It was Sunday morning and Hermione had entered into Y/n's dormitory.
"Y/n." she called his name and lightly shook him awake.
"Hermione?" Y/n said pulling his cover's up slightly over his chest and rubbing his eyes.
"I'm going down to Hagrid's, We need to give him a sensible lesson plan." She said urgently.
"Okay..." Y/n said sleepily. "I do not really understand why you woke me to tell me that..." Y/n said then yawned. "Unless you are wanting me to come with you of course?"
"I was hoping we could all go and try to convince him." Hermione admitted.
Y/n sat up and sighed now. "I was hoping to rest some more after the disappointment of yesterday, but we cannot have Hagrid getting himself removed. If you wait outside a moment I will get dressed and wake up both Harry and Ron.
Hermione nodded then looked around the room for a moment to make sure the others were either gone or asleep before she leaned in and kissed the half-awake Y/n.
The two stayed like that for a few moments before Hermione pulled away and left the room. Y/n just smiled and stroked a nearby Noctis's ears then got out of bed.
Once Y/n was dressed he and Hermione left to plough their way back to Hagrid's cabin through two feet of snow.
Harry and Ron had wanted to go with them, but their mountain of homework had reached an alarming height again, so they remained grudgingly in the common room, Trying to ignore the gleeful shouts drifting up from the grounds outside, where students were enjoying themselves skating on the frozen lake, tobogganing and, worst of all, bewitching snowballs to zoom up to Gryffindor Tower and rap hard on the windows.
"Oi!" bellowed Ron, finally losing patience and sticking his head out of the window. "I am a prefect and if one more snowball hits this window...OUCH!"
He withdrew his head sharply, his face covered in snow.
"It's Fred and George." he said bitterly, slamming the window behind him. "Gits..."
Y/n and Hermione returned from Hagrid's just before lunch, shivering slightly, their robes damp to the knees.
"So?" said Ron, looking up when they entered. "Got all his lessons planned for him?"
"It was a complete waste of time..." Y/n sighed sinking into the chair beside Harry's and leaving some room for Hermione.
"We did try." she said dully, sinking into the chair sitting with Y/n. She pulled out her wand and gave it a complicated little wave so that hot air streamed out of the tip, she then pointed this at her robes, which began to steam as they dried out before doing the same to Y/n's. "He wasn't even there when we arrived, I was knocking for at least half an hour. And then he came stumping out of the Forest..."
Harry groaned. The Forbidden Forest was teeming with the kind of creatures most likely to get Hagrid the sack. "What's he keeping in there? Did he say?" he asked.
"He would not tell us." Y/n said still feeling cold.
"He says he wants them to be a surprise." Hermione said. "I tried to explain about Umbridge, but he just doesn't get it. He kept saying nobody in their right mind would rather study Knarls than Chimaeras...oh, I don't think he's got a Chimaera." she added at the appalled look on Harry and Ron's faces. "But that's not for lack of trying, from what he said about how hard it is to get eggs. I don't know how many times I told him he'd be better off following Grubbly-Plank's plan, I honestly don't think he listened to half of what we said. He's in a bit of a funny mood, you know. He still won't say how he got all those injuries."
Hagrid's reappearance at the staff table at breakfast next day was not greeted by enthusiasm from all students. Some, like Fred, George and Lee, roared with delight and sprinted up the aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables to wring Hagrid's enormous hand, others, like Parvati and Lavender, exchanged gloomy looks and shook their heads. Harry knew that many of them preferred Professor Grubbly-Planks lessons, and the worst of it was that a very small, unbiased part of him knew that they had good reason. Grubbly-Plank's idea of an interesting class was not one where there was a risk that somebody might have their head ripped off. The only person he had never heard complaining about them was Y/n.
It was with a certain amount of apprehension that Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione headed down to Hagrid's on Tuesday, heavily muffled against the cold. Harry was worried, not only about what Hagrid might have decided to teach them but also about how the rest of the class, particularly Malfoy and his cronies, would behave if Umbridge was watching them.
However, the High Inquisitor was nowhere to be seen as they struggled through the snow towards Hagrid, who stood waiting for them on the edge of the Forest. He did not present a reassuring sight, the bruises that had been purple on Saturday night were now tinged with green and yellow and some of his cuts still seemed to be bleeding. None of them could understand this. Had Hagrid perhaps been attacked by some creature whose venom prevented the wounds it inflicted from healing? As though to complete the ominous picture, Hagrid was carrying what looked like half a dead cow over his shoulder.
"We're workin' in here today!" Hagrid called happily to the approaching students, jerking his head back at the dark trees behind him. "Bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark."
"What prefers the dark?" Y/n heard Malfoy say sharply to Atticus, Crabbe and Goyle, a trace of panic in his voice. "What did he say prefers the dark...did you hear?"
Y/n remembered the only other occasion on which Malfoy had entered the Forest before now, he had not been very brave then, either.
Harry meanwhile just smiled to himself, after the Quidditch match anything that caused Malfoy discomfort was all right with him.
"Ready?" said Hagrid cheerfully, looking around at the class. "Right, well, I've bin savin' a trip inter the Forest fer yer fifth year. Thought we'd go an' see these creatures in their natural habitat. Now, what we're studyin' today is pretty rare, I reckon I'm probably the on'y person in Britain who's managed ter train 'em."
"And you're sure they're trained, are you?" said Malfoy, the panic in his voice even more pronounced. "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?"
The Slytherins murmured agreement and a few Gryffindors looked as though they thought Malfoy had a fair point, too.
"Course they're trained." said Hagrid, scowling and hoisting the dead cow a little higher on his shoulder.
"So what happened to your face, then?" demanded Malfoy.
"Mind yer own business!" said Hagrid, angrily. "Now, if yeh've finished askin' stupid questions, follow me!"
He turned and strode straight into the Forest. Nobody seemed much disposed to follow until Y/n began to walk forward first. Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione, who sighed but nodded, and the three of them set off after Y/n and Hagrid, who were leading the rest of the class.
They walked for about ten minutes until they reached a place where the trees stood so closely together that it was as dark as twilight and there was no snow at all on the ground. With a grunt, Hagrid deposited his half a cow on the ground, stepped back, and turned to face his class, most of whom were creeping from tree to tree towards him, peering around nervously as though expecting to be set upon at any moment.
"Gather roun', gather roun." Hagrid encouraged. "Now, they'll be attracted by the smell 'o the meat but I'm going ter give em a call anyway, 'cause they'll like ter know it's me."
He turned, shook his shaggy head to get the hair out of his face and gave an odd, shrieking cry that echoed through the dark trees like the call of some monstrous bird. Nobody laughed, most of them looked too scared to make a sound.
Hagrid gave the shrieking cry again. A minute passed in which the class continued to peer nervously over their shoulders and around trees for a first glimpse of whatever it was that was coming. And then, as Hagrid shook his hair back for a third lime and expanded his enormous chest.
Y/n watched with surprise as Harry nudged Ron and pointed into the black space between two gnarled yew trees.
A pair of blank, white, shining eyes were growing larger through the gloom and a moment later the dragonish face, neck, and then skeletal body of a great, black, winged horse emerged from the darkness. It surveyed the class for a few seconds, swishing its long black tail, then bowed its head and began to tear flesh from the dead cow with its pointed fangs.
A great wave of relief broke over Harry. Here at last was proof that he had not imagined these creatures, that they were real. Hagrid knew about them too. He looked eagerly at Ron, but Ron was still staring around into the trees and after a few seconds he whispered. "Why doesn't Hagrid call again?"
