FIC Inevitable 56: Blindsided (AB/HP)
Mar. 18th, 2006 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mhalachaiInevitable Fifty-Six: Blindsided
by Mhalachai
Disclaimer: Laurell K. Hamilton owns all things Anita Blake. J.K. Rowling owns all things Harry Potter. Only the story is my own.
Note: I was tempted to cut this short, but figure it's about time for a recap. Consider this the "clips" episode. Also, Harry -- when you ask an ironical rhetorical question at the end of a chapter, of course things are going to go coven in the next chapter. You should know this by now.
Previous parts here. Have you all read the Ron POV chapter, Cold?
~~~~~~~
"Harry, are you busy?"
Harry swallowed his mouthful of eggs a bit too fast and almost choked. Coughing, he reached for his cup of tea. "Why?" he asked when he could breathe again.
Hermione stood beside the table, twisting her hands nervously. "Can I talk to you for a few minutes?"
Harry looked forlornly at his plate. "Can you talk to me here?" he asked. He'd gone for a run that morning before he saw Hagrid, and he was hungry enough to eat a horse. Although not literally; he'd leave that for Jason.
"No."
Harry groaned, but obligingly piled rashers of bacon between two slices of toast. "Is the world ending?" he asked as he climbed over the bench and picked up his school bag with his free hand.
"Of course not, don't be silly!" Hermione said, giving a nervous giggle at the end. Her manner was setting Harry on edge. Something wasn't right.
"Where are we going?" Harry asked as they fought their way out of the Great Hall as the first rush of students entered for breakfast.
"Some place quiet," Hermione said, not looking at him.
His chewing slowed. "And why are we going there?"
"Just to talk, that's all."
Talk. Great. It occurred to Harry that he hadn't seen Hermione talk to Ron all day on Sunday. Oh, no, is that what this is about? Harry thought, dismayed. Why would she want to talk to me of all people if she's having trouble with Ron?
What was he supposed to do, anyway, when his two best friends were fighting? It hadn't been easy even before they were dating. I'll do what I always do, Harry decided, swallowing the last of his sandwich. I'll be nice and non-committal, and try and figure out how much is Ron's problem and how much is Hermione's.
Rather satisfied with his plan, Harry followed Hermione into a classroom. She paused to close the door, letting Harry go ahead. "All right, Hermione, what is..." Harry's voice trailed off as he took in the other occupants. Ron leaned against the teacher's desk at the front of the room, while Ginny paced beside the window. Harry's good mood vanished. "What's the idea?" he demanded, whirling on Hermione.
Hermione closed the door tightly and locked it from the inside. "We wanted to talk to you," she said, voice wavering slightly.
"So you ambush me like this? What the hell is going on?"
"Harry..." Ron started, then let his voice trail off. He looked about as uncomfortable as Harry felt.
"We needed to ask you a question," Ginny said, stepping away from the windows. Her brown eyes met Harry's steadily.
"Why are we in here and not at breakfast?" Harry asked. His heart was beating a little bit too fast, and part of him wanted to run away, escaping whatever they were planning.
"Harry," Hermione said, coming over. "It's a little complicated, but you need to know that we'll always--"
"Always what?" Harry asked, backing away. "I thought we'd all gotten past this!"
"Past what?" Ron suddenly shouted. "How could you not tell us? What did you think we'd do, turn on you?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Harry yelled, taking a few steps away from Hermione. His movement put his back against the wall, and his feeling of being trapped only intensified.
"I'm talking about those claw marks on your shoulder!" Ron yelled back, brushing off Hermione's frantic attempts to hush him. "You're smelling all the girls and you're acting weird! You spent the summer with werewolves! What are we supposed to think?"
Harry could only stare. "You're mental," he said after a minute, hardly able to choke the words out around his frantically beating heart. "All that time with Fred and George, making you see things."
"Harry, you have been acting rather strangely since you got back," Hermione said carefully. "You're just a little different, and I can't think of what else it might be."
How about having my friends tortured because of me? Harry wanted to scream. Or killing a witch and being happy she was eaten by werewolves? Or knowing that it's going to be even harder than we thought to kill Voldemort, and I don't know if I can do it?
"Did it ever occur to you that people change?" he said coldly, trying desperately to pull his Occlumency around him to calm the defensive beast, which still wanted to shift and run, run far away where no one could hurt him. "People grow up?"
"People don't 'grow up' into claw marks!" Ron said, stalking over. "Go on, tell me again that it was a dog. Tell me it wasn't a werewolf who did this to you!"
Harry wanted to lie. He wanted Ron to accept the lie and go away, both pretending that this had never happened. But Richard wasn't ashamed of what he was. Jason wasn't ashamed, or Nathaniel, or Micah or anyone. Even if Harry didn't slip his skin and become a proper werewolf, he had the beast in him, could coax it out at will. Harry wasn't ashamed of what he was.
"He saved my life," Harry finally said. He glared at Ron, hating him for forcing this out. "The werewolf that did this, he saved my life."
"How exactly does that work?" Ron demanded. He had gone pale at Harry's admission, but he didn't back down.
"Then it's true?" Hermione asked, walking over. She was trembling slightly, a miserable expression on her face. "Oh, Harry."
"I told you guys last night, it doesn't matter if he's a werewolf!" Ginny snapped. "He's still Harry, just like Remus is Remus! He's not going to hurt us!"
"Wait, no--" Harry tried to say, but Ron was already turning on Ginny.
"It matters on a few days of the month, doesn't it? He's not going to be a cuddly puppy to have in the common room those nights!"
"That doesn't mean you're allowed to be mean!" Ginny shouted.
Hermione gave up trying to deal with them, and cast a silencing charm on the classroom door.
"Just because you fancy him doesn't mean we don't deal with this!" Ron shouted, stepping closer to Ginny. Her mouth dropped open, then she gave him a furious shove into the blackboard.
"Ronald!" Hermione snapped before Ginny could do any more damage. "Stop it, both of you!"
Harry slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor, burying his head in his hands. It was happening like he feared. Everyone was so angry. They'd never believe him, that he wasn't a real werewolf.
"Harry?" He looked up to see Hermione kneeling beside him.
"You're wrong, you know," he said. "I got clawed up by a werewolf, but I'm not a werewolf."
The look Hermione was giving him was too much like pity. "Harry, it's probably hard to talk about, but--"
"No, I'm serious!" he exclaimed. "We don't know why, but I didn't shift on the night of the full moon! Maybe it's because vampirism is supposed to prevent lycanthropy, and with Damian..." Harry shook his head. "I was standing out there with all the other lycanthropes and they shifted and I didn't and it wasn't okay, but I couldn't do anything to make it happen!"
Harry bit down the rest of his hysterical outburst. He hadn't really thought about what he would say to Hermione and Ron, and he'd never thought to tell Ginny, about his summer, and now he was doing it all wrong.
"You're really not a werewolf, then? How did it happen?" Hermione asked, her eyes wide. As she spoke, Ginny sank to her knees on the stone floor.
"Ron, if you stay over there, you'll miss this," Harry said.
Ron glared. "I didn't want any of this! How was I to know you were going to do stupid things over the summer?"
"Fine." Harry tuned Ron out and faced the two girls. "Look, you know I went on a trip with the Dursleys over the summer, to St. Louis? One day we all went sightseeing out of town, and I made the mistake of turning around and they left without me."
"I guess some things never change," Ginny said. "You getting into trouble."
"Hey!" Harry protested. "They left me in the woods where there were a bunch of lycanthropes on the night of the full moon, how is that my fault?"
