HARRY
Harry's ears roared and his brain buzzed. Draco Malfoy?
The Goblet of Fire thought Draco Malfoy was worthy enough of competing in the Triwizard Tournament? He wouldn't have deemed Malfoy even worthy enough to join the Gobstones club.
The entire hall had gone silent for a second, then the Slytherins roared with approval. They stood up and cheered loudly as Malfoy made his way through the Hall, shaking nervously.
The claps from the other three tables were very subdued, and everybody held expressions of shock.
Professor McGonagall cleared her throat.
"Yes, that will be enough. Students, go to your common rooms. As everone knows, the second Quidditch match of the season is tomorrow. All other delegates are welcome to watch."
"Second?" Percy asked, confused, as they headed back up to the common room.
"First was Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw," Hermione said. "It was the day you had extra classes with Slughorn. Ravenclaw won. Tomorrow we play them."
"I missed the first match of the season?" Percy looked lost, but everyone else was more interested in what had just happened.
"Malfoy!" He heard Ernie Macmillan and Neville talk about him foully. "The Goblet could've chosen anybody, and it chose Malfoy?"
"Well," Ron said brightly. "If he dies this year we won't be sad. We can watch this tournament with fun. Did you see the Durmstrang chap? Kyle Matthews. Looks extremely fierce."
"So did the Beauxbatons girl," Percy said. "Anybody can win."
"But seriously," Harry said, as they entered the common room, "Malfoy? He has no talent, except probably running away."
There was much chatter as they went to bed that evening. Everyone was annoyed that the Goblet had chosen a Slytherin Champion, and were rooting for either Kyle Matthews or Juliet Haze.
"Did you see Juliet though?" A boy asked dreamily. "She's definitely part Veela."
They rolled their eyes and departed for the dormitories.
The next day, although the Slytherins were still celebrating, the other three houses had decided to move on to more pressing matters.
The second match of the season decided Gryffindor's fate for the Quidditch Cup. If they won against Ravenclaw they would advance to play Hufflepuff. If not, they were out of running.
That morning Harry woke up to much commotion in the dormitories. Everybody was staring at him, or more specifically, at his bed.
He got out to see a large package at the foot of the bed, probably delivered to him by the house elves at night. It was a long, thin package and everybody was staring at it.
"Did you finally order your broomstick?" Ron asked. "That's what this looks like."
Broomstick? Harry was still using Fred's old Cleansweep. Harry tore the packing apart to see that, it was, indeed, a broom. The Pegasus.
Everybody gasped.
"Do you reckon somebody left it for you to play? Perhaps they heard how your Firebolt got destroyed..." Neville said.
"Or maybe it's cursed," Percy said, frowning.
"Can't be." Harry said, looking at it in awe. "Who would want to kill me now? And all packages are being checked by the Ministry. They would've seen for charms and dark magic. That's probably why it came so late. They must be double checking all the mail being sent to me, or it would've arrived ages ago."
"There's no note?" Ron asked.
"No," Percy said, scooping a piece of paper which had fallen. "There is a note."
He handed it over to Harry.
Dear Mr Potter,
Since I have invented this broom, I have been looking for somebody to try it out. The American Quidditch team was obviously there, but so were you, an excellent seeker. I had heard how your Firebolt had been destroyed, and hoped that you would accept this as a gift from me instead. The broom would gain publicIty if a famed boy like you used it, and I would be glad to have your feedback on it. We all hear about you in America, and hope to meet you soon!
-Tobias Smith, maker of the Pegasus.
"Wow," Ron, said. "Maybe you should save the world more often, Harry. There seem to be perks."
"C'mon everyone!" Dean said impatiently, looking to see why they were making so much noise. "There's a match in- what is that?"
Everyone pored over the broom for another five minutes before they realised that they had to make it to breakfast in time. Harry ran down with the others, broomstick in one hand, and people gaped at him as he passed, even more so when they realised what broom it was.
All throughout breakfast, people came over to the Gryffindor table to see Harry's new broom. One of the Durmstrang students even asked to hold it. The look on the entire Ravenclaw and Slytherin team was quite pleasant, and they stared gobsmacked at his Pegasus.
