Flowers of Passion and Love
Chapter One – The Savior Saving
Harry Potter was having a bad day. Harry Potter was having a bad school year. Harry Potter was having a bad life, no exaggeration needed. Oh well, that was the price a savior had to pay in order to be a savior. That and maybe losing your parents to Death's hand helped a little. Harry smiled a morbid smile and shook his head to clear himself of the current line of thinking.
Life had gone down hill from the moment Harry Potter had stepped foot within the halls of the Department of Mystery at the end of his fifth year for himself. More visions with Voldemort occurred as he still had not learned occlumency. He neither trusted Snape nor Dumbledore to teach him. He couldn't protect his mind, but he could delve into another's however.
Halfway through lunch was when the day really got worse. The Great Hall's doors, which had been closed, opened of seemingly their own accord. Many cast a wary glance at the doorway ready to draw their wands when in walked a dog although it seemed more like a wolf than a dog. It was covered from head to paws in black with white and gray colorings in just the right pattern. It was a beautiful and amazing looking wolf. The only thing peculiar about the wolf, besides it being alone, was the fact that it had a letter in its mouth.
Harry, on the other hand, was not relieved to only see the wolf, as he knew who it was, the wolf being an animagus form. Harry was up and out of his seat with his wand drawn ready to fire a curse at a moment's notice. This was an action not unnoticed by the population of Hogwarts which visibly tensed again.
"Get out of here now before I kill you!" The angry teen shouted at the animagus. The wolf stopped for a moment's hesitation, but walked slowly towards Harry. He carefully watched the wolf's movements until it reached about five feet away, dropped the letter on the ground, and walked back to ten feet away before sitting down.
"Get out of here now!" Harry yelled again, but the wolf looked unfazed and just looked at the letter before looking to Harry again. He hesitated which was also noted by the school's population. Going against better judgment, Harry lowered his wand and grabbed the note. He looked into the wolf's eyes to determine any falsehoods, but could not find any, only jumbled emotions and thoughts, probably from being in an animagus form. Harry opened the letter.
I know you know who I am. I want to ask for your help as hard as that may be to believe. I don't want to be one of them anymore. Help me, please. If you won't help me, then please help my sister and her daughter, my niece. My niece is too young to know of any of the current situation, but my sister doesn't want to be apart of it any longer. Please help.
Promptly folding the note and putting it in his pocket, Harry looked to the wolf. The wolf had a pleading expression on its face or as much of one as a wolf could muster. Harry looked away from the face, which reminded him of the somewhat human faces Sirius could make in his animagus form. The wolf, realizing its error, looked down at the ground. Harry contemplated the situation and the sincerity of the letter for several moments before looking towards the wolf. Yet again against better judgment, Harry walked out of the Great Hall with the wolf right behind him.
Walking out to the Quidditch pitch where no one could see the two, Harry said one word to the wolf, "Transform." The wolf complied without hesitation or fear for its life like in the Great Hall. There before him stood a woman who had seen better times, but seemed to be regaining the life she had lost.
Harry looked the woman in the eyes and penetrated her mind to find out the truth. A gasp was all that was emitted from the woman's lips; she didn't try to push the presence out of her mind. In her mind Harry could see the truth in her words. The Imperius and Cruciatus curses cast so many times on this woman that they couldn't be counted. She was actually friends with Sirius during school before being forced into her arranged marriage.
So much pain and struggling to be free in her life much like Harry's. Maybe that is what helped persuade his decision in her favor. Harry discontinued eye contact with this...ex-Death Eater, ex-murderer, and potentially new woman and ally.
"In Hogsmeade, there is a run down place called the Shrieking Shack. There you will stay until tonight. When it is near midnight, exit the Shrieking Shack through the trap door on the first floor. I will meet you at the end of the tunnel and bring you inside Hogwarts." Everything was said in a crisp and business-like voice. The woman nodded in understanding. "Give me your wand." The woman hesitated momentarily, but handed over the wand.
Without looking back, Harry turned around and went back inside the school to his next class of Transfiguration. He shook his head minutely in wonder of the reasons why he had agreed to help Bellatrix Lestrange, or Bellatrix Black as she would be known now, of all people. To also agree to help some Malfoys, or yet again to be known as Blacks, also was ludicrous. Harry wondered if he was going insane from his life's adventures.
