True Colors
Chapter 5: Speaking Secrets
By Anne B. Walsh
"Why doesn’t Zelda go with you to Defense Against the Dark Arts anymore?" Harry asked Ray at the Halloween feast. "She used to go to every class."
"She thinks it’s a waste of time, and she doesn’t like the way Quirrell smells."
"Makes sense," said Ron. "Even we can smell him, and she can smell loads better than we can. Is it garlic in his turban?"
"How is she going to tell me that?" Ray asked, flattening one hand on the table. "All she knows is it’s a bad smell."
"Sorry. I forget she’s not a person some days." Ron looked across the table at the wolf, who looked back at him levelly. "She’s so smart, and she goes everywhere with you. Except Defense class."
"She can be an honorary person," said Neville, lifting his goblet. "Here’s to Zelda."
"To Zelda," the other boys chorused, and tapped their goblets together foursquare before drinking.
Zelda gravely bowed her head, then leapt down from the bench, trotted down the Great Hall, and slipped around the door.
"The honorary person needs to use the honorary loo," Ray said, grinning.
Harry snorted. "The honorary loo? Does it have awards on its walls?"
"How should I know? I’ve never been in the girls’ toilet."
"She uses the girls’ toilet?" said Neville.
"What else should she use?"
"Don’t know. I didn’t think about it all that much. I suppose I thought she used the same one you did."
"Why, so I can hold her paw?" Ray chuckled, taking the edge off the words. "No, she can manage on her own. I remember at home one time..."
The slamming open of the doors of the Great Hall cut him off. Professor Quirrell sprinted in, his turban askew and his face pasty white. "Troll," he gasped out. "In the dungeons..."
Anything else he had to say was drowned out by screams as most of the school attempted to be the first one out the door. Professor Dumbledore raised his wand above his head, and a lion’s roar froze everyone where they were.
"Thank you," the Headmaster said into the sudden silence, taking charge of the situation with those two words. "Prefects will lead their Houses back to their common rooms immediately. Teachers will accompany me to the dungeons."
"How did a troll get in?" Neville asked the others as they followed Percy towards the doors.
"Maybe Peeves thought it’d make a good joke for Halloween," said Ron. "Don’t think one could get in on its own, they’re too stupid."
Slytherins and Ravenclaws filled the doors, forcing the Gryffindors to wait. As they did, a sudden thought struck Harry. "Ray, what about Zelda? She’ll come back here and she won’t find us."
"She’ll follow our scents upstairs," Ray said confidently. "I’ll wait for her outside the Fat Lady — I don’t think the troll will get up seven flights of stairs. I don’t think it even knows what stairs are for."
"Which means it’ll stay down with the Slytherins," said Ron. "If we’re lucky, it’ll pulp a few of them."
"If it was Crabbe and Goyle, how could you tell?"
The door cleared out, and they started moving again.
Halfway up the marble staircase, Ray froze, his entire body stiffening. "No," he breathed. "No... oh, God, no..."
In an instant he was on the banister, then over it, running before his feet hit the ground on the other side.
"Ray, wait!" Harry pounded down the stairs, Ron and Neville just behind him. "Ray!"
Ray disappeared around a corner.
Harry said a word he’d learned from Padfoot when Letha wasn’t around. "Somebody go get a teacher," he added. "He’s probably headed for the girls’ toilet."
Neville dashed away. Ron had his wand out. "He was fine until a couple seconds ago," he said under his breath as he followed Harry down the hall. "What happened?"
"Don’t know. But we have to help him." Harry sniffed. "Ugh. Do you smell that?"
Ron coughed. "Smells like the bathroom when we’re all home," he said. "When people drop their socks in there, and forget to flush..."
"Bet your mum loves that."
"Oh, doesn’t she."
A sudden yell from ahead silenced them both. Harry peered cautiously around a corner, using only his left eye.
"It’s there," he whispered. "And so are they. They can’t get away, Ray’s hurt, it looks like he fell and twisted his ankle. Zelda’s standing in front of him, I think he’s trying to tell her to get away, but she’s not listening..."
