PHANTOM FIGURES | harry potter

55. padfoot returns

     One of the best things about the aftermath of the second task was that everybody was very keen to hear details of what happened down in the lake, which meant that Ron was getting to share Harry's limelight for once. Aspen noticed that Ron's version of events changed very subtly with every retelling. At first, he gave what seemed to be the truth; it tallied with Jasmine and Hermione's stories, anyway - Dumbledore had put all the hostages into a bewitched sleep in Professor McGonagall's office, first assuring them that they would be quite safe, and would awake once they were back above water. One week later, however, Ron was telling a thrilling tale of kidnap in which he struggled single-handedly against fifty heavily armed merpeople who had beat him into submission before tying him up.

     "But I had my wand hidden up my sleeve," he assured Padma Patil, who seemed a lot keener on Ron now that he was getting so much attention and was making a point of talking to him every time they passed in the corridors. "I could've taken those mer-idiots any time I wanted."

     "What were you going to do, snore at them?" said Hermione waspishly. People had been teasing her so much about being the thing that Viktor Krum would miss most that she was in a rather tetchy mood.

     Ron's ears went red, and thereafter, he returned to the bewitched sleep version of events.

     As they entered March the weather became drier, but cruel winds skinned their hands and faces every time they went out onto the grounds. There were delays in the post because the owls kept being blown off course. The brown owl that Harry had sent to Sirius with the dates of the Hogsmeade weekend turned up at breakfast on Friday morning with half its feathers sticking up the wrong way; Harry had no sooner torn of Sirius' reply than it took flight, clearly afraid it was going to be sent outside again.

     Sirius' letter was almost as short as the previous one.

          Be at stile at end of road out of Hogsmeade (past Dervish and Banges) at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Bring as much food as you can.

     "He hasn't come back to Hogsmeade?" said Ron incredulously.

     "It looks like it, doesn't it?" said Hermione.

     "Yeah..." Aspen chewed on her bottom lip nervously.

     "I can't believe him," said Harry tensely, "if he's caught..."

     "Made it so far, though, hasn't he?" said Ron. "And it's not like the place is swarming with dementors anymore."

     Harry folded up the letter.

     Aspen would be lying if she said she wasn't excited to see Sirius again, she found the man to be quite funny. Therefore, she approached the last lesson of the afternoon - double Potions - in a more cheerful mood than she usually did when descending the steps to the dungeon.

     Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were standing in a huddle outside the classroom door with Pansy Parkinson's gang of Slytherin girls. All of them were looking at something Aspen couldn't see and sniggering heartily. Pansy's pug-like face peered excitedly around Goyle's broad back as Aspen, Harry, Jasmine, Ron, and Hermione approached.

     "There they are, there they are!" she giggled, and the knot of Slytherins broke apart. Aspen saw that Pansy had a magazine in her hands - Witch Weekly. The moving picture on the front showed a curly-haired witch who was smiling toothily and pointing at a large sponge cake with her wand.