Chapter 13

Sorry

"Ha!" Ron shouted as he captured Harry's king. "Checkmate!"

Harry was caught off guard for the eighth time that evening. "How?!"

Ron leaned back in his armchair, seemingly content. "I suppose I'm just that good."

Harry threw a bishop at him. 

They sat like that for a while, until both realized they still had a Potions essay due for Snape. Ron had suggested they take a break and have a round of chess, but it had somehow spiraled into a whopping eight games, all of which Harry had lost, a fact he was sure Ron would never let him live down. 

Pulling their rolls of parchment back to them and dipping their quills into their ink pots, Harry and Ron began to write, occasionally asking one another questions about the topic. 

"What does dittany do again?" Ron asked him.

Harry drew a blank. "Dunno, I haven't gotten to that part yet. Must be somewhere in 1,000 Magical Herbs and Fungi."

Ron pulled out his copy and began rifling through it. "Here it is!" He showed Harry the page, which had a picture of the plant in question. "Apparently it heals wounds and stuff like that."

"That's not all," a voice behind them startled them both.

Harry and Ron whipped around to find Hermione sitting at the table behind them. "Quit being a know-it-all would you?" Ron said, disgruntled.

Harry kicked him lightly in the shin. "Let her finish."

Hermione beamed at him. "Well, it heals wounds by making fresh skin grow over them, making them seem several days old in a matter of seconds. It can be applied onto the wound in question or if the wound is shallow, it can be consumed."

"Woah, that's amazing." Harry flipped to the next page in the textbook. "And nearly word-for-word with the textbook."

He looked up. Hermione had a little tinge of blush on her cheeks. "You'd better write that down, it'll really impress Snape for your essay."  Then she walked off to the girl's dormitories, clutching her own essay.

"Thanks!" Harry called after her.

Harry wrote down what she'd told them, though he noticed Ron didn't, probably in spite that Hermione had supplied them with the information, which he seemed to think was too good for him. At last, after proofreading their essays, they once more had some downtime to themselves. 

"Harry, mate, isn't that your owl?"

He looked at the window, and sure enough, there was Hedwig, tapping a foot against the glass. He went over and opened it, and Hedwig hopped into the common room. He untied the scroll attached to her leg, and she settled herself on the armrest of Ron's chair, clearly intending to bring a response to someone else. 

"Wonder who this is from," Harry said, unfurling the scroll of parchment. His eyes scanned the paper, and he rolled it up once more. He was just about to make his way to the dormitories when Ron called him back.

"Well, who is it?"

"Oh, sorry, it's from Miles."

Ron scowled. "What does he want?"

"Just to meet tomorrow."

"I don't reckon you should do that Harry." Ron's expression was grim. "He was okay before, but hanging out with those snakes might have changed him."

"What are you saying? Miles would never hurt me or anything like that."

Ron shook his head. "Do whatever you want mate, but keep my words in mind." He packed up his essay and brushed past Harry, who stood still, shocked.

Could Miles have malicious intentions for meeting him? The Astronomy Tower would no doubt be deserted at that time, as Astronomy wasn't in session tomorrow night. And it was awfully high up, how easy it would be to just push someone off... He shook his head. Miles would never, and no matter how prejudiced Ron was against Slytherins, he knew that even they wouldn't do something like that. Not even Malfoy, who was probably the worst of all of them.

He sat back down at their table and scribbled out a quick reply below Miles' letter, then tied it to Hedwig's leg. He carried her over to the window and threw her out, then sat back in his armchair, pondering the events of the next day. 

☆

Miles impatiently awaited the arrival of the owl post that morning at breakfast, keeping his eyes peeled for the snowy owl. 

"Miles, you haven't eaten anything," Daphne fretted. 

He looked down at his plate. It was true. Miles hadn't even bothered to butter or put jam on his toast. Not that it would have mattered, because he hadn't touched it either. "Sorry, I'm expecting a letter this morning."

"Yeah, from who?" Theo asked. 

He debated telling them all but decided that if he couldn't trust his friends, he couldn't trust anybody. Besides, they knew about his brother. "Harry." That seemed to be all the answer they needed, as they all nodded wisely and went back to eating their breakfast. 

