Chapter 4 – Tom wants a chat!

Harry started to see Ginny fall, and as he strode out to catch her he realised that he too was falling, the last thing he saw before he blacked out was Ginny.

The next Harry knew he could see blurry figures at his bedside, sitting up he started to sway and the next minute he was pushed back into the bed. He inarticulately said "Whaaa?"

"Harry, be still, here are your glasses, you are quite weak so you need to rest a bit," said the kind voice of Molly Weasley. He looked up with his glasses on, able to see the people sitting around his bed. He could see Professor McGonagall, Remus, Tonks, Hermione, Neville, Luna and Ron. "What happened," he managed to say quietly.

"You and Ginny are suffering from exhaustion, that ceremony took quite a lot out of you guys, you blacked out just after you pronounced the end of the ceremony," said Ron.

"Sorry," replied Harry a little guiltily, "where is Ginny?"

"She is right there, see," replied Hermione calmly. Harry turned over to see where Hermione was pointing, and to his relief Ginny was lying there obviously asleep. He nodded in relief and then feeling sleepy again he closed his eyes and in the next moment he was asleep again.

The next time Harry woke up, there was nobody in the room, he reached out and put his glasses on. He glanced over to where Ginny had been sleeping before and noticed that not even Ginny was in the room. He found his wand and muttered the tempus spell, it said 8 o'clock in the morning, he then realised where everyone would be. He got dressed, all his clothes having been already laid out for him and then made his way down to the kitchen. As soon as he entered the kitchen he was greeted loudly by everyone and Pengyou flew to land on his shoulder. He went to sit down by Ginny, murmuring quietly in her ear "you alright Gin?"

"Course I am fine, Harry, you?" she replied equally quietly.

"I'm good."

They turned back to the general conversation each a little bit more relieved after that conversation.

A couple of weeks went past and for the inhabitants of the Burrow it seemed to go quite quickly. Harry was greatly affected as it was coming nearer and nearer to the time when he would have to go back to the Dursley's for the last time. He was pretty nervous about it, but then he kept telling himself that he had been at the Dursley's for 17 years so the last time would not be so bad, he could just ignore them and they would ignore him. It would be trickier for him to persuade them that they needed to leave the house that they had lived in for a long time. He sighed in defeat, he had no idea how he was going to get them to leave, he really didn't want to be the person who caused the Dursley's to die but he knew that they wouldn't listen to him. He was roused from his thoughts by Remus coming up behind him, he turned round and said: "hey".

"Hi Harry, Mrs Weasley told me you wanted to talk to me about something?" asked Remus.

"Yes, um I just wanted to ask if you could take me to-to Godric's Hollow?" asked Harry quietly. Remus moved down so that he was on Harry's level and said in a voice devoid of hesitation, "of course I will come Harry, I will bring Tonks and I am guessing that you are going to bring Hermione, Ron and Ginny, I am afraid that you cannot bring Luna and Neville because that would be too many people. I am sorry."

"That's ok, thank you so much Remus," replied Harry.

"Harry, it is no problem, how about we go on Tuesday, three days from now?" asked Remus.

"That seems reasonable, again thank you," responded Harry, Remus left Harry where he was as it was obvious that Harry had gone back to his previous state of thought.

Harry, however, was remembering the conversation he had had with the twins about a week after he had woken up!

FLASHBACK

"Hiya Harry,"

"Hiya Harry,"

Harry turned around to see the twins on either side of him making him carry on walking in the same direction.

"Hi guys, what d'ya want?" Harry asked.

"Well you promised that you would"

"tell us about Remus Lupin."

"Ok, Ok, fair enough," replied Harry "let's sit down over there." Harry pointed to a tree with a small bench. They moved over to the bench, Harry sitting at one end, George the other and Fred sat down on the grass.

