Chapter Twelve- Gryffindor Versus Ravenclaw
He could hear her scream, could hear her begging for her life. It tore at what was left of his heart. He had never heard her sound so broken and weak. Throughout his time knowing her, he had never heard her sound anything but strong, maybe a little confused at times, but never weak. He looked towards the sound, wanting to go save her, but he had been given an order. And though the person who had given the order was dead now, he had been trained to put his orders above anything else.
He continued walking, barely pausing when he passed the hall that would lead him to her. His order was not to save her, but get to him and protect him, to make sure he lives. Just like he had been doing for most of his life. He was forced to place his safety above anything else, even his own safety. Had been trained in multiple different ways to be able to protect him, even trained how to kill. Had given up a little piece of his soul with every kill he did in the name of protecting him. And he did it all without anyone but the one who trained him knowing. He was more killer than human now.
He pushed the human part of himself into its cage as he silently slid into the room that he was being held in. His most trusted weapon in hand, ready to kill the only other person besides him and him in the room. His human side screamed and begged for him to stop when he caught the eyes of the only person he loved who loved him back. He ignored his human side, nothing was to keep him from completing his mission.
His weapon easily slid into his love's heart before they could even realise he was even in the room with them. He felt his human side become so small that it almost disappeared, but it was still clinging to life.
He stepped over his love's lifeless body and over to him who was being held up by chains, head bent. He checked to make sure he was still alive, he was. He used his magic to free him and then began to carry him out of the building to safety. The last of his human side died when he ignored her screams to save him. She would be dead by the time he would be able to return to save her. She was the last person alive that actually cared for him, was friends with him because of him and not him. And he let her die, like he did with all the others who cared about him. He was the reason she would die, her death was because of him.
"This universe is unbalanced with no way to fix it. If you accept my deal, I will help you save everyone you lost."
"Save them." He growled out reaching out to take hold of this strange man's hand and everything but the strange man's wide and slightly insane smile faded into black.
"Harry!" Harry's eyes snapped opened with a sudden intake of breath, feeling as if he had been holding his breath for a while. That intake of breath caused him to start coughing and gagging for air. His bed shifted as someone sat behind him and wrapped their arms around his, while someone else shoved a bin under him for him to get sick. "It's okay, it was just a nightmare. Whatever you saw, it wasn't real." The person, Remus, soothed as he finally caught his breath.
"Do you wish to talk about it?" The other person, Severus, asked removing the bin once he was sure Harry was done getting sick and magically removed the sick.
"I don't remember what it was." Harry croaked out.
"Well, that might be for the best." Severus muttered. Harry instantly picked up on some slight tension coming from Severus that was aimed at him.
"What's wrong? Did I do something wrong?" Harry asked and Severus shook his head.
"Not you, not really." Severus said confusing Harry.
"What do you remember from last night, after dinner?" Remus asked.
"Well, I hung out with Draco for a little while, seeing as he hadn't hung out in a while, before heading back here." Harry said wondering what happened last night.
"What time do you remember getting back?" Remus asked and Harry thought about it. He wanted to say just a little before eight, but that didn't feel right. He pulled up everything he remember from last night.
He remembered him and Draco laughing and maybe even flirting with each other. Harry kissing Draco on the cheek saying that he should get back before it got too late. Draco offering to walk him. Harry declining. He remembered leaving the Snake Pit alone as Myari returned from studying with Luna. Bumping into Cedric who was on his way back to his dorm from studying in the Library. He definitely remembers flirting with Cedric a little, and hoping Cedric had been flirting back. He remembers waving good bye to Cedric. And that was it. He didn't remember ever getting back here. Harry closed his eyes, silently praying that he had just blocked out the rest of the trip, but had a feeling he knew what had really happened.
"I don't remember when I got back." Harry told them. "Did something happen?"
"You could say that." Remus muttered. "You do remember me informing you that I was tutoring your brother right?" Harry nodded. "Well, last night was our first session. You stopped by." Harry didn't remember that.
"How long have you known I was a Death Eater?" Severus suddenly asked holding the inner part of his left forearm.
"Since last year. I saw your mark in my first year, but didn't know what it was and just thought you had a tattoo. But then I saw the same mark on Lucius's arm, in the same spot yours was, I don't think he knows I've seen it. But I got curious, why you both you and Lucius have the same tattoo in the same spot? Was it because you two are very close friends? And if so what did the tattoo mean? So I looked it up, and found that it wasn't a tattoo at all. I've been trying to find a time to ask you about it, but it never felt like the right time." Harry admitted and Severus nodded looking away. "But I never told anyone."