"She didn't mean that," Hermione said, giving Ginny a mean look. "Will you tell us the rest of the story?"
Harry pulled off his glasses and rubbed his face. His hand smelled faintly of bacon, and his stomach twisted uneasily. "I tried to find my way back. Without magic." He smiled absently. "It was the day before I turned seventeen. Anyway, I was in the woods and the moon rose and suddenly there were all these werewolves about, and I ran. I didn't know how to ward off that many werewolves."
"You said one saved your life?" Ron asked, awkwardly sitting beside Hermione.
"Yeah." Harry put his glasses back on. Remembering the feelings of helplessness and terror from that night were churning in his gut. "One of them jumped me. Richard pulled that one off me, but while he was doing it, his claws cut me up."
Harry balled his hand up into a fist. He'd seen Richard in wolfman form more than once, and he still couldn't reconcile those razor-sharp claws with Richard's human hands. Where did the claws go when he was in human form?
Tiny fingers settled on his fist. "Harry, it's okay," Hermione said encouragingly. "If you need to stop--"
"No, I'm fine," he said quickly. He turned his hand in hers and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. "Do you even want to hear all this?"
"I think we need to," Ron said.
"Agreed," Ginny put in.
Harry let go of Hermione's hand and straightened up. "All right, then." He tried to figure out the best way to tell this story, then gave up and just started talking. "After Richard got that other wolf off me, he told me to run, and I did, all the way out of the woods onto the road where Anita was."
Ron raised his eyebrows. "That's one hell of a big coincidence."
"Not really. She's got this off mental connection to Richard, because of Jean-Claude." From the looks on everyone's faces, he was telling the story in the wrong order. He tried again. "Okay, Jean-Claude is the Master Vampire for St. Louis, and Anita's his human servant, but Jean-Claude's animal to call is the wolf, which means he's got a connection with all werewolves, and so he and Anita have this triumvirate of power with Richard, who's the leader of the werewolf pack"
Hermione blinked. "That's..."
"Barmy?" Ron suggested.
"No, complicated." Hermione's eyes unfocused. "I seem to recall reading something about that... but where?"
"I've got some books on vampires if you want to read them," Harry said. "Good books, not the crap we've got in our textbooks."
"I'm still stuck on the werewolf attack. Can we get back to the woods?" Ginny demanded.
Harry took a deep breath. "Fine. Anita was there in her jeep, and I got in the car and we drove away. She didn't know who I was, just that I was in trouble." He shrugged. "She helped me clean up my shoulder and bought me something to eat and let me stay at her house, because the Dursleys sure as hell weren't going to let me back in the hotel that late."
"That was nice of her," Hermione said.
"I didn't have anywhere else to go. You know, I met Damian that night. She told me that he was one of her roommates. I didn't even think much about him."
"How did you find out that he was your grandfather?" Ron asked.
"No, tell us the story in order," Ginny interrupted. "I'm having enough trouble following this as it is."
Harry shifted on the ground, trying to find a more comfortable position. "The next morning, we went to go find the Dursleys, and they didn't even apologize for leaving me out there. Anita freaked out on them, and then Aunt Petunia made some kind of snarky comment about it being my birthday, so I was seventeen. I got angry and told them I was leaving."
"But what about the blood protection from your family?" Hermione asked, upset. "That's why you had to go to the Dursleys for the summer and couldn't go to the Weasleys, like everyone wanted."
"Dumbledore said it ended when I turned seventeen. After the attack, there didn't seem to be much need for it." Harry glanced at Ron, who was keeping a blank face. "After that, we went back to Anita's house and met with Richard."
"The one who attacked you."
"Yes, Ron, that Richard," Harry said impatiently. "If you feel like slagging him at all, do it now and get it out of your system, okay? He's a good guy!"
"A good guy who hurt you!"
"He could have broken my neck and eaten me alive if he wanted!" Harry shouted. "God, he's taller than Bill and stockier than Charlie when he's in human form, he could pick me up with one hand and break me in two! He's not dangerous or mean! He teaches science to teenagers! He did his graduate studies on trolls!"
"He deals with trolls?"
"Are you listening to anything I'm saying, or only picking out the odd word?" Harry demanded. "I'm only going to say this one more time. Richard is a good guy. Like Remus is a good guy. If you say anything else against that, I'll--"
"You'll what?
"I'm not sure about him," Ginny interrupted, "But I'll hit you myself, Ron." More usefully, Ginny took hold of the back of Ron's robes and pulled him down with a bump. "Shut up and listen."
Ron glowered at his sister, who glared back, but he didn't say anything else.
"What were we talking about?" Harry asked tiredly.
"You met Richard," Hermione said. "What did you talk about?"
"I, um, I sort of told them I was a wizard," Harry said. "What? I had to, Anita knew I was magical from the previous night! It just seemed like the easiest thing to do! I could show them I wasn't completely defenseless."
"How did Anita know you were a wizard, did you use magic in front of her?"
Harry shook his head. "We shook hands, and I think she felt my magic. I know I felt something." He closed his eyes momentarily at the memory. "Have you ever felt death magic? From all that we've read, I thought it would be dark and gross, but it was really... quiet and deep, like the bottom of the ocean, you know?"
Now Hermione was beginning to look worried. "You do know that we're forbidden from taking part in necromancy, right?" she said. "If the Ministry finds out, it's worse than getting thrown in Azkaban, it can get you banished from the Wizarding world."
"Yes, I am aware of that," Harry snapped. "All I did was shake her hand! I can't raise a zombie to save my life! Not that I ever tried," he faltered, seeing the look of horror on their faces.
"Oh, Harry," Hermione wailed. "You're going to get in so much trouble!"
"Which is why I'm telling you and not that idiot Minister Scrimgeour!" Harry told her. "If you don't want to hear any more, that's fine."
"We're in this for the long haul," Ron said, rubbing Hermione's back. "Go on."
Harry waited for Hermione's protest, but she closed her mouth and leaned against Ron. "All right." He tried to figure out where he was in the story. All these interruptions were confusing. "I told Richard I was a wizard, they didn't freak out, and I hung around the house for a while, trying to figure out what I was going to do. We watched some movies, and then Damian came through the room. Gregory said that we looked alike, me and Damian, and then everyone sort of saw it." Harry looked down at his grubby nails. "I didn't believe it; hell, it still sounds sort of insane."
"What made you believe?" Ginny asked.
"He knew her name." Harry leaned forward. "He knew my grandmother's name, without anyone telling him, and he was from Northern Scotland. And... I think I believed when he didn't want to. And when Anita was so damned suspicious." He frowned. "Or maybe because they didn't know who I was."
Hermione sat up and away a bit from Ron. "Didn't you tell them your name?"
"No, I did, but they didn't know any of the magical mess. They only figured it out when Requiem, one of the vampires recognized me. He used to be in London. But they still let me stay."
"You could have come back," Ron said. "We'd have come to get you. Dad would have loved to see one of those airplanes."
Harry shook his head. "It wasn't that simple."
"Why not?"
"I didn't know... I mean, I thought I was going to be a werewolf! How could I go to your house if I was like that? I'd be a danger to everyone!"
"So staying in North American was some kind of noble self-sacrifice?" Ron asked, his voice rising in anger. "Like not telling us about this? You wanted to protect us?"
"I was scared!" Harry shouted, pushing his shoulders back against the wall. "Okay? Are you happy now? I thought that if you all knew I was a werewolf, on top of all the crap Voldemort keeps trying to push on me, you'd think I was too dangerous to be around and I didn't know if I could deal with that!"