"Does it see them?"
"Not yet..." Harry swore again. The troll had just turned around and noticed boy and wolf.
He jumped out from behind the corner and nearly fell — the floor was worn slick by long use — but recovered his balance in time. "Hey!" he shouted. "Hey, stupid, over here!"
The troll turned to regard him, a puzzled frown on its lumpy face.
"Harry, no, don’t do this," Ray hissed. "I can take care of myself, get out of here!"
"How can you take care of yourself when you can’t move?" The troll was starting to advance on Harry. "Hang onto Ron, he’ll get you out of the way."
"And what’re you going to do?" Ray demanded.
"This." Harry charged at the troll, then as the club swung high, dropped into a controlled fall and skidded between its legs, silently thanking all his hours of practice on freshly waxed kitchen floors. The club smashed into the floor where he had been a few moments before.
The troll stared down at the club, then began to make a noise like rocks being crushed that Harry thought might be its laughter. Around its side he could see Ron pulling Ray up, Zelda behind him and pushing with her head. It would have been funny if there wasn’t still a very large troll between them.
Look out!
The voice belonged to a girl, but there was no girl nearby. Just Zelda, who had suddenly darted out from behind Ray. Ray lost his balance and fell backwards, grabbing Ron’s robes, and Ron, taken by surprise, went down with him.
The troll’s club smashed into the pillar where their heads had been a moment before.
Zelda raised her nose and howled. The noise echoed around the hall until Harry could have sworn there were twenty wolves there instead of one, and the troll roared in response to the challenge, looking around for the creature that had given it. Ron and Ray both seemed dazed by their fall — Ron was rubbing his head and blinking, and Ray was pointing at the troll, but with his bare hand, as if expecting a spell to shoot from his finger —
Use your wand, nightbrain! They know enough already!
As Ray fumbled his wand out of his robes, the troll spotted Zelda, and the howl ceased as the wolf leapt to her feet and ran. She darted in and out between its feet, snapping her jaws at it, dodging strikes with the club —
"Incendiam Appararis!" Ray shouted. The troll roared again and tried to strike at the fire all around its head with its club, but the club just passed through it harmlessly, swinging in wide arcs around and around —
Ron leaned over and said something, and Ray nodded. The fire was suddenly in only one place, to the troll’s left, and the troll spun and struck at it, but the fire had already moved, to the troll’s left again —
Harry, realizing what they were trying to do, jumped up with a yell and started running as Zelda did the same. The troll bashed its club down where they had been and turned to try it again, swinging in the meantime at the fire which still hung, teasingly, off its left shoulder. Around and around, around and around, smash and bash and run and yell —
And then the troll stopped. Harry backed away and looked up at it. It was swaying back and forth on its feet, and — no way. I’m seeing things. But he wasn’t. The troll’s tiny eyes were crossed. It was well and truly dizzy. And the swaying was getting more pronounced —
Harry dived out of the way as the troll fell to the floor just where he’d been standing.
An exclamation from the corridor caught Harry’s attention. He rolled over to see Professor McGonagall, Neville in front of her, both of them staring.
"I miss everything," Neville said.
The boys sat in a semicircle in front of the fireplace in the common room, Zelda curled into a ball beside Ray, her tail over her nose. Five plates sat off to one side, stained with ketchup and gravy. A week ago, even a day, Harry might have offered to let Zelda lick his, as he sometimes did with Padfoot for a joke, as he would have with any pet animal.
Now he wasn’t sure what he should do.
"She didn’t... talk," Ron said, breaking a long silence. "Down there. Did she?"
"No, she didn’t," said Ray quickly. "Of course not. How could she have?"
"So I didn’t hear anyone tell you to look out," said Harry. "And nobody called you a darkbrain."
"Nightbrain," said Ron. "Wasn’t it?"
"What does that mean?" Neville said. "People have the same brains in the day and at night."
"Some people think differently at night," Ray said reluctantly. "Some people don’t think as well. They get sleepy as soon as the sun goes down. It’s a hereditary condition, it’s rare, but it exists. And I have it."
