"Harry?"
Harry, who had just finished putting up a silencing barrier around the three of them, turned to look at Fred, who seemed a little dazed. "Yes?"
"Could you warn us next time before you go snogging the bloody Dark Lord? I don't think I'll recover from that image…"
"Well, instead of recovering, you'd better get used to seeing us together." Harry said, more venomously then he'd wanted to sound. He understood their reaction of course, but it still hurt that everyone was so negative about his relationship with Marvolo.
Fred looked stunned, and then hastened to apologise. "No, Harry, that's not what I mean… It just… came a little unexpected. I thought you were together with that bloke from Hogsmeade?"
Harry smiled, albeit a little strained. "That 'bloke from Hogsmeade' was him in disguise. He can hardly walk in here with an appearance that everyone would recognise. I have you to thank that he came in at all though. Without the Marauders Map, I wouldn't have been able to sneak him into the castle."
"Oh? Which passageway?"
"Honeydukes." Harry said.
George snorted. "The Dark Lord passing through Honeydukes, oh what I wouldn't give to see that. Did he stop to look at the assortment?" The Twin's faces split into trademark grins as they imagined it, and Harry decided to tease them a bit.
"Still have the box of chocolate he brought for me from there…" he airily said, and laughed when they choked. "What? He can be really romantic. Though don't tell anyone I said that to you, he'd probably… well damn. Actually, I think the best thing he can come up with is punishing me very thoroughly…" Harry mused before grinning at the two. "In that case, please do spread the news around…"
"Romantic eh?" George asked, and they started walking on both sides of Harry, each swinging an arm around his shoulders while they leaned in with a twinkle in their eyes. It was scary how they looked like identical little devils right now. He would definitely introduce Devaki and Dyanira to them when they were gone from Hogwarts. "Any details you want to share?"
"So you're not… freaked out? Telling me to be careful?" Harry asked, unsure.
"You love him?"
"Very much so." Harry admitted with a strong voice.
"And you think he loves you?"
"I know he does."
"Well, there you go, I don't think it's our place to do anything but support you two, right George?"
"Right Fred, you're absolutely right."
"I know, thank you for telling me."
"You're welcome love…"
"Love?" now it was Harry's turn to be shocked as Fred and George leaned in and pecked each other on the lips… right above Harry's head.
"Hey, can you do that somewhere else?"
"Says the one who was snogging his boyfriend,
"In front of us,"
"Hardly a minute ago?"
"Hypocrisy is what that is called,"
"We believe."
"Yes yes, I understand." Harry laughed, pushing them away.
"So, details? How did you meet? I believe that you were quite distressed when He returned last year."
"Traumatised." Fred nodded with a serious face.
"Breaking out in tears and whatnot…" George added dramatically, pretending to faint with a hand on his forehead.
"Shut up." Harry grumbled, glaring at the mischievous expressions they wore. They finally reached the Room of Requirements, and the Twins watched with fascination as a door appeared. Harry guided them inside and sat down on one of the soft green couches in the room of, which had still remained like it had been when he had last seen it, as Marvolo's quarters. Harry wondered what magic his lover had used to make it stay this way permanently, even if the man himself wasn't there.
"This room is not on the map." George remarked with wonder.
"Yes, I know. I didn't discovered it myself either. Marvolo found it when he was at school here. The Dark Lord." He clarified when he got two confused looks.
"Oh. So he told you about it and then you what… thought you needed your own quarters?"
Harry laughed. "These aren't mine. They're his. He's kind of living here at Hogwarts. It's the only place where you can apparate in or out, apart from the Chamber of Secrets. Although I suspect that some of the wards are down… we travelled through them yesterday evening and nothing happened, no shock, no alarms… he must have meddled with them, or given someone else the task to do that.
"Wow, that's… impressive. Doesn't Dumbledore know of the existence of this room though? What if he wants to use it?"
"Marvolo did something with the entrance… I don't think anyone can enter without his permission right now. I've never seen Dumbledore hang around on this floor though, so I don't think he knows of it."
