Harry Potter and the Sword of Gryffindor

Chapter 18

Harry sat with his friends at the Halloween feast, hardly noticing what he ate, so intense were the thoughts that distracted him. All year he knew he'd had a more difficult time paying attention to things going on around him, and he attributed it to the fact that he couldn't see them. Maybe out of sight really was out of mind, because Harry lived a much more internal existence, with more and more importance being given to his musings, his imagination and his world of swirling inner consciousness. Tonight he really did try to keep up a conversation with Ron and Hermione but when his answers continued to be in monosyllables they told him his head was in the clouds and went on to talk amongst the other third-years instead.

Harry's head wasn't in the clouds; it was in the third-floor corridor with the stranger who'd saved his life yesterday. Who was he? Harry needed to find him, alone, and talk with him again. He needed to find a time when no one would come looking for him to interrupt their talk, as had happened the last two times.

The chance came sooner than Harry dared hope. Professor McGonagall called a special meeting one evening of all the students who planned to venture into Hogsmeade the next weekend. Since Harry still did not have a permission slip, he was free to not attend the meeting and he knew his friends would be occupied, so they would not come looking for him. As soon as he had the chance, he donned his Invisibility Cloak and slipped away from Gryffindor Tower to make his way quietly through the echoing castle halls. This time he had a better idea of where to go, since he had more carefully paid attention when Ron led him back last night from the scene of the battle.

Harry wondered vaguely as he went why he had heard no hue and cry today about the body of a dead werewolf being found in an upstairs corridor. Someone, maybe his godfather, must have spirited away the corpse before anyone else discovered it. Harry doubted that such a find would go unremarked by the staff, so it must not have been found, however that feat had been accomplished.

Harry climbed a set of stairs leading past the One-eyed Witch toward the fourth floor. He was close now and his ears were on high alert. He paused for a moment to marvel at the ease with which he ascended the stairs. Only a few short weeks ago he would have tripped and fallen on his face; now the tip of his cane found the first step and the rest followed almost automatically, even impeded as he was by the swath of the Cloak. He grinned to himself and moved on toward the long hallway.

"Hello?" he called in a loud whisper and listened to the silence which lay heavily around him.

He was right that the body of the werewolf had been moved. He looked for a dark smear of blood on the floor, but either due to his poor eyesight or the fact that someone had scrubbed the floor, it was not there.

"Hello?" he called again, just a bit louder and was startled by the flapping wings of a bat passing him on its way to find the open night sky and hunt for bugs.

The corridor stretched on in empty silence after that and Harry sat down against the wall to wait, folding his cane with a click, wrapping the elastic handle around it and setting it beside him on the chilly floor.

"Harry?" a voice asked and Harry jumped. It was not the gentle voice of his "godfather" and he wondered for a fleeting moment if he would soon face detention. He sat still under the Invisibility Cloak, waiting as the speaker approached, silhouetted against the torchlight. The voice turned out not to be Filch, the caretaker, or even Professor Snape, but Professor Lupin.

"Hello, Professor," said Harry, jumping to his feet and pushing back the hood on his Invisibility Cloak. "How did you know I was here?"

"I heard you call and well, err, I have other ways," said Lupin grimly, drawing closer to Harry.

Harry shivered, remembering the pursuit of the rabid werewolf the other night. Lupin could smell Harry, he realized with a shock and without realizing it, he grimaced slightly.