Yay for new chapter!
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Chapter 2: Boggarts
"You look tired," Hermione commented at breakfast the next day. "Are you still having trouble sleeping?"
"No- I had a strange dream, but otherwise I'm fine."
Harry didn't feel like mentioning the sleepwalking episode just yet. It was a bit embarrassing, and would only make Hermione worry.
Ron shot Harry a look that he could not quite understand. "You were awake at four in the bloody morning," he said. "You call that sleeping well?"
"I was only up for a little while."
"You were up the whole bloody night."
"I was not."
Ron shot an exasperated look to Hermione, as if to say "Talk some sense into him, please!"
"Look, Harry," Hermione said. "We know you haven't been well. You don't need to hide it."
"I'm not hiding anything. I just don't feel like talking about it just yet, alright? Later."
Finally seeming to notice that they were in the Great Hall eating breakfast and surrounded by people, Ron and Hermione both nodded slightly.
There was no chance to talk until much later; first they had to sit through Divination, where Professor Trelawney saw a grim in Harry's teacup and gasped so deeply that she choked on the peppermint she had been sucking, which made it hard to take her prediction of Harry’s imminent demise very seriously.
"She's a complete and utter fraud," Hermione said as they walked to their next class. "Not only does she try to read the future from tea leaves-"
"Hermione- that's was Divination is." Ron said, cutting in.
"But-" Hermione continued, getting louder, "she completely made that up, to make herself look impressive.”
Harry couldn’t help but snort at that, since impressive was not the word he would have chosen to describe Trelawney’s prediction.
Hermione continued. “I had a conversation with Professor McGonagall yesterday, while she was trying to convince me to drop a few classes-"
"Which you refused to do," Ron added.
"Well- yes. Which I refused to do, because I can handle them- and she said that Trelawney predicts the death of a student every year, as a sort of dramatic first-day intimidation tactic. And not one of them has ever died. Well- I mean obviously they died eventually, some of them, but not particularly sooner than anyone else."
Then, of course, came Transfiguration, where Hermione's story was verified by McGonagall herself. By the time that was over Ron and Hermione seemed to completely have forgotten about Harry's sleeping troubles. Which, Harry decided, was all for the best. After all, he'd never sleepwalked before in his life and wasn't likely to again. There was no sense in making them worry over one isolated incident. He vowed to put the whole thing behind him. There were more important things to focus on, after all, like doing well in his studies and determining what, exactly, Professor Lupin was up to in the forest. Hopefully it wasn't anything too bad; Harry liked Lupin, and he certainly looked like he was going to be the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher so far; after all, he'd managed to fend off the Dementors on the train, saving Harry's life. Quirrel and Lockheart wouldn't have been capable of that, much less willing. If Lupin wasn't secretly evil, then he would be a brilliant teacher.
It was with great anticipation, therefore, that Harry looked forward to the first Defense class. Everyone walked into the classroom only to walk right out of it again.
"Today's lesson will be a practical one," Lupin said as they walked down the hall. "Now- who can tell me what a boggart is?"
The lesson continued, and Professor Lupin proved to be an even better teacher than Harry had thought he would be. After all- what other teacher could make facing your worst fears not only tolerable, but actually fun?
But Harry never got a chance to face the boggart. Professor Lupin interfered. In the few seconds before the classroom emptied, Harry wondered exactly what the boggart would have become for him. His first thought was of Voldemort, but he dismissed that immediately. Voldemort wasn't a great source of fear, except in those moments Harry was actually face-to-face with him. It wasn't as if Harry stayed up nights worrying about him.
His next thought was of the dementors. But after days of no appetite and a dozen potions shoved down his throat, dementors were starting to seem more like an annoyance than a threat. Before, he'd thought of them as evil, soul-sucking creatures. They'd seemed scary enough, when presented in that light; he was sure he would still be terrified if he came face-to-face with one. But- well, again, he wasn't that afraid of them, on a day-to-day basis. They were, after all, giving him a case of something like the flu, and as much as he tried, Harry couldn't help but snort at the idea of being afraid of a cold, however evil it looked in person.
All of which left Harry with no plausible greatest fear.
Finally, the class emptied out- Harry told Ron and Hermione that he would see them later, at dinner- and he had his chance to speak with Professor Lupin in private.
"Sir," Harry said. "I was wondering- Why didn't you let me have a shot at the boggart?"