"Hmm… are you stalling on those details you promised on purpose?"
"I never promised anything." Harry sighed, knowing it was futile to argue with these two. Still, to tell them how he and Marvolo got together was rather embarrassing. "How much do you know about my home situation?"
"We know you were starved and locked up." George answered, his voice laced with guilt. "I'm sorry Harry, really, I don't know why no-one ever helped you get away there… although we thought it was your only protection against the Dark Lord to return there every summer, there is no excuse for never trying to change your situation. It must have been horrible."
Harry laughed humourlessly. "It wasn't your fault. Never think that it was. It was, however, slightly worse than not being fed or able to go outside. I was heavily abused there. The worst thing is that I suspect that Dumbledore knew all along. I tried to tell him about how bad it was, but he waved it away. Now I'm not so sure anymore that he didn't know exactly what they did."
"We'll kill them." Fred said, his face twisted in rage.
"Who?"
"We'll start off with the Dursleys,"
"Then Dumbledore,"
"And then everyone else who knew and had the power to stop it but didn't."
Harry stared at the ceiling, sunken in thoughts. "He got me out of it. Marvolo, that is. Because of the resurrection ritual, he shared my blood, and thus my mother's sacrifice. The wards around Privet drive could not stop him anymore. I remember the first time he came. I was so… scared. Later, I wondered why, because truly, I had given up on the thought that I would survive long ago, if not by the Dark Lord, then because the Dursleys."
"He came to your house? Rang the doorbell did he?" one of them asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course not. He apparated straight into my room in the middle of the night, believing me to be asleep. He had his wand at my throat for a few seconds before he removed it and just sat down to stare at me. Well, I know now that he was staring at me. I had no idea what he was doing then-"
"Mentally undressing you?" Fred suggested, groaning in pain when George slapped him over the head.
"Anyways, I pretended to sleep, and that seemed to work pretty damn well, so when he appeared the night after that, and every night that followed, I just closed my eyes and evened my breathing out. I didn't think anyone from the Order would believe me if I told them that Voldemort visited my room on a nightly basis."
"And so, he'd come to you to stare every night? Didn't he have, you know, anything better to do?"
Harry blushed and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Well, one evening, Dudley had beaten me up severely, and I think I passed out from the pain. I awoke to a greenish glow and a warm, fuzzy feeling, and that's when I realized that he was healing me. First time I dared to peek through my eyelashes as well to look at him. I instantly fell in love of course…" He laughed when they gave him a weird look. "Well okay, I didn't love him yet then. But during the following weeks, I kind of grew on him. He started… started touching me… and… ahum… I didn't really mind." He awkwardly said. "Only when one night, he didn't show up, and I was worried out of my mind, did I realide that I might have feelings for him that I shouldn't have. He didn't visit me several nights in a row, and when finally, he did, I was so relieved that I forgot to pretend to sleep. That's when we started talking. It was strange. Very… intimate, and yet it felt so safe. I don't know how to put what I felt in words."
"So. During this summer, you weren't at Malfoy Manor at all, were you, Harry?"
"Hmm, I believe our favourite Savior,"
"jumped in the arms of his knight on the white horse,"
"and spent a considerable amount of time,"
"being courted."
"Well, if you insist on knowing all the details," Harry said with a sly smile. "The courting part didn't take all that long. Apart from those weeks that he visited me, it hardly took a few days, actually."
"I had never thought you to be such a rash person Harry…"
"It wasn't that hard of a decision to make… he was just… right for me."
"Pun aaaand… pun." Fred airily commented before cracking up under Harry's glare.
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?"
"When do I ever?"
"Let's see… You are a Death Eater. I am a step up. So when I command you to do something, you should follow my orders blindly…"
"Damnit." The Twins muttered at the same time. "So, how long did it take exactly before you… submitted to him, if you follow my line of thoughts?"
