Harry Potter did not consider himself a spiteful person, but there was a limit to his pride, even to him. Always known in high school for being a calm person, the kid really got really angry a few times in life. One of them when he caught his girlfriend, Gina Weasley, kissing the person he most hated in life: Tom Riddle.
Even after years, he could not forget that scene, much less what he had felt when he saw them together. It seemed as though his heart was trying to squeeze itself to the point of vanishing at the sight of the woman he had always loved with his worst enemy. Harry could not get out of bed for a few days after that. He could not stop thinking about what he had seen and what he had done wrong in their relationship to deserve it.
Ginny had always been the most honest girl he'd ever met, so why had she done that to him?
It was what Harry asked himself after four years as he drummed his fingers on the wheel of the car as he drove to the home of Ronald Weasley, his ex-girlfriend's brother and best male friend, who was coincidentally married to his best female friend, Hermione Granger.
After what had happened four years earlier, Gina had gone to study International Relations in Lisbon, Portugal, and Harry had never heard of her again. But a few months ago Harry's parents, Lily and James Potter, received a call from Ron's parents, Molly and Arthur Weasley. The redhead couple looked extremely distressed and asked that the Potter not go to their house for the time being and without explaining they hung up the phone without accepting any other call.
So did Harry, who had received a message from Ron in the middle of the night,
I'm going to travel for a couple of days, man, we'll talk after I get back.
But after Ron had returned, he had sent another message:
Harry, do not go to my parents' house! It is extremely important that you do not go there anymore!
And that was why Harry was now parking in front of the house of his two best friends, who had not talked to him for too many days in the boy's opinion. But before he even got out of the car, the front door of the lovely yellow house opened, revealing a Hermione who was not at all well, he could guess even from a distance.
With worry growing back in his chest, almost choking him, Harry got out of the car quickly and made his way to the front porch, where Hermione was waiting for him. As he approached his friend, he noticed the deep dark circles and puffy eyes of her.
"What the hell happened?" he demanded without even greeting her. "Hermione, I deserve to know why you look so desolate. Please, I can not bear to miss the reason why the most important people in my life are so agonized!"
Hermione's eyes filled with tears again, but she took a few deep breaths, looking Harry in the eyes, slowly calming down.
"Let's go in" his friend said after the silence that stretched as she released the passage to Harry "we'd better wait for Ron to talk about it"
"What is it?" Harry asked, impatient and worried closer around his heart and trachea. Hermione did not look at him as she walked through the living room and into the kitchen, signaling her friend to accompany her.
When Harry entered Hermione's always millimetrically neat kitchen, he was more frightened than death. The sink had accumulated dirty dishes and the table looked like a mess of random food, as if the couple were eating lunch rice with breakfast, bread and butter.
Something was definitely wrong with his friends and Harry could not, for some reason, stop thinking about Ginny. Did she have something to do with it? Ron had said he needed to travel, after all.
"I'm going to call Ron, he's in the shower," Hermione said in a fragile, aching voice that Harry hated to hear coming out of his step sister's mouth. Lowering her head and not looking into his eyes, she retreated to the top floor.
Frustrated, Harry ran his hand through his hair as his father always did. James Potter was the most loving of the parents and Harry venerated him, despite being the mother's son too. When they were children, Ginny would tell him that her mother was as beautiful as fire and Harry had never understood then, but she did now. Lily Potter burned, as beautiful as the fire, the ferocity of her love was sensitive even to someone who did not know her.
"Harry," said Ron in a surprised, tired tone. Potter turned, only to find a male version as bad as Hermione was. Ronald Weasley stared down at him, and Harry straightened his eyes as he noticed the bruised skin around the bones of his friend's fingers, as if he had punched someone or something.
"My God, Ron, what the hell happened?" he asked, trying to push the anger and anger aside and focus on the well-being of his friends "why do you and Hermione seem..."
"Destroyed? Tired to the extreme?" Ron completed softly, too tired to fight "because we are"
"But what happened to you guys like this?" Harry asked, bending their slightly hostile tone with subtlety.
Ron was speechless and Hermione, with a tired look, hugged him from behind, supporting the redhead. Harry, who was beginning to panic over so much secrecy, sat down in the nearest chair and waited impatiently for them to begin speaking at the same time.
"A few weeks ago," Ron began in a low voice, not looking his friend in the eye. "My parents received a phone call from Portugal, but it was not Ginny who spoke, even though it was her cell phone."
Harry's heart seemed to fall from a precipice inside him, beating painfully.
"What ..." he tried to speak, but there was a lump in his throat and his voice went so low that neither of the two friends noticed.
"It was a man," said Ron almost in a whisper and Harry felt like he was panicking "he called us to let us know ... to report that Ginny was in a hospital and that her condition was critical"
"What ..." he tried to speak, but there was a lump in his throat and his voice went so low that neither of the two friends noticed.
"It was a man," said Ron almost in a whisper and Harry felt like he was panicking "he called us to let us know... to report that Ginny was in a hospital and that her condition was critical"
There was a long pause after Ron said it. The air around them seemed almost palpable so tense. Harry felt suffocated by what he heard, his heart twisting without remorse in anticipation of something very bad.
