As it turned out, Kreacher had been lurking in the attic. Sirius said he had found him up there, covered in dust, no doubt looking for more relics of the Black family to hide in his cupboard. Still, it wasn't that convincing though, but it makes Sirius satisfied. And it seemed that after spending all that time up in the attic, it had made Kreacher be in a better mood on his reappearance, his bitter muttering had subsided somewhat and he submitted to orders more docilely than usual.
As the date of their departure back to Hogwarts drew nearer, Harry became more and more prone to what Mrs. Weasley called 'fits of the sullen', in which he would become taciturn and grumpy, often withdrawing to his room for hours at a time. His gloom seeped through the house, oozing under doorways like some noxious gas so that all of them became infected by it.
But, on the last day of the holidays, when they were in Ron's bedroom, Harry and Ron were playing wizard chess and watched by Rigel, Hermione, Eliza, Ginny, and Crookshanks. Mrs. Weasley poking her head in, said: "Harry, Rigel, Eliza dear, could you come down to the kitchen? Professor Snape would like a word with you."
Rigel looked at Eliza while lying upside down, Harry did not immediately register what she had said; one of his castles was engaged in a violent tussle with a pawn of Ron's and he was egging it on enthusiastically.
"Squash him- squash him, he's only a pawn, you idiot. Sorry, Mrs. Weasley, what did you say?"
"Professor Snape, dear. In the kitchen. He'd like a word."
Harry's mouth fell open in horror while his twin looked confused. He looked around at Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, all of whom were gaping back at him while Rigel just shrugged at him. Crookshanks, whom Hermione had been restraining with difficulty for the past quarter of an hour, leaped gleefully onto the board and set the pieces running for cover, squealing at the top of their voices.
"Snape?" said Harry blankly.
"Professor Snape, dear," said Mrs. Weasley reprovingly. "Now come on, quickly, he says he can't stay long."
"What's he want with you?" said Ron, looking unnerved as Mrs.Weasley withdrew from the room. "You haven't done anything, have you?"
"No!" Rigel indignantly while the twins shook her head.
He pushed open the kitchen door a minute or two later to find Sirius, and Snape seated at the long kitchen table, where Sirius and Snape were glaring in opposite directions. The silence between them was heavy with mutual dislike. A letter lay open on the table in front of Sirius.
"Sit down." Said Snape as they shuffled into the kitchen, Eliza sat down next to Rigel wo sat to his father's right.
"You know," said Sirius loudly, leaning back on his rear chair legs and speaking to the ceiling, "I think I'd prefer it if you didn't give orders here, Snape. It's my house, you see."
An ugly flush suffused Snape's pallid face. Harry sat down in a chair beside Sirius, facing Snape across the table.
"I was supposed to see you two alone," said Snape to Harry and Eliza, the familiar sneer curling his mouth, "but Black —"
"I'm their godfather," said Sirius, louder than ever.
"I am here on Dumbledore's orders," said Snape, whose voice, by contrast, was becoming more and more quietly waspish, "First for your son, Professor McGonagall has sent these books for you."
Rigel looked confused but nodded. The book McGongall sent was an Advanced Guide to Alterations which was mostly about human transfiguration.
"The Headmaster has also sent me to tell you both, that it is his wish for you to study Occlumency this term."
"Study what?" Said Harry blankly.
"Occlumency, Potter. The magical defense of the mind against external penetration. An obscure branch of magic, but a highly useful one."
"Why do we have to study it?" Asked Harry looking angry.
"Surely you can make the link Potter; if not no doubt your sister will explain it to you. You will receive lessons once a week, but you will not tell anybody what you are doing, least of all Dolores Umbridge. You understand?"
"Yes, who's going to be teaching us?" Rigel thought the answer was fairly obvious and resisted rolling his eyes with difficulty.
"I am." Harry paled.
"Why can't Dumbledore teach them? Why does it have to be you? Rigel is a natural occulmens himself. He could teach them." Hissed Sirius.
"I suppose because it is a headmaster's privilege to delegate less enjoyable tasks, I assure you I did not beg for the job and I doubt Umbridge will not notice three-fifth years practicing the mind arts Black. I will expect you both at six o'clock on Monday evening. If anybody asks, you are taking remedial Potions. Nobody who has seen you in my classes could deny you need them. You Miss Potter may inform people that you are receiving detention for refusing to speak in my class, other teachers will also be keeping you in detentions under that reason in order to keep you out of Umbridge's grasp, they will inform you of the protocol when you return to Hogwarts."
"Wait a moment." Said Sirius, standing up.
"I am in rather a hurry, Black. Unlike you, I do not have unlimited leisure time."
"I'll get to the point then," Sirius said. "If I hear you're using these Occlumency lessons to give Harry and Eliza a hard time, you'll have me to."
"How touching." Snape sneered. "But I'm sure you'll be reassured to know that Professor McGonagall has insisted she is present during the lessons. So please direct any concerns or questions you have to her."
Leaving the room to head upstairs, Rigel heard the start of an argument brewing in the room he had just left but he ignored it.
That night's meal should have been a cheerful one with Mr.Weasley back amongst them; Rigel could tell Sirius was trying to make it so, yet when his father was not forcing himself to laugh loudly at Fred and George's jokes or offering everyone more food, his face fell back into a moody, brooding expression.
"Dumbledore wants to stop you from having those dreams about Voldemort," said Hermione at once. "Well, you won't be sorry not to have them anymore, will you?"
"Extra lessons with Snape?" said Ron, sounding aghast. "I'd rather have the nightmares!"
