Unedited
Chapter Thirty Eight - "Mr drama queen."
Harry sits down in Lupin's vacated chair, staring glumly at the floor and I sit down next to him. I hear the door close and look up. Dumbledore is still here.
"Why so miserable, Harry?" he says quietly. "You should be very proud of yourself after last night."
"It didn't make any difference," says Harry bitterly. "Pettigrew got away."
"Didn't make any difference?" says Dumbledore quietly. "It made all the difference in the world, Harry. You helped uncover the truth. You saved an innocent man from a terrible state."
Terrible. Something stirs in my memory. Greater and more terrible than ever before ... Professor Trelawney's prediction!
"Professor Dumbledore - yesterday, when Harry and I were having our Divination exam, Professor Trelawney's went very - very strange."
"Indeed?" says Dumbledore. "Er - stranger than usual, you mean?"
"Yes ... her voice went all deep and her eyes rolled and she said ... she said Voldemort's servant was going to set out to return to him before midnight ... she said the servant would help him come back to power." I stare up at Dumbledore. "And then she sort of became normal again, and she couldn't remember anything she'd said. Was it - was she making a real prediction?"
Dumbledore looks mildly impressed.
"Do you know, Emily, I think she might have been," he says thoughtfully. "Who'd have thought it? That brings her total of real predictions up to three. I should offer her a pay rise ..."
So she's not just crazy.
"But -" Harry looks at him, aghast. How can Dumbledore take this to calmly?
Because he's as cool as a cucumber.
"But - we stopped Sirius and Professor Lupin killing Pettigrew! That makes it our- my fault, if Voldemort comes back!"
Mr drama queen over there.
"It does not," says Dumbledore quietly. "Hasn't your experience with the Time-Turner taught you anything, Harry? The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed ... Professor Trelawney, bless her, is living proof of that. You did a very noble thing, in saving Pettigrew's life."
"But if he helps Voldemort back to power -!"
"Pettigrew owes his life to you. You have sent Voldemort a deputy who is in your debt. When one wizard saves another wizard's life, it created a certain bond between them ... and I'm much mistaken if Voldemort wants his servant in the debt of Harry Potter."
"I don't want a bond with Pettigrew!" says Harry. "He betrayed my parents!"
"This is magic at its deepest, its most impenetrable, Harry. But trust me ... the time may come when you will be very glad you saved Pettigrew's life."
I can't imagine when that will be.
"I knew your father very well, both at Hogwarts and later, Harry," he says gently. "He would have saved Pettigrew too, I am sure of it."
Harry looks up at him.
"Last night ..." Harry says slowly, "I thought it was my dad who'd conjured my Patronus. I mean, when I saw myself across the lake ... I thought I was seeing him."
"An easy mistake to make," says Dumbledore softly. "I expect you're tied of hearing it, but you do look extraordinarily like James. Except for your eyes ... you have your mother's eyes."
"Sir," I say quietly, "when will my powers from being an elemental come in?"
"As soon as you start to use them," Dumbledore says, his eyes twinkling. "I had the courtesy of ordering in some books for you. Unfortunately, there is no one to teach you, only you can do that."
"Do you know where I'm going this summer?"
"Arrangements have been made."
Harry is shaking his head, seemingly unaware that the conversation has moved on.
IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU, HARRY!
"It was stupid, thinking to was him," he mutters. "I mean, I knew he was dead."
"You think the dead we have loved ever truly leave us? You think that we don't recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself most plainly when you have need of him. How else could you produce that particular Patronus? Prongs rode again last night."
It takes a moment for me to realise what Dumbledore has said.
"Sirius told me all about how they became Animagi last night," says Dumbledore, smiling. "An extraordinary achievement - not least, keeping it quiet from me. And then I remembered the more unusual form your Patronus took, when it charged Mr Flint down at your Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. So you did see your father last night, Harry ... you found him in yourself."
And Dumbledore leaves the office, leaving Harry and I alone, with our very confused thoughts.
*
Nobody at Hogwarts knows the truth of what happened the night that Sirius, Buckbeak and Pettigrew had vanished except Harry, Ron, Hermione, Elinor, Maya, Professor Dumbledore and I. As the end of the term approaches, I hear many different theories about what had really happened, but none of them come close to the truth.
