Change the Future

OOTP 9

She sits with them giving them the answers to different thing when they ask until the twins arrive. After a while the twins decide to head to bed so Rory heads back over to Harry to see how he's doing just as he slides off the chair onto his knees, gazing into the fire.

"Er — Harry?" Ron said with uncertainly looking at Rory. "Why are you down there?"

"Because I've just seen Sirius's head in the fire," Harry said, speaking quite calmly.

"Sirius's head?" Hermione repeated. "You mean like when he wanted to talk to you during the Triwizard Tournament? But he wouldn't do that now, it would be too Sirius!" She gasped, gazing at the fire; Ron dropped his quill. There in the middle of the dancing flames sat Sirius's head, long dark hair falling around his grinning face.

"Hey Pad's"

"I love how Rory's just unfazed" George smirks at her.

"I was starting to think you'd go to bed before everyone else had disappeared," he said. "I've been checking every hour."

"You've been popping into the fire every hour?" Harry said, half laughing.

"Just for a few seconds to check if the coast was clear yet."

"But what if you'd been seen?" Hermione said anxiously.

"Well, I think a girl first year by the look of her might've got a glimpse of me earlier, but don't worry," Sirius said hastily, as Hermione clapped a hand to her mouth. "I was gone the moment she looked back at me and I'll bet she just thought I was an oddly shaped log or something."

"But Sirius, this is taking an awful risk with the Ministry at Hogwarts" Hermione began.

"You sound like Molly. This was the only way I could come up with of answering Harry's letter without resorting to a code and codes are breakable." At the mention of Harry's letter, Hermione and Ron had both turned to stare at him.

"You didn't say you'd written to Sirius!" Hermione said accusingly.

"What's wrong with that" Ted says looking at her.

"He's allowed to write to people and not tell you Hermione" Rory says as Hermione scoff's at her.

"Why's there always attitude whenever Rory's involved" James asks glaring at Hermione.

"She doesn't like my disregard for rules or the fact I won't do what she says"

"I forgot," Harry said quickly. "Don't look at me like that, Hermione, there was no way anyone would have got secret information out of it, was there, Sirius?"

"No, it was very good. Anyway, we'd better be quick, just in case we're disturbed your scar."

"What about — ?" Ron began, but Hermione said quickly,

"We'll tell you afterward, go on, Sirius."

"Well, I know it can't be fun when it hurts, but we don't think it's anything to really worry about. It kept aching all last year, didn't it?"

"Yeah, and Dumbledore said it happened whenever Voldemort was feeling a powerful emotion," Harry said, ignoring, as usual, Ron and Hermione's winces. "So maybe he was just, I dunno, really angry or something the night I had that detention."

"Well, now he's back it's bound to hurt more often"

"So you don't think it had anything to do with Umbridge touching me when I was in detention with her?" Harry asked.