bit of trouble a few years back, the Imperious Curse."
Moody got to his feet, opened his desk drawer and took out a glass jar. Three large, black spiders were scuttling around inside it. I felt Ron recoiling slightly at the sight of the spiders- Ron was terrified of spiders.
Moody reached into the jar and grabbed one of the spiders and held it in the palm of his hand so everyone could see. Then he pointed his wand at it, and muttered, "Imperio!"
The spider leaped from Moody's hand on a fine silk thread and began swinging back and forth as if on a trapeze. It stretched its legs rigidly, did a back-flip, breaking the thread and landing on the table, where it began to do cartwheels in circles. Moody jerked his wand and the spider started tap-dancing.
Everyone was laughing- except for Moody.
"Think it's funny, do you?" he growled, "You'd like this to happen to you?"
The laughter quickly died away.
"Total control," Moody said, "I could make it jump out the window, drown itself, throw itself onto someones throat..."
Ron shuddered.
"Years back there were witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperious Curse," said Moody, and I knew he was talking about back in the days when Voldemort had been all powerful. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to find out who was really under the Curse, or who was acting on their own free will.
"The Imperious Curse can be fought, and I will be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character and not everybody's got it. Better avoid being hit by it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked, and everyone jumped.
Moody picked up the somersaulting spider and put it back into the jar.
"Anyone else? Anyone else got another illegal curse?"
Hermione's hand flew up into the air again, and to everyones surprise, so did Neville's. The only class where Neville volunteered information was Herbology. Neville seemed surprised at his own daring.
"Yes?" Moody said, his magical eye rolling over to look at Neville, who looked terrified and- sad?
"There's one- the Cruciatus Curse," Neville said, looking down at his hands. Moody was looking very intently at Neville, with both of his eyes. "You're names Longbottom?" Neville nodded nervously, but Moody had no further questions. Turning back to the class, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it on his desk, where it didn't move, too scared to do anything.
"The Cruciatas Curse," Moody said, "Needs to be bigger for everyone to get the idea." He pointed his wand at the spider and said, "Engorgio!"
The spider swelled. It was roughly the size of a tarantula. Abandoning his pride, Ron pushed his chair way back away from his desk.
Now this is where the freaky part comes in, so be prepared.
Moody raised his wand again, pointed it to the spider and and said "Crucio!"
Immediately, the spiders legs buckled and bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began twitching horribly, rolling around and rocking from side to side. There was no sound coming from the spider, but I knew that if it had a voice, it would be screaming a bloodcurdling scream. Moody didn't remove his hand, and the spider continued to twitch and jerk over the desk, and while I watched it, an image of me, maybe seven or eight years old, doing the same thing on a cold, metal table.
"Stop it!" Hermione said shrilly.
I shook my head, trying to get rid of the horrible images, and looked at Hermione. She wasn't staring at the spider, but at Neville. His fists were clenched, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and horrified.
Moody raised his wand. The spider had relaxed, but it's legs were twitching. "Reducio." The spider shrank back to its normal size and Moody put it back into the jar.
"Pain," Moody said softly, "You don't needs knives to torture someone if you're able to perform the Cruciatus Curse...That one was very popular back in the old days too. Right, does anyone know any others?"
I looked around, and saw that other's, like me, were wondering what could happen to the last spider. Hermione's hand shook slightly as she raised it into the air for the third time, and I noticed she tried so hard not to look at Harry, but her eyes were flickering to him every few seconds.
"Yes?" said Moody, looking at Hermione.
"Avada Kedavra," Hermione whispered. Several people looked uneasy, including Ron.
"Ah," Moody said, another small grin on his lopsided mouth, "Yes, the last, and the worst... Avada Kedavra...The Killing Curse."
He put his hand into the jar, and almost as if he knew what was happening, the last spider scuttled around the bottom of the jar, desperately trying to get away from Moody's fingers, but he caught it and placed it on the desk. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface.
Moody raised his wand, and I felt shivers run down my spine.
"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.
There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as thought a huge, invisible something was flying through the air- instantaneously the spider rolled over onto it's back, unmarked, but clearly dead. Several of the students gasped, or stifled cries and Ron had thrown himself backwards and almost fell off his chair as the dead spider skidded towards him.
Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor without a second glance at it.
"Not nice," he said calmly, as if nothing had happened, "There's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one person has been known to survive it- and he's sitting right in front of me."
Harry face went red as Moody stared at him, and as every head in the class turned to him. Harry stared at the blackboard, his eyes distant. That was how his parents died, just like that spider. And possibly how my mother died too. Had the three of them died unmarked as well? Had they simply seen a flash of green, heard the rush of death before the lives were wiped from their bodies?
I had pictured my mothers death hundreds of times since Sirius told me about her last summer, and how she died. Only shortly after I was kidnapped by the whitecoats, my mother was murdered by Voldemort himself. Then, a few months later, that was when Voldemort went to the Potter's house, and tried to kill Harry. On that night, Sirius really did loose everything. He had already lost his daughter and fiance, then he looses his best friends and his godson- for Harry had to go to his aunt and uncles. A few months ago was the first time since we were babies that we saw Sirius.
Even though I never knew what exactly happened when my mother died, Harry was able to hear his parents dying whenever he got close to a Dementor. Harry told me everything he heard, and everything that he found out from listening to his parents get killed.
James Potter had tried to hold Voldemort off so that his wife and only son could have a chance of getting away. Voldemort killed James, then advanced on Lily Potter, told her to move aside so that he could kill Harry...how she begged him to kill her instead, refused to get out of the way, refused to stop shielding her son. So then Voldemort killed her too, then tried to kill Harry, but couldn't.
To be honest, I thought the death of James and Lily was worse than the death of my own mother. Especially because Harry knew everything that happened. I had great respect for Lily Potter. She gave her life for her only son, even when she had a choice of living and getting away, she never left her son to be killed. I wish I could of met her, to thank her for saving her son and giving me the best friend I had now.
Moody was speaking again, and it seemed from a great distance. With a massive effort, I pulled myself back to the present and listened to what Moody was saying.
"Avada Kedavra is a type of curse that requires a lot of magic behind it- you could all get your wands out now, point them at me and say the spell, but I wouldn't even get as much as a nosebleed. But that doesn't matter- I'm not here to teach you how to use it.
"Now, if there's no countercurse, why am I showing you? Because you've got to know! You've got to appreciate what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he roared and the whole class jumped again.
"Now, those three curses- Avada Kedavra, Imperious and Cruciatus- are known as the Three Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them is enough to land anyone a life sentence in Azkaban. That's what you're up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You all need preparing. You all need training. And you all need arming. But most of all you need to practice constant, never-ceasing vigilance. Get out your quills... copy this down..."
We spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang- but when Moody dismissed us and we left the classroom, a babble of talk burst forth. Most of the people in the class were discussing the curses in awed voices. "Did you see it twitch?"- "and he killed it- just like that!"
Everyone was talking about the lesson as if it was a spectacular show, but I didn't find it that entertaining, and neither did Harry or Hermione.
"Hurry up," she said tensely.
"Not the ruddy library again?" Iggy said.
"No- Neville," Hermione said, pointing up the hallway. Neville was standing alone, halfway down the corridor, staring at the stone wall opposite of him with the same horrified, wide-eyed face that he had in Woody's classroom when he did the Cruciatus curse.
"Neville?" I said gently, touching his elbow softly. See, I can be nice to people!
Neville looked around at us. "Oh, hello," he said, his voice slightly higher than normal. "Interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for lesson- I'm starving, aren't you?"
"Neville, are you alright?" I asked, staring at him in concern. He really did look pale and troubled.
"Oh, yes I'm fine," Neville said in the same high voice, "Very interesting dinner- I mean lesson- what's for eating?"
Fang gave me a startled look. "Neville- what-?"
But an odd clunking noise from behind us made us all turn around. Professor Moody was limping towards us. The seven of us feel silent, watching him but when he spoke, it was in a much lower and gentler growl than they had yet heard.
"It's alright, sonny," Moody said to Neville, "Why don't you come up to my office and have a cup of tea?"
Neville looked even more frightened at the thought of having tea with Moody. He didn't move or speak. Moody turned his magical eyes upon Harry and asked, "You alright, Potter?"
"Yes," Harry said defiantly.
