Harry Potter and the Extremely Weird Year

Chapter 6

Harry laid there stunned. He could feel their eyes on his back----it was time to come clean.

Harry turned and sat up slowly. "Er..."

Sirius was staring down at Harry with the oddest expression. On the one hand, he was extremely happy Harry was awake; on the other hand, he was fuming.

"Harry, I'm going to kill you!" Sirius made a motion towards Harry, but Lupin stopped him.

"I can explain..." Harry stopped suddenly. He sunk down into a fetal position, and started clutching his head.

"Harry!" Sirius' anger vanished as he sat down beside Harry.

"What's wrong?" asked Lupin.

"Volde...mort..." Harry said between breaths.

Suddenly Harry felt himself being pulled up. Surprised to see that it was Dumbledore, he winced.

"What's wrong?" Lupin asked again.

"His scar," replied Sirius. It's somehow linked to Voldemort."

Harry stopped clutching his head. "It's okay, it's over."

"You alright now, Harry?" Sirius asked, looking a bit nervous.

Harry looked up at Sirius. "Yeah. I think so."

Dumbledore loosened his grip on Harry. "Did you see anything?"

"No," said Harry, trying to stand on his own.

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "I'll have to look into that."

For a while they stared at each other, not sure of what to say. Harry's heavy breathing went back to normal, and his face relaxed. Finally, Sirius walked up in front of Harry. He took hold of Harry's shoulders, and in a whispering tone said, "Now, can you tell us why you came here?"

******

Harry, at the moment, was sitting between all three adults. After he had told them what had happened, they had suggested that he take it easy. Harry wondered what each one was thinking---Sirius in particular.

"So," Sirius said abruptly, "they didn't hurt you?"

"No, " Harry said, silently laughing at Sirius' blatant concern.

Harry was starting to get uncomfortable. Their silence could mean anything. Dumbledore appeared to be thinking: thinking about what this all meant. Although this wasn't surprising, Harry had expected Dumbledore to react to the news a bit differently. Harry thought the old wizard would speak, but he wasn't saying anything at all.

Lupin finally broke the silence. "Where is Harry going to go now?"

Harry jolted at those words. What am I going to do? Then the sudden realization dawned on him that neither Sirius nor Lupin was inclined to do anything if they didn't want to, which made Harry regret coming in the first place. Why didn't I just go to Ron's! Harry stopped in mid-thought. Because I would be putting them all in danger, that's why. Harry snorted; he was answering his own questions.

Harry had completely zoned out, because Dumbledore had finally begun speaking.

"I will have to inform everyone about our...situation."

Suddenly Harry remembered the conversation Sirius, Dumbledore, and Lupin were having before his scar started aching. "What's The Order of The Phoenix?"

Harry wondered why the simplest things he said always caused such a commotion. Sirius and Lupin looked slightly paler than usual, but that could have been caused by a number of things. Dumbledore, however, was beaming at him.

"That, Harry, we will have to save for another day, but I promise it'll be soon." Harry watched Dumbledore rise to his feet. "Until the school year starts I suggest Harry stay here. A week before school starts, bring him to the Weasleys'. They'll make sure he gets to school safely." The command was directed towards Sirius and Lupin, who merely nodded.

Harry, on the other hand, stared in utter amazement. I thought Sirius had things he had to do, and that I wasn't allowed at the Weasleys'.

"You're letting me stay here?" Harry asked, wondering if the old man had lost his mind.

Dumbledore smiled. "Well, isn't that the reason you came here?"

Harry didn't say anything. He wasn't sure why he had come.

"I'll see you all at Hogwarts." Dumbledore walked towards the exit. "And Harry?"

"Yes?" Harry said smiling.

"Have a good summer."

Harry nodded. "Thanks, I'll try."

"Good day to you all," Dumbledore said, making a small gesture with his hands. "I'll be seeing you soon."

Dumbledore muttered something, and with a small pop he was gone.

Harry's eyes widened. "I thought you couldn't Apparate here! Dobby tried, and he said there were wards over this place!"

Sirius and Lupin laughed. "He's Dumbledore, what do you expect?"

Harry glared at them. He decided it would not do any good to ask them again.

"Well, Harry, what would you like to do?" Lupin asked, changing the subject.

Harry screwed up his face. "There isn't much we can do, is there?"

Lupin sighed and nodded. "I guess you're right."

Sirius stared at Harry unblinkingly. "Why don't we just talk for a while?"

"Talk?" said Harry, not bothering to take the worry out of his voice. "About what exactly?"

"Well," Sirius said carefully, "since none of us have really talked about anything other than who's plotting to kill you, why don't you tell us about your time so far at Hogwarts."

"All right," Harry said nodding. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything," Sirius said glowing.

"Everything? Starting from my first year?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Sirius said with a smile, "everything."

"All right." Harry shook his head. This is going to take forever!

******

After hours of Harry explaining everything, he had finally fallen asleep again.

"Well," Sirius said, standing up from the cold ground. "That was interesting."

"Interesting? You call that interesting!" Lupin realized his voice was way too loud, because Harry started groaning. He walked over to Sirius, and in a hushed voice said, "Harry could have died about a hundred times!"

"I know," Sirius said, sighing. "Harry is, well, amazing. I probably would have thrown myself off a cliff by now. Why don't we just get some sleep, we've had an awfully long day."