"I thought that would be obvious. I assumed that your boggart would take the shape of Voldemort, and would cause a panic in the classroom."
"Oh," said Harry. "I thought of him first, too. But then- well, I'm not really that afraid of him. And then I thought of dementors, and I know I should be afraid of them, after they nearly killed me on the train, but I'm not. And I can't think of anything worse than them, so I don't know, really, what I'm most afraid of. And I'd like to find out."
Lupin gave him a look of mingled surprise and respect.
“Most people,” he said, “end up thinking so hard about terrifying things when they know they are going to encounter a boggart that they make themselves even more afraid.”
“That seems pretty silly to me.”
“It is. But that’s a very mature attitude, for a thirteen-year-old.”
Harry shrugged.
“In any case,” Lupin continued, “I can arrange for you to get a session with a boggart some time this month. It will take me a few days to find another. Do you have plans next Sunday? At three o’clock?”
“Er- That works, I think.”
“Good. I’ll see you then.”
The next few weeks passed without incident. Harry didn’t sleepwalk again, but he did wake in the middle of the night several times, with strange dreams that he couldn’t quite recall once he was fully awake. Harry was careful to walk quietly when he left his bed, so that he didn’t alert Ron to his sleeping difficulties. Really, it wasn’t anyone else’s business.
The only real news was that Madame Pomfrey had found the necessary forms to change his guardianship.
“All you need to do,” she told him, “is write a letter explaining how those people treat you. You need another letter from an adult, to prove you aren’t just causing trouble- I can write that, if you like- and I’ll fill out these forms.”
“That’s it?”
“Well- if the Department of Child Welfare at the ministry deems the case worthy, then it goes to court. Then the Dursleys will have to testify under a truth potion, and your guardianship will change.”
“What do you mean ‘if they deem it worthy?’?”
“It’s a formality. We have enough evidence that they won’t even think twice before passing the case through.”
“This isn’t going to… to make the papers, or anything, is it?”
“No. These cases are strictly confidential. You needn’t worry about that. Is it different, with muggles?”
“I don’t know.”
He finished the last of his potion.
“Off to dinner with you, then. And don’t forget to write that letter.”
He didn’t manage to eat any food at dinner, though, and thought that perhaps he ought to eat less candy, to save room for real food. But then, candy was mostly sugar, and the more calories he got, the better. Since he couldn’t eat much, it was probably best that he was having candy instead of something else. And certainly it was more enjoyable. Everything else seemed to have slightly lost its flavor, but chocolate was good. He would have to be careful not to eat all that he had, though. It would be no fun at all to run out.
As it turned out, Harry didn’t see Lupin at the time they’d agreed upon; the teacher had problems finding another boggart. It was halfway through October before they were able to meet.
“I’ll be standing right here, behind you, in case of trouble,” Lupin told him.
Nervously, Harry walked up to the trunk containing the boggart. It would have been easier, in many ways, if he knew what it would be. Perhaps it would simply turn into a dementor, since he couldn’t think of anything more frightening. That would be a bit of a disappointment, but he might expect it.
What came out of the trunk, however, was not a dementor. It was a tall man with dark brown hair and pale, sickly-looking skin. He leapt from the trunk, seized Harry by the arm, and dragged him to the other side of the room, away from Lupin. All of this happened so quickly that Harry wasn’t even aware of it until he was halfway across the room.
“Who-“ he started to ask, but he couldn’t continue because at that moment the man grabbed his throat and Harry couldn’t breathe.
“Going to get you,” the man whispered. “Going to kill you, or do worse…”
By then, however, Lupin had come closer and cast a spell- Harry was too preoccupied at the moment to see what it was- that made the man lessen his grip slightly. Harry took a he gasp of air, though truthfully he hadn’t been choked for long.
“Get away from him,” Lupin said tersely.
Harry saw the man grin.
“Make me,” he said.
There was a brief but violent struggle, which ended when Lupin finally managed to cast a Riddikulus at the man, who turned into a large fluffy cat and then exploded.
“Are you hurt?” Lupin asked.
“No- he didn’t have me very long. I’m a bit sore on the neck…”
Lupin examined Harry’s neck, but found no bruises.
“Do you know who that man is?” Lupin asked him with a puzzled expression.
“No. Who was he?”
Lupin frowned. “A very bad man. He may have been mine- but it’s silly to think that my boggart could have changed since this morning-“
“What?”
