Harry Potter and The Crestfallen Star

    As Ron and Hermione continued to bicker, Harry did what he’d learned do well as a student, he’d tuned them out. Instead, the mysterious dream from the night before plagued his thoughts until a knock at the door startled him. His two best friends stopped arguing and watched as he got up and checked who was on his porch. Mr. And Mrs. Weasley stood there, shivering and soaked from head to toe.

     “Oh, good heavens!” scoffed Mrs. Weasley, stepping inside and shutting the door, “And I thought the weather was going to be nice for a change!”

     “Mum? Dad? What are you doing here?” asked Ron as he entered the living room, Hermione following.

     “Well hello to you too!” exclaimed Mr. Weasley. Meanwhile, Mrs. Weasley stopped wringing out her coat and looked curiously at Ron. “Why, for the meeting of course!”

    “What meeting?” asked Harry. He glanced at Hermione and Ron, and they both shrugged.

    “The meeting to discuss the-” A loud crash and an “Ouch!” from above interrupted. Before long, Neville, red faced and rubbing his elbow, came walking down the stairs.    

     “Hi, everybody. Harry,” his face was, at this point, completely crimson, “I’m really sorry about that lamp. I didn’t see the table, -I just got my licence.”

    Halfway through his apology, the doorbell rang and Lupin, Hagrid, and a man Harry had never seen before came walking in. Greetings followed, and soon everyone began to shift into the living room to sit down. Anxious, Harry took a seat next to Hagrid, hoping to ask for some kind of explanation.

     “Hagrid, what’s going on?” he looked around the table, “I mean, why are we meeting?”

    Hagrid seemed to consider this, “Yeh know, I don’ really know,” he assured, “but I suppose Dumbledore‘ll tell us in the meantime.”

    As if the very thought of Dumbledore summoned him, he appeared with a loud pop at the foot of the stairs, causing every head to turn at once. Harry noticed that, at first, his old headmaster looked the same as his last day at Hogwarts, but upon closer examination, he saw that age was definitely taking a toll on this man. Numerous crinkles sat on top of his snow-white brow, giving him an archaic and sullen look, however, the same aura of energy and radiance remained.

    In true fashion, Dumbledore popped what looked suspiciously like an Everlasting Gobstopper into his mouth and sat down.

     “What’s going on? Why’s everyone here?” Harry questioned. He glanced intently at Dumbledore but it was Lupin that spoke first.

     “Harry, you’re going to have to appear in court again.”

     Instantly he felt as if a lead weight had dropped into the pit of his stomach. “What did I do?” he wondered, very much aware of Ron and Hermione’s questioning stares.

     “For what? I haven’t done anything!” Harry stated.

    He looked over at Dumbledore and observed that he had a big grin on his face and his eyes were now lively and animated, almost as if he were amused by the situation.

     “Harry,” sighed Lupin, “You’re not being put on trial. Instead you’re going to have to testify as a witness.”

    A loud pop! spared Harry from an awfully embarrassing moment. He looked up, shamed-faced, at a middle-aged man wearing purple and green robes, a man that looked oddly familiar. He squinted a bit and suddenly knew: It was Adrius Hadley. This revelation startled him and Harry found himself thinking, “Why is the Minister of Magic standing in my living room?” The others seemed to be wondering the same since they all stared at the head of the wizarding community.

     “Ah, Adrius!” Dumbledore said, breaking the silence and standing to offer his seat to the Minister. Adrius sat and Dumbledore looked around at their obvious expressions of suspicion.

     “Yes, we’ve never had The Ministry’s support before so it’s natural for some of you to be a bit leery right now.” Mrs. Weasley snorted. “However, with Voldemort’s followers growing daily we can only hope to have The Ministry on our side, and I assure you Mr. Hadley has his reasons for joining us.”

     “Thank you Albus. But I don’t need any kind of special treatment here. I know that we all just want to-”

     “Want to what?” snapped Mrs. Weasley, “Does the rest of ministry know that you’re here?”

     Adrius steadily turned to reply. “Actually-”

     “It’s about time The Ministry came around to their senses and started acknowledging what right under their fat noses! I suppose I’ll have to lose one more son in order to-”

     “Molly!” yelled Lupin, “It is not the Ministry’s nor Adrius’ fault that Percy chose to ignore our warnings, and whether you like it or not, this is not the time or the place to argue.”

    Mrs. Weasley opened her mouth to speak but Hermione jumped in the conversation, stopping the argument.

     “Why does Harry have to appear in court?”

     “Because he’s the only one that can identify Hastling,” said Kingsley.

     “Wait,” said Ron, “Harry told me that you guys only caught that old bloke.”

     Dumbledore replied, “Harry was there for the capture of Milner, but he’d already left before Hastling was stopped by Mr. Longbottom here.”

     Neville once again turned beat red but none-the-less swelled with pride.

     “So, when’s the trial?” asked Harry.

“I’m not suppose to say, but-”

A loud shriek disrupted the conversation and Harry looked over to see Hermione staring in terror at Hagrid’s hand.

     “Hagrid! What happened?”

     “Oh, it’s nuthin’. Jus’ a scratch.” He quickly snatched his hand away from the wooden table and turned back toward Dumbledore. However, Hermione’d already reached out and yanked his hand back toward her, examining it.

     “Hagrid, this isn’t a scratch! It looks like it’s infected.”

    He laughed nervously; by now, Adrius had finished talking and everyone was looking at them. Harry finally caught a glimpse of Hagrid’s hand and flinched. A long, extensive tear ran from his wrist to the bottom of his middle finger, or rather what was left of it. Two thirds of the finger was now missing, leaving a blood-clotted nub in its place. The blue and violet coloured puncture on the top of his hand had swollen profusely while clumsily placed stitches ran up and down it.

