Chương 23: ITW,H - Chapter 23 - Friday

(Word Count: 2, 906) The next morning, Hermione still showed up to their breakfast together, but she was frosty with him. She sat facing away from him, and wouldn't talk to him. Harry could only sigh, and go back to opening his letters. One of them was from Sirius. He quickly casted several detection charms on it, but it came up clean. Harry! I don't know exactly what you did or how, but I know you did something. No bird has given me the time of day these past few days!

I know it's not my fault, so it must be a part of your retaliation against me somehow. I have to say, well done. At the same time, COME OFF IT! Did you have to stop me from getting laid? That has to cross some lines, right? Can you tell me what it is already so this can end? Please? Love, Sirius If you don't tell me, then I'll tell Tonks you fancy her. Don't look at me like that; you're the one that brought the birds into it!

Initially, Harry was chuckling at Sirius's plight, but when he got to the postscript, he paled. He wouldn't! … no, he might actually follow through with it. But the question was, did Dora already know? To be honest, she most likely already did. Women were far more observant of these things. So he penned a letter to Sirius in response. Padfoot, Don't tell me you can't figure it out? Maybe you're losing your Marauder's touch? Love, Plumes You think she doesn't already know?

Ask me again in a week or two, and I might tell you. It was a bluff. Harry really didn't want Sirius to do that, but if he gave in here, Sirius would know he had him. He then enchanted the letter with a neat little vanishing charm so the writing would fade after Sirius read it. It wouldn't do for him to just hand the letter over to Dora as evidence. As long as there was nothing concrete, she could go on ignoring his little crush on her. He was just a young boy right now.

If she was forced to confront this issue, he would, of course, be rejected. Best to save it for when he was a man. That way he at least had a small chance. He didn't send the letter yet, as he had several more letters to go through before he could send Hedwig off with his replies. He continued on to the other letters and saw one for Hermione, from her parents. They didn't have an owl yet—tuition and all of the books Hermione needed to buy were expensive, especially with conversion fees—so they used Hedwig.

"Hermione?" Harry nudged her elbow to get her attention. He saw her jaw clench as she stubbornly looked away. She was still mad at him. He pushed over the letter.

"A letter came for you. It's from your parents." She glanced down at the letter and took the letter gently.

"Thank you," she muttered. She set it aside to read later, once she was done with breakfast. Unlike Harry, she didn't like to mix mail and food. She waited until she was at her desk for mail.

"You know, you left before you heard my explanation last night. I knew that we wouldn't be expelled, even if we were caught. Fred and George get caught all the time, and they only serve detention. Because Hogwarts is one of the few magical schools in the UK, it's very hard to actually get expelled. As for the dog, I read its mind. It's trained to only be intimidating to students, unless they actually go for the trapdoor. I knew we would be fine!"

"I just don't understand why you couldn't have told us before!" She hissed back.

"I mean, you told me about you eventually finding Excalibur! Why couldn't you tell me about this? Especially since this one actually involved me!"

"Hermione, it's precisely because it involved you that I didn't dare! You know I'm new to all this seer stuff. What if by telling you three before all this happened, none of you will help me? This is my life we're talking about! Hermione's scowl softened at that.

"I know, Harry. Of course we'll help you with that. It's just… It was scary." Harry hung his head.

"You're right. I'm sorry. I'll be more forthcoming from now on." He didn't know what he would be telling them about the future, but it was obvious now that if he wanted to include others in his plans to deal with the future, he needed to inform them about it beforehand, and not let them just stumble into things. Hermione sniffed pointedly, doing her best McGonagall impression again—She was really captured by the older professor's example—and turned back to her breakfast. Harry opened the morning newspaper.

It was the article Noggrap had warned him about: the break-in at Gringotts bank. He nudged Hermione.

"Here, look!" GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts' goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.

"But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you,' said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.

"What?" She looked through the article.

"That's concerning, but why are you showing me this?"

"Because, I believe that whatever was in that vault, is now being guarded by that three-headed dog," Harry explained. Her eyebrows shot up.

"Really? How can you be sure?" She asked.

"I had a vision of Hagrid making a withdrawal from this same vault, picking up a tiny package no bigger than his palm. I didn't think anything of it before, since it was just a random bank withdrawal, but now that I see this article, it must be connected. Why would the Hogwarts groundskeeper make a withdrawal from this vault, just hours before it gets broken into?" Harry was pretty tired of pinning everything on his visions, but how else was he supposed to explain things?