"Remus Lupin as you now know is one of the Marauders. James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were the other three. They were great friends, spent all their time together and were basic teenagers," started Harry "Remus Lupin as you know is a werewolf and the marauders only found out about his 'little furry problem' after about a year at Hogwarts. Remus didn't want his friends to know about his problem, however they found out soon enough. Remus thought that his friends would leave him, however, they didn't, they stayed with him to the end. They became animagi for him; they formed Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. Remus is Moony, Peter Pettigrew is Wormtail, Sirius was Padfoot and my dad was Prongs. Pettigrew was a rat, Sirius was obviously a dog and my dad was a stag. On the night that Voldemort found my parents it was because Wormtail had become a Death Eater and was the secret keeper for my parents. He sold them out." Harry had come to the end of his tail and his face was quite blank as he thought about that night. They sat in silence for awhile each deep in their own thoughts.

"Sorry mate,"

"we didn't mean to intrude."

"No, no worries, I knew that one day you would find out about the Marauders so now was as good a time as any to tell you about them," replied Harry.

END FLASHBACK

2 days later and it was to find Harry in his favourite spot thinking again. Suddenly however, his scar hurt like hell and he found that he couldn't sit up with the amount of pain he was in. He was not aware of his surroundings at all otherwise he would have seen a worried Ginny calling desperately for someone to help her. Harry however, found himself looking at Voldemort, he looked around desperately wondering how he had got himself in this situation. Voldemort laughed at him and said in his menacing manner: "you are in my head, young Misssster Potter"

Harry tried to think of a way to get out of his grips but everything he tried didn't work as Voldemort was too strong mentally for Harry to return to his own mind.

"You cannot esssscape Harry, you are ssstuck until I sssee fit to releassse you," said Voldemort as if sensing Harry's thoughts.

Harry decided that he had to reply to this: "so what do you want?" he asked.

"You know what I want young Harry, I want to kill you, and I want to kill Missss Weassssley, Mr Weasssley and Missssss Granger. I want to make sure that none of your friendssss are left for you and I will kill you lassssst."

"That is a bit over the top, Tom, you could just move away from here then you wouldn't have to see me all the time," replied Harry not feeling the bravado that he showed when standing up to Voldemort.

"That issss not over the top at all I think Harry, you ssssee you and your family have been bugging me and mine for nearly 18 yearssss now. Sssso you mussst die, do you have any preferencccce on when and where?"

"No actually, but I reckon that before the end of my last year at Hogwarts we will meet in person and by then I will be ready," replied Harry slightly shaking from the exertion of speaking to Voldemort and at trying to break free from Voldemort's head.

"There issss no doubt of thisss Harry, until next time," said Voldemort letting Harry go finally. Harry, for the second time within the month fell into oblivion.

Ginny could be found sitting by Harry's bed not having properly slept in the few days since his collapse. She had just blurrily opened her eyes as her mother came into the room,

"Oh my dear, you must go to bed, I know you want to stay here with Harry but you need to go and freshen up a bit, please honey," Molly Weasley pleaded with her daughter.

"No, Mum I am not moving an inch, I am going to stay here until he wakes up, I am not leaving him," replied Ginny tiredly but firmly. Pengyou, who was sitting on the headboard of Harry's bed then said to Ginny "well then young'un it is time for you to move and do as your mother says, young Harry is awake!" Ginny gasped and looked around to find the emerald green eyes of Harry looking at her; she threw her hands round him and was soon caught up in a tight hug with Harry. Mrs Weasley looked on smilingly and then said softly "Ginny, now you can go to bed honey, I'll give you a few minutes first though. Harry will also need more sleep."

With that Mrs Weasley proceeded downstairs and to find Ron and Hermione sitting in the kitchen deep in conversation.

"Hi Mrs Weasley," said Hermione, she sounded slightly tired as well.

"Hello Hermione, Ron, the good news is that Harry has woken up now, but don't go up yet dears, wait until Harry has had some sleep. In fact why don't you two go to bed as well, you look tired both of you and I am guessing Luna and Neville probably need bed as well," said Mrs Weasley.