Most of the rest of the class were wearing expressions as confused and nervously expectant as Ron's and were still gazing everywhere but at the horse standing feet from them. There were only two other people who seemed to be able to see them, a stringy Slytherin boy standing just behind Goyle was watching the horse eating with an expression of great distaste on his face; and Neville, whose eyes were following the swishing progress of the long black tail.
"Oh, an' here comes another one!" said Hagrid proudly, as a second black horse appeared out of the dark trees, folded its leathery-wings closer to its body and dipped its head to gorge on the meat. "Now...put yer hands up, who can see 'em?"
Y/n was the first to rise his hand and Harry raised his hand. Hagrid nodded at him.
'Yeah...yeah, I knew you two'd be able ter, Harry, Y/n." he said seriously. "An' you too, Neville, eh? An'..."
"Excuse me." said Malfoy in a sneering voice. "But what exactly are we supposed to be seeing?"
For an answer, Hagrid pointed at the cow carcass on the ground. The whole class stared at it for a few seconds, then several people gasped and Parvati squealed. Y/n understood why, bits of flesh stripping themselves away from the bones and vanishing into thin air had to look very odd indeed.
"What's doing it?" Parvati demanded in a terrified voice, retreating behind the nearest tree. "What's eating it?"
"They are called Thestrals..." Y/n answered for her.
Hermione gave a soft "Oh!" of comprehension at Y/n's side before she looked at him a little sadly.
"You know bout Thestrals do ya Y/n?" Hagrid asked proudly.
"Yes." Y/n nodded. "My wand core is the hair from the mane of a Thestral...curious as to what they were I read about them in my first year." Y/n said then turned his head to Hagrid. "May I approach one carefully?" he asked.
"Course ya can. Just be gentle." Hagrid smiled not expecting anyone to be brave enough to ask. "ere, you can feed em one of ese." He then gave Y/n an apple.
Y/n just began to slowly and carefully move forward towards the nearest Thestral.
"Tha's it, nice an slow." Hagrid said to Y/n. The Thestral turned it's head towards Y/n and watched him as he approached. Its white eyes stared at his own and Y/n came to a stop as it began to move on its hooves uncertainly. Y/n lifted his arm with the apple in his hand and extended it, he waited as the Thestral slowly stuck its head forward in apprehension and moved forward. It's long face stopped in front of the apple and sniffed before taking a bite and removing the apple from Y/n's hand. Y/n lifted his other hand and began to stroke the Thestral gently as it relaxed in his presence.
"Well done Y/n!" Hagrid said proudly. His first lesson back was going better than he could of expected. "Ten points to Gryffindor. Hogwarts has got a whole herd of 'em in here. Now, who knows..."
"But they're really, really unlucky!" interrupted Parvati, looking alarmed. "They're supposed to bring all sorts of horrible misfortune on people who see them. Professor Trelawney told me once..."
"No, no, no." said Hagrid, chuckling. "Tha's jus' superstition, that is, they aren' unlucky, they're dead clever an' useful! Course, this lot don' get a lot o' work, it's mainly jus' pullin' the school carriages unless Dumbledore's takin' a long journey an' don' want ter Apparate...an' here's another couple, look..."
Two more horses came quietly out of the trees, one of them passing very close to Parvati, who shivered and pressed herself closer to the tree, saying. "I think I felt something, I think it's near me!"
"Don' worry, it won' hurt yeh." said Hagrid patiently. "Righ', now, who can tell me why some o' yeh can see 'em an' some can't?"
Hermione raised her hand.
"Go on then." said Hagrid, beaming at her.
"The only people who can see Thestrals." she said looking at Y/n who was stroking the Thestral's mane now looking calm as ever. "Are people who have seen death..."
"Tha's exactly right." said Hagrid solemnly. "Another ten points ter Gryffindor. Now, Thestrals..."
"Hem, hem." a voice coughed out and Y/n closed his eyes with frustration as he dared not look around.
Professor Umbridge had arrived. She was standing a few feet away from Harry, wearing her green hat and cloak again, her clipboard at the ready. Hagrid. who had never heard Umbridge's fake cough before, was gazing in some concern at the closest Thestral, evidently under the impression that it had made the sound.
"Hem, hem."
"Oh, hello!" Hagrid said, smiling, having located the source of the noise.
"You received the note I sent to your cabin this morning?" said Umbridge, in the same loud, slow voice she had used with him earlier, as though she were addressing somebody both foreign and very slow. "Telling you that I would be inspecting your lesson?"
"Oh, yeah." said Hagrid brightly. "Glad yeh found the place all righ'! Well, as you can see... or, I dunno...can you? We're doin' Thestrals today..."
"I'm sorry?" said Professor Umbridge loudly, cupping her hand around her ear and frowning. "What did you say?"
Hagrid looked a little confused. "Er...Thestrals!" he said loudly. "Big...er...winged horses, yeh know!"
He flapped his gigantic arms hopefully. Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows at him and muttered as she made a note on her clipboard. "Has...to...resort...to...crude...sign...language."
"Well...anyway..." said Hagrid, turning back to the class and looking slightly flustered. "Erm... what was I sayin?"
"Appears... to...have... poor... short . . . term . . . memory." muttered Umbridge, loudly enough for everyone to hear her. Draco Malfoy looked as though Christmas had come a month early, Hermione, on the other hand, had turned scarlet with suppressed rage. Y/n had left the Thestral now and secretly took her hand holding it. He loathed Umbridge but he did not want to cause problems that could affect Hagrid.
"Oh, yeah." said Hagrid, throwing an uneasy glance at Umbridge's clipboard, but ploughing on valiantly. "Yeah, I was gonna tell yeh how come we got a herd. Yeah, so, we started off with a male an' five females. This one." he patted the first horse to have appeared. "Name o' Tenebrus, he's my special favourite, firs' one born here in the Forest. The one fed and stroked, she's called Jadis."
"Are you aware." Umbridge said loudly, interrupting him. "That the Ministry of Magic has classified Thestrals as 'dangerous'?"
Harry's heart sank like a stone, but Hagrid merely chuckled. "Thestrals aren' dangerous! All righ', they might take a bite outta yeh if yeh really annoy them..."
"Shows...signs...of...pleasure...at...idea...of...violence." muttered Umbridge, scribbling on her clipboard again.
"No...come on!" said Hagrid, looking a little anxious now. "I mean, a dog'll bite if yeh bait it, won' it...but Thestrals have jus' got a bad reputation because o' the death thing...people used ter think they were bad omens, didn' they? Jus' didn' understand, did they?"
Umbridge did not answer, she finished writing her last note, then looked up at Hagrid and said, again very loudly and slowly. "Please continue teaching as usual. I am going to walk." She mimed walking as Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson were having silent fits of laughter. "Among the students." She pointed around at individual members of the class. "And ask them questions." She pointed at her mouth to indicate talking.
Hagrid stared at her, clearly at a complete loss to understand why she was acting as though he did not understand normal English. Hermione had tears of fury in her eyes now and Y/n's free hand was balled into a fist.
"You hag, you evil hag!" Hermione whispered as Umbridge walked towards Pansy Parkinson. "I know what you're doing, you awful, twisted, vicious..."
"Erm...anyway." said Hagrid, clearly struggling to regain the flow of his lesson. "So...Thestrals. Yeah. Well, there's loads o' good stuff abou' them..."
"Do you find." said Professor Umbridge in a ringing voice to Pansy Parkinson. "That you are able to understand Professor Hagrid when he talks?"