Everyone is shocked at my appearance and by the news that I'm Harry's sister. I had to have a long discussion with Draco about that fact. Luckily for me, he's completely fine with it, as long as he doesn't have to start being nice to Harry. He also invited me round his over the summer, which I may or may not accept.
Percy Weasley, meanwhile, has much to say on the subject of Sirius' escape.
"If I manage to get into the Ministry, I'll have a lot of proposals to make about Magical Law Enforcement!" he tells the only person who'll listen - his girlfriend Penelope.
Though the weather is perfect, though the atmosphere is so cheerful, though I know we've achieved the near impossible in helping Sirius to freedom, I've never approached the end of a school year in worse spirits.
I'm certainly not the only who's sorry to see Professor Lupin go. The whole of my Defence Against the Dark Arts class are miserable about his resignation.
"Wonder what they'll give us next year?" says Seamus Finnigan gloomily.
"Maybe a vampire," suggests Dean Thomas hopefully.
It isn't only Professor Lupin's departure that's weighing on my mind. I can't help thinking a lot about Professor Trelawney's prediction. I keep wondering where Pettigrew is now, whether he's sought sanctuary with Voldemort yet.
The exam results come out on the last day of term. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Elinor, Maya and I have passed every subject. I'm amazed that Harry's got through Potions. I have a shrewd suspicion that Dumbledore has stepped in to stop Snape failing him on purpose. Snape's behaviour towards Harry and I over the past week has been quite alarming. I didn't think it was possible that Snape's dislike for us could increase, but it certainly has. A muscle twitches unpleasantly at the corner of Snape's thin mouth every time he looks at Harry or I, and he's constantly flexing his fingers, as though itching to place them around our throat's.
Percy has got his top-grade N.E.W.Ts; Fred and George have scraped a handful of O.W.Ls each. Gryffindor house, meanwhile, largely thanks to our spectacular performance in the Quidditch Cup, has won the House Championship for the third year running. This means that the end-of-term feast takes place amid decorations of scarlet and gold, and that the Gryffindor table is the noisiest of the lot, as everybody celebrates.
*
As the Hogwarts Express pulls out of the station next morning, Hermione gives Harry, Ron, Elinor, Maya and I some surprising news.
"I went to see Professor McGonagall this morning, just before breakfast. I've decided to drop Muggle Studies."
"But you passed your exam with three hundred and twenty per cent!" says Maya.
"I know," sighs Hermione, "but I can't stand another year like this one. That Time-Turner, it was driving me mad. I've handed it in. Without Muggle Studies and Divination, I'll be able to have a normal timetable again."
"I still can't believe you didn't tell us about it," says Elinor grumpily. "We're supposed to be your friends."
"I promised I wouldn't tell anyone," says Hermione severely. She looks around at Harry, who's watching Hogwarts disappear from view behind a mountain.
"Oh, cheer up, Harry!" I say, even though I can't stop myself from feeling sad.
"I'm okay," says Harry quickly. "Just thinking about the holidays."
"Yeah, I've been thinking about them, too," says Ron. "Harry, Emily, you've got to come and stay with us. I'll fix it up with Mum and Dad, then I'll call you. I know how to use a fellytone now -"
"A telephone, Ron," says Hermione. "Honestly, you should take Muggle Studies next year ..."
Ron ignores her.
"It's the Quidditch World Cup this summer! How about it? Come and stay, we'll go and see it! Dad can usually get tickets from work."
This proposal has the effect of cheering both Harry and I up a great deal.
"Yeah ... I bet the Dursleys'd be pleased to let me come ... especially after what I did to Aunt Marge ..."
Feeling considerably more cheerful, I join Harry, Ron and Hermione in several games of Exploding Snap as Maya and Elinor sit and read, and when the witch with the tea trolley arrives, I buy myself a very large lunch, though nothing with chocolate in it.
My poor chocolate.
I'm going to have to eat a whole load of it over the summer.
CHOCOLATE OVERLOAD ON THE WAY!
But it's late in the afternoon before something that makes Harry truly happy turns up ...
"Harry," says Hermione suddenly, peering over his shoulder. "What's that thing outside your window?"