"Of course being around you is dangerous!" Ron yelled. "Just like being around Dumbledore is dangerous, but you know what? It doesn't matter!"
"Why not?" Harry demanded.
"Because you're our friend, you berk! Now tell us the rest of the story about why you didn't want to tell us!"
"Are they always like this?" Ginny asked Hermione.
Hermione sighed. "Yes." Harry glared at her. "Well, you are."
"So far, we have vampires and werewolves. Are we missing anything?" Ron prompted.
Harry closed his eyes for a moment. "Just the Death Eater."
Hermione squeaked. "What? Who?"
Harry looked over at the door. "Is that silencing charm still in place?"
"Of course it is, it's one of Hermione's," Ron said. "You didn't say anything about Death Eaters when you talked to us on the train!"
"Of course I didn't, Neville was there, wasn't he?"
"What do you mean?"
"I, uh..." Harry licked his lips. Every time he thought about this, Anita's screams echoed in his head. Would he ever be able to forget that? "I told you that Nigel Spencer was killed, right?"
"Yeah, you asked Hermione to look up information on him."
Harry nodded. "When he was killed, the murderer set up the Dark Mark over his house. I told Anita what it was, but we didn't know who might have done it. Then, later, we were out in the woods and she must have tracked us from Nigel's house, I don't know how else she could have found me--"
"Who?" Hermione whispered.
"Bellatrix Lestrange." Harry smoothed his robe over his knees, imagining that he felt the rough leaves and dirt under his fingers instead of cloth. "I thought she'd go ahead and kill me, but instead she wanted to-- to play. She got my wand away, then she set magic to choke Jamil, and..." Harry looked very carefully at a spot on the floor. "You guys know about that variant on the Cruciatus curse, Crucio eternum?"
"Oh no," Hermione breathed.
Harry didn't move, feeling those old feelings of shame and terror coming back. "She used it on Anita, and then she disapparated. Anita just..." Harry swallowed hard against the bile in his throat. "It took ten minutes to lift the curse."
"That's enough to drive anyone mad," Hermione said. "Did Bellatrix lift the curse?"
"No," Harry said dully. "I did, somehow, I don't know how or why it stopped but it did."
"Tonks said it's the worst thing she's ever seen," Ginny said, her voice hollow. She sat as still as death, staring at the wall over Harry's head. "She and Kingsley Shacklebolt found Mundungus Fletcher, after he'd had that curse cast on him. She said it took him almost fifteen minutes to die, and there wasn't a thing they could do to stop it."
"When did Tonks tell you that?" Ron demanded.
"She didn't; she told Bill one night when I was testing some of the twins' new eavesdropping products." Ginny closed her eyes. "I don't know how anyone could do that to someone."
"Bellatrix seemed to like it," Harry said bitterly. "She came back, you know, a couple of nights later when we were in the woods again with the werewolf pack. She tried to kill Anita with the Killing Curse, but someone else got in the way and he died, then she tried again but I--" Harry snapped his mouth shut as his brain finally caught up with his mouth. I can't tell them I killed Bellatrix! he thought in a panic. They won't understand, they've never had to kill someone!
"But you stopped her," Ginny stated. "How?"
Harry shook his head. "That's not important."
"Yes, it is," Ginny said quickly. She got up on her knees and crawled toward him until she was just a little bit too close, and there was nowhere for Harry to go. "How did you stop her? Turn her into a toad? Petrify her?"
"I don't want to talk about this," Harry said, starting to get angry.
Ginny gave a sharp, bitter laugh. "Does it seem as if I care?"
"You have no idea what happened!" Harry exclaimed. "Don't try and tell me what to do; you've never tried to kill someone before!"
Ginny sat back on her heels and pointed straight at Hermione. "Her."
Startled, Harry said, "What?"
"I tried to kill her." Ginny lowered her hand. She was as pale as Harry had ever seen her. "And Colin Creevy and Justin Fitch-Fletchley and Penelope, when I was eleven. Do you know how many roosters I killed? Snapping their necks like it was nothing?"
"That wasn't you, Ginny," Ron said with a strangled voice. He tried to get her to move back, but it was like he wasn't even there.
"I was trying to kill them," she whispered to Harry. "You don't get to sit there and act like you're different than we are."
Harry moved himself forward and took Ginny's hands in his own. She was freezing. "That wasn't you, that was Voldemort that did those things."
She stared at him. "Everyone keeps saying that, why am I the only one who has a hard time believing it?"
"Because you're the only one who lived it," Ron said quietly. He settled down beside her, holding out a hand for Hermione to move closer.
"What did you do to Bellatrix?" Ginny asked.
Harry looked down at Ginny's hands. There was a tiny scrape on the back of one hand, a faint bruise discolouring the fair skin. Her nails were short. Harry had never noticed that before. "I took her wand away."
"That's not so--" Hermione began.
"I took her wand away and left her unarmed in the middle of a werewolf pack, after she'd killed one of their own," Harry said in a hurry, still staring at Ginny's hands as he played with her now-pliant fingers. "I killed her, same as if I used Anita's gun to shoot her."
An appalled silence settled over the room. I suppose that's what I can expect, Harry thought numbly. No one wants to hear their friend let someone be eaten by werewolves, even someone as nasty as Bellatrix Lestrange.
"Does he know?" Ginny asked.
Harry blinked, letting go of Ginny's hands. "Does who know what?"
"Does Voldemort know that Bellatrix is dead?" she clarified.
"I don't know," Harry said, trying to come to grips with her apparent matter-of-fact acceptance of the situation. "We think she was over in America alone to kill Nigel Spencer. Dumbledore hasn't said anything."
"Tell us more," Ginny prodded. "What happened after Bellatrix died?"
Harry spared a glance over at Hermione, but she was very scrupulously avoiding his gaze. He had to lick his lips before he could speak.
"Anita and I had to go to the police station," he said. The fact that Anita went crazy for a little while wasn't really relevant, he decided. "There were a couple of American Aurors there, trying to modify memories. Things went badly."
"How bad?" Ron asked, sounding both appalled and fascinated. "I mean, you told us you dueled them, but you didn't tell me how it worked out."
"I was fine," Harry said. "Anita went through a window and got cut up by the glass, bad. She always had the worst stuff happen to her." He shook his head. "But then Dumbledore came and we talked and I told him all this stuff. He didn't freak out or anything. Then he left and I stayed, in case I was going to change. Nothing much else happened. I went with Anita when she raised some zombies. Other than having to fight off a rampaging ghoul pack, that was okay. I told her about the prophecy. You know, me killing Voldemort."
"What did she say?" Ron asked.
"That it was a bunch of bullshit." Harry pushed his hair back out of his eyes. "That it was my choice if I wanted to fight him or not." He sighed. "But she didn't know about the Horcruxes."
Ginny made an impatient sound in her throat. "What are you talking about now? What's a Horcrux?"
Harry couldn't remember if Dumbledore said he could tell anyone about the Horcruxes. Like I care. "Dumbledore told me, when I got back, he thinks Voldemort's made some Horcruxes to ward off dying. It's a way to split your soul, stick part of it into something, so if your body dies, you don't. You have to murder someone to do make one, Dumbledore said. He thinks there are seven. He's got three here; he needs to find the other four, and figure out how to destroy them all. Well, not all. Two are already destroyed."
Hermione was looking at him now, blinking rather fast. "What do you mean?" she demanded.
"I mean that there's two down, five to--"
"Not that!" Hermione exclaimed. "All of it! It's not possible to do that! It's..." She groped around for the words.
