Written In The Stars III -[Harry Potter xF!Oc]

Chapter Five: Dementors.

"It was here, on the bedside table, I took it off for polishing —" 

"I haven't touched it, all right?" Ron roared back.

Mel had been standing on the doorway, witnessing the argument, she hadn't taken the badge, but she had a feeling that neither had Ron.

"What's up?" said Harry, standing beside her.

"My Head Boy badge is gone," said Percy. 

"So's Scabbers's rat tonic," said Ron, rummaging through his things. "I think I might've left it in the bar —"

"You're not going anywhere till you've found my badge!" yelled Percy.

"I'll get Scabbers's stuff, I'm packed," Harry said.

"I'll go with you," Mel didn't feel like being there to see Ron lose his temper.

When they approached the bar Harry tugged her sleeve and made her stop, she turned to look at him, confused by his actions, then she paid attention to the voices coming from the parlor.

"...makes no sense not to tell him," Mr. Weasley was saying. "Harry's got a right to know. I've tried to tell Fudge, but he insists on treating Harry like a child. He's thirteen years old and—"

"Arthur, the truth would terrify him!" said Mrs. Weasley. "Do you really want to send Harry back to school with that hanging over him? For heaven's sake, he's happy not knowing!" 

Mel frowned, leaning.

"I don't want to make him miserable, I want to put him on his guard! You know what Harry, Mel, and Ron are like, wandering off by themselves — they've even ended up in the Forbidden Forest! But Harry mustn't do that this year! When I think what could have happened to him that night he ran away from home! If the Knight Bus hadn't picked him up, I'm prepared to bet he would have been dead before the Ministry found him."

"But he's not dead, he's fine, so what's the point —"

"Molly, they say Sirius Black's mad, and maybe he is, but he was clever enough to escape from Azkaban, and that's supposed to be impossible. It's been a month, and no one's seen hide nor hair of him, and I don't care what Fudge keeps telling the Daily Prophet, we're no nearer catching Black than inventing self-spelling wands. The only thing we know for sure is what Black's after —" 

"But Harry will be perfectly safe at Hogwarts."

"We thought Azkaban was perfectly safe. If Black can break out of Azkaban, he can break into Hogwarts."

"But no one's really sure that Black's after Harry —" 

There was a loud noise, someone had hit the table and it made both kids jump.

"Molly, how many times do I have to tell you? They didn't report it in the press because Fudge wanted it kept quiet, but Fudge went out to Azkaban the night Black escaped. The guards told Fudge that Black's been talking in his sleep for a while now. Always the same words: 'He's at Hogwarts... he's at Hogwarts.'  Black is deranged, Molly, and he wants Harry dead. If you ask me, he thinks murdering Harry will bring You-Know-Who back to power. Black lost everything the night Harry stopped You-Know-Who, and he's had twelve years alone in Azkaban to brood on that..."

"Well, Arthur, you must do what you think is right. But you're forgetting Albus Dumbledore. I don't think anything could hurt Harry at Hogwarts while Dumbledore's headmaster. I suppose he knows about all this?"

"Of course he knows. We had to ask him if he minds the Azkaban guards stationing themselves around the entrances to the school grounds. He wasn't happy about it, but he agreed."