Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Phoenix Dust ❯ CH.3: In Which Harry Has Many Visitors ( Chapter 3 )

[ A - All Readers ]

A/N: Third Chapter. Oh I made a mistake, Pigwidgeon is a Scops Owl, and man are they tiny! if you don't know what a scops looks like heres a few links for pics:

http://www.portlandbirdobs.btinternet.co.uk/bp_scops_owl_1_300 v.jpg

http://www.fairislebirdobs.co.uk/Migration_Studies/ScopsOwl30t hJuly.jpg

http://www.discoverit.co.uk/falconry/images/scops1.jpg

The last pic is of an Indian Scops, and is my personal favorite! ^-^

I wanna thank everyone who reveiwed, and yes Harry will slowly be gaining new powers.

Summery: Okay maybe I'm being hystarical but waking up on your birthday only to find out you have elf ears and then watching all your relatives save one disappear is a little unearving... Set in the summer after third year.

Disclaimer: After HPB Its a wonder I still read it....

Warnings: Elf Ears and....Fish.

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I couldn't take it, I stood up craining my neck out to see who it was, and sure enough it was him...

Phoenix Dust

By Nikikeya-chan again

CH.3: In Which Harry Has Many Visitors

Padfoot aka Sirius Black aka My bloody wanted-for-massmurder-Godfather! was standing in his Animagus form out on the Dursley's front lawn!!!

"SNUFFLES ARE YOU CRAZY??!" I screamed finally loosing it completely; I just found out I could talk to Hedwig. Had a murdering rat Animagus (Who I could also understand) in my room. My Aunt and Uncle where most likely dead. Ron was coming in a few days. My Godfather who was supposed to be in hiding was out on my frount lawn. I had no bloody clue what to do. AND I HAD ELF EARS!!!

I picked up my inkwell and was seriously concidering chucking it at him, I thought better of it though and lowered my arm.

Turning sharply on my heel, I ran downstairs, threw open the frount door, ran outside, grabbed Padfoot by the scruff of the neck, and hauled his arse back inside slaming the door behind me!

Almost instantly there was a pop and my Godfather stood there in all his human glorey, I could have punched him...

Instead I threw my arms around him and sobbed like a fool into his robes...

"H-harry? Whoa kiddo! What's wrong??"

"THEY'REGONESIRIUSTHEY'REGONEWORMTAILCAMEANDTHEYDISAPEAREDANDTHEW ARDSFAILEDANDMYEARS!!!!"

"Whoa!Whoa there Pronglet! Now tell me again, from the start. What happened? Who Disappeared?" said Sirius putting his hands on my shoulders.

"My Aunt and Uncle! Wormtail got in my room, he was saying something about a Portkey-"

"Wormtail was here?! What about the wards?! How'd he get past?!!!" Sirius demanded.

"I-I don't know!!!" I stammered.

Sirius stopped and just stood there thinking for a moment, "Is Hedwig here?"

I blinked, "Um, yes..."

"Good, we need to send word to Albus..." he then began walking upstairs.

I watched him go, and then looked around, for what I wasn't too sure, probably to make sure Voldemort didn't come popping out at me from the boot cupboard next or something...

Finaly once I had decerned that no Deatheaters were going to come flying out at me from random corners, I followed him upstairs, predictably he was in Dudley's room.

"Er...Could do with some cleaning kiddo." he sighed looking around at the mass of dirty laundry, chip bags, dishes, and soda cans that littered the floor.

"Yeah too bad I'm not the one who's gonna be doing it... My room's over here."

Sirius blinked and then followed me over to the other bedroom, as we arrived we were greeted with the weird sight of Hedwig and Pigwidgeon, both hopping around on the floor collecting Hedwig's lost feathers.

Sirius raised an eyebrow as we watched Pigwidgeon fly over and drop a talon full of feathes in my trunk.

"This is Pigwigeon, the owl you gave Ron." I explained.

Sirius nodded, "Yeah I remember... What's all the feathers about?"

"Oh! Wormtail and Hedwig got into a scuffle under the bed." I replied.

