Spells and Visions; A Harry Potter story

Chapter 7: Christmas at my Other Home

The next few days, Harry had locked himself in his bedroom. He didn't come down for breakfast, nor for dinner. I knew he was shocked about what we heard, but he didn't have to hide himself from us. So I decided to pay him a visit.

"Harry?" I asked, knocking softly on his door. "I know you're there. Can I come in?"
"Sure."
I opened the door. Harry was laying on his bed, doing nothing.
"I don't believe it, you know," I said. "That Voldemort is possessing you. And I'm not scared of you, if that's what you think. The others aren't either, but you won't come down, so we thought we'd best leave you alone."
"Well, that makes me feel better," Harry said sarcastically.
"Hey, I'm trying to help you here," I said angrily. "I have been through hell as well in the summer, and the only one to cheer me up was Neville, and I didn't push him away. So maybe you shouldn't feel so sorry for yourself all the time. All of us have hard times, okay?"

I walked away and shut the door behind me again. Harry was so stupid sometimes.
The next day, everyone started decorating the house for Christmas. Everyone seemed in a happy mood. Everyone, except for Harry, who was still upstairs. Sirius was so happy to have company with Christmas, he started singing carols.
In the evening, the doorbell rang, and Hermione arrived.
"Hermione!" I said surprised. "What are you doing here?"
She was supposed to be skiing, some Muggle wintersport, with her parents. There was still snow in her hair.
"Dumbeledore told me what happened, but I had to wait for term to end to come here. Umbridge is really pissed that all of you were suddenly gone, especially you two." She nodded to Neville and me.
She looked around the room.
"Where's Harry?"
"Upstairs," I said. "Won't come down."
"He's been hiding ever since we came back from St Mungo's," Ginny said.
She sighed.
"I'll talk to him."

Ron, Ginny, Neville and I followed her upstairs, but Harry wasn't in his room.
"Wait for a second," I said to Hermione, and first explained what we had heard through the magical ears.
Hermione found Harry in Buckbeak's room, and the rest of waited in his bedroom. They came back a minute later.
"I came on the Knight Bus," Hermione said, as she sat down with us. "I couldn't come earlier. Anyway, Harry, how are you?"
"Fine," Harry said shortly.
"Don't lie, they say me you've been hiding here."
"They do, do they?"
"Well, it's true!" Ginny said angrily. "And you won't look at any of us!"
"It's you lot that won't look at me!"
"Well, it's not us that have been hiding," I said.

"Stop feeling all misunderstood, Harry," Hermione hotly. "They told me what you overheard on the Extendable Ears-"
"Yeah? Well, I'm getting used being talked about."
"We wanted to talk to you, Harry," Neville said. "But you've been hiding here since-"
"I didn't want anyone to talk to me," Harry said.

"Well, that was stupid of you, since I'm the only you know who's ever been possessed by You-Know-Who," Ginny said.
That finally seemed to turn Harry's brain on.
"I forgot," he said after a short silence.
"Lucky you," Ginny said grimly.
"I'm sorry. So, do you think I'm being possessed?"
"Well, can you remember everything you've been doing? Or are there times where you don't know what you were doing?"
Harry thought.
"No."
"Then he hasn't possessed you," Ginny said simply. "When he did it to me, there were hours of which I didn't know what I was doing."

"But the dream I had about your dad and the snake-"
"You've had these dreams before, Harry," Hermione said. "You saw pieces of what Voldemort was up to last year."
"That was different. I was the snake- I was the one attacking. What if Voldemort transported me to London-"
"You didn't leave the room, Harry," Neville said. "You were thrashing around in your sleep, you kept all of us awake."
It seemed to finally hit Harry, and his face lit up.

The rest of the evening, Harry helped us with cleaning and decorating the house, and it was unrecognisable, so cheerful did Grimmauld Place suddenly look.
We had loads of presents the following morning, and it was as if all our worries had disappeared.
"Merry Christmas," I said, when I saw Sirius.
"The first Christmas since so many years with my children," he smiled. "Really, I couldn't be happier."