Harry Potter and The Crestfallen Star

    The smoke filled room was dark and smelled of decay. Harry stood in the shadows, looking at his surroundings; when a familiar voice caught his attention. Standing in the centre of the room was Voldemort and Harry, himself, in the middle of an intense duel while James and Lily, crowned and dressed in luxurious gold robes, stood and watched closely. Harry gazed at himself battling Voldemort and taking no notice of his parent’s presence. “Why aren’t they helping?” he wondered. Suddenly, a roaring scream was heard, drowning the room in a brilliant light, and the dream was no more.

    Harry awoke to find that he was still lying in his bed. Ears ringing, he grabbed his glasses and sat up to see Ron standing in the doorway, mouth full of food.

     “`Ey, Harry. Just thought ‘oo wanted to know that Mum dropped thefe muppins off earliah.”

     “Thanks, Ron. I’ll be downstairs in a minute.”

     He sat and waited for the sound of Ron eating to cease before thinking of the dream. Why weren’t my parents helping me? Was I winning the battle? What was all that suppose to mean anyway?

    Ron was helping himself to another mouthful when Harry walked into the kitchen.

    “Where’s Gabriel?” asked Harry as he sat down and grabbed a muffin.

     “He left after you went to bed. Some kind of incident with goblins.” Harry knew what was inevitably coming.

     “So what happened yesterday?”

    He finished eating and opened his mouth to speak when a small brown owl fluttered past, discarding a letter straight into Ron’s mug.

     “Ruddy owl!” he complained as he wiped the orange juice off of his shirt. Harry recognized the owl as one Hogwarts’, so he quickly snatched the parcel out of the juice.

     “Won’t do you any good,” exclaimed Ron, “the things ruined anyway. Look at it, it’s soaked!”

    Despite Ron’s comments, Harry unwound the wet parchment and found that only some of the ink had smeared.

     “It’s from Ginny.” He quickly scanned the letter and began to read aloud.

     “Dear Harry, and Ron since he’s probably there, -(“Hey!”)

     Things at Hogwarts are great. Dumbledore still won’t tell me much about The Order and Snape is his usual “smashing” self. Quidditch practice is going well. Our first match is next week against Slytherin. At the rate the team is going, we should win, but we still haven’t found a good seeker. I’d play seeker myself, but there aren’t any decent chasers either. Dumbledore’s just finished teaching the D.A. the shield charm, Protego, while in the meantime, I have to try and finish an essay for History of Magic. You wouldn’t happen to know what year the giants were officially declared extinct do you? Happy Halloween.

                        ~Ginny

P.S. Luna gives her regards to “Ronald” and advises you, Harry, to stay away from airborne pumpkin-mites tonight.

    Ron had finished his breakfast. “I think Ginny’s hanging around with Luna too much. Anyone who uses Snape and the word smashing in the same sentence must be nuts.” Harry clearly wasn’t listening; Ginny’s letter had made him remember his matches at Hogwarts. Even though playing professional Quidditch had never lost its appeal, Harry always thought, “ Being an auror won’t be so bad.”

     “You never told me,” Ron interrupted, “what happened at the party last night. Did you catch that Hastling guy?”

     Harry sighed and began to describe last night’s events; deliberately leaving out anything having to do with the star. He immediately felt guilty for not telling Ron but another half of him was telling Harry that he should keep this to himself for now.

     “Harry? Harry, are you listening?”

     “Huh?”

     “I gotta go meet Dean and Neville at The Three Broomsticks, do you wanna go?”

     “No, I’ve gonna stay here for a bit.”

    Harry waited until Ron had left before running upstairs to get the star. The tiny brown box was still hidden behind his bottom drawer. He grabbed it, went downstairs and out the front door.

    Upon apparating, Harry saw that Diagon Alley continued to thrive as much as it had seven years ago. Wizards and witches of all kinds went about, while children ran around to various shops, pressing their noses against the windows in order to get a glimpse of the newest item. Harry walked past the many street peddlers and Gringotts bank to find a small, slightly off-balanced shop, the front of it reading Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes.

     The inside was everything Harry imagined it to be. Complete chaos as children ran about using their newly bought merchandise on each other while parents chased them. He narrowly escaped an intense game of hide and seek when he found George crouched next a boy no older than six years old. The boy stood crying as his skin continued to flash every colour of the rainbow. His mother looked absolutely terrified. George, however, seemed completely calm and collected.