Just like Hermione, Pansy had tears in her eyes, but these were tears of laughter, indeed, her answer was almost incoherent because she was trying to suppress her giggles. "No...because... well...it sounds...like grunting a lot of the time..."
Umbridge scribbled on her clipboard. The few unbruised bits of Hagrid's face flushed, but he tried to act as though he had not heard Pansy's answer. "Er...yeah...good stuff abou' Thestrals. Well, once they're tamed, like this lot, yeh'll never be lost again. 'Mazin' sense o' direction, jus' tell 'em where yeh want ter go..."
"Assuming they can understand you, of course." said Malfoy loudly, and Pansy Parkinson collapsed in a fit of renewed giggles. Professor Umbridge smiled indulgently at them and then turned to Neville.
"You can see the Thestrals, Longbottom, can you?" she said.
Neville nodded.
"Who did you see die?" she asked, her tone indifferent.
"My...my grandad." said Neville.
"And what do you think of them?" she said, waving her stubby hand at the horses, who by now had stripped a great deal of the carcass down to bone.
"Erm." said Neville nervously, with a glance at Hagrid. "Well, they're... er...ok..."
"Students ...are...too...intimidated...to...admit...they...are...frightened." muttered Umbridge, making another note on her clipboard.
"No!" said Neville, looking upset. "No, I'm not scared of them!"
"It's quite all right." said Umbridge, patting Neville on the shoulder with what she evidently intended to be an understanding smile, though it looked more like a leer. "Well, Hagrid." she turned to look up at him again, speaking once more in that loud, slow voice. "I think I've got enough to be getting along with. You will receive..." she mimed taking something from the air in front of her. "the results of your inspection." she pointed at the clipboard. "In ten days' time." She held up ten stubby little fingers, then, her smile wider and more toadlike than ever before beneath her green hat, she bustled from their midst, leaving Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson in fits of laughter.
Y/n had to hold back Hermione, who was actually shaking with fury. Neville was just looking confused and upset.
"That foul, lying, twisting old gargoyle!" stormed Hermione half an hour later, as they made their way back up to the castle through the channels they had made earlier in the snow. "You see what she's up to? It's her thing about half-breeds all over again...she's trying to make out Hagrid's some kind of dimwitted troll, just because he had a giantess for a mother and... oh, it's not fair, that really wasn't a bad lesson at all, I mean, all right, if it had been Blast-Ended Skrewts again, but Thestrals are fine...in fact, for Hagrid, they're really good!"
"Umbridge said they're dangerous." said Ron.
"She also thinks we can learn everything we need to know from just reading a book and not practicing magic Ron..." Y/n pointed out.
"It's like Hagrid said, they can look after themselves." said Hermione impatiently. "And I suppose a teacher like Grubbly-Plank wouldn't usually show them to us before NEWT level, but, well, they are very interesting, aren't they? The way some people can see them and some can't! I wish I could."
"Do you?" Harry asked her quietly.
Hermione looked suddenly horrorstruck. "Oh, Y/n, Harry...I'm sorry...no, of course I don't...that was a really stupid thing to say."
"It's ok." Harry said quickly. "Don't worry."
"We both know what you meant Hermione. But personally, I would rather you were able to go through life without being able to see one." Y/n said.
"I'm surprised so many people could see them." said Ron. "Four in a class..."
"Yeah, Weasley, we were just wondering." said a malicious voice. Unheard by any of them in the muffling snow, Malfoy, Atticus, Crabbe and Goyle were walking along right behind them. "D'you reckon if you saw someone snuff it you'd be able to see the Quaffle better?"
Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle roared with laughter as they pushed past on their way to the castle, then broke into a chorus of 'Weasley is our King'. Ron's ears turned scarlet.
"Ignore them, just ignore them." intoned Hermione, pulling out her wand and performing the charm to produce hot air again, so that she could melt them an easier path through the untouched snow between them and the greenhouses.
December arrived, bringing with it more snow and a positive avalanche of homework for the fifth-years. Ron and Hermione's prefect duties also became more and more onerous as Christmas approached. They were called upon to supervise the decoration of the castle.
"You try putting up tinsel when Peeves has got the other end and is trying to strangle you with it." said Ron on one occasion.
To watch over first- and second-years spending their break times inside because of the bitter cold.
"And they're cheeky little snot-rags, you know, we definitely weren't that rude when we were in first year." said Ron.
And to patrol the corridors in shifts with Argus Filch, who suspected that the holiday spirit might show itself in an outbreak of wizard duels.
"He's got dung for brains, that one." said Ron furiously.
They were so busy that Hermione had even stopped knitting elf hats and was fretting that she was down to her last three. "All those poor elves I haven't set free yet, having to stay here over Christmas because there aren't enough hats!"
Y/n, who had been told by Harry that Dobby was the one in fact taking all the hats did not have the heart to tell her.
Harry himself just bent lower over his History of Magic essay. In any case, he did not want to think about Christmas. For the first time in his school career, he very much wanted to spend the holidays away from Hogwarts. Between his Quidditch ban and worry about whether or not Hagrid was going to be put on probation, he felt highly resentful towards the place at the moment. The only thing he really looked forward to were the DA meetings, and they would have to stop over the holidays, as nearly everybody in the DA would be spending time with their families. Y/n was going to be spending Christmas with Hermione this year going skiing with her parents, something that greatly amused Ron, who had never heard of Muggles strapping narrow strips of wood onto their feet to slide down mountains.
Ron was going home to The Burrow. Harry endured several days of envy before Ron said, in response to Harry asking him how he was going to get home for Christmas. "But you're coming too! Didn't I say? Mum wrote and told me to invite you weeks ago!"
"Then why did you not tell him weeks ago?" Y/n asked Ron.
"Dunno...guess I just forgot..." Ron shrugged.
Y/n just rubbed his frustrated eyes as Hermione rolled her own, but Harry's spirits soared. The thought of Christmas at The Burrow was truly wonderful, though slightly marred by Harry's guilty feeling that he would not be able to spend the holiday with Sirius. He wondered whether he could possibly persuade Mrs. Weasley to invite his godfather for the festivities. Even though he doubted whether Dumbledore would permit Sirius to leave Grimmauld Place anyway, he could not help but think Mrs. Weasley might not want him, they were so often at loggerheads. Sirius had not contacted Harry at all since his last appearance in the fire, and although Harry knew that with Umbridge on constant watch it would be unwise to attempt to contact him, he did not like to think of Sirius alone in his mother's old house, perhaps pulling a lonely cracker with Kreacher.
Y/n and Harry arrived early in the Room of Requirement for the last DA meeting before the holidays and were very surprised because when the torches burst into flame they saw that someone had taken it upon themselves to decorate the place for Christmas.
"Dobby..." Harry said and Y/n looked to see Harry pointing at a hundred golden baubles from the ceiling, each showing a picture of Harry's face and bearing the message. 'HAVE A VERY HARRY CHRISTMAS!'
"Dobby must know about the room of requirement." Y/n commented in thought. "However given we have not been expelled or punished it must mean Umbridge is still unaware of what we are doing, or at the very least unable to find us."
"Help me take these down before the others get here." Harry said.
"Why? I think they are rather fun." Y/n chuckled.
"That's because it's not your face plastered all over them..." Harry said.
"A fair point, I will visit Dobby later in the kitchens to give him thanks for his decorations at least." Y/n said.
Y/n and Harry had only just managed to get the last of them down before the door creaked open and Luna Lovegood entered, looking as dreamy as usual.
"Hello." she said vaguely, looking around at what remained of the decorations.
"Hello Miss Lovegood." Y/n greeted her.