By the time Harry had escorted his team into the locker rooms to change, the entire school seemed to know of his broom. The match was extremely short, and they beat Ravenclaw 370 to 30, where the entire team was played spectacularly, and left Zacharias Smith, the announcer, shocked and suprised. The Pegasus followed his every command, and was as if it were made for him.
By the time Harry caught the snitch, Ravenclaw fans were just groaning and waiting for the match to be over.
"Party in the common room!" Seamus Finnigan shouted, as the match got over and the team came out of the lockers. The entire Quidditch team was a hero in the common room that night, and people couldn't get enough of them. By the time Harry and Ron excused themselves and went up to bed, they realized that Percy was nowhere to be found. He came in ten minutes later, out of breath.
"Had to- run from- Filch," he said, panting. "I ran six floors to get rid of him before coming here."
"Where were you?" they asked.
"Room of Requirement. I was talking to Chiron and Annabeth, asking them how things were at camp. They told me that my mom finally wanted to talk. Apparently something about a deadline till Halloween."
Harry sat up straight. There was nothing more he wanted than to talk to Sally Potter and ask her so many questions. He had a bitter feeling for her in his mind. She had left her own nephew after her brother and his wife died, and had run away. He wanted answers to too many questions.
"When is she coming?" Harry asked.
"I don't know," he said, plopping into his bed, "As soon as she gets time. I want to know as much as you do, but I guess we'll just have to wait."
Ron was already alseep, and Percy's snores could be heard five minutes later too. But Harry stayed awake, staring at his gold and red hangings, until the exhaustion of the match finally took over, and he fell into a deep slumber, dreaming about Sally Potter, Percy Jackson, and Draco Malfoy.
Sally had finally appeared in his dream and claimed Draco as her son too, and then Percy had turned out to be a dragon in disguise, and Malfoy turned Harry into a Choclate Frog Card, where he was trapped forever. By the time Ron woke him up for breakfast, he was twisting and groaning in bed.
He went to breakfast to see that there was nervous chatter everywhere, and people were talking amongst themselves. The Slytherin table was louder than usual, and when Malfoy entered the room they gave a huge round of applause. The other three tables watched them unhappily. Harry knew, that they would prefer a champion from any house but Slytherin.
And Malfoy wasn't known to be kind to others. The Ravenclaws had already come up with badges saying 'Malfoy Stinks'.
"They look exactly like the ones Malfoy made for you in our fourth year," Ron said vindictively. "Now the tables have turn against him. It's going to be so easy to just kill him this year and make it look like an accident."
"They look kind of nice," Harry heard Ernie Macmillan was saying to Hannah Abbot as they passed behind him. "The badges do add a nice touch to his personality."
Percy snorted. "What do you guys think of that?"
Ron was still daydreaming of killing Malfoy and said, "Well, poison works well. Nobody will find out and Slughorn can always give us some. I'm sure he won't mind."
"No," Percy said. "I mean about this Slytherin champion."
"Oh, well he's obviously a got to be doing it for glory. I suppose he wants to clear his name up now, because his family hasn't been well respected since Voldemort fell. I dunno why the Goblet would chose him though."
"I am most upheaved too!" said a voice.
Nearly Headless Nick was standing there with a look of disapproval on his face. "The Baron keeps on boasting, but the boy seems to have no extraordinary talent."
"Well," Hermione said, "You can't blame the Baron for being happy. They finally have a Slytherin Champion."
"Fat load of good it's doing us," Ron said as the bell rang for classes.
They hurried for the first class of the week- Double Potions. Slughorn was already waiting for them when they arrived.
"Ah yes, Harry m'boy! Welcome. Today, I was thinking, we might do a special class."
"What sort of special class, sir?" Hermione asked when everybody had arrived.
"Well, since Halloween just got over, I would like you to try out the Fright Potion. I'm giving you some dolls. At the end of class we'll try the potions on the dolls. Whosoever manages to make the scariest doll gets a prize. You know, how we did it last year."
Harry turned to the page about Fright Potions in his book dully and saw that it was an extremely difficult potion. An hour later, Hermione's dolls seemed to be the only one which was frightening enough. Everybody ran away from it, scared. Ron's doll started tap dancing, whereas Harry's 'rawrred' at everyone, and Slughorn thought it was cute rather than scary.
