One Lie Can Change Everything
Author Note: Here is a story I came up randomly a few months ago. XenaPotter with be co-writing this with me since I helped her with one of her stories, Second Chances. I'm not sure yet where I'm going with it quite yet, but here's the beginning at least.
Chapter 1: V-Day Blues
It was Valentine's Day, the one day of the year when couples go out of their way to let each other know just how special they are and how much they love them. That is, unless you're one Harry James Potter. He just was starting to look like his father, James Potter. He was a handsome, relatively tall, and slightly muscled from all of the crazy adventures he's gone on while at Hogwarts. He on the other hand was arguing with his girlfriend.
But of course nothing has ever been easy for him. First, his mother, Lily, was killed by the Dark Lord, while his father had been put into a coma after having debris fall on him after the Dark Lord's curse missed and hit the ceiling instead. Harry was then shipped off to live with his dreadful aunt and uncle while James was stuck in his coma. Sirius Black, who happened to be Harry's Godfather, would have taken him in, but he couldn't find him because Dumbledore hide him at he Dursely's.
The Dursley's; his Uncle Vernon, his Aunt Petunia and his cousin Dudley, treated him like the Malfoy's treat house elves; like an inferior, almost beast-like creature who's only purpose was to serve them like a slave. They were very abusive towards him and barely gave him any food. Dudley used him as a punching bag daily, while his aunt and uncle would beat him whenever Dudley did anything wrong or when Harry tried to stand up for himself, or sometimes just because they were bored and wanted something to do. They forced him to live in broom closet under the staircase and feed him just enough as to keep him alive.
Things started turning around though when he was nine years old. James had finally woken up from his coma, a long eight years later. When he came to pick up Harry, the poor boy was scrawny, weak, and was suffering from a severe case of malnutrition. When James saw the condition his son was in, he flipped out on the Dursley's, punching Vernon in the face, backhanded Petunia, and smacked Dudley upside the head. He then called Child Services on them, getting Vernon and Petunia thrown in jail on multiple charges of child endangerment and abuse, while Dudley was sent to a juvenile detention center.
James and Harry then moved into Sirius Black's inherited house, where they lived with both Sirius and another one of their close friends, Remus Lupin. Sirius never got sent to Azkaban because he managed to stop Peter before he could frame him by killing all of those muggles and blowing himself up. Peter was sent Azkaban instead, while Sirius went on to become a well respected Auror, much like James was. That was also the year Harry found out about being a wizard, having received his first broomstick on his 10th birthday. For the first time in his life, Harry was finally happy.
Things got a little worse when he finally when to Hogwarts, where he met Severus Snape, an old enemy of James and Sirius whom they had always bullied, and Draco Malfoy and the rest of his cronies who hated him because he would join them. Snape tried to make Harry's life miserable whenever he could as a way of revenge on James, while the Slytherins constantly mocked him and tried to pick fights him.
Luckily enough, he managed to find three best friends: Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Luna Lovegood. He had met Ron and Hermione on the train to Hogwarts and met Luna in their second year. Luna was a strange, but sweet girl that Harry had a strange attraction to, but never knew why before this year.
Presently though, his girlfriend, Cho Chang, was yelling at him because he wanted to go hang out with Luna instead of spending time with her. "Why do you want to go spend time with that blonde bimbo?! It's Valentine's Day for Merlin's sake! You're suppose to be showering me with love and gifts, not blowing me off for another girl! Especially Loony Lovegood of all people!" Cho screamed shrilly at Harry who was sitting across from her in an overly expensive restaurant she forced him to take her to.
Harry, who was just as angry as her now, slammed fist down on the table causing it to shake violently. "First of all, Cho, never insult Luna around me ever again, and that goes for Hermione too. Luna may be strange and seem a little ditzy, but she has been one of my best friends since in meet her three years ago. She's sweet, funny, caring, and does whatever it takes to support her friends."
