– Chapter Fourteen –

Unforgivable

The next couple days passed without great incident, unless you counted Neville melting his sixth cauldron in Potions. Professor Snape, who seemed to have attained new levels of vindictiveness over the summer, gave Neville a detention to which Neville returned from it in a state of nervous collapse, having been made to disembowel a barrel-full of horned toads.

"You know why Snape's in such a foul mood, don't you?" said Ron to Harry and Romi as they watched Hermione teaching Neville a Scouring Charm to remove the frog guts from under his fingernails.

"Yeah," replied Harry. "Moody."

It was common knowledge that Severus really wanted the Dark Arts job, and he had now failed to get it for at least the fourth year running. Severus had disliked all of their previous Dark Arts teachers, and shown it – but he seemed strangely wary of displaying over animosity to Mad-Eye Moody. Indeed, whenever Romi saw the two of them together, at meal times or when they passed in the corridor, Romi had the distinct impression that Severus was avoiding Moody's eye, whether magical or normal.

"I reckon Snape's a bit scared of him, you know," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Imagine if Moody turned Snape into a horned toad," said Ron, his eyes misting over, "and bounced him all around his dungeon…"

Romi was greatly looking forward to her lessons on Thursday. The whole morning would be spent with Madam Pomfrey as her first official lesson for her Healership and the afternoon would be Defence Against the Dark Arts with Professor Moody.

Romi eagerly left breakfast Thursday morning with good wishes from Neville, Ginny and Luna. She hurried to the Hospital Wing and peeked inside, quickly before going inside. It was empty aside from Madam Pomfrey who was busy setting something up at the desk on the far side of the wing, where Romi had spent hours studying the human body.

Madam Pomfrey looked up at the noise of the doors closing, and smiled broadly.

"Romi, good to see you again," Madam Pomfrey said, turning and walking over to her. "How were your first few days of school?"

"Very good," Romi replied, smiling broadly. "Though, I've been looking forward to this all week!"

"So have I," Madam Pomfrey said with a little wink. "Alright, then," she said, suddenly business like. "I've got a lesson planned out for you and if everything goes well you might just be able to write your Level 1 exam at the end of the year. You're younger than anyone else trying to become a Healer, though. I daresay we'll come across a couple of potions and plants that you haven't learnt in class yet."

"I'm a quick learner," Romi insisted, horrified at the idea that she might have to give up her Healership until she was older.

"I know you are," Madam Pomfrey answered, smiling. "So, let's get started, we have a lot to cover and get done this year."

Madam Pomfrey worked with Romi for an hour, consulting her textbook, and working on her grip of her wand and the spell to heal different depths of cuts.

Madam Pomfrey had prepared a variety of magical tissue samples, each with different kinds of cuts, from shallow to deep, smooth and jagged. If Romi performed the spell correctly, the tissue would appear healed for approximately five minutes. If it Romi didn't get the spell correct, the cut would reappear in the tissue seconds later.

Shallow cuts Romi got easily, as it was just skin to be healed, but deeper ones were more problematic, and the jagged, ripped-like cuts she couldn't manage at all. Each muscle must be sown correctly to its match; otherwise there was the chance that the muscle wouldn't work.

They were interrupted three times by students requiring attention. Madam Pomfrey fixed them all up, with Romi watching intensely. She was looking forward to the day that she would be able to do the same thing.

Before Romi knew it, it was approaching lunchtime and she was forced to pack up. She'd made great improvements to her ability to heal cuts and was feeling very rather good about it. Madam Pomfrey set Romi off to lunch with the magical practice tissues that Romi had been working on, telling her to practice every evening for two hours until their next class.

Romi was happy when she walked down to the Great Hall, still wearing her Healer's uniform and going to sit with Neville, Ginny and Luna at the Gryffindor Table.

"How did it go?" Ginny asked, as Romi sat beside her.

"Great… I think," Romi replied. "I was learning how to heal cuts."

'That's all?" Neville asked.

"Yup… still tons to go," answered Romi with a sigh. "And I still don't have the healing cuts thing down."