“That fear must have come from me. I’m sorry; if I had known that would happen, I wouldn’t have allowed this lesson.”
“But I was closer to it. Why didn’t it turn into something for me?”
“I don’t know- unless- you’re taking Occludus Solution, aren’t you? To block out the dementors?”
“Yeah.”
“That may have had a role in this. Although the dose you would need to block a boggart out this fully would be large. Do you know how much Madame Pomfrey is giving you?”
“No. It’s all mixed in with nutritive potions, so I can’t tell how much is there…”
“Nutritive potions?” Lupin asked sharply.
“Er.” Harry mentally kicked himself. That was more than he’d meant to say. It was one thing to tell the school nurse, who was going to help him get away from the Dursleys. It was quite another to talk to his teachers about his home life.
“Let’s forget I mentioned that, alright?” Harry said weakly.
Lupin shot him a confused and concerned look. “What do you need nutritive potions for?”
“I’m underweight, and she’s trying to fatten me up. That’s all there is to it.”
Clearly seeing that this line of questioning was going nowhere, Lupin frowned.
“Well- I’ll have a word with Madame Pomfrey soon about that potion, then. That high a dose can’t be healthy… I’ll see you in class tomorrow, Harry.”
Harry went back to his room and had two candy bars before his session with Pomfrey and dinner. Lupin hadn’t talked to her yet- only half an hour had passed, after all- and Harry didn’t think of it while he was there.
If he really was getting too high of a dose of the Occludus Solution, then why was he still having such problems eating? Shouldn’t that potion be blocking out the dementors easily?
There had to be something else wrong with him, didn’t there? Or maybe Lupin had been wrong, and the Harry wasn’t getting that much of the potion. Dementors had to be harder to block out than boggarts. Lupin wasn’t a healer, after all. He didn’t necessarily know what he was talking about.
With that thought in mind, and feeling rather better about the whole mess, Harry did his homework and went to bed. Lupin didn’t know what he was talking about. Pomfrey was a healer; she had to know what she was doing. Harry was going to be fine.
Just as he was drifting off to sleep, though, Harry had a thought. The boggart hadn’t come after Lupin. It had tried to hurt Harry. Why would Lupin’s greatest fear be of a man hurting Harry? That didn’t make much sense. Harry was just a student, after all. He wasn’t special.
Maybe just because Lupin felt responsible for Harry nearly being injured now, and that would make him feel worse than being attacked himself. Certainly Harry would feel terrible if someone else was injured because of him. That boggart probably would have attacked anyone else in the room with Lupin, assuming it could get close enough to someone else without becoming their greatest fear. There was nothing special about Harry himself, then.
That made sense, so Harry finally drifted off.
There were no dreams that night, or at least none that Harry could remember. The next morning he woke near dawn to a beam of sunlight shining painfully in his eyes. He’d forgotten to close the curtains around his bed, and someone had left the ones on the window open as well.
Well. No use trying to sleep now. He went quietly down to the common room, and sat in front of the fire for a while, and tried to do the reading for Transfiguration that he hadn’t bothered with the night before. Really, there wasn’t that much to do before everyone else was up. Harry was not a solitary person by nature. It was annoying, how he seemed to keep waking at odd hours in the past few weeks. Maybe he ought to tell Madame Pomfrey about the sleeping troubles. She might be able to help, as much as Harry didn’t want to bother anyone about it.
Harry went off to his usual pre-breakfast Hospital Wing visit, and had his potion.
“Er- yesterday, I had a sort of make-up lesson with Professor Lupin, and the boggart wouldn’t take any shape for me. Professor Lupin seemed to think I might be getting too much Occludus Solution. I thought I ought to mention it.”
“What? That can’t be right. You aren’t getting nearly enough to do that.”
“Well- it happened.”
“But you’re still feeling the effect of the dementors, and the effect from them is much weaker at this distance. I’m not certain what happened with your boggart is unrelated to the potions you’re taking.”
“Oh. Well, Lupin- Professor Lupin, I mean- might come by about that later. I just thought I’d say something first.”
“Quite alright. How are you coming on that letter?”
“I’m working on it. I should be done in a few days.”
Madame Pomfrey looked unconvinced, perhaps because this was the same answer he had given a few days ago.
“You really need to write that letter if you want to get away from the Dursleys. I would do it for you if I could, dear, but I can’t.”
