raised by dementor

chapter 31

"So what did you see?" Dumbledore asked gently but Harry could tell there was something behind his eyes, fear and anger among them. Obviously he had found out about the book and Harry felt a pang of guilt when he realised there could only be one explanation, the sorting hat was dead. It had died for him, obviously the hat knew why but Harry was in the dark and felt guilty that someone was willing to die for him.
"We were just in the library, when it happened. We just saw Colin fall," Harry confessed knowing it was the truth, then he felt the slither of something in his mind. Dumbledore was trying to get in, he took some pleasure in hitting him with a wave of energy powerful enough to make him recoil. He looked at Harry with evident concern but could say nothing, they were both in the library and both his friends and some teachers were trying to find out what happened. So unless the old man wanted to confess to illegally spying on someone's mind then he would have to remain quiet
"I see, you must see how this looks Harry, you were found in the same room as the victim of an attack and this is the second time," the old man murmured in a friendly but stern tone
"I know how it looks but again it's a simple coincidence, we had nothing to do with his attack all we saw was a flash of light and him falling to the ground," Harry answered truthfully. He suddenly broke into a frown
"It's interesting, all of your friends practically repeated what you have just said, it almost looks like a predetermined alibi," he whispered accusingly
"If you're accusing me then be sure to contact both Minister Fudge and Lucy who I'm sure would discuss it with you further but as you have no evidence and both of them will investigate I think both me and my friends are free to go," Harry retorted coolly and if it was any other student Dumbledore would have dismissed their claims, however he knew Harry could and would do these things and the last thing he needed was an investigation. So he took a deep breath and drew himself up to full height
"In that case you and your friends are free to go but I warn you, be careful dark forces are at work," he warned and Harry couldn't mistake the tone in his voice, it was a threat. Why would Dumbledore threaten him? But as the six of them were walking through the halls back to their dormitory's Cho sided up to Harry,
"Your being framed," she whispered gently and Harry's brain snapped into action, she was right. It was all adding up, he had been found with the two victims; the first time only he could hear that voice and that voice led him to Miss Norris. The library had been mostly empty and the attack happened to coincide with them being there, wait. That was it,
"Not us, we," Harry realised, the group was being set up. Someone wanted everyone to believe they were responsible for the attacks and with them at the scene of every crime it was going to work sooner or later. Ron Weasley had already started the rumours and slowly people would believe them, someone wanted this group isolated but the same question came back to Harry again and again. Why?
Two days later
"Ok there's a lot of things in this school I don't get, Dumbledore, Herbology, Luna, Runes, Luna again, History and more but the main thing right now us why we are in a bathroom," Draco pointed out, the group was stood in the bathroom on the same floor where Miss Norris had been attacked.
"Two reasons, firstly no one comes in here ever and secondly because we need somewhere to talk which isn't open to all students," Cho answered simply. Harry's predication had proven correct, most of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were now right behind the idea Harry was the heir of Slytherin and even those who were once undecided had made an choice. However being in a group of six meant Harry was not the only suspect, a few Ravenclaws accused Draco of being the heir because he came from a pureblood family. Some believed it was Cho (mostly the people she had beaten in the Quidditch trials) and one person accused Luna because she was the newest member of the group. So as it was looking more and more like someone was trying to frame them the group had gone into some form of isolation where they told no one about their plans and did not respond to any goading comments made. The need for secrecy was now more important and Hermione had suggested they relocate their area of discussion from the library to the second floor girl's bathroom.
"So any girl can wander in and find out what we're doing?" Draco pointed out
"If they wanted to, but no one would do that," Cho answered and Draco raised his hand.
"Why?" he asked as if he was talking to a teacher
"Because of Moaning Myrtle," Hermione answered as if it was obvious, Draco nodded and all the boys looked confused and in some ways that was a good thing.
"Ok you're going to have to fill in the gaps for us here because unlike you two us lot did not take a master's degree in legends of the girl's bathroom!" Draco commented and for a moment was acting as the official spokesperson for the boys of the group.
"Whose Moaning Mrytle?" Crabbe asked looking blank.
"And who called her that?" Goyle finished.
"Me and the answer is Olive Hornby," a voice answered from behind them and Draco jumped back a few feet as a young girl flew into view. For a moment Harry was confused until he saw her transparent skin and how her eyes looked old while her body was young; she was a ghost.
"Ok, we sorted that out, umm question two do all girl's bathrooms have ghosts in them?" Draco asked again and all three girls gave him a pitying look.
