Harry Potter and the Magic Within

Harry Potter and the Magic Within

Chapter 21: 'Hogsmeade and Sleeping Potion'

'Harry! Come on, wake up!' yelled Ron's voice in to Harry's ear the next morning. He was just as cheerful as usual and was holding a small bag in which a few knuts and sickles begged to be spent. Harry got up and got changed as quickly as he could. He then ran down to the common room with Ron and met Hermione waiting for them.

In less than half an hour, they were walking down Hogsmeade's main street and were deciding where to go first. They chose Honeyduke's and came out of the shop soon after with pockets full of the most unbelievable types of sweets. Ron had bought a number of Whizzbits, tiny round sweets that whizzed around inside your mouth fizzing madly until they dissolved.

Ron and Harry made a visit to Zonko's while Hermione helped Neville find Trevor, his frog, who had obviously made another escape attempt. Harry's money bag was a lot less heavy when he came out again. They had each bought some Dungbombs, some Hiccough sweets and even managed to find some of the Filibuster Fireworks on special offer.

When Harry and Ron came out, Hermione joined them again after finding Trevor under a dustbin near the Three Broomstick's entrance.

Harry's idea of sending Lupin an owl came back to him at this moment so he told them where he was going and made his way up the street to the Post office.

He opened the door and came face to face with none other than Cho Chang.

'Oh, sorry,' said Harry moving out of the doorway to let Cho out.

'Hello, Harry,' she said smiling broadly. She blushed furiously and Harry was reminded of the way Ginny acted around him. Then a thought occurred to him.

Harry plucked up some courage:

'Would you like a drink at the Three Broomsticks?' he asked, uncertainly.

'Oh, yes please!' Cho beamed and they walked across the road and in to the pub. By the time they entered, they were deep in conversation about the last Quidditch match and the rest of the Quidditch season.

Further up the road, Ron had seen Harry and Cho's meeting and had alerted Hermione to what was happening as well. They watched as Harry led Cho in to the Three Broomsticks.

'What was that all about?' Ron said, curiously. 'Hermione, let's go look!' and with that Ron seized Hermione round the wrist and jogged over to look through the dingy windows in to the Three Broomsticks interior.

'Ron, let him have a drink with her alone, and by alone I don't mean you watching through the glass,' Hermione said rather sternly.

Ron wouldn't budge. Hermione even got curious as she watched Cho and Harry laugh together as they drank a butterbeer each.

'What do'you think they're talking about?' Ron hissed. 'They seem to be getting on rather well.'

'For goodness sake Ron, it's none of our business, let's go,' Hermione replied.

'No, you go if you want to, but I'm staying to see what happens!'

In reply, Hermione grabbed Ron by the collar and pulled him across the road to the bookshop where she pushed him through the door and didn't let him out again until she saw Cho leaving the Three Broomsticks and joining a group of her friends heading back towards Hogwarts.

Ron was most put out when he was finally allowed back in the street. He stomped towards the Three Broomsticks and Hermione hurried along behind him.

They walked in to see Harry still sitting at his corner table, lost in a daydream.

'Harry!' exclaimed Ron. 'What was all that about?'

Harry was jerked out of his daze as Ron sat down next to him looking mystified and Hermione came over with a butterbeer for herself and Ron.

'What was all what about?' he said casually.

Ron stared.

'You just had a drink with Cho Chang! What happened?' Ron said.

'Not much,' said Harry evasively. 'We just talked, that's all.'

Hermione sipped her butterbeer but Ron was bombarding Harry with all sorts of questions about his meeting with Cho, and hadn't even touched his drink.

Harry didn't give out much information. Hermione seemed to understand this and said no more about it but Ron was in a most ruffled mood for the rest of the day afterwards.

Harry had had a very enjoyable time talking with Cho. They had talked animatedly about Quidditch and then their talk had changed to the school and how much work they were having to do.

At one point she had mentioned the Triwizard tournament and had given him a look of pity for what he must have gone through. Harry had felt awkward at that moment but for the rest of their meeting they had been extremely comfortable with each other.

