Unique (Hermione x M! OC)

49. Talking Again

The last few weeks have been spent in blissful normalcy. Fudge quit, Umbridge was thrown in jail pending a court hearing and Dumbledore is back, changing everything back to the way it was before Bubblegum took over. One thing is different, however. Harry. He's cold, quiet and sombre. I understand it, I was that way when I lost my Mom, when I thought I'd lost Hermione, I'd shut down. I've been the most effective at getting through to him, but I'm not quite able to fully break through just yet. I'm still the only person he trusts enough to share anything with, so I spend more time with him than Hermione. She understands, and we still work together on the book. Harry talks to me a lot about Sirius, who I had set up with a job in the Spirit World as a communicator.

When Harry learned about this, I became his crutch. Whenever we walk, he brings up Sirius at least once, and we usually discuss the same thing; he's accommodating well. I don't think he understands that The Great Wizard's job is to watch over the living, not to babysit the dead. I would tell him this, but I didn't have the heart. Since Black didn't leave a corpse, we couldn't send him off like we did Mum. Kind of makes the death feel a bit more permanent.

When I returned the night of the event, Amos confronted me about how he specifically told me not to use Legilimency, and how proud he was that I'd been able to understand that rules, at times, must be broken. He praised me for not looking into Snape's thoughts, just communicating with him, and he praised me for using my mind, explaining how things might go haywire without proper expertise. Then he taught me Occlumency.

Hermione and I sleep together every night, be it in my room or on the couch. I don't feel comfortable going into the girls dorm, and she doesn't want me to anyway. Not surprising. Hermione and I are on the last pages of our latest book; It's Time the Wind Comes Knocking, and it's by far our best written novel. The ending we're going with is the death of the main character the day after he confesses to the person he loves and the narrator reveals himself as that person.

When Dumbledore summoned Harry, he chose to take me along, probably a security thing, because when Dumbledore requested my leave, Harry refused to let me. Dumbledore gave in and let me stay.

"I know how you feel, Harry."

"No, you don't." Harry states, "It's my fault..."

"No, the fault is mine." Dumbledore replies, "I knew it was only a matter of time before Voldemort made the connection between you. I thought that by distancing myself from you, as I have done all year, he'd be less tempted and therefore, you might be more protected."

I speak up, "His best friend is the next Great Wizard, his best female friend is the only witch worthy of the sword and is a girl who has scored perfectly on the O.W.L.s since she got here, and his adoptive father is the most famous wizard on Earth. May I ask, Dumbledore, why you neglected to realise that when deciding to ignore us? You are important, but you'd assume that the youth is his real threat, is it not?"

"I suppose I never thought of it in that light, however, his safety is still ensured as long as he's there because of a five generation-removed relation that I was unaware of." Dumbledore admits. "Even then, I wasn't aware of Harry's accommodations with Colson until late last school year. It's unsurprising that he would have taken Harry in. Colson loved James."

"Sirius said that they hated each other." Harry interjects.

Dumbledore shakes his head, "There wasn't hatred, not genuine at least. You see, boys, when Colson moved to America, James accused Colson of stabbing him in the back. Colson wanted a safe place for Sammy to be born, and James looked up to him like a father. Colson tried writing to James, but in his anger, James threw the letters away. Colson was, as you know, a particularly kind young man. I've always said that if he weren't so smart he'd make a perfect Hufflepuff. He used to sto-"