"You did last night." Severus informed him.
"What?" Harry asked.
"When you stopped by the tutoring session, you mentioned Severus being a Death Eater. Thankfully Haiden didn't know what a Death Eater was at that time, thankfully your father was able to talk to your brother this morning and get him to swear not to tell anyone about him being a Death Eater." Remus said.
"I didn't-" Harry started but Severus stopped him.
"It wasn't you, you were possessed last night." Severus told him as he moved to finally sit next to Harry. "I'm not mad at you, slightly annoyed that this is how this conversation got started, because truth be told, I've been trying to find a good time to sit you down and talk to you about this, to explain." Severus started.
"You don't have to explain." Harry told him. "At least, not right now. There is too much going on right now, and I don't think I can handle it right now." Harry slipped out of Remus's hold to get up from the bed. "If it's alright with you, I'm going to run away from this conversation for now, but come back to it, just not now." Harry told them before running out of the room, not even bothering to change.
~Lock Me In Your Heart~
Harry walked into the Gryffindor Tower and over to Fred and George, who were snuggling on the couch reading a book together. Harry gently pulled the book out of their hands and forced himself in between them before placing the book back in their hands. The twins shifted so they were more comfortable while each of them wrapped an arm around him.
"What's wrong, kitten?" Fred asked.
"Who says anything's wrong?" Harry asked.
"Because you only do this when something is wrong." George said.
"I don't want to talk about it, or well, I can't talk about it." Harry told them and they nodded. They gently squeezed him before returning to reading as Harry focused on what was going on with the rest of the common room. Hermione and Haiden were studying across from them, Neville was practicing some wand movements, Ginny was gossiping with some girls her age. He didn't get to see what the others were doing because at that precise moment, a strangled yell echoed down the boy's staircase. The whole common room fell silent, staring, petrified, at the entrance. Then came hurried footsteps, growing louder and louder - and then Ron came leaping into view, dragging with him a bedsheet.
"LOOK!" He bellowed, striding over to Hermione's table. "LOOK!" He yelled, shaking the sheets in her face.
"Ron, what-?"
"SCABBERS! LOOK! SCABBERS!" Hermione was leaning away from Ron, looking both utterly bewildered and terrified. And that was what made Harry shoot up from his spot, out of sight from Ron. He ran over to Hermione and Ron, shoved Ron away from her, and stood protectively between her and Ron. "YOU! BOTH OF YOU! YOU BOTH DID THIS!" Ron screamed now shaking the sheet at him. Harry glanced down at the sheet before glaring at Ron. There was something red on it. Something that looked horribly like- "BLOOD!" Ron yelled into the stunned silence. "HE'S GON! AND YOU KNOW WHAT WAS ON THE FLOOR?"
"N-no." Hermione said in a trembling voice. Ron threw something down onto Hermione's rune translation. Hermione and Harry leaned forward. Lying on top of the weird spiky shapes were several long, ginger cat hairs. Hermione gasped just as Loki jumped up onto the table, walking over to the hairs to sniff them, leaving a trail of bloody paw prints in his wake.
Harry had just enough time from looking from Loki to Ron to dodge the punch Ron had thrown at him. And that was what had started it. Harry didn't really know what had come over him, or how he even knew how to do everything he did. But he raised his leg up and kicked Ron in he gut, causing Ron to fall to the ground. Ron quickly got back up and launched himself at Harry who did a Back Roundhouse Kick, kicking Ron in the head, knocking him out.
It was silent for a long time as Harry stood there in shock at what he had just instinctively done. Hermione was the first one to move, she slowly got up and cautiously placed her hand on his arm to get him to look at her. "Ron attacked you." She told him once she was sure she had his attention. "You were defending yourself."
"That's what I saw." Neville agreed and slowly, one by one, the other people in the Gryffindor Common room agreed that Harry had only acted in self defense. But that wasn't what Harry was worried about, he didn't care if when Ron woke up he went and cried attack to Dumbledore. No, what he was more worried about was how his body knew to instinctively do that kick.
Hermione gently pulled him to sit next to her and glared at anyone who dared to even think about coming near them and open their mouths to talk to either of them. She even glared at Fred and George when they tried to ask Harry how he was and if he was alright. Harry stayed next to Hermione for the rest of the day with her glaring everyone away from them, not even Haiden was safe from her glares. She wouldn't even let him go back to his room with Severus and Remus, nor would she allow him to go to his Ravenclaw dorm room. She made him sleep right next to her that night.