"Harry, we did not tell you that because we thought it would upset you," Hermione finally said, moving to shake her husband's hand "but Ginny had been dating Tom Riddle since you..."
"Broke up" Harry finished for her when Hermione hesitated, looking at him with concern "do not worry, Mione, I'm not made of sugar"
"Arthur and Molly did not approve of the courtship," the brunette continued, shuddering "in truth, none of us approved, mostly because of you. She, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley fought ugly before she left for Lisbon with Riddle "
Beside his wife, Ron shivered and then buried his head in his hands as if in great agony, making Harry's heart beat maddeningly fast, eager to hear answers, and fearful of them at the same time.
"What happened?" he managed to whisper at last.
"When we arrived in the hospital, the man who called us, Theodore Not, not met us. He was with her in the room and said he lived next to the Gina's apartment and they had become friends. It was he who heard the Gina and Tom's fight, and it was he who took her to the hospital after Riddle..."
Hermione's voice was embarked and she spoke with her hand im the mounth, her eyes full of sheds not poured, but they did not take to fall. Harry noticed without any surprise that her sight was also blurred. He got up quickly to pull the tears and silent until they could even calm down.
"Why did not you want me in the home of your parents?" Harry asked end "I could have helped take care of her ..."
"It was not just that happened" Ron said, interrupting the friend, who just looked at him, waiting. Closing his eyes for a moment, the redhead continued from where Hermione had stopped "we did not want you to know for now, but I think there's no way to hide this"
"Hide what?" Harry asked, confused and worried as he directed his gaze from Ron to Hermione and vice versa.
"The... kiss you saw at the graduation" said Ron, now a little calmer and more focused "it was planned. Tom wanted you to see it, and he blackmailed Ginny into kissing him back"
Harry felt as if a bucket of cold water had been thrown over him. The hatred he and Tom Riddle felt for each other had been fed by generations, it had not begun with them. The small town where they lived, Rye, in the east of Sussex, was commanded by the descendants of the four families that had founded it: Griffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.
The Potter were the descendants of the Griffindor and commanded the northern part of Rye.
The Riddle were the descendants of the Slytherin and commanded the southern part of Rye
The Abott were the descendants of the Hufflepuff and commanded the western part of Rye.
The Bones were the descendants of the Ravenclaws and commanded the eastern part of Rye.
Everyone knew the Griffindor had a quarrel with the Slytherins. The two families did not speak for years. But somehow, even with this hatred, both families always attended the city's central school, Hogwarts, which indicated exactly the center of Rye. The school, to avoid the fights, separated the students by region, so the students who lived to the north were always with the Gryffindor and thus it happened with the other three regions
Although there was no sense in the quarrel between the two families, Harry really hated Tom Riddle and the hatred was mutual. Harry hated him because he had always treated the students as his mere dust in his shoes, meanwhile Tom hated him just for being so nice.
Still, he'd never imagined the boy would do that to anyone.
"But why?" Harry asked, looking up at his friends "why would he do that?"
"Ginny does not talk about him," said Ron in a flash of pain "but not after the psychologist who took care of her made her tell the whole story to her. As the doctor has an oath to fulfill, she could only tell us what Ginny agreed to and that was only a week ago, even though we were in Lisbon three months ago "
Harry remained silent, knowing that this was actually quite fast. It had taken him much longer than three months for him to tell his psychologist about the traumas of his life. Still, even after so much time attending therapy, there were things he sometimes preferred to keep to himself and he did not tell Hagrid.
"What did she tell you?" he asked when he realized that his friends needed an insomniac, even though the Potter did not really know if he wanted to hear about it.
"Tom blackmailed her with photos he took hidden away from her in the backyard of our house" Ron gritted his teeth in anger at the imbecile "she agreed to kiss him so he could erase the pictures. He continued to blackmail her to stay with it."
"Tell me," Harry interrupted in a tight voice, "tell me he did not try..."
He did not dare finish that thought, but the looks on Ron and Hermione's face have already told him everything he needed to know. Harry covered his face with his hands, unhappy and horrified. He could not believe what was happening. His ex-girlfriend had been blackmailed and abused by that bastard for years and yet he did not notice anything, he did not go after her to find out...
"I... did you bring her home?" Harry asked desperately. Ron and Hermione nodded and the boy got up "I need to see her... How is she? Tom... What's going to happen?"
"Harry, sit down," Hermione said softly, pushing his friend back to the chair "you are not in a position to drive like this and need to calm down"
"How?" he turned his desolate green gaze to her. Hermione did not answer, unable to look into his friend's eyes for a long time. She knew it would destroy Harry, she knew nothing good would come of it.
"I... I do not know," her friend admitted grudgingly, "but we'll get through this and help Ginny get through this"
Harry closed his eyes as he felt the pain in his heart. Reaching back over his face with one hand, he tried to think beyond the pain and anger that was beginning to bubble at his core.
"How is she?" he asked as soon as he had managed to normalize his breathing, which had earlier been shaking.
"Destroyed," said Ron, frustrated enough not to care how that diagnosis would affect his best friend "she's still recovering from... injuries, but she will not talk to any of us."
Harry really thought he could break in that moment of so much pain that radiated from his heart to his whole body.