She got a close up look of his scar and even touched it. Harry had nervously flattened his fringe afterwards.

The part of their meeting that had most surprised Harry came at the end. As she got up to go and meet her friends outside, she had paused and then, suddenly, leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek before hurrying to the door.

He wasn't exactly sure why he didn't feel like sharing this with anyone. Hermione didn't make a fuss about it but it had Ron most pensive for the rest of that day and the next.

'Did she say you should meet up again?' Ron pressed Harry at breakfast the very next morning.

'Ron, leave Harry alone!' snapped Hermione as she ate.

This halted Ron's interrogation for some time. They had another Potions lesson soon and ate quickly so they could get there as soon as they could. It was the first time they had ever wanted to go to Potions. Dumbledore made the lessons so much nicer that they couldn't help wanting to be there early.

It seemed they weren't the only Gryffindors who took this view, when they got to the dungeons, there were already a great number of the class waiting outside.

That lesson was their best Potions lesson ever. They made their Sleeping potion and were then told that they could try it out on each other, provided that Dumbledore was near enough to wake them up a moment later.

'Ok, ready?' Ron asked holding a spoonful of the potions ready for Harry to drink. Harry nodded and drank the slimy contents of the large spoon.

A shiver ran down his back. The room seemed to swim in front of his eyes, but he didn't fall on his desk asleep like most of the class were.

He turned his head to where Ron was. He could see Ron's blurry outline. Then his sight cleared a little. He was surprised to see Ron backing away from him looking frightened.

'Ron, what is it?' he asked, puzzled. 'We must have made a mistake in the potion, I'm not asleep.'

Ron was staring wide eyed at him.

'Your eyes!' he exclaimed. 'They're yellow, Harry!'

'What?' Harry gasped. Then he picked up the metal spoon he had used to drink the potion from, held it in front of his face like a mirror and gaped.

His eyes were yellow and changing greenish every few minutes before flashing yellow again. Dumbledore, though neither Harry nor Ron knew it, had seen this strange occurrence happen and was smiling vaguely.

'What do I do?' Harry hissed to Ron, who had come back to his normal seat but was still looking shaken.

'Well, I don't know,' he said. 'Hermione?' he called softly.

Hermione gave Neville strict instructions not to touch anything until she came back and then walked around to Harry and Ron's desk.

'What?' she asked, puzzled.

'Look,' said Harry turning to her.

Hermione stepped back.

'Y-your eyes!' she stammered.

'Why would my eyes do this?' Harry said anxiously.

'Did you forget to add the powdered lizard tongues?' Hermione asked. Ron shook his head.

'We did it all exactly as the book told us to,' he said.

'Oh!' Hermione gasped. Then she sat by Harry quickly and whispered excitedly.

'Harry, it's a new found power! You can resist powerful potions!' she smiled broadly.

Ron stared at Harry dumbstruck, who was staring the same way at Hermione.

'I suppose I do need a guardian then,' Harry said worriedly, 'with all this magic to control, I'll need lots of help.'

Harry's eyes returned to normal a short time after and then the bell rang. The Gryffindors started to file out of the large dungeon, most wishing they could stay for another few lessons.

As Harry walked out of the class, McGonagall hurried in carrying a piece of parchment in a shaky hand.

Harry, Ron and Hermione stood listening by the door.

'Albus, this just arrived. Severus has been found out. He has him and is probably torturing him for information this very instant,' McGonagall said frantically.

Harry Potter and the Magic Within

Chapter 22: 'A Dreadful Truth'

Harry, Ron and Hermione all gaped at each other in horror.

'I feared it was so,' Dumbledore said sitting down heavily. He put his face in his hands and remained silent for some time.

Harry, Ron and Hermione couldn't move even if they had really wanted to. Their legs all felt like jelly. They didn't like Snape, but not even someone as nasty as him deserved to be faced with Voldemort and perhaps even be tortured for information.

'What can we do, Albus?' McGonagall said shakily as she sat by Dumbledore's desk.

'I do not know,' he said quietly. McGonagall looked as surprised as Ron, Harry and Hermione did. None of them had ever heard of Dumbledore not knowing what to do in a bad situation before.