"Is that why you ran off to bed a couple weeks ago?" Harry asked. "Because you were extra tired?"
"Yes." Ray looked greatly relieved. "Yes. That’s what it is. It hits me about once a month, and I have to be in bed before sunset, or I’m no good for anything. I’m not dangerous, I’m not a werewolf or anything, but I need extra sleep on those nights. That’s all. Just... don’t tell my father, all right? He thinks I’m perfect. He expects me to be perfect. If he knew I had something like this, he’d hate me, either that or want to fix it, and it can’t be fixed by normal magic."
Light magic, Harry had no trouble translating. Magic that doesn’t require something illegal. He knew the Malfoy reputation well.
"Mother and I have managed to keep this from him all my life, and I want it to stay that way. Don’t give me away? Please?"
"’Course not," Ron said scornfully.
"I won’t tell," said Neville, stifling a yawn.
Harry shook his head. "Wizard’s honor," he said.
"Thanks." Ray sighed deeply.
"Why didn’t you just tell us?" Harry asked, yawning himself.
"I don’t know. Didn’t want to. Didn’t want you to think I’m weak." Ray cracked a smile. "But if it weren’t for this one potion I take, I’d have to go to bed by sunset every night. Now that would be weak."
"We don’t think you’re weak," said Neville.
"Your jokes, maybe," Ron added. "But not you."
Ray aimed a punch at Ron’s ear. Ron deflected it and shoved Ray, with time out for a yawn of his own in the middle of it. "So when are you due for your next night in bed?" he asked.
"This Saturday. I can schedule them, more or less, by taking or not taking my potion. I just have to have them within about a month of each other."
"You can schedule them?" Harry said. "I thought they just came."
"Well, not exactly. You really want to know about this? It’s boring."
"Boring to you," Neville said. "You’ve lived with it. Just like Harry’s lived with his godfather, so that’s boring to him, but we all want to hear about it."
"OK, if you say so." Ray leaned back against Zelda. "See, it’s not actually my condition that makes me have these nights. It’s the potion I take for it. It’d make me sick — sicker — if I took it for more than a month at a time. There’s trace ingredients that build up when you take it for a long time. So once a month, I need a day when I don’t take it, and that means my body does what it would normally do, without the potion."
"Send you to bed early," said Ron. "And make you sleep a lot."
"Basically, yeah." Ray shrugged. "Like I said, boring."
"But now we know," Harry said. "So we can keep Seamus and Dean from wondering, and let you sleep on those days. Just tell us when they are."
"You’ll know. Sunset comes early in winter." Ray looked out the window, his eyes considering. "I used to be afraid of winter when I was little. I was afraid my father would find me in bed and want to know why, and everything would come out. But he never did."
"And now you’re at school all winter," said Ron. "Are you going home for Christmas?"
"I don’t know, I hadn’t decided yet. Mother said it was up to me."
"I’m staying here," Harry said. "Even with Padfoot being free now, I still live with my aunt and uncle. He’s trying to get my custody from them, but it takes time to get through the paperwork, because it has to be Muggle and magical at the same time. So I might as well stay here until everything’s all settled."
"Mum and Dad are going to visit Charlie, and taking Ginny with them," Ron said. "I might as well stay for the holiday."
"All my relatives always come over," said Neville. "They pinch my cheeks and tell me what a sweet little boy I am. I think I’m due a break."
"Well, if you’re all staying, I think we can stay too, right, Zel?" Ray rubbed the wolf’s head, and she bumped her nose into his hand. "Not one of those nights, but I think I’d better head for bed anyway. Good night, everyone."
"Night," the boys all said as Zelda preceded Ray up the stairs.
"We were talking about something else," Ron said, frowning. "Before we got into why Ray goes to bed early some nights. Weren’t we?"
"I don’t remember," Neville said. "I don’t think so."
Harry rubbed his forehead. "I think we were," he said uncertainly. "But I don’t remember what it was."