Sirius looked like he wanted to ask more, but shook his curiousity off and went over to the desk instead, he stood there a moment silently.

Walking over I found him studying a piece of parchmet intently, it took me a secound to relize that it was probably the letter I'd been writing to him. What exsactly had I wrote again?

I was so busy trying to remember I barely registered a hand brushing my hair back behind my ear.

Looking up I found Sirius staring at me with intense grey eyes, I reflexisively tried to step back, but he stopped me.

"You say you woke up and you where like this?" he asked gently running a finger over the rim of my ear.

Confused I looked at the letter he was holding; I was the one I'd started to Hermione, asking if I could stay with her and if she'd ever heard of anything like what happened to my ears.

"Harry?"

I looked up startled, "Um..."

Sirius sighed, "Your ears where like that when you woke up?"

"Oh, ah.. Yes..." I said dumbly, my brain seemed to be slowing down again, 'Godric I'm starting to sound like Crabbe...'

"Um...Didn't you want to write?" I asked, Sirius was giving me a funny look.

"Oh yes, of course... Lets keep this ear thing under our hat till Albus arrives shall we."

It wasn't a question.

I nodded and went to sit on the bed, while Sirius looked for a clean sheet of parchment to write on, the man hissed suddenly pulling back as if burned. That got my attension back up to speed.

"Sirius!!?" I cried jumping up, he threw out an arm to stop me from getting near the desk.

"STAY BACK HARRY!!!"

I moved back away, a little upset that he'd scolded me. My curiosity however got the better of me, and I stretched up on tiptoe to try to see what happened.

Sirius looked back at me and I immediately dropped back down, looking up at him embarrassedly.

That's when I decided to study my rug; I'd never really stopped to appreciate its suttle beauties, it had to be the most beautiful er... Grey?? rug I'd ever seen....

I chanced a glance at Sirius he was still looking at me intensly, I blushed harder.

"We need to go downstairs... Now!" He ordered

That caught me off guard, "Uhn? why??"

"I'll explain when we get there." Sirius said stiffly, he seemed really worried, that scared me.

"Hedwig, Pigwidgeon, Comon!" I said hurrying out, Sirius waited till we were all out, before coming out and closing the door behind him.

xxx

We ended up in the kitchen, Sirius sat cursing himself for leaving all the parchment and quills upstairs.

Hedwig had the solution, silently holding up a roll of blank parchment in one talon, where she'd got it was anyone's guess.

Pigwidgeon then ceremoniously dropped one of Hedwig's feathers on the table.

Sirius smiled sadly and shook his head, "Good as this all is, without ink we aren't going to write any letters."

"Harold." Hedwig said pointedly.

"What??" I asked.

Sirius gave me a weird look, and Hedwig glared meaningfully at my hands, which where on my lap, I looked at them, realizing suddenly that I still had my inkwell clutched firmly in one hand.

'What are the odds...'

I sighed and handed the inkwell to Sirius, 'I Must be dreaming...'

Sirius looked even more weirded out, I didn't blame him, this dream was getting downright rediculous, first I grow elf ears, then Hedwig learns to talk, then Wormtail comes, the Dursleys seemingly vanish, Ron tells me we're going to the Quidditch World Cup, and Sirius arrives... It had actually been a pretty good dream, all things concidered...

'I think I'll tell Hedwig about it when I wake up...It'll probably amuse her...'

I looked up at Sirius as he wrote out a letter to Dumbledore. He didn't look much healtier than when I'd last seen him, but his skin had regained some of its color, he'd also cleaned up abit, his hair had been washed and tied back, he also seemed to have new robes, how he'd managed this was a mystery, the robes looked really fancy, which was weird.

"They were my father's, got 'em from the manor on my way here, dear old dad loved his luxuries." said Sirius fingering the robes in disgust, "They'll do though..."

I had to try really hard not to blush, I hadn't realized I'd been staring. Sirius just returned to writting the letter, after a few minutes he looked up again, smiling playfully, "Don't suppose you have and packaging string in that other hand?"

I shook my head laughing, "I know where aunt Petunia keeps hers though."

