Book of Memories

Chapter 21: FLUFFY AND THE PHOENIX BRACELET

The following morning, Harry suggested whatever would happen, would not happen in one night. Wormtail would be killed, Harry would have his blood taken and then they would go after the Book. Hermione suggested this order. She thought the person would cause an almighty uproar if the Book was stolen first and that would prevent the person from getting Harry's blood and killing Wormtail. Both things would happen at night and Harry would never know they took blood from him, except, they thought, that he would have one of his dreams and that would let him know.

Also, they could not retrieve the staff and store it for long. Someone would notice a four foot long, ancient staff hiding in Harry's dormitory eventually... It couldn't be stored in someone's trunk, the crystal might crack. It couldn't be left out in the open, that was just dumb. It could only be kept under the Invisbility Cloak for a day at best. They would steal the Book of Memories too but Dumbledore would notice it missing...

They took all of this to be true; no one seemed to have anything to say otherwise.

During breakfast, Harry tried desperately to tell everyone -- everyone -- that Wormtail was really on their side. No one wanted to hear it. Dumbledore, as they highly expected him to, did not come to help but Harry was better for it. He didn't think he could face Dumbledore with what he was hiding.

Harry tried to enjoy the days, continually dreading what he knew was about to happen any day now. They all thought they better wait a few days, just in case something, anything, came up. It was March and the smell of Spring cut through Hogwarts like never before. Except Harry, Ron and Hermione couldn't enjoy it like every time before.

The trees of the forbidden forest turned green again and the air became warmer. Harry no longer froze solid when walking around the lake with Cho. As an added bonus, he found that when he was around her, he felt slightly more at ease, able to better put the bad things out of his head.

But he quickly learned that Mr. Weasley's advice was nothing but the easy way out as he continually reminded himself about Dumledore's words -- and the fact that he reminded Harry of them after two years. He couldn't just put it out of his mind. It was to stay there, right up front, because, well, he couldn't really explain it but he thought it was a lot like saying You-Know-Who versus saying Voldemort. Dumbledore had once said "fear of the name increases fear of the thing itself." Yeah, Harry thought, something like that...

After a few more days of getting increasingly edgy (Hermione jumped when you mentioned Wormtail to her, Ron laughed nervously if you mentioned secrets to him and Harry kept oddly silent if you asked him what he thought about something), they decided to consult someone they weren't entirely sure they should be consulting --

"Hagrid," said Harry, "what d'you think?"

"The three of yeh like ter get in trouble, don' yeh?" Hagrid replied. The usual warmth in his beetle-black eyes seemed to have gone missing.

He stepped out of the doorway, let them in and tended to a pot of tea he had been brewing.

"We don't WANT to get in trouble," said Harry loudly, sitting down on a huge armchair, "but whoever's going to steal the Book is going to eventually find out the Staff is in it and is going to get it!"

"Blimey, you don' want me ter believe the Staff really exists, do yeh?"

"HAGRID!" roared Hermione. "It does exist! I saw it with my own eyes! Four feet long, a badger's head biting on a crystal, a badger's body making up the staff handle and the end was a tail! It fell right out of my hand!"

Hagrid sighed. He didn't look like he was going to swallow the whole story.

"Look," said Ron, "if we bring you the stupid thing, will you believe us?"

Hagrid's eyes widened but Harry couldn't tell if it was shock or excitement. Hagrid quickly noticed what he was doing and poured the tea into a goblet, not realizing it was still cold.

"Okay," said Harry. "We'll get it once more and bring it here. How's that? We have the Invisibility Cloak. Tonight."

"I don' like yeh breakin' rules on'y for just lettin' me see the staff," said Hagrid hesitantly. "But I would like ter see it fer meself... Fine. Just don' get caught. If yeh do..."

"I know, I know," Harry muttered.

Hagrid took a sip.

"Blech!" he exclaimed, spitting it out on a fairly empty spot on the floor. "Silly me, forget it was still cold." He went as red as Ron's hair.

So that night, they journeyed down into the dungeons below Fluffy's room to retrieve the Staff of Cybele once again. They would just show it to Hagrid and then store it again, waiting for the right time to retrieve it and keep it. It was, again, uneventful thanks to Hermione's potion. She failed twice, begging Harry to try after her second failure, complaining loudly when the book cover went through her hand, making it so numb she couldn't feel it.

"Now you know how my hand felt," Harry taunted.

Hermione gave him a dirty look and tried twice more, succeeding on the fourth, dropping the staff once again.

