Natsu Dragneel and the Order of the Phoenix

The Advance Guard

I've just been attacked by Dementors and I might be expelled from Hogwarts. I want to know what's going on and when I'm going to get out of here.

Natsu copied these words on to three separate pieces of parchment the moment he reached the desk in his dark bedroom. He addressed the first to Weiss, the second to Gray and the third to Lucy.

His exceed, Happy, was off hunting; his cage stood empty on the desk. Natsu paced the bedroom waiting for him to come back, his head pounding, his brain too busy for sleep even though his eyes stung and itched with tiredness. His back ached from hauling Zeref home, and the two lumps on his head where the window and Zeref had hit him were throbbing painfully.

Up and down he paced, consumed with anger and frustration, grinding his teeth and clenching his fists, casting angry looks out at the empty, star-strewn sky every time he passed the window. Dementors sent to get him, Mrs. Mine and Everlue Fletcher tailing him in secret, then suspension from Hogwarts and a hearing at the Ministry of Magic - and still no one was telling him what was going on.

And what, what, had that Howler been about? Whose voice had echoed so horribly, so menacingly, through the kitchen?

Why was he still trapped here without information? Why was everyone treating him like some naughty kid? Don't do any more magic, stay in the house...

He kicked his school trunk as he passed it, but far from relieving his anger he felt worse, as he now had a sharp pain in his toe to deal with in addition to the pain in the rest of his body.

Just as he limped past the window, Happy soared through it with a soft rustle of wings like a small ghost.

"About time!" Natsu snarled, as he landed lightly on top of his cage. "You can put that down, I've got work for you!"

Happy's large, round, amber eyes gazed at him reproachfully over the dead fish clamped in his beak.

"Come here," said Natsu, picking up the three small rolls of parchment and a leather thong and tying the scrolls to his scaly leg. "Take these straight to Weiss, Gray and Lucy and don't come back here without good long replies. Keep pecking them till they've written decent-length answers if you've got to. Understand?"

Happy gave a muffled mewing noise, his muzzle still full of fish.

"Get going, then," said Natsu.

He took off immediately. The moment he'd gone, Natsu threw himself down on his bed without undressing and stared at the dark ceiling. In addition to every other miserable feeling, he now felt guilty that he'd been irritable with Happy; he was the only friend he had at number four, Privet Drive. But he'd make it up to him when he came back with the answers from Weiss, Gray and Lucy.

They were bound to write back quickly; they couldn't possibly ignore a Dementor attack. He'd probably wake up tomorrow to three fat letters full of sympathy and plans for his immediate removal to The Burrow. And with that comforting idea, sleep rolled over him, stifling all further thought.

But Happy didn't return next morning. Natsu spent the day in his bedroom, leaving it only to go to the bathroom. Three times that day Aunt Bethany shoved food into his room through the cat flap Uncle Nicholas had installed three summers ago.

Every time Natsu heard her approaching he tried to question her about the Howler, but he might as well have interrogated the doorknob for all the answers he got. Otherwise, the Dragneels kept well clear of his bedroom. Natsu couldn't see the point of forcing his company on them; another row would achieve nothing except perhaps make him so angry he'd perform more illegal magic.

So it went on for three whole days. Natsu was alternately filled with restless energy that made him unable to settle to anything, during which time he paced his bedroom, furious at the whole lot of them for leaving him to stew in this mess; and with a lethargy so complete that he could lie on his bed for an hour at a time, staring dazedly into space, aching with dread at the thought of the Ministry hearing.