"Frankly, I think it's quite disturbing that I can follow your line of thoughts." Harry told Fred, who pouted. "Would you be disturbed when I told you that it was him who submitted to me first?"
The gobsmacked looks were priceless, but Harry hoped it would be worth the punishment he'd get when Marvolo would ever find out that he'd given away this particular piece of information.
"You're not joking…" George hesitantly said after having studied Harry's expression for a minute. "You're really not joking…"
"No, I'm not."
"That is… I never… I never thought that The Dark Lord would… bottom."
"Only sometimes." Harry admitted. "So. Now I've told you my story… what's yours? When did you get together?"
"Only recently." George ruffled Fred's hair and gave him an affectionate smile that was immediately answered. "We fell in love some time ago, but both of us never dared to admit it out loud. Then, one night we were just lying in bed and chatting, and someone decided to assault me."
"As if you cared. It was just a very soft kiss, after which you practically devoured me." Fred huffed.
"Perhaps you'd like to share the details later." Harry hastened to say, before the two of them would end up in a lover's quarrel, or worse, in each other. "It's far past midnight so we'd really better head back to Gryffindor Tower."
"Good idea, my Master." Fred winked, and gave a ridiculous bow.
How was he ever going to survive the two of them?
Marvolo sat in his chair, outwardly relaxed, but he was actually strangely nervous. He had always shied away from Muggles. He knew that they were not all like the children in the orphanage of course, but personally he had never received kindness of any sort from Muggles and thus he had mixed feelings about suddenly conversing with four of them. He was mainly listening while Rosier and Rodolphus explained the magical world to them, and observed the reactions. He forced himself to put his personal feelings aside. This was the future. This was what he had strived for. No more hiding. If he had to believe these people, then the world was ready for magic. The most peculiar thing though, was that they even agreed on the fact that magicians should be ruling this world. He'd definitely not seen that coming.
"You're awfully silent." The girl, Sarah, cheerily said, cocking her head. "What's the matter?"
"I'm impressed that you seem to take this so well."
One of the men shrugged. "I don't see why there should be a problem. We work with so many things of which we don't understand how it works… why not magic? I'm sure that it will be beneficial for both our communities if we weren't separated anymore. Less poverty and less illness for us, more freedom for you. Perhaps magical people could sort out the mess that this world has become. Our governments sure can't. Of course, there'll be groups of people who will be scared or not understanding in the beginning. I reckon that you will have a tough nut to crack with a lot of religious people who see witchcraft as evil, but you have lived among us for millennia. Surely they will see reason when they notice that your lot has not suddenly emerged from the depths of hell…"
"I certainly hope so. When we finally have freedom, I want to strive for peace. That will not be an easy goal if some narrow-minded fanatics become rebellious."
"Humans believe what they were taught by the ones they trust. Family, friends… You cannot suddenly expect them to forsake their beliefs just because you say that what their parents told them is not true. You will have to show them that you are trustworthy before you will be accepted." The woman, Vanessa, spoke up, who had mostly been a silent observer as well till now.
"What do you think the best approach would be?"
"Definitely not scattering through the country and performing magic out in the open without warning. That will only lead to panic. Approach the Ministry and the Royal House… Work together with them, then slowly let the media know of your existence. Only when the news has circulated a while and the first panic has died down, will people listen."
"Thank you for your advice. I must admit that I have not been keeping track of what happened in the non-magical world the last… fifteen years or so. I will have to gather more information about it before I can decide on the exact course, but the outline of your strategy is good."
"What have you been doing the last fifteen years then?" Sarah asked with curiousity.
"I… have been on a hunt for power, died in the process, spent thirteen years in spirit form and was reborn again at the beginning of this summer. Since then, I have tried to gather my old army again, while changing my ways to suit my original goals. I admit that, due to an overdose of meddling with Dark Arts, my mind was not exactly the most… sane. That has been restored though."
"You… died?" the second man said with awe.
