Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (47 page)

‘Hermione did it,’ said Harry. He pulled out his wand, tapped his glasses and said,
‘Impervius!’

‘I think we all ought to try that,’ said Angelina. ‘If we could just keep the rain off our faces it would really help visibility – all together, come on –
Impervius
! OK. Let’s go.’

They all stowed their wands back in the inside pockets of their robes, shouldered their brooms and followed Angelina out of the changing rooms.

They squelched through the deepening mud to the middle of the pitch; visibility was still very poor even with the Impervius Charm; light was fading fast and curtains of rain were sweeping the grounds.

‘All right, on my whistle,’ shouted Angelina.

Harry kicked off from the ground, spraying mud in all directions, and shot upwards, the wind pulling him slightly off course. He had no idea how he was going to see the Snitch in this weather; he was having enough difficulty seeing the one Bludger with which they were practising; a minute into the practice it almost unseated him and he had to use the Sloth Grip Roll to avoid it. Unfortunately, Angelina did not see this. In fact, she did not appear to be able to see anything; none of them had a clue what the others were doing. The wind was picking up; even at a distance Harry could hear the swishing, pounding sounds of the rain pummelling the surface of the lake.

Angelina kept them at it for nearly an hour before conceding defeat. She led her sodden and disgruntled team back into the changing rooms, insisting that the practice had not been a waste of time, though without any real conviction in her voice. Fred and George were looking particularly annoyed; both were bandy-legged and winced with every movement. Harry could hear them complaining in low voices as he towelled his hair dry.

‘I think a few of mine have ruptured,’ said Fred in a hollow voice.

‘Mine haven’t,’ said George, wincing, ‘they’re throbbing like mad … feel bigger if anything.’

‘OUCH!’ said Harry.

He pressed the towel to his face, his eyes screwed tight with pain. The scar on his forehead had seared again, more painfully than it had in weeks.

‘What’s up?’ said several voices.

Harry emerged from behind his towel; the changing room was blurred because he was not wearing his glasses, but he could still tell that everyone’s face was turned towards him.

‘Nothing,’ he muttered, ‘I – poked myself in the eye, that’s all.’

But he gave Ron a significant look and the two of them hung back as the rest of the team filed back outside, muffled in their cloaks, their hats pulled low over their ears.

‘What happened?’ said Ron, the moment Alicia had disappeared through the door. ‘Was it your scar?’

Harry nodded.

‘But …’ looking scared, Ron strode across to the window and stared out into the rain, ‘he – he can’t be near us now, can he?’

‘No,’ Harry muttered, sinking on to a bench and rubbing his forehead. ‘He’s probably miles away. It hurt because … he’s … angry.’

Harry had not meant to say that at all, and heard the words as though a stranger had spoken them – yet knew at once that they were true. He did not know how he knew it, but he did; Voldemort, wherever he was, whatever he was doing, was in a towering temper.

‘Did you see him?’ said Ron, looking horrified. ‘Did you … get a vision, or something?’

Harry sat quite still, staring at his feet, allowing his mind and his memory to relax in the aftermath of the pain.

A confused tangle of shapes, a howling rush of voices …

‘He wants something done, and it’s not happening fast enough,’ he said.

Again, he felt surprised to hear the words coming out of his mouth, and yet was quite certain they were true.

‘But … how do you know?’ said Ron.

Harry shook his head and covered his eyes with his hands, pressing down upon them with his palms. Little stars erupted in them. He felt Ron sit down on the bench beside him and knew Ron was staring at him.

‘Is this what it was about last time?’ said Ron in a hushed voice. ‘When your scar hurt in Umbridge’s office? You-Know-Who was angry?’

Harry shook his head.

‘What is it, then?’

Harry was thinking himself back. He had been looking into Umbridge’s face … his scar had hurt … and he had had that odd feeling in his stomach … a strange, leaping feeling … a
happy
feeling … but of course, he had not recognised it for what it was, as he had been feeling so miserable himself …

‘Last time, it was because he was pleased,’ he said. ‘Really pleased. He thought … something good was going to happen. And the night before we came back to Hogwarts …’ he thought back to the moment when his scar had hurt so badly in his and Ron’s bedroom in Grimmauld Place … ‘he was furious …’

He looked round at Ron, who was gaping at him.

