Harry Potter and the Founders

By: LuvFantasy

Chapter Twenty Nine: Rowena's Sword

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all seated in the Heads' common room once more that Monday morning, having completed all their classes and were now "working" on their homework. Harry had been staring at the same paragraph in his Charms book, trying to read the words over and over again, though he found it rather difficult under the mounting of pressure of finding Rowena's Heir.

As the words of an ancient old wizard with nothing better to do with his life than write a seventh year's charms book swam before his eyes, he found himself nibbling on his quill in speculation. According to the criteria Dumbledore had given him, the girl would be close to him – someone he'd known for years who would show Rowena's qualities. That left him with only three girls: Hermione, Ginny, and Luna. While Luna herself had been placed in Ravenclaw, he knew her the least of the three, and from what he knew of her she didn't strike him as the heir. She was too easily impressionable and gullible, believing any strange outlandish tale she heard. Ginny, on the other hand seemed to have chance, which made Harry's stomach squirm uncomfortably. Fighting Voldemort with his ex-girlfriend and best friend's sister wasn't exactly what he had envisioned. Yet she certainly had many of the qualities. She was uncommonly gifted in Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts, and maintained passing grades in all her other classes. She was canny and beautiful, as entertaining as she was frightening – but there was something about her Harry couldn't quite place that didn't feel right to Harry.

Then there was Hermione, who Harry secretly found himself thinking would be the Heir; even though there was hardly a chance. She'd touched the sword already, and it hadn't been affected at all. Yet she was stunningly intelligent, logical, gifted in all her subjects…

Harry jumped, knocking over his ink bottle. He'd scrawled "she's smarter than Luna and Ginny, though" across the width of his Potions essay. He groaned as he stared at his lost piece of work. Brilliant. Ron and Hermione looked up from their homework,

"What is it?" Hermione asked, eyeing him oddly. Harry immediately reddened and crumpled up the ruined page,

"Nothing…I just spilled ink on my essay."

"But, Harry – I can just siphon it off like I did with Ron's last year - !" Hermione started.

"No!" Harry exclaimed, grabbing the paper protectively. Ron's eyebrows shot up into the air. "It's just…I…I wrote it on the wrong thing anyways." He hurled the parchment into the flames on the hearth and ran his hands through his hair. Hermione watched him worriedly.

"Are…are you okay, Harry?" She asked tentatively.

"I'm fine," Harry muttered. He pulled the Charms book towards him and tried to read the paragraph once more, though it was needless to say his mind was elsewhere.

As they packed up their books for dinner, Harry looked over at the two of them, sighing loudly. "Look…I, I guess I'm just worried about finding Rowena's Heir, that's all. Dumbledore said it was just as important as finding Horcruxes and destroying them, and here I am – middle of November, no closer to finding her than I was the day Dumbledore told me the whole story."

"Aw, come on," Ron said, attempting to be optimistic, "she'll turn up soon. All we've got to do is wait. I mean hey, Dumbledore had to wait twelve years before you found Godric's sword."

Harry stared at Ron for a moment and then exclaimed, "That's it! You're brilliant, Ron!"

"Er…" Ron looked over at Hermione uneasily, "…thanks. How so?"

Harry struggled to maintain his excitement as he explained his theory to them, "Look…when I was down in the Chamber of Secrets, Godric's sword came to me, I didn't come to it. We've been doing this all wrong! We've been trying to bring the Heir to Rowena's sword! All we have to do is wait until the sword turns up in the hands of the heir."

Ron and Hermione looked at him for a moment, and then Ron grinned. "He's right! I am brilliant, that could work!"

Hermione shook her head, interrupting, "No…you're not, Ron – I mean…yes you are, but not now, oh," she broke off, looking flustered. "It's just…" She turned to Harry, as if she were trying to clear her thoughts just by looking at him.

"Harry, when you were in the Chamber, you had the Sorting Hat. That was how the sword came to you."

"So we just get the hat," Harry said nonchalantly. Hermione shook her head again,

"We can't just go around with the Sorting Hat and waiting for the sword to appear in it when we stand in front of some girls!"

