We know what happened even if it has been kept a secret.

The room was dark, as it almost always was this time of day and there was that sadness about the place that just would not leave of it’s own accord.

It seemed to be an ever present companion to this place, everywhere and nowhere all at the same time and it could leech you to the marrow of your bones.

It was the cold, that was always the same, he could see his own breath, which seemed to whisper into the dark shadows of the room, as small bursts of frosty air.

Harry looked around wondering about the past and the future, but mostly about the past, what had happened here and why did he feel so drawn to this room?

He usually felt, like he was in a funk for three or four days after visiting Dumbledore’s chamber, yet he still came, Harry had begun to see an unsightly dark area appear under his eyes, he could not seem to get a good nights rest at all.

He pulled the watch from his pocket, and absently touched it, he had not been able to give it up after all and it gleamed in the darkness, for just a moment he thought it seemed to be oddly heavy and there was a mild sensation of warmth, it seemed to glow an orange red color, “strange” he whispered to the dark of the room, but he dismissed it as he continued his walk through this room it almost seemed to be full of the ghosts of his past.

He had so many memories of this place but it was his most recent memory that caused the sadness that never seemed to go away, it was cheating him of the promise of hope.

He might have had hope, if the situation were just different.

If, he thought only, things were different, I might have been able to do something anything to change what had happened, that wretched coward, his mind began to cloud over with a fresh boiling anger, it threatened to over come his senses, he had to keep it tightly under control because he feared what he might do should it ever come down to it.

He was not at all sure he might not find himself one day soon on the train to Azkaban, he might not mind it, when you go off the deep end he thought it might not matter at all.

It always seemed that anger and sorrow was an expected part of his visit here, In this place he was free to remember and to experience the pain to know the wounds that time had not managed to heal.

Nothing had changed about the room at all, you could almost imagine Dumbledore himself, might come round the corner in a hurry to get a book which held some random thing he wanted.

Harry was abruptly discomfited, as he thought that he would not be here, would he?

If everything were the same, if only everything were the same as it had been, he could ask Dumbledore what to do, about what he knew was going to be the most difficult decision he had ever faced.

There was a fine layer of dust on the desk and the same book that had been open that day more than a year ago now, was still open and ready for its master’s return.

Harry wondered a great many things, about what had happened here in this room but also he wondered about what had not happened.

Dumbledore was the most powerful wizard, Harry had ever known, it made no sense, that he might be so easily disarmed and his thoughts continued to wander around the room, still he could not face the awful sadness that was still just under the surface, it was a wound that might never heal.

He wondered again, why he kept coming up here, nothing had changed, as he moved closer to the shelves of books, he thought again,

Nothing…

He stopped mid thought, as he was looking around the room, staring intently as he had done many times before, he began to feel that something was about to happen, that expectant, feeling which is often somewhere between good and bad, or both the same time.

They had agreed to let him come and go as he would, as long as he promised not to disturb the room in any way, it was a small gift with all that had happened to everyone with the loss of Dumbledore, he had agreed readily enough because he needed to be here.

He felt that there was something yet to discover here, but he did not know just what it was or how he might find what he felt was waiting here, he knew something was pulling him to this room, it seemed to call to him in some way that he just could not describe.

There was a movement, some small thing, that he had almost missed as he was looking about, it was the same yet, it was not the same.

Something caught his eye, something was different after all, but he was not sure what it was, he could feel that something was off about the room it felt almost like an energy, but no, it was something else too.

He picked up the Elder wand that had belonged to his mentor feeling its gnarled wooden touch he had often thought about the history of this wand and what it meant to its owner.

He knew that is was a special wand indeed, as he felt its weight, he also held the golden watch in his other hand, for a moment he could almost feel that elusive thing that seemed to call to him that thing that tugged at the corner of his mind.

Something, from the past again, it was a whispered thing locked in the darkness of his mind, Dumbledore had said it to him, something important, he was sure of it, but It was useless, He could almost remember, but then it was gone like so much wind in the attic, he glumly thought.

Just then a tiny wisp of a web, moved into a slow arc like a grey finger pointing in the darkness.

It was something that some long ago spider had left behind and it was waving from the corner of one book shelf. It had caught his attention, he felt something then of all the times that he had been here, he felt that he was getting closer to it now, closer to everything, he was hoping to find in this room.

There was a faint smell of some scent in the room that was new as well, it was a musty smell that told of ages long past, something was very different.

There, just to the left of the book shelf, Harry saw the painting of Dumbledore it showed him learning back in the same chair that now was empty, in the painting he was apparently sleeping.

There was something different about the painting too, he saw the ring that was always there, he vaguely wondered what had happened to it, when he moved the Elder wand to his other hand that was when the watch and the wand came together for the first time in a long time, when they touched that was when it happened.

An explosion of light and sound filled the room, it was a brilliant illuminating light and everything down to the finest detail was there to be seen, he could see everything that he had missed over the past few months, it was something that once seen, could not be unseen.

A strong wind began to blow through the room, Harry saw then, what he had missed for so long, he knew then why he had kept coming up here.

Now it was clear for the first time in more than a year, Harry knew there was more to this place and what in his sadness, he had not been able to see was more important than he had ever realized.  He began to think there may be hope after all.

He was not sure what it meant but as he slowly fell to the floor he remembered thinking that he had seen something else, just before he passed out it was only later after he was rudely shaken, from the floor did he realize that he had been knocked unconscious.

He then began to remember what had happened and he knew then, what he must do, what he had to do, to make things right.

“Harry, what are you doing on the floor” Ms McGonagall said as she helped Harry to his feet, she began to dust him off, she had a look of concern on her face.

There were many more lines of worry present in her expression, than there had been just one year earlier, and so much had happened that she did not notice at first what had changed about Harry, later she would wonder about that, wonder a great deal.

She would wonder if things, might have been different, if she had just been paying more attention, but for now, she was almost shocked to see that Harry was smiling, an embarrassed smile to be sure, but a smile nonetheless, she told herself later that was why she had missed the obvious, that was why she blamed herself for what had happened later.

“Ah, nothing, I was just resting”  Harry half whispered, as he thought about what he had just said, and understood how it was rather a lame thing to say, color began to rise into his cheeks, he rambled on about being late for something or other, then hurried out of the room, forgetting for the moment that he still held the Elder wand and the watch.

As he hurried down the hall he absently stuffed both into his pockets, completely unaware that he still had them and that for the moment at least he was completely under the spell that he had just completed by accidentally bringing together two of the four items needed to work an even greater spell.

Magic was in the air once again and this time things would be different.

He hurried along with nothing in his mind except finding his friends, he had news and they might be the only ones that would believe what he had just seen.

There was work to be done after all and he must find Hermione, she might know more about what this all meant.

One thing for sure, there were things that were not at all as they seemed to be.

Everything was about to change and for the first time in months Harry began to smile, he was not sure at all about what he planned to do but after everything, that had happened he knew, that nothing was impossible, nothing at all.

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo