Harry Potter and the Blind Seer of Durmstrang

Chapter 14

The day of the quidditch game happened to be the last really warm fall day. A chill wind descended the next day, and soon after that, snow began to fall. The Durmstrang teachers and students all commented that it was the earliest snowfall they could remember.

Harry sat in the common room, his chin in his hands, daydreaming while he stared out the window at the blank whiteness. His swirling snowstorm of thoughts was interrupted by a sharp tap on the glass. Harry got up quickly to open the window, this time finding the catch easily. As he pulled it open, a rush of snow accompanied his owl, who shook her feathers in dismay at the cold weather.

"Hedwig!" said Harry delightedly. "I've really missed you since you've stayed with Ron and Hermione." He brought her into the room and pushed the window closed against the blowing snow.

Hedwig had not one, but two Braille letters in her pouch. Harry prized them out then gave Hedwig a pat. She hooted and nipped his ear with her beak.

The first was from Ron.

dear harry

the triwizard tournament s exciting with drangons and such but i think hermiones sweet on viktorkrum and im not sure how i feel about that but we both miss you loads fred and george wanted to send you dungboms but hermione wouldn't let them

your friend

ronald weasley

ps forgot how to write punctuation and not going to dig out hermione to ask her she d be too pleased

Harry grinned in spite of himself. The next letter, from Lupin, was quite a bit longer and was written with proper punctuation as well as short-forms.

Dear Harry,

Sirius and I were pleased to get your letter and to hear that everything at Durmstrang is going well. Your godfather seems to finally be recovering his strength enough to travel. We have tracked PP to an area very near Durmstrang, so we're planning a trip up there to see you and to research the most recent known whereabouts of that Rat. You might do some sniffing about yourself up there, but be very careful not to run into him. As you know, he is very dangerous.

Yours,

Remus Lupin

Harry frowned thoughtfully. Sirius and Remus were planning to visit soon. They were looking for Wormtail. They would ask Harry all sorts of awkward questions. Once again, his secret raked at his insides, growing razor-sharp talons of worry. The fib he'd told to Luna had begun to balloon into bigger and bigger lies to hide what he knew.

He told himself that he simply needed time. Time to think. Time to decide what to do. He would tell them soon, but not yet. He needed more time.

While this reasoning pushed the knot of worry down for the time being, he found himself unable to sleep that night; he tossed and turned, worrying about the visit the following day.

The next day, Sirius and Remus arrived via floo powder to Durmstrang. Harry met them in the entrance hall and took them to the Hogwarts common room.

Once they had gotten settled, Sirius asked Harry how he was doing. Harry had been dreading this question all night; now that he was on the spot, he discovered he still had not decided what to say. He looked at his godfather for a long moment. "I am doing well," he said.

Sirius gave him a sharp look. "Are you?" he asked.

Harry hesitated.

"Err, well, yeah," he said finally.

"Good, Harry," said Remus, almost soothingly.

"We came up here, partly to see you, but partly because we heard a rumor that Wormtail has been seen once near here," said Sirius.