Chapter 39:

Alicia was up early the next morning and was surprised to find Sirius was as well. What surprised her more was the cheerfulness he was casting out of himself. Alicia had never seen him in such a good mood. Mrs Weasley wished him good morning and he gave her a hug while saying it back.

The Weasley's came muttering their way down the stairs as if it was too early but Sirius' high spirits quickly changed that until everyone was helping put up Christmas decorations. Sirius' singing was infectious as they worked and soon they were all joining in. Everyone that is, expect Harry, who hid himself into the drawing room until Mrs Weasley called him for lunch, in which Alicia heard his footsteps move up the stairs and into Sirius' mother's room with Buckbeak.

No one had bothered to talk to Harry and no one had looked at him, but Mrs Weasley expressed her worry and discomfort as to his behaviour. Alicia told her he was being stupid and that if she hit him over the head, it was all he needed. The red headed women hadn't been all that pleased with that answer despite the twins snickering at it.

"I think it'd work." Fred mumbled to her and she shrugged.

The doorbell rang in surprise to everyone at about six o'clock and Mrs Weasley moved to fetch it as Mrs Black started screaming as usual. Alicia moved to close the curtains as Sirius seemed too happy to care and was surprised to find Hermione at the doorway.

"What are you doing here?" she asked quietly after having closed the curtains.

"Well I wasn't going skiing after what happened!" she said "Dumbledore told me all about it."

"I'd hoped he would. I thought about writing too you but I haven't got Noel." Alicia admitted

"I thought you were supposed to be skiing?" Ron said appearing behind Alicia "Not that good is it?" he started laughing.

"It's actually really good, but some things are more important." Hermione snapped at him and Ron looked surprised. "So where's Harry?"

"Hiding." Ginny said as she joined them.

"What do you mean?"

"He hasn't eaten anything or joined us since lunch yesterday." Alicia admitted

"Why?"

"Well we went to St Mungo's yesterday and we used the extendable ears to listen in on Mum, Dad, Tonks and Mad-Eye," Ron explained as he glance up the hallway, Mrs Weasley had disappeared down into the kitchen again.

"Mad-Eye made a comment about Harry being possessed by You-Know-Who." Ginny sighed and Hermione looked surprised

"And then yesterday I caught Harry trying to lug his trunk out of his room towards the stairs." Alicia added, her arms crossed

"What for?"

"Harry seems to believe he's better off away from all of us and so he's isolated himself because he's possessed. And I bet he's angry at us all too because he thinks we gossiping about him." Alicia said

"But of course he's not possessed." Hermione believed

"You think we've been able to convince him of that. He hasn't spoken to anyone to allow us to remind him of Ginny being possessed. Although we have been a bit busy readying the house for Christmas." the black-haired girl explained.

"Well, that's just stupid." and Hermione began to move up the stairs, Ron offered to help her with her trunk and she agreed as they moved to the first landing. Ron took the trunk into Ginny and Hermione's shared room before Hermione turned to the two red-heads. "You wait here, I'll go get him."

"Oh, here dears," Mrs Weasley appeared behind them with a plate. "He needs to eat something and if he'd rather eat alone…" she sighed and handed Ginny the plate in which a heap of sandwiches sat upon.

"Come on." Alicia nodded her head and moved up the stairs with Hermione following, while Ginny and Ron moved into his and Harry's room to wait. They reached Sirius' mother's room and Hermione hammered on the door.

There was no answer.

"I know you're in there," said Hermione to the door. "Will you please come out? I want to talk to you."

Silence.

"Stop being a git Harry. You're being rude and stupid." Alicia insulted. There was movement before Harry opened the door and sent his sister a scowl. "Don't look at me like that." she snapped but Harry turned to Hermione

"What are you doing here?" he asked her as Buckbeak resumed his scratching at the straw-strewn floor for any fragments of rat he might have dropped. "I thought you were skiing with your mum and dad."

"Well, to tell the truth, skiing's not really my thing," said Hermione. "So I've come for Christmas." There was snow in her hair and her face was pink with cold. "But don't tell Ron that, I told him it's really good because he kept laughing so much. Anyway, Mum and Dad are a bit disappointed, but I've told them that everyone who's serious about the exams are staying at Hogwarts to study. They want me to do well, they'll understand. Anyway," she said briskly, "let's go to your bedroom, Ron's mum's lit a fire in there and she's sent up sandwiches."