Slughorn gave her a large box Deluxe Sugar Quills from Honeyduke's, and they emerged out of class red faced from all the fumes from the dungeons, heading for Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Professor Powers, like Slughorn, was waiting for them when they entered, and set them on several reading assignments immediately. She had been giving them copious amounts of homework, and even Hermione was finding it hard to cope up.
Harry's best class was Defense Against the Dark Arts again, and he had been regularly getting Os and Es in his assignments. Naturally, when today's homework was passed back to him, he was surprised to see a small A scrawled on the corner.
When he asked Professor Powers about it after class, she had said that his essay about Possession of Bodies had taken a turn in the wrong direction, and he had missed out several points.
By the time lunch had gotten over and he had left for his afternoon lesson- Double Charms, he had been in a bad mood already.
They were practising an immensely difficult Drought charm, which was the opposite of the Aguamenti Charm. It dried up water, and so far, Hermione had been the only one who had succeeded in evaporating her glass if water. Everybody except her was assigned reading assignments to understand the charm and had to practise it overnight.
"You know what I reckon?" Ron said as they headed up to the dormitories after classes had ended. "They shouldn't have had kept the tournament at all this year. After what happened last time..."
"Yeah," Harry said, "but now that the Goblet's already selected names you can't do anything, I suppose."
They sat down in the common room and started on Professor Flictwick's reading assignments, to see that Percy was already working on his homework.
"Hey," he said happily. "Just had my first day as a third year."
"How was it?"
"Awesome. Did you know that Hagrid has a three headed dog called Fluffy?"
"Yeah, we met him once." Ron said offhandedly, "But I don't think he really liked us."
"You don't approve of Hagrid's pets, do you?" Hermione asked, alarmed.
"Are you joking? After class he separately showed me so many cool creatures, like the Thestrals and Acromamtula. He told me about Norbert too-"
"Percy, do you know how vicious dragons are?" Ron asked, slightly scared now.
"Yeah, I know. We have one back at camp. Peleus. He guards our boundaries. Little cutie, he is."
Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other.
"Well," Ron said. "At least Hagrid's found a nutter like himself at last."
Percy laughed.
"No seriously. I have a pet hellhound too. She's called Mrs O'Leary. She's fine once she calms down after the first meeting."
"Hagrid has a giant for a half brother, Percy."
"I have a cyclops for a half brother," he said, now defiant.
Before they could argue further, a first year girl came up to them with a note.
"I'm supposed to give this to Harry Potter and Percy Jackson." she said, blushing.
"Well, thanks." Percy said, unraveling the scroll. "It's from McGonagall. She wants the both of us in her office now."
"Now?" he frowned.
They got up and headed to where the stone gargoyle was.
"Hang on, password." Percy said, reading the letter again. "Fuzzy Kittens."
The gargoyle turned to life and leapt aside. They went up the magic escalator to McGonagall's office, and knocked fervently on the door.
"Come in," her voice said from the other side.
They entered into the Headmistress's office, and Harry noticed that it looked different from how it had been when Dumbledore occupied it. The weird, eccentric objects were long gone, and Professor McGonagall's office was decorated very simply, with no extra decorations. The Sorting hat still sat in a corner shelf, and there were still the portraits of previous Headmasters and Headmistresses, most of whom were currently sleeping, or pretending to sleep.
Dumbledore's portrait, however, was wide awake and staring at the two boys as they entered.
They were not the only ones present. On a chair across the desk was a woman with dark brown hair and eyes, who looked extremely tired, with bags under her eyes, as if she had travelled a long way. Her resemblance to James was striking in a way, such as their eyes, or the way their hair was naturally messy. But yet, they were different. James had jet black hair, and he had a shorter nose than her's.
But yet Harry could tell who it was.
"Boys," Professor McGonagall said as they entered. "Sit down, please."
Harry stopped on seeing Sally Jackson, who smiled weakly at him. He did not respond, but went and sat on the chair furtherest from her.
The bitter feeling had sprung up in his mind again, and all those flashes of his miserable childhood at the Dursleys' came by. He could've had a happy childhood had the woman here claimed him and not run away.