"You'll get there," Luna replied, "don't worry. You have lots of time."

Romi ate her lunch happily with her friends, and quickly went upstairs to change before arriving with the rest of the Gryffindor fourth years at Moody's first lesson. They had queued up outside his classroom before the bell had even rung, they were so eager.

The Gryffindor fourth years were looking forward to Moody's first lesson so much that they arrived early after lunch on Thursday and queued up outside his classroom before the bell had even rung.

The only person missing was Hermione, who turned up just in time for the lesson.

"Been in the–"

"–Library," Harry and Romi finished her sentence for her.

"Come on, quick, or we won't get decent seats," Harry added.

They hurried into the chairs right in front of the teacher's desk, took out their copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection and waited, unusually quiet. Soon they heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor and he entered the room looking as strange and frightening as ever. They could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.

"You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."

They returned the books to their bags; Romi exchanged an excited look with Neville beside her.

Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled grey hair out of his twisted and scarred face and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swivelled around, fixing upon each student as he or she answered.

"Right then," he said, when the last person had declared themselves present, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures – you've covered Boggarts, Red Caps, Hinkypunks, Grindylows, Kappas and werewolves, is that right?"

There was a general murmur of assent.

"But you're behind – very behind – on dealing with curses," said Moody. "So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark–"

"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out.

Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled – the first time Romi had seen him do so. The effect was to make his heavily scared face look more twisted and contorted than ever, but it was nevertheless a relief to know that he ever did anything as friendly as smile. Ron looked deeply relieved.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody said. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago… yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favour to Dumbledore… one year, and then back to my quiet retirement."

He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.

"So – straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you counter-curses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking."

Lavender jumped and blushed. She had been showing Parvati her completed horoscope under the desk. Apparently Moody's magical eye could see through solid wood, as well as out of the back of his head.

"So… do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ron's and Hermione's. Romi contemplated putting her hand up, but she didn't really feel like answering yet.

Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender.

"Er," said Ron tentatively, "my dad told me about one… is it called the Imperius curse, or something?"

"Correct! Yes," said Mood appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius curse."

Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer and took out a glass jar. Inside was an insect that looked very close to a spider, its body about the size of a coin.

Moody reached into the jar and caught the insect and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it. "Engorgio!" he whispered and the whip spider grew twice its size. "Imperio!" he then muttered.

The insect leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk, and began to swing backwards and forwards as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a back flip breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the whip spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakable a tap dance.

Romi started to smile and laugh with the rest of the class when she caught a strange look in Moody's eye. She couldn't place it, but he was staring with almost a greedy look at the insect. Suddenly it didn't look so funny anymore. She knew that wizards and witches had also been put under that spell, made to do things against their will. An unpleasant knot formed in her stomach as she watched the whip spider. She looked back up at Moody, and was surprised to see that he was studying her face. Seconds later he looked at the rest of the laughing crowd.

"Think it's funny, do you?" he growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"

The laughter died away almost instantly.

"Total control," said Moody quietly, as the whip spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats…"

Ron gave an involuntary shudder.

"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius curse," said Moody, and Romi knew that he was talking about the day in which Voldemort had been all-powerful. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who as acting of their own free will.

"The Imperius curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked causing everyone to jump.

Moody picked up the somersaulting spider insect and stopped it.

"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"

Hermione's hand flew into the air again and, to Romi's surprise, beside her, so did Neville's. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology, which was easily his best subject. Neville looked surprised at his own daring.

"Yes?" said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville.

"There's one – the Cruciatus curse," said Neville in a small but distinct voice.

Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes.

"Your name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.

Neville nodded nervously.

"Come up here," Moody demanded, motioning for Neville to come towards his desk. Neville gave a scared glance at Romi and then stood up and walked towards him. Professor Moody placed the whip spider onto the desktop, where it remained motionless. Moody looked at Neville, who was staring at the spider with a dead expression on his face, and then Moody glanced to the rest of the class.

