Belong to Nowhere
Chapter 11: Misunderstandings
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 classroom
“I know McGonagall is lying,” Harry
hissed. He and Ron had just arrived at the DADA 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…
*~*~*
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
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.