The Seers' Truth: A Broken Beginning

Chapter 9

Mismanaged Mischief

Harry slumped in the chair by the common room fireplace. "I really don't want to go to the library," he said. "Let's just stay here and study."

"Come on, Harry," said Hermione. "You missed Charms this morning. We have to go over the notes."

"It's not hard," Edward chimed in.

"Not hard?" said Ron. "No, they're impossible. There are three or four parts to every one of them."

"It's just simple warding spells," said Edward. "Of course, your two brothers don't seem as bad as my twin. I know tons of warding spells. I used to sleep with my wand under my pillow."

Ron laughed. "Perhaps my mum should have told me to do that. And I have 5 brothers." He told Edward the story of Fred's revenge after he had broken his toy broomstick. Ron shivered. "I still hate spiders. Imagine if I had had a wand under my pillow. I was too young for a wand though," Ron reminisced.

"Never too young," said Edward smiling. "But your brothers aren't in Slytherin, are they? Are they all in Gryffindor?"

"All Gryffindors," Ron answered. "That doesn't stop Fred and George though, and Mum was sure mad at my brother. Didn't your grandmother punish your brother when he picked on you?"

"My grandmother was a Slytherin too," Edward said. "She'd scold me and tell me I had to learn to stick up for myself. I used to try to think of things to get even, but they always seemed so--" Edward broke off uncertainly.

"Mean?" supplied Hermione.

"Uh, I guess," said Edward. "One minute I wanted him to suffer and the next I'd remember he was my brother and everything would be ok. It wasn't like I could hurt my brother, could I?" Edward's eyes were alight with excitement.

"Of course not," chimed in Ginny, poking Ron, who was sitting on the arm of her overstuffed chair, playfully in the stomach. Harry noticed that Ron pushed her away just as playfully. A while ago, Ron had confided to Harry that his and Ginny's relationship had changed since the first year when she came to Hogwarts. It wasn't Ron that had changed, it was Ginny.

Ron had told Harry that before Hogwarts, Ginny used to scream at the top of her lungs how she hated him and all of her brothers when they played some trick on her--especially Fred and George. Sometimes when she was really mad, she'd threaten them with curses, not that she would ever do them, but after her first year at Hogwarts and her experience with Tom Riddle's diary, she never screamed hateful things at him or even at Fred and George. Perhaps at St. Mungo's, Ron surmised, they thought that all that anger belonged to Riddle and they sucked it all out of her. Sometimes Ron thought it made her less than the Ginny she was supposed to be.

Harry saw Ron kiss her on the top of her head. "Love you, Sis," he whispered for her ears alone.

Edward was watching them, a strange look in his eyes. Well, Ron thought, it had to be hard to be in a different house than your brother. He couldn't imagine it.

"I can work a half hour on your charms, Harry," Hermione announced, "and then I have to go to the library. I have some things I need to look up for Arithmancy. So, Harry, if you want to study with me, let's do it."

"Ok," Harry said, dragging himself out of the chair. "Let's try to find an empty classroom. That way we won't bother anyone."

"No one's here but us," said Edward.

"And I would like the extra practice too," said Neville, joining the small group of Gryffindors: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Samara, Beatrice and Ginny.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you Ron," said Neville, "Lou and Joe already went to the library. Joe asked me to tell you."

With no further interruptions, the group began building a four step ward around various objects: their books, the common room chairs, each other...Finally everyone seemed to be able to do it. Edward and Hermione were the best at it. Neville and Beatrice still allowed the edges of the ward to unravel occasionally, and someone could break it down with a concentrated counter spell.

Dean came down from the dorm with his DADA book in his hand while they were practicing and threw himself into one of the chairs. He landed with a hard thump on the floor. "What the--"

"Sorry," Neville laughed. "I guess that one worked." He took the ward off of the chair so that Dean could sit in it.

"Well, I'm off to the library," announced Hermione. The group began to break up and head to their separate dorms to pick up what books they wanted.

When Harry got to his room, he put the four-step ward on his trunk in addition to its Muggle lock. He felt like his possessions were a little safer that way. Then he gathered his books and turned toward Ron. "Coming?" he asked.

