Harry Potter and the Dreamer of Fears

Chapter 12 - Letters Full of Questions

Even though the three of them had been asked to stay behind, they eventually caught up to Professor Flitwick who was waiting for Professor McGonagall to take the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors to their Common Rooms while he took the Ravenclaws and Slytherins himself.  Some Aurors had decided to form a small contingent around them, while others stayed behind to collect the remains of the Dementors.  Walking as a single large group, it was mostly silent save the clomping down the stairs, and Harry noticed that the Slytherins, Hufflepuffs, Gryffindors, and some of the Ravenclaws kept shooting furtive glances at the three of them.  They were trying to be discreet, but none of them succeeded.  He felt a wash of heat rise up in him, embarrassed, and wished that they wouldn't look at them.  He wished that he could tell them that they were foolish, stupid enough to get almost everyone killed when they were trying to find them.

Heeded by Professor Marion's warning, he felt as if shame mixed with embarrassment was enough to make him go dunk his head into cold water to berate himself for being so foolish to go and search for the missing students.  As the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins were returned to their Common Rooms, to gasps of surprise and questions barraged, a much smaller group now climbed back up the stairs to get to the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Common Rooms.  Some of the Aurors had stayed behind in each entrance of the Hufflepuff and Slytherin Common Rooms, on a guard duty to ensure that no one got out and no one unauthorized, got in.

As the Ravenclaws turned on the fifth floor to go down a dark corridor only lit by dim candlelights, Harry caught Cho's eye and saw her nod a grateful thank you to him and he blushed slightly.  He watched as she turned and talked to Lina who was nodding and her fingers were animated as he could only guess that they were talking about what had happened.  He took his gaze off of the Asian girl's retreating form and frowned as he knew that many people in the Common Room would be pestering them with questions, and even the Gryffindors that had been caught in the small group would also be asking him, Ron, and Hermione about the spells that they had cast...it was going to be a long night...

"Might I remind all of you, that nothing of this attack is to be known?  Anyone caught telling the event will be sorely punished," Professor McGonagall suddenly spoke up sharply, and all of them jumped slightly at her words, except for the four Aurors that were surrounding them.

"Yes ma'am," they all replied in a slight messy unison.

Rounding another set of stairs, they finally climbed up the seventh floor and walked down the long corridor to the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Tweeter thumbs," McGonagall spoke sharply to the portrait that was looking curiously down at them, then sighed and open the door to the Gryffindor Common Room-

Loud noises and questions poured out as they stepped in and Harry felt as if everyone was shouting in his ear or thumping him on the back, demanding to know answers to their questions.  He only got a glimpse of Ron and Hermione getting jostled by the twins, Fred and George; Ginny suddenly bumped into him and apologized hastily, adverting her eyes and blushing a deep red that went straight to the roots of her hair.

"Quiet!  All of you!" McGonagall held up her wand and a few red sparks crackled into the air, bringing the noise of the Common Room into a slow relative silence.  Harry noticed that the Aurors that had been following them, had stayed outside, except for two who slipped in and were sitting in two of the high-backed chairs, facing the fire, both staring at him with inscrutable gazes.  He realized with a jolt that the two Aurors were part of the four that had kept an eye on him before the first week of school started.

"You may all finish your meals in here, and you are confined to Gryffindor Tower until tomorrow morning.  There will be no discussion of what happened, as I have stated," she looked as if to say more, but suddenly spun on her heel and left, the portrait door closing behind her.

The noise once again blasted to full volume and Harry was jostled around until he bumped into Ron and Hermione who both looked stoic in front of the barrage of questions the twins and Lee Jordan were firing at them.  "Come on," he grabbed Ron's arm, who in turn grabbed Hermione's and giving a hasty apology to the twins and Lee, ushered them through the crowd and to a corner of the room where there weren't people crowding around them.

