Loss for Words, Loss of One
NO ONE IN THE GRYFFINDOR TOWER SLEPT THAT NIGHT.
The castle was being searched again for Sirius Black, but no one wanted to go back to their dorms, so they all stayed awake in the Common Room. They all, including the trio, were waiting to hear whether Black had been caught or not. It didn't help when Percy came in saying that Sirius Black had, as Harry had suspected, not been found.
"Scary, isn't it?" Freya muttered, pretending to keep her eyes closed once Percy and Dumbledore had left.
"Not as scary as I'll be if you don't go to sleep, Ms. Weasley." Professor McGonagall scolded, having appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
Freya barely looked abashed as she looked up at Professor McGonagall imploringly. "Speaking I've just had the madmen hanging over my bed with a knife, Professor, I have to beg to dif-"
"Bed, Ms. Weasley."
Her words came out as a whisper, but the order was loud and clear.
The next day, everywhere Harry and Freya went they saw signs of tighter security; Professor Flitwick could be seen at the front doors to recognize a large picture of Sirius Black, Filch was ready to pounce on any stranger coming from up and down the corridors and boarding up even the smallest of cracks and mouse holes. Sir Cadogan had been fired for allowing a stranger to enter the Common Room, and the Fat Lady was back. She was still nervous, so she agreed to return to her job only if she got extra protection.
Harry couldn’t help but notice that the statue of the one-eyed witch on the third floor remained unguarded. It seemed that Fred and George had been right in thinking that they — and now Harry, Will, and Freya — were the only ones who knew about the hidden passageway within it.
“D’you think we should tell someone?” Harry asked Freya.
Freya paused, a bit of conflicted emotions crossing her face for a moment, and then her face went blank.
“We...know...that he’s not coming in through Honeydukes,” said Freya slowly before nodding with confidence, “Wed've heard if the shop had been broken into. Plus, we can't get Fred and George in trouble, can we?”
Harry was glad that Freya took a view like this. If the one-eyed witch was boarded up too, he would never be able to go into Hogsmeade again.
Another new change was how Freya had become an instant celebrity after last night's events. For the first time in her life, people were paying more attention to her than to Harry and were paying attention to her for another reason besides her red hair and relation to her brothers and it was clear that she was rather enjoying it. Though still very shaken by the night’s events, she was glad to tell anyone who asked what had happened, with a wealth of detail.
“. . . I was asleep, and I heard this ripping noise, and I thought it was in my dream, y' know?" Freya widened her eyes at the second years who were listening with rapt attention as they nodded. "But then there was this draft . . . I woke up and one side of the hangings on my bed had been pulled down. . . . I rolled over . . . and I saw him standing over me . . . like a skeleton, with loads of filthy hair. Gave Snape a run for his money for unkept hair, I'll tell you that . . . and he was holding this great long knife which must’ve been twelve inches . . . and he looked at me, and I looked at him, and then I yelled, and he..." Freya frowned. "Well, he scampered."
“But why, though?” Freya added to Harry as the group of second-years who had been listening to his dreadful tale departed. “Why did the madman run?”
Harry had been wondering that too. Why had Black, having got the wrong bed, not silenced Freya and proceeded to the boys' dorm to get Harry? Black had proved twelve years ago that he didn’t mind murdering people who were innocent, and this time he had been facing five unarmed girls.
“He must’ve known he’d have a job getting back out of the castle once you’d yelled and woken all the people up,” said Harry, thoughtfully. “He would've had to kill the whole House to get back through the portrait hole. Then he would’ve seen the teachers...”
"But still.." said Freya. "He could've gotten away..." at Harry's incredulous expression, Freya added, "I mean, he's already broken out of Azkaban, hasn't he? With a huge number of nasty and dreadful dementors guarding the prison, it must've been very hard, don't you think?"
"Well yeah, unless he had Will's brains to help him get out of there, it wouldn't have been so easy." joked Harry.
"Yeah, what William were you so mad at me that-" Freya paused from where she had turned to her other side, blinking at a space of nothingness. After a moment she turned back to Harry, tinged pink. "That didn't happen."
Harry smiled slightly, "I'll never tell."
Though things were a roller coaster for Harry, Neville Longbottom seemed to be riding a skateboard downhill without skates. Professor McGonagall was so furious with him, that she had banned him from the future Hogsmeade visits, given him detention, and forbade anyone to give him the password into the tower. Poor Neville was forced to wait outside the common room every time for somebody to let him in, while the security trolls glared at him. None of these punishments, however, could match the one his grandmother had in store for him. Two days after the break-in, she sent Neville the worst thing a Hogwarts student could ever receive — a Howler.
"Run for it, Nev." said Freya somberly, a fellow comrade.
Neville obeyed, running in a almost frantic skip and Harry, in all the commotion, didn't notice immediately that he had a letter too. Hedwig got his attention by biting him sharply on the wrist.
“Ouch! Oh — thanks, Hedwig.” Harry tore open the envelope while Hedwig helped herself to some of Neville’s cornflakes. The note inside said:
Dear Harry and Freya,
How about having tea with me this afternoon ’round six?
I’ll come and collect you from the castle.
WAIT FOR ME IN THE ENTRANCE HALL!
YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED OUT ON YOUR OWN!
Cheers,
Hagrid
"Yay," Freya grinned. "Betcha anything he wants to hear my story."
