For Harry, nothing could have been worse than Professor Breen arriving at Grimmauld Place yet refusing even to meet him.
His freedom for the rest of his life rested entirely on Professor Breen, yet he acted as though it did not matter at all.
That directly led to this: in the days before the hearing began,
no matter how Hermione tried to persuade him to tell Professor Breen about his strange dreams, he refused to do it.
As for Sirius.
Harry had indeed considered talking to his godfather.
But ever since that Order of the Phoenix meeting, Sirius had become extremely busy.
He was often away from home for several days at a time, and when he hurried back, all he did was tell Harry to stay obediently in the house and not worry too much about the hearing—useless nonsense like that.
It left Harry with no desire at all to share any of his little secrets with him.
The lack of information made him increasingly worried that he might truly be sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban.
But he did not want Hermione and Ron to see it. He did not even particularly want to be around them.
He had no idea what Ginny and Hermione had discussed.
In any case, Hermione was extremely concerned about his new dreams.
She was always trying to pry more information out of him indirectly, and eventually, Harry had no choice but to lie and tell her that the dreams had stopped.
But the truth was that every night, those endless corridors and tightly shut doors still tormented him, making his scar throb with pain.
On the eve of the hearing, the few children still receiving magical education at Hogwarts gathered in Harry and Ron's bedroom.
The room was far messier than when