Harry Potter and the Dreamer of Fears

Chapter 4 – Meeting with Friends

A couple of days past before Sirius decided they were going to Diagon Alley to buy Harry’s school supplies.  Before that, Harry had sent Hedwig with a message to Hermione and Ron telling them that he was at Hogwarts for not a very clear reason at all.  They had replied that they knew since Mr. Weasley went home that day and announced it loud and clear.  It seemed the Hermione was staying with the Weasleys as her parents had gone on a long second honeymoon vacation to the Bermudas near the United States of America.

At the last moment, Lupin decided he would come, just in case any of the citizens in the Alley got antsy with Sirius there in human form.  In ways, Harry was glad that Lupin came along; it made him feel that he was among friends when so many people probably hated him, or at least looked at him weirdly, at the moment by Skeeter’s articles.

They apparated in an alleyway next to Gringott's Bank and Harry went in with Lupin to grab some of the money in his vault to buy his new schoolbooks and three new uniforms.  He had noticed that his clothes were a bit short for him and his robe hem came up to his shins.  Only his dress robe, a bit long last year, fit him perfectly this year.  The day before, Hagrid had come back and commented that he was growing taller since last time he’d seen him.

Then it was off to buy new supplies.  Harry walked along the various shops, stopping by Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions for a refitting of three new uniforms.  He saw a couple of first ones, who seemed in awe of him, pointing to his scar and indicating his glasses and mused hair.  But they gasped when they saw Sirius walk in, fingering some material for uniforms while waiting for him to finish.

After stopping by the Robes for All Occasions, Harry carried a fairly good sized bag with all three of his new uniforms folded nice and neatly.  Lupin followed behind him and Sirius a fair distance, occasionally looking into a window of a pawnshop, frowning and muttering things to himself softly.

“Harry!” a familiar voice shouted behind him and Harry turned to see five red-heads barreling towards him along with a blonde-brown haired person, Ron and Hermione were in the lead followed closely by twin brothers Fred and George.  Ron’s little sister, Ginny was tagging behind them, and bringing up the back was Mrs. Molly Weasley.

“Didn’t expect to run into you!” Ron replied a bit breathlessly as he hunched over a bit, catching his breath while grinning at the same time.

“Same here,” Harry replied after Hermione gave him a quick hug and was grinning like an idiot.  “Hello Mrs. Weasley, Fred, George, Ginny,” he greeted the other redheaded people.

“Sirius,” Mrs. Weasley started a bit in a strained voice, “good to see you in full health.”

Sirius only nodded distractedly and Harry glanced towards where his godfather’s gaze was going and saw a couple of people standing by a local pub, in deep conversation.  “Harry,” he started distractedly, “do you mind shopping by yourself?  There’s something I need to ask…”

“Sure, I’ll see you in a few,” Harry frowned slightly as he watched Sirius walk off, a beeline towards the people near the entrance to the pub.  He turned back to Ron, Hermione and the rest of the Weasleys.  “Did you guys finish your shopping yet?”

“Nope, just arrived by Floo powder,” Ron replied, and he noticed that Hermione had a slight greenish look on her face.  It was the same thing he had when he traveled to the Weasleys’ house roughly a year ago.  “What’s in the bag?”

“New clothes,” Harry replied, feeling a bit of heat creep up into his face.  He hated to admit it, but he was always shorter than Ron, but now, he inched a bit over Ron’s red head.

“Well,” Mrs. Weasley interrupted them before Ron could get a word in, her grinning plump face all cheers, “I’ll let you three run loose around the Alley while I get Ginny, Fred, and George their supplies, okay?  Now don’t get into any trouble or else there would be more than one person I’ll have to answer to.”

“Sure mom, don’t worry about us,” Ron replied, grinning and waving a jaunty goodbye to his mom before turning back to the rest of them.

Harry glanced over Ron’s shoulder to see Lupin still muttering something to himself while now looking at an open market for potions and various powders.  He didn’t think Professor Lupin would mind that they headed off on their own for a bit.  He shifted the bag hanging from his right hand a bit, and scanned the various shops surrounding them, “Well, which one first?”