I stopped laughing, if this wasn't a dream... I shook my head and walked over to one of the drawers near the sink to get the string.

xxx

After tying the letter to Hedwigs leg and explaining things to her she'd flown off out the kitchen window.

'Neighbors be damned.' I thought bitterly at the inkling of what Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon would think of letting an owl fly out the kitchen window.

Pigwidgeon who had been remarkably quite all this time finally spoke up, "Do you think we could have a snack please?"

I looked down at the young owl appologetically, "Sorry Pigwidgeon, I left all the owl treats upstairs and I doubt Sirius will let us back up there...I could make some bacon if you'd like?"

"YES PLEASE!" hooted the tiny Scops owl fluttering around excitedly.

"You want some too?" I asked, looking up at Sirius who was giving me a look that clearly said he thought I was off my nut.

"Some what??" he asked looking completely clueless.

"Some of the bacon I just told, Pigwidgeon I'd make, weren't you listening?" I said a bit put out with him.

"Oh yes Harry," he said in a deeply sarcastic voice, "I heard every hoot."

I stopped, "Hoot??" I asked meekly.

"Yes Harry hoot." he said sighing, he put a hand up to massage his temples.

I really did blush then, I should have guessed, it was just like speaking Parseltongue. Royally put out with myself I went over to start cooking, grabbing the frying pan from cupboard and getting out the beacon.

"So when did you start speaking Owlish??"

"This morning, I can talk to rats too..."

Sirius growled at this.

I stopped, "I wonder if I can talk to dogs or, er, Grims?"

Sirius laughed and there was an obliging pop, "How do I look?"

"Absolutely spiffing." I frowned, "...Can you tell if I'm talking dog or not?"

"...No."

There was another pop and Sirius was back to normal, "Well, atleast you could understand me."

"True." I smiled.

We sat in silence after that save for a few interuptions from Pigwidgeon... 'Pigwidgeon...'

I cursed aloud for forgetting about Ron's note, Sirius didn't even seem to blink at my language.

"I forgot to Owl Ron back." I explained.

Sirius frowned, "I'd rather We didn't go back in the room till the others get here."

"Others??" That stopped me cold, 'I thought Sirius said he was writing to Dumbledore??'

"Yeah, I imagine Albus will bring atleast Filius, maybe even Minerva or Moony with him... I just hope he doesn't bring Snape..." scowled Sirius.

"Why would they all need to come?" Filius? Who was that?? Minerva? I shook my head again, Sirius's eyes were trained on me again.

"So...This all just happened this morning, your ears and being able to talk to animals, other than snakes that is, right?" he asked, "There haven't been any other things leading up to this, right?"

I nodded, before today things had been completely normal. If anything in my life could be concidered normal that is...

xxx

A while later after cooking and eatting the bacon, save a handful I left for Hedwig, I'd forced Sirius to eat some soup and bread I'd made, he obliged and took the tea when I offered it to him.

After that however he'd refused to let me do the dishes, pushing me into a chair and we'd discussed what we'd been doing sence we'd last seen eachother.

Sirius, it seemed had continued tracking Wormtail after leaving Hogwarts, but had lost him near Essex.

"It seemed he was trying to get abroad, so I just kept on going in the same direction, then traveled South when I did get any thing to the North. It wasn't till I was in bloody Tours France and still hadn't picked up a lead that I gave up. Decided to come back to England and check on you, maybe discuss some ideas with Albus before heading off again." he sighed.

"What happened to Buckbeak?" I asked.

"Oh, don't worry about him, I found a nice large wooded area to let him llose in just north of here, I'm plaining to go and collect him when I set off again." said Sirius smiling.

I looked away, I hadn't thought Sirius would be leaving again, thinking of it I realized he could hardly stay cooped up here in Surrey...

'Though it would be the last place the Ministry would look.' I thought smiling abit at the irony of it all, they were supposedly trying to protect me from Sirius, yet they never came anywhere near me.