"The Ministry'll go to a frenzy if they hear about this," Ron huffed a sigh as he plopped down in front of the four chairs the little corner had set up, with a table in between all of them.  "I bet tomorrow that the whole school will find out...I mean, come on, news travels fast in the school and someone is bound to spill the whole story."

"But that doesn't mean we have to be the ones to spill it," Hermione said pointedly and Ron gave her a glare.

"Guys, give it up," Harry said tiredly as he rubbed his head.  There was a headache brewing inside of his head and he knew that it was in partial, caused by the Dementors.

"You okay Harry?" Hermione asked, and he nodded his head.

"Just a little tired," just then his stomach rumbled loudly and he grinned slightly, "and hungry."

This prompted laughter from the two of them and Harry glanced around, to see where the food was set up and saw Ginny coming over to them, balancing three plates full of hot steaming meals, her own balanced on her head.

Harry got up from his seat, as did his friends and went over to help Ginny who breathed a sigh of relief as the food were taken off her hands and she grabbed her own plate just as it started to tilt a bit.

Going back to the table, they all sat down in the seats and started to eat in silence.  The silence was only broken when Ginny coughed slightly.

"Um...I...uh...wanted to thank all of you, for protecting us from what happened tonight," she avoided their gazes and started to blush once again.

Harry chewed in silence, and glanced at both Ron and Hermione who looked as equally resigned as he did.  He shrugged, as he didn't know what to say to Ginny without compromising the fact of events that took place.

"You're welcome, Ginny," Hermione replied for all of them, "but remember what Professor McGonagall said-"

"I know," the younger girl replied, "it's just that...I was wondering...what spells did you guys cast...to make those gigantic creatures, creatures like fire?"

"Um..." Harry opened his mouth to reply when he noticed that Fred, George, and Lee were staring at them, seemingly trying not to spy on them, but their ears were very attentive, he could tell.

"I'll tell you in my room," Hermione whispered tugging on Ginny's sleeve and both girls abandoned their mostly finished dinner and headed up to the girl's dormitories, leaving Ron and him alone.  Turning back, he saw that the trio had vanished, knowing that they wouldn't be able to pry any information from them.

"Something isn't right about all this," Ron spoke up and Harry nodded.

"Yeah, you're right.  Cho's story seemed a little off."

"Unless there's something else going on that no one wants to spill or anything.  There could even be a spy in Hogwarts, maybe that's how the Dementors got in," Ron speculated.  "But I don't think those Dementors were that much of a threat, I mean look how Professor Marion handled them...and did you see her Patronus?"

"Shh," Harry hissed at his best friend then glanced around to see if anyone was listening, "come on."  He and Ron walked quietly up to their dorm room and made it in without anyone asking them questions or even looking in their way.

"Did you see her Patronus?  A...centaur, I think?" Ron commented as soon as the door was closed and after Harry cast a silencing spell around the whole room.

"Yeah, a centaur," he frowned as he remembered his dream with Firenze...and Fletcher's naming of the centaur...Thatcher.  Was the centaur Patronus something in relation to Marion?

"I thought most Patronus, like your stag, was an animal, not a magical being," Ron also frowned.

Harry shrugged, "I really don't know, but I think Cho and her Ravenclaw friends were also trying to produce the Patronus spell, but failed...the thing that bothers me is, why not cast the Fiere spell, assuming Professor Sadow and Professor Marion taught it to them..."

"You're right...so then, how come we could cast it and they couldn't?  I mean I saw a couple fifth year Hufflepuffs within that group, and I think the Professors could have taught them the same curriculum that they were teaching us."

"But, we just learned the Fiere spell," Harry pointed out, "only a few weeks ago.  So from what I can gather, the Fiere spell is like Patronus, but easier to learn."

"But that dragon was bloody cool," Ron stared off into the ceiling, and Harry smiled faintly as they both sat on the rug in the middle of the circular room, "and Hermione's griffin...shows that she has the Gryffindor traits if she's to produce something like that...  Harry, what's yours?  I didn't really see it."