They were to return to Hogwarts on the Knight Bus the following day, escorted once again by Tonks, and Remus, both of whom were eating breakfast in the kitchen when Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrived there the next morning. The adults seemed to have been midway through the whispered conversation when the door opened; all of them looked around hastily and fell silent.
After a hurried breakfast, they pulled on jackets and scarves against the chilly gray January morning. They were shunted out into the icy winter air, with Tonks (today heavily disguised as a tall, tweedy woman with iron-gray hair) chivvying him down the steps. The door of number twelve slammed shut behind them.
They followed Lupin down the front steps. As he reached the pavement, Rigel looked around. Number twelve was shrinking rapidly as those on either side of it stretched sideways, squeezing it out of sight; one blink later, it had gone.
"Come on, the quicker we get on the bus the better," said Tonks drawing his wand out.
BANG.
A violently purple, triple-decker bus had appeared out of thin air in front of them, narrowly avoiding the nearest lamppost, which jumped backward out of its way. A thin, pimply, jug-eared youth in a purple uniform leaped down onto the pavement and said,
"Welcome to the —"
"Yes, yes, we know, thank you," said Tonks swiftly. "On, on, get on —And she shoved Harry forward toward the steps, past the conductor, who goggled at Harry as he passed.
" 'Ere — it's 'Arry — !"
"If you shout his name I will curse you into oblivion," Tonks growled menacingly, now shunting Ginny and Hermione forward.
"I've always wanted to go on this thing," said Ron happily, joining Harry on board and looking around.
"Well I don't," said Rigel looking a little green. Hermione patted him sympathetically "Let's make this quick."
The bus was crammed with an assortment of mismatched chairs grouped haphazardly around windows. Some of these appeared to have fallen over when the bus stopped abruptly in Grimmauld Place; a few witches and wizards were still getting to their feet, grumbling, and somebody's shopping bag had slid the length of the bus; an unpleasant mixture of frog spawn, cockroaches, and custard creams was scattered all over the floor." Looks like we'll have to split up," said Tonics briskly, looking around for empty chairs.
"Fred, George, and Ginny, if you just take those seats at the back . . . Remus can stay with you. . . ."
Rigel, and Eliza proceeded up to the very top deck, where there were three chairs at the very front of the bus and two at the back. Stan Shunpike, the conductor, followed Harry, and Ron eagerly to the back Tonks and Hermione took the front seats.
They handed Stan eleven Sickles each, the bus set off again, swaying ominously. It rumbled around Grimmauld Square, weaving on and off the pavement, then, with another tremendous BANG, they were all flung backward; Ron's chair toppled right over, and Pigwidgeon, who had been on his lap, burst out of his cage and flew twittering wildly up to the front of the bus where he fluttered down upon Hermione's shoulder instead. Biscuit was tightly hanging across Rigel's neck that he almost choked.
Harry, who had narrowly avoided falling by seizing a candle bracket, looked out of the window: they were now speeding down what appeared to be a motorway.
"Just outside Birmingham," said Stan happily "You keeping well, then, 'Arry? I seen your name in the paper loads over the summer, but it weren't nuffink very nice. . . . I said to Ern, I said, ' 'e didn't seem like a nutter when we met 'im, just goes to show, dunnit?' "
He handed over their tickets and continued to gaze, enthralled, at Harry; The Knight Bus swayed alarmingly, overtaking a line of cars on the inside. Looking toward the front of the bus Rigel saw Hermione cover her eyes with her hands, Pigwidgeon still swaying happily on her shoulder.
BANG.
Chairs slid backward again as the Knight Bus jumped from the Birmingham motorway to a quiet country lane full of hairpin bends. Hedgerows on either side of the road were leaping out of their way as they mounted the verges. From here they moved to the main street in the middle of a busy town, then to a viaduct surrounded by tall hills, then to a windswept road between high-rise flats, each time with aloud BANG.
"I've changed my mind," muttered Ron, picking himself up from the floor for the sixth time, "I never want to ride on here again."
"Listen, it's 'Ogwarts stop after this," said Stan brightly, swaying toward them. "That bossy woman upfront 'oo got on with you, she's given us a little tip to move you up the queue. We're just gonna let Madam Marsh off first, though —" There were more retching from downstairs, followed by a horrible spattering sound. "She's not feeling'er best.
A few minutes later the Knight Bus screeched to a halt outside a small pub, which squeezed itself out of the way to avoid a collision. They could hear Stan ushering the unfortunate Madam Marsh out of the bus and the relieved murmurings of her fellow passengers on the second deck. The bus moved on again, gathering speed, until —
BANG.
They were rolling through a snowy Hogsmeade. Rigel caught a glimpse of the Hog's Head down its side street, the severed boar's head signs creaking in the wintry wind. Flecks of snow hit the large window at the front of the bus. At last, they rolled to a halt outside the gates to Hogwarts. Lupin and Tonks helped them off the bus with their luggage and then got off to say goodbye. Harry glanced up at the three decks of the Knight Bus and saw all the passengers staring down at them, noses flat against the windows.
"You'll be safe once you're in the grounds," said Tonks, casting a careful eye around at the deserted road. "Have a good term, okay?"
"Look after yourselves," said Lupin, shaking hands all round and reaching Harry last and whispered something to which Harry said "Yeah, all right," looking up into Lupin's prematurely lined face. "See you, then . . ."
The eight of them struggled up the slippery drive toward the castle dragging their trunks. Hermione was already talking about knitting a few elf hats before bedtime.