Chapter Thirty Eight
It was the next morning when Harry woke up, remembering that the letter to Cho was still sitting in his bag. He could hear his dorm mates snoring and breathing softly around him and considered just going back to sleep. The bed was so comfy, the blankets nice and warm; the pillow was even still nicely chilled.
Unfortunately sleep had left him, leaving Harry well and truly awake and thinking only of the letter. Slightly annoyed at himself he slipped silently from his bed and dressed, shoving his feet into his slippers and pulling a jumper on.
There was no clock in the dorm room and it was too dark to see his watch clearly but out in the hallway he could see the light just starting to creep through the windows.
His watch said it was just after half five meaning that he wouldn't need the invisibility cloak, he would be able to blag off being out of bed so early if anyone was being difficult enough to question it. Harry also knew he could use the extra hour being awake, even not counting the time it would take him to deliver the letter, to catch up on the last of his Herbology homework that was due that afternoon.
He wandered down the empty stairs and left the common room, making sure he closed the common room door quietly behind him.
Normally when Harry found himself alone, walking quietly through the empty corridors, it was late at night and he found it all felt strangely different in the morning. There were birds singing as the morning light touched the castle making everything seemed wonderfully calm.
He reached the kitchens without any trouble apart from a stern look and a shake of the head from the Bloody Barron, who was possibly just still annoyed at him for having a go at Corvus in front of everyone the other day.
Inside there was the normal bustle and rush of steam. The whole kitchen smelt strongly of fresh coffee, bacon and toast which was making his stomach rumble. It was at least an hour until breakfast would be served but Harry was fairly sure he would be able to get at least a slice of hot buttered toast before he left.
As always, Harry didn't interrupt the busy house elves but instead waited respectfully by the door until he was noticed.
"Harry Potter? What can we dos for yous sir?" an older house elf, with ears that stuck straight up asked.
"I was wondering if I could talk to Dobby?" Harry asked, "If he's not too busy."
"Dobbys on evening shift so he mights well be frees. I shall asks him." the elf popped out of view, returning with a very happy Dobby a few minutes later.
Harry smiled at the cheerful little elf, who's ears flapped at the sight of him, "Hi Dobby. I hope you weren't busy?"
Dobby shook his head, his ears flapping wildly, "Not at alls Harry Potter! Can I helps you?"
Harry clutched at the letter and took a deep breath, for some reason this was feeling very final to him, "I need to swap one of the letters I wrote before over for this new one."
"Oh of courses!" Dobby beamed, "Harry Potter gaves Dobby such a greatest honour with the letters."
"Well, you seemed like the best person to trust with it." Harry grinned.
Dobby looked like he was about to cry for a moment before composing his face and giving his eyes a quick wipe, "If Harry Potter will follow Dobby."
Harry was slightly confused as Dobby left the kitchens, waving for him to follow. Harry did so, wondering where on earth Dobby could be taking him; he'd assumed that Dobby had been keeping the letters in his room but apparently not.
"The Come and Go room?" Harry asked, watching the door appear before the third time they walked passed, "How do you hide things in here?"
Dobby smiled, "Many things have been hide in here. Many, many things."
He pushed open the door and Harry's mouth fell open. He'd never seen so much stuff.
The room was filled with seemingly never ending rows upon rows of shelves, holding everything from broken cauldrons, to old text books, clothes and trunks filled with goodness knows what.
"Wow." Harry said at last, "This is… this is a lot of stuff. Where did it all come from?"
Dobby shrugged, "Been here forwever. Students leaves things and wants to lose things so they ends up here."
Harry couldn't help but look around in wonder, running his hands over dusty books and opening a trunk that seemed to be filled with nothing but strings of pearls.
"Harry Potter should be carefully." Dobby said, his eyes growing wide, "You don'ts knows what's in here."
Harry withdraw his hand from reaching, rather foolishly, for the pearls and closed the chest; Dobby gave him a nod of approval.
"How can you ever find anything in here?" Harry asked.
Dobby looked around, "You haves to just remember bits."
Harry nodded, "So where did the letters end up?"
Dobby waved Harry over, Harry following obediently.
"Goes passed the cupboard with three cups to the lefts." Dobby pointed out, "Passed the head stuffeded thing, wearing the pretty hat thing."
"It's more of an upside down tiara." Harry observed, trying and failing to think of the proper name.
"Then I tucks them under the rocking horse." Dobby showed him the old fashioned, carved wooden rocking horse, pulling out the envelope from the thick base and handing it over.
"Thank you." Harry smiled, quickly swapping over the letter.
"Harry Potter should keep it here when letters needs to change." Dobby suggested, "Thens Dobby will alwayses be ables to finds them."
"Yeah, yeah of course." Harry agreed, slipping the large envelope back into place, "Dobby, how far does this room go on for?"
Dobby looked around and scratched his ear like a dog, with his hind leg, "Forever. We has never reached the ends of it but we's never really looked either…"
Harry took a deep breath. It was an impressive sight, a thousand years of junk, rubbish and secrets left sitting around, much of it long forgotten. He could see several more piles of lettere dotted around, even just where they were standing. The nearest pile's top letter was dated 1893.
"Harry Potter should not thinks about it too hard." Dobby suggested, giving Harry a small smile, "It's enough to twists the brains."
"You're right about that." Harry agreed, ripping his eyes away from the never ending shelves, "Let's go."
His stomach rumbled loudly.
Dobby's eyes grew wide, "Harry Potter is hungry!"
Harry grinned, "Don't worry, I can wait until breakfast."
"No no no." Dobby said, firmly shaking his head, "We shall gets you somethings. You should of says, Harry Potter!"
