do not own Harry Potter. It belongs to J. K. Rowling.
You do not own Harry Potter. It belongs to J. K. Rowling.
These aren't the droids you're looking for.
These aren't the droids we're looking for.
Move along.
Move along.
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Chapter 10 - Creatures in the Night
The Christmas week passed by quietly in the Black household, and soon it was time for Harry and Michael to return to Hogwarts.
The night before they were to leave, Sirius knocked on the door to their room.
"Come in." Sirius walked in, his hands behind his back.
"You two all packed yet?" he asked.
"Not quite. We still have some stuff left," Harry said, throwing a shirt in.
"Well, don't wrap up just yet, `cause I have a little something for you two." This got both boys' attention. "I didn't give these to you before, because I didn't see the need to. But now that you two are in Hogwarts, I can't deny your birthrights any longer." He held out his right hand and gave Harry a loose bundle of cloth. "That was your father's," Sirius said as Harry unfolded it to show the large, silky cloak. "Well, put it on," he prompted. Harry wrapped the shroud around himself, and his body disappeared.
"Wicked!" Harry said. Smiling, Sirius turned to Michael.
"And this, dear son of mine, is for you," he held out his left arm, and gave Michael a blank piece of parchment. "I think you know what that is." Grinning, Michael tapped his wand on the parchment and said, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Ink started spreading from Michael's wand tip, until it showed a message in elegant writing.
Messrs. Moony, Padfoot and Prongs
Purveyors in the aid of magical mischief
Present to you
The Marauder's Map
"Congratulations, you two," Sirius said proudly. "You two are officially half-way to becoming true Marauders." The two boys clung onto him into a tight hug. "Now all you got to do is get your animagus forms and your Marauder codenames. Hey, maybe you can get your girlfriends into it too," he added with a wink. He ran from their room laughing while dodging pillows that the two boys were throwing at him.
"Do you think Blaise figured out the Philosopher's Stone yet?" Michael asked as they settled into bed.
"Maybe." Harry chuckled to himself. "Hermione's probably going spare about not being able to help." Michael chuckled at this.
"Probably." With that, they clicked their lights off and went to sleep.
The next day, the moment they stepped through the barrier to Platform 9-3/4, Harry was tackled by a bushy head of brown hair and nearly knocked back into the barrier.
"I missed you too, Hermione, but I kinda need to breathe," Harry gasped. Hermione relinquished her death grip on Harry and reapplied it onto Michael, who gasped as he suffocated in the girl's embrace.
"So, what'd you do during your holiday?" Harry asked while Michael caught his breath.
"Oh, we went to dinner and opened presents, that was pretty much it," Hermione shrugged. "Oh, that reminds me, I got your presents!" She dug into her pockets and gave them two small wrapped boxes. Harry opened his to see a ruby about the size of a muggle quarter attached to a long nylon cord.
"Thanks, Hermione," Harry said as he put it over his head, the stone hanging over his sternum. "Sorry I couldn't get you anything."
"It's okay, Harry," she said before hugging him again.
"Umm…thanks, Hermione," Michael said.
"No problem," she said, detaching herself from Harry. "I've got another one for Blaise when we find her." By now, the platform was milling with students, and the three Marauders climbed onto the Hogwarts Express.
A few minutes later, Blaise found their compartment, and promptly locked the door.
"Okay, guys, I figured out what Voldemort's after, it's the-" she began excitedly.
"The Philosopher's Stone," Harry and Michael interrupted simultaneously. Hermione immediately shot up.
"The Philosopher's Stone?" she exclaimed. "The one that turns lead to gold and creates the Elixir of Life?"
"Yeah," Blaise said. "How'd you know that?"
"Oh, I came across it a few weeks ago while doing some light reading," Hermione said dismissively.
"Let me guess," Michael said. "By `light reading,' you mean a book about yea big," he continued, holding his thumb and index finger several inches apart. Hermione simply shifted her gaze to the floor and blushed. Then she remembered Blaise's present. "Oh, Blaise, I got you this," she said, digging into her pocket to extract another wrapped jewelry box for Blaise. It was also a ruby. "I didn't know when your birthday was, so I got you a ruby too. You know, house pride and all," Hermione explained.
"Thanks, Hermione," Blaise said, putting on her necklace. "By the way, my birthday's April seven."
