Harry quickly stuffed the locket into his pocket and then tried to nonchalantly continue cleaning, his heart thumping a mile a minute, hoping beyond hope that no one had noticed what he had done.
Though, that hope was quickly betrayed.
“Any reason you’re nicking things like Kreacher?” asked a voice softly beside his ear.
Harry almost jumped in fright and mechanically turned his head around to see Sirius looking at him intently.
Harry wanted to make an excuse but try as he might, he couldn’t think of anything. Eventually, he sighed. “There’s a reason I took this particular locket, one that I can’t really talk about right now” said Harry, rather guiltily.
“Don’t trust me enough eh?” asked Sirius with narrowed eyes.
Harry quickly shook his head, “It’s nothing like that Sirius. I trust you with my life” said Harry, “It’s just that, there are some things I need to confirm before I’m comfortable enough to talk about it”
Harry looked at Sirius with as much sincerity as he could muster causing Sirius to sigh. “It’s fine, I’m not really blaming you” he said with a smile, “Just, make sure you know that you can always come to me if you need help with something”
Harry nodded and then thought for a moment, “There actually is something I need your help with”
“Oh?” Sirius raised an eyebrow. “What might that be?”
“You know that incident in the hallway, where I managed to shut your mother’s painting up?” asked Harry, getting a quick nod back from Sirius.
“Well, I don’t really know if that power was a one-off thing, or if I could somehow control it” said Harry, “I need your help to practice controlling it”
“Ah” said Sirius, realisation dawning on him. “Yeah, that could be quite the power to have”
“Sure, Harry. Anytime you need to practice, just let me know” he said.
Harry looked around for a moment to make sure no one was listening and said, “I was thinking we could practice in private so no one knows I’m doing it, especially Mrs Weasley”
Sirius chuckled, “Don’t worry, after everyone goes to bed, why don’t you meet me in Buckbeak’s room? No one likes to go in there but me”
“Sounds like a deal!” said Harry, happily.
“Finally something to get away from this boredom”, grinned Sirius.
Harry laughed as well, “Actually, once this all is over, there are a few things I want to do that you might find interesting”
“Oh? And what might that be?” Sirius asked curiously.
“Now now, that would be ruining the surprise. But rest assured, it would live upto the legends of the marauders” said Harry with a laugh.
Sirius suddenly looked at Harry with mock seriousness, “I’m going to take that as a challenge you know?”
“That would just make this more fun” said Harry with a grin.
Sirius started laughing loudly at that. “You really are more and more like your father”
While the two were going on with their conversation, they didn’t notice a calamity approaching them. A calamity that soon reared its head - its red-headed head.
“ARE YOU TWO JUST GOING TO KEEP TALKING OR WILL YOU ACTUALLY GET ANY WORK DONE?” bellowed Mrs Weasley from across the room. “THERE IS TOO MUCH TO DO FOR YOU TO BE STANDING AROUND JOKING WITH EACH OTHER!”
Both Sirius and Harry jumped at that, quickly scampering away to their respective tasks. The rest of the group couldn’t help but laugh at that, earning themselves a glare from Mrs Weasley.
Eventually, they finished cleaning for the day. It was evening already and having had a very simple lunch, everyone was rather famished. They gathered for dinner, which went as usual - noisily.
Harry and Sirius continued their conversation from earlier, putting their heads together, they talked about the details of how to handle the training. Harry told Sirius how he felt when he yelled out and everything else related to it.
Eventually, they decided that they should meet after dinner, once everyone had headed to bed and try various things.
Dinner ended rather smoothly and afterwards, Harry made his way to his bedroom with Ron. Ron dove into his bed after feeding Pigwidgeon, leaving Harry, sitting on his bed with Hedwig in his lap, petting her.
Harry waited for Ron to fall asleep, enjoying his time with Hedwig until eventually, he heard a loud snore from the bed next to him.
He quickly picked up his invisibility cloak, donned it and made his way to the room Sirius had mentioned earlier.
He opened the door as quietly as possible and walked in to find Sirius and Buckbeak staring at the door. Sirius with a look of vigilance and Buckbeak, one of innocent curiosity.
Harry quickly closed the door behind himself, and took the cloak off.
