Fallen Angel
Well, I wanted to post this chapter sooner, but my oh-so-wonderful phone company left me (and the entire area) without phone (and of course, without Internet as well) for days! (How hard can it be to find where the line went down and fix it, I wonder?!) so the updating took a little longer than expected :( I do hope the chapter makes up for the long wait, though :D
As for future chapters, I'll try to keep them coming, but my BigBang story's giving me hell, so I can't really promise anything :s
And now, on to the story...
Title: Fallen Angel
Chapter 4: Night-Time Visitor
Hermione was waiting in line to get on the enormous roller coaster. Her father was standing right next to her, and she knew her mother was somewhere near by. They were in an amusement park somewhere in France, though she couldn’t remember the name of the place. Her parents had taken her there a few times on summer vacation, and she always made them get up before the sun even rose, so they would be the first to arrive.
As the line moved, she stepped forward and turned to look at her father. He looked so tall, or perhaps it was her that was so small. She looked down at her hands curiously, and saw they were a child’s hands. But of course they were, she was only nine, after all.
Her father was smiling at her, and she smiled back. There were only a handful of people ahead of them now; she’d be on the roller coaster in a few minutes.
“Are you feeling all right?” her father suddenly asked.
Hermione wondered why he would ask that, but then she felt the small beads of sweat forming on her forehead. It was so hot. She looked up at the sky, narrowing her eyes as she watched the sun. It was shining so brightly, and the air was so hot.
But something was wrong. It was as if the heat was focused solely on her head. The sensation came and went; it felt as if someone was fanning her, but she was getting heat instead of cool air. Not only that; along with the heat came a faint prickling on her skin, not quite an itch, more like a soft tickle.
It was taking her brain longer than usual to add the sensations up, but they were strangely familiar; she knew she had felt them before.
Then a voice reached her ears, although she had no idea where it was coming from. The voice was repeating her name over and over and over, but it didn’t sound urgent or worried, it sounded almost…bored.
“What?” she whispered in response, as the world began dissolving around her. She blinked and tried to focus on what she was seeing now, but it took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the sudden darkness.
“Well, it was about time,” the same voice she had heard calling her name said, and she barely managed to hold back a frightened yelp as she jumped for her wand. “Hey, easy there,” came next, as she aimed the wand at where she thought the voice was coming from.
For some reason, she decided to hold the attack back, at least for a few moments, and opted to mutter, “Lumos,” instead.
Sirius was standing a few feet from the bed, hands held up in surrender and the hint of a smile on his lips.
“What are you doing here?” she asked with a groan, lying back on the bed again, using her arm to shield her eyes from the now bright light.
Lowering his hands, Sirius stepped back towards the bed and sat down facing her. “I’m bored.”
“I was sleeping!”
“Oh, trust me love, I noticed,” he said with a smirk. “It would seem you can’t hear me when you’re asleep.”
“Then how did you wake me?” she asked.
Instead of answering, he leaned towards her, stretched out his arm and started waving his hand through her head.
She tried to bat his arm away, but of course that was hard to do without being able to touch him. “Stop that, you’re giving me a headache,” she grumbled, leaning as far away from him as she could so he wouldn’t reach her head.
“Sorry,” Sirius said, not sounding apologetic at all, as he sat straight again. “But you deserve it, you know? I’ve spent the last half hour trying to wake you. You looked happy, though,” he added, as an afterthought. “What were you dreaming of?”
“It was a great dream, actually,” she said with a smile, when she saw him wiggle his eyebrows suggestively. “Ron and Harry had returned, and you weren’t with them.”
Sirius gave her wide eyes as he moved his hands to his chest, splaying them over his heart. “Ouch, you wound me, woman,” he said, but even his hurt tone and expression couldn’t belie the twinkle in his eyes.
“I am so, very sorry, Sirius,” she said, trying to hold back a smile. She was supposed to be angry at him, he had, after all, walked into her bedroom and woken her up for no good reason. She couldn’t let him charm that fact away. “What was so important that you had to spend thirty of your utterly valuable minutes trying to wake me up?”
“I already told you, I’m bored,” he said, as if it was so obvious she shouldn’t need to ask.
“You’re bored,” she said, and he nodded. “So you thought you’d come into my room, uninvited, I might add, and wake me up to share that fact?”
Sirius rolled his eyes at her and leaned back, resting on his elbows. His arm went through her foot, and she moved her leg back, so that she was sitting up against the headboard, her feet away from him.
