A/N- At the bottom.
Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters, they all belong to the genius J.K. Rowling!!
The day the rest of the students were to arrive at Hogwarts from their Christmas Vacations was a Saturday.
Harry, Elsmere and Aria went to Hogsmeade Station to meet up with their friends. The train finally arrived at around eight o' clock in the afternoon. At once Harry spotted his red haired friends and the bushy haired girl with them.
Harry and the two Vampires made a bee-line toward them.
As soon as Hermione and Ginny saw Harry they each gave him a hug.
"Yes, I missed you girls too." Harry said after he had hugged them back, thank Merlin Aria was not the jealous type.
"How was your summer, mate?" Ron asked him.
"Oh, it was alright." Harry answered while greeting the twins.
"Really?" Hermione asked suspiciously.
"Yes, Hermione. The break was uneventful." Harry lied. Aria raised an eyebrow at Harry's pathetic lie. He decided to change the subject. "Where's Blaise?"
Ginny was the one who answered. "He had to sit with a bunch of Slytherins on the train. He said to meet him in the Room of Requirement at midnight."
Harry gave a sigh of relief, it was good to know that Blaise was okay. "Good, I was worried."
"Yeah me too, he couldn't owl me during the whole Holiday. His mom wouldn't let him." Ginny said.
By now the train station was almost deserted.
"Guys, we should really start moving toward the Castle." Hermione said looking around worriedly. There were only about ten students left in the station.
"Your right 'Mione." Ron said taking her hand and starting to lead her toward the school. The twins rolled their eyes at their brother's behavior. They both knew Ron would do anything Hermione told him to do.
"Would you like an escort miss?" George said talking to Elsmere. Elsmere smiled and accepted the hand George was offering her and together they started walking toward the school.
"Is it just me, or is there something between Elsmere and George?" Harry asked.
"I really have no idea, and he is supposed to be my twin." Fred answered looking confused at the retreating backs of his brother and the Vampire.
"I think there is something, I'm just not sure yet what." Aria said.
"Well whatever it is, I'm going to find out." Harry said at once intrigued by the mystery.
"Oh hush now you and let's go." Aria said taking Harry's hand and leading him toward the school.
Ginny and Fred looked at each other with wide eyes.
"What the hell happened during break?" Fred asked.
"I have no idea brother, none at all." Ginny answered before also starting to walk toward the school with Fred right behind her.
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP
When Harry and Aria entered the Room of Requirement at midnight they noticed that they were the last ones to get there.
"Finally." Blaise commented but with a smile.
"Yeah, well we lost track of time, sorry." Harry said, truth was that Aria and Harry had got lost in their own little world after Aria had got back from hunting.
"Sure…" Elsmere said in disbelief. She was sited next to George. Aria raised an eyebrow at that.
"Moving on," Harry said trying to change the subject, "I'm glad your okay, Blaise."
"Yeah, me too. It was harder than I thought. There was a moment where I thought the Dark Lord had gotten through my Occlumency barriers." Blaise said having a far away look in his eyes. He shuddered. "You know, he's worst than I thought."
"What do you mean?" Ginny asked worriedly.
"Well, you see, I always thought that he only punished his followers when they messed up, but it turns out he tortures them for fun. That wasn't the worst part either. You know what my initiation present was?" Harry and everyone in the room could see that Blaise was about to cry. Harry shuddered at just imagining it. He had seen Death Eater meetings after all. Of all those presents in the room he was probably the only one apart from Blaise that knew the exact horrors that Voldemort found pleasure in. "He brought me a little girl, no older than five. He… he demanded that I torture her and after he got tired of watching the little girl suffer, he made me kill her." A single tear fell from Blaise's eye. "I couldn't sleep for a whole week after that and I still have nightmares. And my parents, they were proud of me. They were proud that I killed someone. What kind of parent encourages their kid to torture and kill? I hate them. It's their fault I have to go through this."
Ginny was crying silently into Fred's shoulder, Elsmere into George's, Hermione into Ron's and Aria into Harry's. Ron had a look of pure horror in his eyes. Fred and George were trying to consol Ginny and Elsmere. Harry also had a few tears running down his cheeks while he hugged Aria. He couldn't help but feel at least slightly responsible for Blaise's pain.
If it weren't for him Voldemort wouldn't have come back to his body. Blaise wouldn't be forced to serve a madman. He felt as through he owed something to Blaise.
"Blaise," Harry said at last "I promise you that I would do everything in my power to destroy him soon. I know what you passed through. I have to witness it almost every night. Even though I don't cast any of the spells I can't help but feel responsible for your pain or for every death Voldemort causes. I'm sorry, I really am. I know that won't help, but I still want you to know."
Harry did not wait for an answer before running out of the room.
Aria looked in horror at the retreating back of her boyfriend. Did he just say what she thought he said? She did not think about it twice, she jumped up from the seat she was seated on and ran after Harry. She had a hunch that he would go to the forest so she went in that general direction.
She found him about fifteen minutes later sitting on the edge of a brook deep into the forest. In the moonlight she could see the tears that ran freely down his cheeks.
"Harry." he ignored her. Aria walked over to him and sat next to him. "Harry."
This time he turned to look at her. At once Aria felt as through her heart might break because of the look in his eyes. In those troubled green eyes Aria could see pain, love, fear, determination, indecision, but most of all she could see guilt.
This time she did not hug Harry like she had done on multiple of occasions before, this time she just sat next to him holding his hand until he decided to speak.