“Books, we need them,” Hermione replied and Harry raised an eyebrow.  He had checked the list and the books this year seemed a bit hard.

Returning Fifth-Years should purchase the following books:

Brewing Complex Potions by Arsenius Jigger

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 5) by Miranda Goshawk

Protection of the Dark Arts by Terence Flayer

Transfiguration, Beginning with Inanimate Objects by Williams McNair

Plants and Herbs, Your Medicine and Friends by Violet Fruit

Your Past, Present, and Future Eclipsed by Sundown Riley

Knowing Your Creatures: Creature Feature by Erried Motley

They headed to the book shop first, waiting in line for other Hogwarts students who were purchasing their books, some first years, others returning years.  Harry and the others all greeted the returning ones before coming out to the still busy street of Diagon Alley, their hands full of books.

“Hey, Harry, since you’re staying at Hogwarts for the rest of the summer, do you know if Mad-Eye Moody is still the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year?” Ron asked, as they made their way back to where they were going to meet Sirius, Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, Fred, George, and Professor Lupin.

He shook his head, “I haven’t seen Moody around.  But I do know that we’re actually getting two Dark Arts professors this year!”

“Two?  Why two?”

“Does it have something to do with You-Know-Who?”

Harry shrugged and shook his head, “I don’t really know, but I guess it could be something to do with Vol-er…You-Know-Who.”  He chastened himself mentally as he knew that both Ron and Hermione were like the others in the wizarding community, shuddering whenever they heard the Dark Lord’s name.  A sudden thought occurred to him.  “Ron, Hermione, please don’t tell anyone about the two Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers.  I think Professor Dumbledore didn’t want anyone to know about them at the moment…for whatever reason, I don’t know, but I just get this feeling.”

Both of them nodded then Ron frowned slightly, “Harry, have you been feeling all right?  I mean, has anything unusual happened?”

Harry hesitated for a fraction of a second as his thoughts wandered to when he was looking through Sirius’ letter and Voldemort had appeared behind him when he looked at his reflection on the mirror, then his scar had started to throb in pain.  “No,” he lied, forcing his gaze to be nonchalant and steady, “nothing really.  Except if you count Dudley on his stupid diet and complaining.”  He forced a smile to his lips as he made a joke to which Ron quirked a smile and Hermione looked slightly confused.  He hated lying to his friends, but he didn’t want to worry them, especially with what happened near the end of the school year.

“Ah, there you are!” Mrs. Weasley’s bright voice brought all of them around before his best friends could ask Harry anymore-prodding questions.  “Did you all finish your shopping?”  Molly Weasley was holding some bags, some full of clothes while Ginny was trailing behind her, carrying her fourth-year books.  Fred and George were proudly holding their new brooms, to which Harry saw were Nimbus 2001s.

“Hey!  How come they get new brooms?” Ron cried out indignantly as the smirks Fred and George wore gotten bigger.

“Er…um…Ron, they’re graduating this year,” Mrs. Weasley flushed a bit pink, “Oh, don’t worry honey,” she ruffled his hair to which Ron squawked an annoyed “Gerroff, mum”.  “Don’t worry, when you graduate you’re getting your own broom of choice.”

“Hey!  How come we didn’t get to choose mum?!” Both Fred and George’s smirks had been wiped off in a flash and now they had passive looks on their face, but their stares were one of slight anger.

Harry felt sorry for Mrs. Weasley at the moment and would give all of his gold to her so that she could please the twins and Ron.  But he didn’t have the time as he spotted Lupin making his way towards them, clutching a small brown bag full of whatever he brought.

“Are you ready to go, Harry?” Sirius spoke up behind him and Harry gave a slight jump in surprise, which also brought the rest of the Weasleys and Hermione’s attention on Sirius Black, ending the argument.