"How much do you know?" Professor McGonagall asked immediately as they sat down.
"Well," Percy started, "We're cousins. We found out that much at least. And Professor Slughorn told us some stuff, but it sounded rather murky and the product of a rumour than the actual truth."
Harry said nothing.
Sally sighed.
"I wanted to avoid this for as long as I could, but I really can't, now."
She cleared her throat.
"James and I were siblings," she said, "Twins. There's a whole story behind it, but I don't know how to say it."
Professor McGonagall got up and opened a cupboard door and removed a basin from it. Grey, misty, swirling stuff moved around in it, neither solid not liquid.
Percy gasped. "What is that?"
"Pensive," Harry said dully, speaking for the first time.
Sally put the tip of her wand to her temple and withdrew a long, thin memory. She put it inside the basin, and gestured to the two boys.
Harry knew what to do, and immediately prodded the contents of the basin with his wand, and was sucked in inside a memory. Percy followed suit a moment later.
"Where are we?" Percy breathed, looking around.
Harry did not recognise the place either. But it was a wizarding village for sure. There were several houses which could have never belonged to Muggles. They all were big, thatched, and gave the same feeling the Burrow did.
Gnomes were running around in a backyard, and Harry saw a younger Sally sitting down near the porch, reading a book. The house was huge, and definitely spoke of family money. His grandparents had easily been as rich as the Malfoys, Harry realised. Sally looked no older than fifteen years old, sitting, reading a Transfiguration book.
There was a shout and a scuffle on the other side, and two figures approached. Fifteen year old versions of James Potter and Sirius Black appeared, running behind a cluster of gnomes, who were squealing loudly. They looked younger than ever, and happier than Harry had ever seen.
Sirius managed to jump on a gnome, and caught it between his fingers. The gnome shrieked and said several explicit words, but they didn't let go. James, who had caught one too, was now putting the two gnomes inside a cage. Both of them screamed in anger and called them a choice range of swear words.
Sally looked up from her book and frowned.
"Go away," she said to both of them. "Go make noise somewhere else. I need to finish this book."
"See Sal," James said, grinning at his sister. "We could spend all our time studying like you do and become little know-it-alls, but where's the fun?"
"We decided that life was more than textbooks," Sirius added, "Not that you could ever imagine it."
"Good luck failing your O.W.L.s," Sally snorted, in a way which reminded Harry of Hermione.
"We'd pass that with our eyes closed," Sirius said, waving a hand. "C'mon, it's summer. Live a little."
"Besides," James added, "I thought you were going to call Evans over for the summer. What happened?"
"As a matter of fact, I did," she said. "Funny enough, she wasn't so much into it when Snape reminded her that you two would be here too."
James cursed, "Snivellus, that little git." Then he smiled. "We'll deal with him when school starts. Till then, don't you want to check out what we're doing?"
Sally gazed at the gnomes curiously.
"Gnomes are not useful at all," she said. "The only place gnome saliva is used is during Shape Changing potions, and those are incredibly hard to make. And shape changing potions are the bases of becoming Animagi. Since that isn't happening any time soon, I'm guessing that the only thing you're going to do is probably put the saliva in today's soup."
Both of them smiled mischievously.
"Keep thinking that way, and all our plans will be foiled." Sirius said.
"Well, so long!" James exclaimed as they went back into the house. "Wormtail arrives later on today, we better go do our work before he comes."
"Where's Remus?" She frowned, "He's the only sane one among you."
Sirius gave a look of pretended offense. "Now now, you're hurting our feelings. Remus is sick, so he can't come right now. We'll be seeing him the day before schools starts though."
They went back inside the house, and the scene changed.
Sally and James were now wearing school robes, and the setting was the familiar Hogwarts castle. They were standing outside the statue of Barnabus the Troll on the third floor, arguing about something.
"I can't believe you three!" she hissed. "Animagi? That's what you really were doing over the summer! Do you know the repercussions? This is no longer just breaking school rules, you'll be out in Azkaban if somebody finds out!"
"Oh yeah? And you're going to report us?" he asked defiantly.
"You very well know I won't do that." she said angrily, "But that doesn't make it okay! And that trick with Snape last week? He nearly died!"
