Belong to Nowhere
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Chapter 11: Misunderstandings
Grimmauld Place
Sirius´ bedroom
"I brought some breakfast," Remus Lupin said, placing the tray on the small table near the window.
Sirius stood up from the armchair and quickly came to the table, starting to eat almost immediately. "Thank you, Remus," he said in between bites. "I was really hungry."
Remus nodded. He looked at Sirius and then at Hermione. Two days had passed and she hadn't woken up yet. "Any changes?" he asked hopefully.
"No." Sirius shook his head sadly. "Sometimes, at night, she mumbled some incoherent words- Filius said it's normal- but it's still the same." He sipped his tea. "And what about Harry? How is McGonagall managing him and Ron?"
"Well, she's trying! Poor Minerva!" Remus laughed without humor. "She told them that Hermione had to deal with some family issues...something about her parents will."
"And they bought it?" Sirius asked hopefully.
"Well, er, more or less." Sirius raised an eyebrow at Remus. "You see, in the beginning it seemed that they had believed it, but the problem is that they overheard something from Minerva and Filius."
"What? What was it?" Sirius asked quickly, pausing in his eating.
"They overheard McGonagall and Flitwick talking about a blue phoenix." Remus replied with a sigh as he looked down at Hermione's form.
********
Hogwarts
DADA´s classroom
"I know McGonagall is lying," Harry hissed. He and Ron had just arrived at the DADA´s classroom. They and the others students were waiting for the professor.
"Harry, mate, maybe McGonagall is telling the truth," Ron said hesitantly, not wanting to upset Harry.
"No, Ron!" Harry replied a little louder than he intended. "I know she's lying. Something happened to Hermione. Something-" He stopped and closed his eyes, sighing heavily, then opening them seconds later. Just the thought that something might have happened to Hermione made him uneasy. He knew he couldn't go on without her. He wasn't even sure if he could live without her. She was far too important to him. He didn't even know what he'd do without her.
Ron looked at his friend sympathetically. "Harry, even if McGonagall isn't telling the whole truth, I doubt that something serious happened to Hermione."
"But what about that Blue phoenix?" Harry retorted back angrily. How could Ron take this so easily? It was his Hermione they were talking about!
"Blue Phoenix???" Dean Thomas said to himself, but loud enough for Harry to hear him. He and Seamus were sitting right behind Harry and Ron.
Harry spun around so quickly that Ron could swear it was unnatural to move that fast. "What did you say?" Harry asked earnestly.
"I heard you mentioning a blue phoenix. Hermione-" Dean suddenly stopped, remembering that Hermione had asked him not to tell anyone about the drawing.
"What? Hermione what?" Harry demanded fiercely.
"Nothing," Dean replied quickly, looking down at his lap.
"Oh no, Dean Thomas! You were about to say something about Hermione! What do you know?" Harry insisted furiously, making Dean flinch slightly. He could see something in Harry's eyes, something he hadn't noticed before.
"What I know or don't know is none of your business, Potter!" Dean replied stiffly.
"You better tell me," Harry hissed threateningly, standing up from his seat.
"Or what?" Dean asked, standing up as well. "Are you going to hit me? Punch me? I'm sure Hermione isn't going to like it," he said with amusement.
Harry moved around the table so he was standing only inches from Dean. Harry glared at the boy hatefully. "I am telling you only this once, Thomas…you better stay away from Hermione!" he hissed vehemently.
Dean rolled his eyes and mockingly tried to act scared. The whole class was now looking at the two boys. "You're ridiculous, Potter." He smirked at Harry, making the dark-haired wizard even more furious. "You know, Potter, if you weren't so bloody blind you would see how good-" Dean never had the chance to finish that line- Harry's fist found his jaw.
"You bastard!" Harry shouted at his classmate, punching him once more. Dean was so surprised that he didn't have a chance to react.
"You are crazy, Potter!" Dean shouted back, pushing Harry away from him, but the other boy seemed to want to continue to fight.
"Stay away from her, Thomas! Stay away from Hermione!" Harry was about to punch Dean again but Dean hit him first, right in the stomach, making Harry grunt and grow even angrier.