‘You could take over from Trelawney, mate,’ he said in an awed voice.

‘I’m not making prophecies,’ said Harry.

‘No, you know what you’re doing?’ Ron said, sounding both scared and impressed. ‘Harry,
you’re reading You-Know-Who’s mind
!’

‘No,’ said Harry, shaking his head. ‘It’s more like … his mood, I suppose. I’m just getting flashes of what mood he’s in. Dumbledore said something like this was happening last year. He said that when Voldemort was near me, or when he was feeling hatred, I could tell. Well, now I’m feeling it when he’s pleased, too …’

There was a pause. The wind and rain lashed at the building.

‘You’ve got to tell someone,’ said Ron.

‘I told Sirius last time.’

‘Well, tell him about this time!’

‘Can’t, can I?’ said Harry grimly. ‘Umbridge is watching the owls and the fires, remember?’

‘Well then, Dumbledore.’

‘I’ve just told you, he already knows,’ said Harry shortly, getting to his feet, taking his cloak off his peg and swinging it around him. ‘There’s no point telling him again.’

Ron did up the fastening of his own cloak, watching Harry thoughtfully.

‘Dumbledore’d want to know,’ he said.

Harry shrugged.

‘C’mon … we’ve still got Silencing Charms to practise.’

They hurried back through the dark grounds, sliding and stumbling up the muddy lawns, not talking. Harry was thinking hard. What was it that Voldemort wanted done that was not happening quickly enough?

‘…
he’s got other plans … plans he can put into operation very quietly indeed … stuff he can only get by stealth … like a weapon. Something he didn’t have last time
.’

Harry had not thought about those words in weeks; he had been too absorbed in what was going on at Hogwarts, too busy dwelling on the ongoing battles with Umbridge, the injustice of all the Ministry interference … but now they came back to him and made him wonder … Voldemort’s anger would make sense if he was no nearer to laying hands on the
weapon
, whatever it was. Had the Order thwarted him, stopped him from seizing it? Where was it kept? Who had it now?

‘
Mimbulus mimbletonia
,’ said Ron’s voice and Harry came back to his senses just in time to clamber through the portrait hole into the common room.

It appeared that Hermione had gone to bed early, leaving Crookshanks curled in a nearby chair and an assortment of knobbly knitted elf hats lying on a table by the fire. Harry was rather grateful that she was not around, because he did not much want to discuss his scar hurting and have her urge him to go to Dumbledore, too. Ron kept throwing him anxious glances, but Harry pulled out his Charms books and set to work on finishing his essay, though he was only pretending to concentrate and by the time Ron said he was going up to bed, too, he had written hardly anything.

Midnight came and went while Harry was reading and rereading a passage about the uses of scurvy-grass, lovage and sneezewort and not taking in a word of it.

These plantes are moste efficacious in the inflaming of the braine, and are therefore much used in Confusing and Befuddlement Draughts, where the wizard is desirous of producing hot-headedness and recklessness
…

…
Hermione said Sirius was becoming reckless cooped up in Grimmauld Place …

…
moste efficacious in the inflaming of the braine, and are therefore much used
…

… the
Daily Prophet
would think his brain was inflamed if they found out that he knew what Voldemort was feeling …

…
therefore much used in Confusing and Befuddlement Draughts
…

… confusing was the word, all right;
why
did he know what Voldemort was feeling? What was this weird connection between them, which Dumbledore had never been able to explain satisfactorily?

…
where the wizard is desirous
…

… how Harry would like to sleep …

…
of producing hot-headedness …

… it was warm and comfortable in his armchair before the fire, with the rain still beating heavily on the windowpanes, Crookshanks purring, and the crackling of the flames …

The book slipped from Harry’s slack grip and landed with a dull thud on the hearthrug. His head lolled sideways …

He was walking once more along a windowless corridor, his footsteps echoing in the silence. As the door at the end of the passage loomed larger, his heart beat fast with excitement … if he could only open it … enter beyond …

He stretched out his hand … his fingertips were inches from it …

‘Harry Potter, sir!’

He awoke with a start. The candles had all been extinguished in the common room, but there was something moving close by.

‘Whozair?’ said Harry, sitting upright in his chair. The fire was almost out, the room very dark.

‘Dobby has your owl, sir!’ said a squeaky voice.

‘Dobby?’ said Harry thickly, peering through the gloom towards the source of the voice.