Harry nodded. He had written something, but wasn’t at all pleased with it. Honestly, it felt like whining. The Dursleys had never been nice to him, but he didn’t feel right calling it outright abuse. After all- they’d never hurt him much. Aunt Petunia had taken the occasional swing at him with her frying pan, and Dudley had chased him around a fair bit when Harry was smaller, but was that really enough to count?
Right now, the letter was at the very bottom of his trunk, next to his secret chocolate supply, where no one snooping around would see it.
“I’m getting it done,” he said. “Don’t worry.”
She gave him another doubtful look before sending him off to breakfast.
Harry didn’t eat a single bite all day, the first time since he’d first gone to the Hospital Wing that he’d done so. But then, it wasn’t as if he was starving. He had those nasty nutritive potions, after all.
And later that day was Quiddich practice, which drove all thoughts of food, sleep, and letters out of his head. With all the strangeness of being ill, it was nice to know that one thing hadn’t changed. The feel of wind rushing past him, the thrill of chasing the snitch- it was still the same. Even better, maybe- Harry managed to catch the snitch six times in the space of an hour, despite terrible weather. Wood gave them all fierce pep talks, despite the fact that their first match wasn’t for nearly another month, and all-in-all Harry felt much better when he finally got off his broom and started walking to the castle.
The feeling was short-lived. As the team started walking back to the castle, Professor McGonagall rushed over to them.
“Don’t return to the common room- get to the Great Hall. Sirius Black was- and may still be- in the castle.”
-----------------------------
A/N:
Well, here we are, a bit shorter and a bit later than I intended. Updates should be more often now; life has been particularly hectic lately.
I can't guarantee the schedules and full moons are going to be even remotely canon. I've tried figuring them out, but it doesn't work well. I'm not so sure JKR herself knows exactly when they have all their classes, and the full moons are completely erratic. They seem to happen only every few months, and there ought to have been one on September 1st, so that Lupin couldn't have been on the train. Oh, well. So- if you see any inconsistencies, let me know and I'll fix them as best I can.
As for the whole escaping-the-Dursleys process- I imagine real court procedures are much more complicated than this. But wizards have truth potions, so there only has to be enough evidence that they can justify using those potions. At least, in my thinking. In real life, there are always more complications…
As always, please review- ego-boosts are good, but criticism is even more welcome (at least in theory).
Chapter 2: Boggarts
"You look tired," Hermione commented at breakfast the next day. "Are you still having trouble sleeping?"
"No- I had a strange dream, but otherwise I'm fine."
Harry didn't feel like mentioning the sleepwalking episode just yet. It was a bit embarrassing, and would only make Hermione worry.
Ron shot Harry a look that he could not quite understand. "You were awake at four in the bloody morning," he said. "You call that sleeping well?"
"I was only up for a little while."
"You were up the whole bloody night."
"I was not."
Ron shot an exasperated look to Hermione, as if to say "Talk some sense into him, please!"
"Look, Harry," Hermione said. "We know you haven't been well. You don't need to hide it."
"I'm not hiding anything. I just don't feel like talking about it just yet, alright? Later."
Finally seeming to notice that they were in the Great Hall eating breakfast and surrounded by people, Ron and Hermione both nodded slightly.
There was no chance to talk until much later; first they had to sit through Divination, where Professor Trelawney saw a grim in Harry's teacup and gasped so deeply that she choked on the peppermint she had been sucking, which made it hard to take her prediction of Harry’s imminent demise very seriously.
"She's a complete and utter fraud," Hermione said as they walked to their next class. "Not only does she try to read the future from tea leaves-"
"Hermione- that's was Divination is." Ron said, cutting in.
"But-" Hermione continued, getting louder, "she completely made that up, to make herself look impressive.”
Harry couldn’t help but snort at that, since impressive was not the word he would have chosen to describe Trelawney’s prediction.
Hermione continued. “I had a conversation with Professor McGonagall yesterday, while she was trying to convince me to drop a few classes-"
"Which you refused to do," Ron added.
"Well- yes. Which I refused to do, because I can handle them- and she said that Trelawney predicts the death of a student every year, as a sort of dramatic first-day intimidation tactic. And not one of them has ever died. Well- I mean obviously they died eventually, some of them, but not particularly sooner than anyone else."
