7/9/07

The Guest Speaker

By Cara Wallace

Harry paused in the hallway, listening for any noises, but there were none. He resumed creeping slowly down the hall under his invisibility cloak. He had just come from a late night at Hagrid's, and had not thought to bring the map. Therefore he was being extremely careful about sneaking back to the dorm. The last thing he needed was Mrs. Norris coming around a corner meowing loud enough to alert her master! He listened at another juncture, nothing. He crept on; suddenly his heart was in his throat! It took him a moment to realize why. There was an obnoxiously loud noise coming from a corridor up ahead and on the left. Not believing he was doing it, he crept past the turning towards Griffindor tower to follow the noise. As he rounded a corner, he focused on a flashing blue light on the wall to the right above his head. Pulling his cloak tightly around him, he turned down the left hand corridor. The light flashed one more time, then stopped as the noise died down to silence. He continued in complete darkness until, bump! He had walked straight into something left in the middle of the hallway. He reached out his hand and felt what seemed to be a box, or a large cabinet. He squeezed around it, feeling his way. It was almost taking up the entire width of the corridor! There seemed to be a door handle on the other side. He pulled it, but it was locked tightly. Surely this had not been here this morning, he tried to remember. He was sure a cabinet wouldn't just be left blocking the hall, but did it just appear there? Or where did it come from? He shrugged. A wave of tiredness hit him and he decided he needed to get to bed. It wasn’t his business was it, if Filch had decided to leave a cabinet in the hall? He yawned and made his way to the Griffindor tower. Exhausted, he fell asleep quickly and heard nothing until the morning bustle, as everyone in the tower was getting dressed. He sat up blinking, wondering if he had imagined the whole thing. Ron bounced up to him, "Aren't you going down to breakfast?"

Harry rubbed his head, "Yeah, yeah, I'll be right down. Don't wait for me."

"Right," said Ron shaking his head. Harry watched him exit the dorm, then slowly got out of bed and put his clothes on. The common room was nearly empty as he walked toward the portrait hole, just a few older students catching up on homework in the corner. He stood in the hallway outside, trying to figure out where he was last night after leaving Hagrids. He turned in a complete circle; it was off to the left. He walked up the hallway behind the tower. He turned left, then left again, hand on his wand inside his cloak. As he turned the final corner, there it was--a tall blue box in the middle of a small passageway. He approached it cautiously and went all the way around it again. He could hear the chatter of students in the distance, but nearby all was quiet. He pulled on the door handle again, but it was no more pliant that last night.

He drew his wand and muttered, "Alohamora." There was a faint flash, then nothing, the door still tightly shut. He shrugged and decided to go down to breakfast. As he entered the great hall, he saw that there were still plates of eggs and sausage, and bowls of porridge on the tables. He went over and sat down next to Ron, who was just clearing his plate.

"About time," Ron commented, stabbing the last of his eggs with his fork. "Right looking git isn't he?" Harry looked around to see who Ron was talking about, but didn't see a likely candidate. He pulled a bowl of cereal towards him and started to eat. He didn't like to have breakfast disappear in front of him as had happened before. Sure enough, the moment Harry swallowed his last bite, the tables cleared.

Ron stood up and nodded towards the teachers table. They were used to seeing the head table half empty mornings. He had noticed that Snape especially didn't seem to like breakfast at all. He blinked. There was a strange man sitting next to Dumbledore, talking up a storm, McGonagall leaning in to hear the conversation. Ron started to walk away, "It will be a cold day before I'll sit through his lectures!" Harry stood up and walked after him. "Why? Have you heard of him before?" Ron turned and stared at him, "No, it's that I'd be embarrassed to go out in public like that, much less teach in…" The rest of what Ron had said was lost as he stepped through the door and was gone. Harry stopped at the doorway and looked back, squinting. The man, small and dark, was wearing a rather ugly beige colored jumper, with what looked like red question marks knitted into the material. Harry immediately thought back to the sweaters Ron's mom always made them for Christmas. This didn't seem much worse, maybe that's why Ron was upset, because it reminded him of the clothes he was sometimes forced to wear. Harry shook his head and started to walk back to the tower. He wanted to get his books and parchment before heading off to their first class of the day, Divination.

He was almost to the portrait hole when a first year jumped in front of him. He balled his fists at his side. He was getting tired of the rumors that passed around the younger students, that he was a great warrior, etc. Another person might have been flattered, but he merely found it irritating.