“Yeah,” he replied, and then glanced at Ron who was staring stonily at both Fred and George who had regained their smirks.  Hermione was looking quite uncomfortable, between a feuding family whom she was staying with.  “Er…um…I guess I’ll see all of you at Hogwarts?” he asked tentatively, afraid that beneath those smirks and stony looks, someone was going to explode with anger.

“Oh!” Ron snapped out of his stony silence and grinned, back to his usual self, “yeah.  See you at Hogwarts, and don’t forgot to write before we get there!”

Harry waved a goodbye to them and followed both Lupin and Sirius to an alley away from the hubbub crowd of the Alley.  Once there, he glanced at the bag that Lupin was holding and noticed that his hand was shaking a bit.  “What’s that, Professor?”

“Remus…please, Harry, I’m n-not a Professor anymore,” Lupin’s teeth chattered slightly.  Harry nodded and Lupin continued, “It’s some things for Wolfsbane Potion.”

“Oh…” Harry nodded sagely as he realized that Lupin was closing in on the lunar month and it was probably a few days before he was going to transform into his alternate form…a werewolf.  Lupin had told him, Ron, and Hermione the sad tale of his life, bitten when he was a young boy by a werewolf, turning into one on every full moon.  Had it not been for the actions of Harry’s father, James, Sirius, and the traitor Peter Pettigrew (Harry’s insides churned with anger as he even thought about Pettigrew), then Lupin would have gone mad by now.  It was also by the actions of a very unlikely-to-help person, the Potions Professor, Severus Snape, that created the rare Wolfsbane Potion to help Lupin become a docile wolf while he was in mid-transformation, keeping his mind sane and whole.

“Well, lets go,” Sirius, said and Harry glanced at him, wondering who was it that Sirius had business with.  He wanted to pry and find out if it had something to do with Voldemort, but he knew that Sirius would not even give him an answer.

Shifting his books and bag to one arm, he gripped Sirius’ hand tightly.  He still marveled at how tall he had grown over the summer, his head now almost to Sirius’ shoulder blades.

A burst of cold entered through him and left him just as quickly and Harry blinked a bit as he found himself back at Hogwarts, but this time with a few people around who gave a start at them Apparating in the middle of the main hall.

“Sirius Black, good to see you again,” a croaky weathered voice said behind them and the voice was spearheaded by a distinct clunk, clunk of a wooden leg.

“Moody,” Sirius greeted as Harry let go of Sirius’ hand and noted the tension in his godfather’s voice.  It wasn’t a surprise to him since he knew that Mad-Eye Alastor Moody was one of the best Aurors the Ministry of Magic had created, even though now Moody was a bit twitchy having been locked up in his own trunk for ten months by an impostor who turned out to be none other than Barty Crouch Jr., had the record of bringing in a lot of Death Eaters who had supported Voldemort during his rise to power around fifteen years ago.

Sirius probably felt that Moody was still onto him, still trying to find ways of convicting him so that he could send him back to Azkaban, except with Sirius innocent Harry knew that there was no way no one would be able to send his godfather back to that God-forsaken place with dementors crawling around.  Except…Harry frowned, shifting his books to his other arm as his right arm started to fall asleep from its weight.  Sirius never told him; neither did the Daily Prophet say anything, about how he was proven innocent…

“Harry, can you excuse us for a moment,” Sirius interrupted his musings and he glanced at Moody and his godfather.

“Uh…sure,” Harry replied, then glanced around for Lupin but found that he had Apparated to somewhere else.  Must be giving the ingredients to Snape to create the Wolfsbane Potion…hope he’s all right…  He watched as the two of them walked away, both in deep conversation.

A sudden sensation of pins and needles pricked his right arm, reminding him that he still had a bag full of new uniforms hanging off of his arm.  Ouch…he winced as the blood flow into his arm became stronger, sending more needles down to his fingers.  He turned and hurried to Gryffindor’s Common Room to drop off his things and organize his books; questioning Sirius would have to wait until later.

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This chapter has now ended…