"Ok, that sounds good; we will go and find Luna and Neville," replied Hermione stifling a yawn "come on Ron." Hermione then proceeded to pull Ron upstairs to find Luna and Neville and ultimately so that sleep may be obtained.

"That is 6 gone, and another couple of stubborn people to go!" said Mrs Weasley to herself quietly after they had left the room. She then went on to find the rest of the Weasley clan.

It was a two days later and Harry, Ginny, Remus, Tonks, Mad-eye Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Arthur Weasley were standing in the hallway to the Burrow. The trip to Godric's Hollow had had to be put off for a day because Harry had not quite recovered in time for the original date that had been decided on. Hermione and Ron were also not allowed to go because there would be too many people to guard, and the guard had been upped from just Remus and Tonks because of Voldemort's threat to Harry. The group were all wearing dark black cloaks which had the shield spells on them. Harry of course had Pengyou on his shoulder and his invisibility cloak was in Ginny's pocket. They all placed a finger on the candlestick and waited for the portkey to activate.

Having recovered from the Portkey ride, the guard all stood in protective stances around Harry, Ginny and Remus as Remus led them to where the house used to stand. Harry looked around at the place where Godric's Hollow stood. The site had obviously been cleared up since the tragedy 16 years before, but you could tell that a relatively large house had stood there before. Instead of a house you could now a park. There were some benches, swings and slides occupying the site now. They walked over to the park and read the inscriptions on the bench situated in the middle of the park. It read:

This is the site of the house Godric's Hollow, this bench is in memorial to James and Lily Potter may they rest in peace.

Ginny could feel the tears welling up in her eyes and she squeezed Harry's hand tightly to show that she was there for him if he needed her. Pengyou was also a reassuring presence in her mind, although she still puzzled as to how she could hear and feel Pengyou. They sat down on the bench for awhile enjoying watching the children playing in the park. Then Remus quietly asked Harry: "Harry do you want to now go and see their graves?"

"Yes please, Remus," replied Harry equally quietly and with that they moved off in the direction of the graveyard. The day was cooling down but this didn't seem to bother Harry in the slightest, he walked with certainty to the graveyard determined to see his parent's graves before they left that place.

The graveyard was dull as only graveyards can be, there seemed to be so many graves, however, after awhile they halted in front of two graves. Ginny read the inscriptions on them:

Lily Potter died so that her son could live, loving wife and mother.

James Potter died for his family, loving husband and father.

By this time Ginny was weeping freely and hugging the kneeling Harry. Harry was also crying as this made it seem more real to him. He knew intellectually that his parents had died, a long time before but actually seeing their graves made it completely real. He had noticed that they had been buried near many others who had died in the fight against Voldemort. He supposed that the graveyard was for the Order of the Phoenix members who died when fighting against Voldemort. He turned to Remus and asked: "Is there a grave for Sirius?"

"Not yet Harry, there will be one day, there will be one day," replied Remus looking regretful and not far from tears himself. Remus let them stay there for awhile before he knew that they had to move on as it was approaching sundown and they were more vulnerable to attack after dark. "Harry, Ginny, we have got to go now, it is almost sundown, come on we have to hurry." Harry and Ginny untangled themselves from their tight embrace, wiping away the tears; they met up with the rest of the order members guarding them. Remus looked around as the shadows seemed to surround them, was it him or was there movement from behind the gravestones in the corner, that was when he shouted: "EVERYONE GO NOW." He himself activated the portkey, unfortunately only Ginny and Remus had hold of it when it activated.

Harry saw as Remus and Ginny disappeared, he had also seen movement and he heard Remus' shout. He went to ask Pengyou to lift him into the air, but he found himself already aloft "Thanks Pengyou, we really need to get away now," said Harry.

"It is ok Harry, we are going," replied Pengyou.

Harry watched as the ground flew away from them and as the guard ran far enough away to disapparate from the graveyard, the shadows tried to stop the order members from leaving without success.