"Can’t have been important, then," said Ron. "Come on, pudding isn’t quite finished, let’s get a little more before it’s all gone."
Ray collapsed on his bed, shaking. "We did it," he said quietly. "We really did it."
Zelda leapt onto the bed and curled up beside him.
"Not that you weren’t good," Ray went on. "Making them all think they’d just dreamed it was great. But I had to tell them more than I really wanted to about me."
Zelda snorted.
"I know, I know. But I think I’ll start sealing my bedcurtains shut on my special nights." Ray put his arm over Zelda. "I can’t lose you, Zel. Or Mum and Dad, either. I’d never forgive myself."
Zelda slid her nose under his neck comfortingly.
Harry whistled through his fingers as Angelina Johnson scored for Gryffindor and dived to congratulate her, glorying in the reactions of the handsome Nimbus Two Thousand Padfoot had donated to Hogwarts.
Only problem is, now he won’t get me one for my birthday...
Harry took up his station high above the game and resumed searching for the Snitch. But I could do well on almost any broom, it was just that he didn’t want me to have to fly one of the old school clunkers, they always pull to the left...
As if his thought had communicated itself to his broom, the Nimbus twitched to the left. Harry patted it and continued flying. "Easy," he murmured, to himself as much as to the broom. "Take it easy... just play the game..."
But the broom twitched again, and again, more violently each time, and suddenly Harry realized he wasn’t in control of the broom any longer — if the Slytherin Seeker spotted the Snitch now, the game would be over —
The hell with the game, what about me?
Harry clung to the broom as it went through a rapid series of climbs and dives. Something Padfoot had written in his latest letter was suddenly running through his mind.
"Our success rate on broomsticks is one hundred percent. Everybody who’s ever gone up has come back down."
The ground was very far away, and getting farther by the second. Harry gritted his teeth and hung on for his life.
"What’s doing it?" Ron asked, staring up at Harry’s bucking broomstick.
"Dunno," Hagrid said, sounding worried. "Must be powerful magic, no kid could do that..."
Ray snatched the binoculars from Hagrid’s hand and pointed them towards the teachers’ section. "What’re you doing?" Neville asked.
"I bet it’s Snape," Ray muttered, focusing the binoculars. "Snape hates Harry, he hated Harry’s dad, Harry’s godfather... there, look!" He shoved the binoculars at Ron and Neville, who used one eye apiece on them. "Snape’s jinxing the broom, he has to be. He’s not blinking, he keeps talking, it’s a spoken jinx."
"What can we do?"
"Stay here. Tell Zelda if anything changes." Ray dashed away.
"Tell Zelda?" said Neville in confusion. "Why?"
Zelda whined softly, looking up at Harry, now hanging from his broom by one hand. The twins were trying to grab him, but every time they got close, the Nimbus flew higher. They were backing off now, circling below, hoping to catch him if he fell.
Please let him be all right, a girl’s voice whispered. Hurry, Ray, please hurry...
"Who said that?" Hagrid said, looking around.
Ron dropped to one knee beside the wolf, still staring up at Harry. "He’ll be all right," he said, willing it to be true. "He’ll be all right."
Zelda stuck her nose into Ron’s hand, then suddenly pulled it free and barked excitedly. Up in the air, Harry’s broom had stopped shaking. He pulled down on it and swung a leg up and was astride once more.
Yes! the girl shouted. Yes, yes, it worked!
A memory stirred in Ron, of the night they’d knocked out the troll. He’d thought he heard a girl talking then too, but there hadn’t been any girl nearby...
"Look at Harry!" Neville shouted, and Ron’s attention was diverted.
On the field, Harry had a hand over his mouth as if he was coughing. As he took it away, something flashed golden in it. "I’ve got it!" he yelled to Madam Hooch, waving the golden thing in the air. "I’ve got the Snitch!"
"No fair!" howled Marcus Flint, the Slytherin captain. "You didn’t catch it, Potter! You almost choked on it!"
"Still got it," Harry shouted back. "Gryffindor wins!"
"That’s my decision to make, Potter," Madam Hooch scolded.