He also felt bad for not saying anything more, but he didn't want to just come out and say everything at once, because then what would they do? Just wait until the end of the year to all go down the trapdoor? They had to be invested.

"Of course! And Hagrid is well known to love magical creatures and he helps take care of them around the school! He must be the one to take care of that dog as well!" Hermione grinned as she put the pieces together. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Speaking of Hagrid, I have a letter from him," Harry said, noticing a small letter written in messy writing. He opened it. Dear Harry, I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig. Hagrid Three was actually when he got out of his history class, so he could make it. That was the last of his letters for today, so he wrote a quick "I'll be there!

I'll bring a couple of friends with me to introduce you." Hedwig, who had been helping herself to the bits of bacon and sausage Harry had plated for her, took his replies and took off.

"He's invited me to a cup of tea at his cabin. We can ask him about what he withdrew from the vault then," Harry said.

"Want to come?" By then, most of the students were coming down to eat and were filing into the great hall. When Neville came down, he came over to Harry. He looked like he hadn't slept a wink.

"H-Harry. I-I've been thinking about last night, a-and I've decided to help. I-if your life really is in danger, then I can't stay away. Y-you've helped me a lot already, and it's only been one week of school. I owe you," Neville said, staring down at his feet. He must have been up all night worrying about what he should do. Harry placed a hand on Neville's shoulder.

"Thank you, Neville. I know that must have not been easy." He smiled weakly at Harry.

"Just so long as we don't have to fight that dog, I'll be fine." Contrary to Neville, when Ron finally came down, he was all smiles. Apparently, he came to think of last night as a grand adventure, and he was eager for more. He slapped Harry's shoulder and boisterously assured him, "Don't worry, Harry! Next adventure we have, I'm with you all the way!" Harry chuckled at his enthusiasm.

"Thank you, Ron. That means a lot." Hermione didn't find it funny. She glared at Ron.

"This is not a game, Ronald Weasley. Harry's life is at stake here." Ron scowled at her, before rolling his eyes.

"Are you sure we need her, Harry? She's such a bore!"

"Of course we do, Ron. She's an amazing witch, and my friend," Harry said. With both Ron and Neville here, he explained what he had talked with Hermione about, with the break-in at Gringotts and Hagrid's involvement. Of course, since there were so many more students crowding the tables, he cast a subtle muffliato charm on them for a bit of privacy. He had learned it from the Marauder's Notebook, and it was very useful for situations like this.

One of the highlights of that morning was when Draco Malfoy came down and noticed them still at school. He gawked at them, frozen in the middle of the entrance. Harry waved innocently at him. Draco scowled and stormed to the Slytherin table, not looking at them. ~ ITW, H ~ The rest of the day was spent going through classes. They had two classes today, and they were both with Slytherin. First thing that morning was Potions class. Harry's most hated subject.

Snape spent the time being just as bad as the first class that week. They were going over the cure for boils potion again since, as Snape put it, they did worse than trolls at brewing it the first time. Harry had paired with Neville again, because this time they were with Slytherins, and he didn't want any incident to occur. Of course, to spite Harry, Snape took every opportunity to nitpick their potion, while praising Malfoy's. Do I really have to take five years of this? I can drop potions, right?

Right after class, Harry once again went straight to Dumbledore's office to write a formal complaint. In the afternoon, they had their history class, which was just as droll as the first time as well. They were still covering the Gargoyle strike, and Harry had already read that entire section of the textbook. So, instead of even bothering to try to follow along, he read about dream casting, the art of becoming self aware in your dreams so you can maneuver through them as he pleased.

That would serve as the first step to then being able to enter other people's dreams. It was a fascinating intersection of divination and mind arts. Harry made sure to keep extensive notes.

"Hermione, Ron, Neville. Wait up!" Class was now over, and Harry had been so involved in his note taking that he had to catch up to all of the students that rushed out as soon as the bell rang. The four of them made their way out of the castle grounds, their first time doing so since they first arrived. There was no doubt about it: the land around Hogwarts was beautiful. The castle itself sat on top of a large cliff that overlooked the black lake, and it was all surrounded by a vibrant forest.

