Harry, Snape and Dumbledore waited patiently for some word, any word to come of Bellatrix. But it seemed she had gone into a hole and pulled the hole after her.
Harry was receiving a detention a week. Plus he had his Quidditch practice and his secret meetings with Draco (they had decided not to meet and be friends openly) who also was as anxious as Harry, but for a different reason. He did not want his parents o be involved with his Aunt. He was still recovering from his father's role in the Diary and he wanted his parents to have no part in Bellatrix's escape.
Harry's days were full; he caught glimpses of Ginny, chattering away to others in the Gryffindor common room in the evenings. She was friends with Hermione and a few other girls and boys in her year. She smiled tentatively at Harry initially, blushing a lot whenever she saw him, but Harry's nonchalance soon soothed her and she smiled or ginned at him, talking naturally when she needed to. Those times were very few, it was usually when she came over to say something to Hermione and spoke first to Neville initially, simply smiling at Harry and going away. Slowly, she started speaking with Harry, starting with a simply Hi, usually.
Harry encouraged this, by speaking a few words to her and slowly her shyness around him, vanished. For Harry, those times were bittersweet, because he desperately wanted friendship and more from her and yet his age and hers would not let him move the way he would have otherwise. But, he realized ruefully, last time in third year, he had been totally unaware that Ron's younger sister would capture his heart completely in the future.
He pestered Snape for details and Snape was quite short him, bestowing Harry with pearls of sarcasm.
'It is almost two months into the School year and we are just a week away from Halloween, Snape. And still no news.' Harry told him for what was the hundredth time. He usually started his detentions with this statement.
Snape glared as he usually did. 'Potter, you try my patience.' He said acidly. Harry smiled at him and watched him scowl. Snape began abruptly, as if to stop Harry from saying anything else, which would anger him more. 'I wrote to Lucius about Bellatrix last week. You know that. I received his reply today. He is as bland as usual in it. He even met with Rookwood, he writes, asking him to see if he could use the Ministry to search for the Dark Lord, because he is confident that she would have gone to him.'
Harry frowned. There was something so wrong with this information. He contemplated for a few minutes and then said, 'But since when did Lucius start thinking that Voldemort was alive?' Then as realization came to him he sighed. 'Oh, because of the horcrux, we destroyed.' He answered his own question.
Snape nodded once and turned to his work. A few minutes later Harry spoke again. 'What does Dumbledore say about all this?'
'He is also on the lookout, Potter.' Snape told him. 'But unless we have any leads to go on, we cannot do anything. Now kindly stop blathering and let me do my work in silence.' He snapped and the rest of the 'detention' was spent in silence.
Halloween came and went. That day Harry was very tense and spent the whole day pouring over his map. But there was nothing. Not knowing what to do about this whole escape, Harry slowly started getting involved into ordinary School matters. Quidditch season was starting and Harry was soon engrossed in practice and his studies, which were going on as smoothly as possible.
The weather started changing from being merely chilly to becoming really cold, and Harry hoped rather morosely that Bellatrix would die in the cold weather somewhere before she could come into the Wizarding World and make trouble. He dressed and in warm clothes and walked out to meet Hermione to go down with her and Neville as usual.
'Brr… It is cold today isn't it?' Neville told him and Harry nodded trying to summon up a smile. He was getting more and more worried as the days went by, because he simply did not know what to do. He knew Dumbledore was searching and also knew that Snape was trying as well, but Harry felt very helpless, as he attended Transfiguration and sat through Animagus lessons, and went to potions and withstood the glare Snape bestowed upon him, with a certain detention at least once a week, in addition to the glares. Harry found everything dull in short and became very restless. To stop thinking about that mad woman, Harry flew a lot and was the first for practice and was the last to leave.
Gryffindor was playing Hufflepuff in its first match and Oliver was straining everyone to the maximum. The day dawned cold and clear and the whole School came to watch the match. Harry soared up into the skies swaying in the breeze and enjoying the cold air. He decided to push Bellatrix to the back of his mind and enjoy the game. Lee Jordan was commenting and McGonagall was reprimanding him whenever he stepped out of line and Harry suddenly happy, swooped up and down racing with and against the wind, reveling in the cold morning air. Cedric was the Hufflepuff seeker, and Harry felt a surge of happiness as he usually did, whenever he saw someone who had died in his own timeline.
