'Ties noose around own neck…' I wouldn't blame any of you for pulling the lever right now, I don't know why it took me so long to actually get anything written on this story and I don't know how long the next chapter will take either. I have part of a chapter for Desert Warrior written, but the rest just doesn't want to come right now.

ShadeDancer

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and can't get money for this, but I can make him into a Mafia Prince.

Warning: Some chapters (the ones including pranks and mimes) might not be appropriate to read at work. Laughter may ensue leading your co-workers to see you as even more insane than they previously thought.

Chapter 14: Revelations

"I'm not sure what to think," Fred broke the silence, "we knew there was something we didn't know, but now…I think it's bigger than we ever imagined."

George sighed and shifted his position on the bed and double checked to make sure the privacy wards were still undisturbed; both he and Fred were feeling unusually paranoid that night. Sure they had reason to be after the attack that afternoon, but most of their unease wasn't because of the attack but because of the mystery surrounding their two friends.

"We knew they were rich," George started to frame some of his thoughts out loud, "and thought that all the guards were because of that, like the guards were a non-magical form of the wards the rich purebloods have around their estates—"

"But now we're not sure," Fred picked up the thought, "not after today's confrontation and some of the weird things that were said. The man called Harry the Darkov Prince the way most wizards call him as the Boy-who-lived."

"A title…"

"…an identity."

"And the way they fought…"

"It was like they were trained to do it…"

"…like they were taught to expect to be attacked."

The twins fell back into silent contemplation for a while, both thinking back to small happenings that had occurred when they had stayed over at Harry's house. Little things that hadn't seemed much more than odd occurrences, such as a plan to go outside suddenly changing after a strange noise or a glance at one of the guards, now began to become incidents with meaning. The only problem was that Fred and George had no idea what the meaning was. Sure they now knew a lot more about the muggle world than what they had before meeting Harry and Blaise, but they also knew that what they had learned was limited to small areas of the muggle world and it wasn't enough to make a factual guess on. It was Fred's turn to sigh.

"I think we shouldn't say anything right now," he flopped back onto a pillow, "we need more facts, but I don't want to bug those two to tell us something they don't want to."

George lay down next to his twin, "they'd probably hex us into oblivion if we pried, but maybe they'll tell us something soon, after all, they haven't told us to get lost yet."

George felt more than saw Fred's grin, "we do need to get them to teach us how to fight without wands though."

"Yeah, that was cool."

"Harry and Blaise kicked ass."

George snorted, "if they teach us that'll give them permission to kick our ass."

Fred grinned, "then we'll prank them in retaliation."

"They'll just prank us right back."

"It'll start a prank war to end all prank wars."

"Let's do it," the two chimed together, glad they had the privacy ward up as their excited voices strayed above a whisper.

"G'night Gred," Fred burrowed down into the mound of blankets and pillows.

"G'night Forge," George yawned back and turned onto his side to extinguish the floating globe of light that hovered above them to cast a soft glow over the bed, plunging their little world behind the curtains into darkness.

… … … … …

The roof had been surprisingly easy to get to, which was actually a relief for Harry and Blaise as they weren't quite feeling up to a challenge as they normally would. They had considered staying in the Slytherin common room for their discussion, but didn't feel like disabling any of the listening charms that were probably scattered through the room by some other Slytherin looking for blackmail to use. Most of the castle itself was unsuitable as well thanks to the presence of the ever-inquisitive portraits, so they had settled for the roof where they could lie out under the stars the twinkled in the still embrace of night.

"I didn't like it," Harry finally whispered to Blaise, for once wanting to admit to feeling out of his league, "I felt myself hesitating to go into the fight, wanted to second guess the moves I made."

"Me too," Blaise seemed to scoot closer to his side, "the whole fight felt wrong, and it wasn't just because the twins were there."

"It was because we didn't have backup," Harry forced the brutal truth out from between his lips, "I felt like this last year when I went into the Chamber of Secrets, but let my resolve to avenge you push the feeling away. We've never been in fights before where we didn't have backup or know that help was within a short distance; that gave us confidence and a reckless courage."

"And this time we also had the twins to worry about," Blaise added, "before we only had each other's backs to watch even though we knew someone else was watching them as well. We got a taste of what our dad's must go through every time an attack happens, knowing that others could get hurt because of something we did or didn't do."

"The burden of leadership," Harry murmured, "the burden of another's life. If the bartender hadn't come out when he did we would have had to make a decision over those men's lives."

Harry closed his eyes as images flashed through his mind, memories of some of the training he had been undergoing with his father. Even then, even when his father had been teaching him to fight with the knowledge that he would someday have to kill an enemy that might already be down, he hadn't been without the support and backup of an adult. Blaise's hand covered his own and he turned it so that their palms touched and they could lock fingers.

"We would have had to obliviate the twins then," Blaise said unhappily, "and while they wouldn't have looked at us any differently after that, we would have known that they had seen us take a life."

"It's bad enough they've seen anything at all," Harry squeezed Blaise's hand, "and I worry that we've made them targets just by being their friends. Do we really want to draw them into our lifestyle? I wish the answer to this was something that our father's could have taught to us, not something that we must learn by through trial and error. This is something, these doubts are something, that they could never prepare us for even though they probably went through it themselves."

"I wish they were here now to tell us that everything will be alright," Blaise didn't care at that moment if she seemed weak and childish, only the stars and Harry were there to hear her, "I wish they were here so that we knew they were alright."

One corner of Harry's mouth lifted up into a half-smile, "and I wish there was a shooting star right now so that your wishes could come true. It's almost a shame that real magic isn't more like the fairytales so that our wishes would come true."

Blaise laughed softly, "we wouldn't have any fun if it were though and speaking of which, we have classes and 'detention' with Severus tomorrow. We should probably head in."

"That is one detention I'm not looking forward to," Harry shook his head with a snort, "if all the students hadn't started coming back just then Severus would have had us spilling the whole story earlier. Now he'll have more time to think on what he wants to ask us."

"Basic truth will be the best," Blaise sighed as she voiced what both of them knew, "and at least we got one unsupervised outing in Hogsmeade even if we never get another one anytime soon. We should find out more about the bartender, and what should we do about the twins? We can't exactly avoid them tomorrow or people will know something's up."

"I think it'll be better to wait and ask Trevor about the bartender, and as for the twins we'll act as we normally would. Act as if nothing had happened. I don't want to pull the twins any further into anything and I don't think they'll press us for answers right yet, though I'd bet anything that they know something is up. If they weren't so carefree about a lot of things those two would have been in Slytherin. I am seriously considering their request on teaching them to fight hand-to-hand though, we'll think on it a bit more before actually doing anything though."

Blaise nodded and the two fell silent as they continued to gaze up at the sky, trying to think of anything they still needed to discuss before heading in to sleep. It didn't take long for both of them to conclude that they had covered the most important parts for the time being, anything else could wait for another day when they were so emotionally keyed up, but neither of them made a move to pick up the broom they had used to get onto the roof. It was such a peaceful night despite the upheaval of the day and both were content to just lay there and enjoy it until the necessity of time drove them back indoors to the closed confines of the dungeons where they parted ways for their beds. No matter how long they wanted to bask in the peace of the starry night and hide from the whispered revelations that had occurred upon the silent roof, tomorrow would come and the only thing they could do was be ready to face it.

Posted On: June 15, 2006