~Lock Me In Your Heart~
As the weeks past, Harry expected everyone to be talking about Harry knocking Ron out, but all they were talking about was how Ron tried to attack Harry again. No one talked about Harry kicking Ron in the gut to knock him to the ground, no one talked about Harry kicking Ron in the head to knock him out. They only talked about how Ron went off on not only Harry but Hermione as well, accusing them of training their cats to kill and eat Scabbers. How Ron would have killed Hermione had Harry not intervend. How Harry protected Hermione from Ron's wrath. And because of that no one questioned why Hermione and Harry seemed to be practically glued at the hip now, and why Ron kept glaring at them.
This seemed to be the end of Ron and Hermione's very fragile friendship. Each was so angry with the other that no one could see them ever making up. Ron and Harry never had a friendship to end, but this did strengthen Ron's dislike for Harry, possibly even made Ron hate Harry.
Ron was enraged that Hermione and Harry had never taken Crokshanks's and Loki's attempts to eat Scabbers seriously, hadn't bothered to keep a close enough watch on them, and were still pretending that they were innocent by suggesting that Ron look for Scabbers under all the boys' beds. Hermione, meanwhile, maintained fiercely that Ron had no proof that Crookshanks or Loki had eaten Scabbers. That the ginger hairs could have been there since Christmas. That the blood on Loki's paws could have been caused by him walking through the blood. And that Ron had been prejudiced against Crookshanks ever since he had landed on Ron's head in the Magical Menagerie.
Personally, Harry wouldn't have been shocked if Loki did eat Scabbers, but he did not think that Crookshanks would have killed or eaten Scabbers. Crookshanks might have helped Loki catch Scabbers, but he would not have actually done the killing or eating of the rat that probably wasn't even a rat.
Harry tried to ignore the whispers and stares him and Hermione were getting as they walked with Haiden, who was carrying his Firebolt, towards the Great Hall. He tried to convince himself that they were whispering and staring at the Firebolt. When they entered the Great Hall, heads turned in the direction of them and the Firebolt, half the muttering that exploded was about the Firebolt.
"Did you see his face?" Harry heard Ron ask Haiden after they had sat down at the Gryffindor Table, Hermione turned her face away from Ron, ignoring him. "He can't believe it! This is brilliant!" Harry wondered who they were talking about, but didn't dare ask and forced himself to focus on anything else.
At a quarter to eleven, Hermione and Harry walked with Haiden and the Gryffindor team to the locker room, making sure they were not alone in fear that they would get attacked again. The weather couldn't have been more different from Gryffindor's match against Hufflepuff. It was a clear, cool day with a very light breeze. Just in case the Dementors decided to try and attack again, Harry was able to get him and Hermione a seat next to Remus and Severus in the teachers' box.
"You're looking a lot better lately, Professor Lupin." Hermione said as they sat waiting for the match to start. "No offense!" Remus chuckled obviously taking no offense.
"It is alright, Ms. Granger. I have been feeling a lot better lately, I believe it is thanks to the meditations Harry introduced me to." Remus said shooting a smile at Harry who smiled back, happy that Remus decided to try connecting with his Wolf instead of slowly killing him. "But you, my dear, are look quite tired. I have heard of all the courses you are taking this year. That is quite impressive, but they seem to be wearing you down quite a lot. If you feel you need to drop one or two, I'm sure Professor McGonagall will be able to make that happen."
"I'm fine. I can handle it." Hermione said quickly and seemed to be relieved when the teams walked out onto the field. The match started and seemed to be going well. A few players were hit with the bludger, Haiden and Cho, Ravenclaw's seeker, fought to find and catch the Snitch. But it was when Gryffindor was leading by eight points when they came. Three Dementors, three tall, black hooded Dementors were heading straight towards him. They past under Haiden who pulled out his wand and shot a Patronus at them, knocking them over and showing that they weren't Dementors at all. The 'Dementors' were actually Pansy and a few of her friends. Haiden didn't seemed to notice this as he flew past them and caught the snitch.
Hermione and Harry rushed down the the field to congratulate him. They got there just as the whole Gryffindor team managed to make it to the ground. Haiden got off his broom and looked up, locking eyes with Hermione smiling at her as she took off across the field to get to him first, but Ron flew past her.
"Yes!" Ron yelled, yanking Haiden's arm into the air as the rest of the crowd go there. "Yes! Yes!"
