Life and Love

You were directly in the middle of the dance floor. Everyone seemed really, really happy. You carried on dancing with Draco, and everyone else paired up too, dancing with their partners around the two of you. No one seemed to be bothered to see who you were dancing with, just gave you dreamy encouraging smiles.
You turned back and looked up at Draco, who gave you a smile and put his arms around your waist as you put yours up around his neck. You felt the rhythm of the music, not sure what it was, but you got into it. After dancing for a long time, he pulled you into him so that your bodies were touching, you eventually resting your head on his shoulder and slow dancing.
After a while, you pull back, everyone else gives you a smile, and go back to their partners, you look up at him, as you gaze into each others eyes, he pulls you back towards him, also bringing his head down to yours guiding his lips towards you. Your lips were about to crash, you took a deep breath.

‘Hahaha!’ You heard Hermione laughing loudly. You looked at her in a funny way. ‘What were you dreaming about? You should of seen your facial expressions all the way through, you kept smiling all the time.’ She said still laughing.
‘I can’t have looked that funny.’ You said watching a tear fall from her eye.
‘It was it was.’ She wiped her eyes and stood up from her bed. ‘Come on, it’s 9 and everyone else has got up, I will meet you in the hall ok?’
‘Yeah sure.’ You said as she left the room.
‘What the hell?’ you thought to yourself, about the dream and Hermione. You jumped into the shower and came out 15 minutes later. You walked over to your ipod and speakers and put it on shuffle and walked over to your trunk as the song started. It was digital love by daft punk. ‘Strange’ you thought to yourself, and carried on getting ready. (If you don’t know why listen to the song.)

A little while later you were ready and walked down through the common room.
‘Hannah!’ You heard as you walked out the portrait. You turned round to see Fred following you out.
‘Hey Fred, you going down for breakfast too?’
‘Yeah, mind if I walk with you?’ You giggled.
‘No of course not.’
‘I was wondering Hannah…’
‘Everyone seems to.’ You mumbled to yourself.
‘What?’
‘Nothing.’ You said in a way to show that you weren’t being horrible.
‘Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out a bit today?’
‘Yeah sure that sounds good, could we leave it till two-ish as I promised Hermione we would do our homework together.’
‘Of course, so meet at two in the common room?’
‘Sounds great.’ You smiled at him, carrying on to breakfast.

‘I’ll see you a bit later then Hannah.’ Hermione said gathering up her finished homework.
‘Yep have fun with Ronald, and Harry maybe.’ You said, expecting it to be just her and Ron for the rest of the day.
‘Have fun with Fred.’ She said giving you a wink and heading off.

Only moments later Fred appeared in through the portrait.
‘Hey,’ he said walking towards you. ‘You ready to go?’
‘Yeah, you got anything particular in mind?’
‘Yeah actually, fancy a bit of flying? I know we have practise later but just to mess around?’
‘Yeah that sounds really good, let me just put my homework away and grab my broom.’ You ran upstairs, put your homework in your trunk and got your firebolt out from under your bed. You checked it over and went back down to the common room where Fred was waiting with his broom in hand.
‘Great, let’s go.’

You and Fred had been messing around and racing each other for hours, it was easy being with him, and it felt so natural being back on your broom. Like when you wear a ring for such a long time, then forget to wear it and you feel naked or empty with out it, and then it just feels right to have such a simple feeling back. You both decided to land, but you being you decided to stand on your broom and jump off, which scared Fred to death seeing as you jump from 6-10 feet up.
‘Fred you should know me better, I’m like a cat, I always land on my feet, and I will have to wait to find out about the 9 lives bit.’ He gave you a relieved laugh and took you to dinner.