After this first outburst Cho was starting to tear up, but Harry was so upset at this point the chose to ignore it and continued, "And secondly, maybe if you didn't constantly cry and moan about your precious fucking Cedric all the time, maybe just maybe, I would want to spend time with you more, but noooooo, it always Cedric, Cedric, Cedric. Cedric is dead. He's not coming back, you seem to forget that I was forced to watch Voldermort kill him remorsely. I was in the fucking graveyard with him, so I know. I still have motherfucking nightmares about it, but do you do care at all about that? No, you just want to know if he loved you and if he mentioned you before he died! To answer your question for the millionth time, No! He didn't mention you at all, he only ordered me to take his body to his parents! You don't give a fuck about me! You're only dating me because I was with Cedric in his final moments!" Harry suddenly feels a hand smacking his cheek.
Cho had slapped him in the face hard, by this time everyone in the restaurant had cleared out from fear of the couple's rage. "You're lying! You have to be fucking lying! Cedric loved me and had to have said something about me with his last breath! Fucking tell me what he said!", Cho yelled in fury. "I fucking told you already; Cedric didn't say anything about you! He probably only went out with you because you were popular and thought you would be an easy lay! I actually cared about and liked you, but no, you have to cling to the memory of a dead man that probably didn't give a shit about you and only wanted you around for a trophy and a toy. Did he force you to sleep with him?" shouted back at her.
Once again she goes to slap him, but this time he catches her hand and asks her again, "Did he force you to have sex with him?" Cho just sits there freely crying now and says nothing. "Answer the fucking question, Cho!" "Yes!", Cho sobs out, "Yes, he made me have sex with him everyday, whenever he wanted, even between classes and during classes, sometimes three or four times a day!" "Exactly. Cedric didn't love you or even give a fuck about you. You were nothing but a sex toy to him, if he was still alive he would have eventually gotten bored and have gotten rid of you or even worse, he could have gotten you pregnant and then left you to deal with it alone. Yet, you worshipped the very ground he walked on and you still do.", Harry replied a little more calmly. "Lies… They have to be lies… You must be lying…", Cho mumbled to herself over and over while sobbing pitifully, her brain frazzled and in denial.
Harry would have felt bad for being so harsh with her if he wasn't so upset. "Look Cho, since you obviously still don't believe me, why don't you go ask Malfoy what happened in the graveyard. His father was there after all, and so were Crabbe and Goyles' dad. Get them to tell you happened. Just be warned, Cho, they won't be as honest with you as I just was," said Harry, he was still upset, but much calmer than he was. Cho looks up at Harry through her tears and just gazes emptily at him . Harry bends down and kisses her on the forehead. " I'm sorry, Cho, but it's over. I just can't handle the all of the stress, the arguing, and all of the nightmares that talking about Cedric cause me. I can't be with you anymore, it's just too painful. Goodbye, Cho." Harry laid money of the table to pay for the meal along with a quite large tip for all of the commotion they caused. Cho just sat there, frozen in thought while staring blankly into space, trying to process everything that Harry had just said.
Harry had originally planned to find Luna, but right now he was too drained, both mentally and physically, to even think about doing that, so he just wandered mindlessly towards the castle and hopefully his dorm. Everyone in Hogsmeade had heard Harry and Cho's fight since they had being yelling so loudly. That being said, everyone pretty much just got out of Harry's way when they saw him coming, parting like the sea in an effort not to set him off again. Even Ron and Hermione were too afraid to deal with him at the moment.
Luna, on the other hand, knew that her best friend would need her to be there for him so she hurried towards the castle, hoping to catch him before he got there. She reaches the main entrance of the castle and turns around so she can watch for Harry's approach. About half an hour later she finally sees him coming, so she waits for him to get closer and then run out to meet him.