"Well I saved little Snivellus didn't I? And we couldn't allow poor Moony to stay alone every month."
"I'll be having a word with him too, about this. You're only fifteen. Something could have gone disastrously wrong. Why couldn't he stop you from-"
"It wasn't his fault!" James said heatedly. "It was completely our decision, and we don't mind it. Now, I'm going to Honeydukes to get food, because in case you forgot to notice, there's a party going on upstairs, because we won the Quidditch cup. You wouldn't notice, poring over your O.W.L. books." He added nastily.
He tapped the statue and disappeared along the passage that opened up. Disappointed, Sally removed from inside her robes a long shimmery cloak which she put around herself before leaving too.
The scene change again, and this time, they were older, maybe sixteen or seventeen. Slughorn was teaching a class, and raving about Lily and Snape's potion abilities, when the bell rang.
Everyone exited, and Harry guessed that the school day was over. Sally, instead of going upstairs to the common room, went straight up to what he recognised as Professor McGonagall's old office.
A younger Professor looked at her as she entered.
"It happened again, Professor," she said, sitting down opposite her desk.
McGonagall looked troubled.
"Professor Dumbledore is also worried now. I have told him about this. This woman, Petra, she calls herself, it's the fifth time she has appeared."
Sally nodded, looking worried. "She comes and talks to me. She looks like a remainder, more solid than a ghost, but less than a human. Only I can see her. She keeps on whispering to me. Now is not the time, she always says. She tells me that I have the gift of seeing through the mist, whatever it is called."
"Maybe something related to Divination?" Professor McGonagall said speculatively, looking a bit unsure. She had always thought Divination was a fraud subject.
"No, I don't think so." Sally said. "James thinks I'm going mad, but there's got be more than that. Last week's fire at St Ottery Catchpole, it wasn't an accident. I saw a serpent in the Newspapers, though nobody else did. It had seven heads, all of them spouting fire at a house. I'm seeing things others aren't."
"Very well," McGonagall said. "I will tell Professor Dumbledore about this. Until then, I suggest you tell nobody except your brother of what you see. We don't want rumours getting around."
Sally nodded, and the setting shifted again.
James and Lily could be seen sitting under a tree talking to each quite civilly, which meant that this was probably their seventh year, when Lily finally went out with James.
Sally was sitting nearby under a tree with another girl, a head girl badge gleaming on her chest, doing her homework, when Snape arrived. He looked ridiculously thin with an angry, pallid look on his face as he approached the girls.
James and Lily, who were engrossed in their date, did not notice.
"You told Lily not to be to near me," Snape said to the girl next to Sally.
"Damn right I did," the girl said coolly. "You're just bad news. Your Death Eater pals seem to like troubling people. Go back to hanging out with them. I don't even get why she befriended you-"
Sally silenced her with her hand and turned to Snape.
"Look," she told Snape. "Go back and beg her if you want. Tell her about your little crush on her, whatever, but don't you dare get in the way of James and her."
She spoke quite calmly and civilly, but there was an undertone in her voice. She was not one to be arguing with.
Snape, however, already had his wand out, but before he could curse anybody, a Slytherin girl arrived and sneered at them.
"Look at you two," she crooned at Sally and the girl. "Studying."
"At least we're not going to end up as janitors later on life."
The Slytherin girl whipped out her wander and shouted, "Se-"
"Expelliarmus!" Sally's spell had been faster, and the girl's wand went flying. People were now looking, although James seemed to be oblivious. "Going against the Head Girl, that's detention for you, Philia."
"Is there a problem?" Lupin and Sirius had arrived, and were looking at Snape rather angrily. It was clear that they, too were protective of Sally as much as James was.
Lily had finally noticed what had happened, and came over with James. Harry could feel the tension even in a memory. Wormtail was not in sight, but Lupin, Sirius and James were staring at Snape fiercely.
Snape would have probably cursed them, but he just looked at Lily for a split second before leaving, the Slytherin girl, Philia following suit.
"What happened?" James asked stiffly.
"Nothing," Sally said airily. "They were being gits as usual."
Lily pursed her lips but didn't say anything. Soon they were immersed back into normal talk, until Harry heard a gasp.