“I didn’t wake you up to tell you I was bored,” he said. “I did it because I was bored. I thought I’d keep you company.”
“I was sleeping!”
“We’ve already established that,” he replied, his smile widening.
“Merlin, Sirius, don’t you sleep?” she asked, and he shook his head no. “Ever?” Another shake. “Well, can’t you go read a book, or the Daily Prophet?”
There it was, that roll of eyes again. He was starting to make her feel stupid with that attitude. “It’s hard to read a book or a newspaper when you can’t open it, or turn its pages.”
“What did you do when you were away with Ron and Harry?” she asked, rubbing her eyes.
“Got bored,” he replied, with a shrug.
“Well, can’t you be bored for another night? Just go over to their room and wait until they wake up.”
“Merlin, anything but that. I swear to you, if I have to go through another night of hearing Ron’s snores I will go crazy. I tried to count how many times he snored one night, to keep myself entertained, but I gave up after reaching five thousand,” he said, and she couldn’t help but laugh.
“I remember when we used to spend part of our holidays at the Burrow. Every time he snored, you could feel the entire house shake. It’s a wonder Harry could sleep in the same room with him for years. What?” she asked, when he started laughing.
“What makes you think he slept through the snoring?” Sirius asked, then explained when he saw her frown in confusion. “He uses a modified Silencing Charm. He waits until Ron falls asleep and then casts the Charm so that he can’t hear the snores. It only blocks the snoring out, though; it would be dangerous if he blocked every sound while he was asleep.”
“He did? How do you know?”
“I spent a lot of time with them, remember? I saw him cast it every night. When I first got here they couldn’t do any magic, though. The poor lad didn’t get a full hour’s sleep at night; he looked like a walking zombie. I’m sure the thought of killing Ron crossed his mind more than once, but instead he resorted to slipping small stones under the thin mattress so Ron wouldn’t sleep so much and throw small things at him when he started snoring to wake him back up, getting the little sleep he could during the time it took Ron to start snoring again.
“I should probably feel sorry for Harry, but he deserves it for not telling me about the modified charm. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it. I normally used the regular brand of Silencing Charms on the entire bedroom when I shared it with Ginny, but then we couldn’t even hear people knocking on the door, so we finally resorted to Muggle earplugs.”
“Ginny, that’s the other read-head, right? The girl that was in the kitchen this morning.”
“Yes, she’s Ron’s younger sister. I keep forgetting you don’t remember any of us.”
“It seems there’s entirely too many of you to remember,” he said, with a small smile. “You seem to be very close to Ron and Harry.”
“I am. We’ve been best friends ever since our first year at Hogwarts, minus a few fights now and then.”
“So why didn’t you go with them, why did you stay here?”
“Well, we were supposed to go together, the three of us, in search of the Horcruxes,” she said, wrapping her arms around her knees, sleep completely forgotten as she talked to Sirius, “but we found out my dad was sick a few days before we were supposed to leave.”
He surprised her with the interested tone in his voice when he asked, “Is he all right?”
“He is, now,” she answered, “but when he got sick…the Muggle doctors we took him to said there was nothing they could do for him. They didn’t know what was wrong with him, but they said he only had a few weeks left, a month if he was lucky.”
“But you said he was all right.”
“Well, when I heard the doctors couldn’t do anything for him I thought perhaps healers could, but since he is not a wizard we couldn’t get him into St Mungo’s. That’s why I stayed behind, I had to find a way to help my dad. It took a lot of time, and I had to take it all the way to the Minister for Magic, but I was lucky we have so many Order members holding important positions inside the Ministry; if they hadn’t helped me…”
“If your parents aren’t wizards, then they’re not part of the Order, right? That’s why they aren’t here.”
“Right,” she said, not sure where he was going with this.
With a thoughtful expression on his face, Sirius turned around and sat against the headboard, next to her. “I assume the redheaded witch that was in the kitchen fixing breakfast when we arrived and the redheaded wizard that came to the meeting are Ron’s parents,” he said, and she nodded. “So what about Harry’s parents? Where are they?”
She hesitated for a second before saying, “They died.”
“How?”
“They were both killed during the first war.”
“You told me I was Harry’s godfather, right?” he asked, and she nodded again. “So I must’ve been close to them.”
“I don’t know much about your relationship with his mom, but his father was your best friend. From what I’ve heard, you were quite a pair, always getting into trouble.”
Sirius was silent for a few moments, and she could see sadness cross his face, even though he didn’t remember James or Lily.