"But Dumbledore's got a way to destroy them, right?" Ron said, looking ill. "He's destroyed two of them, so we just need find the rest and he can get rid of them?"
"He's not sure," Harry said. "He only destroyed the one, this old family ring from Voldemort's family. I destroyed the other one."
"When?" Ron demanded.
"Back in second year," Harry said. "It was Tom Riddle diary."
Without a word, Ginny got to her feet and walked to the far end of the room, where she put her hands on the wall and rested her head on the stone.
"Ginny?" Harry said, watching her go. "What--"
"Would you stop being such an idiot?" Ron demanded, getting to his feet. "When are you going to remember this isn't all about you, especially if that bloody diary's involved?"
A moment later, Ginny pushed off the wall and walked back to the group. "It doesn't make any sense," she said, her voice a little high. "If part of Voldemort's soul was in the diary, why did he try to take over me like that? Why wouldn't he, or it, or whatever, want to find the real Voldemort?"
Ron went over to his sister. "Are you--"
"I'm fine, Ron!" Ginny brushed him away. "But if that diary was a Horcrux, then you need my help on this, Harry. You and Dumbledore both."
"I'm in," Ron said. "I'd be in, in any case, but now with Ginny and the diary... well, I'm in even more."
"Who knows how much trouble you'd get into without me," Hermione said, standing. "I'll do whatever I can to help."
Harry got up. "It could be dangerous, and..." He stopped talking when he saw the looks on their faces. "Right."
"I'll go to the library," Hermione said, wringing her hands. "I'm the only one of us who can look in the Restricted Section without a note."
"I have class in a little bit," Ginny said. "Sorry, but if I don't make it to Charms, Professor Flitwick will take points. I'll try and think of something useful."
"Right. Harry and I will, um..." Ron turned to Harry. "What are we going to do?"
"Help Hermione," Harry said. "We haven't got class until Astronomy at midnight, anyway."
"Right." Ron shuffled his feet, glancing at Hermione, then back to Harry. "But you're not a werewolf."
Harry shook his head. "Not really. Sometimes it feels like I've got a bit of one inside me, but I'm not a werewolf."
Ron managed a weak smile, as Hermione turned around. "I'll meet you up in the library," she said, too quick.
Harry took a breath. Ron was an open book; if he seemed okay with this now, he was. But what about Hermione? "We can go up with you," he suggested.
"No!" Hermione swallowed hard. "I'm not okay with this, Harry, I'm sorry. I need some time alone."
Harry took a step back, crestfallen. "Oh. Right, then."
Ron put his hand on Hermione's back. "Alone, or can I come with you?"
Hermione shook her head. "I don't mean you," she said, sounding close to tears.
"All right, then, let's go," Ron said. "Ginny, are you going to be okay?"
Ginny nodded. "I'll see you lot later."
"Right." Ron gave Harry an indecipherable look as he guided Hermione, who still refused to look at Harry, out of the room.
Harry walked over to the blackboard, putting a little space between him and Ginny. He supposed he should be thinking about the Horcruxes and Voldemort, but all he could hear was Hermione's voice. I'm not okay with this.
"She'll be all right," Ginny said after a moment. "She's not like us."
"What do you mean, like us?" Harry asked, turning around.
Ginny quirked the edge of her mouth up into an unhappy smirk. "Like you and me. She knows that sometimes bad things happen, but she doesn't get how it feels. People are going to die, and sometimes people get killed."
"I don't even know what she's upset over!" Harry exclaimed. "The Horcruxes? The werewolf thing? What happened with Bellatrix?" He kicked the leg of a nearby desk. "Can't really blame her for not wanting a murderer as a friend."
"Oh, stop it!" Ginny snapped. "You know very well what might have happened if you hadn't done what you did to Bellatrix! She tortured Neville's parents, she killed Sirius, she killed one of the werewolves and she tried to kill Anita! Do you honestly think she'd have taken you back home for a nice tea party with Voldemort?" She threw up her hands. "Sometimes, you have to make choices you don't want to. I'd far rather her be dead that you."
"Yeah, me too." Harry stuck his hands in his pockets. "You're not mad at me?"
Ginny shook her head. "Harry, we thought you were a werewolf!" she said, clearly exasperated.
"What about the Horcruxes?"
"It doesn't change much, does it? I'll probably break down in hysterics in Charms when it sinks in that I was possessed by a bit of Voldemort's soul, as opposed to just his memories, but we'll let Flitwick deal with that, shall we?"
"I can't see you having hysterics," Harry said awkwardly. "You're too strong for that." Ginny blushed, and Harry suddenly remembered what Ron had said to her before they started talking about the more important stuff. "About what Ron said, before you pushed him..."
Ginny blushed even harder. "You know what an idiot he is," she said.
Harry's heart sank. "So you don't, you know, like me?" He winced at how pathetic he sounded.
"No, I do like you!" Ginny said in a rush. "But Ron's still an idiot."
"Yeah." What a mess! Harry thought, his stomach doing weird flip-flops. Ginny likes me, Luna likes Ginny, and I seem to be taking Luna to Hogsmeade. Unless... "Do you want to go to Hogsmeade on Saturday?"
"You're going with Luna," Ginny said, frowning at him.
"No, we're going as friends," Harry hastened to say. "We could all go, spend some time together."
"Only if Luna's okay with it," Ginny said. "I'll talk to her in class." She picked up her book bag. "I'm going to be late." She made no move to leave.
Harry desperately wanted to touch her, get a little closer to her, but he made himself stay where he was. As much as she said she was fine with everything, he didn't want to push it, or scare her off. "I'm sorry I didn't think about diary, what it means," he said.
Ginny looked at him for such a long time that he wondered if he'd stepped over the line. "I don't think anybody does understand," she finally said. "How can they?"
"I never knew it bothered you. You seemed like you were fine with it, I never thought... I didn't think."
She squared her shoulders and closed the distance between them. Harry's heart started pounding as she touched his arm, the heat from her fingers burning through his robes. "There's a lot you don't know about me," she said shyly, then hurried away.
Harry stood stock still, wondering if his chest would burst open from happiness and shock. She likes me! he thought, stunned. She said she'd go to Hogsmeade with me!
And Luna. Harry's good mood popped like an overfull balloon. What's Luna going to say when I tell her? Is she going to think I'm trying to set her up with Ginny? Another thought occurred to Harry. What if Ginny liked Luna in that way too? Would he be able to stand off to the side, while Luna and Ginny...
A million inappropriate images in his head, Harry blushed as red as the Gryffindor crest. He couldn't even make himself be upset by the idea that he might be left on the sidelines, if that meant Ginny and Luna would... Stop being such a pervert! he screamed at himself as he gathered up his book bag and headed for the hall. It was completely unfair that the idea of two girls kissing each other, especially those two girls in particular, would make him act like this.
The halls were full of students, jostling to get to their Monday morning classes. Harry went with the flow toward the tower staircase. As the euphoria of Ginny's interest in him wore off, the depressing reality of the rest of his life set in.
Hermione's freaked out that I'm... that I'm what? Partly a werewolf? That I killed someone? That I disarmed two Aurors? That beating Voldemort's going to be so very difficult? Or that I didn't tell her all this in the first place? He didn't even know if he could ask her straight out. Maybe he'd ask Ron.
They said they'd help me, Harry thought, dragging something positive out of the mess. Ron and Hermione and Ginny. It's got to be better than going at it on my own.
Still, Harry couldn't shake the idea that he'd made a very big mistake in telling them almost everything. He hadn't told them about becoming an Animagus, and for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why.
Maybe soon, he decided. I'll just pretend I needed more time to become one. What can it hurt, them not knowing for a little longer?