"But it’s right, isn’t it?"
Madam Hooch inspected him sharply. "Yes, it’s right," she admitted finally. "Successful Snitch capture by Harry Potter!"
"GRYFFINDOR WINS!" roared Lee Jordan from the commentator’s box.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Ron chanted with Neville and Hagrid, jumping up and down. Ray appeared up the stairs, panting and disheveled, and joined in the chant, as Zelda bounded around the outside of their circle, barking loudly.
"Come on!" Ray yelled. "He’s down on the field!" He lowered his voice and leaned in. "I have to tell you something weird. Later."
Zelda led the way, tail waving joyously.
"Snape was cursing you, mate," Ron told Harry in Hagrid’s hut. "We saw him."
"No, he wasn’t," Ray said from his place on the floor, his back resting against Zelda. "It can’t have been him."
"Why not?" Neville asked. "The jinx on the broom stopped when you did whatever you did to him."
"But I never got there, Neville. That was the weird thing. I was still on my way there when Z... I mean, when I noticed Harry was all right again."
"What were you about to say?" Harry asked.
Ray sipped his tea. "Nothing."
"It wasn’t nothing. Nothing doesn’t start with a ‘zzz’ sound."
"You told us to tell Zelda if anything changed," Neville said. "But what good would that do?"
"And what about that night with the troll?" Ron added, suddenly recalling something that had perplexed him at the time. "How did you know it was after Zelda?"
"Leave off," Hagrid said sharply. "Let the boy alone. Ev’ryone’s entitled ter their own secrets."
"No, it’s all right," Ray said, looking up. "Thanks, Hagrid, but I think I ought to tell everyone. You, too. It’s another part of what my father did when he gave me Zelda. There’s a bond between us. She knows when I’m in trouble, and comes to help. But it works both ways — I don’t think he meant it to, but it does. So I know when she’s in trouble, and I go to help her."
"So you protect her, even though she’s supposed to be protecting you?" Harry asked.
"If she needs help, I give it to her," Ray said. "If that’s protecting her, then yes, I protect her. Going to tell on me?"
Ron frowned. "Why would we? You’re not doing anything wrong."
Ray snorted. "You don’t know my father and his definitions of wrong. Anything that isn’t exactly what he expects is wrong. Anything that isn’t exactly what he wants is wrong. If he knew the truth, he’d probably think my whole life was wrong, and you know what? I don’t care. I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care!" He jumped to his feet and flung his teacup across the room, where it shattered against the wall and showered tea everywhere. "He can take what he expects and shove it up his ugly arse, because this is my life, and I finally have a chance to live it the way I want!"
Silence greeted this outburst, broken only by slow, heavy clapping. Hagrid was applauding.
"Fine sentiments," he said, going to the cupboard for another teacup. "Really fine. Rather yeh not show ‘em like that anymore, though, it’s hard on the crockery. More tea?"
"Yes, thanks." Ray sank back down to the floor, aided by Zelda’s teeth in his robe. "Sorry, Hagrid. Sorry, everyone. I didn’t mean to go off like that."
"It’s all right, mate," said Ron. "Everyone blows up sometimes."
"My gran makes me mad like that sometimes," Neville added. "She thinks she can run all our lives, Dad’s and Mum’s and mine too."
"I know what it’s like to live with people who think everything you do is wrong," said Harry, days at the Dursleys parading through his head. "But as long as you have someone around who can tell you it’s all right, even if they can’t always be there, then it’s easier."
Ray smiled lopsidedly. "I know what you mean. I have people like that. Dobby, for one."
"Who’s that?" Ron asked as Hagrid poured Ray a fresh cup of tea.
"Our house-elf. He’s always helped me when I needed to hide things or keep them out of my father’s way. Thanks, Hagrid." Ray accepted the new cup of tea and sipped at it.
"Here now, watch yerself," Hagrid said worriedly. "I jus’ poured that, it’s boilin’ hot."
"I like it hot." Ray took another sip. "Tastes good."
Hagrid shrugged. "Yer tongue. Yeh know, yeh reminded me o’ someone when yeh went off like that, Ray. Not yer mum or dad, though, I remember them, they weren’t like tha’. If they got mad, it was cold. Who was it, now..." He chuckled. "Oh, this’s funny. Someone none o’ yeh ever met, probably most o’ yeh never even heard of — Harry’ll know her name, but I don’t think any o’ the rest o’ yeh will... an’ she never went by her name, anyway."
"She never went by her name?" Ron said, sounding confused.
"Nah, she had a nickname everyone used. No spoiling it, Harry," Hagrid said quickly.
Harry made a face and snapped his fingers. "Nuts."
"A nickname everyone used," Neville repeated slowly. "Was it something odd? Something that you wouldn’t think was a person’s name?"
"Yeh have heard of her, then." Hagrid sounded pleased. "Old photographs an’ such?"
Neville nodded. "Mum and Dad used to tell me about the war, and what happened to everyone they knew."
"Who is it?" Ray asked impatiently. "What was her name, nickname, whatever?"
"Well, her real name was Gertrude. But she got tagged when she was just a little bitty girl with the name Danger, an’ that’s what everyone called her. Muggleborn, she was, an’ smart as a self-spellin’ wand. She was here not too long after yer parents, Harry, yeh know that."
"I know." Harry closed his eyes, seeing on the backs of his eyelids smiling faces and waving hands from photograph albums that seldom saw the light of day. "She liked Moony. Remus Lupin. One of Dad’s friends," he added for Ron and Ray’s sakes.
"What happened to them?" Ray asked quietly.
"Disappeared," Hagrid said heavily. "They hadn’ been married more’n four months when it happened. Having dinner out together, and Death Eaters attacked the restaurant." He shook his head. "Never seen again, either of ‘em. An’ the wors’ part is..."
"It was four days to full moon," Ray murmured.
Hagrid turned sharply. "Here now, how’d yeh know that?" he demanded.
"I’ve heard this story before. Just... never with names." Ray had his hands clenched in Zelda’s fur. "My father told it to me once or twice. He thought it was funny."
Harry’s breath caught for a second. "Do you know?" he said quickly. "Do you know what happened to them?"
Ray didn’t look up. "Not really," he said. "I don’t know if what he told me is true."
"What did he tell you?" Harry slid off his chair to sit on the floor. "Ray, please, I want to know. Padfoot and Letha have always hoped they’d find something out, anything. Even knowing they’re dead would be better than nothing."
Ray shook his head. "Harry, you don’t understand. He told me twice, but the story had a different ending each time. And neither one was good." He tried a smile, which didn’t quite work. "I don’t really want to talk about it. Not now."
"What does full moon have to do with anything?" Ron asked, looking baffled.
"Mr. Lupin was a werewolf," said Neville. "He was always careful about his transformations, and he was a good person the rest of the time, but he was still a werewolf."
Ron shivered. "Got it." He looked over at Hagrid. "So Ray reminds you of this Danger girl?" he asked.
"Little bit, yeah. She used ter shout just like that when she got cheesed off about summat. Yeh didn’ want ter get on her bad side." Hagrid chuckled. "Yeh either hated Danger or yeh loved her. An’ a lot o’ people thought they’d hate her when they heard about her, an’ when they met her they loved her. Funny world, isn’t it?"
"Yeah," Ray said, looking up with something like his usual smile on his face. "Funny world."
"So you never got to Snape, Ray," said Harry as they walked back up to the castle. "Maybe he saw you coming and got distracted that way."
"No, he wouldn’t have."
"Why not?" Neville asked. "Do you have an Invisibility Cloak?"
"Not quite. But I can be inconspicuous when I need to. I knocked a couple people over, Professor Sprout and Professor Quirrell, I think, and they never saw me."
"You knocked people over and didn’t get caught?" Ron looked envious. "Wish I could do that."
"You wouldn’t want what comes with it," said Ray, grinning. "Last one to the castle’s a lame dragon!"
