PRONGSLET AND THE CERYNEIAN GUARDIAN

Chapter Thirty

"So what did you and Elspeth do all day?"

"Well, we actually had tea with Professor Lupin," Harry told him, "get this, Professor Snape brought him some potion to drink and he actually drank it. I mean, I would never drink anything that he gave to me and he doesn't seem quite fond of Lupin either."

"Harry, I don't like Snape as much as you do, but I don't think he would be stupid enough to just poison Remus like that. Not out in the open or with an Auror right there."

"Still," Harry shrugged, "it's possible. We were talking about my boggart lesson, how he didn't want me to face the boggart because he thought it was going to be Voldemort."

Milo suddenly felt sick to his stomach when it came to remembering what he had seen as he stood in front of the boggart and he really didn't want the mental image to come to mind, especially in the company of his brother. 

"Wh-what is your boggart? Do you know?" Milo asked him.

"A dementor," Harry said quietly, "I just...the feeling I got on the train and..."

He shuddered before looking away shamefully as if it was some big deal that he actually possessed fear. Milo scooted over on the wall and nudged him to bring Harry to look back at him. 

"It's alright to be afraid of something, Harry, and I'm pretty sure if a dementor approached anyone they would be frightened. There's a reason as to why they were selected as guards of Azkaban, they are meant to be frightening to prevent anyone from even thinking about escaping."

"Didn't work for Sirius Black, did it? He's not afraid of them."

It grew awkwardly quiet as Milo had nothing to really say about it. He wished he could just tell Harry right then and there that he believed the man was innocent, but he didn't have any sort of proof. Without any proof, it was going to be incredibly complicated to explain everything to him and Harry decided to listen to it all, Milo was pretty sure a few minutes later that his brother would be call for him to enter a ward at St. Mungo's.

"Do you know what your boggart is?" Harry asked to clear the tension. Milo didn't answer right away, he didn't want to say that he saw his little brother's dead body, he was surprised no one had made mention of it as there had been other people in the class at the time.

"Death," Milo informed him. It wasn't the complete truth but it wasn't a lie either, however, it seemed to be a good enough answer for Harry in that moment. Death, dementors, and Voldemort were not among the topics that Milo wanted to discuss with his brother on Halloween. 

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For a few moments, Milo wished that Elspeth hadn't left the two of them on their own because it seemed to become awkward whenever they didn't have a third party member or more. Milo knew that the students would be returning from Hogsmeade shortly and he figured that Harry was going to want to talk to Hermione and Ron when they returned. So their time was limited and already so much had been taken up for the day considering Milo accompanied Cedric to Hogsmeade earlier to confront Anne. He wanted it to be a day of bonding, but that hadn't worked out so well either, but perhaps it was possible to start the process.

"You remember when I was in the Hospital Wing after the whole Chamber of Secrets incident," Milo said turning to him. Harry turned to Milo wide-eyed and Milo realised that it probably didn't come across as the best conversation starter to bring up the moment where he had almost died.

"Y-yes, of course, I do," Harry told him,"how could I forget?"

"Well, during that time where I was just laying there, I actually wasn't just laying there."