Ineffable | Harry Potter - George Weasley // COMPLETED

7 | Checkmate

"You mean, You-Know-Who is out there right now in the forest?" Hermione asked as the four of us sat around the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room.

Harry nodded. "But he's weak. He's living off the unicorns. Don't you see? We had it wrong. Snape doesn't want the Stone for himself. He wants the stone for Voldemort. With the Elixir of Life, Voldemort will be strong again. He'll-he'll come back."

"But if he comes back...you don't think he'll try to kill you, do you?" Ron questioned.

"He bloody well tried to kill us tonight." I threw my hands in the air while still keeping my voice down so not to wake the others who were sleeping.

Ron swallowed hard. "And to think I've been worrying about my Potions final."

"Hang on a minute. We're forgetting one thing." Hermione spoke up. "Who's the one wizard Voldemort always feared? Dumbledore. As long as Dumbledore is around, Harry, you're safe. As long as Dumbledore is around, you can't be touched."

Harry smiled slightly, finding slight comfort in Hermione's words before we all went to bed and tried to forget about the events of that night, even if only for a little while.

______________

Heading out into the courtyard of the school, I felt as though weights had just been lifted from my shoulders. I had just taken the last of my final exams and thought─though I very easily could have been wrong─that I had done quite well.

Spotting Harry and the others, I jogged to catch up with them. "I'd always heard Hogwarts' final exams were frightful, but I found that enjoyable," Hermione told us.

"Speak for yourself." Ron huffed before looking to Harry, who had his hand pressed against his forehead. "All right there, Harry?"

"My scar." Harry winced. "It keeps burning."

"It's happened before." I pointed out. "Like that night in the woods."

Harry shook his head. "Not like this."

"Perhaps you should see the nurse," Ron suggested, genuinely worried about his best friend.

"I think it's a warning," Harry said as we headed to the outskirts of the school grounds. "It means danger's coming."

Hearing a sweet melody playing, the four of us looked up to see Hagrid sitting on his front steps playing what looked like a flute of some kind. The weather had warmed up rather quickly after Christmas, slowly making it comfortable to go outside with fewer layers on.

"Of course!" Harry exclaimed out of nowhere.

"What is it?" we asked, somehow always wondering what was going on inside Harry's head.

"Don't you think it's a bit odd that what Hagrid wants more than anything is a dragon...and a stranger turns up and just happens to have one?" Harry explained as we headed towards Hagrid. "I mean, how many people wander around with dragon eggs in their pocket? Why didn't I see it before?"

As we ran up to Hagrid, he slowly stopped playing whatever instrument he was playing. "Hagrid, who gave you the dragon egg?" Harry asked. "What did he look like?"

"I don't know." Hagrid shrugged, answering Harry's question without hesitation. "I never saw his face. He kept his hood up."

"This stranger though, you and he must have talked."

"Well, he wanted to know what sort of creatures I looked after. I told him, I said, 'After Fluffy, a dragon's gonna be no problem.'"

I slowly started to catch onto where Harry was going with this. "Was he interested in Fluffy?" I inquired.