Harry Potter and the Forest of Shadows

Harry Potter and

the Forest of Shadows

Chapter 19: A Solution

October came only too quickly. Harry hadn't been getting more than five hours of sleep per night. Whenever he closed his eyes to rest, all he would see were images of Voldemort's countless victims that the Wizarding World would just learn about the next day in the Daily Prophet. But nothing could compare to actually being there and

witnessing it.

Of course no one knew about the nightmares. The day after he woke everyone in the Gryffindor Tower, he went to the library to find a strong silencing spell. The only clues that showed he hadn't been getting enough sleep were the bags under his eyes and the times he had been told off for dozing in class.

Hermione and Ginny hadn't dared to ask anything about his sleep (or lack thereof) ever since he had snapped at Ginny for telling him to go see Madam Pomfrey about the bags under his eyes.

Sirius was a little harder to elude. Everytime he saw Harry he looked at him with worry and tried to ask him what was wrong. He even had Rosy and Remus questioning him which resulted in Harry going off the other way when one of them approached him. It wasn't that Harry didn't want to talk to them- he just didn't want them to worry.

Within the first few days of October, rumors were flying everywhere about a masquerade that Dumbledore was planning. Two weeks before Halloween, the rumors were confirmed.

Overnight, on every house bulletin board and in front of the Great Hall, were two notices: a Hogsmeade visit would be on Halloween and at eight O'clock that night, a ball would take place for all students fourth year and above (with the exception of younger students that were asked by older ones).

Originally, it was going to be a masque but students that had been brought up in the wizarding apparently could not grasp the concept of why they should dress up in witch and wizard costumes.

Harry was not at all brightened by the thought of a ball- all this meant for him was giggling girls and worrying about dress robes and a refresher course in dancing.

"Oh, don't look so down," Ginny said when she saw the grudging look on his face on the way to breakfast. "I'm sure you can find some pretty girl to go with." Harry blushed and irritably began eating as Hermione and Ginny broke out into a fit of giggles.

Throughout the whole day he was asked to the ball by two Hufflepuffs, a Ravenclaw, and a third year Gryffindor who probably just wanted a way into the ball. He turned them down with only one person to go with in mind.

"Gin?" he asked.

The two of them were sitting out by the lake Saturday evening. He had told Hermione that he would help Ginny with some divination homework that she wouldn't stop griping about if Hermione would work on her potions essay and help him with his later.

Ginny looked up at him with a slight smile playing on her lips. "Yes?"

He gulped and took a deep breath. "Well, would you consider us...sort of...er- dating?"

She supressed a laugh, knowing it would just make him more nervous (not that she minded watching him squirm). "Of course. Why do you ask?"

Harry wanted to hit her. She knew exactly why he was asking. "Well, do you want to... to go to the ball with me?" he asked slowly.

"Yes, I do."

He smiled. "Really?"

"Really," she replied, grinning shyly. Oh, great going Ginny, she thought to herself, now you're going and getting nervous.

"Then I suppose you were right," he said with all sincerity.

"Oh? About what?"

"I found a pretty girl to go with."

She reached up and lightly placed a kiss on his lips, mildly amused at his expression when she pulled back; of course she would have been horrified to find the same glazed look on her own face.

He was just about to reach up for another when-

"Harry! Hey, Harry!"

Harry flinched when he heard Colin's voice. Ginny let out a snort of laughter.

"Would you like me to get rid of him for you?" she asked.

"I owe you."

Ginny gathered up her books and walked up the hill to meet Colin. Harry watched bemusedly as she grabbed the larger boy by the scruff of his shirt and hauled him back up to castle.

Harry was discovering it was much better to agree with the fiery redhead than the alternative.

He was just bending down to finish his work when a dark shape loomed into his perephrial vision and made him turn jerk his head around. It bounded towards him and, as he scrambled for his wand, collided painfully with his side.

"PADFOOT!"

The dog sat back on its haunches and barked gleefully.