"Yes Olliver. I died. Fortunately, I spent my teenage years searching for ways to become immortal, and I found several, one of which suited my tastes. I would not recommend it to anyone unless they were willing to forsake their soul though. Or a great chunk of it at least." He wondered if perhaps he was saying too much. After all, there were two of his followers in the room. But he found a great pleasure in teaching these people, to make them understand even a bit of his world.
"Are there more immortal wizards?" Philip asked with a frown.
"I've heard of two. One of them used the same method I did. The other used a more temporary one. Once he stopped using the object that he used to lengthen his life, he died. Don't think there is a way to become totally immortal. What I do is also cheating death more than conquering it. The first wizard to acquire the status of immortality did not go far enough. Death found him in the end, after several centuries. I hope I have been thorough enough." He lay his head in his hands as he stared in the fire, a frown on his forehead. Silence fell over the room, only broken by their breath and the crackling wood in the fireplace. Suddenly, he almost jumped because the girl stomped him against his leg.
"Hey, cheer up, I'm sure you'll be fine!" she said with a smile. He hardly registered her words, wondering if he'd really had just been… stomped… by a muggle. Damn, this was going to be more annoying then he'd thought. He glared at Rodolphus, who was trying his best to not burst out in howling laughter. Rosier gave the other death eater a look as if he thought the man was insane. Now he thought about it, Rodolphus probably was insane.
He couldn't wait till he was at Hogwarts again with Harry instead of in the company of his Death Eaters… although he had to admit that the Muggles were less bad than he had feared.
Sun. 7 Sept.
Dear Diary,
I can't believe how much has happened in just one week. I killed someone, I recruited people I had never expected to join us, I learned more in this week thanthan I have in any ordinary month. I feel both anxious and excited when I think about coming weeks. I sincerely hope that I will be able to live up to Marvolo's expectations. Eyolf doesn't seem too sure I can do it. Honestly, whenever that man speaks to me –which, luckily, is not that often- I feel like I know absolutely nothing. Yesterday, he searched me out to inform me that I will have lessons with him Tuesday evening. I'm not exactly looking forward to it, but I know it is necessary. I don't know how else I'll ever be able to steal those memories from such a highly secured office as Dumbledore's.
Today, I finally had time to spend the evening in the Gryffindor common room, together with Ron and Hermione. I hope that the Twins will fix their minds soon so I can speak to them openly, but it was fun nonetheless. Ron slaughtered me at chess again and Hermione was working herself up over the OWL's. It was nice how normal it felt. I really needed that for a change. I borrowed a great book from Hermione too. Magic for Battle-mages, it is called, and it is full of really helpful spells. I don't have any time for that now, but I'll surely try to find it in Marvolo's library.
Tuesday, I will also have my first lesson with Sameer. It's a pity that I'll only follow a couple more classes before I'll have to leave Hogwarts. He's sure to be better than Umbridge… Marvolo will only return tomorrow, and I find myself missing him more than I thought. He's not even been gone for a few days. I'm really growing too used to his constant presence. I can't expect him to be hanging around me all the time when we return to the Manor again.
I just finished my homework, and Ron asked me to go flying. I haven't done that for quite some time, but I'm sure it will be fun. Being on a broom… nothing is better than that free feeling of flying. Or well, lying in Marvolo's arms does beat it. Damn, I'm really beginning to sound too sappy now.
He shut the door behind him with a loud bang, and was quite please when his cape dramatically swished as he walked up to his desk and turned to face the class. The students were immediately silent and stared at him with awe. Impressing people never became tiresome. Sameer's sharp eyes raked over the faces of every student, remembering their looks, pose and eyes instantly. He could already tell that the two troll-like children of Crabbe and Goyle, both Inner Circle members, were even less sharp than their fathers, which said a lot. Following his instincts, he picked out a girl with bushy hair, whose intelligence radiated off her, a slightly chubby boy with a lot of potential, if just given the right push, a boy with a dark skin who had a fire in his eyes that reeked of revenge and power, hidden underneath a cool façade, and of course, Harry Potter. He also immediately recognised the ones he would have to escort out of the classroom with a bucket when he would begin teaching darker spells.