"Well done, Haiden!" Percy said looking delighted. "Ten Galleons to me! Must find Penelope, excuse me-"
"Good for you, Haiden!" Seamus Finnigan roared.
"Ruddy Brilliant!" Hagrid boomed over everyone's head.
"That was quite some Patronus." Remus said who looked both shaken and pleased.
"The Dementors didn't affect me at all!" Haiden said excitedly. "I didn't feel a thing!"
"That would be because they -er- weren't Dementors." Remus said before leading Haiden with Hermione and Harry following them out of the crowd until they were able to see the edge of the field. "You gave Mrs. Parkinson quite a fright." Pansy and her friends were lying in a crumpled heap on the ground struggling to remove themselves from long, black, hooded robes. It looked as though Pansy had been standing on the shoulders of one of her friends. Standing over them, with an expression of the utmost fury on her face, was Professor McGonagall with Severus standing behind her with his arms crossed.
"An unworthy trick!" She was shouting. "A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker!"
"We were going after him!" Pansy cried.
"Stop talking, Ms. Parkinson, you're only making your situation worse." Severus commanded.
"Detention for all of you, and fifty points from Slytherin! I shall be speaking to Professor Dumbledore about this, make no mistake! Ah, here he comes now!" McGonagall said as Dumbledore walked over to them. Harry jumped when he felt two sets of arms land on his shoulders.
"Come on, Harry, Haiden, Hermione! Party! Gryffindor common room, now!" George told them.
"Right." Haiden said looking happier than he had in ages, he and the rest of the team led the way, still in their scarlet robes, out of the stadium, and back up to the castle.
~Lock Me In Your Heart~
Harry and Hermione sat in the corner of the common room with Hermione, watching the others party as if they had already won the Quidditch Cup; the party went on all day and well into the night. Harry also learned the reason why everyone was so much more excited about this win then all the others. Apparently during the last match, Haiden, who had been so close to catching the snitch, had glanced over his shoulder to check how far back Cedric was from him, only to spot the Dementors attacking them. And quickly flew over to the teachers box to inform them of what was happening, giving Cedric enough time to grab the snitch, winning that match. Them winning this match assured them a chance at winning the Cup.
At some point during the party, Fred and George disappeared for a couple of hours only to return with armfuls of bottles of butterbear, pumpkin fizz, and several bags full of Honeydukes sweets. "How did you do that?" Angelina Johnson squealed as George started throwing Peppermint Toads into the crowd.
Haiden broke away from the table where Fred and George had started juggling butterbeer bottles and made his way over to them with three bottles of butterbeer. Hermione had started trying to attempt to read an enormous book entitled Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles. "Everything okay?" Haiden asked handing Harry a butterbeer.
"Of course." Hermione said looking away from the book to smile at Haiden and accept a butterbeer. "I'm really happy we won, you were amazing, but I need to read this by Monday."
"Why don't you come and have some food." Haiden said looking over his shoulder at Ron who was gorging himself on the food some students had gotten from the Kitchen.
"I can't, Haiden. I've still got Four hundred and twenty-two pages to read!" Hermione said. "Anyway…" She glanced over at Ron too. "He doesn't want me to join in, and I don't want to start another fight." There was no arguing with this, as Ron chose that moment to say loudly:
"If Scabbers hadn't just been eaten, he could have had some of those Fudge Flies. He used to really like them-" Harry shot up from seat next to Hermione, and before she could stop him, he was pushing his way through the crowd towards Ron.
"Give it a rest already, Ronald!" Harry growled out when he got there. "So my cat may or may not have killed and eaten your stupid rat! Which by the way, you weren't even supposed to be able to bring to school anyway!"
"What?" Ron asked.
"Oh yeah, if you were smart enough to have read the school rules and guidelines then you would have known that the only pets allowed were cats, owls, or toads. So look at it this way, my cat just helped you, you are no longer breaking a school rule. And if it bothers you so much, I'll give you the money so you can buy you a pet you can actually have here." Harry said.
"I don't want your stupid money. You're just like Malfoy flashing your money around and thinking your so much better than everyone else!" Ron growled out.
"How have I ever flashed my money around?" Harry asked.
"You bought that Firebolt! Everyone knows how expensive that broom is!" Ron yelled.
"So what? I bought it for Haiden for christmas! You didn't seem to mind it before when he was using it to win the match! And so what if I have money and want to use it to buy my brother or hell even my friends something nice once and awhile. I don't go around buying the most expensive stuff just so I can rub it in other less fortunate people's face." Harry said.
"Oh, so now my family is less fortunate because we have less money than you?" Ron asked.