Harry frowned as he tried to remember what his looked it, but no real image came to mind.  His Fiere looked like a wave of fire, with red-orange eyes and was breathing out puffs of smoke through its nostrils...

"I...don't think mine had a shape," he trailed off uncertainly.

Just then, there was a soft knock on their door and Harry jumped up and released the silencing spell on the whole room.  "Come in."

A young face popped in, too old to be a student.  He had spiky dark blonde hair and grey eyes that didn't twinkle, but they were soft enough to warrant no harshness in them.  But Harry knew that this Auror, Kester Pointe, was one not to be taken lightly.  He and his partner, Avalon Tenew, the other Auror who had been sitting in the high-backed chairs, were hand picked by Crouch by the time they graduated from their respective schools, ready to be trained to become another of Crouch's Aurors when the battle against Voldemort came to a sudden end on October 31, 1981.  But even then, they were still one of the best, training under someone else, they were still feared, but one thing that set them apart from Crouch's Aurors was that they did not use the Unforgivable Curses.

"Just checking on you two.  There wasn't any noise on when you went up there so I assumed you were either asleep or had placed a silencing charm on the dorm walls and doors.  Your friends, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, and Morgan Chang have done the same," Kester said in a kind voice.

"We're fine, Kester," Harry remembered that when his four `jailers' as he so put it then, were guarding him, Kester had made it a point for Harry to call him by his first name, and so had the other two, Avalon, and Sloan.  The only one he had called by a formal title was Professor Marion.  Of the four Aurors that had kept company with him, Kester was the only one that had been more open of his past than anyone.

"Good to hear that.  I think you better not speak of this anymore, as some of your roommates are about to come up, a bit dippy, shall we say, and ready for sleep," Kester smiled at them, then started to close the door when he stuck his head back in.  "Oh yes," his voice had turned respectful, "splendid spells you lot had cast.  By far, the fastest learning of a Fiere spell, I have seen in my time."  With that, he shut the door, leaving the two of them to stare at the Auror that had just complimented them.

"Blimey," Ron breathed out.

The next morning, at breakfast, there were rumors flying around like snitches and everyone was asking those people that had returned from the Dementor attack, but true to Professor McGonagall and Professor Marion's threats, no one spoke a word, and changed the topic as soon as a question in that form was asked.  It was until Dumbledore stood up and asked for silence then told the other students not to ask any more questions concerning the students of last night, that the conversation finally changed to a different topic.  But Harry could still see that everyone was still shaken by the fact that Dementors had stormed the castle and attacked.

Spearing a sunny-side-up egg with his fork, Harry was about to put it in his mouth when flutters of wings brought his head up to see hundreds of owls flying in, mail attached to their legs.  Among those owls, he saw Hedwig, carrying in one claw a bundle of something, while in the other, two envelopes.

She landed next to his plate and he took the things off of her legs then gave her a strip of his bacon to which she ate and then nipped his shoulder affectionately before flying off to join the other post owls in the Owlery for some well deserved rest and sleep.

"Oi, who's the package from," Ron asked, sitting next to him and fingering an envelope he had received from a mottled brown owl.

Harry picked the package and read the label.  It read Harry in an almost chicken-scratch handwriting.  He didn't recognize the handwriting and was hesitant to open the package when his curiosity got the best of him.  By now, both Hermione and Ron were peering over his shoulders as he hesitantly opened the package.  If it was a trap of sorts, might as well open it in front of Dumbledore and the others so that they would know or something of that nature.

Inside the box that was the package, he saw laying among some cotton fluffs, to which Ron took a piece and began curiously examining it, was a single, red-gold feather...a phoenix feather.

He quickly glanced up to where Dumbledore was sitting, chatting animatedly with Marius Sadow, and saw the Headmaster wink at him.

"Wow...is that..." Hermione breathed in wonderment.

