Chapter 13: Together
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"Harry, do you have anywhere to go during Christmas?" Tonks questioned, earning a raised eyebrow from Hermione.
"Not really," Harry said with a little shrug.
"How about you spend time in my house with my family? They would be delighted to have you for Christmas." Tonks suggested and suddenly felt a big hug from Harry.
"Thank you, Tonks," Harry said with all his heart and felt his cheeks turn red when Tonks kissed his cheeks.
Harry blushed furiously; Hermione smiled cutely at his face. Soon they found an excellent place to stay with Ron and Lavender. Soon all of them ordered something to eat.
"This still looks amazing," Hermione said, awestruck at the food, and Harry nodded with a small smile in appreciation.
"What is it? What is it?!" Lavender excitedly asked, almost jumping up and down the chair as Ron stared intently at the food in front of him.
"O-oh right, it's um, stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs." The chef said with a smile.
"Wicked..." Ron breathlessly said while he wiped his lips, "Could we eat it now?"
"Go ahead." The Chef said, and they dug in.
Hermione, Tonks, and Harry sat beside each other, as across from them were Ron and Lavender where seated. No one uttered a single word as they continued to eat the food.
"Almost forgot, the Butterbeer," Harry said in realization; he stood up and took the jugs full of Butterbeer.
Just then, Lavender and Ron perked up from their bowls as they heard the word Butterbeer.
"Hold on. I need to get a few glasses for us." Harry said and headed straight to the kitchen once again.
"Two butterbeer for me. Please," Lavender said as she gulped down her food
"fwee fawr mwe pweaths," Ron added, a mouth full of food, and Hermione looked at him disgustedly.
"First off, don't talk when your mouth is full, and second of all, what is Butterbeer?" Hermione scolded him before looking at Tonks.
"Butterbeer is just a drink made with soda, sugar, heavy cream, butter, and a tinge of rum," Tonks said. She had tried it herself, but she was not the biggest fan of it if she were to drink alcohol. She would rather drink something strong, like Whiskey.
"Who wants whip cream in theirs?" Harry asked his four friends, and Lavender and Ron raised their hands. "Would you like to have some too, 'Mione' and Tonks?"
"Sure, I'd like to try some," Hermione said with a shrug while Tonks shook her head.
"Here you go, five Butterbeers," Harry said as he brought four glass mugs filled with a yellow-caramelish liquid with whipped cream.
"Tonks, what is it like to be an Auror?" Ron asked while wiping away the cream from his lips.
Tonks drank half of her Butterbeer before telling them her stories as an Auror. Harry listened closely along with Hermione.
Later
"Hey, 'Mione?" Harry began, "You've got a little whipped cream right here." He said, pointing a finger on top of his lip.
She looked at him confusingly as he tried to show her where on her lips the foam sticking to from the Butterbeer was. She tried to wipe it off and asked him. "Did I get it?"
"Not really, here, let me." He said with a chuckle as he licked his thumb, reached over to her, and wiped it off her top lip, instantly making her face burn up.
While Ron, Lavender, and Tonks looked at them with cheeky smiles on their faces, and Harry sat back down beside her.
Harry nonchalantly sucks the cream off his thumb while looking at her, unfazed with confusion. "What's wrong?"
"D-did he not realize what he just did." Hermione thought as her face got red and her heart beat uncontrollably while her stomach fluttered.
"N-nothing.." Hermione stammered as she watched Harry take a big gulp of his own drink.
Just then, Harry froze in place, and his eyes opened wide in realization. At that moment, Harry slowly placed down his glass as she saw his face getting red and looked down, embarrassed.
"S-sorry..." Harry mentally apologized towards her.
"I-it's alright..." Hermione answered back, and they were both red-faced.
Soon they were done, and their time in Hogsmeade eventually ended. Harry was walking beside Tonks and Hermione with a goofy smile; he couldn't think of the last time he had been so happy. Both Tonks and Hermione were holding his hands; Harry felt his cheeks burning up. Soon they reached the place where everyone else was when Tonks turned to him abruptly.
"Harry. I'm afraid I need to leave you now. My shift is over." Tonks said apologetically, looking at him.