Sure, that vibrant forest quickly became dark and dangerous the farther you go into it, but it didn't offset its beauty. There were two ways to leave the Hogwarts grounds. The main entrance, which led into the large walled courtyard, and the gatehouse. This was the courtyard where they had their flying class yesterday. This road led all the way around to Hogsmeade. The back entrance was the one they took. This led them across the large bridge that was blown up by Seamus and Neville in the final film.

Going down this road would take them down further into the valley to all the tiny settlements that lived there. It also led them past one of the closer edges of the Forbidden Forest, and to Hagrid's hut off the way. Hagrid's hut was surrounded by a large pumpkin patch. The plants were already sprawling across the entire patch, and Harry could see the pumpkins already starting to come in. The hut itself was large, built with Hagrid in mind.

It consisted of two circular rooms made of stone bricks and both had tall pointed roofs, like wizard's hats. Leaning up against the hut by the front door was a large heavy looking crossbow, and a pair of boots. When Harry knocked, it set off a cacophony of thunderous barks. Fang seemed to be excited for visitors.

"Back, Fang! Back!" He heard Hagrid struggle with the dog for a moment, before the door cracked open a bit and Hagrid peaked out.

"Hey, Harry! Oh, I see ye've brought some friends along as well! Hello there, I am Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts," Hagrid introduced himself to the group, though he was reaching down awkwardly to hold onto Fang's collar, so it didn't come off quite as official as he may have wanted.

"Come on in! Make yerselves at home!"

"Thank you, Hagrid," Harry said, and entered. Inside was a bit of a mess. There were bags of feed, cages of critters, and pots stacked up everywhere. The air was a bit too musty from all of the animals inside. Still, while it may have been messy from the clutter, it wasn't dirty. From the rafters hung haunches of meat, and dead pheasants. Hanging above the fire in the large fireplace was the copper pot boiling the water.

They all sat around the table as Hagrid went around pouring tea and setting out his infamous rock cakes. Harry introduced his three friends.

"This is Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom."

"Oh, a Weasley you say? Heh, It feels like I've spent half me life chasing after yer brothers, Fred and George, to keep them from entering the forbidden forest! Right troublemakers, they are!" Hagrid laughed, shaking his head wryly.

"And how's yer brother, Charlie? I liked him a lot, great with animals!"

"Good, he's up in Romania now, working with dragons," Ron answered.

"Blimey!" Hagrid looked wistfully into the distance.

"Dragons. Now there's a misunderstood creature. Beautiful, they are! If there were any other job I'd take, it'd be at a dragon ranch." The rock cakes really earned their name. So, instead of trying to chip a tooth on them, he dunked them into his tea to soften them up. With him actually being able to eat them, they tasted pretty good, which explained why Hagrid liked them. He was able to eat them normally, so he saw nothing wrong with them.

"These rock cakes are really good, Hagrid. A bit hard to chew, but they soak up this tea nicely," Harry complimented. If only he were drinking coffee instead, that would make these perfect coffee cakes. They continued to talk about their first week. From the shared experience of the terrible potions class, to their own favorite classes. Harry's was charms, Hermione's was transfiguration, Neville's was herbology, Ron's was flying.

When Harry got to the part of what happened last night, where they ran into Fluffy, Hagrid dropped the teapot.

"You met Fluffy?" He asked.

"Fluffy?" Ron questioned, sharing a look with Neville.

"Yeah, he's mine. Bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year. I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the—" Hagrid cut himself off.

"Yes?" Harry said, trying to tease the information out of him.

"Now, don't ask me any more," said Hagrid gruffly.

"That's top secret, that is."

"But we need to know," Hermione urged.

"Someone's trying to steal whatever's being guarded!"

"Of course there's someone trying to steal it, that's why it was moved here! But none of yeh need ta worry about a thing! It's perfectly safe where it is," Hagrid said. Hermione looked at Harry, "Harry, tell him!" Hagrid looked at Harry curiously.

"Tell me what?"

"I'm a seer. I've had a vision of you picking up a tiny package from Gringotts—from the same vault that got broken into. Then another vision of a man breaking into the third floor corridor and retrieving that same package." As Harry spoke, Hagrid got more and more flustered.

"Now, listen to me, all three of yeh! Yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin'! That's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel—" Hermione latched onto that slip up.

"Aha! So someone named Nicholas Flamel is involved?" Hagrid looked furious with himself, "I should not have said that. Should not have said that." He quickly ushered them all out.