Then, of course, came Transfiguration, where Hermione's story was verified by McGonagall herself. By the time that was over Ron and Hermione seemed to completely have forgotten about Harry's sleeping troubles. Which, Harry decided, was all for the best. After all, he'd never sleepwalked before in his life and wasn't likely to again. There was no sense in making them worry over one isolated incident. He vowed to put the whole thing behind him. There were more important things to focus on, after all, like doing well in his studies and determining what, exactly, Professor Lupin was up to in the forest. Hopefully it wasn't anything too bad; Harry liked Lupin, and he certainly looked like he was going to be the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher so far; after all, he'd managed to fend off the Dementors on the train, saving Harry's life. Quirrel and Lockheart wouldn't have been capable of that, much less willing. If Lupin wasn't secretly evil, then he would be a brilliant teacher.
It was with great anticipation, therefore, that Harry looked forward to the first Defense class. Everyone walked into the classroom only to walk right out of it again.
"Today's lesson will be a practical one," Lupin said as they walked down the hall. "Now- who can tell me what a boggart is?"
The lesson continued, and Professor Lupin proved to be an even better teacher than Harry had thought he would be. After all- what other teacher could make facing your worst fears not only tolerable, but actually fun?
But Harry never got a chance to face the boggart. Professor Lupin interfered. In the few seconds before the classroom emptied, Harry wondered exactly what the boggart would have become for him. His first thought was of Voldemort, but he dismissed that immediately. Voldemort wasn't a great source of fear, except in those moments Harry was actually face-to-face with him. It wasn't as if Harry stayed up nights worrying about him.
His next thought was of the dementors. But after days of no appetite and a dozen potions shoved down his throat, dementors were starting to seem more like an annoyance than a threat. Before, he'd thought of them as evil, soul-sucking creatures. They'd seemed scary enough, when presented in that light; he was sure he would still be terrified if he came face-to-face with one. But- well, again, he wasn't that afraid of them, on a day-to-day basis. They were, after all, giving him a case of something like the flu, and as much as he tried, Harry couldn't help but snort at the idea of being afraid of a cold, however evil it looked in person.
All of which left Harry with no plausible greatest fear.
Finally, the class emptied out- Harry told Ron and Hermione that he would see them later, at dinner- and he had his chance to speak with Professor Lupin in private.
"Sir," Harry said. "I was wondering- Why didn't you let me have a shot at the boggart?"
"I thought that would be obvious. I assumed that your boggart would take the shape of Voldemort, and would cause a panic in the classroom."
"Oh," said Harry. "I thought of him first, too. But then- well, I'm not really that afraid of him. And then I thought of dementors, and I know I should be afraid of them, after they nearly killed me on the train, but I'm not. And I can't think of anything worse than them, so I don't know, really, what I'm most afraid of. And I'd like to find out."
Lupin gave him a look of mingled surprise and respect.
“Most people,” he said, “end up thinking so hard about terrifying things when they know they are going to encounter a boggart that they make themselves even more afraid.”
“That seems pretty silly to me.”
“It is. But that’s a very mature attitude, for a thirteen-year-old.”
Harry shrugged.
“In any case,” Lupin continued, “I can arrange for you to get a session with a boggart some time this month. It will take me a few days to find another. Do you have plans next Sunday? At three o’clock?”
“Er- That works, I think.”
“Good. I’ll see you then.”
The next few weeks passed without incident. Harry didn’t sleepwalk again, but he did wake in the middle of the night several times, with strange dreams that he couldn’t quite recall once he was fully awake. Harry was careful to walk quietly when he left his bed, so that he didn’t alert Ron to his sleeping difficulties. Really, it wasn’t anyone else’s business.
The only real news was that Madame Pomfrey had found the necessary forms to change his guardianship.
“All you need to do,” she told him, “is write a letter explaining how those people treat you. You need another letter from an adult, to prove you aren’t just causing trouble- I can write that, if you like- and I’ll fill out these forms.”
“That’s it?”
“Well- if the Department of Child Welfare at the ministry deems the case worthy, then it goes to court. Then the Dursleys will have to testify under a truth potion, and your guardianship will change.”
“What do you mean ‘if they deem it worthy?’?”
“It’s a formality. We have enough evidence that they won’t even think twice before passing the case through.”
“This isn’t going to… to make the papers, or anything, is it?”
“No. These cases are strictly confidential. You needn’t worry about that. Is it different, with muggles?”
“I don’t know.”
He finished the last of his potion.
“Off to dinner with you, then. And don’t forget to write that letter.”