... to be continued
Also, before you leave:
[Poll #693735]
by Mhalachai
Disclaimer: Laurell K. Hamilton owns all things Anita Blake. J.K. Rowling owns all things Harry Potter. Only the story is my own.
Note: I was tempted to cut this short, but figure it's about time for a recap. Consider this the "clips" episode. Also, Harry -- when you ask an ironical rhetorical question at the end of a chapter, of course things are going to go coven in the next chapter. You should know this by now.
Previous parts here. Have you all read the Ron POV chapter, Cold?
"Harry, are you busy?"
Harry swallowed his mouthful of eggs a bit too fast and almost choked. Coughing, he reached for his cup of tea. "Why?" he asked when he could breathe again.
Hermione stood beside the table, twisting her hands nervously. "Can I talk to you for a few minutes?"
Harry looked forlornly at his plate. "Can you talk to me here?" he asked. He'd gone for a run that morning before he saw Hagrid, and he was hungry enough to eat a horse. Although not literally; he'd leave that for Jason.
"No."
Harry groaned, but obligingly piled rashers of bacon between two slices of toast. "Is the world ending?" he asked as he climbed over the bench and picked up his school bag with his free hand.
"Of course not, don't be silly!" Hermione said, giving a nervous giggle at the end. Her manner was setting Harry on edge. Something wasn't right.
"Where are we going?" Harry asked as they fought their way out of the Great Hall as the first rush of students entered for breakfast.
"Some place quiet," Hermione said, not looking at him.
His chewing slowed. "And why are we going there?"
"Just to talk, that's all."
Talk. Great. It occurred to Harry that he hadn't seen Hermione talk to Ron all day on Sunday. Oh, no, is that what this is about? Harry thought, dismayed. Why would she want to talk to me of all people if she's having trouble with Ron?
What was he supposed to do, anyway, when his two best friends were fighting? It hadn't been easy even before they were dating. I'll do what I always do, Harry decided, swallowing the last of his sandwich. I'll be nice and non-committal, and try and figure out how much is Ron's problem and how much is Hermione's.
Rather satisfied with his plan, Harry followed Hermione into a classroom. She paused to close the door, letting Harry go ahead. "All right, Hermione, what is..." Harry's voice trailed off as he took in the other occupants. Ron leaned against the teacher's desk at the front of the room, while Ginny paced beside the window. Harry's good mood vanished. "What's the idea?" he demanded, whirling on Hermione.
Hermione closed the door tightly and locked it from the inside. "We wanted to talk to you," she said, voice wavering slightly.
"So you ambush me like this? What the hell is going on?"
"Harry..." Ron started, then let his voice trail off. He looked about as uncomfortable as Harry felt.
"We needed to ask you a question," Ginny said, stepping away from the windows. Her brown eyes met Harry's steadily.
"Why are we in here and not at breakfast?" Harry asked. His heart was beating a little bit too fast, and part of him wanted to run away, escaping whatever they were planning.
"Harry," Hermione said, coming over. "It's a little complicated, but you need to know that we'll always--"
"Always what?" Harry asked, backing away. "I thought we'd all gotten past this!"
"Past what?" Ron suddenly shouted. "How could you not tell us? What did you think we'd do, turn on you?"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Harry yelled, taking a few steps away from Hermione. His movement put his back against the wall, and his feeling of being trapped only intensified.
"I'm talking about those claw marks on your shoulder!" Ron yelled back, brushing off Hermione's frantic attempts to hush him. "You're smelling all the girls and you're acting weird! You spent the summer with werewolves! What are we supposed to think?"
Harry could only stare. "You're mental," he said after a minute, hardly able to choke the words out around his frantically beating heart. "All that time with Fred and George, making you see things."
"Harry, you have been acting rather strangely since you got back," Hermione said carefully. "You're just a little different, and I can't think of what else it might be."
How about having my friends tortured because of me? Harry wanted to scream. Or killing a witch and being happy she was eaten by werewolves? Or knowing that it's going to be even harder than we thought to kill Voldemort, and I don't know if I can do it?
"Did it ever occur to you that people change?" he said coldly, trying desperately to pull his Occlumency around him to calm the defensive beast, which still wanted to shift and run, run far away where no one could hurt him. "People grow up?"
"People don't 'grow up' into claw marks!" Ron said, stalking over. "Go on, tell me again that it was a dog. Tell me it wasn't a werewolf who did this to you!"
Harry wanted to lie. He wanted Ron to accept the lie and go away, both pretending that this had never happened. But Richard wasn't ashamed of what he was. Jason wasn't ashamed, or Nathaniel, or Micah or anyone. Even if Harry didn't slip his skin and become a proper werewolf, he had the beast in him, could coax it out at will. Harry wasn't ashamed of what he was.
"He saved my life," Harry finally said. He glared at Ron, hating him for forcing this out. "The werewolf that did this, he saved my life."
"How exactly does that work?" Ron demanded. He had gone pale at Harry's admission, but he didn't back down.
"Then it's true?" Hermione asked, walking over. She was trembling slightly, a miserable expression on her face. "Oh, Harry."
"I told you guys last night, it doesn't matter if he's a werewolf!" Ginny snapped. "He's still Harry, just like Remus is Remus! He's not going to hurt us!"
"Wait, no--" Harry tried to say, but Ron was already turning on Ginny.
"It matters on a few days of the month, doesn't it? He's not going to be a cuddly puppy to have in the common room those nights!"
"That doesn't mean you're allowed to be mean!" Ginny shouted.
Hermione gave up trying to deal with them, and cast a silencing charm on the classroom door.
"Just because you fancy him doesn't mean we don't deal with this!" Ron shouted, stepping closer to Ginny. Her mouth dropped open, then she gave him a furious shove into the blackboard.
"Ronald!" Hermione snapped before Ginny could do any more damage. "Stop it, both of you!"
Harry slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor, burying his head in his hands. It was happening like he feared. Everyone was so angry. They'd never believe him, that he wasn't a real werewolf.
"Harry?" He looked up to see Hermione kneeling beside him.
"You're wrong, you know," he said. "I got clawed up by a werewolf, but I'm not a werewolf."
The look Hermione was giving him was too much like pity. "Harry, it's probably hard to talk about, but--"
"No, I'm serious!" he exclaimed. "We don't know why, but I didn't shift on the night of the full moon! Maybe it's because vampirism is supposed to prevent lycanthropy, and with Damian..." Harry shook his head. "I was standing out there with all the other lycanthropes and they shifted and I didn't and it wasn't okay, but I couldn't do anything to make it happen!"
Harry bit down the rest of his hysterical outburst. He hadn't really thought about what he would say to Hermione and Ron, and he'd never thought to tell Ginny, about his summer, and now he was doing it all wrong.
"You're really not a werewolf, then? How did it happen?" Hermione asked, her eyes wide. As she spoke, Ginny sank to her knees on the stone floor.
"Ron, if you stay over there, you'll miss this," Harry said.
Ron glared. "I didn't want any of this! How was I to know you were going to do stupid things over the summer?"
"Fine." Harry tuned Ron out and faced the two girls. "Look, you know I went on a trip with the Dursleys over the summer, to St. Louis? One day we all went sightseeing out of town, and I made the mistake of turning around and they left without me."
"I guess some things never change," Ginny said. "You getting into trouble."
"Hey!" Harry protested. "They left me in the woods where there were a bunch of lycanthropes on the night of the full moon, how is that my fault?"
"She didn't mean that," Hermione said, giving Ginny a mean look. "Will you tell us the rest of the story?"