“So, what other interesting adventures did I miss by staying here?” she asked, trying to change the subject.
“Well,” he said, looking thoughtful, “there was that night when they got drunk and hired that stripper.
“They what?” she asked, and he burst out laughing at her gobsmacked expression. “Very funny,” she said, trying to punch his shoulder and hitting the headboard instead. “Ouch,” she mumbled, scowling when his laughter got louder. “Not funny.”
“Oh, yes, it is.” Sirius was still howling with laughter when he suddenly fell through the bed, catching himself right before going through the bedroom floor so that only the top of his head was visible over the mattress.
“Now that’s funny,” she laughed, as she watched him curse and try to climb his way up to the bed.
“Told you that’s what happened when I lost focus,” he said watching her laugh, a small smile touching his lips as he sat back down beside her.
“That’s not so…” she started, but just then the bedroom door opened and Harry stepped inside.
“Hasn’t he learnt how to knock,” Sirius said, leaning back against the headboard. “Could’ve walked in on you on a much more compromising situation.”
Before she could reply to his comment Harry spoke. “Are you all right?” he asked her, and she noticed he had his wand gripped firmly by his side.
“What are you doing here?” she asked him, but he didn’t seem to be paying her much attention; his eyes were searching the room, looking for someone or something.
After a few seconds, he spoke again. “Who were you talking to?”
“I wasn’t talking to anyone,” she said, but Harry’s attention was back on their surroundings, his gaze searching the room again. It was obvious he didn’t believe her.
“I heard you talking from the hallway, Hermione.”
“So what, you thought you’d storm in and see what was going on?”
He took a step forward and tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing as he watched her. “You’ve been acting strange all day.”
“Strange?” Sirius said. “What is he on about? It’s not as if you’ve been talking to yourself all day, and got caught laughing your heart out in an empty room.”
She turned to Sirius for a second with a scowl, pressing a finger to her lips to tell him to keep silent.
“See? That’s what I mean,” Harry said, as she turned back to him. “What was that about?”
She wondered if perhaps she should just tell him the truth, tell him she wasn’t going crazy, that she had been talking to the ghost of his dead godfather, but before she could even open her mouth to speak Sirius stopped her, as if he knew what she was thinking.
“You can’t tell him.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
Harry started going over all the strange thing she had done since they’d gotten back, but it wasn’t him she had asked the question to.
“We don’t know why I’m here,” Sirius said, getting up and standing between her and Harry. “We don’t even know for how long I will be here. If Harry and I were as close as you said, do you think knowing I’m here only to have me vanish when least expected will do him any good?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“You don’t know what?” Harry asked.
“If I’m only here temporarily, he doesn’t need to know, and if I’m here to stay, we can tell him later.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Please,” he said, and she wasn’t sure what it was that she saw in his expression, but it was enough to convince her to keep it between them. He had the right to choose for himself, after all.
“Hermione, you’re scaring me,” Harry said, walking right through Sirius and grabbing her by the shoulders. “What is going on?”
“I…”
“Tell him it’s because of the spell,” Sirius said, from somewhere behind Harry.
“What do-“
“Tell him the spell you cast on him earlier affected you.”
“Hermione?” Harry asked.
“It’s just…I think it has to do with the spell I used on you,” she finally said. “I’ve been a little disoriented ever since.”
“Mrs Weasley said something about you using a spell to improve your hearing.”
“Yes, I guess it mixed somehow with the spell I used to see what the protection around you was, but I’m sure the effects will fade soon,” she said, trying her best to sound reassuring. “It’s actually better now than it was this morning.”
“Perhaps we should take you to St Mungo’s, have a healer see you.”
“Nonsense,” she said, moving Harry’s hands away from her shoulders. “I just need to get some sleep, that’s all.”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t stay here alone, if you’re not-“
“Harry, I’m fine,” she said, gently but firmly pushing him to the door. “I need some rest, that’s all. We’ll discuss this tomorrow.”
“Are you sure?”
“Goodnight, Harry,” she said, then closed the door. “Well, that-”
“Wait,” Sirius interrupted, walking to the door. He leaned forward and poked his head out through the door. After a few moments, he stepped away from the door and turned to her. “He was still standing by the door, but he’s gone now.”
“What was he doing out there?”
“Probably wondering whether he should believe you or not. Do you think your explanation will be enough?”
“If I stop acting like a crazy person, then perhaps. I just wish you’d let me tell him what’s happening. I hate keeping secrets from him.”