"Idiotic mutt," he grumbled as the dog approached him.

He heard laughter and turned to find his godfather sitting next to him with a good-natured grin on his face.

"That hurt," Harry said, scowling.

"Well, Moony told me to come and fetch you... so I did."

"And what were you coming to fetch me for?" he asked, slightly amused now.

"To see if you wanted to come with us to Grimmauld Place. Narcissa just annulled her marriage and Andromeda says she's moping around, so we're going to...cheer her up. Want to come?"

Harry gave a wary smile. "Sure."

***Harry wasn't sure what he was expecting when he, Sirius, and Remus arrived by portkey inside the Black house, but it certainly wasn't the laughter that was echoing from the kitchen.

He glanced around at the walls and saw that the picture of Mrs. Black had finally been removed. The hall seemed eerily quiet without it.

"Narcissa!" Sirius suddenly shouted, storming ahead into the kitchen.

"Sir, I didn't know you were coming," she said, grinning.

Apparently, having her marriage annulled hadn't depressed Narcissa as much as Sirius had said. She was sitting cross-legged in a wooden chair at the table, a book open in front of her, and a smile on her face. She looked younger than the past times Harry had seen her: There were no signs of aging on her face and her hair was hanging in short, loose curls. She had an aura about her of someone who had just been freed of a curse.

"Where's mother's picture?" Sirius demanded, motioning to the silent hall.

Andromeda, who was standing at the stove, stirring the contents of a pot, laughed. "Don't worry, Sirius, the portrait was taken good caare of. Narcissa did some rather interesting things with it when Aunt refused to leave it. I believe they involved an axe and a lighter."

"Really, Sirius. Oh, and thanks a lot for the warm hello."

Sirius smiled slightly and walked over to hug her. She squeezed him tightly, let go and pulled out a chair for him to sit in next to her.

"Remus, it's lovely to see you again," she said. "Sit down, please."

Rosy took a seat at the head and Harry sat down across from Sirius.

"And, Harry, it's nice to meet you... again." He took the proffered hand and shook.

"Nice to see you again, too, Mrs. Malfoy," he said. Never in a million years would he have pictured himself having a civilized conversation with the wife of one of the most prominent Death Eaters.

"No, it's Black again. Finally. Should have been all these years, but I was apparently so drunk at my own wedding that I actually walked the right way down the aisle. Meant to walk the opposite way, if you know what I mean." She gave Harry a small, knowing wink.

"Andy," Sirius said, turning in his chair to address his oldest cousin, "what is that smell."

"It's Aunt's old recipe for a cold. I cam down with one the other day, but of course 'Cissa is too lazy to do anything- and I don't trust her- so I'm making it."

"Thanks, Andy. You always did have the nicest things to say," Narcissa said rolling her eyes.

"Which recipe," asked Sirius. "Smells weird."

"Lemon, tea, cough suppresant, eucalypts, and firewhiskey," she said, ladelling it into teacups for all of them. "Tastes surprisingly good actually."

Harry took his and took a whiff. It smelled vaguely familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on what it reminded him of. With the first sip, he felt wide awake, not noticing that no one else had touched theirs and they were all glancing cautiously at him.

"Sir," Narcissa said, slowly turning her head from the dark-haired teen, "do you mind if I stay here for a while? Just so that I have some time to get back on my feet."

"Keep the house," he said. "Apparently, James left me the seaside manor, so we've moved there."

The conversation floated on and Harry kept sipping at the tea. It seemed more like it was an energizer than something to take for a cold. He felt hyped up and kept shifting in his chair.

"Hey, you okay, Harry?" Sirius asked, looking not at him but at Andromeda who shrugged.

"Yea, I'm great. This is a really great drink." The words came out fast and high-pitched.

Just as he was starting to worry about how much longer he would be able to sit still, the hype left and immediate exhaustion fell upon him. It was barely a minute before he felt his eyes roll into the back of his head and he passed out.