He started to push past the boy, but the first year jumped in front of him again. "I have a message for you," the boy said.

Harry immediately unballed his fists and felt foolish.

"You are to attend an advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts class this morning with the visiting professor in 15 minutes. Prof Dumbledore said not to worry, that he would talk to Prof Trelawney about make up work later.

"Thanks," Harry said and proceeded to climb through the portrait hole. He flopped in the nearest chair. This was just what he needed. He was already behind on his work, now there would be more make up to do.

Ron bustled by with his Divination book and equipment. "Aren't you coming to class Harry?"

"No, tell Prof Trelawney I'll meet with her later." Harry shuddered at the thought of being alone with the professor.

Ron shrugged, "suit yourself." and clamoured out the entrance. Harry dragged himself up the stairs to get his books and a blank scroll before heading to the Charms hallway, where the DADA classroom was. It was weird seeing only last years pushing by him in the corridor, it made him feel shorter still. He turned the corner and entered the room. There at the front was the guest speaker instead of their normal teacher. He was sitting on the desk, legs dangling, looking kindly at them all as they came into the room and found their desks. Harry saw that the area where Hermione and Ron usually sat was filled with chatting girls, so he found a seat in back and sat down. He watched as the rest of the students filed in and took their seats. Finally the door closed; the professor took off his hat and addressed them, speaking loudly to be heard over the chatter.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I am here. Your headmaster has asked me to do a special section on my specialty. And since I am the utmost authority in this area, it only makes sense that I have been asked to teach it." The little man quit swinging his legs on the desk, hopped down, and gave the class a big smile. He clasped his hands together sloppily and leaned forward on an umbrella and lifting his heels. He came back down and swung the umbrella in the air as he walked to the right side of the room, then back to the center; then balanced the umbrella on the side of the desk. With his back turned, he voiced, “I want you all to know…” He turned suddenly to face the classroom, his expression suddenly serious, “that I am not a wizard.” He turned and walked to left while continuing. “It is for this very reason that I’ve been asked to speak to you today.” He reached the left side of the room and stopped, facing the students. “Let me get right to the point. In your experience, you may come across things that don’t quite add up.” He seemed to count on his fingers for a moment. “I don’t add up.” He looked up at the class. “And that’s the problem.”

He continued with a lecture that Harry could hardly believe at first, but the man was very convincing. At the end of the hour and a half session, he could hardly believe he had not thought of it before. It made a lot of sense; it could explain so much, yes it could definitely explain what happened... He found himself facing the Pink Lady without having consciously decided to go back to the common room. He shrugged, called out the password and entered, finding a mostly empty room. He plopped down in the corner where Ron and he usually did their homework and rested his chin in his hand, mulling over the last 90 minutes. Sometime later, he heard the door open and looked up. Hermione entered the room, looking exhilarated after her favorite class, Arithmancy. She bounced up to him talking, "You should have been there Harry, what an interesting lecture! Prof Vector was talking about....Harry." She waved her hand in front of her face. He could see her, but it occurred to him that she didn't know; didn't know about the doctor, about all of it. Should he tell her? Would she believe him? He wasn't sure if he could explain it as eloquently as it had been explained to him.

"Harry!" Hermione's voice had a sharp edge to it. He looked up. "Harry, are you all right? Your eyes were glazed over. What happened to you in Divination?

He spoke in a low voice, "I didn't go to Divination today; I attended Advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Well, it's about time; I don't know why they didn't do it before!" She suddenly frowned and went to feel his forehead. "What did they do to you in there anyway?" He pushed her hand away, "it wasn't that, it was, well it's hard to explain."

"Can you tell us over lunch? We have to be at Herbology in five minutes. He jumped up, five minutes? He had forgotten about the rest of his classes. Yes, he was in school, wizarding school, learning to be a wizard, a great wizard, in order to fight aliens. Yes aliens. Hermione grabbed his hand and dragged him from the room, down the stairs and out to the greenhouse on the grounds. Somehow he made it through the rest of his classes that day. The twins sat with them at lunch, and Harry didn't much feel like sharing his experience with them. In fact he felt an urgent need to keep it very, very secret. Finally at the end of the day, as the common room was emptying out; he pulled Hermione aside. Ron had gone up to bed, having felt very tired after being stung by a poisonous plant in class. Prof Sprout gave him the antidote immediately from a bottle on her desk, but he had complained all afternoon about his arm aching.

