Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [195]
The day of the feast came and went, and the last day of school finally arrived. Everyone was waiting outside of Hogwarts, right where the Hogwarts Express would come and pick them up, to take them home for the summer vacation.
Harry stood there, talking with Ron, Hermione, and Cho, waiting for the train to come, when he felt someone behind him. He turned around, and saw two Muggles he had never seen before. One was a tall and thin man, with a large moustache and almost a completely bald head. The other was a short and skinny woman with long, brown hair. They were both crying, and looking down at Harry.
“Are you… are you Harry Potter?” asked the man.
“Yes,” said Harry, not really knowing how to feel.
“We… we’re Colin’s parents,” he said.
“Oh… oh my,” said Harry, “I’m so sorry about Colin….”
“It’s not your fault,” said the woman, blowing her nose. Harry felt terrible inside… it WAS his fault. “We just wanted to see the boy that out son loved so much… yes…. He chose a great person to idolize.”
Harry was speechless. He felt like an idiot as he watched them walk away. He saw them return to Dumbledore, and he waved to him. He had evidently told them where Harry was so they could see him at least, but he hadn’t told him why Colin had really died… he didn’t tell anyone really. He didn’t want anyone to think it was Harry’s fault that he died, he just left it at the fact that he sacrificed himself for someone, and died honorably.
Harry turned around, expecting to see train tracks, but instead came face to face with Bill, the boy who had tried out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team at the beginning of the year.
“Hello Harry,” he said, looking especially happy.
“Oh… hello Bill,” said Harry, trying to quickly change his emotion from mournful to happy. “How are you?”
“Oh I’m fine… been practicing my Quidditch,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “You’re going to need another new five players next year and… hey! Why not me? I almost made it this year after all!”
“I’m sure you’ll make it next year,” said Harry, extending his arm to Bill. He took it and shook it vigorously, with a wide smile on his face. As he shook up and down, Harry heard something fall onto the ground.
“What was that?” asked Harry. He let go of Bill’s hand, and looked down. Right next to Bill’s feet, on the ground, he saw a Snitch. Harry quickly picked it up, and held it in front of him, about to offer it to Bill.
Suddenly, spikes shot out of the Snitch, just like the one in the Quidditch final. Harry quickly let go of it before any of the spikes impaled his hand again, and let it fall to the ground. He looked up at Bill’s terrified face.
“Harry… I…. I didn’t mean to hurt you… I mean… um….”
“You switched the Snitches!” said Harry, rubbing his hand.
“Well I had to get revenge on you for what you did,” said Bill seriously, sounding almost not aware of what he was saying.
“What did I do to deserve that?”
“You fudged the results of the last tryout, the one that came down to either me or Ron. You changed the results so that your friend got on the team!”
Suddenly, it all came together for Harry. The person who had been sending him letters all year hadn’t been doing it because he knew that he stole Fawkes! Bill was writing them! And it was because of the tryouts!
“So you’ve been writing those letters! You’re the one who had been threatening me all year long!” yelled Harry.
“Yes! I did it!” yelled Bill, looking a little insane. Evidently, he was so proud that Harry hadn’t figured out it was him, and he got away with revenge, that he was letting it go to his head. “It was ingenious! It was a perfect plan! Ha ha ha ha ha! I did it!”
“What’s going on here?” asked Dumbledore, breaking through the crowd to get to see what the disturbance was