I voiced these thoughts to Sirius, he gave a bark of laughter, and ruffled my hair, his face became serious (no pun intended.) after that, he looked up the clock, and sighed, "I really gotta talk to that man about setting up a quicker means of communication... Not that sending an owl when your getting attacked doesn't just work so well...Yeah help'll bloody come... The day after!"

I just smiled, it was actually reather funny listening to Sirius rant, he had a point though, poor Hedwig could only fly so fast, and it was an awefully long trip.

Pigwidgeon had gone out flying while we waited, I hunted around in the drawers for some paper, I finally found a note book in the den, I grimiced as I realized it was what the Dursleys used to write out my chore lists on, today's list looked perticularly nasty, for the first time sence they'd disappeared I was sort of glad they wheren't here to force me to do the stuff.

Returning to the kitchen I sat down tearing the page with my chore list out and focusing on what I should tell Ron, I nearly had a heartattack when Sirius asked me what the chore list was about.

Cursing mentally for not just chucking it, I explained that was the list of chores that I would not be doing today.

Sirius seemed to like this answer, and kept his cursing of my Aunt and Uncle's names to a low roar.

After a few minutes I asked him to kindly stop treding a hole into my Aunt's nice clean floor, and come help me write my letter.

xxx

It was just about sundown when Dumbledore arrived, (I had sent Pigwidgeon off home just a an hour earlier with a nice long letter that gave not but the faintest allusion to the current situtation, Sirius had forbade me to tell Ron outright for fear of the letter being intercepted. I hoped Ron wouldn't be too put out with me.)

Dumbledore had came in followed by Professors, Flitwick, McGonagal, Lupin and (Sirius growled.) Snape...

"Harry, how are you my boy?" greeted Dumbledore smiling.

"Wondering why I'm not aloud in my room sir." I grined back.

"Well lets go have a look shall we?" he asked still smiling.

"Of course sir, this way." I motioned heading up the stairs.

Predictably they all headed for Dudley's room, save Sirius who knew better. 'Why do people always do that? What so damn interesting about his room??'

"Um, excuse me? My rooms over here." I said motioning toward the closed door.

McGonagal and Lupin both looked visably relieved, Snape looked a little put out, he had obviously been hoping to be able to criticize me on how messy the room looked.

I was suddenly really happy I'd picked up early, now with all these teachers here, I was sure it wasn't allowed but I wouldn't have put it past Snape to try to deduct house points next term for my untidiness.

I opened the bedroom door and allowed them it, Snape's eyes immediatle taking in the pile of Broken toys off to the side of the room, I had to will myself not to groan, the man really was incuragable.

However any comments he might have had he kept to himself... Luckily, because if I hadn't got to him, I'm certain Sirius would have.

Dumbledore and Sirius both went over Sirius gingerly moving the pieces of parchment off my desk, giving them a clear veiw of the wood grain.

The lines on Dumbledore's face deepened, and he scowled quite openly at the back left hand courner of the desk.

Flitwick went over climbing onto the chair to see, he squeeked and nearly fell off, "Oh yes, most certainly, you where right Mister Black."

"I wish I had been wrong. So what does it do?" scowled Sirius.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you of the top of my head, oh dear..." squeeked Flitwick also looking quite disturbed.

"I think I might... Let's hope it is not though. For now we won't speak of it." said Dumbledore, the tone of his voice leaving no room for argument.

Then they all turned to look at me, McGonagal moving forward, coming up she gently turned my head to the side to look at my ear, she then turn my head to look at the other side.

Pursing her lips she nodded, and it seemed as though they had just all come to an understanding.

I however had no clue what was going on still and was becoming very annoyed, I was just going to voice my resentment at being kept in the dark, when a voice from downstairs caught my attension.

All but panicking I turned without a word and hurried downstairs to head Dudley off.

xxx

Dudley was standing in the middle of the enterance hall calling for Aunt Petunia, upon spotting me however he simply waddled over to the staircase, "Tell Mum and Dad I'm staying at Peirs' tonight. Don't forget or I'll pound you, got it!"

"Yes Dudley." I replied inwardly heaving a sigh of relief.

"And don't go in my room or touch my stuff! I don't want freak germs!"

