Harry Potter and the Students of the School of the Sphinx

Harry Potter and the Students of the School of the Sphinx

By Angelina Johnson

Chapter 3

The Pride and Joy of the Weasleys

    Harry woke early the next morning and went down into the kitchen to find that Sirius and Melissa were already seated at the table, reading the Daily Prophet. Both of them looked nervous, and Harry had a feeling that they were anxiously awaiting Dumbledore's arrival and news of Lucius Malfoy's hearing.

    Harry slid into a chair beside Sirius, and then the three were joined by Lupin, who also looked anxious. There was sort of an uncomfortable silence. The adults, of course, did not realize that Harry knew that there was a chance that Sirius could be cleared. They were respecting Dumbledore's wishes, of course, and not telling him. They didn't want to get his hopes up the way that theirs already were. He could see that Sirius looked nervous. Harry didn't blame him; he had been in Azkaban for so many years, and then on the run, and then most people had believed he was dead. It would be such a load off of his shoulders to be able to reveal himself, to have people know that he was alive and innocent.

    "What time are the Weasleys arriving?" Harry asked, breaking the uneasy silence.

    "Should be here any minute, actually," Sirius said. Sure enough, just as Sirius had spoken the doorbell rang. Lupin hopped up to answer it.

    "Can't draw too much attention to this house-I expect if I went to answer the door the whole lot of them would scream," Sirius said glumly. They heard the door close in the distance, and then the sounds of footsteps in the hall.

    "Come in and get settled. Now, we have something to show you that may come as a bit of a shock. Once you've put your things in your rooms, I'd like all of you to join me in the kitchen. Harry's already in there," Lupin said. He reappeared in the kitchen, and Harry hear noises that could only be the Weasley's dragging their things upstairs.

    "I just pray that they don't wake dear old mum," Sirius muttered darkly. Melissa laughed, and he broke into a grin.

    "Well, they're in for a shock. Before they would even come in the house, Hermione and Ron were pelting me with questions about how Harry was coping with your death," Lupin said, looking at Sirius. He, Melissa and Harry all laughed at this.

    After a minute, the first of the Weasleys came into the kitchen. The first was Mr. Weasley, who just nodded to all of them, but the next to come in was Ginny.

    "OH MY GOD!" Ginny yelled, "RON! HERMIONE! COME DOWN HERE! YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS!" There was a look of shock on her face, and Harry was sure that that was the way that his face had looked the night before when he had saw Sirius. There had been a bit less noise, then. Harry heard running on the stairwell, and he assumed that Ron and Hermione were responding to Ginny's screams.

    "What's going on, Ginny? Why all the yell......... Oh my goodness! But........ But......... There's no way...... You're....... He's........... You can't be....... You just can't, you're........" Hermione stuttered.

    "You're dead," Ron said. Harry couldn't help but laugh, and he wasn't the only one. Melissa, Lupin, and Sirius were all grinning.

    "You know, that's exactly what Harry said. Exactly," Melissa said.

    "Yes, the first thing he said when he came out of the fire was, 'But you're dead.' Then he proceeded to 'I saw you die! I saw you get hit with Bellatrix's spell and fall into that veil! I saw it! They all told me that you were dead.' After that, he got to 'That's impossible! I watched you vanish! You must be a figment of my imagination, because you can't possibly be alive.' Then there were a lot more questions and a lot of explaining, but you three are on the right track," Sirius said.

    "Well done, Harry. That's exactly what I would have said," Ron said.

    "Oh, that's lovely, Ron, just on problem-this doesn't make any sense," Hermione said.

    "Yeah, I didn't think it made sense, either. It will in a minute, though," Harry said.

    "So then we will get an explanation?" Ginny said with a grin. She seemed amused. Harry was amazed that she seemed to get more and more like Fred and George everyday. Once she had finally opened up and not been afraid to talk to him, Ginny was an amazing person. She had a fantastic personality, on top of being smart, she was good at Quidditch, and Harry couldn't help but notice that she was actually very pretty. Suddenly, just as suddenly as the thought had occurred to him, the realization of who he was looking at hit him. Ginny Weasley? He was being silly. Ginny was his best friend's little sister.

    "Just wait a few minutes. This is quite a long explanation, and Severus should be here any moment," Mr. Weasley said.

    "Snape?" Ginny and Harry both said in horror.

    "Well, what did you expect? Dumbledore trusts him, and he is in the Order, after all," Mr. Weasley said.

    "I don't think it's fair to make them wait much longer, Arthur. Who knows how long Snape will be?" Sirius said.

    "Sirius, be reasonable. You're not the one doing the explaining. It's quite a long story, and I'm sure that Melissa wouldn't want to tell it twice," Mr. Weasley said.