The class began to fidget under his penetrating stare, and thus he turned his attention to the classroom, which he had stylishly decorated with artifacts that he may need during his lessons. Skeletons of magical animals, books of which the pages whispered promises of death when the wind got hold of them and various instruments against enemies adorned the shelves. Finally, he began to speak.
" My name is Sameer Atiyeh, professor Atiyeh for you. I'm fifty-four, work at the Ministry of Magic and went to school in Saudi-Arabia, though my secondary education was here in England under a private teacher. That is everything I will tell you, and for most of you, this is everything about me that you will ever know."
Some people frowned at this, and he inwardly smirked. The little bastards who would try to pry in his past and private life had revealed themselves.
"Now, I am not entirely sure if you heard all the details regarding the departure of your previous professor. I don't care what the school board is trying to cover up, or to who people are pointing when it comes to identifying the perpetrator. I'll be simple and clear to you. Dolores Umbridge was killed, and she has none to blame but herself. This may sound harsh, but a Defense teacher should know better than to walk into a forest and start insulting the local inhabitants. Be glad that she did not have the chance to teach you this whole year, or else your education would have been seriously lacking. Yes, Ms…"
"Patil." The girl who had raised her hand said with a small voice.
"Ms Patil. You had a question?"
"Well, yes… Professor Umbridge was from the Ministry, right? Aren't you?"
"Yes, I was sent here by the Minister."
"But… you will not be teaching us the same?"
"No. No, I will not. Technically spoken, I should, but I don't really feel like it. Thus, I looked at the curriculum Hogwarts has had previous years and adapted the Minister's orders to that." He shrugged. "There was no law against it, and the thought that I would waste my efforts on trying to teach you as little of practical use as possible left a bad taste in my mouth. Good education should not be influenced by the whims of political parties. Besides, in the end, you are going to have to perform these spells for your OWLS's and NEWT's. How could you without ever practicing? That brings me to the the curriculum of this year. We will be focusing on strong defensive spells, medium curses and their counter, some heavy curses, and I will introduce a new, often neglected part of magic in the defense lessons: healing magic. I know this does not exactly stroke with defense, but I found that it is not covered in any other course you are taking, correct?"
"Well, we learnt basic healing charms in charm class." One of the Slytherin boys said.
"To what extent?"
"Healing small broken bones, cuts and mild burns."
"In battle, that may not be enough."
"Professor… do you honestly think that we might need this in battle?"
"Even if we live in relative peace right now, war has always played a major role in the Wizarding World. Perhaps one day someone will stand up with the power to stop it, to unite us all, but until then, we have to learn to defend ourselves. I will have to teach you to defend yourselves."
Sameer saw Potter smile and several Slytherins looked at him as if they saw him for the first time. They all knew who he was talking about. The other students smiled as well, but for the wrong reasons.
"Well, today we will start with a shield spell that is of a higher level than Protego. Seeing as how you all bought Defense books that you did not use more than one lesson, the school will provide the new books. These will arrive somewhere next week, so until then, I'll instruct you as we practice. Divide in pairs, please."
When they had done so, he took notice of who paired up with who, and frowned a bit when he saw that the opponents were very uneven in power with most pairs. He'd have to do something about that next lesson. "Very good. Now, before we start: there are two types of defensive spells. Can anyone tell me which? Yes, Ms…"
"Granger. Hermione Granger." The witch said, and he nodded. "There is the instant defense and the permanent defense. The Protego spell is an instant one that only remains for a few seconds. More powerful instant spells are for example the Expecto patronum, which remains effective for a few minutes."
"Very good, do you know any permanent spells?"
"No, only that the most powerful are to be cast nonverbal or even wandless."
"Very good, ten points to Gryffindor. I realise that you have not started yet with both of those. I will be teaching you a weaker permanent shield spell. Although it is not much stronger than a Protego spell, it is infinitely more useful. Does anyone know… Yes, Ms Granger?"