The fight continued…
*~*~*
Grimmauld Place
Remus was about to leave the bedroom when he took another look at Hermione. He stopped suddenly. She was…crying.
"Sirius!" he whispered to his friend, but then he noticed that Sirius also had seen the tears falling from Hermione's closed eyes. Sirius looked up at him and Remus could see the sorrow in his friend's eyes.
"She's a sad girl," Sirius said heavily. "She's a very sad girl."
*~*~*
Hogwarts
"Mr. Potter! Mr. Thomas!" Professor McGonagall shouted shrilly from the classroom door, Anthony Goldstein by her side and Professor Laurie, the DADA teacher, right behind her. "Stop this right now!"
The two Gryffindors stopped fighting and looked at the Headmistress. They gulped. She looked positively furious, making the pair of them fear for their very existence as human beings...
"I am waiting for an explanation for such shameful and disgusting behavior! Two fellows Gryffindors fighting against each other!"
"Potter is mental!"
"Thomas is a bastard!" they cried simultaneously, each trying to justify their previous actions.
"Stop it you two!" she shouted. "You know what? I don't want to know! Three weeks of detention with Mr. Filch! ("But, Professor!!") and forty points from Gryffindor. Each." McGonagall almost smirked. Maybe that fight wasn't really a bad thing. After all, while in detention, Harry Potter couldn't go after Hermione. "Detention begins tonight."
Harry and Dean just nodded, glaring at each other intently.
***
Time passed and by dinnertime, every single soul in the Castle knew about Harry and Dean's fight. The rumors about a love triangle between the Boy-Who-Lived, Dean Thomas, and Hermione spread faster than wildfire.
"I knew she had something with Potter!" Harry heard a Fourth Year saying. "They never fooled me! Not even when he dated Weasley!"
"Yeah, but what about Dean Thomas?" the other student asked. "Do you think she's with both of them?"
The Hufflepuff smiled mischievously, "Um, that's not like her, is it? But I heard a rumor that-" the girl bent down and whispered something into the other student's ear, who giggled excitedly, "Oh!"
"Come on, Harry, don't bother," Ron whispered to his friend as Harry glared at the two gossipers.
"They were talking about Hermione," Harry hissed through gritted teeth.
Ron sighed. "Mate, everyone in this Castle is talking about you, Dean Thomas, and Hermione. It's worse than Fourth Year."
Harry grinned weakly. "Well, I didn't punch Krum in Fourth Year."
"Harry, now that we're alone...why did you punch Dean? I mean, the bloke is well…you know…a git…but, seriously, he didn't really do anything."
Harry looked at Ron like his friend had grown two heads. "He didn't do anything?! He didn't do anything!? You heard what he said about Hermione!" he sputtered incredulously.
"I did?" Ron looked confused. "From what I remember, he was saying how good-"
"Exactly!" Harry exclaimed triumphantly. "Exactly!"
"But Harry…Hermione is a good…" Ron began slowly.
"Ron!" Harry cried with wide eyes. Not him too!
"Mate, what do you think he was about to say?" Ron asked, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.
Harry blushed a deep red. "Er…" he mumbled. "What do you think he was about to say?" He asked, slightly embarrassedly.
Ron looked at him, an eyebrow still raised. "That she is a good friend, student, girl…and so on."
"Oh…" Harry said, looking away, a feeling of great stupidity creeping into his stomach. Honestly, what else could Thomas say? Of course he was just going to say she was a good girl, not. . .well, that had better have been ALL he was going to say. . .
*****
Somewhere in the Castle
Ginny Weasley was sitting on the floor against a column. She was angry, very angry. Nothing was turning out the way she had planned. She had worked so hard…had pretended with so much intensity, and now…
Perhaps it was her fault; maybe she did make Harry pay more attention to that ugly bookworm. She had made a primordial mistake: she had forgotten about Harry's hero complex. And that Hermione's damn absence had…
Merlin, she needed to do something. She was a Weasley, after all! Hermione needed to go down!
It didn't matter how.