     “Hello Harry. I haven’t ever seen you in here before. How do you like it?”

     “It’s genius, but I’m actually not here to shop. See, I need to talk to you in private.”

     “Okay, but let me finish with him.” George pulled out his wand and said, “Trician Ceaserio!”

    Instantly the boys’ skin returned to normal. He looked at the back of his hands and stopped sobbing.

     “How’s that feel?” asked George.

    The little boy opened his mouth to speak but all that escaped was a loud bark. He stood for a moment in a complete shock before breaking into sobs again. His mother began to shriek, causing George to wince.

     “Maybe you should go upstairs to talk to Fred. I have a feeling that this is going to take a while.”

    Harry simply nodded and didn’t hesitate to get away from the woman’s shrieking. He opened a door in the back of the shop that led to a flight of stairs. The stairs led to another hallway and several doors. For a minute, he just stood there wondering which door to choose when Angelina strolled out of one of the rooms.

     “Hey, Harry. I take it you’re looking for the twins, right?”

     “Hi, Angelina. I just talked to George and he told me that I could find Fred up here.”

     “Well, Fred’s usually in the lab nowadays. Something about a levitating potion. The labs in the second door on the left.”

     “Thanks, I’ll see you later.”

    Harry didn’t bother to knock as he opened the door and stepped inside. Fred sat behind a desk cluttered with blueprints and cauldrons full of bubbling contents. The door creaked shut, causing Fred to look up and spill a potion he was pouring into a bottle.

     “Sorry about that,” said Harry.

     “Oh, don’t worry about it,” exclaimed Fred as he simply cleaned up the mess with his wand. “So, what brings you here? Trouble? Love potion pops? Jinxing Treats?”

     “No,” laughed Harry, “I needed to ask you a favour.”

     “Sorry, no discounts on Time-warp tarts,” joked Fred.

     “No,” said Harry, while pulling out the small box, “I was wondering if you two wouldn’t mind checking this out for me.”

     He discarded the lid and held the box out for Fred to see. He looked down at it then back up at Harry.

     “This looks like some piece of jewellery.”

     “I know, but I know that there’s more to this then it seems.”

     “Alright. I’ll talk to George and we’ll see what we can do.”

    Harry headed back downstairs and discovered that the little boy George was trying to help was now on all fours coughing feathers while his mother was being held up and fanned by two other men. He quickly made his way out of the store and back into Diagon Alley.

    Harry apparated back to his front porch and walked in. The house was supposed to be dark in his absence but he caught a faint glare emitting off of his glasses. He silently shut the front door then quickly pulled out his wand as he crept toward the light. A sudden crash startled him, but not as much as a voice he overheard.

     “Crookshanks! No!”

     “What the-” he thought. “Hermione?”

    He stepped into the study and found Hermione sitting at the table, holding Crookshanks.

    “Oh, hey Harry. I didn’t hear you come in. I’m sorry if I startled you but I needed to borrow Hedwig.”

     Harry lowered his wand and sat down.

     “Hey, Hermione. When’d you get back?”

     “Just a little while ago. So can I please use Hedwig to deliver a letter?”

     “Sure.”

    Hermione handed Crookshanks to him and called Hedwig over to her when the door opened.

     “Harry! Are you here?”

     “Yeah, I’m in the study!”

    Ron walked into the room and looked surprised at the sight of Hermione.

     “What’re you doing here?”

     “Sending a letter to Dumbledore,” she replied as she opened the window and released Hedwig.

     “So what have you two been up to,” asked Hermione.

     Harry proceeded to tell Hermione about last night with Ron throwing in parts that he’d forgotten.

     “Oh, that sounds horrible!” she remarked.

     “Yeah, even worse is the Malfoy bit,” said Ron. “Unfortunately, I ran into that ignorant tool today at Hogsmeade.”

     “What’d he do?” asked Harry as he continued to pet Crookshanks.

     “His usual dirty looks and loud insults. I wish the prat would do something so I could. I’d like nothing better than to send a good curse his way.”

     “Oh, because that’ll really help our cause,” scorned Hermione as she rolled her eyes.

     Ron was obviously agitated. “Hermione, you’ve been back what? A couple of hours now? And you’re already-”

     “Maybe,” she interrupted, “I wouldn’t have to if you would just think before-”

    Harry couldn’t help but smile as his two best friends began to bicker again, because he’d only just realized how much he’d actually missed it.