"The Cruciatus curse," he said pointing his wand at the insect. "Crucio!"

At once, the whip spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Romi was sure that if it had a voice, it would have been screaming. Romi glanced to her best friend and saw the pain and horror cross of his face, his knuckles white, clenching the desk to keep him up right.

Romi had a sudden rush of memories of all the time she had spent in Frank and Alice Longbottom's hospital room. Her stomach dropped out near her feet as she realised why Neville knew this curse. This curse was the reason Frank and Alice were living permanently in the hospital.

Moody did not remove his wand; he was staring intently at the spider, that similar greedy look in his eyes. The whip spider started to shudder and jerk more violently. Romi couldn't take it any longer.

"Stop it!" Romi shouted, jumping up from her chair, knocking it over, and rushing to Neville's side. Before she could think what she was doing, she grabbed Moody's wand and hand, and pushed it upwards. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch.

Romi and Moody stared at each other intensely for a long moment, then Romi released her grip on Moody's wand and turned to Neville, gripping his arm in a comforting way.

The entire classroom was deathly silent.

Moody cleared his throat, and picking up the spider, moved past Romi and Neville, without acknowledging them, leaving them at his desk as he addressed the crowd.

"Pain," said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus curse… that one was very popular once, too."

There was silence. Neville was standing with his hands leaning against Moody's desk; his eyes squeezed tight shut. Romi did not let go of his arm, and she took one of his hands in hers. Moody did not pay attention to them.

"Right… anyone know any others?"

Romi didn't look around, already knowing what was going to happen to the whip spider next.

"Well," Moody said. "Miss Granger?"

There was silence from the crowd. Romi was tempted to look around, and then there was a shout.

"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.

Romi jumped and closed her eyes; there was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air.

Romi didn't have to look around to see that the spider was dead. She opened her eyes, and saw that Neville was staring at her, she couldn't describe what his expression was.

"Not nice," Moody said calmly, behind them. "Not pleasant. And there's no counter-curse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."

No one said anything, and there was a moment, then Moody stomped his way back up to his desk.

"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it – you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nose-bleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it," Moody said getting to his desk. He placed a hand on Romi's shoulder.

"You may sit down, Miss Black, Mr Longbottom," he said quietly. Romi nodded. She hurried to her seat, Neville right beside her, but he wouldn't look at her.

"Now if there is no counter curse, why am I showing you?" Moody continued, "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 where you're facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he roared, and the whole class jumped again.

"Now… those three curses – Avada Kedavra, Imperius and Cruciatus – are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them on a fellow human being is a one way ticket to Azkaban. That's what you're up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practise constant never-ceasing vigilance. Get out your quills… copy this down…"

They spend the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang – but when Moody had dismissed them, and they had left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Most people were discussing the curses in awed voices – "Did you see it twitch?" "– and when he killed it – just like that."

Among the bustle, Neville had left before Romi could catch him. She hurried through the crowd, looking for him while listening to all of talk around her.

They were talking about the lesson, Romi thought, as though it had been some sort of spectacular show, they probably would have thought differently if it hadn't been an insect. Romi hadn't found it amusing, and she was worried about Neville.

She hurried down the corridor and found Neville standing with Hermione, Ron and Harry. He had the same horrified expression on as he did during the Cruciatus Curse.

He was babbling to Hermione, Ron and Harry in a voice higher than usual.

"Interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm – I'm starving, aren't you?"

"Neville, are you all right?" Harry asked concerned.

"Oh, yes, Harry, I'm fine," gabbled Neville, in the same unnaturally high voice. "Very interesting dinner – I mean lesson – what's for eating?"

Romi practically ran down the corridor, pushing Ron, Harry and Hermione out of the way and threw her arms over her best friend. Neville hugged her back hard.

"I'm fine, Romi," he said in that strange, high pitched voice, but he didn't let her go. "Really, I am… I just…" He trailed off and didn't say anything.

Romi let him go, still holding onto his shoulders.