"These are nice, did you put them up?"
"No." said Harry. "It was Dobby the house elf."
"Mistletoe." said Luna dreamily, pointing at a large clump of white berries placed almost over Harry's head. He jumped out from under it. "Good thinking." said Luna very seriously. "It's often infested with Nargles."
Y/n was about to ask what Nargles were but was stopped by the arrival of Angelina, Katie and Alicia. All three of them were breathless and looked very cold.
"Well." said Angelina dully, pulling off her cloak and throwing it into a corner. "We've finally replaced you two."
"Replaced us?" said Harry blankly.
"You two, Fred and George." she said impatiently. "We've got another Seeker!
"Oh, the Quidditch team." Y/n said now realizing.
"Who?" said Harry quickly.
"Ginny Weasley." said Katie.
Harry gaped at her.
"Yeah, I know." said Angelina, pulling out her wand and flexing her arm. "But I took Y/n's suggestion and she's pretty good, actually. Nothing on you, of course,' she said, throwing him a very dirty look, but as we can't have you..."
"And who took my place?" Y/n asked before Harry could retort.
"I did." Alicia said now.
"Then I can have no worries. You were the Chaser that was on the team before I joined after all." Y/n said.
"Yeah, thanks for doing that." Alicia said to him. "I loved playing for the team but that year I had a lot going on and I couldn't give my time to the time like I needed to. But you came in and took to it immediately. I was a little jealous at first, but I'm glad we won the cup. I'm going to give it my all this year...I want to win it before we leave."
"Then I shall be cheering you on Miss Spinnet." Y/n said.
"What about the Beaters?" Harry asked, trying to keep his voice even.
"Andrew Kirke." said Alicia without enthusiasm. "And Jack Sloper. Neither of them are brilliant, but compared to the rest of the idiots who turned up..."
The arrival of Ron, Hermione and Neville brought this depressing discussion to an end, and within five minutes the room was full enough to begin.
Y/n stood by Harry's side as he waited for him to start.
"Ok." Harry said, calling them all to order. "Y/n and I thought this evening we would just go over the things we've done so far, because it's the last meeting before the holidays and there's no point starting anything new right before a three-week break..."
"We're not doing anything new?" said Zacharias Smith, in a disgruntled whisper loud enough to carry through the room. "If I'd known that, I wouldn't have come."
"We're all really sorry Harry didn't tell you, then." said Fred loudly.
Several people sniggered. Harry saw Cho laughing and felt the familiar swooping sensation in his stomach, as though he had missed a step going downstairs.
"Once again Mr Smith...the door." Y/n said extending his arm but Smith did not move.
"We can practice in pairs." said Harry. "We'll start with the Impediment Jinx, for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and try Stunning again."
They all divided up obediently, Harry partnered with Neville while Y/n paired with Hermione as usual.
Hermione was casting towards Y/n as he used the shield charm.
"Good, good!" Y/n encouraged as he deflected her spells. "While I may be defending they are successful castings. Had I not been able to defend you would have frozen me in place."
"No more frozen than we will be with my parents this Christmas." Hermione said to him.
"Yes, I still am not quite sure how I will do with this skiing but I shall give it a go." Y/n chuckled. "Now, again." Y/n instructed her.
The room was soon full of intermittent cries of "Impedimenta!" People froze for a minute or so, during which their partner would stare aimlessly around the room watching other pairs at work, then would unfreeze and take their turn at the jinx.
Neville had improved beyond all recognition. After a while, when Harry had unfrozen three times in a row, he had Neville join Ron again so that he could walk around the room and watch the others. When he passed Cho she beamed at him, he resisted the temptation to walk past her several more times.
After ten minutes on the Impediment Jinx, they laid out cushions all over the floor and started practicing Stunning again. Space was really too confined to allow them all to work this spell at once, half the group observed the others for a while, then swapped over.
Y/n felt himself positively swelling with pride as he watched them all. True, Neville did Stun Padma Patil rather than Dean, at whom he had been aiming, but it was a much closer miss than usual, and everybody else had made enormous progress.
At the end of an hour, Harry called a halt. "You're getting really good." he said, beaming around at them. "When we get back from the holidays we can start doing some of the big stuff."
"Perhaps maybe Patronuses." Y/n suggested.
There was a murmur of excitement. The room began to clear in the usual twos and threes, most people wished Y/n and Harry a 'Happy Christmas' as they went. Y/n collected up the cushions with Ron and Hermione and stacked them neatly away then left with them as Harry hung back a little, because Cho was still there and he was hoping to receive a 'Merry Christmas' from her.
"Why are we going back to the common room without Harry?" Ron asked Y/n and Hermione as they were heading towards Gryffindor Tower.
"You really do have no subtlety do you?" Y/n said.
"Honestly Ron." Hermione shook her head.
Harry returned to the common room half an hour later to find Y/n, Hermione and Ron near the best seats by the fire, nearly everybody else had gone to bed. Y/n was reading a book while Hermione was writing a very long letter, she had already filled half a roll of parchment, which was dangling from the edge of the table. Ron was lying on the hearthrug, trying to finish his Transfiguration homework.
"What kept you?" Ron asked, as Harry sank into the armchair next to Y/n and Hermione's.
Harry didn't answer. He was in a state of shock. Half of him wanted to tell Ron, Y/n and Hermione what had just happened, but the other half wanted to take the secret with him to the grave.
"Are you all right, Harry?" Hermione asked, peering at him over the tip of her quill. Her question got Y/n's curiosity as he lowered his book to look at Harry.
Harry gave a half-hearted shrug.
"What's up?" said Ron, hoisting himself up on his elbow to get a clearer view of Harry. "What's happened?"
Harry didn't quite know how to set about telling them and still wasn't sure whether he wanted to. Just as he had decided not to say anything, Hermione took matters out of his hands.
"Is it Cho?" she asked in a businesslike way. "Did she corner you after the meeting?"
Numbly surprised, Harry nodded.
Ron sniggered, breaking off when Y/n caught his eye. "So...er...what did she want?" he asked in a mock casual voice.
"She..." Harry began, rather hoarsely, he cleared his throat and tried again. "She...er..."
"Did you kiss?" asked Hermione briskly.
Ron sat up so fast that he sent his ink bottle flying all over the rug. Disregarding this completely, he stared avidly at Harry. "Well?" he demanded.
Harry looked from Ron's expression of mingled curiosity, Y/n's thoughtful gaze and hilarity to Hermione's slight frown, and nodded.
"Ha!" Ron made a triumphant gesture with his fist and went into a raucous peal of laughter that made several timid-looking second-years over beside the window jump. A reluctant grin spread over Harry's face as he watched Ron rolling around on the hearthrug.
Hermione gave Ron a look of deep disgust and returned to her letter.
"I do not remember you reacting like this when we told you Hermione and I were now together, In fact, you behaved rather moody." Y/n said to Ron.
But Ron ignored him and turned to Harry "Well?" Ron said finally, looking up at Harry. "How was it?"
Harry considered for a moment
"Wet." he said truthfully.
Ron made a noise that might have indicated jubilation or disgust, it was hard to tell.
"Wet?" Y/n repeated confused.
"Because she was crying." Harry continued heavily.
"Oh." said Ron, his smile fading slightly.
"She was crying?" Y/n said.
"Are you that bad at kissing?" Ron said.
"Dunno." said Harry, who hadn't considered this, and immediately felt rather worried. "Maybe I am."
"Of course you're not." said Hermione absently, still scribbling away at her letter.
"How do you know?" said Ron very sharply.
"Yes...how do you know?" Y/n asked her.
