Spring came with the melting of snow across the grounds. Water trickled down the windows around the school. Harry was dazed by it as Charms class slowly passed by.
Charms was perhaps the worst class for Harry and Ron not to have at the same time. Each were equally bad at charms, so they both usually canceled the other out. With no Ron, the only person Harry could be compared to was Hermione, making him look much worse than he actually was.
Professor Flitwick seemed to be droning on about the pronunciation of a new spell, which would make muggle objects work normally without electricity. He wrote it on the board. Harry stared at it but failed to read it; he merely stared through it and pondered within his own thoughts.
A large shuffling movement indicated that they were now trying the spell. Harry looked up at the spell written on the board, took out his wand and pointed it at the alarm clock sitting on his desk. “Faceria! ” he hissed. Nothing happened. Next to him Hermione had done the same thing only her clock started to ring loudly causing the class to look over towards her. At least Hermione was back to her normal, overachieving, self.
“Harry, there’s still something I don’t get.” she said softly, “I mean, I know Voldemort's the type who would go through a lot of trouble to get revenge, but he’s not stupid. And Dumbledore said ‘You will know in time’, that suggests that there’s something more than revenge.”
Harry shrugged. He didn’t want Hermione to know; She seemed so delicate after her parents died. But maybe it wasn’t a good thing to suspend the truth. He would tell her and Ron - but not now.
Another thought came across him. There was one other person who deserved to her the prophecy. Neville; after all, it could have easily been him in the first place. For once he would know something nobody else, aside from Harry and Dumbledore, knew.
He wandered into the dormitory after the bell rang. A small feeling of guilt seemed to build along his mind. Neville always had to be fed information, never once finding something out for himself. Maybe there was some way Neville could find out by himself; or at least without knowing that someone gave him the information. He held up his Pensieve. Somehow he had to let Neville find it and stick his wand into the basin.
Had Neville ever seen a Pensieve? If he had, he probably wouldn't go sticking his wand in it. He had to make it so that anyone with a since of curiosity would want to touch it.
The corner of his invisibility cloak stuck out of his trunk. He opened the trunk and took it out, then looked at the Pensieve and back to the cloak. Wrapping the cloak around the Pensieve would allow you to only see the liquid inside. Harry grinned in spite of himself. Surely if Neville found the liquid floating in mid air he would want to touch it.
People started to fill the common room. Harry kept the cloak off the Pensieve so that nobody would touch it before Neville. He wandered into the common room, the Pensieve still visible in the boys’ dormitory. Harry stared lazily at the sign on the notice board, announcing the Hogsmeade visit tomorrow.
As Neville entered the common room Harry gave his wand a small flick so that the cloak gave a small movement, covering the Pensieve so that it only showed the liquid inside.
“Hey! Neville, err… I never got to see that new wand of yours in action. Mind if I see it?” Harry asked. Neville looked confused but decided he would rather show off his wand than argue. Harry watched as he walked into the dormitory and stumbled across the Pensieve. Grabbing his wand off a table next to his bed, Neville prodded nervously at the liquid until he touched it and vanished. “Accio! ” Harry said as he walked towards the Pensieve, and the cloak came hurling into his hand.
He picked up the Pensieve and set it down on his bed table and peered into it. Neville looked quite confused, but as Dumbledore showed Harry, and now Neville too, Professor Trelawney making the prophecy, he seemed to concentrate on it more than the fact that he was suddenly in Dumbledore’s office.
As Neville reappeared next to the table, Harry acted as though he had been looking for him. “There you“ hey, what you doing in my Pensieve?” he asked a bit too falsely. Neville stared at him with disbelief and sympathy, but shook it off to answer his question.
“Well it was” I didn’t know what it--” he started but Harry interrupted.
“Of course I should have realized that the invisibility cloak didn’t cover the liquid.” said Harry.
“Y-you’re not mad?” asked Neville in disbelief.
Harry shrugged. “Nah, I was thinking about telling you anyway.” Harry said a bit more normally.