Harry pulled off his glasses and rubbed his face. His hand smelled faintly of bacon, and his stomach twisted uneasily. "I tried to find my way back. Without magic." He smiled absently. "It was the day before I turned seventeen. Anyway, I was in the woods and the moon rose and suddenly there were all these werewolves about, and I ran. I didn't know how to ward off that many werewolves."
"You said one saved your life?" Ron asked, awkwardly sitting beside Hermione.
"Yeah." Harry put his glasses back on. Remembering the feelings of helplessness and terror from that night were churning in his gut. "One of them jumped me. Richard pulled that one off me, but while he was doing it, his claws cut me up."
Harry balled his hand up into a fist. He'd seen Richard in wolfman form more than once, and he still couldn't reconcile those razor-sharp claws with Richard's human hands. Where did the claws go when he was in human form?
Tiny fingers settled on his fist. "Harry, it's okay," Hermione said encouragingly. "If you need to stop--"
"No, I'm fine," he said quickly. He turned his hand in hers and rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. "Do you even want to hear all this?"
"I think we need to," Ron said.
"Agreed," Ginny put in.
Harry let go of Hermione's hand and straightened up. "All right, then." He tried to figure out the best way to tell this story, then gave up and just started talking. "After Richard got that other wolf off me, he told me to run, and I did, all the way out of the woods onto the road where Anita was."
Ron raised his eyebrows. "That's one hell of a big coincidence."
"Not really. She's got this off mental connection to Richard, because of Jean-Claude." From the looks on everyone's faces, he was telling the story in the wrong order. He tried again. "Okay, Jean-Claude is the Master Vampire for St. Louis, and Anita's his human servant, but Jean-Claude's animal to call is the wolf, which means he's got a connection with all werewolves, and so he and Anita have this triumvirate of power with Richard, who's the leader of the werewolf pack"
Hermione blinked. "That's..."
"Barmy?" Ron suggested.
"No, complicated." Hermione's eyes unfocused. "I seem to recall reading something about that... but where?"
"I've got some books on vampires if you want to read them," Harry said. "Good books, not the crap we've got in our textbooks."
"I'm still stuck on the werewolf attack. Can we get back to the woods?" Ginny demanded.
Harry took a deep breath. "Fine. Anita was there in her jeep, and I got in the car and we drove away. She didn't know who I was, just that I was in trouble." He shrugged. "She helped me clean up my shoulder and bought me something to eat and let me stay at her house, because the Dursleys sure as hell weren't going to let me back in the hotel that late."
"That was nice of her," Hermione said.
"I didn't have anywhere else to go. You know, I met Damian that night. She told me that he was one of her roommates. I didn't even think much about him."
"How did you find out that he was your grandfather?" Ron asked.
"No, tell us the story in order," Ginny interrupted. "I'm having enough trouble following this as it is."
Harry shifted on the ground, trying to find a more comfortable position. "The next morning, we went to go find the Dursleys, and they didn't even apologize for leaving me out there. Anita freaked out on them, and then Aunt Petunia made some kind of snarky comment about it being my birthday, so I was seventeen. I got angry and told them I was leaving."
"But what about the blood protection from your family?" Hermione asked, upset. "That's why you had to go to the Dursleys for the summer and couldn't go to the Weasleys, like everyone wanted."
"Dumbledore said it ended when I turned seventeen. After the attack, there didn't seem to be much need for it." Harry glanced at Ron, who was keeping a blank face. "After that, we went back to Anita's house and met with Richard."
"The one who attacked you."
"Yes, Ron, that Richard," Harry said impatiently. "If you feel like slagging him at all, do it now and get it out of your system, okay? He's a good guy!"
"A good guy who hurt you!"
"He could have broken my neck and eaten me alive if he wanted!" Harry shouted. "God, he's taller than Bill and stockier than Charlie when he's in human form, he could pick me up with one hand and break me in two! He's not dangerous or mean! He teaches science to teenagers! He did his graduate studies on trolls!"
"He deals with trolls?"
"Are you listening to anything I'm saying, or only picking out the odd word?" Harry demanded. "I'm only going to say this one more time. Richard is a good guy. Like Remus is a good guy. If you say anything else against that, I'll--"
"You'll what?
"I'm not sure about him," Ginny interrupted, "But I'll hit you myself, Ron." More usefully, Ginny took hold of the back of Ron's robes and pulled him down with a bump. "Shut up and listen."
Ron glowered at his sister, who glared back, but he didn't say anything else.
"What were we talking about?" Harry asked tiredly.
"You met Richard," Hermione said. "What did you talk about?"
"I, um, I sort of told them I was a wizard," Harry said. "What? I had to, Anita knew I was magical from the previous night! It just seemed like the easiest thing to do! I could show them I wasn't completely defenseless."
"How did Anita know you were a wizard, did you use magic in front of her?"
Harry shook his head. "We shook hands, and I think she felt my magic. I know I felt something." He closed his eyes momentarily at the memory. "Have you ever felt death magic? From all that we've read, I thought it would be dark and gross, but it was really... quiet and deep, like the bottom of the ocean, you know?"
Now Hermione was beginning to look worried. "You do know that we're forbidden from taking part in necromancy, right?" she said. "If the Ministry finds out, it's worse than getting thrown in Azkaban, it can get you banished from the Wizarding world."
"Yes, I am aware of that," Harry snapped. "All I did was shake her hand! I can't raise a zombie to save my life! Not that I ever tried," he faltered, seeing the look of horror on their faces.
"Oh, Harry," Hermione wailed. "You're going to get in so much trouble!"
"Which is why I'm telling you and not that idiot Minister Scrimgeour!" Harry told her. "If you don't want to hear any more, that's fine."
"We're in this for the long haul," Ron said, rubbing Hermione's back. "Go on."
Harry waited for Hermione's protest, but she closed her mouth and leaned against Ron. "All right." He tried to figure out where he was in the story. All these interruptions were confusing. "I told Richard I was a wizard, they didn't freak out, and I hung around the house for a while, trying to figure out what I was going to do. We watched some movies, and then Damian came through the room. Gregory said that we looked alike, me and Damian, and then everyone sort of saw it." Harry looked down at his grubby nails. "I didn't believe it; hell, it still sounds sort of insane."
"What made you believe?" Ginny asked.
"He knew her name." Harry leaned forward. "He knew my grandmother's name, without anyone telling him, and he was from Northern Scotland. And... I think I believed when he didn't want to. And when Anita was so damned suspicious." He frowned. "Or maybe because they didn't know who I was."
Hermione sat up and away a bit from Ron. "Didn't you tell them your name?"
"No, I did, but they didn't know any of the magical mess. They only figured it out when Requiem, one of the vampires recognized me. He used to be in London. But they still let me stay."
"You could have come back," Ron said. "We'd have come to get you. Dad would have loved to see one of those airplanes."
Harry shook his head. "It wasn't that simple."
"Why not?"
"I didn't know... I mean, I thought I was going to be a werewolf! How could I go to your house if I was like that? I'd be a danger to everyone!"
"So staying in North American was some kind of noble self-sacrifice?" Ron asked, his voice rising in anger. "Like not telling us about this? You wanted to protect us?"
"I was scared!" Harry shouted, pushing his shoulders back against the wall. "Okay? Are you happy now? I thought that if you all knew I was a werewolf, on top of all the crap Voldemort keeps trying to push on me, you'd think I was too dangerous to be around and I didn't know if I could deal with that!"
"Of course being around you is dangerous!" Ron yelled. "Just like being around Dumbledore is dangerous, but you know what? It doesn't matter!"
