Chapter 11
Mountains and Gnome Hills
Harry and Arthur landed just outside the wards that no doubt surrounded their home. The twins and Ron were already waiting for them, big smiles on their faces as they waited patiently for the last arrivals to catch up. When they did Arthur took the lead, followed by the twins, Ron and Harry hung back.
Ron clapped Harry on the shoulder and beamed at him. "Good to see you mate! Hope the muggles weren't too foul!" Harry ducked his head in a mock nod so Ron wouldn't see the lie.
"Wasn't so bad this time, but still glad for the rescue mate!" Harry wasn't sure which part was the bigger lie… The part about the Dursley's not being as bad… or the part about being grateful of Ron's rescue. Maybe if the Weasley's had been a week earlier Harry wouldn't be so unenthusiastic about it… but after that week with Snape and Draco he just felt empty knowing that from here on into the foreseeable future he wouldn't be able to spend time with them like he had this summer.
This thought alone made Harry very gloomy, but he tried to shake it off, it wasn't like he didn't love his time with the Weasley's too. They were his family after all…
But now that he thought about it, Snape and Draco had become his family too in a way… Snape was like the father he had never had… even Arthur didn't make him feel the way Severus did. He assumed it was because Arthur still had his own 'real' children to look after while Severus had only Draco and him.
And that was another thing, what was Draco to Harry now? They were defiantly not enemies anymore… that was for sure… even if they did have to pretend they were… But the connection they had developed in that short time felt deeper then friendship. He wanted to say brother, which would make sense seeing as how Severus' views of both of them were similar if not very much the same, but for whatever reason Harry didn't feel the same way about Ron that he felt about Draco. The feelings he had for Ron were definitely brotherly… but with Draco it might go even deeper.
Draco's lips on his knuckles didn't feel brotherly… the way Draco had held him that first night didn't feel brotherly… they felt tender and made Harry's heart beat faster, his body grow warmer… He shook his head.
Now was not the time to be thinking about his feelings for Draco. He was entering the always exuberant energy field of the Weasley household and he needed to have his wits about him.
He entered the comforting, warm home where he was immediately snatched up by Molly in a fierce hug that left his rips creaking in protest. When he was released Molly stared at him with scrutinizing eyes.
"Why are you always so skinny when you come here? Do they feed you at all?" She didn't wait for a response as she shook her head disapprovingly. Molly turned on her heel and stomped away into the kitchen. Harry held his breath knowing already what was coming next.
Sure enough seconds after disappearing Molly stormed back out, followed by what could only be described as a parade of food. She waved her wand making all of the food float to the table. She walked back to Harry and steered him to a chair shoving him down into it. She smiled at him, patting him on the shoulder before reaching over and pilling food onto his plate in mounds that would intimidate even the likes of Ron who ate like his stomach was a bottomless pit wanting nothing more than to try and be filled…
Harry stared at the food with eyes the size of dinner plates –pun not intended- before his head snapped around to Ron who was trying not to laugh at Harry's imitation of an owl. He shook his head unhelpfully before turning his back to the distressed teen.
"I'll go get Hermione, Merlin knows she's been worrying incessantly about you." He didn't even bother to say it over his shoulder simply saying it to the room as he walked away leaving Harry to his mountain and the ever watchful eyes of Molly.
Harry watched dejectedly as his best friend walked away, slowly he turned back to his food as Ron's trainers disappeared from sight up the stairs. He looked at Molly with beseeching eyes but she just shook her head with one eye brow raised. "No getting out of this love, you eat at least half and then we'll talk." She turned and left walking back to the kitchen.
Harry stared at the food considering, then picked up his fork and began eating. He was grateful that he had been eating more the last week otherwise his stomach would still be too small to even be able to look at all this food without being full.
He had taken a couple of large bites when he was attacked from behind by Hermione. She wasn't even fully in view before she started in. "Oh Harry, where have you been, why haven't you been writing regularly? We've been worried sick! Why are you so thin again? Those blasted relatives of yours need a good talking to. Thinking that it's acceptable to treat their nephew like this…" She trailed off, Harry not even listening anymore, he simply smiled at Hermione and then glanced up at Ron affectionately until Hermione noticed.
"What?! Why are you smiling at me like that?"
"Blimey I've missed you Mione! Even the raving." She looked mildly offended, but rolled her eyes and smiled sweetly after a moment as she resigned herself to that statement for what it really was, which was deep affection.
"I missed you too Harry, even if you are rude." She sniffed with false nonchalance and looked away from Harry's face. Harry just continued to smile as he turned back to his overwhelming amount of food, trying to eat more.
~*#*~
When Harry had eaten most of the food on his plate Molly said he was allowed to leave. He did so with a grateful nod. He stood, pecked the motherly woman on the cheek and practically ran from the room followed directly by Hermione and Ron.
They went all the way up to Ron's room, Harry collapsed onto his customary cot with a sigh. "Were the muggles really bad this summer? You're even thinner than usual if that's possible."
Harry wanted to tell them… and maybe this was a good way to bring up 'his side' of the war… Snape's plan and all that.
He sighed again placing his hands behind his head, making himself more comfortable as he stared up at the paint flaking from the ceiling. He closed his eyes trying to keep away the images that he knew would assault his mind.
"I came home late about a week ago… If I come home later then Dudley I get punished, for you two it would be scolding, a finger shake in your personal space, maybe a grounding… and that would be if you were really late. I showed up 45minutes after Dudley, and I got yelled at all right, but I also got hit."
"That's horrible Harry, this wasn't a new occurrence though right, they've hit you in the past?" Hermione wasn't trying to justify, merely trying to determine how bad it had been this time compared.