**** "He should be waking up soon."

"I knew it was going to knock him out, but I didn't know it was going to keep him sedated for twelve hours."

"Well at least he didn't have any nightmares."

"I think he's waking."

Harry tried to registed what the voices were talking about, but his head felt like it stuffed with cotton and he was having some trouble thinking about anything. All he could remember was going to Grimmauld Place, meeting Narcissa, drinking that tea-

Oh.

"Harry." That was Sirius. "Harry, you awake, kid?"

"What did you do to me?" he demanded tiredly.

There were chuckles and he felt his glasses being placed on his head. His eyes opened to a dimly lit room. Sirius was next to him on the bed and Remus was lounging in a chair.

"How are you feeling?" Sirius asked concernedly.

"What did you do to me?" Harry persisted, pushing himself up. "And- and where are we?"

The cotton in his head was gone, replaced by a throbbing pain. Maybe it had something to do with frustration. He had never liked no knowing what happened to himself.

"Well, we're in my quarters," Sirius answered. "And to answer your first question, we gave you a sleeping potion."

"You what?"

"We're trying to figure out a way to get rid of those dreams of yours, so we had Andromeda make a potion and give it to you last night," Remus calmly explained.

"Last night?"

"Yea," Sirius replied. "We brought you back here and you slept soundly the whole night through. So, now we answered your questions, you answer ours. Do you feel alright?"

"No," Harry said grudgingly, not particularly happy with the fact that they had been unknowingly drugged.

"What's wrong?"

"My head," he muttered, vainly trying to ignore the pain.

"And you had no dreams at all?"

"No. Now why couldn't you have just asked me to take the potion?"

"Would you have?" Sirius asked.

Harry shrugged. "Maybe."

"Well we found a solution that's not addictive and it lets you get a full night of sleep and that's all that's important. But, now we have even more important things to deal with so hurry up and get dressed. I just got your firebolt back from McGonagall and I want to try it out."

***Harry raced through the hallways, hoping that Hermione was still in the library. He had completely forgotten he had promised to meet her there and remembered halfway through a race around the quidditch pitch with Sirius- Sirius on a Nimbus 2000 and Harry on his own Firebolt. Needless to say, Harry won and was at the mercies of a disgruntled, defeated Sirius.

He turned the last corner only to run straight into Professor McGonagall.

"Potter! Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry, Professor."

He scrambled to help pick up the fallen pieces of parchment and what could be slavaged of the ink bottles. McGonagall straightened up.

"Ms. Granger said you were late for meeting her," she said questioningly.

"I was out on the pitch with Sirius," he said impatiently.

"Yes, well, I was coming to give this to you." She brandished a Gryffindor prefect badge towards him.

"Why?" Harry asked, not taking it. There were always only two prefects per year from each house.

"Because," McGonagall said impatiently, thrusting it into his hands. "Mr. Weasley has just come and handed it in. Said he was 'no long qualified for the job.' Professor Dumbledore told me to give it to you. You were obviously the next best candidate."

Harry looked down at the badge. "Ron handed it in?" he asked increduously.

"Yes, I assure I was very surprised myself."

"Oh." Hermione had to hear this. "Well, I have to-"

"Quidditch is beginning soon." Harry took this news as a complete shock. He had forgotten all about quidditch. But could he play? McGonagall seemed to not his apprehensiveness towards the subject. "Professor Dumbledore removed your lifetime ban," McGonagall said, her nostrils flaring as she mentioned only one of the things that Umbridge had done last year. "And I am appointing you captain of the Gryffindor team."

Harry felt his face split into a grin. "Really?" he asked breathlessly.

"Yes. But it will not be an easy task. Weasley apparently didn't think he was qualified to play quidditch either, so he decided to give that up. With the exception of yourself, you have no players. I would suggest you get to work with tryouts. And please choose a good team, Potter. I would love to have the Quidditch cup in my office again."