Harry stayed after Transfiguration in order to talk to Professor McGonagall. She was one of the select few of professors that Harry still talked to after he had had his falling out with the Headmaster. Professor McGonagall looked up at her student with trepidation, talks between a professor and Harry were far and few between.
"I want a private room out of Gryffindor Tower...please." It was a demand, not a request and there was no room for argument.
"Mr. Potter—," Professor McGonagall faltered and restarted. "Mr. Potter, I can not just give you a new room, let alone one out of Gryffindor Tower."
"My nightmares and screaming out are affecting the rest of my roommates." The lie passed easily from Harry's lips. Harry dared Professor McGonagall to refute the lie with his eyes.
"Very—very well. I will have to clear it with the Headmaster though." Professor McGonagall stopped suddenly. That was a very bad and large mistake to make. The Headmaster was not mentioned when talking with Harry Potter. Harry tensed and stood rigidly not looking towards Professor McGonagall anymore.
"I don't care, I want the room by tonight and I want it in a secluded area, away from students and professors. One master bedroom with three guest rooms and no house defining decorations in any of the rooms." Yet again it was a demand and not a request with any room for argument. Harry walked out of the classroom, leaving behind a speechless professor.
All through dinner Harry was given strange looks by the teachers and students alike. He seemed to be acting normal, as normal as he usually was since after his fifth year, without any recognition of his outburst towards the wolf at lunch. It was worse after dinner in the Gryffindor Common Room. Most people were silent or there were quiet whisperings between pairs or triplets of people. Word from Neville was that Harry Potter was packing his things in the Seventh Year Boys' Dormitory and was going to leave. Leave to where was unknown as no one within Gryffindor Tower was talked to by Harry, not even Ron or Hermione. They were glancing at each other nervously wondering where their best friend was going.
The students immediately froze when simultaneously Harry walked down the dormitory steps and Professor McGonagall walked into the common room. Harry with his trunk floating behind him and Professor McGonagall with a look of resignation on her face. Together they exited Gryffindor Tower.
"Your rooms are located at the east end of the castle," Professor McGonagall said shortly, but there was now malice or anger in the statement. They arrived at the new rooms and choosing a password, Harry entered his new rooms without a second glance towards Professor McGonagall.
That night at nearly midnight Harry could be seen standing in front of the Whomping Willow with a person emerging from it. Together, the two walked back to his rooms. No run ins with Filch or Snape occurred. Bella looked around the room in wonder, but more thought of the boy standing next to her in wonder. She had killed and tortured numerous people, even if not under her own control, and the Boy Who Lived had still taken her in and possibly forgiven her if not on the road to forgiveness. Just then she remembered what she had wanted to do.
Bella knelt and bowed her head. "I Bellatrix Black owe Harry Potter an innumerable life debt and shall be his slave until he has found the life debt repaid." Harry was shocked and was not pleased with this action, but this was how the Wizarding World worked. Harry did not acknowledge the life debt and only merely pointed to one of the guest room doorways before exiting into his own bedroom after laying her wand on the table in front of the couch.
That next morning was Saturday and someone deemed it necessary that Harry Potter was not meant to sleep in, possibly Bellatrix Black. Bella, however, excused the earliness because her sister and niece were due to be at Hogwarts within an hour. Harry grumbled something that sounded like, "This was planned even if I hadn't helped her."
Harry showed up at breakfast half an hour later followed by his expected guests half an hour after that. This time however there was a single knock on the Great Hall doors before they opened of their own accord. In the doorway stood two cloaked figures, one was smaller than the other. Sighing, Harry got up to greet his guests and lead them back to the rooms.
When Harry reached the two figures though, the bigger knelt with their head bowed. "I Narcissa Black owe Harry Potter an innumerable life debt and shall be his slave until he has found his life debt repaid." Harry let out another long winded and loud sigh. Two in one day, impressive, especially since he had no clue what an innumerable life debt was. With another sigh and a mumbling of, "Conspiring witches," Harry lead his two new guests to the awaiting rooms.
The population of Hogwarts located within the Great Hall glanced at each warily. Yesterday it was a wolf that had set Harry on edge by being in the Great Hall and in which he also threatened to kill it. Also yesterday Harry moved out of Gryffindor Tower and into an unknown location by the students and most of the professors. Now today two people showed up where one bowed to Harry and he looked almost resigned to the whole ordeal. A more extreme emotional roller coaster within the confines of Hogwarts' walls than needed with Lord Voldemort running rampant.