When Harry see Luna, he stops and waits for her. Seeing the empty look on his face, she throws her arms around him and pulls him into a tight, comforting hug. He stands there in shock for a few seconds before finally returning the hug, clinging to Luna like his life depended on. Luna feels her robe getting wet as Harry just breaks down and starts sobbing into her shoulder. Luna found the sound of the anguish within those sobs to be heart-wrenching, almost making her cry herself. She just couldn't stand to see her best friend suffering so much.
Suddenly, the clouds opened up and it start to downpour violently. "Harry, we can't stay here, we have to go inside! Let's go to the ROR so we can talk in privacy." Harry just nods dumbly as Luna leads him to the Room of Requirements. "Harry, can tell me what happen at the restaurant with you and Cho?" Harry just stared at her unseeing, so Luna helps him to drink a cup of strong coffee. "That better, Harry?" "Kinda, what did you ask me again, Luna?", Harry asks shakily, having finally recovered his voice. "What happened, Harry?", Luna repeats her question gently.
"Cho was talking about Cedric again, so I wanted to end the date and go hang out with you instead. Cho freaked out and starting bad mouthing you. After that I just blew up on her, letting out all of the frustration and pain I had built up while dating her. I defended you first, and exploded about her obsession with Cedric. Then she slapped and told me I was lying. I then flipped out some more about Cedric and asked her if he forced himself on her. Cho then tried to slap me again, but I caught her hand this time and order her to answer the question and she responds by saying that she was pretty much his sex slave. I told her that he was just using her and that she was too in love to notice. She then fell into a pit of denial and I told her to ask Malfoy and his cronies about the truth since she didn't believe me. I told her it was over and that I could take the stress and pain anymore. Cho and I are through."
Luna just sat listened to Harry in silence until he was finished. When he was done, she goes over to him and pulls him into a hug again while whispering comfortingly in his ear. They just stay in the position until Harry calms down and falls asleep. Luna repositions herself so that his head was laying on her lap as she stroked his hair,both relieved and happy that he had finally calmed down and was now sleeping peacefully. She had to admit to herself though that she liked the position they were in, and then mentally scolded herself for think about her best friend like that. Harry suddenly snuggled closer to her in his sleep and smiled subconsciously. Luna was surprised at first, but then just smiles herself and continues to play with his hair until she finally succumbs to the call of slumber.
Luna wakes up the next morning and tries to get up only to realize that she is unable to move. She looks down for the source of the weight, only to see that Harry was still fast asleep on her lap. She blushes slightly and remembers what happened yesterday. She had gotten the best night sleep in a long time. She looks at the clock and see that they have two hours until their first class starts. She decides it's time to wake Harry up so they can get ready, even though she would rather stay like this for a little while longer. Luna gently shakes Harry while saying, "It's time to get up now, Harry." Harry reluctantly stirs and opens his eyes, only to see Luna's pretty face smiling down at him. "Good morning, Harry." Harry blushes at the angel like face he sees and blushes even more when he realizes where his head is. "G..g..g..g'morning, L..LL..Luna," Harry stuttered out. "Where are we, what happened, and why is my head on you lap?" Luna giggles and replies, " In order: ROR, you broke up with Cho and I was comforting you, and last you fell asleep while I was holding you. We need to get back to our dorms and get ready for class now, Harry." Harry still looked confused, but said "Ok."
They somehow managed to sneak back to their separate dorms unnoticed, and then showered and got dressed. The next week or two flew by as Harry and Luna became almost inseparable.
Frost: Wow, this is the longest chapter I've ever done! Just couldn't find a good spot to stop, so I just keep going. Anyway, the first chapter of One Lie Can Change Everything is complete.
Harry: I kinda feel bad for how harsh I was towards Cho, even though her obsession with Cedric was annoying the hell out of me.
Frost: I know, I feel guilty too, but it had to be done.
Harry: I guess, I just hope it doesn't come back to bite me…
Frost: Don't worry, it will…eventually.
Harry: Great… O_o
Frost: Anyway, review and tell me what you think.
Luna: But no flames please.