Harry gave a huff of amusement at her blatant excitement, looking up to tease her about it, when he noticed something strange. "Freya, people are looking at us."
"Ah, don't mind them, it's just me." Freya flipped her hair back, "I'm incredibly famous, you know."
Harry laughed but was cut short when Colina Creevey came over, blushing a tad bit. "Hiya, Harry. Freya.""
"Heya, Colina!" Freya grinned, "What brings you over?"
"I-I told them I should wait until later or until not at all but-well, people know I have a camera and they thought it'd be nice if I took a picture of you two." Colina bit her lip and shrugged, "Because you guys are sort of a celebrity couple, right, and-"
Harry choked on his pumpkin juice as Freya's jaw dropped, causing the large bite of the chocolate croissant she'd just bitten into to fall out of her mouth, onto the plate.
"W-we're-"
Harry's coughing subsided as he cleared his throat, looking at Colina wide-eyed.
"We're a what?"
* * *
The story which Harry and (mostly) Freya had to bully out of Fred and George was this.
"Well, of course people are going to think your dating. Did nobody tell you? While you were telling your famed story, other people were telling stories of their own, Fickle." said Fred, amused.
"Apparently they think that Sirius Black went to Freya because she's your girlfriend," nodded George, who looked on the verge of laughing. "He's saying he went mad enough that he doesn't just want to kill ya for killing his master, Harry, he wants revenge."
Freya and Harry took that in.
"That...that conclusion sort of makes sense." said Harry somberly.
"I know." Freya said wide-eyed. "But there is one thing I don't get."
Freya turned to her brothers and took a deep breath.
"IF YOU THINK IM GOING TO BE MURDERED FOR THIS TOO, WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING!?"
"Because it is kind of funny, I mean as long as you don't die." said George, his face crossed between amusement and seriousness.
"Yeah," Fred agreed. "Besides, if we don't bring you back alive for the summer-"
"Mum will kill us." they both said gravely.
"I'll kill you if you don't quit it." grumbled Freya as she turned to Harry, looking wary. "Hey, I don't want to be the one to go explaining around to everyone what's up, so how about we lay low and then head to Hagrids?"
"That would be delightful." said Harry with a grin.
So that's what they did and at exactly six o’clock that afternoon, Harry and Freya left Gryffindor Tower and headed down to the entrance hall where Hagrid was already waiting for them.
“All right, Hagrid!” said Freya with an arched brow. “I s’pose you want to hear about last night, do you?”
“I’ve already heard all abou’ it,” said Hagrid, opening the front doors and leading them outside.
“Oh,” said Freya, looking slightly put out, but shook her head. "Hey, how's the Buckbeak case?"
Harry felt a nasty pang of guilt when he remembered the trial case for Buckbeak. He had completely forgotten that Buckbeak’s trial was so near. He had forgotten the promise about helping him prepare Buckbeak’s defense; the arrival of the Firebolt had made him forget all the other important things at hand.
Freya, seeing his look, shrugged. "It's all good, Harry. I sent him the work I did, so it was basically the work we would have done together. It was easier doing it alone, to be honest, you tend to get us off topic."
"You did work?" asked Harry, surprised.
She gave a wry smile as they sat down, "Amazing, I know. But Buckbeak is too brilliant and, also," a gleam went in her eye. "I want to beat those stupid Malfoy's."
"You're not the only one, which brings me to the point of your visit. I got somethin’ ter discuss with you two,” said Hagrid, sitting between them and looking very serious.
“What?” said Harry.
“Will,” said Hagrid.
Freya's face contorted. "What...about him?"
“He’s in a righ’ state, that’s what. He’s bin comin’ down ter visit me a lot since Chris’mas. Bin feelin’ lonely. Firs’ yeh weren’ talking to him because o’ the Firebolt, now yer not talkin’ to him because his cat —”
“— ate Scabbers!” Freya interrupted angrily. "His cat ate my rat!"
“Because his cat acted like all cats do,” Hagrid continued. “He’s bin angry a fair few times, yeh know. Goin’ through a rough time at the moment. Bitten off more’n he can chew, if yeh ask me, all the work he’s tryin’ ter do. Still found time ter help me with Buckbeak’s case, mind... He’s found some really good stuff fer me, added to the bit you've done Freya . . . reckon he’ll stand a good chance now. . . .”
Hagrid teared up and Harry, wanting to play his part, said quickly. "We'll make up with Will!"
"We'll do what?" asked Freya.
He kicked her under the table. She kicked him back. He kicked her harder and gave her a look.
"We'll...think about it." amended Freya, frowning.
"That's the spirit!" said Hagrid, wiping his eye. "Friendships important, yer know...Like me and Buckbeaks..."
After a nice long while of chatting, it was time for Harry and Freya to head back. Saying goodbye to Hagrid who warned them not to do anything else but go to the castle, they began their descent.
"I can't believe you kicked me." she said after a moment.
Harry grinned, "I can't believe you worked on the Buckbeak case without me."
"I can't believe you didn't yell when I kicked you. It was a real nice kick too. I kicked that hard with Charlie once when he was bothering me and he basically cried."
"I can't believe..." Harry paused. "I can't believe Will's not here telling us to hush and hurry back into the castle quickly."
There was a beat and Freya looked around as if looking for passerby's and then, so quietly as though she didn't want Harry or even the world to hear, she muttered.
"Me too."