"Come on, let's bring this to Hagrid," said Ron hastily, in an attempt to avoid a conflict.

When they arrived at Hagrid's hut, Hagrid stared at the Staff of Cybele before any sound actually accompanied his moving lips.

Hagrid's mouth opened and closed a few more times before Harry burst out, "It's just a staff, Hagrid."

"Blimey, Harry," said Hagrid, finally able to move his eyes from the Staff of Cybele to something else (in this case, Harry). "That's not just a staff! People have been lookin' fer it ever since it was lost several thousand years ago!"

"Why would anyone want to put this thing in a book, anyway?" Ron asked, sitting down (Harry, Hagrid and Hermione followed suit).

"I don' know," said Hagrid thoughtfully. "But I coulda sworn it was seven feet long, not four."

"There were so many conflicts in books about what it looks like," said Hermione matter-of-factly, "I'm surprised it didn't turn out to have the head of a chicken, the body of a goat and be ten feet long."

"Let me hold it," said Ron.

Hermione gave it to Ron, who marveled at the pure white crystal at the tip of the badger's mouth.

"It's scratched very bad," said Ron, looking at it closely. "I wonder if it still works?" He started to wave it but Hagrid immediately jumped up and put one of his massive hands on Ron's arm, stopping him.

"Better not do that, it's likely ter explode or summat," said Hagrid cautiously. "Your dad has a nice scar on his arm from one staff that didn't take ter him," he added, grinning.

"He told me already," Ron said in a small voice.

After much ado about the staff, Hagrid finally agreed to part with it. Careful usage of the Marauder's Map meant that they met no one on the way to the third floor corridor and back towards Gryffindor Tower.

Rain lashed the windows of Hogwarts in March for the third day in a row one muggy morning. The entire school was getting geared up for the last match of the Quidditch season, the match that would decide who would win the Quidditch Cup: Gryffindor or... Ravenclaw.

Slytherin had been flattened by each House the past few games, leaving them out of the running and Harry couldn't be happier. Their team captain, one Draco Malfoy, complained it was the rain that prevented them from playing properly. But as it rained on both teams and not just on wizards wearing green Quidditch robes, Professor McGonagall took ten points from Slytherin.

Malfoy had nothing to say to Harry ever since Hufflepuff ran over them like a forest of man-eating plants. The score was two hundred to zero. As a result, Professor Snape looked to be straining himself much harder at forcing a smile to Harry each time he walked into Potions class.

Hermione, predictably, wrote up study sheets for Harry and Ron. Normally, they would have complained but as next year they had to take their N.E.W.T.s (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests), they reckoned they should have started sooner ("Only three months!" shrieked Hermione). They were grateful for it, especially Harry, who couldn't put the Staff or Voldemort out of his head if he tried. He would like to have given the Pensieve a try again but he was afraid he might see something he wished he didn't suddenly remember. He did try to forget... and succeeded to some extent. At least he was able to concentrate on the three ways of subduing an Albanian Antipyrine, a rather nasty plant consisting of talons on some branches, keen on sticking them into your fingers. It wasn't until Harry clipped the talons off Neville's would he go anywhere near it.

The day before Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw was a Saturday and, not caring about what anyone said, Harry held the Order of Merlin plaque for as long as possible and as tight as possible. For what it was worth, he might as well have held a broken Rest-Easy charm, a strange, diamond shaped rock that Dumbledore had used on Harry once two summers ago. The charm had been used to calm Harry down, for he had been so terrified his body had become paralyzed down to every last nerve. At the time, Harry had the mark of ancients running through his blood and Voldemort was trying to use it against him. Such an act would amplify his emotions tenfold and it wasn't a pretty scene when Voldemort had Apparated right in front of Harry. Come to think of it, Harry would have liked it if someone sent him a Rest-Easy charm... He thought bitterly outloud to himself over it, before --

"Harry, they're Dark alchemy," said Hermione bossily. "Dumbledore would never send you one because you first have to make a Hatred Charm. The Ministry outlawed both of them. I imagine they only let Dumbledore keep one just in case." She sounded like she swallowed an entire book on the subject.

"And did you read up on it as soon as I had told you about it?" wondered Harry aloud.

"Yes."

Harry kept further mumblings to himself.

"Good morning, Harry."

"Good morning, James," said Harry, avoiding James Griffith's bespectacled, black-haired face the next morning in the Gryffindor Quidditch changing room as a quick image of his father flashed before his eyes.