Then, high pitched giggles interrupted Ginny's thoughts. It was three very excited Second Years.
"G-Ginny Weasley?" one of them asked tentatively.
"What do you want?" Ginny snapped.
"Is it true that truth that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger are dating?" the other girl asked, turning slightly pink.
"Of course not!" Ginny said firmly, standing up. The nerve of those girls! But then she smiled. "No, Hermione isn't dating Harry," she continued softly.
'Oh!" one of them said. "But we thought…"
"It's not him who Hermione is dating," Ginny replied deviously, eyes shining.
"Oh!" the three girls cried at same time. "So she's dating De-"
Ginny held up her hands. "I am not saying anything. Hermione is my best friend and she needs me more than anything. Especially now that she is pr-" she closed her mouth quickly like she had said too much. "Girls, it's almost curfew. You better go!"
The three Second Years nodded and ran away very excitedly, giggling madly.
Left alone, Ginny smirked. Maybe everything would turn out right after all.
Grimmauld Place
February 4
02:15 am
Sirius was dreaming about his time at Hogwarts, about how happy he was there, until he was awakened by a terrible scream.
He stood up quickly from the mattress and rushed to Hermione's bed.
Hermione's transformation had begun.
**
The transformation had taken almost three hours. Professor Flitwick, who had been called by Tonks, managed to perform some painless spells on Hermione, but her but her screams never ceased. This, more than anything exemplified how much the young witch was suffering.
First it was the fur, then the ears, the bones, and finally the tail.
It was 5:00 A.M. when Hermione finally transformed into a beautiful, black, female black dog.
"Miss Granger? Hermione?" Professor McGonagall asked kindly to the very frightened dog. "Bow your head if you understand me." The dog did what it was told. "Good. Hermione, because of the ritual you performed with Miss Tonks in the Ministry you…we will explain everything later. What you need to know right now is that you received some magical abilities from Mr. Black. But right now you need to transform back. It's very simple; you just need to focus on your human form. Just focus on your human form. There's no need to panic…just focus!"
It took twenty long minutes for Hermione to change back.
"Hermione!" Sirius cried happily, hugging the young witch. "Oh, Hermione!"
"Sirius," she smiled weakly at him and then at the others, "I'm hungry." Everyone laughed.
"Can you bring something to Miss Granger from the kitchen, Mr. Black?" Flitwick asked smiling. Sirius looked puzzled. "It's okay now. You can leave Miss Granger's side. The only thing is that you need to be with each other at least fifteen minutes per day until the blue phoenix returns."
"So, it's okay for me to leave?" Sirius asked, wanting to make sure.
"Yes, Mr. Black. Please, look at your left forearm." Sirius lifted up his robes and exclaimed, "Bloody hell!" What he saw was amazing: on his left forearm was a beautiful tattoo: a blue phoenix.
"Oh my!" exclaimed Hermione, having just noticed she too, had a blue phoenix on her left forearm.
"Yes," Professor Flitwick said wisely." That's the mark of the phoenix. The mark of The Blue Phoenix. It's the link between Miss Granger and Mr. Black. But now I think Hermione is quite hungry. Mr. Black…"
"Oh, sure!" Sirius nodded his head and was about to leave the bedroom when he turned around and said to Hermione, "By the way, Hermione, you have a really nice tail!"
*~*~*
Hogwarts grounds
February 7
10:00 pm
Harry was wandering around Hogwarts grounds. He had just finished detention with Filch. He knew he shouldn't be out alone at night, but he really needed to be alone. He needed to think.
The young wizard was lost in thought when the noise of a breaking branch behind him brought him back to reality. Harry turned around quickly, his wand up, ready to attack.
What he saw made his heart beat faster.
A shaggy black dog was right in front of him, staring at him intently.
+++++++++
Well, that's it…what do you think? I hope you liked it.
Oh! I have a favor to ask…I am writing a new HHr fic ( I need a beta!!!) and I really need a title! Please, if you like, go to my livejournal and give some idea!
http://sweet-lemmon.livejournal.com/12894.html
Thanks to Brooke and Acoustics1220