Dobby the house-elf was standing beside the table on which Hermione had left half a dozen of her knitted hats. His large, pointed ears were now sticking out from beneath what looked like all the hats Hermione had ever knitted; he was wearing one on top of the other, so that his head seemed elongated by two or three feet, and on the very topmost bobble sat Hedwig, hooting serenely and obviously cured.

‘Dobby volunteered to return Harry Potter’s owl,’ said the elf squeakily, with a look of positive adoration on his face, ‘Professor Grubbly-Plank says she is all well now, sir.’ He sank into a deep bow so that his pencil-like nose brushed the threadbare surface of the hearthrug and Hedwig gave an indignant hoot and fluttered on to the arm of Harry’s chair.

‘Thanks, Dobby!’ said Harry, stroking Hedwig’s head and blinking hard, trying to rid himself of the image of the door in his dream … it had been very vivid. Looking back at Dobby, he noticed that the elf was also wearing several scarves and innumerable socks, so that his feet looked far too big for his body.

‘Er … have you been taking
all
the clothes Hermione’s been leaving out?’

‘Oh, no, sir,’ said Dobby happily. ‘Dobby has been taking some for Winky, too, sir.’

‘Yeah, how is Winky?’ asked Harry.

Dobby’s ears drooped slightly.

‘Winky is still drinking lots, sir,’ he said sadly, his enormous round green eyes, large as tennis balls, downcast. ‘She still does not care for clothes, Harry Potter. Nor do the other house-elves. None of them will clean Gryffindor Tower any more, not with the hats and socks hidden everywhere, they finds them insulting, sir. Dobby does it all himself, sir, but Dobby does not mind, sir, for he always hopes to meet Harry Potter and tonight, sir, he has got his wish!’ Dobby sank into a deep bow again. ‘But Harry Potter does not seem happy,’ Dobby went on, straightening up again and looking timidly at Harry. ‘Dobby heard him muttering in his sleep. Was Harry Potter having bad dreams?’

‘Not really bad,’ said Harry, yawning and rubbing his eyes. ‘I’ve had worse.’

The elf surveyed Harry out of his vast, orb-like eyes. Then he said very seriously, his ears drooping, ‘Dobby wishes he could help Harry Potter, for Harry Potter set Dobby free and Dobby is much, much happier now.’

Harry smiled.

‘You can’t help me, Dobby, but thanks for the offer.’

He bent and picked up his Potions book. He’d have to try to finish the essay tomorrow. He closed the book and as he did so the firelight illuminated the thin white scars on the back of his hand – the result of his detentions with Umbridge …

‘Wait a moment – there
is
something you can do for me, Dobby,’ said Harry slowly.

The elf looked round, beaming.

‘Name it, Harry Potter, sir!’

‘I need to find a place where twenty-eight people can practise Defence Against the Dark Arts without being discovered by any of the teachers. Especially,’ Harry clenched his hand on the book, so that the scars shone pearly white, ‘Professor Umbridge.’

He expected the elf’s smile to vanish, his ears to droop; he expected him to say it was impossible, or else that he would try to find somewhere, but his hopes were not high. What he had not expected was for Dobby to give a little skip, his ears waggling cheerfully, and clap his hands together.

‘Dobby knows the perfect place, sir!’ he said happily. ‘Dobby heard tell of it from the other house-elves when he came to Hogwarts, sir. It is known by us as the Come and Go Room, sir, or else as the Room of Requirement!’

‘Why?’ said Harry curiously.

‘Because it is a room that a person can only enter,’ said Dobby seriously, ‘when they have real need of it. Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not, but when it appears, it is always equipped for the seeker’s needs. Dobby has used it, sir,’ said the elf, dropping his voice and looking guilty, ‘when Winky has been very drunk; he has hidden her in the Room of Requirement and he has found antidotes to Butterbeer there, and a nice elf-sized bed to settle her on while she sleeps it off, sir … and Dobby knows Mr Filch has found extra cleaning materials there when he has run short, sir, and –’

‘And if you really needed a bathroom,’ said Harry, suddenly remembering something Dumbledore had said at the Yule Ball the previous Christmas, ‘would it fill itself with chamber pots?’

‘Dobby expects so, sir,’ said Dobby, nodding earnestly. ‘It is a most amazing room, sir.’