After practise you and Harry were sat together in the almost empty common room, chatting away, almost exactly how you used to. You and Harry had a strong bond. I mean, you did with all of them, but like you understood each others feelings better than others, maybe because you had both lost people close to you, plus that Ron and Hermione were either best buddies or arguing so you two had gotten quite close sorting things out, however lately it had been you, Ron and Hermione and Harry away somewhere else.
‘So I saw Luna today.’ He said.
‘Yeah?’ You replied, you had talked to Luna a lot since your first meeting; however the others had not really met her much since.
‘Yeah, she was in the forest where I was walking, feeding the thestrals.’
‘Thestrals?’ you said, not knowing what that was.
‘Yeah, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about. You know those funny creatures we saw pulling the carriage at the beginning of the year?’
‘Oh yeah.’ You said, you had forgotten all about those until now.
‘Well, do you know about Luna’s mum’s death?’ he asked.
‘Yeah, she told me shortly after that lesson where Umbridge made me shout my secrets out.’
‘Well, only people who have seen death can see them, that’s why only you me and her could see them.’
‘Wow… maybe I will talk to Luna and see if I can go with her and see them again.’
You heard a tapping on the window, so got up and opened it up letting a small dark brown owl in which dropped a letter into your hands.
‘It’s for Ron.’ You said reading the envelope.
‘What’s for me?’ Ron asked coming in with Hermione.
‘This is.’ You handed him a letter, all four of you taking seats around the fire; you watched Ron open it and began reading the letter.
After a while, Ron looked up at Harry who had been reading the letter with him.
‘Well, if you want to – err, what was it? – Oh yeah ‘sever ties’ with me I promise I won’t be violent.’ Harry said with a laugh in his voice.
‘Hey let us read it.’ You said taking the letter from Ron and holding it in front of you and Hermione.
You began to read it.

Dear Ron,
I have only just heard (from no less a person than the Minister for Magic himself, who it has it from your new teacher, Professor Umbridge) that you have become a Hogwarts prefect.
I was most pleasantly surprised when I heard this news and must firstly offer my congratulations. I must admit that I have always been afraid that you would take what we might call the ‘Fred and George’ route, rather than following in my footsteps, so you can imagine my feelings on hearing you have stopped flouting authority and have decided to shoulder some real responsibility.
But I want to give you more than congratulations, Ron, I want to give you some advice, which is why I am sending this at night rather than by the usual morning post. Hopefully, you will be able to read this away from prying eyes and avoid awkward questions.
For something the Minister let slip when telling me you are now a prefect, I gather that you are still seeing a lot of Harry Potter. I must tell you, Ron, that nothing could put you in greater danger of losing your badge more than continued fraternisation with that boy. Yes, I am sure you are surprised to hear this – no doubt you will say that Potter has always been Dumbledore’s favourite – but I feel bound to tell you that Dumbledore may not be in charge at Hogwarts much longer and the people who count have a very different – and probably more accurate – view of Potter’s behaviour. I shall say no more here, but if you look at the Daily Prophet tomorrow and you will get a good idea of the way the wind is blowing – and see if you can spot yours truly!
Seriously, Ron, you do not want to be tarred with the same brush as Potter, it could be very damaging to your future prospects, and I am talking here about life after school, too. As you must be aware, given that our father escorted him to court, Potter had a disciplinary hearing this summer in front of the whole Wizengamot and he did not come out of it looking too good. He got off on a mere technicality, if you ask me, and many of the people I’ve spoken to remain convinced of his guilt.
It may be that you are afraid to sever ties with Potter – I know that he can be unbalanced and, for all I know, violent – but if you have any worries about this, or have spotted anything else in Potter’s behaviour that is troubling you, I urge you to speak to Dolores Umbridge, a truly delightful woman –

‘Dolores Umbridge is about as delightful as Jabber the hut’s rolls!’ you said, making the others crack up while you carried on reading the letter.