“There’s no need for him to know about me.”
“Perhaps he could help us find out what’s going on.”
“Well, you and I will have to do, love.”
As for future chapters, I'll try to keep them coming, but my BigBang story's giving me hell, so I can't really promise anything :s
And now, on to the story...
Title: Fallen Angel
Chapter 4: Night-Time Visitor
Hermione was waiting in line to get on the enormous roller coaster. Her father was standing right next to her, and she knew her mother was somewhere near by. They were in an amusement park somewhere in France, though she couldn’t remember the name of the place. Her parents had taken her there a few times on summer vacation, and she always made them get up before the sun even rose, so they would be the first to arrive.
As the line moved, she stepped forward and turned to look at her father. He looked so tall, or perhaps it was her that was so small. She looked down at her hands curiously, and saw they were a child’s hands. But of course they were, she was only nine, after all.
Her father was smiling at her, and she smiled back. There were only a handful of people ahead of them now; she’d be on the roller coaster in a few minutes.
“Are you feeling all right?” her father suddenly asked.
Hermione wondered why he would ask that, but then she felt the small beads of sweat forming on her forehead. It was so hot. She looked up at the sky, narrowing her eyes as she watched the sun. It was shining so brightly, and the air was so hot.
But something was wrong. It was as if the heat was focused solely on her head. The sensation came and went; it felt as if someone was fanning her, but she was getting heat instead of cool air. Not only that; along with the heat came a faint prickling on her skin, not quite an itch, more like a soft tickle.
It was taking her brain longer than usual to add the sensations up, but they were strangely familiar; she knew she had felt them before.
Then a voice reached her ears, although she had no idea where it was coming from. The voice was repeating her name over and over and over, but it didn’t sound urgent or worried, it sounded almost…bored.
“What?” she whispered in response, as the world began dissolving around her. She blinked and tried to focus on what she was seeing now, but it took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the sudden darkness.
“Well, it was about time,” the same voice she had heard calling her name said, and she barely managed to hold back a frightened yelp as she jumped for her wand. “Hey, easy there,” came next, as she aimed the wand at where she thought the voice was coming from.
For some reason, she decided to hold the attack back, at least for a few moments, and opted to mutter, “Lumos,” instead.
Sirius was standing a few feet from the bed, hands held up in surrender and the hint of a smile on his lips.
“What are you doing here?” she asked with a groan, lying back on the bed again, using her arm to shield her eyes from the now bright light.
Lowering his hands, Sirius stepped back towards the bed and sat down facing her. “I’m bored.”
“I was sleeping!”
“Oh, trust me love, I noticed,” he said with a smirk. “It would seem you can’t hear me when you’re asleep.”
“Then how did you wake me?” she asked.
Instead of answering, he leaned towards her, stretched out his arm and started waving his hand through her head.
She tried to bat his arm away, but of course that was hard to do without being able to touch him. “Stop that, you’re giving me a headache,” she grumbled, leaning as far away from him as she could so he wouldn’t reach her head.
“Sorry,” Sirius said, not sounding apologetic at all, as he sat straight again. “But you deserve it, you know? I’ve spent the last half hour trying to wake you. You looked happy, though,” he added, as an afterthought. “What were you dreaming of?”
“It was a great dream, actually,” she said with a smile, when she saw him wiggle his eyebrows suggestively. “Ron and Harry had returned, and you weren’t with them.”
Sirius gave her wide eyes as he moved his hands to his chest, splaying them over his heart. “Ouch, you wound me, woman,” he said, but even his hurt tone and expression couldn’t belie the twinkle in his eyes.
“I am so, very sorry, Sirius,” she said, trying to hold back a smile. She was supposed to be angry at him, he had, after all, walked into her bedroom and woken her up for no good reason. She couldn’t let him charm that fact away. “What was so important that you had to spend thirty of your utterly valuable minutes trying to wake me up?”
“I already told you, I’m bored,” he said, as if it was so obvious she shouldn’t need to ask.
“You’re bored,” she said, and he nodded. “So you thought you’d come into my room, uninvited, I might add, and wake me up to share that fact?”
Sirius rolled his eyes at her and leaned back, resting on his elbows. His arm went through her foot, and she moved her leg back, so that she was sitting up against the headboard, her feet away from him.
“I didn’t wake you up to tell you I was bored,” he said. “I did it because I was bored. I thought I’d keep you company.”
“I was sleeping!”