Harry had refused to eat a thing during breakfast, complaining that if he did, it would just return as food for Hedwig if she came into the Great Hall. His body was downstairs, but his mind drifted slowly back up to his four-poster where, an hour ago, he sat up listening to the peaceful sound of rain battering the castle walls (just as he had done the previous morning; the rain hadn't stopped since then). He could now hear hundreds of footsteps as the entirety of Hogwarts emptied the castle and crowded into the stands.

"C'mon team," said Ron cajolingly, "we've been doing great so far. One last game and, if our Seeker doesn't decide to give out on us just yet," he said, pointing his head in Harry's direction, "we can win for the third year in a row!"

This made Harry feel guilty, something which was probably a very good thing to happen as he had left his stomach atop Gryffindor Tower along with his mother's Phoenix Bracelet. Harry felt slightly more in tune with the Quidditch game now that there was a tiny bit of pressure on him. Everyone in Gryffindor had been voicing their opinion that they were afraid Harry would turn soft and let Cho catch the Snitch. He himself had been counting on something to keep his mind on the game. Ron reminded Harry to take the Order of Merlin necklace -- and he did -- but, not having had it for very long, they both forgot all about the bracelet.

"Harry, if you want the stupid thing," said Ron sharply, "just use a Summoning Charm."

Since Harry hadn't been doing very well lately without his things, he wasted no time and, within seconds, the bracelet came zooming out of the castle and into his hands. He gave Ron and his fellow team members one weak nod, twirled his Dragonback once and mounted it as soon as Madam Hooch blew her whistle. The rain was a lot harsher when you were flying around in it.

Harry immediately noticed that Hagrid wasn't in the stands by Hermione as he usually was. As Harry glanced around, he wasn't anywhere at all. He didn't take much notice. Hagrid might just be running late.

Twenty minutes into the game, thunder and lightning joined, drowning out any commentary Dean Thomas had been giving.

Ravenclaw was up twenty points. James Griffith had missed blocking two spectacular shots from Ravenclaw's Chasers, causing the Ravenclaw section to erupt with applause.

Thirty minutes into the game, Harry's Quidditch robes had become just as wet as his regular robes had been when he had slipped and fallen into the lake and still, there was no sign of the Snitch. Cho had taken to eyeing Harry and following him closely, or at least as close as one can get with a Nimbus Two Thousand versus a Dragonback. He tried to hide the fact that he didn't mind her following him as he lazily tried to shake her off. Peering down at the ground, Hagrid had finally arrived and he was talking frantically with Dumbledore. A minute later, Hagrid strode off looking somewhat distressed.

An hour into the game, Gryffindor was winning one hundred to ninety. As Harry caught sight of the Snitch for the first time ever, Cho quickly made a dangerous move involving flying in front of Harry to veer him off course. It worked: Harry made a sharp left to avoid her. He noticed that Hagrid was back and now talking even more frantically to Dumbledore and this time was waving his gigantic arms about.

A minute later, what Hagrid must have been talking to Dumbledore about made all eyes turn towards a humongous figure that came charging towards the Quidditch field. It was Hagrid's three headed dog, Fluffy.

Panic spread like a shockwave across the Quidditch field as all manner of hexes and spells from student and teacher alike missed. He was moving with unnatural speed and nothing was going to hit him, the light just moved too slowly and no one wanted to get close enough to ensure they didn't miss.

Fluffy was charging towards Hagrid and it looked like he was going to try to catch an early dinner. Fluff was well capable of the task, drool dripping out of each his three, large jaws.

Professor McGonagall, who stood on the opposite end of the field as Hagrid, attempted a Body-Bind. Fluffy jumped in the air, skillfully avoiding it. Hagrid pulled out a flute from inside his moleskin overcoat and began playing (Fluffy supposedly gets put to sleep by music). Fluffy didn't look the least bit tired. Dumbledore attempted an Avada Kedavra... Fluffy merely ducked under it.

And still Hagrid stood, stupidly playing his flute that had no effect as Fluffy came closer and closer to him, one jaw wide open, the other two barking. Hagrid had sweat on his forehead and was too scared to move. Harry wanted to do something, but what?

By this time, most of the students had fled back to the castle

Spells missed, Fluffy reacted too fast, music wasn't putting him to sleep and no one would dare go near him. What was a sixteen year old wizard to do? Harry thought of the only thing that made sense: he would take his own stupid try subduing the rabid beast. If he threw it hard enough, would it hit? Or maybe if he flew close enough on his Dragonback...

Harry clasped his hands together and slowly separated them, conjuring a huge ball of fire three feet wide. Fluffy reached Hagrid. One of the jaws snapped and Harry saw Hagrid's body jerk. Harry winced at the scream of pain.