Who I know will be only too happy to advise you.
This leads me to my other bit of advice. As I have hinted above, Dumbledore’s regime at Hogwarts may soon be over. Your loyalty, Ron, should be not to him, but to the school and the Ministry. I am very sorry to hear that, so far, Professor Umbridge is encountering very little co-operation from staff as she strives to make those necessary changes within Hogwarts that the Ministry so ardently desires (although she should find this easier from next week – again, see the Daily Prophet tomorrow!). I shall say only this – a student who shows himself willing to help Professor Umbridge now may be very well-placed for Head Boyship in a couple of years!
I am sorry that I was unable to see more of you over the summer. It pains me to criticise our parents, but I am afraid I can no longer live under their roof while they remain mixed up with the dangerous crowd around Dumbledore. (If you are writing to Mother at any point, you might tell her that a certain Sturgis Podmore, who is a great friend of Dumbledore’s, has recently been sent to Azkaban for trespass at the Ministry. Perhaps that will open their eyes to the kind of petty criminals with whom they are currently rubbing shoulders.) I count myself very lucky to have escaped the stigma of association with such people – the Minister really could not be more gracious to me – and I do hope, Ron, that you will not allow family ties to blind you to the misguided nature of our parents’ beliefs and actions, either, I sincerely hope that, in time, they will realise how mistaken they were and I shall, of course, be ready to accept a full apology when that day comes.
Please think over what I have said most carefully, particularly the bit about Harry Potter, and congratulations again on becoming a prefect.
Your brother,
Percy.
P.S please give Hannah my love, express my disappointment that she did not become a prefect. Please pass my feelings about Harry Potter on to her too, and that I would much prefer it if she did not follow in Charlie’s footsteps, letting quidditch be her life and then following an un-proper dangerous career path. Tell her that I will be writing to her soon, as I feel that I have mistreated the bond that we had.

‘What a bloody tosser! When I get my hands on that Percy Weasley I will give him a piece of my mind!’ you said handing Ron back the letter, looking at Hermione who’s expression was a mixture between Angry and Stunned.
‘He is –‘ Ron said through gritted teeth, tearing Percy’s letter in half ‘the world’s-‘ he tore it into quarters ‘biggest-‘ he tore it into eighths ‘dick.’ He finished and threw all the pieces into the fire.
Hermione began to check their homework through and you sat talking to Harry. When randomly Harry slid of his chair and began looking into the fire, you soon joined him looking for what was so interesting.
‘What are you two doing?’ Hermione asked from behind the two of you.
‘I thought I saw Sirius’ head in the fire.’ He said calmly. This could have been quite alarming if it had not been that you had communicated with him like this before hand. You both had turned around listening to what Hermione was saying when she broke mid-sentence. ‘Sirius!’ she said in a loud whisper.
You turned back around, and there in the fire was Sirius’ head.
‘I was starting to think you’d go to bed before everyone else had disappeared, I’ve been checking in every hour.’
‘You’ve been appearing every hour?’ Harry asked.
‘Yes but just for a few seconds to see if it was just you four.’
‘Are you sure that you weren’t seen?’ Hermione asked anxiously.
‘Well, I think a first year may have got a glimpse of me, but by the time she looked back I had gone; she probably thought it was an oddly shaped log or something.’
‘Sirius you’re taking an awful big risk-‘ Hermione began only to be cut off.
‘You know you sound just like Molly.’ You could tell by her facial expression that she didn’t know whether to take it as a good or bad thing. ‘This is the only way I could reply to Harry’s letter with out resorting to code, and codes are breakable.’
At the mention of Harry’s letter Hermione and Ron’s gaze shot to Harry.
‘You said didn’t tell us you wrote to Sirius!’ Hermione exclaimed.
‘Well… I told Hannah as she helped me write it…’
‘I guess we just forgot…’ You finished for him.
‘Don’t be like that Hermione, there is no way anyone could have got information out if it.’
‘It was very good wasn’t it Sirius.’ You said backing yourselves up.
‘Yes, I especially like your new code name Hannah, H-2-O, I like it.’ You giggled. ‘Anyway, we better get a move on, Harry – your scar. I know it can’t be fun when it hurts, but we don’t think that it’s anything to really worry about. It kept aching all last year, didn’t it?’
‘Yeah, and Dumbledore said it happened when ever Voldemort was feeling a powerful emotion.’ Harry replied.
Harry and Sirius carried on talking, as you Hermione and Ron listened intently.
‘Apparently she loathes part humans.’
‘And quidditch too…’ you mumbled as Harry made you show you hand that was slowly scabbing, but from the bottom up.
‘So what are her lessons like?’ he asked. ‘Training you to kill half-breeds’ he said with a slight chuckle.
‘She’s not letting us use magic at all!’ Hermione told him.
’That figures, our information from inside the Ministry is that Fudge doesn’t want you trained in combat.’
‘What does he think we’re doing, forming some kind of wizard army?’ Ron said.
‘That’s exactly what he thinks you’re doing.’
You carried on talking about Hagrid and other areas of concern.
Until eventually at the end of the convocation you and Hermione left to have your usual nightly chat.