"Don't worry, Tonks, as long as we can go out like this again. I won't mind." Harry spoke with a cheeky grin that Tonks both loved and hated.
"You really like to flirt, don't you?" Tonks teased with a grin.
"Is part of my charm," Harry added teasingly, with a soft smile that made Tonks want to... Calm down, Tonks. Think what your mother would say if she saw you like this, Tonks thought.
"I'm happy you found someone as kind as Harry,"
Nevermind, I shouldn't think about mother; she would probably encourage me, Tonks thought; feeling a hand on her shoulder made Tonks escape her thoughts, only to see Harry looking at her with his mesmerizing green eyes.
"Thank you for the date." Harry thanked her and thought that would be it when she grabbed his tunic, bringing him close to her and kissing his cheek.
"I can't wait for you to come to my house during Christmas," Tonks spoke with a husky tone right at his ear that sent pleasant shivers down his spine.
"I can't wait," Harry replied, smiling. Harry turned bright red, stepping back; Tonks wearing a victory smirk on her face, she said goodbye to Hermione before leaving them.
Professor McGonagall announced, "It's time to head back to Hogwarts. Come along, everyone!"
"Oh no, I really wanted to go to the Shrieking Shack." Hermione gloomily said.
"Sorry, 'Mione," Harry said with a sympathetic look and a small smile as they followed the professor.
"Maybe next time, alright?" He added, and she gave a sad nod in response.
Later
As his friends went to Hogwarts, Harry was talking with Professor Lupin on the wooden bridge or also known as the covered bridge.
"Professor," Harry called out as he looked out of the bridge and asked, "Can I ask you something?"
"You'd like to know why I intervened when your Boggart started changing again." Professor Lupin said, which surprised Harry.
"I should think it'd be obvious. I assumed the Boggart would take the shape of Lord Voldemort the second time."
"I did think of Voldemort first," Harry said, unsure. "But then, I remembered that night on the train ... and the Dementor..."
"Well, I'm impressed." He complimented. "That suggests that what you fear most of all is fear. This is very wise."
"In the train, before I destroyed it. I heard a woman screaming." Harry said with a grim look.
"Dementors feed with our fear and insecurities, Harry." The professor said, still not understanding how Harry destroyed the thing; not even Dumbledore could give a clear explanation.
"I think it was my mother, the night she was murdered." Harry sadly said, which made Professor Lupin look out at the view of the bridge as he reminisced.
"You know, the first time I saw you, Harry, I recognized you immediately." He began and turned back to him as he said something which made Harry look at him in surprise. "Not by your scar. By your eyes. They're your mother, Lily's."
"You knew her?"
"Oh, yes, I knew her." He continued while his eyes glazed in memory and smiled as he turned around and went to the other side of the bridge.
"Your mother was there for me at a time when no one else was. We used to talk for hours. She was not only a singularly gifted witch but an uncommonly kind woman. She had a way of seeing the beauty in whoever she met, even - and perhaps most especially - when that person couldn't see it in themselves."
"Your father, James, on the other hand." He said with a chuckle as he changed the subject. "He had, shall we say, a certain talent for trouble."
"You are more like them, you know." He continued as they both looked out to the view, "In time, you'll come to see just how much."
Later
The Hall buzzes with tales of Hogsmeade as students swap stories, sample sweets, and send soap bubbles of all shapes, sizes, and colors into the air.
As Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Lavender returned from their Hogsmeade Visit, they made their way to the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Honeyduke's Sweetshop is brilliant, but nothing beats Zonko's joke shop!" Ron exclaimed, talking about all the places he had been with Lavender.
"We never did get a chance to go to the Shrieking Shack. You heard that it's the most-" Hermione began, but Harry interrupted her,
"Haunted building in Britain, I know." Harry continued.
Hermione was happy just to spend time with Harry outside the castle, more so than Hogsmeade itself.
"But, I mean, after a while, it got a bit boring. Don't you think?" Lavender then asked Ron, Hermione, and Harry, trying to change the subject.
"O-oh. Yeah. Dead depressing." Ron said teasingly, making the others roll their eyes.
As they climbed the stairs, they found a crowd gathering on the Seventh Floor landing and stopped walking while they saw fellow Gryffindors start to converse among themselves.