The three of them all felt it was time for them to stop eavesdropping. They walked away, feeling stunned.

'Now I feel bad for wishing something like this would happen to him,' said Ron remorsefully.

Harry nodded. Hermione bit her lip.

They were the only students who knew this had befallen Snape. The teachers were all keeping quiet.

Dumbledore was most somber for the next few days. There was a strange quiet that hung over the school.

'Do you think Snape will escape like you did?' Ron asked Harry a week into May, 'because if he is going to, he is leaving it quite late.'

Harry didn't say anything. Hermione sat beside them with a book open on her lap.

'Well, I don't know what Snape's going to do,' Hermione said, 'but you should really go to Genevieve about what happened in that potions lesson,' said Hermione for the hundredth time.

'We've been too busy with revision,' Harry said, as he flicked through his Encyclopedia of Herbs and Plants, for Herbology.

'It's the weekend, we should be doing something fun,' grumbled Ron, looking out of the window at the almost clear blue sky.

'I'm sure you could stop revising for a short while to talk to Genevieve,' Hermione said reasonably.

'Ok, ok,' Harry gave in. 'Fine, I'll go, but I don't see why I have to go right away.'

'Well, she's your guardian so she should know you have a new power,' Hermione added to Harry's retreating back.

Harry wandered down to Genevieve's office and knocked on the door. He heard Genevieve's muffled voice from inside: 'come in.'

When he opened the door she looked up and shoved some papers in to her desk. She looked rather upset.

'Erm, I just thought you should know that I have another power,' Harry said awkwardly, gazing at her with curiosity.

'Oh ... which power, Harry?' she said quietly.

'Well, we were trying out strong Sleeping Potions on each other in our Potions lesson, and I took some and didn't fall asleep like everyone else did. My eyes turned yellow, but the potion had no other effect.'

Genevieve nodded.

'That is a very useful power, Harry,' she said, with a small smile.

'Er, what were you reading just now?' Harry asked stepping forward a little closer to the desk.

'Oh, Erm, nothing,' Genevieve said, waving her hand dismissively. Then she stood up and stepped out from behind her desk.

'I need to go and meet Professor Dumbledore now, Harry,' she said, 'but I will see you soon I daresay,' She smiled weakly.

Harry nodded and left through the door behind her. He turned the other way from her and waited around a corner until she was out of sight. Then he rushed back in to Genevieve's office and opened the top desk drawer.

He pulled out a roll of parchment.

Dear Genevieve,

I have been following Sirius' tracks for some time now, as you know, but now I fear that our suspicions were correct. He has been taken by the Dark Lord! It seems that he has both Severus Snape and Sirius Black captive! They are being kept in a secret set of stone chambers in the grounds of an old house in the very same village as Voldemort's father lived so long ago. I made one attempt to rescue them but it failed miserably.

You must tell Dumbledore of this immediately. If anyone knows what to do it will be him!

- Remus Lupin

The parchment shook in Harry's hand. His stomach had dissolved and terrible feelings of dread and fear ran through him like poison.

People were moving in the corridors. He stuffed the parchment back in to the desk and left the room for Gryffindor tower. He didn't stop 'til he got inside and rushed over to sit down by Ron and Hermione.

He was as pale as a ghost in a snowstorm. Ron and Hermione looked at him startled.

'What's wrong?' Ron gaped.

'It's Sirius!' Harry whispered urgently, 'Voldemort's got him, as well as Snape!' Hermione clapped her hand over her mouth and Ron's face turned the same colour as Harry's. They sat aghast for a long time.

When they did talk again, they all turned to their revision and didn't even dare think of Sirius held captive.

Harry tossed and turned all that night and barely got any sleep at all. Awful images came to his mind of Sirius being tortured or worse and he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something he had to do to help him, and Snape as well.

Harry knew they were certainly being held in the same decrepit house where he had been a prisoner, or at least close to it. He would have got on his broom and flown there instantly if he had any clear idea where it was.

Harry fell into a fitful doze with many an unanswerable question fogging his mind.