"I think it's one of Fawkes' feathers," he replied as he put the feather back in and closed the package up then took a look at the two envelopes Hedwig had delivered to him.  The curious thing was that he still had another of Fawkes' feathers, so why was the phoenix giving him another one?  Was a sense of foreboding that the phoenix knew he needed the feather for something?

Immediately, his worries cleared his mind as he noticed that one of the letters was from Sirius, the other was from...Cho?

Opening the letter from Cho while pocketing Sirius' so he could read later without any interruptions, he read it:

Dear Harry,

I never got to thank you and your friends properly for save our lives last night.  I know since we don't see each other a lot, I might forget to thank you, so I wrote this letter.  I also like to thank you for becoming friends with my cousin Morgan.  People don't accept her usually, because of her problem.  You see, Morgan has a rare form of dyslexia.  From the letters she writes to me in America, and when visiting her in the summer and winter vacation, she is lonely and is made fun of by her peers.  That's why I suggested she come as an exchange student for this year, starting as a fourth year since in America, she is a bit advanced in her studies.  I was happy for her to be placed in Gryffindor, and all of you befriending her.

But to lighten things, up, I was wondering if you would come with me to Hogsmeade during the next trip.  I mean, not as a date, but more like a friend...

Yours truly,

            Cho

"Oh, someone's got a date," Ron poked him in the shoulder and Harry quickly folded up the letter, feeling a rush of heat erupt in the back of his neck.

"No, I don't," he replied frowning at his friend, "Cho just wants to go as friends."

"You know what they say, guy-girl friendships become dates, then something else..."

"Oh shut up," he punched his friend lightly on the arm then glanced at the letter in Ron's hands.  "What did you get?"

Immediately, Ron's face lost all of its humor and a mask of impassive replaced the humor.  "Nothing," his friend replied a bit sullenly and he could sense that something was wrong.

"Hey, what's wrong Ron?" he asked, or tried to pry.

"Nothing," Ron replied stubbornly. Then after a few seconds, caved in, "It's from Mom.  I'm assuming that Ginny, Fred, and George also got the same letters."  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "You know how I was mailing you about my family wanting you with us instead of your relatives.  Truth is, we've been on a tight strain recently.  It seems that Percy, ever since the incident with the Triwizard Tournament and his boss Mr. Crouch, has been falling deeper into the well of Fudge's lies.  He won't listen to my Dad anymore, saying that he was an old enough wizard to be thinking for himself, not letting an `old coot' like Dad be in charge."

"Oh my," Hermione had stopped reading her copy of the Daily Prophet and was now staring at Ron with apprehensive eyes, "you didn't say anything of that sort in your letters, and I didn't even seen anything like it at your house."

"That was because of appearance sakes," Harry could tell that Ron was hesitant to spill their family's problems, but surprisingly plunged on, "now, here's the results."  He folded up his letter and stuck it in the envelope.  "Percy's been forced out of the house and is now staying with his fiancée Penelope Clearwater and her family."

"Oh...dear," Hermione looked a bit abashed.  "I'm sorry Ron, really I-"

"It's okay," Ron shook his head and he could see that his best friend had anger in his eyes, even though they were faint, "I never liked Percy ever since the Triwizard Tournament ended.  He was being a bigot and even said some bad things about the Headmaster...but he at least had the sense not to say anything and be cordial when guests were over..." bitterness laced his voice as he folded the envelope and stuck it in his robes.  "Well," there was false brightness in his voice, "let's get to class shall we?"

"You sound happy, since it's Potions," Harry tried to lighten the dark mood that fell on the three of them and was glad that it worked to some degree as Ron faltered then groaned in exasperation.

"Oi, Potions," his best friend commented as they got up and headed back to Gryffindor Common Room to grab their books and to drop off Harry's package.