"Neville," she started, feeling like she was about to cry, but an odd clunking noise sounded behind them, and they turned to see Professor Moody limping towards them. All five of them fell silent, watching him apprehensively, but when he spoke it was in a much lower and gentler growl than they had yet heard.

"It's all right, sonny," he said to Neville. "Why don't you come up to my office? Come on… we can have a cup of tea…"

Neville looked even more frightened at the prospect of tea with Moody. He neither moved nor spoke, giving Romi a petrified glance, still holding onto her.

Moody turned his magical eye upon Harry. "You all right, are you, Potter?"

"Yes," said Harry firmly.

Moody's blue eye quivered slightly in its socket as it surveyed Harry.

Then he said, "You've got to know. It seems harsh, maybe, but you've got to know. No point pretending… well... come on, Longbottom, I've got some books that might interest you."

Neville looked pleadingly at Romi but she couldn't think of any way to refuse Moody. She let go of Neville's shoulders and Moody steered Neville towards his office. Romi took a step after them, but Professor Moody called behind him.

"I'll see you next class, Miss Black," he added, clearly telling her not to follow.

"What was that about?" said Ron, watching Neville and Moody turn the corner.

"I don't know," said Hermione, looking pensive, but Harry was staring at Romi.

"What was that about?" he asked her.

"Nothing," Romi said, brushing a tear off her cheek, quickly and violently lest they noticed.

"Romi, are you crying?" Ron said incredulously.

"Shut up! No," Romi answered venomously, punching Ron's shoulder. "It's none of your business!"

She turned to walk away. Ron, Harry and Hermione followed her quietly.

"Some lesson though, eh?" said Ron, as they set off for the Great Hall. "Fred and George were right, weren't they? He really knows his stuff, Moody, doesn't he? When he did Avada Kedavra, the way that spider thing just died, just snuffed it right–"

Hermione interrupted, clearing her throat and Ron fell silent. Romi didn't really feel like eating that dinner. Hermione ate quickly and sped off to the library. Romi sat with her head leaning against her arm, pushing her potatoes around the plate.

She could feel that Ron was looking at her, but Romi didn't care. All she could see was Neville's face when Professor Moody was performing the Cruciatus Curse.

Ginny tried to ask her what had happened, but Romi just shook her head, and Ginny let it go. She walked up to the common room with Ron, Ginny and Harry, later that night, the three still looking at Romi curiously.

Ron was just suggesting that they make a start on Professor Trelawney's predictions when Harry brought up the topic of the Unforgivable curses again.

"Wouldn't Moody and Dumbledore be in trouble with the ministry if they knew we'd seen the curses?" Harry asked as they approached the Fat Lady.

"Yeah, probably," said Ron. "But Dumbledore's always done things his way, hasn't he? And Moody's been getting in trouble for years, I reckon. Attacks first and asks questions later – look at his dustbins. Balderdash."

The Fat Lady swung forwards to reveal the entrance hole, and they climbed into Gryffindor common room, which was crowded and noisy.

"Shall we get our Divination stuff, then?" said Harry.

"I s'pose," Ron groaned. Ginny saved a table for them, pulling out her Transfiguration homework.

Romi divided with Ron and Harry at the staircase, quickly running up into her dormitory that was complete empty besides her cat Zhi, who was sitting stretched out on her bed, and Crookshanks who was sitting upright next to Zhi.

"You two behave yourselves," Romi said getting her Divination books and glaring at the cats. "I'm really sure that Hermione does not want kittens."

She patted them both on the head and then left the room, going back downstairs to the crowded common room.

Romi sat beside Ginny and spread out the charts and propped out Unfogging the Future took one look at it and threw down her quill, much too worried and distracted to study. Harry and Ron appeared a minute later and began to set to work. Ginny was interested in their work, but was concentrating very hard on her own. Romi suspected that Ginny was trying for perfect marks this year.

An hour later, Romi, Ron and Harry had made very little progress, though their table was littered with bits of parchment bearing sums and symbols. Romi had spent a great deal of time staring out into space, hoping that Neville was alright and her brain was so fogged up that she might as well have been asleep. She thought of that possibility for a moment, that she was asleep and that this was some sort of cruel twisted nightmare her subconscious was playing on her, but her nightmares were scarier than this.