Harry smiled and thought it best not to argue, following Dobby out of the room and back down to the kitchens.
Dobby led him to a small table, tucked in the corner of the room and rushed off to bringing him several slices of toast, generously covered in butter and jam and a large glass of apple juice.
"How's Winky doing?" Harry asked, between mouthfuls of toast.
"Winky is doings well." Dobby nodded, "She is getting herself back."
Harry was glad, "Has she managed to settle in?"
Dobby shrugged, "She has… better. Winky is saying that she would rathers be in a privates home again."
"Is that likely?" Harry asked, "I've never heard of a house elf going to a new house after being… er… fired from their old one."
Dobby nodded, "It is true. It is possible, in law, but no of us has ever heard of its. We doesn't tell Winky this though, it might makes her take up butter beer again and that's would be very bad."
Harry chatted quietly with Dobby until he was finished, wishing him goodbye and promising to visit soon.
The common room was still basically empty, just a couple of early bird students milling around. Harry managed to finish his essay before his friends arrived, very worried about where Harry had been.
He didn't tell them exactly, just saying that he couldn't sleep and went for a wander; they might take him writing the letters the wrong way, like he'd given up and he didn't want them to worry about him. Thankfully they didn't push the issue and wandered down to breakfast together and it didn't seem long before they were heading into Defence Against the Dark Arts together, one of the few lessons all six of them were taking.
Severus was sitting behind his large, practical desk ignoring all the students until they were finally all seated and quiet.
"Before we even begin today's lesson I want your Dementor essays on my desk." Severus said, waving his wand lazily as twenty five scrolls flew from their owners, landing in a neat pile of Severus's desk.
Ron turned bright red as his scroll flew from his hands as he tried to finish it, tucked in the back of the classroom.
Severus ignored it, "And I hope, for your sakes, they are better than the tripe I had to endure on resisting the Imperious Curse. Basic spelling and grammar people, it is not an optional bonus! Now, if you will all open your books at page… what is it Mr Finnigan?"
"Sir?" Seamus said, "I've been wondering, how do you tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost? Because there was something in the Prophet about an Inferius in-"
"No, there wasn't." Severus said, rolling his eyes.
"But sir," Seamus insisted, "I heard people talking-"
"And if you had taken the time and effort to actually read the article, rather than listening to gossip and looking at the pretty pictures, Mr Finnigan, you would have known that the so called Inferius was nothing but a smelly sneak thief by the name of Mundungus Fletcher." Severus drawled.
"I'm all for team gossip and pretty pictures." Harry sniggered to Draco, who struggled to keep his face straight.
"But Mr Potter seems to have a lot to say on the subject." Severus said, raising an eyebrow, "Well then, Mr Potter, how does one tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost?"
Harry looked at him blankly, the whole class turning round to watch him. Harry tried to think about any mention he'd heard of an Inferius before but the sudden pressure had made his mind draw a blank.
"Umm…well, ghosts… ghosts are transparent…" Harry said, feeling the patheticness radiate from his answer.
Severus looked at him, trying not to smirk, "Well, brought up in a magical household and six years of top rate magical education and you have learnt that ghosts, are in fact, transparent…"
Pansy let out a loud giggle, slapping her hands over her mouth. Hermione just looked ashamed that he managed to say so little, clearly bursting to give the answer herself.
Harry in the mean time was trying his best not to stick his tongue out at his father, which would only earn him another detention.
"Well, Inferius are dead bodies, aren't they?" Harry said, desperately trying to think, "So they would be not transparent…, solid I mean." feeling a blush creep up his neck as he wondered where his brain had wondered off to.
Severus looked at him levelly and let out a loud sigh, "Mr Potter, your little sister could have given me a more advanced and complete answer."
"Yeah but she's some sort of weird genius who likes creepy things." Harry smirked.
Severus gave him a small smile, otherwise ignoring his comment, "You are however correct in the basics. Inferius are reanimated dead, controlled purely by the one who has done the reanimation. Ghosts are the conscious imprint of someone who has passed away. Now, can we please continue with the planned lesson?"
"But isn't it the case that we might run into an Inferius?" Lavender Brown said with a squeak, her eyes wide.
Severus took a deep, calming breath, cursing that stupid article and its fear-mongering headline. "There have been no actual sightings of Inferius for years."
"But they were used in the last war, You-know-who might bring them back!" Seamus said instantly.
Severus looked over the class and rolled his eyes once more, "It is very unlikely, however if you happen to run into an Inferius in the school corridor throw a simple fire spell at it and run away, making sure you tell a teacher. Now…"
"Why would fire help?" Lavender asked, slipping a note to Ron with a blush. Ron gave her a weak smile and dropped the note to the floor.
"Because Inferius, being dead and, decaying hate light or heat." Hermione said, "Fire is both."
"Correct Miss Granger." Severus said with a nod, "Now…" Severus let out a growl, "This is the last question before I start docking house points, Mr Finnigan."
"You seem really sure that You-know-who isn't using Inferius yet." Seamus said, "How do you know?"
The challenge rang through the air. Harry sat up straight, looking between Seamus and his father. He was shocked someone would so clearly accuse Severus of still being a Death Eater in the middle of class.
Severus looked coldly at the pupil and flicked his eyes back to the book in front of him, "Please turn to page two hundred and thirteen and read the first two paragraphs on the Cruciatus Curse. Quietly." he hissed.
Harry could barely focus on the reading, or the rest of the lesson. His mind kept going back to Severus and why he hadn't defended himself. It wasn't fair, anything that Severus was doing was for the Order, Harry was sure of that.
Somehow that little question had made everything seem that much more real.