He didn’t manage to eat any food at dinner, though, and thought that perhaps he ought to eat less candy, to save room for real food. But then, candy was mostly sugar, and the more calories he got, the better. Since he couldn’t eat much, it was probably best that he was having candy instead of something else. And certainly it was more enjoyable. Everything else seemed to have slightly lost its flavor, but chocolate was good. He would have to be careful not to eat all that he had, though. It would be no fun at all to run out.
As it turned out, Harry didn’t see Lupin at the time they’d agreed upon; the teacher had problems finding another boggart. It was halfway through October before they were able to meet.
“I’ll be standing right here, behind you, in case of trouble,” Lupin told him.
Nervously, Harry walked up to the trunk containing the boggart. It would have been easier, in many ways, if he knew what it would be. Perhaps it would simply turn into a dementor, since he couldn’t think of anything more frightening. That would be a bit of a disappointment, but he might expect it.
What came out of the trunk, however, was not a dementor. It was a tall man with dark brown hair and pale, sickly-looking skin. He leapt from the trunk, seized Harry by the arm, and dragged him to the other side of the room, away from Lupin. All of this happened so quickly that Harry wasn’t even aware of it until he was halfway across the room.
“Who-“ he started to ask, but he couldn’t continue because at that moment the man grabbed his throat and Harry couldn’t breathe.
“Going to get you,” the man whispered. “Going to kill you, or do worse…”
By then, however, Lupin had come closer and cast a spell- Harry was too preoccupied at the moment to see what it was- that made the man lessen his grip slightly. Harry took a he gasp of air, though truthfully he hadn’t been choked for long.
“Get away from him,” Lupin said tersely.
Harry saw the man grin.
“Make me,” he said.
There was a brief but violent struggle, which ended when Lupin finally managed to cast a Riddikulus at the man, who turned into a large fluffy cat and then exploded.
“Are you hurt?” Lupin asked.
“No- he didn’t have me very long. I’m a bit sore on the neck…”
Lupin examined Harry’s neck, but found no bruises.
“Do you know who that man is?” Lupin asked him with a puzzled expression.
“No. Who was he?”
Lupin frowned. “A very bad man. He may have been mine- but it’s silly to think that my boggart could have changed since this morning-“
“What?”
“That fear must have come from me. I’m sorry; if I had known that would happen, I wouldn’t have allowed this lesson.”
“But I was closer to it. Why didn’t it turn into something for me?”
“I don’t know- unless- you’re taking Occludus Solution, aren’t you? To block out the dementors?”
“Yeah.”
“That may have had a role in this. Although the dose you would need to block a boggart out this fully would be large. Do you know how much Madame Pomfrey is giving you?”
“No. It’s all mixed in with nutritive potions, so I can’t tell how much is there…”
“Nutritive potions?” Lupin asked sharply.
“Er.” Harry mentally kicked himself. That was more than he’d meant to say. It was one thing to tell the school nurse, who was going to help him get away from the Dursleys. It was quite another to talk to his teachers about his home life.
“Let’s forget I mentioned that, alright?” Harry said weakly.
Lupin shot him a confused and concerned look. “What do you need nutritive potions for?”
“I’m underweight, and she’s trying to fatten me up. That’s all there is to it.”
Clearly seeing that this line of questioning was going nowhere, Lupin frowned.
“Well- I’ll have a word with Madame Pomfrey soon about that potion, then. That high a dose can’t be healthy… I’ll see you in class tomorrow, Harry.”
Harry went back to his room and had two candy bars before his session with Pomfrey and dinner. Lupin hadn’t talked to her yet- only half an hour had passed, after all- and Harry didn’t think of it while he was there.
If he really was getting too high of a dose of the Occludus Solution, then why was he still having such problems eating? Shouldn’t that potion be blocking out the dementors easily?
There had to be something else wrong with him, didn’t there? Or maybe Lupin had been wrong, and the Harry wasn’t getting that much of the potion. Dementors had to be harder to block out than boggarts. Lupin wasn’t a healer, after all. He didn’t necessarily know what he was talking about.
With that thought in mind, and feeling rather better about the whole mess, Harry did his homework and went to bed. Lupin didn’t know what he was talking about. Pomfrey was a healer; she had to know what she was doing. Harry was going to be fine.
Just as he was drifting off to sleep, though, Harry had a thought. The boggart hadn’t come after Lupin. It had tried to hurt Harry. Why would Lupin’s greatest fear be of a man hurting Harry? That didn’t make much sense. Harry was just a student, after all. He wasn’t special.