"Because Cho spends half her time crying these days." said Hermione. "She does it at mealtimes, in the loos, all over the place."
"You'd think a bit of kissing would cheer her up." said Ron, grinning.
"Ron." said Hermione in a dignified voice, dipping the point of her quill into her inkpot. "You are the most insensitive wart I have ever had the misfortune to meet."
"What's that supposed to mean?" said Ron indignantly. "What sort of person cries while someone's kissing them?"
"Yeah." said Harry, slightly desperately. "Who does?"
Hermione looked at the pair of them with an almost pitying expression on her face.
"Don't you understand how Cho's feeling at the moment?" she asked.
"No." said Harry and Ron together.
"I must admit I do not either." Y/n said.
Hermione sighed and laid down her quill. "Well, obviously, she's feeling very sad, because of Cedric dying. Then I expect she's feeling confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she can't work out who she likes best. Then she'll be feeling guilty, thinking it's an insult to Cedric's memory to be kissing Harry at all, and she'll be worrying about what everyone else might say about her if she starts going out with Harry. And she probably can't work out what her feelings towards Harry are, anyway, because he was with Cedric when Cedric died, so that's all very mixed up and painful. Oh, and she's afraid she's going to be thrown off the Ravenclaw Quidditch team because she's been flying so badly."
A slightly stunned silence greeted the end of this speech, then Ron said. "One person can't feel all that at once, they'd explode."
"Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have." said Hermione nastily, picking up her quill again.
"That indeed must be quite a lot on her mind." Y/n said sympathetically.
"She was the one who started it." said Harry. "I wouldn't've...she just sort of came at me...and next thing she's crying all over me...I didn't know what to do..."
"Don't blame you, mate." said Ron, looking alarmed at the very thought.
"You just had to be nice to her." said Hermione, looking up anxiously. "You were, weren't you?"
"Well." said Harry, an unpleasant heat creeping up his face. "I sort of...patted her on the back a bit."
Y/n just groaned and Hermione looked as though she was restraining herself from rolling her eyes with extreme difficulty. "Well, I suppose it could have been worse." she said. "Are you going to see her again?"
"I'll have to, won't I?" said Harry. "We've got DA meetings, haven't we?"
"You know what I mean." said Hermione impatiently.
Harry said nothing.
"Oh well." said Hermione distantly, buried in her letter once more. "You'll have plenty of opportunities to ask her."
"What if he doesn't want to ask her?" said Ron, who had been watching Harry with an unusually shrewd expression on his face.
"Don't be silly." said Hermione vaguely. "Harry's liked her for ages, haven't you, Harry?"
Harry did not answer again.
"Who're you writing the novel to, anyway?" Ron asked Hermione, trying to read the bit of parchment now trailing on the floor. Hermione hitched it up out of sight.
"My parent if you must know." Hermione said.
"Are they both still meeting us at the station?" Y/n asked.
"Yes. then we are staying at home for a day before flying to France the next to go skiing." Hermione said.
Y/n was a little nervous to try what Hermione had called an 'airplane' but he was looking forward to spending Christmas with her.
"I don't know why they were so insistent on skiing, they know I'm not the biggest fan." Hermione sighed.
They sat in silence for another twenty minutes, Ron finishing his Transfiguration essay with many snorts of impatience and crossings-out, Hermione writing steadily to the very end of the parchment, rolling it up carefully and sealing it, and Harry staring into the fire, wishing more than anything that Sirius's head would appear there and give him some advice about girls. But the fire merely crackled lower and lower, until the red-hot embers crumbled into ash and, looking around, Harry saw that they were, yet again, the last ones in the common room.
"Well, night." said Hermione, yawning widely and kissing Y/n goodnight, then she set off up the girls' staircase.
"How did you do it Y/n?" Ron demanded as he, Y/n and Harry climbed the boys' stairs soon after.
"Do what?" asked Y/n confused.
"How did you get with Hermione?" Ron pushed on.
Y/n stopped on the stairs for a moment. "You really are vulgar sometimes Ron." Y/n said before continuing to walk.
"Well how did you get her to like you then?" Ron pressed. "There's got to be something you did that can help Harry out at least."
Y/n looked at the pair now. "I was just myself. I never tried to show off, I never tried to be something different. I fell in love with Hermione over time and lucky for me, she did the same." They entered their dorm now.
"Fat lot of use that is." Ron groaned and Y/n rolled his eyes.
They pulled off their robes and put on pajamas in silence. Dean, Seamus and Neville were already asleep. Harry put his glasses on his bedside table and Y/n got into his bed as Noctis quickly jumped up on it and settled by his side. Harry did not pull the hangings closed around his four-poster bed, instead, he stared at the patch of starry sky visible through the window next to Neville's bed.
"Night." grunted Ron.
"Goodnight." Y/n replied opening up a book.
"Night." said Harry.
Time passed as light snores passed throughout the dormitory room. Only Y/n who was sat up in his bed reading was awake. Ron had fallen asleep almost immediately while Harry took a while to follow. Drowsiness was beginning to overtake Y/n as he had to reread a line several times. Letting out a yawn he decided it was perhaps best if he went to sleep now.
Just as he was about to close his book he heard what sounded sharp painful intake of breath. He quickly lowered his book to see that the noises were coming from Harry's bed.
"Harry?" Y/n called out to him but Harry just began to breathe more heavily and sweat profusely.
Y/n threw his book down now, picked up his pillow, and threw it at Ron waking him up as he rushed out of his bed to the side of Harry's
"What's going on?" Ron groaned tired.
"Ron it is Harry!" Y/n said.
"What?" Ron asked and turned his head but suddenly became wide-eyed as he could see Harry thrashing about in his bed. Ron quickly threw his covers aside looking terrified as he rushed over to Harry as well.
"What do we do?" Ron asked Y/n panicked.
"We need to wake him up." Y/n said.
"Harry! HARRY!" Ron began to cry out as Y/n tried to take hold of Harry and stop his shaking.
Harry opened his eyes. Every inch of his body was covered in icy sweat, his bed covers were twisted all around him like a strait-jacket and Y/n's hand were firmly on his shoulders.
"Harry!"
Y/n and Ron were standing over him looking extremely worried and frightened. There were more figures at the foot of Harry's bed. He clutched his head in his hands, the pain was blinding him... he rolled right over and vomited over the edge of the mattress.
"He's really ill." said a scared voice. "Should we call someone?"
"Go and fetch Professor McGonagall, immediately!" Y/n quickly said to them.
"Harry! Harry!" Ron said trying to get him to say something.
Harry taking great gulps of air, pushed himself up in bed, willing himself not to throw up again, the pain half-blinding him.
"Your dad." he panted, his chest heaving. "Your dad's...been attacked..."
"What?" said Ron uncomprehendingly.
"Harry what are you..." Y/n began.
"Your dad Ron! He's been bitten, it's serious, there was blood everywhere..."
Y/n and Ron looked at one another for a moment as Harry panted heavily.
"Harry, mate." said Ron uncertainly. "You...you were just dreaming..."
"No!" said Harry furiously. "It wasn't a dream...not an ordinary dream...I was there, I saw it...I did it..."
He could hear Seamus and Dean muttering but did not care. The pain in his forehead was subsiding slightly, though he was still sweating and shivering feverishly. He retched again and both Y/n and Ron leapt backwards out of the way.
"Harry, you are not well at all." Y/n said. "I sent Neville for help."
"I'm fine!" Harry choked, wiping his mouth on his pajamas and shaking uncontrollably. "There's nothing wrong with me, It's Ron's dad you've got to worry about...we need to find out where he is...he's bleeding like mad...I was...it was a huge snake."