In his exhilaration, Harry almost missed the snitch, a while later, that was floating by the Slytherin stands. Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were almost neck-to-neck in scores and the snitch would decide the winner. It was Lee's comment, or rather yells that got Harry's attention. 'Potter!' Lee bellowed, 'Has not noticed the snitch, while Diggory the Hufflepuff seeker is racing away towards it.' He finished, looking anxiously at Harry. Harry pulled his broom and turned right around and flew madly towards the Slytherin stands, where a smirking Snape was sitting with his Slytherins and laughing, really laughing, his black eyes in anticipation and amusement as a desperate Harry rushed to get level with Cedric.
Harry sped racing against the wind, his mind now closed to everything except catching the snitch. Cedric was just a few feet away racing in front of Harry, determined to clasp the little golden snitch in his hands. The crowd was silent, watching with a thrill as the two seekers, one the easily handsomest boy in all of Hogwarts as Cedric was called and the other the most famous in all of the Wizarding World, the Boy Who Lived, tried to be the first to close their hand on the snitch.
The snitch was hovering just level with the Slytherin seats. Cedric was just a little ahead of Harry and he would have surely got it, in just a few seconds, when, the snitch suddenly fluttered downwards and was a bright gold against the dark Slytherin green of the stands.
Harry saw that and swooped from behind and Cedric, who was going way too fast, trying to slow his broom before trying to swoop down and catch the snitch at the same time. But in the precious seconds it took for Cedric, to slow his speed and go lower, Harry had from behind, already closed his hand over the snitch and had crashed into the stands, because he had forgotten to swerve his broom from the stands.
He clutched the snitch as a concerned Cedric hauled him out mere seconds later. Snape had also come to the edge of the stands, but retreated when he saw Harry quite all right, his face schooled into a scowl.
Meanwhile the Gryffindor players had gathered around Harry, and after checking to see he was okay, they burst into loud yells of happiness, already planning for a party that night. Ron came rushing to shake his hand, his eyes shining with joy. 'That was just great mate!' he screamed, and Harry felt a pang go through him. He realized how much he had missed Ron's friendship at times like these. He grinned back, however and shook Ron's hand and walked to the infirmary to be checked by Madam Pomfrey on McGonagall's orders before going to join his friends.
Hermione and Neville, who had been sitting with Ron and the other Gryffindors, too, came running along with Ron and walked along with him, chatting about the game to the infirmary.
After the high of winning a thrilling game, where Gryffindor beat Hufflepuff in a close match, 430 to 260, and where everyone spoke of with awe about the thrilling chase between seekers, Harry felt flat again. Bellatrix had clouded his mind again. But there was nothing he could do, except wait, and that was getting on Harry's nerves. He could not speak about it to anyone, apart from Snape, who he met only once a week in detention.
Thankfully there were only a few days for the Yule and Mid Winter holidays and Harry trooped off dejectedly to Hogsmeade with the rest, listening to their happy chatter about the holidays. He had invited the Twins, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Hermione to Grimmauld Place that year, after Christmas Day, to spend the rest of the holidays with him. All of them had agreed and were very thrilled, planning many things, which Harry on the outside was always happily agreeing to, but could not excite him the same way. He said his goodbyes to Snape on the day of the last detention; Snape still had no news for him.
He did not invite Draco to Grimmauld Place. Draco was jealous that the Weasleys were spending time with Harry, but he could not dispute Harry's reasons, and nor could he find a way around them.
'So all of them are coming?' he had asked raising his eyebrows.
Harry rolled his eyes. 'You know I would have invited you too, Draco. But this is not the time. You will get into trouble with your parents for even asking them, and if Bellatrix had contacted your parents, that would be doubly dangerous. We will meet like this, for now. This is what will keep you safe.'
'I don't need to owl you?' Draco had asked.
'No, unless it is very important, and even then, use a mail owl, not yours. Be careful Draco. And get back safely after the holidays.' Harry had told him seriously.
Draco had been inclined to scoff initially at Harry's insistence of asking him to be safe, but after Harry had directed him to the Library, where he had read a few accomplishments of Bellatrix Lestange and understood how dangerous she was. He understood Harry's reasoning and he had not protested.
'I will tell you, if there is any news, about her.' He said, a thrill and a fear going through him, at the thought of Bellatrix coming to his home.
Harry nodded again. "Please.' He said. ' But don't disobey your parents and don't look at Bellatrix or your dad in the eye. Remember what I told you about Occlumency and Legilimency.' Harry warned him and sent him off.
Sirius and Remus met Harry at the station and he went home with them, talking to them about his term. He waved goodbye to Neville and Hermione, nodded discreetly at Draco, who was received only by his mother; Lucius was not there, which Harry noted and walked out of Platform 9 and 3 quarters to Grimmauld Place for the Yule Holidays.