"Can we talk?" he asked. Hermione nodded, now with a puzzled/worried look on her face as they sat down by the fire. Harry held his head in his hands, trying to figure out how to tell her without sounding like a complete fool. He lifted his head. "There was a guest speaker..." Hermione interrupted.

"Yes of course! The visitor Dumbledore introduced at breakfast this morning. He was supposed to speak in a couple of classes today and....Harry! You were invited to hear him lecture! What did he say?"

"Well, you're going to find it hard to accept. I had to listen to him for a whole hour before I believed him. Hermione, he's an alien." He put his head in his hands again, waiting for her to say that he was insane, that it was impossible, etc.

"An alien Harry, are you sure?"

"Well I don't have proof, but Dumbledore must believe him or else why was he invited to speak? That's all he talked about for the entire class period. How aliens are constantly invading, but that special agents deal with it and cover it all up. That's why we never hear about it." He turned towards her, "Do you remember the terrible power outage last spring? Alien invasion. It seems some sort of ray shorted out the power grids, took them 2 days to get it back on.

"But Harry that was caused by an overload which damaged the generators, those two days were spent repairing and replacing the equipment."

"Look, I'm only telling you what he said. I'm not making this up."

Hermione suddenly looked remorseful, "I'm sorry, I, I don't know what to say."

"It's been eating at me all day, the idea we could be invaded at any moment, that aliens could coming walking through that door!" He pointed at the common room entrance. There was a noise, and the portrait hole swung open, revealing a silhouette in the entranceway. The figure stepped inside and the door swung closed behind him. He stood still for a moment, and then walked towards them, the light from the fireplace illuminating his face. It was the visiting speaker. He looked very serious as he approached them, then his face softened.

"Do you mind if I join you?" He asked cordially, and pulled up a chair beside them. Hermione continued staring at him without blinking. "I wanted to come and see you. You see, I think I had more than the intended effect on you today, and I wanted to apologize. "At the word 'apologize' his voice suddenly hardened as he reached over and brushed Harry on the forehead. Hermione jumped up to get out of the way, for the strange man caught Harry as he collapsed and carried him gently over to a couch to lay him down.

The man stood back, watching Harry's body. Hermione rushed over to stand beside him. She could see Harry breathing normally, and appearing to only be asleep.

"Don't worry; your friend will be all right.” The man looked at Hermione, eyes almost level with hers; she noticed he looked extremely tired. “I think I went a little too far today; your headmaster was worried that I had scared you all more than necessary. Therefore, I have been making...adjustments to correct the situation. Did he tell you about my lecture?"
"Yes, but you're not going to?"

The man shook his head, "No. I haven't been erasing everyone's memories, just the ones most affected. Leaving the others with the burden of putting the pieces together, if the need arises,” his voice sounded grave. “Fighting aliens is my job; Professor Dumbledore just wanted you to be prepared." The man made a gesture that indicated the entire castle. "Just in case it ever happens to one of you," he said in a softer voice. He turned and walked towards the portrait hole. Hermione watched, half wanting to run after him to ask him what he meant, but her feet stayed planted on the rug by the couch. He paused at the entranceway, "I wish you well in your future." The portrait hole opened, and he disappeared.

The next morning Harry awoke to find he had slept in the common room instead of in the dorm. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Hermione was curled up in a chair facing him. He went over and shook her shoulder. "Are you alright?" She sleepily opened her eyes and saw him standing over her.

"Are you alright?" She repeated.

He ran his hands down his robes, "Fine I think, except for falling asleep down here. Why didn't you wake me?"

"I couldn't. Well I tried, but you wouldn't wake up." She looked a little worried. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I feel fine, I should change clothes though."

"Yeah, me too, see you at breakfast?

"Yeah breakfast." Harry drifted towards the dorm stairs. Fifteen minutes later, he was back in the common room, Hermione was waiting for him. As they went through the portrait hole, Harry turned to her, "Do you mind I check for something before going down for breakfast?"

"Sure Harry." Hermione said with an unusually understanding voice. Instead of going straight down the corridor towards the stairs, he led her up the corridor and to the left, finally turning down a dark hallway. He lit his wand and looked around. It was a dead end, a small passageway with a store room door at the ending. He turned in a circle, trying to remember what was significant about this spot. Hermione was silent at his side. Finally he gave up, nox'ed his wand and headed out towards the staircase. Hermione jogged to catch up, wondering what had happened there that he couldn't remember. She made a mental note to ask Prof Dumbledore next time she had the chance. He should know anyway, that she knew, just in case it ever became necessary....

The end