"A snake? Y/n asked him quickly. "Like the one from last year?"
"Yes! Yes!" Harry quickly said. Desperate to hear that someone was finally understanding.
He tried to get out of bed but Ron pushed him back into it. Dean and Seamus were still whispering somewhere nearby.
"Harry just stay there for a moment. Professor McGonagall is coming alright?" Y/n tried to assure him as another minute passed ...then there were hurried footsteps coming up the stairs and he heard Neville's voice again.
"Over here, Professor."
Professor McGonagall came hurrying into the dormitory in her tartan dressing gown, her glasses perched lopsidedly on the bridge of her bony nose.
"What is it, Potter? Where does it hurt?"
Harry had never been so pleased to see her, it was a member of the Order of the Phoenix he needed now, not someone fussing over him and prescribing useless potions.
"It's Ron's dad." he said, sitting up again. "He's been attacked by a snake and it's serious, I saw it happen."
"What do you mean, you saw it happen?" said Professor McGonagall, her dark eyebrows contracting.
"I don't know...I was asleep and then I was there..."
"You mean you dreamed this?"
"No!" said Harry angrily, "I was having a dream at first about something completely different, something stupid...and then this interrupted it. It was real, I didn't imagine it. Mr. Weasley was asleep on the floor and he was attacked by a gigantic snake, there was a load of blood, he collapsed, someone's got to find out where he is..."
Professor McGonagall was gazing at him through her lopsided spectacles as though horrified at what she was seeing.
"I'm not lying and I'm not mad!" Harry told her, his voice rising to a shout. "I tell you, I saw it happen!"
"I believe you, Potter." said Professor McGonagall curtly. "Put on your dressing gown...we're going to see the Headmaster."
Harry was so relieved she was taking him seriously that he did not hesitate but jumped out of bed at once, pulled on his dressing gown, and pushed his glasses back onto his nose.
'Weasley, Grindelwald you both ought to come too." said Professor McGonagall.
They followed Professor McGonagall past the silent figures of Neville, Dean and Seamus, out of the dormitory down the spiral stairs into the common room, through the portrait hole and off along the Fat Lady's moonlit corridor. They passed Mrs. Norris, who turned her lamplike eyes upon them and hissed faintly but Professor McGonagall said. "Shoo!" Mrs. Norris slunk away into the shadows, and in a few minutes they had reached the stone gargoyle guarding the entrance to Dumbledore's office.
"Fizzing Whizzbee." said Professor McGonagall.
The gargoyle sprang to life and leapt aside, the wall behind it split in two to reveal a stone staircase that was moving continually upwards like a spiral escalator. The four of them stepped onto the moving stairs, the wall closed behind them with a thud and they were moving upwards in tight circles until they reached the highly polished oak door with the brass knocker shaped like a griffin.
Though it was now well past midnight there were voices coming from inside the room, a positive babble of them. It sounded as though Dumbledore was entertaining at least a dozen people.
Professor McGonagall rapped three times with the griffin knocker and the voices ceased abruptly as though someone had switched them all off. The door opened of its own accord and Professor McGonagall led Harry, Y/n and Ron inside.
The room was in half-darkness, the strange silver instruments standing on tables were silent and still rather than whirring and emitting puffs of smoke as they usually did, the portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses covering the walls were all snoozing in their frames. Behind the door, a magnificent red and gold bird the size of a swan dozed on its perch with its head under its wing.
"Oh, it's you, Professor McGonagall...and...ah."
Dumbledore was sitting in a high-backed chair behind his desk, he leaned forward into the pool of candlelight illuminating the papers laid out before him. He was wearing a magnificently embroidered purple and gold dressing gown over a snowy white nightshirt but seemed wide awake, his penetrating light blue eyes fixed intently upon Professor McGonagall.
"Professor Dumbledore, Potter has had a...well, a nightmare." said Professor McGonagall. "He says..."
"It wasn't a nightmare." said Harry quickly.
Professor McGonagall looked round at Harry, frowning slightly. "Very well, then, Potter, you tell the Headmaster about it."
"I...well, I was asleep..." said Harry and, even in his terror and his desperation to make Dumbledore understand, he felt slightly irritated that the Headmaster was not looking at him, but examining his own interlocked fingers. "But it wasn't an ordinary dream...it was real...I saw it happen..." He took a deep breath. "Ron's dad...Mr. Weasley...has been attacked by a giant snake."
The words seemed to reverberate in the air after he had said them, sounding slightly ridiculous, even comic. There was a pause in which Dumbledore leaned back and stared meditatively at the ceiling. Ron looked from Harry to Dumbledore, white-faced and shocked.
"How did you see this?" Dumbledore asked quietly, still not looking at Harry.
"Well...I don't know." said Harry, rather angrily. "What did it matter? Inside my head, I suppose..."
"You misunderstand me." said Dumbledore, still in the same calm tone. "I mean...can you remember...where you were positioned as you watched this attack happen? Were you perhaps standing beside the victim, or else looking down on the scene from above?"
This was such a curious question that Harry gaped at Dumbledore, it was almost as though he knew.
Y/n however glanced at Harry. He could not understand why Harry could possibly be dreaming of the snake from last year. He could have understood it earlier in the year if it was out of fear of the graveyard, but for this to happen almost six months later? This was puzzling him.
"I was the snake." Harry said. "I saw it all from the snake's point of view."
Nobody else spoke for a moment, then Dumbledore, now looking at Ron who was still whey-faced, asked in a new and sharper voice. "Is Arthur seriously injured?"
"Yes." said Harry emphatically why were they all so slow on the uptake, did they not realise how much a person bled when fangs that long pierced their side? And why could Dumbledore not do him the courtesy of looking at him?
But Dumbledore stood up, so quickly it made Harry jump, and addressed one of the old portraits hanging very near the ceiling. "Everard?" he said sharply. "And you too, Dilys!"
A sallow-faced wizard with a short black fringe and an elderly witch with long silver ringlets in the frame beside him, both of whom seemed to have been in the deepest of sleeps, opened their eyes immediately.
"You were listening?" said Dumbledore.
The wizard nodded.
"Naturally." The witch said.
"The man has red hair and glasses." said Dumbledore. "Everard, you will need to raise the alarm, make sure he is found by the right people..."
Both nodded and moved sideways out of their frames, but Y/n saw that instead of emerging in neighboring pictures as what usually happened at Hogwarts neither reappeared. One frame now contained nothing but a backdrop of dark curtain, the other a handsome leather armchair. Y/n noticed that many of the other headmasters and mistresses on the walls, though snoring and drooling most convincingly, kept sneaking peeks at him from under their eyelids, and he suddenly understood who had been talking when they had knocked.
"Everard and Dilys were two of Hogwarts's most celebrated Heads." Dumbledore said, now sweeping around Harry, Y/n, Ron and Professor McGonagall to approach the magnificent sleeping bird on his perch beside the door. "Their renown is such that both have portraits hanging in other important wizarding institutions. As they are free to move between their own portraits, they can tell us what may be happening elsewhere..."
"But Mr. Weasley could be anywhere!" said Harry.
Y/n had to admit Harry was right, this certainly was a gamble.
"Please sit down, all four of you." said Dumbledore, as though Harry had not spoken. "Everard and Dilys may not be back for several minutes. Professor McGonagall, if you could draw up extra chairs."
