Into The Light (Golden Trio Era) {2}

Fire Visitor

Harry slipped off his chair onto his knees and crouched in front of the fire. "Harry?" Hermione looked alarmed. Harry continued to gaze into the flames. "Er, Harry?" Ron called uncertainly. "Why are you down there?" "Because I've just seen Sirius' head in the fire." Harry said calmly. "Dad's head?" Mikayla repeated in shock. "You mean like when he wanted to talk to you and Kayla during the Triwizard Tournament?" Hermione said. "But he wouldn't do that now, it would be too- Sirius!" She gasped, gazing at the fire. Ron dropped his quill as Mikayla turned to look into the fire. Sure enough, in the middle of the dancing flames sat Sirius' head, long dark hair falling around his grinning face.

"I was starting to think you'd go to bed before everyone else had disappeared," he said. "I've been checking every hour." "You've been popping into the fire every hour?" Harry said, half laughing. "Just for a few seconds to check if the coast was clear yet." "But what if you'd been seen?" Hermione said anxiously. "Well, I think a girl, first year by the look of her, might've got a glimpse of me earlier, but don't worry," Dad said hastily as Hermione clapped a hand to her mouth. "I was gone the moment she looked back at me and I'll bet she just thought I was an oddly shaped log or something." "But Sirius, this is taking an awful risk-" Hermione began. "You sound like Molly," Sirius stated. "This was the only way I could come up with of answering Harry letter without resorting to a code, and codes are breakable." At the mention of their letters, Hermione and Ron had turned to stare at Harry. "You didn't say you'd written to Sirius!" Hermione said accusingly. "I forgot." Harry shrugged. At Hermione's hard look, he said, "Don't look at me like that, Hermione, there was no way anyone would have got secret information out of it, was there, Sirius?" "No, it was very good," Sirius smiled.

"Anyway, we'd better be quick, just in case we're disturbed, your scar." "What about-" Ron began, Mikayla told him that Harry would tell him later "Well, I know it can't be fun when it hurts, but we don't think it's anything to really worry about. It kept aching all last year, didn't it?" "Yeah, and Dumbledore said it happened whenever Voldemort was feeling a powerful emotion," Harry said, ignoring Ron and Hermione's winces. "So maybe he was just, I dunno, really angry or something the night I had that detention." "Well, now he's back it's bound to hurt more often," Sirius told Harry. "So you don't think it had anything to do with Umbridge touching me when I was in detention with her?" Harry asked. "I doubt it," Sirius shook his head. "I know her by reputation and I'm sure she's no Death Eater-" "She's foul enough to be one," Mikayla said darkly and Harry, Ron, and Hermione nodded vigorously in agreement. "Yes, but the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters," Sirius said with a wry smile. "I know she's a nasty piece of work, though-you should hear Remus talk about her." "Does Lupin know her?" Mikayla asked in surprise, remembering Umbridge's comments about dangerous half-breeds during her first lesson. "No," Sirius said, "but she drafted a bit of anti-werewolf legislation two years ago that makes it almost impossible for him to get a job." I scowled, knowing exactly what he was talking about. "What's she got against werewolves?" Hermione said angrily. "Scared of them, I expect," Sirius said, smiling at her indignation. "Apparently she loathes part-humans; she campaigned to have merpeople rounded up and tagged last year too. Imagine wasting your time and energy persecuting merpeople when there are little toerags like Kreacher on the loose-" Ron laughed but Hermione looked upset. "Sirius!" she said reproachfully. "Honestly, if you made a bit of an effort with Kreacher I'm sure he'd respond, after all, you are the only member of his family he's got left, and Professor Dumbledore said-" "So what are Umbridge's lessons like?" Sirius interrupted. "Is she training you all to kill half-breeds?" "No," Harry said.

"She's not letting us use magic at all!" "All we do is read the stupid textbook," Ron added. "Ah, well, that figures," Sirius sighed. "Our information from inside the Ministry is that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat." "Trained in combat?" Mikayla repeated incredulously. "What does he think we're doing here, forming some sort of wizard army?" "That's exactly what he thinks you're doing," Sirius nodded, "or rather, that's exactly what he's afraid Dumbledore's doing-forming his own private army, with which he will be able to take on the Ministry of Magic." There was a pause at this, then Ron said, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard, including all the stuff that Luna Lovegood comes out with." "RON!" Mikayla slaps the back of his head swiftly. "So we're being prevented from learning Defence Against the Dark Arts because Fudge is scared we'll use spells against the Ministry?" Hermione said, looking furious. "Yep," Sirius confirmed. "Fudge thinks Dumbledore will stop at nothing to seize power. He's getting more paranoid about Dumbledore by the day. It's a matter of time before he has Dumbledore arrested on some trumped-up charge." "D'you know if there's going to be anything about Dumbledore in the Daily Prophet tomorrow?" Harry asked. "Only Ron's brother Percy reckons there will be-" "I don't know," Sirius shrugged, "I haven't seen anyone from the Order all weekend, they're all busy. It's just been Kreacher and me here..." There was a definite note of bitterness in his voice.

"So you haven't had any news about Hagrid, either?" "Ah..." Sirius sighed, "well, he was supposed to be back by now, no one's sure what's happened to him." Then, seeing their stricken faces, he added quickly, "But Dumbledore's not worried, so don't you four get yourselves in a state; I'm sure Hagrid's fine." "But if he was supposed to be back by now..." Mikayla murmured worriedly. "Madame Maxime was with him, we've been in touch with her and she says they got separated on the journey home- but there's nothing to suggest he's hurt or- well, nothing to suggest he's not perfectly okay." Unconvinced, the foursome exchanged worried looks. "Listen, don't go asking too many questions about Hagrid," Sirius said hastily, "it'll just draw even more attention to the fact that he's not back, and I know Dumbledore doesn't want that. Hagrid's tough, he'll be okay." They did not appear cheered by this.

"When's your next Hogsmeade weekend anyway? I was thinking, we got away with the dog disguise at the station, didn't we? I thought I could—" "NO!" Harry, Hermione, and Mikayla said together loudly. "Dad, didn't you see the Daily Prophet?" Mikayla asked anxiously. "Oh that," Sirius grinned. "they're always guessing where I am, they haven't really got a clue-" "Yeah, but we think this time they have," Harry spoke up. "Something Malfoy said on the train made us think he knew it was you, and his father was on the platform, Sirius- you know, Lucius Malfoy- so don't come up here, whatever you do, if Malfoy recognises you again-" "All right, all right, I've got the point," Sirius said, looking displeased. "Just an idea, thought you might like to get together" "We would, we just don't want you chucked back in Azkaban!" Harry said; Mikayla nodded in agreement. There was a pause in which Sirius looked out of the fire at Harry, a crease between his sunken eyes. "You're less like your father than I thought," he said finally, a definite coolness in his voice. "The risk would've been what made it fun for James.""Dad, don't be like that. We just want you to be careful." "Look-" "Well, I'd better get going, I can hear Kreacher coming down the stairs," Sirius said, though they was sure he was lying. "I'll write to tell you a time I can make it back into the fire, then, shall I? If you can stand to risk it?" There was a tiny pop, and the place where Sirius' head had been was flickering flame once more. Mikayla stood up angrily, going to bed.