Echo | Harry Potter - George Weasley

Chapter 32: This Funny Fear of Mine

As a group of ghosts on horseback galloped into the Great Hall, whooping and cheering and causing a rather loud ruckus, Shaye wished they were just a tad louder so that she didn't have to hear Draco whining about the scratch on his arm from Buckbeak.

The overly-dramatic kid had spent maybe all of ten minutes in the hospital wing before Madam Pomfrey sent him on his way with a sling and a stern warning not to go messing with magical creatures again. But in true Draco fashion, he was complaining like he had just woken from a year-long coma.

"Does it hurt terribly, Draco?" one of the Slytherin girls asked, batting her eyelashes.

Draco shrugged smugly. "It comes and it goes. Still, I consider myself lucky. If it weren't for Madam Pomfrey, another minute or two and I could've lost my arm. I couldn't possibly do any homework for weeks."

Shaye rolled her eyes and let out an annoyed huff. "If he whines one more time I'm going to march over there and give him something to whine about," she said. "Of all the truly horrific injuries that a hippogriff can inflict, Draco might as well have been spit on. Buckbeak could have torn him in two if he wanted to."

"I mean, listen to the idiot." Ron looked over his shoulder at the Slytherin table. "He's really laying it on thick, isn't he?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. But at least Hagrid didn't get fired."

"And he shouldn't," Shaye stated. "He did everything he could, barring tying Draco to a tree to keep him in one place. He warned everyone about how dangerous a hippogriff could be. Draco was the one who marched up to it like an airhead."

"Yeah, but I hear Draco's father's furious," Hermione added. "We haven't heard the end of this."

"He's been sighted!" Seamus shouted as he ran into the Hall and slapped a copy of the Daily Prophet down on the Gryffindor table. "He's been sighted!"

Everyone within earshot of Seamus' panic jumped up from their seats and gathered around. 

"Who?" Ron asked.

"Sirius Black!" Seamus pointed to the front page of the paper.

Hermione grabbed the paper and quickly skimmed the article. "Dufftown?" she gasped. "That's not far from here."

"You don't think he'd come to Hogwarts, do you?" Neville's voice quivered as he spoke. One mention of Sirius Black and he was shaking like a scared puppy.

"With dementors at every entrance?" one of the other Gryffindors queried.

"Dementors?" Seamus scoffed. "He's already slipped past them once, hasn't he? Who's to say he won't do it again?"

"That's right," the same kid who had educated everyone about the Grim in Divination class said. "Black could be anywhere. It's like trying to catch smoke. Like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands."

Harry stared down, wide-eyed and pale-faced at the newspaper. If Sirius Black really was coming for him, he was getting closer and closer every day. The statement that Seamus had made didn't make him feel any better, either. He was right. This man had already slipped past the dementors once, making it all too easy to do it again.

The moving picture on the cover of an enraged and screaming Sirius Black was more than terrifying on its own. Combined with the fact that he had been spotted near Hogwarts, everyone was on edge. 

No one was given too much time to worry, however, because minutes after Seamus had burst in with his bout of bad news, the Gryffindors and Slytherins were on their way to their first Defence Against the Dark Arts class with Lupin.