Professor McGonagall pulled her wand from the pocket of her dressing gown and waved it. Four chairs appeared out of thin air, straight-backed and wooden. Y/n sat down and saw Ron who was looking very pale staring at the floor. There was nothing he could say at this moment however. No one knew what was happening. Y/n turned his head to see Harry watching Dumbledore over his shoulder. Dumbledore was now stroking Fawkes's plumed golden head with one finger. The phoenix awoke immediately. He stretched his beautiful head high and observed Dumbledore through bright, dark eyes.
"We will need." Dumbledore said very quietly to the bird. "A warning."
There was a flash of fire and the phoenix had gone.
Dumbledore now swooped down upon one of the fragile silver instruments whose function Y/n had never known, carried it over to his desk, sat down facing them again and tapped it gently with the tip of his wand.
The instrument tinkled into life at once with rhythmic clinking noises. Tiny puffs of pale green smoke issued from the minuscule silver tube at the top. Dumbledore watched the smoke closely, his brow furrowed. After a few seconds, the tiny puffs became a steady stream of smoke that thickened and coiled in the air...a serpent's head grew out of the end of it, opening its mouth wide. "Naturally, naturally." murmured Dumbledore apparently to himself, still observing the stream of smoke without the slightest sign of surprise. "But in essence divided?"
Y/n could make neither head nor tail of this question. The smoke serpent, however, split itself instantly into two snakes, both coiling and undulating in the dark air. With a look of grim satisfaction, Dumbledore gave the instrument another gentle tap with his wand, the clinking noise slowed and died and the smoke serpents grew faint, became a formless haze and vanished.
Dumbledore replaced the instrument on its spindly little table and soon there was a shout from the top of the wall to their right, the wizard called Everard had reappeared in his portrait. , panting slightly. "Dumbledore!"
"What news?" said Dumbledore at once.
"I yelled until someone came running." said the wizard, who was mopping his brow on the curtain behind him. "Said I'd heard something moving downstairs. They weren't sure whether to believe me but went down to check, you know there are no portraits down there to watch from. Anyway, they carried him up a few minutes later. He doesn't look good, he's covered in blood, I ran along to Elfrida Cragg's portrait to get a good view as they left..."
"Good." said Dumbledore as Y/n's blood ran cold and Ron made a convulsive movement. "I take it Dilys will have seen him arrive, then..."
And moments later, the silver-ringleted witch had reappeared in her picture, too, she sank, coughing, into her armchair and said. "Yes, they've taken him to St. Mungo's, Dumbledore... they carried him past my portrait...he looks bad..."
"Thank you." said Dumbledore. He looked round at Professor McGonagall. "Minerva, I need you to go and wake the other Weasley children."
"Of course." Professor McGonagall got up and moved swiftly to the door. Harry cast a sideways glance at Ron, who was looking terrified and Y/n who had his hand on his forehead with his eyes closed for a moment seemingly taking in the news.
"And Dumbledore...what about Molly?" said Professor McGonagall, pausing at the door.
"That will be a job for Fawkes when he has finished keeping a lookout for anybody approaching." said Dumbledore. "But she may already know, that excellent clock of hers."
Y/n knew Dumbledore was referring to the clock that told, not the time, but the whereabouts and conditions of the various Weasley family members, and with a pang he thought that Mr. Weasley's hand must, even now, be pointing at mortal peril. But it was very late. Mrs. Weasley was probably asleep, not watching the clock. Y/n felt cold as he remembered Mrs. Weasley's boggart turning into Mr. Weasley's lifeless body, his glasses askew, blood running down his face... but Mr. Weasley wasn't going to die...he couldn't...
Dumbledore was now rummaging in a cupboard behind Harry and Ron. He emerged from it carrying a blackened old kettle, which he placed carefully on his desk. He raised his wand and murmured. "Portus!" For a moment the kettle trembled, glowing with an odd blue light, then it quivered to rest, as solidly black as ever.
Dumbledore marched over to another portrait, this time of a clever-looking wizard with a pointed beard, who had been painted wearing the Slytherin colours of green and silver and was apparently sleeping so deeply that he could not hear Dumbledore's voice when he attempted to rouse him.
"Phineas. Phineas."
The subjects of the portraits lining the room were no longer pretending to be asleep, they were shifting around in their frames, the better to watch what was happening. When the clever-looking wizard continued to feign sleep, some of them shouted his name, too.
"Phineas! Phineas! PHINEAS!"
He could not pretend any longer, he gave a theatrical jerk and opened his eyes wide. "Did someone call?"
"I need you to visit your other portrait again, Phineas." said Dumbledore. "I've got another message."
"Visit my other portrait?" said Phineas in a reedy voice, giving a long, fake yawn as his eyes traveled around the room and focused on Harry. "Oh, no, Dumbledore, I am too tired tonight."
Something about Phineas's voice was familiar to Harry, where had he heard it before? But before he could think, the portraits on the surrounding walls broke into a storm of protest.
"Insubordination, sir!" roared a corpulent, red-nosed wizard, brandishing his fists. "Dereliction of duty!"
"We are honour-bound to give service to the present Headmaster of Hogwarts!' cried a frail-looking old wizard whom Harry recognized as Dumbledore's predecessor, Armando Dippet. "Shame on you, Phineas!"
"Shall I persuade him, Dumbledore?" called a gimlet-eyed witch, raising an unusually thick wand that looked not unlike a birch rod.
"Oh, very well." said the wizard called Phineas, eyeing the wand with mild apprehension. "Though he may well have destroyed my picture by now, he's done away with most of the family..."
"Sirius knows not to destroy your portrait." said Dumbledore, and Harry realized immediately where he had heard Phineas's voice before, issuing from the apparently empty frame in his bedroom in Grimmauld Place. "You are to give him the message that Arthur Weasley has been gravely injured and that his wife, children and Harry Potter will be arriving at his house shortly. Do you understand?"
"What about me sir?" Y/n quickly asked Dumbledore noticing his name had not been mentioned.
"You will remain here at Hogwarts until term comes to an end." Dumbledore said.
"But sir..." Y/n began.
"Arthur Weasley, injured, wife and children and Harry Potter coming to stay." Interrupted Phineas in a bored voice. "Yes, yes. Very well..."
He sloped away into the frame of the portrait and disappeared from view at the very moment the study door opened again. Fred, George and Ginny were ushered inside by Professor McGonagall, all three of them looking disheveled and shocked, still in their night things.
"Harry...what's going on?" asked Ginny, who looked frightened. "Professor McGonagall says you saw Dad get hurt..."
"Your father has been injured in the course of his work for the Order of the Phoenix." said Dumbledore, before Harry could speak. "He has been taken to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. I am sending you back to Sirius's house, which is much more convenient for the hospital than The Burrow. You will meet your mother there."
"How're we going?" asked Fred, looking shaken. "Floo powder?"
"No." said Dumbledore. "Floo powder is not safe at the moment, the Network is being watched. You will be taking a Portkey." He indicated the old kettle lying innocently on his desk. "We are just waiting for Phineas Nigellus to report back. I want to be sure that the coast is clear before sending you..."
There was a flash of flame in the very middle of the office, leaving behind a single golden feather that floated gently to the floor.
"It is Fawkes's warning." said Dumbledore, catching the feather as it fell. "Professor Umbridge must know you're out of your beds. Minerva, go and head her off, tell her any story you must."
Professor McGonagall was gone in a swish of tartan.
"He says he'll be delighted." said a bored voice behind Dumbledore, the wizard called Phineas had reappeared in front of his Slytherin banner. "My great-great-grandson has always had an odd taste in house-guests."
"Y/n please remain seated, the rest of you come here." Dumbledore said to Harry and the Weasleys. "And quickly, before anyone else joins us."