“We’ve already established that,” he replied, his smile widening.
“Merlin, Sirius, don’t you sleep?” she asked, and he shook his head no. “Ever?” Another shake. “Well, can’t you go read a book, or the Daily Prophet?”
There it was, that roll of eyes again. He was starting to make her feel stupid with that attitude. “It’s hard to read a book or a newspaper when you can’t open it, or turn its pages.”
“What did you do when you were away with Ron and Harry?” she asked, rubbing her eyes.
“Got bored,” he replied, with a shrug.
“Well, can’t you be bored for another night? Just go over to their room and wait until they wake up.”
“Merlin, anything but that. I swear to you, if I have to go through another night of hearing Ron’s snores I will go crazy. I tried to count how many times he snored one night, to keep myself entertained, but I gave up after reaching five thousand,” he said, and she couldn’t help but laugh.
“I remember when we used to spend part of our holidays at the Burrow. Every time he snored, you could feel the entire house shake. It’s a wonder Harry could sleep in the same room with him for years. What?” she asked, when he started laughing.
“What makes you think he slept through the snoring?” Sirius asked, then explained when he saw her frown in confusion. “He uses a modified Silencing Charm. He waits until Ron falls asleep and then casts the Charm so that he can’t hear the snores. It only blocks the snoring out, though; it would be dangerous if he blocked every sound while he was asleep.”
“He did? How do you know?”
“I spent a lot of time with them, remember? I saw him cast it every night. When I first got here they couldn’t do any magic, though. The poor lad didn’t get a full hour’s sleep at night; he looked like a walking zombie. I’m sure the thought of killing Ron crossed his mind more than once, but instead he resorted to slipping small stones under the thin mattress so Ron wouldn’t sleep so much and throw small things at him when he started snoring to wake him back up, getting the little sleep he could during the time it took Ron to start snoring again.
“I should probably feel sorry for Harry, but he deserves it for not telling me about the modified charm. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it. I normally used the regular brand of Silencing Charms on the entire bedroom when I shared it with Ginny, but then we couldn’t even hear people knocking on the door, so we finally resorted to Muggle earplugs.”
“Ginny, that’s the other read-head, right? The girl that was in the kitchen this morning.”
“Yes, she’s Ron’s younger sister. I keep forgetting you don’t remember any of us.”
“It seems there’s entirely too many of you to remember,” he said, with a small smile. “You seem to be very close to Ron and Harry.”
“I am. We’ve been best friends ever since our first year at Hogwarts, minus a few fights now and then.”
“So why didn’t you go with them, why did you stay here?”
“Well, we were supposed to go together, the three of us, in search of the Horcruxes,” she said, wrapping her arms around her knees, sleep completely forgotten as she talked to Sirius, “but we found out my dad was sick a few days before we were supposed to leave.”
He surprised her with the interested tone in his voice when he asked, “Is he all right?”
“He is, now,” she answered, “but when he got sick…the Muggle doctors we took him to said there was nothing they could do for him. They didn’t know what was wrong with him, but they said he only had a few weeks left, a month if he was lucky.”
“But you said he was all right.”
“Well, when I heard the doctors couldn’t do anything for him I thought perhaps healers could, but since he is not a wizard we couldn’t get him into St Mungo’s. That’s why I stayed behind, I had to find a way to help my dad. It took a lot of time, and I had to take it all the way to the Minister for Magic, but I was lucky we have so many Order members holding important positions inside the Ministry; if they hadn’t helped me…”
“If your parents aren’t wizards, then they’re not part of the Order, right? That’s why they aren’t here.”
“Right,” she said, not sure where he was going with this.
With a thoughtful expression on his face, Sirius turned around and sat against the headboard, next to her. “I assume the redheaded witch that was in the kitchen fixing breakfast when we arrived and the redheaded wizard that came to the meeting are Ron’s parents,” he said, and she nodded. “So what about Harry’s parents? Where are they?”
She hesitated for a second before saying, “They died.”
“How?”
“They were both killed during the first war.”
“You told me I was Harry’s godfather, right?” he asked, and she nodded again. “So I must’ve been close to them.”
“I don’t know much about your relationship with his mom, but his father was your best friend. From what I’ve heard, you were quite a pair, always getting into trouble.”
Sirius was silent for a few moments, and she could see sadness cross his face, even though he didn’t remember James or Lily.
“So, what other interesting adventures did I miss by staying here?” she asked, trying to change the subject.
“Well,” he said, looking thoughtful, “there was that night when they got drunk and hired that stripper.