    "I wouldn't mind telling it twice. However, telling it to just Snape is a different story," Melissa said.

    "Glad to see that you have that attitude about things, Melissa," said a sneering voice. Everyone turned to see that Snape had arrived.

    "Good to see you, Severus," Melissa said. Her tone was cold and false, and her eyes were hard as she stared at Snape.

    "What's all that about?" Ginny whispered to Harry. Harry shrugged.

    "I dunno. I'll have to ask one of them later," Harry said.

    "Can we just get on with the story?" Sirius asked. He glared at Snape, as well, and put an arm protectively around Melissa.

    "Yes, I am quite interested in how you managed to survive. Albus said that he was not the right person to explain things to me," Snape said. Harry looked at his godparents and Snape, and he saw that there was a greater loathing in Snape's eyes now than he had ever seen before. Harry had known that Snape hated his father, and Sirius, but Harry had never seen him glare at anyone that way. Melissa seemed very uncomfortable in her present situation, so she began to explain how Sirius had managed to survive.

    "Like I told Harry last night, this whole thing starts with me. Because I work both as an Auror and in the Department of Mysteries, I have many connections, and one of my connections mentioned that Voldemort was after a prophecy inside of the Department of Mysteries....." Melissa said.

    Harry barely listened to what Melissa was saying. After all, he had heard all of this before. Instead, Harry gazed all around the room. First he looked over at Snape, who, although he was listening, was still glaring at Sirius. Harry noticed that he still had his arm around Melissa. Next, Harry gazed at Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, who were looking at Melissa, listening intently to what she had to say, even if they had heard it already. Lupin, however, was gazing back and forth between Snape and Sirius, watching them carefully. Next Harry glanced at Ron, then Hermione. They both looked shocked by what Melissa was telling them, but their was relief mixed in. Harry knew that they were both glad that Sirius was alive after all.

    Last Harry looked at Ginny. She still looked amused. Harry found that he liked the way her eyes lit up, and the way that he face curved into a smile. Horrified at these thoughts, he shook his head.

    It appeared that Melissa had just finished her story, because there was silence, and everyone had a look of finality in their eyes. Snape was still giving Sirius the death glare.

    "Well, if that's all....... I'm, er, glad to know that you are alive and well, Black, but I must leave. I am a rather busy man, as you know. However, Dumbledore requested that I leave this for him. I suppose I can trust you to give this to him safely?" Snape said. Sirius nodded, and the two continued to glare at each other. Finally, Snape turned and left.

    "We're off to unpack," Ron said, "we'll catch up with you in a little while, Harry." And with that, Ron, Hermione, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley disappeared. Only Ginny remained.

    "Well, that was pleasant, wasn't it?" Ginny asked with a grin.

    "Yeah, I knew he didn't like you, but I've never seen him look at anyone like that, Sirius, not even me," Harry said.

    "He's just jealous," Sirius muttered.

    "He was always jealous of Sirius and James," Melissa said.

    "Yeah, but even in the Pensieve he never looked that evil. He looked like he wanted to kill Sirius just a few minutes ago. He never looked at my dad like that, did he?" Harry asked.

    "No, your dad never got that death glare. He got some pretty nasty looks, mind you, but Snape's always saved that one for me," Sirius said. Instead of looking grim and serious, though, he was grinning wickedly. So was Lupin.

    "I never noticed that before," Harry said.

    "I was never there before," Melissa said with a small sigh.

        "What does that have anything to do with it?" Harry asked, but she just grinned, too.

    "It's nothing, really," Melissa said.

    "Yes, not much at all. It's just that there was one thing in particular that Snape really wanted, and no matter how much he hated James, it wasn't James that had what he wanted. No, Sirius was the one that had the thing that Snape really wanted," Lupin said with a laugh. The three friends all seemed very amused by this.

    "And what would that be?" Ginny asked. Harry had almost forgotten that she was still there.

    "Me," Melissa said. Sirius grinned even broader than before. Harry had never seen him this happy before. It was nice to see how relaxed and happy his godfather was around Melissa. Even though they hadn't said it aloud, it was obvious that Sirius loved her. Harry was beginning to wonder why Sirius had never mentioned her before this.

    "But........." Ginny began, but it seemed that they were through answering questions.

    "That's enough, I think. Dumbledore will be here shortly, and we'll need to speak to him privately," Lupin said.

    "Fine, we take the hint," Ginny said, and she took Harry's hand and dragged him from the room.

    "That definitely was interesting," Harry said once he and Ginny were out in the hallway and the door was shut behind him.

    "I think it's sweet. Snape doesn't seem the type to fancy someone, or at least not someone as nice as her. I see him more fancying the sour type, like Malfoy's mum. It seems so odd," she said.

    "You think it's sweet that Snape fancies my godmum?" Harry asked.