At last, the owl post arrived. Miles had just spread jam on his toast and picked it up when Hedwig came over and dropped the letter on his plate. "Thanks, Hedwig," he told her, giving her a piece of his toast, which she flew away contentedly with. 

He took a bite of his toast before unfurling the scroll, only to realize that it was the one he'd sent his brother the night before. Written just below the message was one word. Sure. Progress.

The day couldn't go by fast enough. Miles suffered through his classes, even more so than usual, as he knew pretty much all the material. He knew that they weren't a total waste of time though, as the review turned out to be helpful with his assignments.

At last, after his classes, dinner, and finishing up his homework, it was 8:50 pm. He bid his friends goodbye and set off for the Astronomy Tower. He made sure to keep to the shadows, and if there was any indication of a teacher, he rushed to hide. It wouldn't look good for him to be sneaking around the castle at night, and he knew saying that he was going to meet Harry wasn't a good excuse. After all, why would he go through all that trouble just to see his brother, who he should've been able to see anytime? 

He arrived at the Astronomy Tower, but Harry wasn't there yet. He sat on the window ledge and gazed out over the castle grounds and beyond while he waited. After a good deal of time had passed, he checked his watch. 9:12 pm. Harry was late. 

Perhaps he'd just been held up in the Gryffindor common room. Miles knew how Ron could be, and no doubt he'd want to know where Harry was going at that time of night and why. So he waited some more. He pulled out a small leather-bound book from his robes and looked at that as he waited, marking some pages as he went. 

He checked his watch again. 9:30 pm. Sighing, he put his book away and moved to get up. It seemed he'd been stood up. As he moved towards the stairs, he heard someone thumping their way up them. Quickly, he ducked into the shadows and watched as Harry came bursting into the tower. 

The other boy looked around, and his shoulders slumped when he couldn't spot Miles. "Harry!" Miles whispered. 

Harry jumped. "Miles?"

Miles came out from the corner he'd been hiding in, pulling the hood of his robes off his head. "I'd just about convinced myself you wouldn't show up."

"I'm so sorry I got held up in the common room and-"

"Well, you're here now." Miles cut him off, grinning.

Harry looked at him thankfully before asking, "So, what did you want to talk to be about?"

Miles blanked. What did he want to talk to Harry about? He'd just assumed that it would be like old times, with them starting off at one topic and ending up at a completely different one. They used to be able to talk for hours, and Miles had taken that to be the new normal. Didn't all siblings talk to one another? He made a mental note to talk to Daphne about it later.

"I just wanted to catch up with you, we haven't gotten to talk much lately."

"That makes sense. How are your classes going?"

"Decent, I suppose. Yours?"

"Boring honestly. I know I ought to pay attention but Professor Binns has this way of making everyone in the room tired."

"It's the same for me!"

"What about homework?"

"It's pretty easy."

"Yeah, it is, it's just with Quidditch practice and all..." Harry trailed off, looking embarrassed.

There it was. The subject that Miles knew they'd end up touching that day. He'd mulled over what he'd say to Harry the whole night before, but all that didn't seem to have done him any good. Of course, he was proud of his brother, and he would support him to the ends of the earth, but he couldn't deny the fact that the mere mention of Harry's Quidditch involvement sent jealousy coursing through him.

"It's okay, you can talk about it. I'm really proud of you for making it in," he said genuinely. 

"Are you sure you're not mad? We both know you're better at Quidditch."

"Of course not! You deserve your spot on the team, Harry."

Harry blinked, and Miles was worried his brother was going to tear up right there. Then he walked swiftly towards him and hugged him. "Thank you."

They pulled away and spent the rest of the hour talking about all sorts of things. Quidditch, how Harry's practices were going, their classes, and whether or not Wizard's Chess was better than Gobstones. Harry promised to give Miles a go on his Nimbus 2000 the next time they met, which they decided would be at the same time and place the following week. 

At last, it was time to go. They'd already broken curfew, and the later they stayed out, the harsher their punishment would be from Filch. While Miles was sure he was expected to become as much of a detention regular as James and Sirius, he really didn't want to have detention with Filch. Nope, the only teacher he was going to have detention with was Minnie. No one else. 

"Well, I suppose I'll meet you here next week? Hopefully, we can talk in between classes or something." 

"I'd like that. Bye, Miles."

"Bye, Harry."