"July twenty-eight," Michael added.
"We also have something to show you," Harry said, enlarging his trunk and pulling out his invisibility cloak. Blaise gaped at it in awe.
"Is that what I think it is?" She asked, dumbstruck.
"Yep," Harry said proudly, carefully folding it back up and putting it back in his trunk, reshrinking it."
"And I got this," Michael said, producing the Marauder's Map. Both girls were amazed by it.
"That's a really advanced piece of magic!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Imagine what we could do with those two things!" Blaise squealed with delight. As the train ride drove on, the four junior Marauders talked about whatever came to mind, only unlocking the compartment door to buy snacks and change into their robes.
Eventually, the Hogwarts Express came to a stop at Hogsmeade Station, and the students climbed out and started towards the carriages that would take them back to the castle. But as the four Marauders were heading towards them, Harry skidded to a stop at what he saw. Bound to the carriages were dozens of black skeletal horses with leathery wings, flipping their whip-like tails around, staring at him with pale, glassy eyes.
"Harry?" Hermione said, concerned. "Are you all right, Harry?" Shaking his head, he replied weakly, "Yeah. I'm fine. Just a little tired, is all." Hermione seemed to accept this answer, but the concern on her face remained.
They went to the Great Hall and ate their dinner, not paying attention to Dumbledore's welcome back speech, then quietly headed to their respective dormitories. Seeing that they were the only ones there, Michael took the opportunity to question his brother.
"Okay, spill. I know you saw something on those carriages that spooked you. What is it?" Harry sighed and shook his head while changing into his pajamas.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said evasively.
"Try me." Harry sighed and flopped onto his bed.
"Thestrals," he said simply.
"Okay, thestrals," Michael said, not understanding. "What about them?"
"I saw them," Harry said, not looking at him. "They were pulling the carriages. One of them looked right at me." This news shocked Michael.
"WHAT?!" he shouted. "Thestrals?! Pulling the carriages?! Are you kidding me?" Harry shook his head negatively. Michael sighed and flopped down on his own bed. "You're the Boy-Who-Lived, probably the only one who can defeat Voldemort, and you can see Thestrals. What's next, you're a Parselmouth?" Harry chuckled humorlessly.
"Probably," he deadpanned. By then, the other Gryffindor first years had started coming in, so Harry rolled over and went to sleep.
The next few days were mostly normal. Wake up, eat breakfast, go to classes, eat lunch, et cetera. But Harry noticed that he was starting to get strange headaches during Defense Against the Dark Arts. At first, Harry merely felt fatigued, but simply assumed it was from inhaling too much fumes from the putrid garlic hanging around the classroom, but his head soon began throbbing, particularly at his scar. He had gone to Madame Pomfrey several times, each time with a clean bill of health.
"I think Voldemort's going to make his move soon," Harry said, rubbing his forehead. "My scar has been aching for days." He stole a quick glance at Quirrel sitting at the staff table. "And I think it might be Quirrel."
"Harry," Hermione said. "You can't go around accusing professors that they're Voldemort."
"I know that," Harry said, "If I had proof, I would have done something already. Unfortunately, all I have is a gut feeling and a string of bad headaches, so all we can do is wait."
Several days later, they heard rumors of a fight that happened in one of the corridors. Since they didn't see it, they didn't know the validity of the statement, nor did they care. During lunch that day, Professor McGonnagal came up to them.
"Hagrid has detention with a pair of students tonight, and has asked for you to assist him. He requires you at eight `o clock tonight." Watching her leave, Michael sighed. "I guess those rumors about a fight were true after all." The rest only shrugged and continued eating.
At fifteen minutes to eight, the four walked down to Hagrid's hut to see the giant man, his boarhound Fang, and both Weasley and Malfoy.
"`Arry! Glad ye guys coul' make it," Hagrid boomed.
"Wasn't a problem, Hagrid," Harry said.
"Goo', goo'. Now, someone or somethin's been injurin' unicorns in the fores', and we're gonna go `vestigate." Malfoy and Weasley immediately protested.
"The forest?!" Malfoy shouted. "But there's...werewolves in there!"
"And…spiders," Weasley added with a shudder.
"Oh, grow a backbone, Weasley," Hagrid growled, hoisting up his crossbow. "A'ight, Blaise, `Ermione, yeh two'll go together; Michael, Weasley, yer wit' me; Harry, yer with Malfoy here."