Maybe just because Lupin felt responsible for Harry nearly being injured now, and that would make him feel worse than being attacked himself. Certainly Harry would feel terrible if someone else was injured because of him. That boggart probably would have attacked anyone else in the room with Lupin, assuming it could get close enough to someone else without becoming their greatest fear. There was nothing special about Harry himself, then.
That made sense, so Harry finally drifted off.
There were no dreams that night, or at least none that Harry could remember. The next morning he woke near dawn to a beam of sunlight shining painfully in his eyes. He’d forgotten to close the curtains around his bed, and someone had left the ones on the window open as well.
Well. No use trying to sleep now. He went quietly down to the common room, and sat in front of the fire for a while, and tried to do the reading for Transfiguration that he hadn’t bothered with the night before. Really, there wasn’t that much to do before everyone else was up. Harry was not a solitary person by nature. It was annoying, how he seemed to keep waking at odd hours in the past few weeks. Maybe he ought to tell Madame Pomfrey about the sleeping troubles. She might be able to help, as much as Harry didn’t want to bother anyone about it.
Harry went off to his usual pre-breakfast Hospital Wing visit, and had his potion.
“Er- yesterday, I had a sort of make-up lesson with Professor Lupin, and the boggart wouldn’t take any shape for me. Professor Lupin seemed to think I might be getting too much Occludus Solution. I thought I ought to mention it.”
“What? That can’t be right. You aren’t getting nearly enough to do that.”
“Well- it happened.”
“But you’re still feeling the effect of the dementors, and the effect from them is much weaker at this distance. I’m not certain what happened with your boggart is unrelated to the potions you’re taking.”
“Oh. Well, Lupin- Professor Lupin, I mean- might come by about that later. I just thought I’d say something first.”
“Quite alright. How are you coming on that letter?”
“I’m working on it. I should be done in a few days.”
Madame Pomfrey looked unconvinced, perhaps because this was the same answer he had given a few days ago.
“You really need to write that letter if you want to get away from the Dursleys. I would do it for you if I could, dear, but I can’t.”
Harry nodded. He had written something, but wasn’t at all pleased with it. Honestly, it felt like whining. The Dursleys had never been nice to him, but he didn’t feel right calling it outright abuse. After all- they’d never hurt him much. Aunt Petunia had taken the occasional swing at him with her frying pan, and Dudley had chased him around a fair bit when Harry was smaller, but was that really enough to count?
Right now, the letter was at the very bottom of his trunk, next to his secret chocolate supply, where no one snooping around would see it.
“I’m getting it done,” he said. “Don’t worry.”
She gave him another doubtful look before sending him off to breakfast.
Harry didn’t eat a single bite all day, the first time since he’d first gone to the Hospital Wing that he’d done so. But then, it wasn’t as if he was starving. He had those nasty nutritive potions, after all.
And later that day was Quiddich practice, which drove all thoughts of food, sleep, and letters out of his head. With all the strangeness of being ill, it was nice to know that one thing hadn’t changed. The feel of wind rushing past him, the thrill of chasing the snitch- it was still the same. Even better, maybe- Harry managed to catch the snitch six times in the space of an hour, despite terrible weather. Wood gave them all fierce pep talks, despite the fact that their first match wasn’t for nearly another month, and all-in-all Harry felt much better when he finally got off his broom and started walking to the castle.
The feeling was short-lived. As the team started walking back to the castle, Professor McGonagall rushed over to them.
“Don’t return to the common room- get to the Great Hall. Sirius Black was- and may still be- in the castle.”
-----------------------------
A/N:
Well, here we are, a bit shorter and a bit later than I intended. Updates should be more often now; life has been particularly hectic lately.
I can't guarantee the schedules and full moons are going to be even remotely canon. I've tried figuring them out, but it doesn't work well. I'm not so sure JKR herself knows exactly when they have all their classes, and the full moons are completely erratic. They seem to happen only every few months, and there ought to have been one on September 1st, so that Lupin couldn't have been on the train. Oh, well. So- if you see any inconsistencies, let me know and I'll fix them as best I can.
As for the whole escaping-the-Dursleys process- I imagine real court procedures are much more complicated than this. But wizards have truth potions, so there only has to be enough evidence that they can justify using those potions. At least, in my thinking. In real life, there are always more complications…
As always, please review- ego-boosts are good, but criticism is even more welcome (at least in theory).