Saudade

Chapter 20 Another Gift Harry

Harry and Ron waited until break the next morning to tell Hermione exactly what had happened; they wanted to be absolutely sure they could not be overheard. Standing in their usual corner of the cool and breezy courtyard, Harry told her every detail of the dream he could remember. When he had finished, she said nothing at all for a few moments but stared with a kind of painful intensity at Fred and George, who were both headless and selling their magical hats from under their cloaks on the other side of the yard.

"So that's why they killed him," she said quietly, withdrawing her gaze from Fred and George at last. "When Bode tried to steal this weapon, something funny happened to him. I think there must be defensive spells on it, or around it, to stop people from touching it. That's why he was in St. Mungos, his brain had gone all funny and he couldn't talk. But remember what the Healer told us? He was recovering. And they couldn't risk him getting better, could they? I mean, the shock of whatever happened when he touched that weapon probably made the Imperius Curse lift. Once he'd got his voice back, he'd explain what he'd been doing, wouldn't he? They would have known he'd been sent to steal the weapon. Of course, it would have been easy for Lucius Malfoy to put the curse on him. Never out of the Ministry, is he?"

"He was even hanging around that day I had my hearing," Harry said. "In the--hang on..." he said slowly. "He was in the Department of Mysteries corridor that day! Your dad said he was probably trying to sneak down and find out what happened in my hearing, but what if--"

"Sturgis!" Hermione gasped, looking thunderstruck.

"Sorry?" Ron said, looking bewildered.

"Sturgis Podmore --" Hermione said breathlessly, "arrested for trying to get through a door! Lucius Malfoy must have got him too! I bet he did it the day you saw him there, Harry. Sturgis had Moody's Invisibility Cloak, right? So, what if he was standing guard by the door, invisible, and Malfoy heard him move--or guessed someone was there--or just did the Imperius Curse on the off-chance there'd be a guard there? So, when Sturgis next had an opportunity--probably when it was his turn on guard duty again--he tried to get into the Department to steal the weapon for Voldemort--Ron, be quiet--but he got caught and sent to Azkaban..."

She gazed at Harry.

"And now Rookwood's told Voldemort how to get the weapon?"

"I didn't hear all the conversation, but that's what it sounded like," Harry said. "Rookwood used to work there... maybe Voldemort'll send Rookwood to do it?"

Hermione nodded, apparently still lost in thought. Then, quite abruptly, she said, "But you shouldn't have seen this at all, Harry."

"What?" he said, taken aback.

"You're supposed to be learning how to close your mind to this sort of thing," Hermione said, suddenly stern.

"I know I am," Harry said. "But--"

"Well, I think we should just try and forget what you saw," Hermione said firmly. "And you ought to put in a bit more effort on your Occlumency from now on."

Harry was so angry with her that he did not talk to her for the rest of the day, which proved to be another bad one. He hadn't seen Ophelia all day. After last night Harry didn't blame her. He scared her. But he wished she wouldn't avoid him.

That night, Harry sat in the library working on his homework with Ron. Hermione stayed in the Gryffindor common room noting Harry's anger toward her.

"Hey!" someone called from behind him.

Ophelia came running up to their table.

"Ophelia!"