Moody's blue eye quivered slightly in the socket as it surveyed Harry. Then he said, looking at me this time too, "You've got to know. You might think it's harsh, but you have to know. No point pretending... well, come on Longbottom, I've got some books that might interest you."
Neville looked pleadingly at the six of us, but there wasn't anything we could do, so we all remained silent, so Neville had no choice but to be steered away, one of Moody's gnarled hands on his shoulder.
"What was that about?" Iggy asked, watching Moody and Neville disappear down the corridor.
"No idea," Hermione said, looking pensive.
"Some lesson, though!" Ron said as we started walking towards the Great Hall. "Fred and George were right, weren't they? He really knows his stuff, doesn't he? When he did Avada Kedavra, and the spider just snuffed it right there-" Ron stopped when he saw the look on Harry's face and didn't speak again until we entered the Great Hall, where he said that we should make a start on Trelawney's predictions tonight since it could take a few hours.
Hermione didn't join in on our conversations during dinner, but ate furiously fast and then once again left for the library. The rest of us walked back to Gryffindor Tower, talking about nothing really important until Harry said, "Wouldn't Moody and Dumbledore get into trouble with the Ministry if they found out that they showed us the Unforgivable Curses?"
"Probably," I said, "But when did Dumbledore ever listen to what the Ministry wanted? He's always done his own thing. And Moody's been getting into trouble for years from what Mr and Mrs Weasley were saying."
"Yeah, Moody is all attack first and ask questions later- just look at his dustbins," Ron said. "Balderdash," he added to the Fat Lady and the portrait swung open to reveal the Gryffindor common room, which was loud and packed.
"Let's get our Divination stuff," I said.
"Fine," Fang groaned.
The boys ran up to their dormitory to get their Divination things, and I ran up to my room to get mine, and we met again back down in the common room, where we found Neville, sitting alone in a corner, reading to himself. He looked a great deal calmer than he did after Moody's lesson, though not entirely normal. His eyes were quite red.
"You alright, Neville?" Harry asked.
"Oh, yes, I'm fine, thanks," Neville said. "Just reading a book Professor Moody lent me." He held up the book: Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean.
"Apparently, Professor Sprout told Professor Moody I'm really good at Herbology," Neville said. There was a note of pride in his voice that I barely ever heard before. "He thought I'd like this."
Telling Neville what Professor Sprout said, I thought, was a very tactful way of cheering him up, for Neville rarely heard that he was good at anything. It was sort of like what Professor Lupin would of done.
The five of us took out our Divination books at the tables beside the fire in the common room and we set to work on our predictions for the month. An hour later, we had made very little progress and the tables we were using were littered with bits of parchment covered in sums and symbols, and I could of sworn my brain was frying.
"I haven't a clue what any of this means," I said, crumpling up yet another bit of parchment and throwing it over my shoulder.
"You know," Iggy said, a mischievous grin on his lips, "I do believe it is time to go back to the old Divination standby."
"What- make it up?" Fang asked.
"Of course," Iggy said, smiling as if he had just discovered how someone can survive on the sun. Ron cleared everything off the tables, dipped his quill into his bottle of ink and started to write.
"On Monday," he said as he wrote, "I am likely to develop a terrible cough due to the unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter." He looked up, grinning. "You know her- just write a load of misery and she'll lap it up."
"Right," I said, crumpling up another piece of parchment and throwing it into the fire. "Okay- on Monday, I'll be in danger of- er- burns!" I said, looking at the fire again.
"You will be," Fang said darkly, "we're working with the skrewts again."
"On Tuesday, I'll...erm," Ron said, tapping his chin with his quill as I scribbled more and more tragic things onto the parchments.
"Lose a treasured possession," Harry offered, flicking through Unfogging the Future for more ideas.
"Good one," Ron said, writing it down, "because of...erm...Mercury. Why don't you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend?"
"Yeah, cool," Harry said, copying it down. "because Venus is in the...twelfth house."
"On Wednesday, I'll come off worse in a fight," Iggy said.
"Aah, I was going to be in a fight. Okay, I'll lose bet," Fang said.
"Yeah, Fang you can be betting on Iggy's fight," I said, writing down how I will fall off my broomstick from fifty feet in the air.