"You go on ahead," said Ron, stretching out on his bunk. "I think I'll study here for a while and then maybe give Joe that rematch when he gets back. I can't have it said that he can beat me in chess, can I?"

"I'd like to see what we can find out about the Sorting Hat," said Harry. "Why don't you come with us?"

Ron stifled an enormous yawn. "I just don't study well at the library. Too quiet."

Harry nodded. "Well, ok then, if you're sure..."

"I'm sure." Ron grinned, "Just don't let this library study hour become a permanent thing, Harry. I'll think you're turning into a Ravenclaw."

"Never!" said Harry. "I'm Gryffindor, through and through."

"Absolutely," agreed Edward.

Harry shrugged and walked down to the common room with Edward where they met Ginny and Samara coming out of the girl's dorm.

"Beatrice and Hermione already left. They said they will save room at the table," Samara told them.

"So are you on your way to the library now?" asked Edward.

"Eventually," Ginny answered, her eyes sparkling mischievously.

"Well, allow me to escort you," said Edward, wrapping his arm possessively around Ginny's waist.

He bent close and whispered something to her as they started off in the general direction of the library or the lake. It was hard to tell.

Harry did a slow burn. He stood helplessly watching them for a moment and then set off briskly in the direction of the library. He didn't care if Samara came along or not. But she followed. Silently at first, but then she spoke, her voice a whisper in the evening air.

"How long have you liked her?"

"I don't," he spat. "She's had a crush on me since her first year."

Harry walked a few more steps and then stopped to sit on one of the many benches on the Hogwarts grounds and leaned his head against the cool bark of a tree. It felt rough and real against his scar, which had settled into a dull ache this evening. He wondered, not for the first time, what Voldemort was doing. What was the difference between the feelings his scar telegraphed: the dull ache or the sharp pain; the constant throbbing or the grit my teeth and hold my scar pain; what about the one he had felt on the Hogwarts Express, the one that drove him to his knees? What did they mean?

Only one living person had ever been with him when he fought Voldemort, and that person was Ginny, even if the image of Voldemort was only a memory from a diary. He wanted to ask her what it felt like to have another person in your head: to have Tom Riddle, or Voldemort, invading your thoughts, and yet he knew he would not ask her that. Nonetheless, the need to tell someone was almost overwhelming.

"So tense." Samara's hands rested on his shoulders and started to rub. "My mum used to do this when I had too much homework," Samara joked. "I used to cry and whine and kick and scream, and then she'd rub my back until I was all relaxed and it didn't seem so bad anymore."

Samara kept rubbing out the knots, up and down his back until Harry sighed.

"What's it like?" he asked softly.

"What?"

He hesitated, wondering what made him want to ask her--he'd never asked anyone--not even Ron, his best friend. He couldn't ask her. But he did. "What's it like...to have a mother?" He remembered Mrs. Weasley hugging him after Voldemort's return, and he felt his entire worries just sort of melt into her arms. It was like nothing he had ever felt before or since, and he wanted that feeling now. The picture in the Mirror of Erised came back to him suddenly. He could almost remember the feel of his mother's arms around him. Almost--

"I guess, mostly, it's wonderful. It's knowing that whatever you have to do, there's someone there to support you and help you and love you. It gives you courage, but it also can make you weak."

"How so?"

"My mother was always there to bail me out in school," said Samara. "Now, it's sink or swim. She couldn't help me with Charms or Transfiguration. Snape would scare the hell out of her."

Harry laughed.

"And Voldemort, she doesn't even know who Voldemort is. She doesn't know there's a war. I thought about sending her an owl, but I couldn't tell her that--anyway, I don't have an owl."

"You could borrow Hedwig."

"Thanks. I really don't want her to know. She would just worry and there's nothing she could do. It's not for her benefit, it's for mine." Samara shrugged, "I've come to depend upon her ability to get me out of scrapes, and now I don't have them: my mother or my father. I have to depend upon me. It feels very--alone all of the sudden."

"I understand."

He felt the warmth of her hands on his bare neck and shuddered with the sudden realization that not only was the knots and tension gone from his neck and shoulders, the pain in his head diminished to a bearable rate. He felt actually good.