"Somethings wrong," Harry said to his friends, which alarmed them a bit.
Harry felt something off with the environment as it gave off confusion and worry or, more accurately, distress. His eyes turned gold, but he couldn't see anything extraordinary.
"What's going on?" Harry asked as they saw the crowd in front of the entrance.
"Why isn't anyone going in?" Lavender curiously asked while Ron and Hermione peered over the heads in front of them. The portrait seemed to be closed.
"Probably Neville forgot the password again," Ron said with a little shrug.
"Hey!" Neville exclaimed behind them as they turned towards him.
"Oh, you're here," Ron said, and Lavender smacked his arm. "Ow..."
"Let me through, please. Excuse me! I'm head boy!" came Percy's voice, and he came bustling, importantly, through the crowd.
"Yeah, how can we forget? You mention it every two seconds..." Lavender mumbled under her breath while Ron and Neville snickered, but Harry was on high alert, and Hermione was looking through the crowd worriedly.
And then a silence fell over the crowd, from the front first, so a chill seemed to spread down the corridor.
They heard Percy say, in a sudden sharp voice, "Somebody get The Headmaster. Quick."
The crowd then exchanged glances when... Ginny emerges from the crowd. She was in distress.
"The fat lady! She's gone!" Ginny exclaimed to everyone.
"Serves her right!" Ron yelled with a laugh. "She was a terrible singer!"
"It's not funny, Ron!" Hermione scolded behind him while Lavender was curious about what was happening.
"Get back, all of you," Percy instructed once more. "No one is to enter this dormitory until it has been fully searched."
As they looked through the crowd and towards the Fat Lady. The portrait was empty, now slashed viciously, great strips of canvas hanging from the frame.
"Oh, my —" Hermione said as she grabbed Harry's arm.
They then saw Peeves floating about, and Harry called out to him in a whisper with his expressionless face.
"Psst, Peeves!" Harry yelled out in a hushed town, and it immediately caught his attention and floated towards them.
"Hello, Potter!" He exclaimed above them, "It is indeed nice to see you in good health."
"How may I be of service to you, sir?" He asked with a bow, which made them look at him wide-eyed.
"Do you know what happened? What is going on with all this anxiety in the room?" He asked while Peeves then grinned, but before he could even answer, Dumbledore appeared.
"The Headmaster's here!" Seamus announced as Dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes somber, Professors McGonagall, Lupin, Filch, and Snape hurrying toward him.
As Harry saw Snape, he could feel anger coming off of him, which made him tilt his head in confusion.
"Mr. Filch? Round up the ghosts. Tell them to search every painting in the castle to find the fat lady." Dumbledore commanded as he looked around the room.
"There's no need for ghosts, professor," Filch said. "The Fat Lady's there." He pointed to a portrait further down the hall.
Filch extends a crooked finger. High up, near the ceiling, the Fat Lady cowers in a portrait not her own, trembling. Making the students move toward where he was pointing and gasp at what they saw.
As the Professors and the other Gryffindors led by Percy walked down to the portrait, The Fat Lady peered out and looked at them.
Just then, someone cuts in with a cackling voice, "You'll be lucky!"
It was Peeves the Poltergeist, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always did, at the sight of wreckage or worry.
"What do you mean, Peeves?" Dumbledore calmly said, and Peeves's grin faded a little.
He didn't dare taunt Dumbledore. Instead, he adopted an oily voice that was no better than his cackle.
"Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. She doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful," he said happily.
"Poor thing," he added unconvincingly.
"Did she say who did it?" Dumbledore quietly said.
"Oh yes, Headmaster," Peeves said. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see."
Peeves flipped over and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."
As the name came out of her his, chaos erupted among the students, scared for their lives, as there was a murderer in Hogwarts.
"Secure the castle, Mr. Filch." Dumbledore calmly instructed, "The rest of you... to the Great Hall."
Great Hall
The Headmaster sent all the Gryffindors back to the Great Hall, where they were joined ten minutes later by the students from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, who all looked extremely confused.
The Headmaster paused, about to leave the hall, and said, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing . . ."
One casual wave of his wand and the long tables flew to the edges of the hall and stood themselves against the walls; another wave, and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.