"I've haven't got a clue what this lot's supposed to mean," said Harry, staring down at a long list of calculations.

"You know," said Ron, whose hair was on end because of all the times he had run his fingers through it in frustration, "I think it's back to the old Divination standby."

"Oh, yes please!" Romi said, sitting up and going into an involuntary stretch.

"What's that?" Ginny asked, looking up from her Transfiguration essay.

"Make it up," said Harry.

"Yup," said Ron, sweeping the jumble of scrawled notes off the table, dipping his pen into some ink and starting to write. Ginny watched her brother with a mixture of disapproval and amusement; though with more amusement.

"Next Monday," he said, as he scribbled, "I am likely to develop a cough owing to the unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter." He looked up to Romi and Harry. "You know her – just put in loads of misery, she'll lap it up."

"Right," said Harry, crumpling up his first attempt and lobbing it over the heads of a group of chatter first years into the fire. "Okay… on Monday, I will be in danger of – er – burns."

"Yeah, you totally will be," said Romi, watching them. "We've got the Skrewts on Monday."

Harry laughed and Ron continued.

"Tuesday I'll… erm…"

"Lose a treasured possession," said Harry who was flicking through Unfogging the Future for ideas.

"Good one," said Ron, copying it down. "Because of … erm…"

"Mercury," Romi said.

"Right, why don't you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend," Ron said to Harry.

"Yeah… cool…" Harry said, scribbling it down, "because… Venus is in the twelfth house."

"And on Wednesday, I think I'll come off worst in a fight," said Ron.

"Aah," said Harry, "I was going to have a fight. Okay I'll lose a bet."

"Yeah, you can bet that Ron will win his fight," Ginny said with a giggle.

They continued to make up predictions, which grew steadily more tragic, for another hour, while the common room around them slowly emptied as people went up to bed. Crookshanks had come down from Romi's dormitory, along with Zhi, and the two cats found themselves comfortable in Harry and Romi's lap.

About half an hour later the portrait hole opened and Hermione climbed into the common room, carrying a sheaf of parchment in one hand and a box whose contents rattled as she walked in the other. Crookshanks arched his back, purring at her arrival.

"Hello," she said, "I've just finished!"

"So have I!" said Ron triumphantly, throwing down his quill.

Hermione sat down laid the things she was carrying in an empty armchair and pulled Ron's predictions towards her.

"Not going to have a very good month, are you?" she said sardonically, as Crookshanks curled up in her lap.

"Ah, well, at least I'm forewarned," yawned Ron.

"You seem to be drowning twice," said Hermione.

"Oh, am I?" said Ron peering down at this predictions. "I'd better change one of them to getting trampled by a rampaging Hippogriff."

"Make it a herd of them," Harry said, "that way we can use it too."

"Don't you think it's a bit obvious you've made these up?" said Hermione.

"How dare you!" said Ron, in mock outrage. "We've been working like house-elves here!"

Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"It's just an expression," said Ron hastily.

Harry laid down his quill and asked; "What's in the box?"

"Funny you should ask," said Hermione, with a nasty look at Ron. She took off the lid, and showed them the contents.

Inside were about fifty badges, all different colours, but all bearing the same letters: S.P.E.W.

"'Spew'?" said Harry picking up a badge and looking at it. "What's this about?"

"Not spew," said Hermione impatiently. "It's S – P – E – W. Stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare."

"Never heard of it," said Ron.

"Well, of course you haven't," said Hermione briskly. "I've only just started it."

"Yeah?" said Ron in mild surprise. "How many members have you got?"

"Well – if you lot join – five," said Hermione.

"And you think we want to walk around wearing badges saying 'spew', do you?" said Ron.

"S – P – E – W!" said Hermione hotly. "I was going to put Stop the Outrageous Abuse of Our Fellow Magical Creatures and Campaign for a Change in Their Legal Status – but it wouldn't fit. So that's the heading of our manifesto."