It hasn't come from any of them, but from Percy. He turned to see Percy, who was staring shocked into thin air.
"Don't you see her?" he asked. "That's Petra! The girl from the Iris Message."
Harry looked to see where he was pointing, but saw nothing. He frowned. But Sally's face, too, had gone white. She shot up straight, and started gathering all her belongings.
"Have to- go," she mumbled, hurriedly walking away into the castle grounds. The others looked at her in confusion, but she was long gone.
"Petra's following her," Percy explained for Harry. "She's following her into the castle right now."
The scene changed again, and now, everyone seemed to be an adult.
It was Christmas Eve, and everybody was laughing over dinner. A huge tree was lit up by the side, and the table was occupied by several people. It seemed to be the same place where James and Sally grew up.
Harry's parents, Sally, Lupin, Sirius, Wormtail, they were all laughing over a joke.
They seemed to be having a good time, and Harry noticed that his mother was the only one not drinking Firewhisky. She was probably pregnant with him at that time.
Sally chinked her glass to make an announcement.
"I've been promoted," she flushed, and everybody congratulated her. "International Relations. United States department. It's an excellent job. Of course, now I have to move to New York after the winter break."
The scene dissolved shortly, and now they were in Godric's Hollow, the place his parents had tried to hide when Voldemort had been on the loose for Harry.
Lily and Sally were sitting inside having tea over a table, and Harry saw that Sally's stomach was rather large and potbellied.
"The healers say it's not too long now!" she was saying. "August, at the most. It's a boy."
Percy was staring at her, fascinated, when Harry saw a tiny version of himself zooming around on a tiny broomstick.
"Sirius gave it," Lily explained to Sally. "He's been flying around for a month. The cat hasn't come out of the boiler cupboard for three days now, terrified."
They smiled, and Lily spoke again. "Things have changed around here. Everything is subdued. James can't even go out. It's annoying him, but he tries to pretend like it doesn't matter. You've been gone a long time."
Sally looked at her sadly. "I know, but I've found out a bit. The girl, Petra, isn't yet clear to me, but I found why only I can see all those monsters, the strange things. I can see them for what they really are. He told me."
Harry did not know who 'he' was, but Percy seemed to understand, and whispered to him, "My father."
"It's... quite strange." Lily said. "What's happening. And what you've told me."
"Yeah. But Dumbledore told us to not tell anybody. Not even Padfoot or Moony or Wormtail. He told us to not trust anybody."
Lily nodded, "James doesn't agree."
"I don't expect him to. He trusts his friends more than he trusts himself. But you never know. There had to be a spy who told You-Know-Who about the prophecy."
They talked some more, before Sally finally got up.
"I should go." She said, "Dumbledore strictly said not to spend too much time. Only holidays and maybe a couple of meetings until this all tides over."
"At this rate, we're not going to be meeting till Christmas." Lily joked, and then they disintegrated.
They were in Godric's Hollow again, but now the house was ruined and in crumbles. A fire was burning on the top floors.
Sally apparated to see Sirius Black standing in front of the gates.
"What happened," she whispered in horror.
"He found them. Both of them are dead." Sirius replied dully, sounding dead.
"And Harry?"
"He survived, nobody knows how. Hagrid just left with home Dumbledore told him to take him to his aunt's."
"I'm his aunt." Sally replied sharply. "He's surely not talking about the Muggle family. I have custody now."
He shrugged, and walked on away. Sally wiped a stray tear away, and disapparated again, not staying to chat with Sirius.
Had she stayed, Harry thought, she would have had seen Wormtail arrive and accuse Sirius of murder. She left just before all of it.
They were now in Dumbledore's office at Hogwarts, and Sally seemed to be in an argument with him.
"I'm his aunt!" she shrieked.
"So is Petunia," Dumbledore replied calmly. "It is important that Harry stays with them."
"They don't care about him," she said harshly. "Harry only has me, after we found out what Sirius did..." she trailed off.
"Listen, Sally." Dumbledore said. "The reason he survived was because Lily placed a protection over him. Harry needs Lily's blood to survive. And only Petunia can help with that."
"What am I supposed to, watch him get shunned by them?"
"Yes," Dumbledore replied simply. "It is essential if he must survive. As for you, you need to disappear."