"If I'm going to be stuck with Potter here," Malfoy spat snobbishly, "then we'll take the mutt with us."
"Okay, but I warn yeh, Fang `ere's a bloody coward." The dog gave a quiet whine. "If yeh run into trouble, shoot red sparks. If yeh find a unicorn, shoot green sparks. Le's go." They followed Hagrid into the forest, before breaking away from each other.
Harry and Malfoy wandered through the dense trees, Fang sniffing at the ground. Both boys wished they were anywhere but in each other's company.
"So how'd you hook up with your little motley crew?" Malfoy asked, trying to break the silence.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, not looking at him.
"You know, you, the traitor Black's kid, the blood traitor, and the mudbloo-" Whomp! Harry's fist quickly and unexpectedly colliding into his face, knocking him out cold. Shaking his hand to relieve the pain, Harry drew his wand and cast rennervate on Malfoy. His hand immediately went to his bleeding nose.
"You hit me!" he shouted nasally. "You bloody hit me!" Harry glared at him.
"You were about to call Hermione a name that I will not tolerate," Harry growled.
"I didn't say it," Malfoy snapped, standing up and dusting off his robes.
"You were thinking it," Harry said simply before turning around and following Fang. Grumbling to himself, Malfoy set after him, trying to stem the flow of blood dripping from his nose.
Some time later, Harry heard a slurping sound nearby. Quietly gesturing for Malfoy to follow him, he turned around and repressed a scream as pain exploded behind his scar. Bending over the neck of a dead unicorn was a hooded and cloaked figure. Fang whined in fear at the figure, which caused it to look up from its feeding, silver blood dripping from its mouth. Losing all resolve, Malfoy fled screaming, Fang hot on his heels, leaving Harry alone.
"Stupefy!" Harry shouted, and a red bolt of light shot out of his wand towards the being. The spell had no effect. "Stupefy! Stupefy!" Still no effect. "Oh, crap." Harry turned to flee, but the being had appeared in front of him out of nowhere. Growling, the being reached up as if to grab him, but was stopped when another being jumped between them, lunging at the first being. Shrieking, it drifted away into the forest. The second being turned around to show that he was a dark-skinned man with the body of a palomino horse.
"It is not safe for you here, young one. Quickly, climb onto by back so we may take you out of this cursed place." Harry quickly climbed onto the centaur and together they rode towards the edge of the forest.
When they reached the Hogwarts grounds, and Harry climbed off of the centaur, he was immediately assaulted by another one of Hermione's death-grip hugs.
"Oh my gosh, Harry, I was so scared!" she sobbed.
"I'm still alive, Hermione," Harry said. "For the moment," he added, struggling to breathe.
"Than's for the help, Firenze," Hagrid said. "I `preciate it."
"It is no trouble, Hagrid," Firenze said, bowing. "But Mars is bright tonight," he continued, staring at the sky, "and that is troubling." Everyone looked up as well, but only saw cloudy sky.
"It is?" Blaise asked. The sound of hoofbeats brought them back down to Earth.
"Well, I guess yeh should be gettin' back to bed now," Hagrid said, shooing them away. "Oh, `fore I forget, `Arry, `ere's yer Chris'mas presen'," Hagrid said, pulling out a wooden flute from one of his many pockets. "Took a little longer than I expected to make it."
"Thanks, Hagrid," Harry said before following his friends to the Gryffindor tower.
When they reached the Gryffindor Common Room, Hermione laid a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder.
"Are you okay, Harry?" she asked. Harry nodded his head.
"I'm just rattled, is all," he said simply.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Harry shook his head.
"Tomorrow."
"Okay. Good night." With that, the four of them went to bed.
As Harry and Michael got ready for bed, Michael asked, "When do you think it'll happen?" Harry sighed.
"Soon," he said simply. "Very soon."
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A/N: Duh, duh, duh, duuuuuhhhhh!!!!
This year is coming to an end. I'd reckon only three or four chapters left for this year.
This week's question is, why and how do you think Dumbledore got his hands on James' invisibility cloak? He may be the leader of the Order, but I find it hard to believe that James would choose his former headmaster over his best friend to inherit what was probably his most valuable possession.
Don't forget to read and review!
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