Harry turned and faced her. "That's what friends are for," he said. "You don't have to be alone. Remember McGonagall saying that your house is your family while you are here? That's what she meant--and whatever you did, I feel great. You must have magic in those fingers," he teased.

"Well, I am a witch," Samara said. She paused, automatically rubbing her left hand over her right arm and then her right hand over her left arm, each time releasing the energy into the earth. "You look a lot brighter too. Almost all of the gray murkiness has left your aura--"

"My aura," Harry repeated. "You see auras?"

Samara froze. "Don't you?"

"No, only about seven to ten percent of witches and wizards see auras. Hermione could probably tell you the exact amount."

"Harry," said Samara softly. "Would you do me a favor? Please don't tell anyone else that I see auras."

"Why? You aren't in the Muggle world anymore, Samara. No one will tease you. They'll be excited for you."

"Please."

Harry remembered how people reacted to his speaking parseltongue. It was hard to be different. He understood that. "Ok--but--"

Samara put her finger to his lips. "No buts," she said. "I have to figure something out first. Do you know if any of the teachers see auras?"

"I don't know. Trelawney claims to, but she's a big fraud."

"Could you ask her?" Samara asked excitedly.

"Ask her what?"

"Ask her the colors of some of your classmates' auras. I want to know if we see the same colors."

"I'd trust that your colors are right and hers are wrong if they are different," said Harry. "I told you, she is a big fraud, but I'll ask."

"Thanks Harry. We'd better get to the library," said Samara. "Ginny and Edward will wonder where we went to--"

But when they entered the library, they saw Hermione and Beatrice working diligently. Ginny and Edward were nowhere in sight.

Harry worked with the girls on homework for a while and then switched over to trying to find out about the making of the Sorting Hat. Unfortunately, spells as complicated and strong as those used to make the Sorting Hat were not just lying around in any book for curious students to find. They were in the Restricted Section. Harry looked longingly toward the gate that separated the restricted books from the rest of the library.

"When are you going?" Hermione asked softly.

"Tonight."

After a few more minutes, Harry gathered up his books and said goodbye to the girls. He walked back to the common room to find Ron in a foul mood.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked.

"Joe beat me at chess, and then Lou beat Joe in about six moves." Ron threw himself into a chair. "I'm losing my touch, Harry."

"It was just one game," said Harry.

"No it wasn't, it was two."

"So do you want another game of chess?" asked Harry.

"No. I know I can beat you."

"Exactly."

Ron started to laugh.

===

Harry lay in bed that night waiting for the even breathing of his roommates. It was past midnight when it seemed like they were finally all asleep. Harry slipped out of bed and undid the wards on his trunk. He found his Invisibility cloak immediately. The Marauder's Map took a little longer. He was sure it was in the left rear corner, but it wasn't there. After a few moments of frantic searching, he located it in the left front corner. Maybe he had made a mistake when he hid it. Harry woke Ron, and Ron crawled sleepily out of bed.

As they were tiptoeing toward the door, they heard a voice behind them. "I want to come with you," Edward said. Although Harry really didn't want to take Edward on this adventure, he didn't know how to politely decline.

"Alright," he said at last, and Edward slid out of bed. He was fully dressed, apparently, waiting for Harry to begin the midnight excursion. He wondered how Edward knew. Maybe Hermione and Beatrice told him, if he and Ginny ever got to the library earlier this evening.

"Be quiet," Harry warned, "and watch out for Filch and his cat." Harry moved away from Edward to open the map, and Ron slipped in between them. Harry muttered under his breath, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good," opened the Marauder's Map and looked for Filch. Unfortunately, he was right outside the Gryffindor common room, talking to McGonagall. He closed the map as Edward approached. "Mischief Managed," he muttered.

They slipped back up to their dorms just in time to avoid McGonagall coming to check on the house. It was quiet, and no one was in the common room. Instead of just making her brief check, however, McGonagall seated herself by the fireplace and lit it. The three boys chanced a peek into the room. To Harry's surprise, almost immediately, Sirius' head popped into the fire and looked around. "Where's Albus?" asked Sirius. "His fire was supposed to be lit."