"I've become a very good liar. I know exactly how much to tell to get people to back off. I told you all these years that it hadn't been that bad, a simple slap here and there around the back of the head… but wouldn't you know it, muggles truly have something with that make-up of theirs. It covers anything I needed it to without having me get into trouble for using underage magic. I've been covering bruises for years… I know exactly the perfect times to steal ice from the ice box in order to make the swelling go down… I can even do stitches…"
Harry squeezed his eyes shut as Hermione's dawning squeak of recognition hit his ears. "Harry that's horrid! Why haven't you told us, why didn't you talk to Dumbledore?"
And with that statement Harry's self loathing and scary memories were overtaken by anger. "Tell Dumbledore? … You honestly think I didn't?! I've begged him every year to let me stay at Hogwarts instead of going home to those monsters… Fuck Dumbledore! I've trusted him all these years…" He trailed off, jumping up in order to pace, so consumed with his own thoughts and new beliefs he didn't see the looks of frightened sadness that fell upon their faces.
"Harry, this is Dumbledore we're talking about, maybe he misunderstood how serious the situation is?" Hermione always trying to be the voice of reason…
"I've begged him Hermione… on my knees! Pleaded with him to do something, anything, and still he sends me back year after year. Every year it gets worse… this summer, I fell into a coma for four days! I had cracked ribs…" He trailed off finally looking at his friends. They looked frightened and he realized they were frightened of him. He must look mad, pacing and raving about a man they had thought he trusted above everyone else just a month ago…
His heart sank, were they going to trust him enough to follow him, do as he asked, trust him to kill Voldemort when the time came, like he had been. Did their loyalty to Dumbledore overshadow their friendship with him? He hoped he could trust them, without them he wasn't sure he would be able to do what need to be done and get through the time it would take to kill Voldemort.
Harry sank to his knees at Hermione's feet, resting his head in her lap as tears threatened to fall. "I know, I know it sounds crazy that he could do that to me, but you have to believe me. Dumbledore is not the man we think he is. He does want to kill Voldemort, but his methods hurt people unnecessarily… look at me!" Harry looked a mess, tear tracks streaking his face, a frown so deep it threatened to make permanent lines on his face.
"Harry, you're scaring us. What are you saying? What is this all about?" Hermione cupped his face, looking into his deep green eyes, trying to find something.
"If I were to break away from Dumbledore and form a real 'light' side, form a new, better stronger order, would you follow me?" Hermione was shocked, her eyes widened and for once she was at a loss for words. Ron however seemed to be seriously thinking it over. Harry wasn't sure if that was a good sign or a bad one.
Harry placed his head back down in Hermione's lap waiting for the rejection that he was so used to feeling it was ingrained in his skin to expect it. He wished he could shut down his mind and just fall asleep and never wake up… but his skin itched and his head pounded. His heart heavy as he thought of what would happen if he lost his two best friends…
"Harry, I believe in you… yes, Dumbledore is more informed, yes he is very powerful… but so are you, and you have a good heart to top that, you make decisions based on saving as many people as possible, every year I've seen you risk everything in order to save everyone. And it was never because Dumbledore asked you to, or because you were personally threatened, it was because that's who you are, you give everything you have to help everyone else, and that alone makes me think that if anyone could defeat Voldemort it's you." He looked up at Hermione with his big pleading green eyes, brightening at her words. He turned to look up at Ron as Hermione did the same, both waiting with baited breathe to hear what he would say.
Ron had abandoned him before, for worse reasons, would he stick around this time… or would he leave like he had done in the past. "Ron, following me is going to be hard, I might ask things of you you're not going to like… ask you to trust me even if you think I'm making a mistake… I need you to understand that before you agree. Hermione is right, I will do whatever it takes to make the wizarding world safe and I will try to do it by sacrificing as few people as possible if I can, but my route will be harder, what I'm asking of you is going to be hard and your family might not be on my side if or when they find out…"
Harry held his breath, waiting to hear Ron say he couldn't do it, waiting to hear him say this was crazy, that Harry was crazy…
"Harry, mate…" Ron looked at Harry, a serious expression on his face that made the red head look fierce and intimidating, a good look on him actually. "I've abandoned you in the past for stupid reasons, said things to you that were wrong, I always regret it later. I don't want to do that again. Hermione is right about you, your selfless and noble, you'll do whatever it takes to kill that madman, and you might even try to do it alone… And I can't think of a reason for you to lie about Dumbledore, it wouldn't make any sense because it's going to be harder without him on our side… so, I'm with you mate. All the way." Ron reached over, squeezing Harry's shoulder lightly before patting him on the back in a brotherly manner.
"This is going to be a wild ride! I hope I don't flip out on you, if I do I give you full permission to slap me Mione." Ron smirked cheekily at the brunette who shook her head, rolling her eyes, but still smiling.
Harry couldn't help the smile that split his face, he hopped up and sat on the bed next to Hermione, hugging her tightly before pouncing on Ron and giving him a bone crushing bear hug. "Merlin Harry, for a twig you sure are strong…" Ron trailed off rubbing his ribs.
Hermione and Harry burst into laughter watching as Ron scowled at them.
Harry was too happy to care, he knew it was going to be hard… especially if or when he told them who it was helping him set this up, spying for him… but for now he had them and they were going to follow him through to the end… he couldn't be more grateful to them and he loved them for that small gift.
See, I can make Ron a good guy…Hermione and Ron will not be turning evil, if that's what you were looking for go see To Wound a Lion, Ron is very messed up in that one…
Yeah! Hope you like!