The five of us continued to write our fake prediction (which slowly became more and more tragic) for another hour, while the common room slowly emptied around us as people went to bed. Crookshanks wandered over to us and settled herself in my lap and stared at Harry, who was right opposite me, quite like Hermione would look at us now if she knew we weren't doing our homework properly.
Staring around the room, trying to think of something tragic I haven't used yet, I saw Fred and George sitting alone over to the corner, heads together, quills out, poring over a single piece of parchment. It was strange to see Fred and George working silently; they usually like to be the center of the attention, making lots of noise and making everyone laugh. There was something quite secretive about the way they were whispering to each other, which was how they spent most of the summer in the Burrow. I thought that it was another form for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, but it didn't really look like it; if it was, then Lee would surely be with them. I wondered whether it had anything to do with the Triwizard Tournament.
Thinking about that, I realized that I had no idea how to get passed the judge to put my name in for the Tournament. I had thought about it over the last few days, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized there was no way to do it unless you were seventeen or older. But, I wasn't going to give up that easily.
As I watched Fred and George, George shook his head at Fred, scratched out something on the parchment, and said in a low, quiet voice that still traveled easily acorss the almost deserted room, "No- that sounds like we're accusing him- we've got to be careful with what we say."
George looked over and saw that most of us were watching them, but we all just grinned and turned back to our work. Didn't want them thinking we were eavesdropping. Shortly after that, the twin rolled up the parchment, said goodnight and went to their dormitory.
Fred and George had only been got ten minutes when the portrait hole opened and Hermione climbed into the common room, carrying loads of parchment in one hand, and a box in the other which rattled whenever she walked. Crookshanks leaped from my lap and onto the couch, where he purred and waited patiently for Hermione.
"Hello!" Hermione said brightly, "I've just finished!"
"So have I!" Ron said happily and he threw his quill onto the table. I had just finished as well, and I left my parchment on the table, quite happy with all the terrible things that were supposedly going to happen to me this month.
Hermione sat down on the couch where Crookshanks was waiting for her, and left the things she had been carrying on an empty chair, then she pulled Ron's predictions towards her.
"You're not going to have a good month," she said, reading what he had written.
"At least I've been forewarned," Ron said, yawning and lying on his back on the carpet.
"You seem to be drowning twice," Hermione noted.
"Oh, am I?" Ron said, sitting up again. "I'd better change one of them to being trampled by a Hippogriff."
"Don't you think it's a bit obvious that you've made these up?" Hermione asked, looking over the predictions the rest of us wrote.
"How dare you?" Iggy exclaimed, in mock outrage. "We've been working like house-elves up here!"
Hermione raised her eyebrows, looking angry.
"It's just an expression," Iggy said hastily.
"What's in the box?" Harry asked as he just finished his own predictions.
"Funny you should ask," Hermione said, casting a nasty look at Iggy. She took off the lid and showed us the contents. Inside the box was about fifty badges, all different colors, and all bearing the same letters: S.P.E.W.
"Spew?" Fang asked, taking one of the badges and looking at it. "What is it?"
"Not spew," Hermione said impatiently, "It's S-P-E-W. Stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare."
"Never heard of it," I said, taking a red badge and turning it around in my hands.
"Of course you haven't," Hermione said, " I've only just started it."
"Yeah?" Ron said, in mild surprise, "How many members have you got?"
"Well- if you five join, I'll have six," Hermione said.
"And you think we want to walk around wearing badges that say spew?" Iggy asked, raising his eyebrows.
"S-P-E-W!" Hermione said hotly. "It was going to be Stop the Outrages Abuse of Our Fellow Magical Creatures and Campaign for a Change in Their Legal Statues- bit it wouldn't fit. So that's the motto."
She brandished a sheet of parchment in our faces.
"I've been researching it in the library. Elf slavery goes back centuries! I can't believe no ones done anything about it before now."
"Hermione, open you ears a little! They like it! They like being enslaved," Ron said.
"Our short-term aims," Hermione said, speaking louder than Ron and acting as though he hadn't spoken, "are to secure house-elves fair wages and working conditions. Our long-term aims include changing the law about non-wand use, and trying to get an elf into Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, because their shockingly underrepresented."
"And how to we do this?" Harry asked.