She brandished the sheaf of parchment at them. "I've been researching it thoroughly in the library. Elf enslavement goes back centuries. I can't believe no one's done anything about it before now."

"Hermione – open your ears," said Ron loudly. "They. Like. It. They like being enslaved!"

"Our short-term aims," said Hermione, speaking even more loudly than Ron, and acting as though she hadn't heard a word, "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 the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, because they're shockingly under-represented."

"Good luck with that," Romi said, slouching in her chair, she glanced to the Portrait Hole again. She'd been hoping to catch Neville coming in from his tea with Moody, but she hadn't seen him yet.

"And how do we do all this?" Harry asked.

"We start by recruiting members," said Hermione happily. "I thought two Sickles to join – that buys a badge – and the proceeds can fund our leaflet campaign. You're treasurer Ron – I've got you a collecting tin upstairs – and Harry you're secretary, so you might want to write down everything I'm saying now, as a record of our first meeting."

There was a pause in which Hermione beamed at them.

"That sounds great, Hermione," Ginny said, glancing between them all. "But don't you think it's a bit late tonight? Maybe we can talk about this all tomorrow?"

Hermione looked slightly disappointed as Ginny stood up stretching, gathering her homework.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Ginny said, glancing at Romi, who nodded and Ginny disappeared up to her dormitory.

Hermione opened her mouth to continue talking, clearly not deterred by Ginny's lack of enthusiasm, when a soft tapping at the window interrupted them. All four looked across the now empty common room to see a snowy owl perched on the window-sill.

"Hedwig!" Harry shouted and he launched himself out of his chair and across the room to pull open the window.

Hedwig flew inside, soared across the room and landed on the table on top of Harry's predictions.

"About time!" said Harry, hurrying after her.

"She's got an answer!" said Ron excitedly, pointing at the grubby piece of parchment tied to Hedwig's leg.

"An answer from who?" Romi asked curious.

"Sirius," Harry said hastily, as he fumbled to untie it. "I wrote to him in the summer – because my scar was hurting." Hedwig fluttered onto Harry's knee, hooting softly.

"Well, what does it say?" asked Romi.

Harry read aloud:

Harry –

I'm flying north immediately. This news about your scar is the latest in a series of strange rumours 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 Ron and Hermione. Keep your eyes open, Harry.

Sirius

Harry looked up at Ron, Romi and Hermione, who stared back at him.

"He's flying north?" Hermione whispered. "He's coming back?"

"Dumbledore's reading what signs?" said Ron looking perplexed. "Harry – what's up?"

Harry had just hit himself in the forehead with his fist, looking distressed and jolting Hedwig out of his lap.

"I shouldn't've told him!" Harry said furiously.

"What are you on about?" asked Ron in surprise.

"It's made him think he's got to come back!" said Harry, now slamming his fist on the table so that Hedwig landed on the back of Ron's chair hooting indignantly. Zhi dug her claws into Romi's legs surprised at the noise. Romi carefully peeled the hooked claws out of her skin, still trying to listen to Harry.

"He's coming back, because he thinks I'm in trouble! And there's nothing wrong with me! I haven't got anything for you," Harry snapped at Hedwig, who was clicking her beak expectantly. "You'll have to go up to the Owlery if you want food."

Hedwig gave him an extremely offended look and took off for the open window, cuffing him around the head with her outstretch wing as she went.

"Harry," Hermione began, in a pacifying sort of voice.

"I'm going to bed," interrupted Harry, "see you in the morning."

And with that he stomped off up to the dormitory. Romi, Hermione and Ron sat for a moment in silence and then Romi stood up.

"I think I'll head off too," she answered, she hadn't seen Neville at all this night, maybe she would be able to see him tomorrow morning. "See you later."

"Night," Ron replied and Romi took herself off.

Upstairs, the other girls were asleep already and Romi quietly and quickly got into her bed, snuggling with Zhi, and thinking about Sirius, and Neville and Mad-Eye Moody.