Chapter Twenty-Five: Willowy
The next two days were two of the hardest days of Harry's life. That's how long it was before Ron or Hermione talked to him again. At that point, Harry was wondering just how long Hermione 'needed to think'. He'd been eating at the Hufflepuff table to give them some space, and gone to the library in the afternoons. Now that the secret was out about Gray and Harry's relation, the three cousins spent lots of time together. There was deep rift between the members of the Hand, Vosenn appeared to have sunk into depression and barely left the dungeons, Draco hovering over her with concern. Draco had looked relieved to see the three Gryffindors the next morning, Ron, Hermione and Ren, all alive and well. Jon was distant, Sariah stuck to Gray like a burr. Xaxx, Miren, and the twins were clueless of the current state of things.
Harry hadn't expected Ron and Hermione to approach him on the lawn outside Hogwarts, but they did. He was sitting with Ren, waiting for Enna, Gray and Sariah.
Ron and Hermione dropped down to sit on the other side of Ren, and spoke to her first.
"Do you have wings too?" Hermione asked. "You're Harry's cousin, aren't you?"
Ren shook her head, not looking offended. "I'm half, like Harry. Sometimes you look full Silent, like Harry and Gray. And sometimes you're left in between." She shrugged. "It's not bad. I still have all the advantages of being a Silent, just not the wings."
"You could still fly," Ron pointed out. "We have brooms."
Ren considered this carefully. She looked about to refuse, as she had every time someone suggested using a broom so far. But this was the first time Ron and Hermione had approached them since 'the incident', and she didn't want to ruin the moment. "Maybe I will," she said.
Hermione leaned forward to look around her at Harry. "I can't help myself, I'm madly curious about how this came about. I want to know everything!" Her excitement must have been somewhat contagious because Ron was looking fascinated as well. "What's it like, the place where the Silents come from? How did your father come to Hogwarts? Why are your cousins and those other Silents here now?"
Harry was glad just to hear their voices. Enna, Gray and Sariah walked up just then, surprised to see Ron and Hermione.
"They want to hear about Origin and my family," he told them in a level voice, but they knew how much it meant to him.
"Of course!" Sariah sat down, pulling Gray to sit next to her. They all clustered in a circle. "I love stories."
Harry wanted to tell them everything, and the full story took half the evening, because Hermione kept asking questions as they went along, about the specifics of casting-stone magic and Origin Mythology. They took turns talking, explaining different bits and pieces until it all came together.
"So now we're all in hiding," Harry concluded. The only part he left out, of course, was his connection with Enna. His cousins were the only ones to know about that, though Harry was pretty sure Sariah knew. Enna or Gray would probably have mentioned it.
Somewhere in the middle, Jon had wandered by, seeing all of his friends sitting together happily. Without hesitation Harry waved him over, and Jon joined them, reluctantly at first but then he got into the spirit of it and talked a mile a minute, joking around, his usual self. "I was angry the other night," he told them. "I see Vosenn's point. The Hand is falling apart… I didn't want that to happen." He added sheepishly, "And Vosenn is kind of scary sometimes."
Hermione was looking thoughtful, staring directly at Harry. "So what are you going to do about Voldemort?" She asked bluntly.
Sariah frowned. "What's that?"
"It's a who," Ron told her explaining the state of the Wizarding world to those who didn't know about the Dark Lord. Gray and Ren knew about him already, of course, Voldemort had killed their uncle. They couldn't tell them about Voldemort without going over all of Harry's encounters with him. The reiteration of Voldemort's rise to power and sudden fall gave Harry some time, a delay in which he could think. When they were done, Hermione watched him expectantly.
"I don't know," Harry admitted. "I've thought about it… things have been distracting."
"Look at what you can do," Hermione pointed out. "You're strong, you can… "port", you're practically guaranteed to win."
"If I knew where he was," Harry pointed out. "And he did kill my father, remember? What makes you so sure I won't be killed too?"
"Well, you weren't before," she reasoned. "Maybe because you were a Portal Guide." No one had used the term 'Cursed' in front of Ron and Hermione, out of respect for Harry. He appreciated it.
"I don't know where he is," Harry repeated. I'm not AVOIDING the issue; I just don't know what I should do. If I were face to face to Voldemort, would I kill him? How?
"You found Gray and Madalena through the Void, even when you didn't know where they were," she said.
Harry smiled at that. "Yes, well… I think an important part of that is that I wanted to find them. I don't think that under any circumstances I will honestly want to bring myself to Voldemort."
"But if you knew where he was?"
Harry nodded. "If I knew where he was, and if the people I'm protecting are safe, I would go to him. If going through all of this was worth anything, getting rid of Voldemort would be worth it." He thought painfully of everyone who'd already been lost to Voldemort. His parents, Sirius…
"You'll tell Dumbledore, then?" Hermione prompted. "Dumbledore should know, right?"
Harry looked over their faces. The Silents were looking alarmed. "I don't think so, Hermione. Right now, I need to make sure the ice lizards don't find us, I promised I would." That isn't all of it… I don't want to leave Hogwarts, and I can't imagine Dumbledore accepting all of this and letting us stay. I'm devoted enough them by now that if they leave, I would probably go with them. And I don't want to leave; I'm not ready to leave yet.