Soon enough, all the students of each house got dressed for bed as all the tables in the Great Hall were no longer there as They were all given sleeping bags.
"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," The Headmaster told the students as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick closed all doors into the hall.
"I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall, and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately," he added to Percy, who looked immensely proud and important. "Send word with one of the ghosts."
"Sleep well," The Headmaster said, closing the door behind him.
The hall immediately began to buzz excitedly; the Gryffindors were telling the rest of the school what had just happened.
"Everyone into their sleeping bags!" shouted Percy. "Come on, now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!"
"C'mon," Ron said to his friends; they seized four sleeping bags and dragged them into a corner.
They then laid their sleeping bags down while Harry placed his sleeping bag next to Hermione's.
The four of them decided to talk with each other.
Harry noticed Hermione was a little on edge, so he inched closer to her. She noticed and let her head drop to his shoulder in comfort.
"Do you think Black's still in the castle?" Hermione whispered anxiously towards them.
"Dumbledore obviously thinks he might be," Ron said as if a matter of fact.
"I doubt it," Harry said with a thoughtful look. "He wouldn't be thick enough to stick around, right?" Harry looked around but couldn't see Tonks anywhere. He was hoping that his favorite Auror would be around.
"I think so." Lavender began as she crossed her arms, "The teachers said they couldn't find him."
"Plus, Filch could find anyone, so if he couldn't find Black, he's most likely not here anymore," Harry added while Lavender nodded in agreement
"It's fortunate he picked tonight, you know," Hermione said as she sat straight up, and they then climbed fully dressed into their sleeping bags and propped themselves on their elbows to talk. "The one night we weren't in the tower. . . ."
"I reckon he's lost track of time, being on the run," Ron suggested.
"But something is strange with this sudden attack... why would Black try and enter the Tower when I wasn't there?" Harry thought and pondered the event. "Surely he had to be sure I was in there unless he tried to enter for a different reason..."
"Didn't realize it was Halloween. Otherwise, he'd have come bursting in here." Hermione shuddered.
"But this event feels off..." Lavender said as if she had read Harry's mind, and everyone looked at her questioningly. "Don't you think?"
"I have to agree with Lavender. It doesn't make sense..." Harry cuts in, and they turn to him next while he ponders.
"Black managed to get through the castle with no problem or even a trace of him coming in, especially since this place has one of the highest security in the wizarding world. Add the fact the dementors and Aurors. I feel like we're missing something here."
Suddenly, all around them, people were asking one another the same question: "How did he get in?"
"Maybe he knows how to Apparate," a Ravenclaw said a few feet away. "Just appear out of thin air, you know."
"Disguised himself, probably," A Hufflepuff fifth-year said.
"He could've flown in," suggested Dean Thomas.
"Honestly, am I the only person who's ever bothered to read Hogwarts, A History?" Hermione crossly said to Lavender, Ron, and Harry.
"Probably, Why?" Ron said with a shrug.
"Yeah, only The Headmaster could apparate to Hogwarts, no one else, right?" Harry asked for confirmation, and Hermione nodded with an adorable smile.
"At least someone knows the basics of Hogwarts: A History." Hermione proudly said.
"The castle's protected by more than walls, you know," She continued. "There are all sorts of enchantments on it to stop people entering by stealth. You can't just Apparate in here."
"And I'd like to see the disguise that could fool those dementors. They're guarding every single entrance to the grounds. They'd have seen him fly in too. And even the Aurors should have seen something." Hermione mockingly said
"And Filch knows all the secret passages, doesn't he?" Ron asked them. "They'll have them covered..."
"Well, until the professors find a clue on him, we should try and get some rest," Harry suggests as he puts his glasses to the side and lays on his side.
"The lights are going out now!" Percy shouted. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!"
The candles all went out at once and all the students laid back in their sleeping bags.
The only light now came from the silvery ghosts, who were drifting about talking seriously to the prefects, and the enchanted ceiling, which, like the sky outside, was scattered with stars.
With that and the whispering still filling the hall, The Golden Quintet felt as though they were sleeping outdoors in a light wind.
A couple of minutes went by, and they couldn't sleep with the fact that a known murderer was in Hogwarts.
