Chapter 83 - Sulking
The next morning at breakfast, I was peacefully eating at the Hufflepuff table when I suddenly felt a stare burning into the side of my head.
I did not even need to look up to know who it was.
Harry Potter stood beside me with his arms crossed tightly over his chest. His cheeks were puffed up in anger, and his face looked like a little puffer fish.
Honestly, it took every bit of my self-control not to laugh immediately.
He was staring at me with a deeply disappointed expression. The kind that said, 'I trusted you, and you betrayed me.'
I calmly took another bite of toast and ignored him completely.
That only made him angrier. I could feel it.
Around us, many students had started noticing the strange scene. My friends looked between me and Harry curiously, but wisely decided not to interfere. Even some students from other houses were watching now.
After all, it was not every day that Harry Potter stood beside someone looking personally offended by life itself.
Still, nobody interrupted. This was clearly a matter between brothers.
Harry kept standing there silently with his arms crossed, puffed face and narrowed eyes.
I continued eating peacefully.
By the time I finished breakfast a few minutes later, Harry's entire face had turned red from anger and frustration of being ignored.
To me, though, he looked more cute than threatening.
I finally decided I had tortured him enough. So I picked up some toast and sandwiches from the table for him and stood up.
"Follow me," I said casually.
Harry immediately followed behind me like an angry duckling.
I could hear whispers behind us as students watched the scene with relish.
I took him outside toward the Hogwarts lawns. Since it was the first morning after vacation, most students were still slowly adjusting back to school life, so the grounds were mostly empty.
Cold winter air moved across the grass lightly.
The moment we stopped, Harry burst out.
"Why did you do that?"
I looked at him calmly.
"You should have at least told me," he continued. "You just took it!"
I nodded seriously.
"I know."
That answer clearly was not what he expected.
Harry blinked.
"That's it?"
"Yes," I replied. "It was just a prank, but necessary. Otherwise you would have run off yesterday night itself."
Harry looked offended again and turned away with a huff. I almost laughed again.
Honestly, he was trying very hard to stay angry.
I decided to stop tormenting him for a moment.
"Tonight," I said.
Harry immediately looked back at me.
"Tonight we will go."
His anger vanished so quickly that it was honestly impressive.
"Really?"
"Yes," I replied. "Around midnight. I'll come outside the Gryffindor dormitory. Then you'll take me to that room with the mirror."
Harry's eyes lit up instantly.
"Done!"
He looked completely excited now. The earlier anger had disappeared as if it had never existed. Children really were simple creatures sometimes.
I handed him the breakfast I had brought. "Eat this and go to class."
He nodded happily and took the food.
Then suddenly, just as he started walking away, he froze.
His eyes widened and he turned around dramatically.
"Wait. What about my cloak?"
I kept my face completely serious.
"I'll return it around noon or evening. Don't worry. You'll need it tonight."
Harry immediately misunderstood my words and nodded seriously.
"Yes. We'll definitely need it tonight."
I almost burst out laughing again.
"Exactly."
He looked satisfied now. Honestly, for someone supposedly so angry a minute ago, he had recovered remarkably fast.
Then I decided to tease him one last time.
"Now stop crying."
Harry froze.
He looked deeply offended.
"I was not crying!"
I folded my arms.
"You were on the verge of crying."
"When?"
"Just now."
"I was not!"
"Everyone saw it," I replied calmly. "The whole school, in fact."
Harry's eyes widened in horror as he realised it.
"No they didn't!"
"Yes they did."
"They did not!"
I nodded seriously like a professor delivering important facts.
"The way you were staring at me, it looked like I had stolen all your underwear or something."
Harry's face turned bright red instantly.
"ARTHUR!"
I finally lost control and started laughing, loudly, the kind where your stomach hurts.
Harry looked absolutely scandalized.
"You are horrible," he said angrily. "You are very, very horrible."
"Language," I replied while laughing harder.
"I hate you."
"No you don't."
"I do!"
"You absolutely don't."
Harry huffed loudly again and turned around dramatically. Then he marched away across the lawn muttering under his breath.
"You're bad… honestly so bad…"
I could still hear him grumbling while walking away.
A few younger students nearby looked completely confused watching the whole thing.
Probably because Harry Potter, defeater of trolls and famous wizard, currently looked like an angry younger child who had lost an argument.
Which, technically, was exactly what had happened.
I finally calmed down enough to breathe normally again.
Then I heard Harry shout from far away.
"Arthur!"
"Yes?" I shouted back.
"You're still bad!"
Then he ran off even faster toward the castle before I could reply.
That only restarted my laughter again.
Honestly, moments like these were worth everything. The danger, stress, planning, all of it.
Because this was what truly mattered.
Harry laughing, him getting angry over small things and acting like a normal child should.
He doesn't always have to be the Boy-Who-Lived, or a symbol, nor a weapon.
Just Harry.
I stood there on the snowy lawn for a few more moments with a smile on my face.
Then I looked toward Hogwarts castle thoughtfully.
Tonight would be important as I will finally get to see The Mirror of Erised.
As the day went by, everything remained peaceful. Classes had started again after the holidays, and students were slowly settling back into the normal Hogwarts routine.
At evening, I returned the invisibility cloak to Harry through my owl, Drein. Harry received it safely, and from what Drein told me after returning, I could tell Harry had been very happy to get it back.
Which meant tonight, we would finally go to the room with the enchanted mirror.
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End of Chapter 83 - Sulking