“They what?” she asked, and he burst out laughing at her gobsmacked expression. “Very funny,” she said, trying to punch his shoulder and hitting the headboard instead. “Ouch,” she mumbled, scowling when his laughter got louder. “Not funny.”
“Oh, yes, it is.” Sirius was still howling with laughter when he suddenly fell through the bed, catching himself right before going through the bedroom floor so that only the top of his head was visible over the mattress.
“Now that’s funny,” she laughed, as she watched him curse and try to climb his way up to the bed.
“Told you that’s what happened when I lost focus,” he said watching her laugh, a small smile touching his lips as he sat back down beside her.
“That’s not so…” she started, but just then the bedroom door opened and Harry stepped inside.
“Hasn’t he learnt how to knock,” Sirius said, leaning back against the headboard. “Could’ve walked in on you on a much more compromising situation.”
Before she could reply to his comment Harry spoke. “Are you all right?” he asked her, and she noticed he had his wand gripped firmly by his side.
“What are you doing here?” she asked him, but he didn’t seem to be paying her much attention; his eyes were searching the room, looking for someone or something.
After a few seconds, he spoke again. “Who were you talking to?”
“I wasn’t talking to anyone,” she said, but Harry’s attention was back on their surroundings, his gaze searching the room again. It was obvious he didn’t believe her.
“I heard you talking from the hallway, Hermione.”
“So what, you thought you’d storm in and see what was going on?”
He took a step forward and tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing as he watched her. “You’ve been acting strange all day.”
“Strange?” Sirius said. “What is he on about? It’s not as if you’ve been talking to yourself all day, and got caught laughing your heart out in an empty room.”
She turned to Sirius for a second with a scowl, pressing a finger to her lips to tell him to keep silent.
“See? That’s what I mean,” Harry said, as she turned back to him. “What was that about?”
She wondered if perhaps she should just tell him the truth, tell him she wasn’t going crazy, that she had been talking to the ghost of his dead godfather, but before she could even open her mouth to speak Sirius stopped her, as if he knew what she was thinking.
“You can’t tell him.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
Harry started going over all the strange thing she had done since they’d gotten back, but it wasn’t him she had asked the question to.
“We don’t know why I’m here,” Sirius said, getting up and standing between her and Harry. “We don’t even know for how long I will be here. If Harry and I were as close as you said, do you think knowing I’m here only to have me vanish when least expected will do him any good?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“You don’t know what?” Harry asked.
“If I’m only here temporarily, he doesn’t need to know, and if I’m here to stay, we can tell him later.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Please,” he said, and she wasn’t sure what it was that she saw in his expression, but it was enough to convince her to keep it between them. He had the right to choose for himself, after all.
“Hermione, you’re scaring me,” Harry said, walking right through Sirius and grabbing her by the shoulders. “What is going on?”
“I…”
“Tell him it’s because of the spell,” Sirius said, from somewhere behind Harry.
“What do-“
“Tell him the spell you cast on him earlier affected you.”
“Hermione?” Harry asked.
“It’s just…I think it has to do with the spell I used on you,” she finally said. “I’ve been a little disoriented ever since.”
“Mrs Weasley said something about you using a spell to improve your hearing.”
“Yes, I guess it mixed somehow with the spell I used to see what the protection around you was, but I’m sure the effects will fade soon,” she said, trying her best to sound reassuring. “It’s actually better now than it was this morning.”
“Perhaps we should take you to St Mungo’s, have a healer see you.”
“Nonsense,” she said, moving Harry’s hands away from her shoulders. “I just need to get some sleep, that’s all.”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t stay here alone, if you’re not-“
“Harry, I’m fine,” she said, gently but firmly pushing him to the door. “I need some rest, that’s all. We’ll discuss this tomorrow.”
“Are you sure?”
“Goodnight, Harry,” she said, then closed the door. “Well, that-”
“Wait,” Sirius interrupted, walking to the door. He leaned forward and poked his head out through the door. After a few moments, he stepped away from the door and turned to her. “He was still standing by the door, but he’s gone now.”
“What was he doing out there?”
“Probably wondering whether he should believe you or not. Do you think your explanation will be enough?”
“If I stop acting like a crazy person, then perhaps. I just wish you’d let me tell him what’s happening. I hate keeping secrets from him.”
“There’s no need for him to know about me.”
“Perhaps he could help us find out what’s going on.”
“Well, you and I will have to do, love.”