"Although it does cost more magic to create it, once it is created, the caster doesn't have to think about it anymore and can just go firing off other spells. But you should be careful with it, because it automatically drains magic. If you keep it up beyond your magical capacity, your magic will run out, and the shield disappear."
"And with that, you immediately answered my next question as well. I am impressed." He said, pleased that he had been right about her intelligence.
"But what use is such a spell when it drains your magic?" another girl asked.
"You need not worry about it if you know your own strength. That is why we will practise it. Not only to learn the spell, but also to learn your personal boundaries. If my schedule is correct, then you have a double hour on Fridays as your last lesson, yes?"
Several students mumbled in agreement.
"Good, then I will use those hours to test your limits. You'll have the whole weekend to recover from it. Before we start, I'll check who's present. Raise your hand when I call your name."
He took the attendance list that lay on his desk and began to read the names. He was pleased to see that everyone who should be here was indeed present, and that other students who should not be there had indeed stayed away. Yesterday he had had a class with third-year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs , and a few second-years had managed to sneak in. Not that they had stayed long…
When he was done, he rolled up the sleeves of his robes. "let's begin!"
"Again." Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair, his despair growing with each spell he fired, and each harsh command that followed. He focused on the portrait of Talamh the dwarf. That the infernal creature was now openly laughing at him didn't help either. "If I thought that you couldn't do this Potter, then I wouldn't ask." Eyolf's voice boomed. "Now, again!"
Harry gritted his teeth to stop his angry reply, and instead used his anger to fuel his concentration. "Congelasco!" he shouted, and a blue haze erupted from his wand. For a moment, he thought that he had succeeded, but as soon as the haze disappeared, the spell was broken and the dwarf began to move again, this time shaking his fist at Harry while swearing.
"Better, but nowhere good enough. You will have to keep this up for about an hour Potter."
"I'm trying!" Harry said, pissed off. He glared at the assassin. "This spell will cost me weeks to master!"
"Well, it can't. Try harder. Only using your irritation and anger while throwing that spell won't help."
"Then would you please tell me what will?"
"Potter, tell me. Did you ever successfully perform powerful magic?"
Harry thought back and immediately thought of the time he had killed Bellatrix, and afterwards when he had tortured Umbridge. "Yes." He admitted.
"How did you feel then?"
Harry blushed. The first time his mind had been broken and he had been unable to feel anything. He couldn't try to recall that again, it was impossible. The second time however, he had been mostly aroused… there was no way he was going to tell Eyolf that. He tried to remember how he had felt then… He imagined Marvolo to be standing next to him, his hands sliding over Harry's skin, his voice whispering Parseltongue in his ear. He imagined the power he had felt over Umbridge and locked any other feeling away. There was nothing now but his target and his lover. He opened his eyes and raised his wand. He felt powerful dark magic in the air like an electric storm. He didn't even have to speak. A green flash alighted the room and a rushing sound filled his ears. When it was over, he came to his senses, and through unfocused eyes, he saw the shocked, pale face of Eyolf. In a second, it was replaced by an impassive mask. He looked back at the portrait, but only a charred, smoking picture frame remained.
"Well, damn." Harry muttered.
"So…" Eyolf began. "Whatever you did, it improved your power. Now you only need to fire the right spell. While destroying all the portraits might be effective to shut them up, it is not really what we are trying to accomplish."
"Then… do you have another portrait I can practice with?" Harry said sheepishly.
"Find one yourself, this will be homework." The man growled. "We also need to practice your skills on copying spells. Initially, the Dark Lord wanted you to write down the labels of the memories and later come back to copy those he needed. However, breaking into that office twice might be problematic, especially if someone slips up." Harry got the sudden urge to stick out his tongue. "Because of that, you will have to copy all of them yourself."