But Harry and Hermione really enjoyed the day today, but after this, the two couldn't sleep, and the others must have been the same as Harry could still sense their auras fully awake.
Once every hour, a teacher would reappear in the hall to check that everything was quiet. Around three in the morning, when many students had finally fallen asleep, The Headmaster came in.
Harry then turned, looking around for Percy, who had been prowling between the sleeping bags, telling people off for talking.
Percy was only a short way away from Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Lavender, who quickly pretended to be asleep as The Headmaster's footsteps drew nearer.
"Any sign of him, Professor?" Percy asked in a whisper.
"No. All well here?"
"Everything under control, sir."
"What a pompous git he is." Ron thought out loud with a groan
"Good. There's no point moving them all now. I've found a temporary guardian for the Gryffindor portrait hole. You'll be able to move them back in tomorrow."
"And the Fat Lady, sir?"
"Hiding in a map of Argyll shire on the second floor. Apparently, she refused to let Black in without the password, so he attacked her. She's still very distressed, but once she's calmed down, I'll have Mr. Filch restore her." The Golden Quintet then heard the hall door creak open again and more footsteps.
"Headmaster?" It was Snape. They kept quite still, listening intently. "The whole of the third floor has been searched. He's not there. And Filch has done the dungeons; nothing there either."
"What about the Astronomy tower? Professor Trelawney's room? The Owlery?"
"All searched . . ."
"Very well, Severus. I didn't really expect Black to linger."
"Have you any theory about how he got in, Professor?" Snape asked.
Harry raised his head very slightly off his arms to free his other ear.
"Many, Severus, each of them as unlikely as the next." The Golden Quintet opened their eyes a fraction and squinted up to where they stood; Dumbledore's back was to them, but they could see Percy's face, rapt with attention, and Snape's profile, which looked angry.
"You remember the conversation we had, Headmaster, just before — ah — the start of term?" Snape said, who was barely opening his lips as though trying to block Percy out of the conversation.
"I do, Severus," The Headmaster said, and there was something like warning in his voice.
"It seems — almost impossible — that Black could have entered the school without inside help. I did express my concerns when you appointed —"
"I do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped Black enter it," The Headmaster said, and his tone made it so clear that the subject was closed that Snape didn't reply.
"I must go to the dementors," The Headmaster said. "I said I would inform them when our search was complete."
"Didn't they want to help, sir?" Percy said.
"Oh yes," The Headmaster said coldly.
"But I'm afraid no dementor will cross the threshold of this castle while I am headmaster." Percy looked slightly abashed. The Headmaster left the hall, walking quickly and quietly.
Snape stood for a moment, watching the headmaster with an expression of deep resentment on his face.
"What was all that about?" Ron mouthed.
"I don't know." Harry mouthed back, and Lavender, Hermione, and Ron mentally just looked at each other worriedly.
Sirius Black
"What the hell were you thinking?" Andromeda shouted right at his face, pointing her wand right at his face.
"I'm sorry. I know. I screwed up, but every time I remember that the Rat is there-" Sirius's words trailed off, his point quite clear to everyone.
Andromeda wanted to tell him that he could have been easily caught, and their plans to capture the rat and prove his innocence would go down in flames.
Suddenly Tonks entered the house looking distraught. Her eyes found Sirius, who backed away when she marched towards him with a furious look. "What the hell was that, Sirius? Might I know why I got an urgent message to return back to Hogwarts?" Tonks all but shouted at him.
Sirius quickly explained how he had thought that because everyone had been at Hogsmeade, that would be his chance to capture Peter.
"You're an idiot," Tonks said with a sigh. Sirius had a downcast look, knowing that hadn't been his most brilliant plan. Knowing he wanted what was best for Harry and only wanted him safe, Tonks decided to give him the good news.
"Stop with the long face. I invited Harry to stay with us during Christmas. He accepted. You can meet him when he arrives." Tonks said with a little smile. Sirius found himself beaming upon hearing that, almost wanting to hug the Auror, who glared at him not to try it.
"That's wonderful, Tonks, now. I need to know if I need to prepare a room for him, or will your room do?" Andromeda asked teasingly at her daughter, who turned red from embarrassment.
"I hate you, all." She said with a shake of her head.
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