"We start by recruiting members," Hermione said happily, "I thought two Sickles to join- that gets you the badge- and the proceeds can fund our leaflet campaign. You're treasurer, Ron- I've got you a collecting tin upstairs- and Max, you're secretary so you might want to start writing down everything I'm saying now, as a record of our first meeting."
There was a pause, in which Hermione beamed at us, and I sat torn between admiration and exasperation at Hermione, and amusement at the look on Ron's face. The silence was broken, not by Ron, who looked too dumbstruck to ever speak again, but by soft taps on the window. I looked across the empty common room, and saw, illuminated by the moonlight, a brown and white owl, and a snowy owl.
"Freedom!" I cried, and jumped up and ran over to open the window.
"Hedwig!" Harry shouted, hot at my heels.
The two owls flew into the common room, soared across the room, then landed on top of our predictions.
"Hedwig has an answer!" Iggy said.
"About time," Harry said.
I walked over to Freedom, and was getting ready to untie the letter from his leg, when I noticed there wasn't one. The only letter was on Hedwig's leg. I sat back down on the couch, trying to cover up my emotions. It was something I was very good at.
I watched sadly as Harry untied the letter and he sat down beside me and read. Hedwig flew onto his knee and hooted softly, as Freedom flew onto my shoulder and started messing with my hair.
"What does it say?" Hermione asked. I looked over Harry's shoulder to see the letter that my father wrote. It was very short, and looked like it was written in a greay hurry.
Harry started reading 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 Max, Fang, Ron, Iggy, Hermione and Nudge. Keep your eyes open, Harry.
Tell Max that I have to talk to her in person about what she wrote to me about. I hope she understands, but I can't explain everything in a letter.
Sirius
"He's coming back?" I asked, frowning. He knew how dangerous that was! He could get caught and put back in Azkaban!
"Dumbledore's reading the signs? What signs?" Ron asked.
"Harry- what's wrong?" Fang asked, for Harry had just hit himself on the forehead, causing Hedwig to fly off his lap.
"I shouldn't of told him!" Harry exclaimed.
"You really shouldn't," I said quietly.
"What are you on about?" Ron asked.
"I've made him think that he has to come back!" Harry said furiously. "Coming back because he thinks I'm in trouble! And there's nothing wrong with me! I don't have anything for you," he snapped at Hedwig, "you'll have to go back to the Owlery if you want food."
Hedwig looked very offended and took off for the open window, with Freedom following her.
"Sirius is coming back and most likely he's going to get caught, then put back into Azkaban! You didn't have to write to him just because you're scar was a little bit sore! Now I won't see my father again because he's coming back for you, then getting chucked back into Azkaban!" I snapped, looking at Harry.
As soon as I said it, I regretted it. I knew Harry never wanted Sirius to come back when he wrote to him. It was obvious that Harry was afraid of the same thing I was, but I couldn't help it.
Harry stared at me, and I saw in his eyes that he believed what I said. Now he was going to blame himself. Oh, I really need to work on keeping my mouth shut!
"Harry-" I started, but Harry cut me off.
"I'm going to bed," he said, not looking at anyone as he climbed the stairs to his room.
After a few minutes of silence, I said, "I'm going to bed too. See you in the morning."
I changed into my pajamas when I got to my dormitory, and climbed into my four-poster, but I wasn't feeling even a tiny bit tired.
If Sirius got caught, Harry would blame himself, and he wouldn't be the same person. I just hope Sirius came to his senses, realized there was nothing wrong with Harry, and stay wherever he is.
I heard Hermione come into the dorm, but I didn't talk to her.
For a long time, I just lay, staring up at the dark canopy of the bed, thinking about Harry and Sirius. Finally, I drifted off to sleep, but the worry was always there in the back of my mind.
I AM SO SORRY!
I am really sorry that it took so long to write this! But I had tests, and I needed to study, and I still have lots of football... my life has been quite hectic.
But thankfully now because I'm on my holidays things have calmed down a lot, so I can go on fanfiction a lot more.
Thanks for being patient with me, everyone. You really are the best, and I really hope I never goes this long without updating again.
As always, when you review, you get cookies and butterbeer so...
REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! :D
lOvE yOu! :P
-Rach ;)