Harry and the others looked to Y/n uncertain as to why he was being asked to remain behind as they gathered around Dumbledore's desk.
"You have all used a Portkey before?" asked Dumbledore, and they nodded, each reaching out to touch some part of the blackened kettle.
Y/n just watched.
"Good. On the count of three, then...one...two..."
It happened in a fraction of a second, in the infinitesimal pause before Dumbledore said 'three', Harry looked up at him...they were very close together and Dumbledore's clear blue gaze moved from the Portkey to Harry's face.
At once, Harry's scar burned white-hot, as though the old wound had burst open again and unbidden, unwanted, but terrifyingly strong, there rose within Harry a hatred so powerful he felt, for that instant, he would like nothing better than to strike...to bite...to sink his fangs into the man before him.
"...three."
Y/n just watched as the group disappeared leaving him and Dumbledore alone.
"Describe to me Grindelwald, what happened to young Harry tonight." Dumbledore immediately asked.
"We had all gone to bed sir, Everyone else but myself had already drifted off to sleep but I had been reading in bed when I heard noises coming from Harry's bed. Curious I turned my head to see him struggling in his sleep. Quickly sensing trouble I quickly awoke Ron Weasley and we both watched Harry begin to breathe more heavily and sweat profusely. We did not know what to do but then Harry began thrashing around in his bed and I grabbed his shoulders to try to stop him." Y/n told Dumbledore.
"And what happened next?" Dumbledore pushed.
"Then Harry woke up sir and told us of this...vision of Mr Weasley being attacked." Y/n finished.
Dumbledore sat down in his chair now as she seemed to think over everything Y/n had just told him.
"Professor...does this have something to do with Voldemort?" Y/n began to ask. "That Snake Harry is supposed to have been...is it his one?"
Dumbledore made no indication to immediately answer though and Y/n just sighed.
"If you cannot answer that question then can you at least tell me why you have stopped me going with the others? Mr Weasley is..."
"Y/n." Dumbledore stopped him.
"I am aware of the friendship you and Harry both share with the Weasley family." Dumbledore began. "However sending you along with the others would only present further difficulties for myself and for you."
"Further difficulties?" Y/n repeated.
"I sent Harry away tonight before Umbridge could interfere, We do not want to draw attention to the fact that Harry is having visions. You remember Fudge's reaction to the suggestion Harry's scar was giving him warnings."
Y/n grimmaced indeed remembering Fudge's reaction.
"The Weasley children can be sent home under the true pretense of a family emergency, Harry is able to join them owing to the fact he is meant to be staying with them for the Christmas Holidays. You however to my knowledge are staying with the Granger's this Christmas." Dumbledore continued reminding Y/n of this fact.
Y/n had been so caught up in everything that he had forgotten this very fact. He felt grateful in this moment to Dumbledore for stopping him going, for as much as he was sure Hermione would understand he did not want to imagine the possibility if she didn't.
"If I were to send you as well without any justifiable reason then Professor Umbridge would only have more suspicions than she is bound to already." Dumbledore finished.
"So you are trying to save yourself from further questions from Umbridge and me from Hermione's potential anger if I were to leave without a word." Y/n summarised.
"On the nose as I believe they say, Mr Grindelwald." Dumbledore said and surely would have smiled had the situation not been so grave. "You shall of course break the news to Miss Granger of what has taken place tonight, but I must ask that you keep what has happened in detail a secret from others. It is best if the nature of Mr Weasley's attack and how it was discovered to have taken place was kept hidden."
"You mean because of the Ministry and Umbridge?" Y/n asked.
Dumbledore only gave a small nod.
"Dumbledore, Dumblerdore." One of the figures in the portraits called out now.
"What is it Dilys?" Dumbledore asked immediately.
"Molly Weasley's just arrived at St Mungo's." Dily's reported. "I overheard her talking with the healers. It's looking uncertain Dumbledore, He seems to be in the balance."
Y/n felt awful. Here he was sat in Dumbledore's office while Mr Weasley was hovering somewhere between life and death in St Mungo's.
Another golden feather appeared in the room now. "It seems Umbridge is still insistent on investigating tonight's events."
And Dumbledore was right for not twenty seconds later the sound of insistent knocking could be heard upon the office door. Y/n watched as Dumlbedore's eyes traveled to the door and it began to open on its own.
Stood behind it was a fuming Umbridge and a frustrated-looking McGonagall.
"Good evening Dolores." Dumbledore said.
Y/n looked to the side to see that even now Umbridge was dressed in pink as she had a dressing gown wrapped around her. "It has come to my attention Dumbledore, that there are students who are out of bed." Umbridge said as if trying to take a tone of authority.
"Well as you can see Dolores, Young Grindelwald is here in my office right now." Dumbledore said feigning slight ignorance.
Umbridge's gaze quickly turned to Y/n but he did not look away or become unnerved.
"Mr Potter and The Weasleys are also reported to have been out of their beds." Umbridge continued.
"They were also summoned to this office, but have since been allowed to leave the school grounds." Dumbledore informed her.
"You've allowed them to leave?" Umbridge repeated the words in a mix of shock and anger. "Under what..."
"The authority to allow students to leave the school for family or medical emergencies still lies with the headmaster Dolores." Dumbledore stopped her. "Tonight we have been informed that Arthur Weasley, a fellow employee of yours at the Ministry has been taken to St Mungo's." Dumbledore began.
"St Mungo's?" Umbridge asked. "And how did you come by this information?"
"I provided it." A voice called out as everyone in the room looked at a portrait.
"And who are you might I ask?" Umbridge asked the figure slightly annoyed.
"Dilys Derwent. Former Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Dily's announced herself. "Given your importance, I'm sure you know who I am?"
"Oh..Yes, yes of course." Umbridge replied.
But Y/n was quite certain Umbridge didn't and would rather not admit her lack of knowledge.
"Then you should also know that my portrait hangs in St Mungo's where I worked for a time, I saw the wizard known as Arthur Weasley being brought in and decided to alert Dumbledore to what I had seen." Dilys continued.
"And what did you see?" Umbridge questioned.
"A man on the brink of death." Dilys answered immediately.
Umbridge grimaced slightly at the answer, but Y/n knew it wasn't out of care for Mr Weasley but rather because she couldn't question Dumbledore for allowing the others to leave when they had a valid reason. But then her grimace disappeared.
"Well, that explains Potter and the Weasleys Dumbledore, but why is Mr Grindelwald in your office then?" Umbridge asked determined to leave with some sort of prize.
"As I'm sure you are probably already aware Dolores, Young Grindelwald is a family friend of the Weasleys and happened to be awake at the same time as the other Weasleys and Mr Potter were awoken." Dumbledore immediately started. "Given the situation, we felt it right to inform him of what we have just been told. However, given he is not staying with the Weasleys for the Christmas Holidays I have not permitted him to leave the school grounds with them."
Umbridge looked stumped. It was very clear she wanted to be angry at something but everything had been done to the books. Y/n just watched with satisfaction as her face scrunched up trying to think of any further questions.
"Minerva, If I could ask you to escort Mr Grindelwald back to the Gryffindor common room." Dumbledore asked now.
"Of course Headmaster." McGonagall said. "Come along Grindelwald." She beckoned to him.
Y/n slowly rose up out of his chair not even giving Umbridge a glance. "Thank you Headmaster for letting me know of the situation and please inform me of any developments with Mr Weasley." Y/n said playing along with Dumbledore. "Have a Merry Christmas." He then added leaving with Professor McGonagall.