    "No, I think that's rather sickening. I meant that Melissa and Sirius are sweet together," Ginny said.

    "Yeah, it is nice to see Sirius so happy," Harry said.

    "I didn't realize that she was your godmum, though. How long have you known?" she asked.

    "Oh, only since last night. I feel almost as if I've known her forever, though. It's really strange. Kinda nice, though, finding out that I have people who knew my parents and are there to care about me. I mean, first I found Sirius and Lupin, and now Melissa too," he said.

    "Yeah, it must be pretty nice to have all of them around," Ginny said, and an awkward silence fell. Harry found that he was unable to take his eyes away from her.

    "Have you gotten your Hogwarts letter yet?" Ginny asked.

    "Oh. Yeah. I haven't opened it yet, though. I've been too busy shredding every bit of mail I get," he said.

    "Oh, that explains why Ron and Hermione never heard back from you. They were worried about you. So was I. I'm glad to know that you're all right," Ginny said.

    "Well, I wasn't until last night. I'd been having nightmares all the time, I kept reliving all of my encounters with Voldemort," he said quietly.

    "Oh, well, that makes my nightmares seem very silly. I still have nightmares about being possessed by him, of course, but lately all of my nightmares have been about being made a Prefect. Fred and George were so ashamed. They were sure that I was going to follow in their footsteps," Ginny said.

    "You're a Prefect, then?" Harry asked. She nodded.

    "Mum was thrilled, and so was Percy. Ron is glad that he has someone to share his pain with. Hermione has been trying to teach us how to handle people that aren't following the rules. It's dreadful! I don't want to get people to follow the rules, I'd much rather be out there breaking them!" Ginny said. Harry laughed.

    "You get more and more like Fred and George all the time," he said with a grin.

    "I know. Isn't it great?" she asked wickedly.

    "Yeah, it is, actually," Harry said.

    "So.... Ron let it slip to me that you have an Invisibility Cloak. Interested in letting me use it sometime to wreak havoc once we're back at Hogwarts?"

    "Interesting offer. Would I be all right if I accompanied you?" he asked.

    "Do you really think I'd leave you behind? It is your Cloak. And you've got Fred and George's old map," she said, grinning again.

    "Sounds like great fun. Oh, here come Ron and Hermione, I suppose we ought to let them know about Snape fancying Melissa. Not to mention I have something else to tell you three about. I overheard some stuff last night when Dumbledore was here," Harry said. Ginny laughed. She was lovely when she laughed.

    'What is going on?' Harry wondered. 'Why am I thinking these thinks about Ginny? I can't possibly fancy her!' Harry's thoughts were interrupted, however, by Ron and Hermione, who had started interrogating them.

    "I'll answer all of your questions upstairs, and I want to hear all about what has been going on at the Burrow," Harry said.

    "Oh, nothing interesting. I'm more interested in what's been going on here," Hermione said.

    "I've only been here since last night, and I already have learned loads," Harry said. He proceeded to tell them (aided by Ginny), what Sirius, Melissa and Lupin had just told them about Snape. Then he told them what Dumbledore had said last night to Sirius.

    "You mean Sirius could get cleared?" Hermione asked.

    "It's possible," Harry replied.

    "And Malfoy's dad is the one who's going to vouch for him?" Ron wondered.

    "Yep. He doesn't know that Sirius is alive, though," Harry said.

    "What a nasty shock he's going to get, then," Ginny said with a laugh.

    "Anyways, Dumbledore should be here soon. There's nothing we can do but wait. How about a game of Exploding Snap?" Ron asked.

    "Too boring. What do you say to setting off some fireworks in the house? Get Mrs. Black screaming?" Ginny said.

    "Ginny, that's horrible," Hermione protested.

    "I think it's a brilliant idea. Sirius told me that she still thinks he's dead. I say we give her a nasty little shock," Harry said with a grin.

    "Oh, fine! You three go set off fireworks....." Hermione began.

    "Oh, no, leave me out. I'm in enough trouble with Mum already. She's unhappy with my owl scores......." Ron said.

    "Well, I suppose it's just you and me then, Harry. Are you up for it?" Ginny asked.

    "But of course," he said.

    "This I gotta see," Ron said, and they all trudged to the staircase. Ron and Hermione stayed at the top of the stairs while Harry and Ginny proceeded to the middle of the stairs. Ginny pulled two fireworks out of her pocket, and she handed one to Harry. They both lit them, and then threw them down towards the portrait. There was a loud explosion, and then Mrs. Black's screams began. Her screams were quickly joined by Mrs. Weasley.

    "RONALD WEASLEY!" she roared.

    "It wasn't me!" Ron protested, and Ginny, Harry, and his godparents, who had come from the kitchen to see what had caused the commotion, all roared with laughter.