“I forgot you had this cloak” said Sirius in relief. “Almost scared myself silly there”
Harry chuckled and looked towards Buckbeak. The hippogriff was staring intently at him. Harry was just about to walk towards Buckbeak and do the ritualistic bow to get Buckbeak’s permission to touch him when the Hippogriff quickly stood up and kneeled. Not the short kneels it usually did as permission but a deep reverential kneel.
This surprised both Harry and Sirius. “I’ve never known a hippogriff to drop its pride and be the first one to kneel” said Sirius in wonder.
Harry, surprised though he was, quickly made his way towards the Hippogriff and ran a hand over his head and beak.
Buckbeak soon stood back up and nuzzled into his neck, something else that was unexpected.
“Did the two of you go through something that I don’t know about?” asked Sirius.
“Not that I know of” replied Harry. “Maybe he just likes me?”
“Could be, possibly-” said Sirius, trailing off, lost in thought.
Harry didn’t want to think about this too much so he changed the topic. “So, can we get on with practice? Also, what do we do about the noise?”
Sirius snapped out of his reverie and quickly placed a few charms around the room. “That should keep the noise from leaking out” he said.
Harry and Sirius sat across from each other, on the floor while Buckbeak rested not too far from them with his eyes closed.
“So tell me everything that happened in that situation Harry, then we can decide on how to help you practice this new power” said Sirius, getting right to the matter at hand.
“Well, you know how strange things have been happening right? So one of the changes has been much keener senses. Sight, touch, smell and hearing” said Harry. “With how your mother was shrieking, the other paintings joining in, Tonks repeatedly apologising, everyone else running around trying to stop the noise, I just couldn’t take it”
Sirius nodded in understanding, prompting Harry to continue.
“Eventually, the noise got so loud that I felt this urge, from deep within me, to completely control everything” said Harry, sounding rather confused himself. “I’m not sure how to explain it, the feeling was very vague. I felt like I could take control of everything around me and that I should do it. So I used that feeling and tried to shut everyone up and it worked”
Sirius listened intently and after Harry was finished, he was lost in thought. Harry waited patiently for Sirius to finish thinking and finally, after several minutes, he looked up at Harry.
“It sounds like whatever this power is, it might be you exerting your dominance or authority over others” he said, thoughtfully. “If my guess is correct, then you should be able to replicate that if you feel strongly enough about controlling someone or something”
“What do you mean?” asked Harry.
“I mean, if you really, deeply want to make someone do something, you should be able to do it” said Sirius. “Just try it now. Try to order me to stand up”
Harry thought about Sirius words and then nodded. He then looked at Sirius and spoke as commandingly as he could. “Stand up!”
“Nope” said Sirius with a grin.
“Urgh. Stand up!” repeated Harry getting just a shake of the head from Sirius in reply.
“There really is no, how shall we say it, oomph in your command” said Sirius. “I wasn’t in the room when you used your power last but I was just outside the door and even then I felt my heart shudder and I felt like I was unable to form words easily. Your current attempts aren’t affecting anything but my hearing”
Harry then repeated “Stand up!” over and over. An hour passed by, then two. Eventually, both Sirius and Harry looked rather tired. Harry’s voice came out hoarse.
Finally Harry couldn’t take it anymore. His frustration at not knowing if he was wasting his time or not came out and he snapped at Sirius, “Just get up already!”
This time however, the command felt like it reverberated through the room. Both Sirius and Buckbeak jumped up, onto their feet.
Harry looked at them surprised. The man and beast stood stock still for several minutes before Sirius slid down onto the ground.
Buckbeak looked reproachfully at Harry and finally settled down on the ground for a nap once again. Harry apologetically rubbed Buckbeak’s neck and then turned back to Sirius.
“What was that about?” asked Harry.
“The moment you spoke, I felt like I had to stand up. It felt like my very life depended on it” said Sirius, looking a little pale. “That really is incredible Harry. If you can actually control it, then it would be a huge help in many situations. Especially against Voldemort and his death eaters”
Sirius’ face quickly changed from pale to an excited expression.
“If only I could remember that feeling again” said Harry and quickly tried to recall his feeling when he used the power.
Sirius, however, had different plans. “That’s enough for today. Anymore and you’ll only frustrate yourself more” he said, “sleep on it and you should be able to figure it out better tomorrow. We’ll do the training, same place, same time tomorrow”
Harry felt a little reluctant but looking at Sirius’ tired face, he accepted. He quickly thanked Sirius, pat Buckbeak and headed back to his room for the night.