And speak he did, about half an hour later.
"How can you stand to be next to me?" he finally asked in a small voice.
"What do you mean Harry?" Aria asked gently.
"I mean, I'm just this messed up kid. I cause everyone pain. I was the one who caused Voldemort to come back to life." Harry said, he had a tortured look in his eyes.
"Oh, Harry don't say that. You don't cause everyone pain and you most certainly not the reason why Voldemort is back." Aria said sternly.
"It was my blood he used." Harry argued.
"Yes, but it was forcefully taken." Aria reminded him.
"That does not make it better. It still was my blood." Harry argued, by Merlin this boy is stubborn.
"Maybe so, but it makes it not your fault. The fault lays entirely in Pettigrew, Crouch JR and Voldemort, in no one else. Not in you, not in me, not in Dumbledore, not in anyone else." Aria said.
"Maybe." Harry said but Aria knew he still did not believe her.
"Harry, what else is bothering you?" Aria asked, she knew that that was not the only thing bothering Harry.
"How can they expect me to defeat him? I'm an average wizard. There's nothing special about me. I'll just fail everyone. I want so much to end this and be able to help everyone, but I just can't. I know I can't Aria. I'll just end up letting everyone down. There's so much people counting on me. I can't do it. I'm afraid. I'm afraid that I won't be able to protect my friends. How would I be able to live with myself if you, or Elsmere or Hermione or Ginny or Fred or George or Ron or Neville or Luna or Blaise or any of your family or any of the order or any of the people I care about die or get badly hurt. I can't loose any of you… I can't loose you, Aria." Harry said.
Aria took a few seconds to think over her answer.
"Harry, first of all you are not an average wizard. An average wizard would never be able to beat me in a fight, an average wizard would never be able to cast a Patronous at the age of thirteen. An average wizard would not be able to do half the things you do. You won't fail anyone because you have us helping you. Don't even think for a second that we will let you go and fight alone. We will be with you till the end. Don't be afraid that you won't be able to protect us. We know how to protect ourselves you know? Last year you taught the D.A., me and Elsmere know how to defend ourselves since we were two year old. The order are all full grown wizards. You really must stop blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong, it isn't healthy. Harry, everything will be alright in the end, I promise."
"You can't promise things you can't keep." Harry replied.
"Maybe, but I can promise that we will fight to make everything alright and we will succeed."
Harry gave Aria a small smile. He still did not feel secure in his skills and he still felt a little guilty, but he knew that Aria was just as stubborn as himself so there was no way to argue with her. In all honesty the talk with Aria did help him.
"Thanks, Aria. I really don't know what I would do without you." Harry murmured.
"Your welcome, and you would must probably be a lunatic already" she replied smiling.
Harry leaned forward and kissed Aria with all the love he felt toward her. Aria returned the kiss with equal passion. When they separated the both of them were smiling.
"Are you ready to go back to the castle?" Aria asked Harry.
"Yes, let's go." Harry replied looking at the brook. "You know, I just found this place today and I think it's beautiful. It's peaceful but at the same time it holds hidden power. It reminds me of you."
Aria was a little taken a back by Harry's sudden change of topic but she still smiled.
"Thanks, I guess."
""No, I really think you are one of the most beautiful girls I've seen. You can be the most peaceful person on earth when you want, but you are also powerful. You hold so much power in you. At first glance you wouldn't be able to notice it, but when you notice it, you figure out that you can be deadly. I really like that about you."
"Thanks." Aria was flattered by Harry's description of her, well she thought so. She was still a little concerned about Harry's mental health, but she decided that he was giving her a compliment. "Let's go back to the castle, we have to sleep you know."
"Okay, let's go." Harry responded turning his back to the brook.
Together Aria and Harry started walking toward the school. They were almost to the entrance of the school when they saw a figure walking a couple of feet behind him.
"Who is there?" Harry called as soon as he saw the figure.
The figure stopped in its tracks, at once he raised his hands in a display of innocence.
"Calm down Harry, it's only me, Dean." by the wand light Harry saw that he was indeed Dean Thomas, at once Harry relaxed.
"Oh, okay, how are you Dean, how was your break?" Harry asked his fellow Gryffindor.
"Oh, it was okay. Nothing interesting happened, same old, same old, you know?" Dean replied walking over to them.
"Yeah, the same as mine." Harry smiled. Aria was silent, something about this did not seem right to her.
"Harry, let's go. This doesn't seem right to me." Aria murmured to Harry. Harry nodded. He also had a bad feeling in his gut.
"Well, nice seeing you. I have to go now." Harry said trying to leave.
"Wait for me, I'm going the same way as you anyway." Dean said walking faster to catch up with them.
"Sure." Harry sis not see a way to get away from him. Aria looked worriedly at Harry. Harry returned the look. Dean finally reached them.
"Hey." he said, "here, Dumbledore asked me to give you this." he extended a rolled parchment to Harry, it did have Dumbledore's writing on it.
As soon as Harry grabbed the scroll Dean let it go. At once Harry felt the all too familiar feel of his navel being pulled, a portkey. Aria had not released his hand so she was right next to him.
They landed in a heap on a dirty marble floor.
A/N- Hey, my computer got fixed!! Yeah, and better yet I was able to post this chapter so soon. Please don't kill me for the cliff-hanger.
Thanks to all my reviewers. Please review this chapter too!!