"Why not?" Harry demanded.
"Because you're our friend, you berk! Now tell us the rest of the story about why you didn't want to tell us!"
"Are they always like this?" Ginny asked Hermione.
Hermione sighed. "Yes." Harry glared at her. "Well, you are."
"So far, we have vampires and werewolves. Are we missing anything?" Ron prompted.
Harry closed his eyes for a moment. "Just the Death Eater."
Hermione squeaked. "What? Who?"
Harry looked over at the door. "Is that silencing charm still in place?"
"Of course it is, it's one of Hermione's," Ron said. "You didn't say anything about Death Eaters when you talked to us on the train!"
"Of course I didn't, Neville was there, wasn't he?"
"What do you mean?"
"I, uh..." Harry licked his lips. Every time he thought about this, Anita's screams echoed in his head. Would he ever be able to forget that? "I told you that Nigel Spencer was killed, right?"
"Yeah, you asked Hermione to look up information on him."
Harry nodded. "When he was killed, the murderer set up the Dark Mark over his house. I told Anita what it was, but we didn't know who might have done it. Then, later, we were out in the woods and she must have tracked us from Nigel's house, I don't know how else she could have found me--"
"Who?" Hermione whispered.
"Bellatrix Lestrange." Harry smoothed his robe over his knees, imagining that he felt the rough leaves and dirt under his fingers instead of cloth. "I thought she'd go ahead and kill me, but instead she wanted to-- to play. She got my wand away, then she set magic to choke Jamil, and..." Harry looked very carefully at a spot on the floor. "You guys know about that variant on the Cruciatus curse, Crucio eternum?"
"Oh no," Hermione breathed.
Harry didn't move, feeling those old feelings of shame and terror coming back. "She used it on Anita, and then she disapparated. Anita just..." Harry swallowed hard against the bile in his throat. "It took ten minutes to lift the curse."
"That's enough to drive anyone mad," Hermione said. "Did Bellatrix lift the curse?"
"No," Harry said dully. "I did, somehow, I don't know how or why it stopped but it did."
"Tonks said it's the worst thing she's ever seen," Ginny said, her voice hollow. She sat as still as death, staring at the wall over Harry's head. "She and Kingsley Shacklebolt found Mundungus Fletcher, after he'd had that curse cast on him. She said it took him almost fifteen minutes to die, and there wasn't a thing they could do to stop it."
"When did Tonks tell you that?" Ron demanded.
"She didn't; she told Bill one night when I was testing some of the twins' new eavesdropping products." Ginny closed her eyes. "I don't know how anyone could do that to someone."
"Bellatrix seemed to like it," Harry said bitterly. "She came back, you know, a couple of nights later when we were in the woods again with the werewolf pack. She tried to kill Anita with the Killing Curse, but someone else got in the way and he died, then she tried again but I--" Harry snapped his mouth shut as his brain finally caught up with his mouth. I can't tell them I killed Bellatrix! he thought in a panic. They won't understand, they've never had to kill someone!
"But you stopped her," Ginny stated. "How?"
Harry shook his head. "That's not important."
"Yes, it is," Ginny said quickly. She got up on her knees and crawled toward him until she was just a little bit too close, and there was nowhere for Harry to go. "How did you stop her? Turn her into a toad? Petrify her?"
"I don't want to talk about this," Harry said, starting to get angry.
Ginny gave a sharp, bitter laugh. "Does it seem as if I care?"
"You have no idea what happened!" Harry exclaimed. "Don't try and tell me what to do; you've never tried to kill someone before!"
Ginny sat back on her heels and pointed straight at Hermione. "Her."
Startled, Harry said, "What?"
"I tried to kill her." Ginny lowered her hand. She was as pale as Harry had ever seen her. "And Colin Creevy and Justin Fitch-Fletchley and Penelope, when I was eleven. Do you know how many roosters I killed? Snapping their necks like it was nothing?"
"That wasn't you, Ginny," Ron said with a strangled voice. He tried to get her to move back, but it was like he wasn't even there.
"I was trying to kill them," she whispered to Harry. "You don't get to sit there and act like you're different than we are."
Harry moved himself forward and took Ginny's hands in his own. She was freezing. "That wasn't you, that was Voldemort that did those things."
She stared at him. "Everyone keeps saying that, why am I the only one who has a hard time believing it?"
"Because you're the only one who lived it," Ron said quietly. He settled down beside her, holding out a hand for Hermione to move closer.
"What did you do to Bellatrix?" Ginny asked.
Harry looked down at Ginny's hands. There was a tiny scrape on the back of one hand, a faint bruise discolouring the fair skin. Her nails were short. Harry had never noticed that before. "I took her wand away."
"That's not so--" Hermione began.
"I took her wand away and left her unarmed in the middle of a werewolf pack, after she'd killed one of their own," Harry said in a hurry, still staring at Ginny's hands as he played with her now-pliant fingers. "I killed her, same as if I used Anita's gun to shoot her."
An appalled silence settled over the room. I suppose that's what I can expect, Harry thought numbly. No one wants to hear their friend let someone be eaten by werewolves, even someone as nasty as Bellatrix Lestrange.
"Does he know?" Ginny asked.
Harry blinked, letting go of Ginny's hands. "Does who know what?"
"Does Voldemort know that Bellatrix is dead?" she clarified.
"I don't know," Harry said, trying to come to grips with her apparent matter-of-fact acceptance of the situation. "We think she was over in America alone to kill Nigel Spencer. Dumbledore hasn't said anything."
"Tell us more," Ginny prodded. "What happened after Bellatrix died?"
Harry spared a glance over at Hermione, but she was very scrupulously avoiding his gaze. He had to lick his lips before he could speak.
"Anita and I had to go to the police station," he said. The fact that Anita went crazy for a little while wasn't really relevant, he decided. "There were a couple of American Aurors there, trying to modify memories. Things went badly."
"How bad?" Ron asked, sounding both appalled and fascinated. "I mean, you told us you dueled them, but you didn't tell me how it worked out."
"I was fine," Harry said. "Anita went through a window and got cut up by the glass, bad. She always had the worst stuff happen to her." He shook his head. "But then Dumbledore came and we talked and I told him all this stuff. He didn't freak out or anything. Then he left and I stayed, in case I was going to change. Nothing much else happened. I went with Anita when she raised some zombies. Other than having to fight off a rampaging ghoul pack, that was okay. I told her about the prophecy. You know, me killing Voldemort."
"What did she say?" Ron asked.
"That it was a bunch of bullshit." Harry pushed his hair back out of his eyes. "That it was my choice if I wanted to fight him or not." He sighed. "But she didn't know about the Horcruxes."
Ginny made an impatient sound in her throat. "What are you talking about now? What's a Horcrux?"
Harry couldn't remember if Dumbledore said he could tell anyone about the Horcruxes. Like I care. "Dumbledore told me, when I got back, he thinks Voldemort's made some Horcruxes to ward off dying. It's a way to split your soul, stick part of it into something, so if your body dies, you don't. You have to murder someone to do make one, Dumbledore said. He thinks there are seven. He's got three here; he needs to find the other four, and figure out how to destroy them all. Well, not all. Two are already destroyed."
Hermione was looking at him now, blinking rather fast. "What do you mean?" she demanded.
"I mean that there's two down, five to--"
"Not that!" Hermione exclaimed. "All of it! It's not possible to do that! It's..." She groped around for the words.
"But Dumbledore's got a way to destroy them, right?" Ron said, looking ill. "He's destroyed two of them, so we just need find the rest and he can get rid of them?"