"Precision," said Professor Snape, sweeping around the classroom and glowering into people’s cauldrons. "Precision is the key to proper potion-brewing."
Ron turned his face slightly away from Snape, chopping his kneazle whiskers a little finer. Last class of term, and he’s still on about this stuff. Why can’t he just lay off?
Ray was stirring their cauldron carefully, Zelda watching in what looked like fascination. Ron scowled in their direction. It’s still not normal. No animal should be that interested in schoolwork. No human should be that interested.
Ray turned away from the cauldron to measure out squid ink. Ron dumped in his kneazle whiskers, then picked up the stirring stick and began to mix them in.
Look out! screamed a voice, and something hit him hard, knocking him to the floor, as an explosion went off in his cauldron, showering sparks everywhere. If he’d still been leaning over it, he would have got it full in the face.
"Thanks," he said breathlessly, looking around at his savior. It had been a girl’s voice, it must have been one of the girls who had pushed him...
But it wasn’t a girl. It wasn’t even a human.
It was Zelda, breathing hard and looking at him with fear plain in her eyes.
"I knew it," Ron breathed. "I knew it..."
Ray leaned down and grabbed Ron’s arm. "Get up and don’t say anything," he said between his teeth as Snape descended on them. "I’ll explain later."
"Fifteen points from Gryffindor because you stirred your cauldron the wrong way," Harry said in disbelief as they climbed out of the dungeon.
"He’d have been worse off if Zelda hadn’t knocked him down," said Neville. "He would have had fifteen points off and a trip to the hospital wing."
"Yeah, about Zelda." Ron stopped and turned back to face Ray. "I think we deserve an explanation. Like right now."
"Would tomorrow do?" Ray asked coolly.
"No, tomorrow would not do. I want it now."
"What about Zelda?" Harry asked.
"I heard her talk. I know I heard her talk. And she knew my potion was going to explode, and knocked me out of the way before it did." Ron stopped, looking at Ray. "You were right next to it with me," he said. "And you didn’t get hurt — you don’t even have any burned spots on your robe. How did you do that?"
"Practice," said Ray. "And I can explain this much better tomorrow morning, if you’ll permit it. I’ll have a nice visual aid for you then. Do you think you can trust me that far?"
"I don’t know if I trust you at all."
Harry stepped between them, removing Ron’s hand from Ray’s arm. "Lay off," he said to Ron. "He owes us."
"Is that the only reason you trust me, Harry?"
Harry turned to face Ray. "You do seem to have a lot of secrets for someone our age."
Ray straightened his robes. "Didn’t you have a secret your whole life?" he said quietly. "Someone who counted on you not to mess up, not to say his name where it shouldn’t be said?"
"Oh, come on," Ron said impatiently. "This can’t be anything like that."
Harry looked at Zelda, who met his gaze without flinching. "Maybe it can," he said. "Tomorrow morning, Ray."
"Tomorrow morning."
Harry woke up before sunrise the next morning, realized what he was going to find out today, and couldn’t get back to sleep. His mind spun in circles — Zelda was a magical construct, not really alive at all. Zelda was a creature he’d never heard of, bound to Ray against her will. Zelda was a human in animal form, Ray’s sister or his cousin or his aunt...
Harry thumped his head against the pillow. I should never have listened to that recording of H.M.S. Pinafore.
Finally, when he couldn’t stand it anymore, he reached for his glasses and pushed his bedcurtains aside.
Ray was sitting at the foot of his own four-poster, reading a book. His hangings were drawn.
"She in there?" Harry asked, pointing.
"Yeah. Are you still mad at me?"
"I was never mad at you."
Ray shrugged. "Okay."
Ron’s bedcurtains parted. "Who’s up?" asked the disheveled red mop.
"Me and Ray," Harry said. "And you."
"And me," said Neville, poking his head out. "I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep."
"Hey, me too," said Ron.
"Me three," said Harry. "I guess we all really want to know."
"Wow," said a voice that belonged to none of the boys. "I never thought I’d be so popular."
The curtains around Ray’s bed were drawn back from the inside.