Emma Potter; Going to War

34: Occlumency [Pt.2]

"Six o'clock Monday evening, Potters." 

Snape was gone. Sirius glared after him, his wand at his side. 

"But what's been going on?" asked Mr. Weasley again.

 "Nothing, Arthur," said Sirius, who was breathing heavily as thoughhe had just run a long distance. "Just a friendly little chat between twoold school friends. . . ." With what looked like an enormous effort, hesmiled. "So . . . you're cured? That's great news, really great. . . ."

"Yes, isn't it?" said Mrs. Weasley, leading her husband forward intoa chair. "Healer Smethwyck worked his magic in the end, found anantidote to whatever that snake's got in its fangs, and Arthur's learnedhis lesson about dabbling in Muggle medicine, haven't you, dear?" sheadded, rather menacingly. 

"Yes, Molly dear," said Mr. Weasley meekly. 

That night's meal should have been a cheerful one with Mr.Weasley back amongst us; I could tell Sirius was trying tomake it so, yet when my godfather was not forcing himself to laughloudly at Fred and George's jokes or offering everyone more food, hisface fell back into a moody, brooding expression. 

I was separatedfrom him by Mundungus and Mad-Eye, who had dropped in to offerMr. Weasley their congratulations; I wanted to talk to Sirius, to tellhim that he should not listen to a word Snape said, that Snape wasgoading him deliberately and that the rest of us did not think Sirius was a coward for doing as Dumbledore told him and remaining inGrimmauld Place, but I had no opportunity to do so, and wonderedoccasionally, eyeing the ugly look on Sirius's face, whether I wouldhave dared to even if I had the chance.

 Instead I joined my brother and we told Ron andHermione under his voice about having to take Occlumency lessonswith Snape.

 "Dumbledore wants to stop you having those dreams about Voldemort," said Hermione at once. "Well, you won't be sorry not to havethem anymore, will you?"

 "Extra lessons with Snape?" said Ron, sounding aghast. "I'd ratherhave the nightmares!" 

We were to return to Hogwarts on the Knight Bus the followingday, escorted once again by Tonks and Lupin, both of whom were eating breakfast in the kitchen when Me,Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrivedthere next morning. The adults seemed to have been midway througha whispered conversation when the door opened; all of them lookedaround hastily and fell silent. 

After a hurried breakfast we pulled on jackets and scarves againstthe chilly gray January morning. I had an unpleasant constrictedsensation in my chest; I did not want to say good-bye to Sirius. I had a bad feeling about this parting; I did not know when we would next see each other and felt that it was incumbent upon me tosay something to Sirius to stop him doing anything stupid — I was worried that Snape's accusation of cowardice had stung Sirius sobadly he might even now be planning some foolhardy trip beyondGrimmauld Place. 

Before he could think of what to say, however, Sirius had beckoned me to his side."I want you to take this," he said quietly, thrusting a badly wrappedpackage roughly the size of a paperback book into my hands. 

"What is it?" I asked. 

"A way of letting me know if Snape's giving you and your brother a hard time. No,don't open it in here!" said Sirius, with a wary look at Mrs. Weasley,who was trying to persuade the twins to wear hand-knitted mittens. "Idoubt Molly would approve — but I want you to use it if you needme, all right?"

 "Okay,"I said, stowing the package away in the inside pocketof my jacket, but I knew I would never use whatever it was. Itwould not be me who lured Sirius from his place of safety, nomatter how foully Snape treated me in our forthcoming Occlumency classes.