"Sure, that sounds like a good idea."

Lupin and Sirius both settled down in their own corners and drifted off to sleep.

Meanwhile, Harry had popped open his eyes, and was currently staring off into space. He sat up, leaning against the corner wall. He stared around into the darkness, wondering why anyone would care what happened to him. He turned his head to look at Sirius and Lupin. Maybe, he thought, this wasn't going to be a bad summer after all.

******

The rest of the summer was pretty calm: there were no interruptions at all. However, Harry felt a little out of place. Not having known much about Sirius or Lupin, he felt odd knowing that they knew almost everything about him, maybe more than he knew about himself.

One day, Harry had let Sirius use his invisibility cloak---which was the wrong move. Sirius was out practically the entire day just walking around. Then later on, Sirius told Harry stories about his time at Hogwarts. Although Harry enjoyed them, he didn't like seeing Sirius get so sentimental. Lupin, on the other hand, seemed quite taciturn. He rarely talked at all, except when he asked Harry questions about his life. Seeming genuinely interested, Harry always answered.

Sirius and Lupin seemed edgy though. They asked Harry constantly how he felt. They seemed to be writing letters constantly too---mostly to Dumbledore. They had answered some of Harry's questions regarding the letters, but not enough to satisfy Harry's curiosity.

Harry felt that he hadn't had a terrible summer. The only thing bothering him was the nightmares, which had been getting worse. Harry guessed if they hadn't been in hiding, they would have loosened up and had a little fun or maybe too much.

***

"Well, Harry, what do you want to do your last morning here?" Lupin said, smiling at Harry.

"I don't know," Harry said, smiling back. Harry scratched his head and looked around. "Thanks," he said.

"For what?" asked Sirius, walking over to Harry.

"For letting me stay here."

"Why wouldn't we?" Lupin said, with a bit of an edge to his voice.

Harry opened his mouth as if to say something, but quickly closed it.

"You hungry?" asked Sirius, changing the direction of the conversation.

Harry nodded.

"We haven't got much---"

"---but we have enough," Lupin said, cutting off Sirius. "We were just down this morning."

"I'm not really that hungry," said Harry, trying to talk over his grumbling stomach.

"Nonsense! Molly will kill us if we send you over there on an empty stomach," Lupin said, gesturing Harry to sit down.

Harry ate reluctantly. He was happy that he was going to see Ron, but he didn't want to say good-bye to Sirius or Lupin.

After they ate, Harry gathered up all his possessions and placed them in his trunk.

"Harry," Lupin said, handing Harry his invisibility cloak. "You will try to stay out of trouble won't you?"

Harry smiled. "'Course."

"Well, then, I guess we should get going." Lupin said, walking over to the edge of the cave.

"How are we getting there?" Harry asked Lupin.

"I'll be escorting you there. We'll be taking the Knight Bus."

Harry pulled his trunk over to Lupin. "I'll be ready in one minute."

Harry noticed that Sirius had been quieter than usual. He didn't know exactly what to say, but he knew he should say something.

"Sirius," Harry said, walking over to him. "I'm sorry you can't come with me."

"Me too," Sirius said slowly. "But don't worry, you'll be seeing me more than you think."

Harry tilted his head. "Huh?"

Sirius smiled, and then gave Harry a hug. "I'll always be watching," he whispered.

"Bye, Sirius." Harry said, pulling away from Sirius's grip and looking a little taken aback.

"Bye, Harry. Oh, and please try to not get yourself killed, OK?"

"I promise, Snuffles."

Sirius snorted. "Not funny."

"I think it is," said Lupin. "We really ought to be going, Harry."

With one more small good-bye to Sirius, Harry, was off to the Weasleys'.

~~~~~~

The ride on the Knight bus was dreadful---people staring and whispering about him left and right.

"We should be there soon, Harry." Lupin's words brought Harry out of his trance-like state.

"Why did Dumbledore say it was alright for me to come here? I thought the Weasleys were helping out with our...er...situation, right?"

Lupin stared directly into Harry's emerald eyes. "I'm not sure why, Harry. Dumbledore always has his reasons. I'm sure he wouldn't send you there if it wasn't safe."

"Then why does he send me to the Dursleys' every summer?" Harry mumbled under his breath.

After a few more minutes of whispering and stares, the bus stopped again.

"This is our stop, Harry."

The Weasleys' home hadn't changed one bit. Harry smiled; he really felt as though this was his second home. As he and Lupin approached the house, he couldn't help but overhear the loud screams from inside.

"Fred, George, come back here!"

Harry chuckled. Fred and George were most likely cooking up a new candy or something.

"Wonder what they're up to?" Lupin whispered into Harry's ear.

Before Harry had any chance to reply, he saw five flaming red heads coming at him.

~~~~~~

OK, once again I thanks peoples.

H_Dom: Lol...yeah I had to make Mundungus do that : )

Kdalemama: Didn't mean for Dumbledore to come off that way...I promise you'll find out soon about Malfoy and Macnair.

Hpfanknitgurl: Thanks for being my beta : )

Anyone who REALLY wants me to continue review, review, review!!! ; ) *This story is now dedicated to Sirius Black* (I know that's kinda cheesy, but I feel like I have to do something!)