     “Hermione’s right, Hagrid, what happened while you were in Austria?”

    The meeting came to a standstill as everyone inched forward to see his wound. Trapped, Hagrid sighed and began to tell about his journey.

     “Alrigh’. Alrigh’, as yeh all know, Dumbledore sent me on this mission sort of thin’ to Austria. There’s word tha’ a giant revolt took place up‘n the Alps. Anyway, I made it to the spot an’ it was the stranges’ thin’, nothin’ was there. No sign o’ giants anywhere, so I started headin’ back.”

     “Did you find out where they went?” asked an uneasy Hermione.

     “I’m gettin’ there!” he assured, “On the way back I stopped at this pub, yeh know, to send a letter to Dumbledore.”

    Ron caught Harry’s eyes and laughed to himself.

     “An this feller started telling’ me how one day the giants jus’ up an lef’. Like tha’,” he snapped his fingers, “I asked him where an’ he said somewhere in Romania.”

     “How did this man know so much about giants? I thought most wizards didn’t associate themselves with giants.” asked Harry.

     “I asked him the same thin’ an’ he tol’ me that he’d heard it from other travellers. Well, at firs’ I waddin’t goin’ ter go, bu’ then I remembered tha’ me mum once lived there, so I figured it was worth a shot.”

     “Did you find more relatives?” asked Hermione, Harry noticing her look of desolation.

     “No, no I didn’t,” said Hagrid, ignoring Hermione’s relief sigh, “Tha’s the problem.”

     Ron interrupted, “So you still didn’t find anything?”

     Hagrid’s eyes suddenly grew larger, “Oh, I found somethin’! A lit’le Tiegwrit is defina’ly somethin’!”

     “A Tiegwrit!? I thought those were extinct.”

     Harry didn’t have the slightest clue what they were talking about.

     “So did I, but oh, yeh shoulda seen ‘em. He was beau’ful. ‘Course I had ter give I ’em a little room, wouldn’ wanna get on his bad side.”

     “Did you actually get to touch it?”        

    Hagrid’s face contorted and he began to tap his unscathed fingers nervously. “Well, no. I don’t quite remember anythin’ after tha’ actually. Alls I know is that I would’na been here today if it weren’ fer this fella right here.”

     Harry turned toward the man Hagrid gestured toward and was completely amazed by the fact that he’d not taken notice of this man before. His face, slightly obscured by his shoulder length black hair, was pale and gaunt looking, his pupils so dark that they looked almost black, and his clothes looked severely out dated.

“Apparen’ly it was a more’n jus’ one, there was a whole pack of ‘em! Lucky Dimitri was there.”

“But if you couldn’t fight off the Tiegwrits how is that Dimitri could?”Asked Hermione.

Hagrid glanced at Dimitri for a second before answering, “Tiegwrit’s are strong. Mind yeh, but they’re no match for a vampire.”

     At once, a cynical atmosphere seemed to engulf the whole room. Everyone sat perfectly still trying to figure out if they’d heard Hagrid correctly. Harry glanced at Dimitri, then Neville who was sitting right next to him. His entire face was drained of all colour and he gripped the table so tight that Harry thought he’d leave marks. Meanwhile, Hagrid was starting to panic.

“Not all of ‘em are bad! After all, ‘e save me life! Plus, he wants ter help! I tol’ him all abou’ the Order and the work we do, and he wanted to help! Alls he needs is a place ter stay!”

“Hagrid! Hagrid!” said Dumbledore, “None of us are questing your friends’ motives! And,” he turned toward Dimitri, “Your willigness is much appreciated. I see no reason why you shouldn’t be allowed to join.” Neville loudly sucked in air.

“As for housing, I’m sure many of us would love to have you,” Mrs. Weasley crossed her arms defiantly. “But it seems only fitting to have you stay here at our headquarters. Harry?”

“Hmm, what?” he was distracted from the conversation by watching the changing shades of Neville’s face. “Oh, yeah. It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

Hermione kicked his shin under the table. “Ow!” No one heard his pain though because, at the same time, a shrill chiming sound began to escape from inside Neville’s robes. He reached in and grabbed a tiny silver instrument.

“That’s my gran. She worries. I have to go. Bye everyone!” He wasted no time in apparating. After this, The Order all began to leave, Mrs. Weasley continuing to give Minister Hadley scornful looks up until Mr. Weasley managed to drag her out the door. Dumbledore and Lupin stayed the latest, gladly welcoming Dimitri into the Order. Soon Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Dimitri were left to themselves. The trio walked into the kitchen to talk.

Ron was frantic. “Harry, you prat, what were you thinking?!”

“What?”

“You can’t let him stay here! He’ll kill you!”

“I hate to say it Harry, but Ron’s right.”

Ron agreed, “Yeah! See-wait a minute. Hey!”

“Vampires are very smart and very dangerous. Besides, Dimitri has powers that wizards can‘t block with a wand; between you and him, Harry, there’d be no contest. ”

“Yeah, but Hagrid trusts him, and-Ron, what are you doing?”

Ron was grabbing several pots and pans and scattering them all over the room. “I’ll have you know that my mum told me all about vampires and their freaky loathing of metal things.”

Hermione sighed. “They hate things that shine, Ron.”

“Regardless, I’m staying here tonight because I’m not going to let some bloodsucker kill you in the middle of the night.”

“Uh, thanks.” said Harry.

Hermione rolled her eyes, “Harry, just promise me that you’ll be cautious tonight, okay?”

“We’ll be fine.”

“Well, I guess I’ll be off then.” she said reluctantly, then apparated.

Harry left the room as Ron began his quest for steel silverware and found the living room empty. He searched but Dimitri was nowhere to be found.