We all turn to look outside. Something very small and grey is bobbing in and out of sight beyond the glass. I stand up for a better look and see that it's a tiny owl, carrying a letter which is much too big for it. The owl is so small, in fact, that it keeps tumbling over in the air, buffeting this way and that in the train's slipstream. Harry jumps to his feet, quickly pulls down the window, stretches out his arm and catches it. He brings it carefully inside. The owl drops its letter into Harry's seat and begins zooming around our compartment, apparently very pleased with itself for accomplishing its task. Hedwig clicks her beak with a sort of dignified disapproval. Crookshanks sits up in his seat, following the owl with his great yellow eyes. Ron, noticing this, snatches the owl safely out of harm's way.
Harry picks up the letter, which is addressed to him. He rips open the letter and shouts, "It's from Sirius!"
"What?" says Ron and Hermione excitedly.
"Read it aloud!" Maya and Elinor say loudly.
Dear Harry,
I hope this finds you before you reach your aunt and uncle. I don't know whether they're used to owl post.
Buckbeak and I are in hiding. I won't tell you where, in case this falls into the wrong hands. I have some doubt about the owl's reliability, but he is the best I could find, and he did seem eager for the job.
I believe the Dementors are still searching for me, but they haven't a hope of finding me here. I am planning to allow some Muggles to glimpse me soon, a long way from Hogwarts, so that the security on the castle will be lifted.
There is something I never got round to telling you during our brief meeting. It was I who sent you the Firebolt -
"Ha!" says Hermione triumphantly. "See! I told you it was from him!"
"Yes, but he hadn't jinxed it, had he?" says Ron. "Ouch!"
The tiny owl, now hooting happily in his hand, has nibbled one of his fingers in what it seems to think is an affectionate way.
Crookshanks took the order to the Owl Office for me. I used your name but told them to take the gold from Gringotts vault number seven hundred and eleven - my own. Please consider it as thirteen birthdays' worth of presents from your godfather.
I would also like to apologise for the fright I think I gave you, that night last year when you left your uncle's house. I had only hoped to get a glimpse of you before starting my journey north, but I think the sight of me alarmed you.
I am enclosing something else for you, which I think will make your next year at Hogwarts more enjoyable.
If ever you or Emily need me, send word. Your owls will find me.
I'll write again soon.
Sirius
Harry looks eagerly inside the envelope. There's another piece of parchment which he pulls out. He reads it quickly, and I peer over his shoulder, reading it too.
I, Sirius Black, Harry Potter's godfather, hereby give him permission to visit Hogsmeade at weekends.
"That'll be good enough for Dumbledore!" says Harry happily. He looks back at Sirius' letter.
"Hang on, there's a PS ...
I thought your friend Ron might like to keep this owl, as it's my fault he no longer has a rat.
Ron's eyes widen. The minute owl is still hooting excitedly.
"Keep him?" he says uncertainly. He looks closely are the owl for a moment, then, to our great surprise, he holds him out for Crookshanks to sniff.
"What d'you reckon?" Ron asks the cat. "Definitely an owl?"
Crookshanks purrs.
"That's good enough for me," says Ron happily. "He's mine."
Harry reads and re-reads the letter from Sirius all the way back into King's Cross station. It's still clutched tightly in his hand as he, Ron, Hermione, Maya, Elinor and I step back through the barrier of platform nine and three-quarters. To my surprise, I spot Lupin, standing a little bit away from us, who waves me over to him. I give Mr and Mrs Weasley a hug before saying goodbye to my friends.
"So you're staying with Lupin?" Maya asks me.
"Apparently so," I shrug.
"I'll call about the World Cup!" Ron yells after me, as I say goodbye to them all, then wheel the trolley bearing my trunk and my various animal cages towards Lupin.
"Hello," I grin, hugging him quickly. "So I'm coming with you?"
"Just for a little bit," Lupin smiles warmly, taking the trolley from me as we begin to walk out of the station.
"Just for a little bit," I muse. "I think I can live with that."
~
THIRD BOOK IS OVER!
I can't believe it! This book has gone so fast.
The next book is up now so go check it out.
It's on my profile and called A Hogwarts Legend: Chaos Begins.
Thanks for readingggg!
- Emily