Harry Potter 05 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

exams is staying at Hogwarts to study. They want me to do well, they’ll understand. Anyway,’ she said briskly, ‘let’s go to your bedroom, Ron’s mum has lit a fire in there and she’s sent up sandwiches.’
    Harry followed her back to the second floor. When he entered the bedroom, he was rather surprised to see both Ron and Ginny waiting for them, sitting on Ron’s bed.
    ‘I came on the Knight Bus,’ said Hermione airily, pulling off her jacket before Harry had time to speak. ‘Dumbledore told me what had happened yesterday morning, but I had to wait for term to end officially before setting off. Umbridge is already livid that you lot disappeared right under her nose, even though Dumbledore told her Mr Weasley was in St Mungo’s and he’d given you all permission to visit. So …’
    She sat down next to Ginny, and the two girls and Ron all looked up at Harry.
    ‘How’re you feeling?’ asked Hermione.
    ‘Fine,’ said Harry stiffly.
    ‘Oh, don’t lie, Harry,’ she said impatiently. ‘Ron and Ginny say you’ve been hiding from everyone since you got back from St Mungo’s.’
    ‘They do, do they?’ said Harry, glaring at Ron and Ginny. Ron looked down at his feet but Ginny seemed quite unabashed.
    ‘Well, you have!’ she said. ‘And you won’t look at any of us!’
    ‘It’s you lot who won’t look at me!’ said Harry angrily.
    ‘Maybe you’re taking it in turns to look, and keep missing each other,’ suggested Hermione, the corners of her mouth twitching.
    ‘Very funny,’ snapped Harry, turning away.
    ‘Oh, stop feeling all misunderstood,’ said Hermione sharply. ‘Look, the others have told me what you overheard last night on the Extendable Ears –’
    ‘Yeah?’ growled Harry, his hands deep in his pockets as he watched the snow now falling thickly outside. ‘All been talking about me, have you? Well, I’m getting used to it.’
    ‘We wanted to talk to you , Harry,’ said Ginny, ‘but as you’ve been hiding ever since we got back –’
    ‘I didn’t want anyone to talk to me,’ said Harry, who was feeling more and more nettled.
    ‘Well, that was a bit stupid of you,’ said Ginny angrily, ‘seeing as you don’t know anyone but me who’s been possessed by You-Know-Who, and I can tell you how it feels.’
    Harry remained quite still as the impact of these words hit him. Then he turned on the spot to face her.
    ‘I forgot,’ he said.
    ‘Lucky you,’ said Ginny coolly.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ Harry said, and he meant it. ‘So … so, do you think I’m being possessed, then?’
    ‘Well, can you remember everything you’ve been doing?’ Ginny asked. ‘Are there big blank periods where you don’t know what you’ve been up to?’
    Harry racked his brains.
    ‘No,’ he said.
    ‘Then You-Know-Who hasn’t ever possessed you,’ said Ginny simply. ‘When he did it to me, I couldn’t remember what I’d been doing for hours at a time. I’d find myself somewhere and not know how I got there.’
    Harry hardly dared believe her, yet his heart was lightening almost in spite of himself.
    ‘That dream I had about your dad and the snake, though –’
    ‘Harry, you’ve had these dreams before,’ Hermione said. ‘You had flashes of what Voldemort was up to last year.’
    ‘This was different,’ said Harry, shaking his head. ‘I was inside that snake. It was like I was the snake … what if Voldemort somehow transported me to London –?’
    ‘One day,’ said Hermione, sounding thoroughly exasperated, ‘you’ll read Hogwarts: A History , and perhaps it will remind you that you can’t Apparate or Disapparate inside Hogwarts. Even Voldemort couldn’t just make you fly out of your dormitory, Harry.’
    ‘You didn’t leave your bed, mate,’ said Ron. ‘I saw you thrashing around in your sleep for at least a minute before we could wake you up.’
    Harry started pacing up and down the room again, thinking. What they were all saying was not only comforting, it made sense … without really thinking, he took a sandwich from the plate on the bed and crammed it hungrily into his mouth.
    I’m not the weapon after all , thought Harry. His heart swelled with happiness and relief, and he felt like joining in as they heard
    Sirius tramping past their door towards Buckbeak’s room, singing ‘God Rest Ye, Merry Hippogriffs’ at the top of his voice.
    *
    How could he have dreamed of returning to Privet Drive for Christmas? Sirius’s delight at having the house