I just nodded again, he glared at me and then pushed me aside to go upstairs.

"W-where are you going??" I asked startled, "I thought you said you where going to Peirs??"

"I am, I'm just getting my overnight bag, Stupid!" Dudley called, waddling into his room.

I walked up to the top landing and waited, Dudley came out of his room a few minutes later, he scowled when he saw me standing there, "Your up to something. I'm gonna tell Mum and Dad when I get back tomorrow!"

"You do that Dudley." I said dryly.

"What are you up to?" he asked he said getting up in my face.

"I have my Godfather in my bedroom, he'll be bunking here for awhile, ya know, sence he's on the run and all." I said smiling evily, its true, I can be a brat sometimes.

"Y-yeah right! Your lying!" stammered Dudley.

"Believe what you like. You really should leave now though, I really do need to get started on dinner, Sirius get's cranky when he's hungry."

A thump suddenly sounded from inside my bedroom, "Hmm, that must be him getting up now!"

That's all it took, Dudley more then bolted out of the house, yelling the whole time that he was gonna tell on me to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.

The front door slamed shut and I dropped to the floor laughing.

My bedroom door opened and Sirius and the others looked out at me.

"I...I think that's the fastest I've ever seen Dudley move without there being food involved!" I said between fits of laughter.

Sirius looked at me, "I see you haven't exsactly went out of your way with proclaiming my innocence."

I looked up appologetically, "They wouldn't have believed me if I had."

Sirius shrugged.

"Was it you that made the noise?" I asked smiling up at my Godfather.

Sirius shot a smirk at Professor Lupin.

"I-I din't mean to you know!" He said looking reather put out.

"Sure Moony, I believe you, really." chuckled Sirius, Lupin blushed looking even more abashed then before.

I laughed again, but stopped as I heard yet another voice sounding this time in the kitchen.

"Harry! I'm back!"

"Hedwig's here!" I chirped the others looked surprised, they must not have heard her.

Standing I hurried down stair just intime to see Hedwig glide in and land on the table.

"Welcome back!" I smiled taking over the plate of bacon, "It got cold, sorry."

"No worries." she answered excepting it greatfuly.

I turned to go get her some water, "Pigwidgeon left just before dark, he said he promises he'll visit again soon."

"Not Too soon I would hope." churred Hedwig good naturedly.

I turned and started blushing as I finally noticed we had an audience. The others having, made their way downstairs, where now listening intently to the conversation, not that they could understand what Hedwig or I were saying.

"Um...Hi." I squeeked.

Hedwig turned to look at them, clicked her beak in disinterest, and turned back to the bacon.

"Well now, aslong as we are not intruiding on your conversation, I think it would be best to go to the den and discuss matters. I take it your cousin won't be back tonight?" said Dumbledore.

"No sir, Dudley will probably stay at his friends till tomorrow evening." I replyed, moving to follow the man out into the den.

When we got there however I nearly slapped myself for being so rude, "Sorry I didn't even ask if any of you would like some tea..."

"No, no my boy that's quite alright, I'm quite sure I can manage an adequate repast." with a wave of his wand Two large brass teapots and a veriaty of fingerfoods filled the small coffee table.

Sirius motioned for me to sit down beside him and for the next few moments everyone busied themselves with getting some food and finding a seat.

Sirius, Lupin and I all ended up on the couch, me sitting in between the two.

McGonagal and Snape both to the two large Recliners on either side of the fire place, turning them to look at the couch.

Flitwick carefully situated himself on a of the foot stool, and Dumbldore flicked his wand and a large comfey chair appeared between Snape and McGonagal's chairs.

If my Aunt had been there she'd have probably gone off her nut, I t was a very weird setting, all of the adults in full Wizarding Garbs and me sitting there looking, I must imagine, a right raggamuffin, in a ratty old pair of Dudley's trousers and an equally stained t-shirt.

"Well now, I'll get right to the point." said Dumbledore looking me in the eye, "It would seem my boy, that someone has invoked a Curse upon you."

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TBC

'Nother Cliff-hanger.

-Cloud