"Why should-"
"Think about your child," Dumbledore said, impatiently this time. "Percy, is it? James told me there is a prophecy binding him, too. Do you really want your child to die before the age of sixteen? Old Death Eaters, they're on the prowl now. Especially the faithful ones. Your life is in danger. They will kill you and Percy. I can arrange a fake death. Settle in the States."
"Live a Muggle life?" her voice was hollow.
"Yes," Dumbledore replied.
"But, Harry? Will I never see him?"
"It is dangerous, yes. But I assure you, you won't be out of touch with wizards forever. Percy is going to be dangerous, with two very different types of blood mixed together. Voldemort will rise again, and try to kill him. I'll write to you once a year, not more, telling you about Harry, if you promise not to come back until I say so. Until Voldemort is dead."
Sally looked at him for a long time, but finally nodded curtly and left the office, and they were stretched back into the real office, which now belonged to McGonagall.
"Well?" the portrait Dumbledore asked cheerfully, "How was it?"
Harry looked around the room to see Professor McGonagall looking at him grimly, Sally looking down expressionlessly, and Percy, who looked just as shaken as Harry felt.
Harry didn't know how to respond. Even Percy seemed to be at a loss for words.
"The last letter I received from Dumbledore was on the day he died." Sally said, and the boys looked at her. "He seemed to know that he was in danger for that night. I didn't receive a letter the following year, and didn't understand anything. I wasn't sure whether I should go back or not. That was also the year Percy went missing."
She choked, and Harry felt bad for her. The fact that she thought she'd lost both Harry and Percy was rather sad.
"For the first time in years, I decided to remove my wand. I went down to Brooklyn first instead of London directly. Brooklyn was where the Salem Wizarding Academy is. There is a small wizarding village nearby too, although the Muggles don't even see it. I bought the Prophet in twelve years to find out what had happened. Dumbledore had been killed by Snape. At first I wanted to come back, but then I remembered Dumbledore's last letter.
It had stated that if he didn't write to me during Harry's seventh year I was in no way to come back, not until Voldemort was dead. And Dumbledore seemed positive that Harry would manage to kill Voldemort. Of course, he did. The only other person knew I was alive was Minerva. She sent me a letter after it was all over. That's how I knew I could come home at last."
Nobody said anything.
"It seems," Dumbledore's portrait said, "That they are rather shaken. Quite understandable. Maybe they should go back to the dorms instead. Sally, you can stay in Hogmeade for now. Saturday is a Hogsmeade weekend, is it not?" he asked Professor McGonagall, who nodded.
"Wonderful. The boys can think over the matter right now and talk to you on Saturday. What they need now is sleep."
And so Harry and Percy went back to their common rooms in shock, ignoring Ron and Hermione, who were awake, waiting for them.
Both of them ignored them and went straight up to bed. Dumbledore was right. What Harry needed now was sleep.
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6329. Six thousand three hundred and twenty nine words. That's how long this chapter is. That's four times the size of the average chapter I write.
Four times.
Which means that you guys better appreciate all this effort I've put in and vote and comment. plz.
Seriously my hand is cramped up. I've never written such a long chapter in a go. Ugh. Ah, how we have progressed from the crappily written two paged chapters to somehwat okay written 11 page chapters. Times flies...
Okay so I reached 93K reads and 3.6K votes like what. I jumped up and down for fifteen minutes when I saw that.
I know what you guys are thinking, like 'Update? what? didn't she say it was on hold?'
Yeah I'm a bit distracted from work. Might as well put it to good use and finish off the chapter I'd already half written.
Now I've got to straighten my act though, so this is the last chapter till march end.
Also I have a question. Would you guys prefer a chapter of this length every 2.5 weeks, or a normal 1500 word chapter every week?
Also I am now accepting random questions you want to ask about the story, if you have any confusion relating to the plot.
This chapter is dedicated to @The_Book_Admirer for being extremely nice to meh.
Next dedication goes to whoever guesses what's up with Harry's new broom.
Also Crown of Ptolemy comes out on March 31 I can't wait.
*commence fangirling*
Also dat Buzzfeed quiz tho.
Okay that's it.
Bye.