Potions wasn't going so well, as Harry expected.  Snape was in a much fouler mood after the attacks, and he also suspected that it was partialy due to Snape leaving soon, at least from what he heard in Snape's and Marion's conversation in the Defense Against the Dark Arts room a few weeks ago.  They were attempting to create the Wolfsbane Potion, after doing a few days of research and gathering materials, and Harry had a suspicious feeling that the Wolfsbane potions they were making were going to be fed to Professor Lupin.

"You better make these good, unless you want a werewolf on the loose on Hogwarts next week during the full moon," Snape suddenly barked from his corner of the room, as he sat in his desk, correcting tests from the sixth-years, to which he was muttering the incompetence of them.

Harry set to chop up the stalk of a meticule plant and checked his book to see if he got the color of his cauldron right, which was bubbling a pinkish color.  He realized that Snape didn't know that Lupin and Sirius were on a mission...unless of course, Snape knew when they were coming back...

"Got the roots?" Dean Thomas, a fellow Gryffindor asked, as he was mincing the aconite, the key ingredient to make the Wolfsbane Potion work all together.

"Yes," Harry dumped his pile of roots in and immediately the cauldron began bubbling a yellow color.  He glanced at the book, "Quickly put in the minced aconite, and it should turn into a dull green."

Dean immediately swiped the rest of the minced aconite and put it in and the angry bubbling of yellow sudden turned into a mild bubbling, but dull green potion.  "I think we did it!" Dean whispered excitedly, but the excitement was shattered in an instant.

Boom.

Everyone turned to see Neville's cauldron start to melt from the force of the angry yellow bubbling, and his partner, Lavender Brown was hastily edging away as the yellow liquid began seeping from the cracks of the cauldron and onto the floor, where they eroded holes into the dungeon floor.

Boom.  Boom.  Boom.

Three more cauldrons exploded under the angry bubbly yellow potion and more students backed away from their broken cauldrons.  Even some of the Slytherins, whom they were sharing this double class with, had their cauldrons cracked.

Boom.  Boom.  Boom.  Boom.  Boom. Boom.  Boom.  Boom.  Boom.  Boom.

More cauldrons began to explode or cave in from the yellow liquid, until most of the students were backed away into the corners and walls of the dungeon.

"You all are a bunch of idiots," Snape spoke up from his position at the desk, still scratching on a piece of parchment. "Twenty points from Gryffindor and Slytherin for not paying attention."

He suddenly got up and examined each of their cauldrons, waving his wand to repair the gaping holes in the floor and cleaning up the mess.  As soon as he passed by Harry and Dean's cauldron he stopped and stared at the liquid.  "Wolfsbane Potion," he sneered.  "Five points from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter, and Mr. Thomas for being such prats."  Examining more cauldrons, he stopped at the cauldron where Draco Malfoy was working with Pansy Parkinson, "Five points for Slytherin, Mr. Malfoy, and Miss Parkinson for not letting yourself be distracted."

"Hey-" Dean started to protest and Harry pulled on his robe.  He knew better than to argue with Snape when the teacher was in the foulest mood possible.

"Mr. Thomas, do you have anything to say?" Snape turned towards them, his eyes full of hate and malice.

"No sir," Dean replied sullenly.

"Good then," Snape sneered then walked to the front of the room. "Mr. Longbottom, you and Miss Brown will have detention tonight for letting everyone get off track.  And the rest of you, beware next week.  It seems that only two groups of your whole class have gotten the Wolfsbane Potion created.  That won't keep the werewolf sated for long."

Just then, the bell rang, and Harry grabbed his books and rushed out of the door, joined by Ron and Hermione a few minutes later.

"Blimey, I hope Defense Against the Dark Arts isn't as bad as this," Ron muttered, his mood with the letter long forgotten.

Harry nodded as they made their way up to the second floor.  He hoped that Sirius and Lupin would be back before Lupin transformed into a werewolf; he was already worried about them, and the letter Sirius sent didn't really inform him of anything.

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