Phoenix Tears

Chapter 11: Dog whistle

Author's note: Thank you to all the people who responded to my request for help getting unstuck! It worked!

[Break]

Harry didn't have a chance to answer Nio because the lot of them spilt out on top of Harry, so that he was at the bottom of a pile of knees and elbows until his shield shoved them all away. They yelped in surprise and then started laughing.

"That was brilliant, Harry!" Ron's shout was muffled by the bubble around Harry. "Like bouncing off a pigmy puff!"

"I was trying to get away from you!" he growled, though he felt less irritated.

Nio constricted around his neck and hissed against his ear, "The air in there was foul."

Harry agreed and ran his fingers over the snake's smooth scales.

He put his head on his knees and sighed, drawing in a deep breath. Clouds made the light tolerable and he didn't have to shut his eyes.

I thought this birthday would be different.

He had imagined a day playing a pick-up game of Quidditch, eating Mrs. Weasley's scrumptious concoctions until he was bursting at the seams, gut-wrenching laughter with Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and the twins. Not this. Not dark wixen pursuing him, not the ministry mucking things up again, not being pushed and pulled and knocked and bruised by everyone.

Harry said the incantation to end his shield and slowly got to his feet. The wind had picked up since they were inside, the temperature dropped as well and brought with it the smell of rain. He pushed the urge to hop on his broom away... though he was tempted to stalk off to the Quidditch field and stew for a while, but gulped more of the damp air and turned to his friends.

"Listen, you have to stop pulling me around," he pleaded. "Just ask first, please."

"Right, sorry, Harry," Fred said. "I'll work on it."

"Me, too," George said. They both sounded uncharacteristically contrite enough for Harry to relax a bit.

Hermione let out an exasperated huff and Harry could imagine the look she was giving the twins. It made him smile weakly.

Something caught his attention... a slight high-pitched whine coming from the house at his back, near the ground. He turned his ear toward it trying to hear it better and made the sign for quiet.

"What's that mean?" Ginny asked.

"Shh! I hear something," Harry said, though he couldn't help but repeat the sign.

"Is it Scabbers?" Ron said hopefully.

"No, it's like air whistling through a pipe," Harry said. "Don't you hear it?"

Everyone got quiet as they listened for the noise, the wind blowing through the branches made it harder to hear.

"Nope, don't hear it," George muttered.

"Oh, I hear it now," Ginny said. "But how did you hear it at all? It's so faint."

Harry shrugged and shook out his staff, wacking at the tall grasses (many of which had been flattened by all their tromping around) as he followed the sound to the side of the Burrow, further along the wall than where they had entered the secret room. The silver tip on his staff tinged against the wall, ringing distinctively against wood, mortar, and stone and giving Harry a sense of the pattern of the wall.

He had to stop a number of times to listen carefully as everyone was making a racket following behind him, even though he could tell they were trying to walk quietly through the grasses and garden gnome dens. He heard a few of the Gernumblies squealing when his staff got stuck in a hole.