"Well if we don't explain, then we can't expect to just walk up to Dumbledore and ask him where we can find Voldemort," Hermione said.
"That would be convenient, wouldn't it?" Harry replied. "Dumbledore would have the best guess as to where he is, but he'd also never tell us."
"I'll look into it," Hermione said with determination. "Harry has your link to Voldemort been active?"
Harry shook his head. "I'll let you know if anything happens."
Enna nudged him. "What about Luminae?"
"… Luminae?" He repeated thoughtfully.
Enna nodded. "If she knew, she would tell us."
"Voldemort is a world away from her," Harry said. "It might be a bit of a stretch to expect her to know about him."
"She could always ask her Goddess," Enna persisted.
"It might be worth a try," Harry agreed.
Ren sighed loudly and rolled her eyes theatrically. Now that she had everyone attention, she looked them over skeptically and said, "Must I point out the obvious?" as if it were painful for her to do so.
"… well, yes." Gray said. "Get on with it."
Clearly enjoying herself, Ren said dramatically, "Harry… you don't need to look for Voldemort." She paused, continuing in a normal voice. "If I understand correctly, Voldemort's been trying to find you for years. It would be harder for him to find you, than for you to find him. Just go wander around somewhere where he would be too tempted to not kidnap you."
"… Right." Hermione agreed. "That's true."
"We should probably think it through," Harry said. "We'll meet and talk about it again and see if we have any good ideas, alright?"
Everyone nodded, and went their separate ways.
Hermione seems to be overjoyed because she can learn so much about Origin from us, Harry thought. Ron… Ron was there, but I don't know if he was all there. He was kind of reserved… I don't really know how he's feeling right now.
The next day Harry walked through Hogwarts on his own, he really wanted to see the twins. Miren and Xaxx could take care of themselves, but not having spoken to them— well, Shetha, Thamn never talked to him— weighed uneasily on his mind. He knew they spent a lot of their free time in the Greenhouses, but there were quite a few of those. After going through all of them and finding them empty, Harry was going to give up, until he heard the faint murmuring of familiar voices. He went around behind the Greenhouses, to find the two of them seated in the tall grasses.
"Hello," he greeted them as he sat next to them.
"Harry," Shetha said, pleased, and to Harry's surprise, Thamn smiled. "I haven't seen you in ages!"
"Sorry," Harry apologized, feeling guilty. "How has Hogwarts been? Have you missed your home terribly much?"
They nodded together. "We've missed it a lot," Shetha verbalized. "But Hogwarts its fun… we can stay up as late as we want!" She said gleefully. "And we made a good friend."
"Oh?" Harry asked with interest. "Who's that? Neville?"
Shetha looked at him blankly. "Neville? No, but he is nice."
"Who, then?"
Shetha motioned for him to follow and scampered off, Thamn at her heels. Amused, Harry jogged to catch up. Their hair was a medium brown, straight and fluffy, bobbing around their heads as they trotted across the Hogwarts grounds.
"There!" Shetha said triumphantly, pointing.
Harry looked from the twins' smiling faces to where they pointed, and then back to them again. "What?"
"Our friend," Shetha said, "Right there."
"… but that's the Whomping Willow," Harry protested. Ignoring him Shetha ran forward. "I don't think that's a good idea—" he stopped abruptly.
To his surprise, the Whomping Willow extended one massive branch and delicately plucked Shetha up in the air, brought her to its trunk and cradled her to it. Shetha grinned and hugged it back, comfortably seated on a branch. Thamn followed closely behind as usual.
"The Whomping Willow?" Harry repeated, stunned. No way.
"You've met Willowy?" Shetha asked happily.
"Willowy?" Harry shook his head. "It doesn't like me very much."
"Nonsense," Shetha said confidently. "Willowy is a sweet and gentle tree, he likes everyone."
Harry took a deep breath, and refrained from re-educating her. Only Shetha… seriously… "No, I'm really sure he doesn't like me," Harry insisted, and to demonstrate, took a step forward. Immediately a branch whipped around, but stopped a foot from him.
"See? He says hello," Shetha told him.
The branch moved cautiously forward, and Harry was subjected to the strangest 'hello' he'd ever experienced. The branch prodded at him, touching his face and shoulders. Abruptly, although to Harry not unexpectedly, it swiftly punched him in the stomach.
"OOF!" Harry said painfully, backing up. Appeased, the branch retreated.
Shetha just looked perplexed. "That's strange. He's our best friend. We play catch and everything!"
"What kind of catch?" Harry asked suspiciously. "Like catch with a ball?"
"How is that fun?" Shetha asked. "No, like this." She got to her feet and ran along the branch like a squirrel, feet bare under her robes, and then bounced carefully. The branch promptly launched her in the air. Harry took a step forward, wanting to strip his amulet and fly to the rescue, but on the other side another branch caught her gently, absorbing the impact. Shetha squealed, and Harry felt like rubbing his temples in exasperation.
"It can throw us into the Lake from here!" Shetha added. "Don't you want to play?"
"Oh, no thank you," Harry said, with a shudder. Most definitely not. I think if I tried that… fun little game… I'd end up embedded in the side of the castle. Not today, thanks. "You have fun."