"He's not sure," Harry said. "He only destroyed the one, this old family ring from Voldemort's family. I destroyed the other one."
"When?" Ron demanded.
"Back in second year," Harry said. "It was Tom Riddle diary."
Without a word, Ginny got to her feet and walked to the far end of the room, where she put her hands on the wall and rested her head on the stone.
"Ginny?" Harry said, watching her go. "What--"
"Would you stop being such an idiot?" Ron demanded, getting to his feet. "When are you going to remember this isn't all about you, especially if that bloody diary's involved?"
A moment later, Ginny pushed off the wall and walked back to the group. "It doesn't make any sense," she said, her voice a little high. "If part of Voldemort's soul was in the diary, why did he try to take over me like that? Why wouldn't he, or it, or whatever, want to find the real Voldemort?"
Ron went over to his sister. "Are you--"
"I'm fine, Ron!" Ginny brushed him away. "But if that diary was a Horcrux, then you need my help on this, Harry. You and Dumbledore both."
"I'm in," Ron said. "I'd be in, in any case, but now with Ginny and the diary... well, I'm in even more."
"Who knows how much trouble you'd get into without me," Hermione said, standing. "I'll do whatever I can to help."
Harry got up. "It could be dangerous, and..." He stopped talking when he saw the looks on their faces. "Right."
"I'll go to the library," Hermione said, wringing her hands. "I'm the only one of us who can look in the Restricted Section without a note."
"I have class in a little bit," Ginny said. "Sorry, but if I don't make it to Charms, Professor Flitwick will take points. I'll try and think of something useful."
"Right. Harry and I will, um..." Ron turned to Harry. "What are we going to do?"
"Help Hermione," Harry said. "We haven't got class until Astronomy at midnight, anyway."
"Right." Ron shuffled his feet, glancing at Hermione, then back to Harry. "But you're not a werewolf."
Harry shook his head. "Not really. Sometimes it feels like I've got a bit of one inside me, but I'm not a werewolf."
Ron managed a weak smile, as Hermione turned around. "I'll meet you up in the library," she said, too quick.
Harry took a breath. Ron was an open book; if he seemed okay with this now, he was. But what about Hermione? "We can go up with you," he suggested.
"No!" Hermione swallowed hard. "I'm not okay with this, Harry, I'm sorry. I need some time alone."
Harry took a step back, crestfallen. "Oh. Right, then."
Ron put his hand on Hermione's back. "Alone, or can I come with you?"
Hermione shook her head. "I don't mean you," she said, sounding close to tears.
"All right, then, let's go," Ron said. "Ginny, are you going to be okay?"
Ginny nodded. "I'll see you lot later."
"Right." Ron gave Harry an indecipherable look as he guided Hermione, who still refused to look at Harry, out of the room.
Harry walked over to the blackboard, putting a little space between him and Ginny. He supposed he should be thinking about the Horcruxes and Voldemort, but all he could hear was Hermione's voice. I'm not okay with this.
"She'll be all right," Ginny said after a moment. "She's not like us."
"What do you mean, like us?" Harry asked, turning around.
Ginny quirked the edge of her mouth up into an unhappy smirk. "Like you and me. She knows that sometimes bad things happen, but she doesn't get how it feels. People are going to die, and sometimes people get killed."
"I don't even know what she's upset over!" Harry exclaimed. "The Horcruxes? The werewolf thing? What happened with Bellatrix?" He kicked the leg of a nearby desk. "Can't really blame her for not wanting a murderer as a friend."
"Oh, stop it!" Ginny snapped. "You know very well what might have happened if you hadn't done what you did to Bellatrix! She tortured Neville's parents, she killed Sirius, she killed one of the werewolves and she tried to kill Anita! Do you honestly think she'd have taken you back home for a nice tea party with Voldemort?" She threw up her hands. "Sometimes, you have to make choices you don't want to. I'd far rather her be dead that you."
"Yeah, me too." Harry stuck his hands in his pockets. "You're not mad at me?"
Ginny shook her head. "Harry, we thought you were a werewolf!" she said, clearly exasperated.
"What about the Horcruxes?"
"It doesn't change much, does it? I'll probably break down in hysterics in Charms when it sinks in that I was possessed by a bit of Voldemort's soul, as opposed to just his memories, but we'll let Flitwick deal with that, shall we?"
"I can't see you having hysterics," Harry said awkwardly. "You're too strong for that." Ginny blushed, and Harry suddenly remembered what Ron had said to her before they started talking about the more important stuff. "About what Ron said, before you pushed him..."
Ginny blushed even harder. "You know what an idiot he is," she said.
Harry's heart sank. "So you don't, you know, like me?" He winced at how pathetic he sounded.
"No, I do like you!" Ginny said in a rush. "But Ron's still an idiot."
"Yeah." What a mess! Harry thought, his stomach doing weird flip-flops. Ginny likes me, Luna likes Ginny, and I seem to be taking Luna to Hogsmeade. Unless... "Do you want to go to Hogsmeade on Saturday?"
"You're going with Luna," Ginny said, frowning at him.
"No, we're going as friends," Harry hastened to say. "We could all go, spend some time together."
"Only if Luna's okay with it," Ginny said. "I'll talk to her in class." She picked up her book bag. "I'm going to be late." She made no move to leave.
Harry desperately wanted to touch her, get a little closer to her, but he made himself stay where he was. As much as she said she was fine with everything, he didn't want to push it, or scare her off. "I'm sorry I didn't think about diary, what it means," he said.
Ginny looked at him for such a long time that he wondered if he'd stepped over the line. "I don't think anybody does understand," she finally said. "How can they?"
"I never knew it bothered you. You seemed like you were fine with it, I never thought... I didn't think."
She squared her shoulders and closed the distance between them. Harry's heart started pounding as she touched his arm, the heat from her fingers burning through his robes. "There's a lot you don't know about me," she said shyly, then hurried away.
Harry stood stock still, wondering if his chest would burst open from happiness and shock. She likes me! he thought, stunned. She said she'd go to Hogsmeade with me!
And Luna. Harry's good mood popped like an overfull balloon. What's Luna going to say when I tell her? Is she going to think I'm trying to set her up with Ginny? Another thought occurred to Harry. What if Ginny liked Luna in that way too? Would he be able to stand off to the side, while Luna and Ginny...
A million inappropriate images in his head, Harry blushed as red as the Gryffindor crest. He couldn't even make himself be upset by the idea that he might be left on the sidelines, if that meant Ginny and Luna would... Stop being such a pervert! he screamed at himself as he gathered up his book bag and headed for the hall. It was completely unfair that the idea of two girls kissing each other, especially those two girls in particular, would make him act like this.
The halls were full of students, jostling to get to their Monday morning classes. Harry went with the flow toward the tower staircase. As the euphoria of Ginny's interest in him wore off, the depressing reality of the rest of his life set in.
Hermione's freaked out that I'm... that I'm what? Partly a werewolf? That I killed someone? That I disarmed two Aurors? That beating Voldemort's going to be so very difficult? Or that I didn't tell her all this in the first place? He didn't even know if he could ask her straight out. Maybe he'd ask Ron.
They said they'd help me, Harry thought, dragging something positive out of the mess. Ron and Hermione and Ginny. It's got to be better than going at it on my own.
Still, Harry couldn't shake the idea that he'd made a very big mistake in telling them almost everything. He hadn't told them about becoming an Animagus, and for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why.
Maybe soon, he decided. I'll just pretend I needed more time to become one. What can it hurt, them not knowing for a little longer?
Also, before you leave:
[Poll #693735]