Flying towards Fluffy one handed, Harry shouted as loud as he could, "HEY, YOU UGLY GIT!"

He flew over Fluffy and punched the top of one of his heads and then flew in the opposite direction. Fluffy's heads turned and then he chased. If Harry flew too far, his fireball might miss... Harry turned to face the dog and he started to fly backwards, his heart making more noise than the rolling thunder. He could see Hagrid lying on the wet grounds, clutching a bleeding leg. Harry, praying to not miss, flew five feet from Fluffy. Crossing his fingers in one hand, managing the huge ball of flame in the other, he threw it at Fluffy, as hard as he could. To miss the inferno that ensued, Harry did a barrel roll backwards. It hit!

Within seconds, the disturbing sight of a three headed dog on fire filled Harry's eyes. The fire, strangely, didn't run off Fluffy and set the ground ablaze. Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall came running towards Hagrid. Harry, in a second due to the Dragonback's speed, was at Hagrid's side.

"Ugh!" grunted Hagrid. "Stupid thing came out o' the forest! Didn't know what ter do! Wouldn't stop at music!"

"Hagrid, calm yourself," said Dumbledore.

Harry kneeled down next to Hagrid and stared at the huge, deep, madly bleeding gash that ran up and down Hagrid's massive thigh. He put a hand on it to turn it to see if there was any more damage to it. What happened next would have made him quickly release his hand from Hagrid's leg but he couldn't move it. Harry stared, his mouth hanging open.

The fire dancing around the Phoenix Bracelet's band went up his arm, across his chest, around to his other arm and walked off the tips of his fingers and onto Hagrid's injury. The fire turned white and spread itself across the entire gash. Within a second, the bleeding stopped, the cut hastily started to close and a huge scab, strangely colored white, grew and then simply fell off, bursting into flames. The cut was healed and the fire from the Phoenix Bracelet crawled back onto Harry's hand, recrossed his chest, down his arm and began to dance around the silver band once again. Harry could finally pull his hand away.

"Aha!" said Dumbledore brightly. "A hidden feature!"

"That's - some - bracelet," said Harry weakly.

"Indeed it is," said Dumbledore as Hagrid tried out his leg. He was able to stand on it and it showed no signs of being bitten. It worked perfectly. "Now, Hagrid, would you kindly explain?"

"I don't know, Professor Dumbledore, sir. Fluffy came out o' the forest like I said and he wasn't lookin' himself -- fur all funny and a strange look in his eyes, all six of 'em. He ran back into the forest. That's when I first came ter tell yeh I need yeh fer summat. I went back and he came out again, barkin' an' screamin'. I came back ter yeh and..."

"As spells would not work, I daresay there is Dark magic involved," said Dumbledore gravely, his bright mood quickly changing. "Harry -" he started, rounding on Harry, but --

"Professor," began Harry in a timid, low voice, but he paused for a moment, staring up at the expressionless face of Dumbledore who stared his crooked nose back. They all knew all was not well, as three headed dogs don't spontaneously become immune to magic, especially from spells by extremely powerful wizards such as Albus Dumbledore.

"I know I suspected Pettigrew for a long time," Harry went on, "but, well" -- and for another moment, he pondered whether he should be spilling all of this -- "Ron, Hermione and I have been..."

He didn't need to finish the sentence. Dumbledore's nod assured Harry that he already knew.

"And it has all been a waste of time, has it not?" Dumbledore asked. "The Staff of Cybele is legend, Harry. Thousands of years have gone by without a single person finding it."

Harry almost grinned. Here stood Albus Dumbledore denying something that Harry had seen with his own eyes.

"It does, Professor," said Harry at once.

"He's right, sir," Hagrid assured.

Dumbledore's eyes widened behind his spectacles. Harry could tell he didn't believe it.

"Hermione managed to retrieve it," Harry explained, still slowly and not sure whether this was a good idea. At present, Dumbledore looked almost excited but Harry was sure he was going to hear what his punishment was when he finished. "It's in the Book of Memories. We think -- we know -- that Voldemort wants the book and will try to get the staff, too."

"That I already know," said Dumbledore, his eyes shrinking. Is he mad? He knows, and...

"And you're not doing anything!" Harry bursted out angrily. He couldn't stop the words from flying out of his mouth. "The book is sitting bait for anyone who finds out how to get past it's own protection. All we did was use a Mind-Blanker potion and we got to the book without any trouble!"