"But… didn't you tell me that, once I manage to put Fawkes asleep and freeze the portraits, you are able to enter the office as well? If you'll erase my traces, don't you also have the time to copy the memories?"
Eyolf glared at him. "I'm not your servant Potter."
"But theoretically seen…"
"Yes, I can. Very well, if you think you are unable to do so, then I will."
"I just want this to go right." Harry muttered. "He really needs those memories, if you copy them, there is just less chance that it will go wrong."
"Fine. Do you have a plan yet to acquire the password to his office?"
"Yeah, that's easy. The teachers know it, so I'll just have to ask Snape or Sameer." Eyolf snorted. "What?" Harry asked.
"If the teachers know, did it not, even for a second, occur to you that I might know as well?"
"You… you do?"
"I'm staff Potter, of course I know. Just ask me when you're ready."
"Oh." Suddenly, he felt incredibly dumb. "Okay." He mumbled.
"Now, cast seven small spells. Things you would normally use."
"What? Why?"
"You just cast a Killing curse Potter. Your wand remembers the spells cast before, but no more than seven. While you are at Hogwarts, the spell usage of minors is not checked, but make a habit of it to cast some harmless spells after using darker ones just in case the Ministry ever wants to check it." Harry nodded. He absolutely loathed his lessons with Eyolf –the man was undoubtedly a great assassin, but also a really bad teacher- but it were little tips like this that made them worthwhile. He cast a cutting curse, Lumos, Nox and some other common charms until the man nodded. "Good, you can go. Friday evening I want to check your progress on the freezing spell. Also, try to come up with three possible solutions to get that blasted bird to sleep. A sleeping spell won't work, it'll raise alarm the moment you point your wand at it, and the portraits will also notice something is wrong before you have the chance to freeze them."
"I will work on it. Perhaps the Twins have some useful invention." Harry said. "Till Fridays."
"See you then."
Tired, Harry walked out of the classroom and shuffled back to Gryffindor tower. He pushed the portrait door opened and yawned loudly. He just wanted to sleep…
"Harry!" No such luck. Harry groaned and stopped, counting to ten to prevent himself from hexing the person who dared to disturb him. A hand fell on his shoulder and he turned around to tell the person off when he suddenly saw that it was Fred… or George.
"Is there something wrong?" Harry asked when seeing the distressed expression of the other's face."
"No, no, nothing wrong. But you look like shit. What happened?"
"Lesson with our dear assassin." Harry muttered under his breath so no-one else could hear.
"Damn. Real tyrant?"
"Yeah, I wish Marvolo could teach me. He's a tyrant as well of course, but at least a good teacher."
"You just want another excuse to snog him. Anyway, I can see that you are tired, but George and I need your help."
Ah, so it was Fred he was speaking to. He swatted the teen's arm for his first comment, and Fred smirked. "What do you need me for?"
"Well… we thought that we might as well hurry up with our tasks. So… Ron and Hermione are now very confused."
"You broke the compulsion charms? Already?" Harry asked, impressed.
"Yes, we knew what to do, and thus we thought that we might as well do it now."
"How did they react?"
"Well, we didn't tell them that we were doing anything, so suddenly their minds got flooded with ideas and impulsions that had been suppressed before. Both of them were suddenly frightened and freaked out of course. George took them to an empty classroom and asked me to get you. You need to talk to them."
Harry sighed deeply. "Alright, I'll come."
He followed Fred out of the common room. The classroom was not far away, so within no time, they stood before the door. "Let's just hope that they will listen." Harry said, and the other nodded in agreement. He took a deep breath and pushed the door open. The sight he was met with, was not exactly what he had thought. For one, he had not expected Marvolo to be present, talking amicably with Ron and Hermione.
"Thanos!" he said, and gave him an incredulous 'what are you doing here' look.
"Hey, Harry?" Ron asked, and Harry saw that he was a bit pale.
"Yeah?"
"When did you plan on telling us that your boyfriend was a Death Eater?"
Congelasco: Freeze.
Read and Review!
xx GeMerope