Alicia went first and Hermione followed with Harry at the back. Ron and Ginny were waiting and sitting on Ron's bed. Alicia moved to sit on Harry's as she felt his irritation building.

"I came on the Knight Bus," said Hermione airily, pulling off her jacket before Harry had time to speak. "Dumbledore told me what had happened first thing this morning, but I had to wait for term to end officially before setting off. Umbridge is already livid that you lot disappeared right under her nose, even though Dumbledore told her Mr. Weasley was in St. Mungo's, and he'd given you all permission to visit. So…"

She sat down next to Ginny, and the two girls and Ron looked up at Harry.

"How're you feeling?" asked Hermione.

"Fine," said Harry stiffly.

"Oh, don't lie, Harry," she said impatiently. "Alicia, Ron and Ginny say you've been hiding from everyone since you got back from St. Mungo's."

"They do, do they?" said Harry, glaring at Ron, Ginny and his sister. Ron looked down at his feet but Ginny seemed quite unabashed.

"Well, you have!" she said. "And you won't look at any of us!"

"It's you lot who won't look at me!" said Harry angrily.

"It's kind of hard too when you're avoiding us and hiding like a coward." Alicia snapped back, her tone just as angry. She was over his behaviour, he made a decision to ignore them all and then gets angry about it.

"Maybe you're taking it in turns to look and keep missing each other," suggested Hermione, the corners of her mouth twitching.

"Very funny," snapped Harry, turning away.

"Oh, stop feeling all misunderstood," said Hermione sharply. "Look, the others have told me what you overheard last night on the Extendable Ears —"

"Yeah?" growled Harry, his hands deep in his pockets as he watched the snow now falling thickly outside. "All been talking about me, have you? Well, I'm getting used to it…"

"Well if you conversed with us a little we wouldn't have to!" Alicia commented

"We wanted to talk to you, Harry," said Ginny, "but as you've been hiding ever since we got back —"

"I didn't want anyone to talk to me," said Harry, who was feeling more and more nettled.

"Well, that was a bit stupid of you," said Ginny angrily, "seeing as you don't know anyone but me who's been possessed by You-Know-Who, and I can tell you how it feels."

Harry remained quite still as the impact of these words hit him. Then he turned on the spot to face her.

"I forgot," he said. Alicia threw her hands up into the air in frustration.

"Lucky you," said Ginny coolly.

"I'm sorry," Harry said, and he meant it. "So… so do you think I'm being possessed, then?"

"Well, can you remember everything you've been doing?" Ginny asked. "Are there big blank periods where you don't know what you've been up to?"

Harry racked his brains.
"No," he said.

"Then You-Know-Who hasn't ever possessed you," said Ginny simply. "When he did it to me, I couldn't remember what I'd been doing for hours at a time. I'd find myself somewhere and not know how I got there."

"That dream I had about your dad and the snake, though —"

"Harry, you've had these dreams before," Hermione said. "You had flashes of what Voldemort was up to last year."

"This was different," said Harry, shaking his head. "I was inside that snake. It was like I was the snake…"

"Those kinds of dreams we have had. One of them we were the old muddle caretaker Frank remember? The first time we saw Voldemort in that… ugly form. During the summer last year." Alicia mumbled "This isn't that much different to that." she believed.

Harry looked at her, his lips pursed as he thought but Alicia could feel the hope and comfort he was feeling by all these words.

"What if Voldemort somehow transported me to London — ?"

"One day," said Hermione, sounding thoroughly exasperated, "you'll read Hogwarts, A History —"

"No they wont." Alicia interjected but Hermione continued

"— and perhaps that will remind you that you can't Apparate or Disapparate inside Hogwarts. Even Voldemort couldn't just make you fly out of your dormitory, Harry."

"You didn't leave your bed, mate," said Ron. "I saw you thrashing around in your sleep about a minute before we could wake you up…" Harry started pacing up and down the room again, thinking. He took a sandwich as he passed and crammed it hungrily into his mouth…

I'm not the weapon after all, thought Harry.

"Oh my god." Alicia grumbled and Harry looked at her as she banged her forehead to the wall. "How am I related to you?" she looked at the celling and Harry actually chuckled as the other's looked confused.

The atmosphere brightened significantly as Sirius walked past their door towards Buckbeak's room, singing "God Rest Ye Merry, Hippogriffs" at the top of his voice.