Dumbledore said simply, "I have my reasons." Harry felt like punching him on top of the head. "If you will remember back to your first year at Hogwarts, the Philosopher's Stone was protected such that no one who wanted the stone for wrongful purposes could get it. I'm sure you figured it out, I realized you wanted to get your feet wet and I already knew that Professor Quirrel would be unable to touch your skin. I sent you your father's Invisibility Cloak so that you would be successful.

"I assure you the Book of Memories is protected equally well. It took me two years to figure out how to get past the memory projection. I merely suggested Professor Snape do Mind-Blanker potions should you and your friends find yourselves in a dangerous position. As none but you three and the teachers know of the Book's natural defense, none but you three and the teachers know how to get past it. Professor?" he added, turning to Professor McGonagall.

Harry got assigned detention with Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing to his great detestment for tomorrow night. He would have to see Sirius and that, he thought, was a worse punishment then getting expelled.

Harry kept his mouth shut about the one thing Dumbledore didn't seem to know. Wormtail also knew how to get past the Book of Memories and whoever was plotting to kill him, would surely force the method out of him first and that scared Harry... a lot. He would have told Dumbledore, but doing so would probably get him a week of detentions.

Whatever was going to happen, was going to happen very soon. Ron and Hermione would have to go down alone and worse yet, Dumbledore saw fit to confiscate the Invisibility Cloak and Marauder's Map. Harry, Ron and Hermione didn't know what to do without them. There was simply no place to hide the staff once they brought it back and that was assuming they weren't caught. Things never looked bleaker.

Harry kept muttering to himself that night his worry over who could have possibly done that to Fluffy. Hagrid didn't seem to care that all that was left of Fluffy was a pile of black ashes. Clearly, there was someone after the book and they were quite powerful.

The next morning during breakfast, Professor Dumbledore announced that, given the circumstances, Gryffindor would be awarded the Quidditch Cup because they were winning. The entire Great Hall agreed with one big "yes" when Dumbledore said that they didn't want to risk another accident on school grounds and so there would be no rematch. Harry was just glad he didn't have to worry about suddenly going soft and letting Cho catch the Golden Snitch.

Ron and Hermione agreed to attempt to go down and try not to get caught while Harry served his detention in the hospital wing near the still white-faced, still dead-looking Sirius. An ache entered him as soon as he entered the room. It pained Harry a great deal to immediately be greeted by his godfather and it appeared they purposely didn't close the curtains around his bed. That was the first thing Harry did before Madam Pomfrey asked him to show her how the Phoenix Bracelet mends wounds.

She watched in amazement as the fire escaped the silver band and crawled off the tips of his fingers onto a small cut she had on her fingers. The process repeated itself. First the cut started to close, a white scab grew around it and then it simply fell off, bursting into flames. The fire crawled back onto his hand and began dancing around the silver band once again.

Harry couldn't concentrate much while brewing more Pepperup Potions. Instead, his mind wandered into the corner of the room where the person with almost no soul was lying. It stiffened his resolve to want to take the staff and hide it from whoever was going to attempt to steal it. Upon finishing his detention, Harry walked out as quickly as possible without breaking into a run and didn't answer himself when he asked whether it was to get away from Sirius or to see the Staff of Cybele again, knowing it would be safe in his hands... or would it?

"Lemon drop," Harry told the Fat Lady. She sighed loudly at him as she swung open.

"Can't keep yourself out of trouble, can you?" she said groggily.

"Yeah, yeah," Harry replied bitterly.

"So? How'd it go?" asked Harry, looking at Ron and Hermione sitting on armchairs by the cozy fire.

"Nothing!" said Hermione furiously.

"What d'you mean 'nothing'?" Harry asked her.

"I mean nothing!" she squeaked. "We were almost caught by Filch but Pettigrew came to our rescue, saying we just happened to meet on the way going to the bathroom. Filch didn't want to buy it but I think Pettigrew scared him. When we got there, we just couldn't do it!"

Harry turned to Ron.

"We were there for a HALF - HOUR, both of us trying to retrieve the staff but it just didn't work!" said Ron furiously.

Harry looked between the two of them. He felt like punching Dumbledore on top of the head again.

"Great!" he shouted, flapping his arms, turning towards the spiral staircase. "Just great! It works twice then it doesn't want to work again! And you know how hard it was to stay in the hospital wing with Sirius laying in the corner?" he added, sounding (and feeling) extremely distressed.

"Harry, we can go again tomorrow night," said Hermione at once.

"You bet we're going again tomorrow night," said Harry sharply.