"I know. He's with Severus in his office," said McGonagall. "We're not lighting any fires unless we have to. Somehow, several of our floos are directly connected to Death Eater houses. We don't know how they managed to do that with the wards in place, and it doesn't make us very comfortable."

"Oh dear--" began Sirius.

"Never mind about that, Albus has it under control. We got your owl this morning. How's Remus?"

Harry sucked in his breath and glanced at Edward. So that was what was wrong with McGonagall's floo. It made him feel sick. "We should go back," he whispered. Harry was dying to find out what had happened to Professor Lupin, and to learn more about the floo problems, but not with Edward at his shoulder. He knew it was a bad idea to allow Edward to come along.

"Several problems. First, Remus got his arm broken. Now that isn't so much of a problem when you are walking on two legs, but when you're walking on four--or maybe I should say running on four...The real problem is that the Wolfsbane Potion's bottle got broken in the fight."

Edward choked next to Harry, and Ron tried to pull him back toward the dorm room.

"We're only three days till the full moon. How did he get in a fight anyway?" asked McGonagall.

"Minerva," Sirius said patiently, "we aren't playing Quidditch here. Some of the people Albus asked us to seek out didn't want to be found. And when Remus suggested that the bloke might have giant's blood, well, he wasn't pleased. He back-handed Remus and sent him flying right across the room--"

They finally got Edward back into the dorm room. "We could have waited until she left," Edward protested angrily. "I thought Gryffindors were supposed to have courage. Where are your guts? Give me the cloak, I'll do it myself."

"Edward," said Harry testily, "you don't know McGonagall. She would give us detention for the rest of the year if she knew we eavesdropped on her private conversation."

"I still have scars from first year in the Forbidden Forest," moaned Ron, making it sound truly horrible.

"It isn't worth the risk," said Harry. "We can just do it tomorrow or even the next day. It's not that urgent. After all, it's only the first day of school. We have lots of time."

Edward sat grudgingly on his bed and pulled off his shoes and socks. "Ok, so whom was she talking about? Do you know?"

Harry considered saying he didn't have a clue, but what if later, Edward found out that Professor Lupin used to be their teacher--

"Well, Remus Lupin was our DADA teacher two years ago."

"Lupin, the werewolf?"

Ron launched in on a tirade about what a great Defense teacher Lupin was, but Edward wasn't letting the subject be changed.

"And someone here is making this monstrosity's Wolfsbane Potion--Mrs. Figg?"

Harry shrugged.

"Is this Lupin and the other fellow--the one who was talking...you know, I feel like I know him from somewhere--maybe the Daily Prophet--is he a singer or something?"

"Just Professor Lupin's friend," said Harry carefully. "I don't know what kind of job he has." Harry certainly didn't want Edward or any one else to know too much about Sirius' whereabouts. It was bad enough he recognized his face--probably from all the publicity two years ago when he escaped Azkaban.

"Well, it looks like right now his job is finding out something for Dumbledore," said Edward. "In other words, spying."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that," said Harry. "They're the team that found Samara, you know. I think that Hogwarts is in trouble, you know, financial trouble. Look around--well you don't have the comparison we have. There's less than half of the student body here. Most stayed home. They are afraid of Voldemort. I think they are looking for new students for Hogwarts. They couldn't look in the regular wizarding world. They have to look on the fringes: Muggleborns and half-giants."

Edward looked appalled. "Giants?" he asked, but Harry could do no more. He finally lay down and hoped that Edward would go to sleep. He didn't. He kept talking about werewolves and giants and how they couldn't possibly come to Hogwarts.

Eventually, Harry edged the tip of his wand out from under his pillow. "Somnus," he whispered, and Edward fell asleep. Harry lay awake for a long time worrying about the floo and hoping that Sirius and Remus were safe.

"Harry?" whispered Ron softly. "Are you awake?"

"Yes."

"Do you think that Snape and Slytherin House closed down their floos?"

Harry shivered. "I don't know," he said. Personally, he doubted it.

<<<===>>>