"Hi Myrtle," Luna smiled at the ghost who nodded back
"Hi Luna, the ghost replied looking genuinely happy to see her, obviously Luna had used this bathroom a lot and knowing her capacity to make friends she had hit it off with the ghost. Then the ghost looked at Harry with an interested expression and Harry looked back, his eyes were drawn to her and he knew it wasn't due to her charming features. She was literally a soul on a plate and something inside him was hungry so he turned away quickly not wanting to end up eating the ghost who giggled and flew away. Whatever she thought was wrong but Harry needed to watch himself, his inner self was nowhere near as calm as patient as he was.
"Don't eat her," Cho warned somehow guessing that was what he was feeling right now and she looked concerned.
"Right well as much as Harry's feeding habits are interesting what are we doing here?" Draco interjected not caring much about the weird ghost
"Well we have a framer to worry about," Cho began but Draco cut her off
"Like I said there is no point in worrying about it now, what we need to do it wait until we see the perfect opportunity to find out what the hell's going on because charging into a situation ends up with me having a dark lord splattered into a wall," he smiled somewhat charismatically
"He's got a point, we can't exactly stop them unless we know who they are and with everyone watching us finding out would be hard," Hermione agreed
"Wow, Draco and Hermione actually agree about something," Harry commented looking amazed
"It's like seeing a solar eclipse," Crabbe smirked
"A once in a lifetime opportunity," Luna announced dreamily with a smile,
"And we were planning to become Animagi," Cho finally finished her sentence and Harry handed her the book, it gave the detailed recipe on how to make the potion and that explained the cauldron and numerous ingredients they had lying about the place.
"That would explain a lot," Draco commented suddenly and Cho gave him a glare, to Harry she had three common faces. Happy, neutral and the Draco face which involved a lot of scowling and could freeze ice potentially, if it could freeze blood then Draco would have died the first day she used it. Which was a few minutes after they met
"Well done, now are we going to get this started or not?" Cho asked,
"Sorry we have all the ingredients?" Harry asked knowing the recipe was very complex and took at least three months
"No, we need to personalise the potion with something from us, then we need to filter it and add the other ingredients while it ferments," Cho explained.
"Personalise?" Goyle wondered
"We need to add a bodily fluid," Luna supplied the answer causing most of the room to look a bit queasy
"Blood," Cho answered obviously not happy about the idea but wanted to act long before Draco could make a comment and she knew he would. Harry knew this to and if the boy's disappointed look was anything to go by then Cho had saved them from a comment which would have ended with him being thrown out of the window.
"Oh and that makes everything so much better," Hermione muttered,
"Look if you want to be an animagus then you need to drink something with you inside it, something that the potion can latch onto and adjust to before you drink it. That lets you transform at will because the potion has fermented with your blood and is attached to it," Harry told her remembering the answer from the book. Cho nodded to confirm it
"So why do we need to drink something with all our blood in it?" Draco asked and for once there was no trace of a joke in his voice
"It's called bonding, basically our animal forms will be able to tell if one of us is needs help or something like this and also where they are. It's not practised often and when it is then everyone involved is treated with the utmost trust as if they do betray the others then they are killing a part of themselves," Harry explained.
"That and its saves finding more ingredients," Cho finished rolling her eyes.
Later
Harry was sat in the Ravenclaw common room, his hand was aching with the shockingly large Transfiguration he had to do but he was slowly getting through it. At least until Hedwig made herself known by flying into the room
"Hey girl," Harry murmured to her petting her fondly but then he realised she had a scroll clasped in one foot but it looked different to the normal kind of message he received. It was written on dark paper with a shiny green ink that looked like it had been forced out of a pen. It had almost burned itself onto the page and Harry decided not to touch it. A note was wrapped around the scroll and was keeping it together, Harry gently withdrew it
Harry- A very old and trusted friend asked me to send you this- Hagrid
Hagrid! Harry had kept in contact with the giant after their little adventure and he found himself liking the man more and more. He was compassionate more than anything but this was strange; who did Hagird count as a friend. Other than Dumbledore Harry had never heard him mention anyone else and he doubted it was Dumbledore, the old man could just walk up to the common room if he wanted to talk so who could this be? Harry pulled the scroll and it fell open
Harry Potter
We know about the journal, and if ever want to know the contents then meet us in the Forbidden forest tomorrow at midnight, bring only those you trust.