"What the-? Where did you even get that from? Do you even hear yourself when you speak?" Harry asked. "You are the reason the gene pool needs a lifeguard! You only hear whatever you want to hear, you have already have it in your mind that I'm the bad guy, I can say 'I'm going to help Haiden destroy Voldemort.' And all you'll hear is "I'm going to destroy Haiden.' I'm done with you Ronald." Harry said before turning to leave.
"See this is why no one likes you Harry, a guy tried to speak his mind and you go off on him. No one is allowed to speak their minds around you!" Ron yelled after him. Harry stopped walking to spin around to glare at Ron.
"Ronald, if you ever spoke your mind, you'd be speechless!" And then Harry left the Gryffindor common room.
~Lock Me In Your Heart~
Some time later that night, Harry woke up to someone screaming, and he was shocked to find himself sleeping on the couch in the Gryffindor Common room. Harry heard a dormitory door slam shut and footsteps race down the stairs. Harry peered over the back of the couch in time to catch a glimpse of Sirius Black running through the Common room and out the portrait hole.
"Black! Sirius Black! With a knife!" He heard yelled from the dormitory, shocking him out of his fear at seeing Sirius again since he had tried to strangle him the last time he had seen the man. Harry jumped over the back of the couch and flew up the stairs, he needed to make sure his brother was alright.
He got to the dormitory door just as Haiden swung the door open and looked shocked to see him for a second, before Haiden grabbed his arm and they sprinted back down the stairs with the other boys from Haiden's dormitory behind them. Doors opened behind them, and sleepy voiced called after them.
"Who shouted?"
"What're you doing?"
The Common room was lit with the glow of the dying fire, still littered with the debris from the party. It was deserted.
"Are you sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?"
"I'm telling you, I saw him!"
"What's all the noise?"
"Professor McGonagall told us to go to bed!" A few of the girls, including Hermione, had come down the staircase, pulling on dressing gowns and yawning. Boys, too, were reappearing.
"Excellent, are we carrying on?" Fred asked brightly.
"Everyone back upstairs!" Percy said, hurrying into the Common room and pinning his Head Boy badge onto his pajamas as he spoke.
"Perce- Sirius Black!" Ron said faintly. "In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!" The Common room went silent.
"Nonsense!" Percy said looking startled. "You had too much to eat, Ron - had a nightmare-"
"I'm telling you-"
"Now, really, enough's enough!"
"I saw him too." Harry said finally drawing attention to himself. Professor McGonagall was back. She slammed the portrait behind her, as she entered the Common room and stared furiously around.
"I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!"
"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" Percy, puffing himself up indignantly. "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! Harry and my brother Ron here shared a nightmare-"
"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron roared. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!" Professor McGonagall started at him.
"Professor, if I may?" Harry asked and she nodded at him. "I was sleep here, on the couch, why I don't know, the last thing I remember is falling asleep in my room. I was woken up by a scream, I then heard a dormitory door slam shut, footsteps running down the stairs, and when I peek over the back of the couch, I saw him. Sirius Black ran through the Common room and out the portrait hole."
"How did he get through the portrait hole?" She asked him.
"I don't know, as I said, I don't even know how I got here, or why I'm here." Harry told her.
"Ask him!" Ron said pointing a shaking finger at the back of Sir Cadogan's picture. "Ask him if he saw-" Glaring suspiciously at both Harry and Ron, Professor McGonagall pushed the portrait back open and went outside. The whole Common room listened with bated breath.
"Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?" McGonagall asked.
"Certainly, good lady! 20 minutes after I let the young boy in. The young boy didn't look too well, his left eye had what look like black ooze spreading all around his eye out to his skin. Is he alright, I would have gone to get him help, but I could not leave my post." There was a stunned silence, both inside and outside the Common room. Harry saw Haiden glance at him and Harry touched his left eye while silently asking if there was anything there. Haiden shook his head no.
"You - you did?" McGonagall asked. "But - but the password!"
"He had 'em!" Sir Cadogan said proudly. "Had the whole week's worth, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!" McGonagall pulled herself back through the portrait hole to face the stunned crowd. She was white as chalk. She quickly walked over to Harry, took his chin and made him look at her as she tilted his head left and right. "You seem fine, now." She muttered before looking around the room. "Which person," she said loud enough for everyone to here, her voice shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them laying around?"
There was utter silence, broken by the smallest of terrified squeaks. Neville Longbottom, trembling from head to fluffy slippers toes, raised his hand slowly into the air.