“So… You’re really the only one who can kill you-know-who?” Neville said finally. Harry nodded.
“Well, you’re not doing it alone,” he said firmly. “You’re the only one who can kill Voldemort, not the only one to harm him.” Harry looked at his face, which was very determined. It made him look as though the prophecy could have easily been made to him.
Harry thanked him and left to talk to Hermione and Ron. “They had to have Hogsmeade on the one day we don’t have classes.” Ron groaned.
“It’s really two days you have off Ron.” Hermione corrected.
“Well I’m off to bed,” Ron said, “You coming ‘arry?” Harry nodded and followed Ron back into the dormitory.
Not even rain could sodden the cheerfulness that populated Hogsmeade. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all huddled under one umbrella which had a water resistance charm placed on it by Hermione. They wandered into The Three Broomsticks.
As they hurried in, Harry felt a soft breeze as someone swiftly walked pass him. Harry would have mistaken him or her as a Dementor had there not been hands and feet. Whoever it was, was completely covered be a black cloak, their hood hanging over their face. In his hand was a rather thick piece of parchment, or rather many pieces of parchment folded over. He seemed to be avoiding the pub.
They sat at a small booth. “Three Butterbeers.” Hermione said to the waitress. Harry looked around the pub; it wasn’t as he remembered it. People were not as joyous as usual. This almost came as a relief to Harry; it meant people now realized that they were in danger of Voldemort, they believed him. Somehow the atmosphere of a usually cheerful pub seemed to convince him of this more than the Dailey Prophet.
At the other end of the pub he could see Lupin. He seemed to be looking for something and grew steadily more worried when he did not find it. Then he remembered something and walked swiftly out of the pub.
The waitress came back with the Butterbeers. Harry drank the Butterbeer and stared out the window at the mountain Sirius had once lived in. “I’m going for a walk.” said Harry.. He took a handful of coins from his pocket and dropped them on the table.
“Harry this is more than seven galleons--” said Ron.
“Keep it then.” Harry said as he opened the door. The streets had small currants of water running down them. Within five minuets Harry was soaked so that water squished uncomfortably in his shoes. He got to the foot of the mountain and stopped.
The trip up the mountain looked exhausting, but Harry didn’t care. He was determined to get to the cave, and started up the side of the mountain.
He did not know why it was important to get to the cave, but it was. Part of him had been longing for a way to engross himself in a happy memory of Sirius. This seemed better. The only other place he had been that reminded him of Sirius was Grimmauld Place, and that far from helped.
It seemed so much harder than the time he had gone up the mountain with Sirius. He kept slipping on the mud running down the side of the mountain causing him to grab onto the near by rock or tree. Mud-stained, panting and slightly scratched from slipping so much, he reached the small cave close to the top of the mountain.
Somehow it seemed such a better home for Sirius to have lived here than Grimmauld Place; on the mountain side where everything was so free, unlike Sirius. He sat against the cave wall and gazed at the falling rain for several minuets. That was all he wished to do for the rest of his Hogsmeade visit; watch the rain fall down while confirming Sirius’s fate.
A hand appeared at the floor of the cave, followed by a lot of bushy brown hair. Hermione and Ron crawled into the cave and rung out their clothes. “Harry! ,” Hermione panted, “What ” are you ” doing ” here?” Ron had a look on his face as though saying “Yeah, what she said.” but was to tired to talk.
“Just thinking.” said Harry who was slightly annoyed that they had followed him.
“But Harry this is not in Hogsmeade! Your not suppose to be up here! You could get in really big trouble for this!” Hermione moaned.
“You didn’t mind when we came up here with Sirius!” Harry protested.
“That’s because we had a really good reason to come here! Not just ‘thinking’!”
“We’re not going to get caught, Hermione. Who could see us through all this rain?” Harry said.
“Just please come back with us. It’s already two thirty, and it’ll take even longer to get back through this rain.” Hermione pleaded. Harry looked at her and nodded.
As they left Harry gave one last look at the small cave behind them. Harry felt as though he was leaving perhaps the best home for Padfoot behind him.