"Well we can't do it with a sword, either," Harry argued.

"Harry, listen to me…if Dumbledore meant for us to use the hat one, he would have told us straight off, and two we never would have bothered getting the sword because it would have just appeared in the hat. Clearly, we have to bring the sword to each of the possible heirs and see what happens."

"Oh, and exactly how do we intened to explain that… 'hello Ginny, would you just pick up Rowena's Sword? We really need to tell if you're the Heir or not,'" Harry snapped bitterly, losing his temper. Hermione glared at him,

"Well anyone could tell you that's not the way!"

"Oh and what is the way then, dropping it in front of them and waiting for them to pick it up?"

"No!" Hermione exclaimed, her face reddening under his criticism, "And I really wish you'd stop insulting me, Harry! I'm not the reason you haven't found her yet!"

"So it's my fault then?" Harry demanded bitterly, slumping over in his chair. Hermione glared at him from behind reddening eyes,

"No, it's no one's fault. The Heir clearly isn't ready for the responsibility yet."

"Oh so we'll just sit here and wait then while Voldemort goes off and plans his next move!"

"No," Hermione snapped, her voice trembling, "No, we're just going to-"

"What exactly?" Harry demanded, standing up to look down at her, "We've only got two choices: go around telling people that we're looking for Rowena's Heir which is basically like giving Voldemort a personal owl informing him of our intentions or just sit here and do nothing."

A single tear dropped down Hermione's cheek, and her lip trembled. She glared up at Harry defiantly despite it though, "Stop it, Harry," she said firmly, "Ron and I aren't the reason we're stuck in this position. We can't do anything about it except act…and we'll do just that."

Harry looked down at her and seemed to come to his senses. He looked over at Ron, who was staring at him – utterly shocked, as if Harry had changed completely within seconds under his very nose – and sighed loudly, sinking back down into his chair.

"Look, I'm sorry…" In truth he didn't know what was coming over him. He'd never felt this way before…not since fifth year, when he had been receiving visions of Voldemort – which eventually led to Sirius' death.

Hermione walked over to him quietly and knelt down to his height, "Harry?"

He didn't look at her, and grunted instead. "Harry…I think you need to tell us what's been bothering you."

"It's just the Heir and Voldemo-!"

"No, it's not, Harry," Hermione said firmly. "It's something more…I can see it. Something or someone's bothering you."

Harry looked at her blankly. There was nothing else. He was just getting stressed. "It's nothing, Hermione…I'm just worried." He looked over at Ron, "Honest." He added. Ron was still looking over at him, surprise still etched on his face. Harry turned back to Hermione,

"I'll…I just need to find the Heir. That's it."

"It's Lupin isn't it?" Hermione asked quietly, "You're worried about him. You think that it's your fault he's in St. Mungo's."

Harry paused. No, that wasn't it. He was worried about Lupin…but he had never blamed himself for Lupin being attacked. Lupin had been on patrol for the Order…he had been following orders and been caught.

Harry shook his head and stood up, looking over at Ron instead. "Look…I think I need to talk to Ginny."

"Why?" Hermione demanded, standing up from where she had been kneeling quickly. Harry looked at her and she quickly averted her eyes. "I mean…why? What could she possibly know that we can't help you with?"

"Yeah," Ron seconded, "besides…I doubt she'd help you. You saw her before we went to Loch Ness."

"I'm not going to her for advice," Harry stated, "I just need to see if she's the Heir."

"Why can't you ask Luna?" Hermione asked, "She's got more of a chance."

"No…she's actually less like Rowena than Ginny is," Harry said, turning slowly to look at Hermione. "And why does it matter whether I ask her or not?"

Hermione grabbed her Potions book irritably and began to scrawl down part of her essay, "Nothing, Harry," she said, her voice calm…in complete opposite of her emotions, "I'm just wondering why you can't follow things through logically."

"I am," he argued, "and Ginny's the most like Rowena." Harry looked back over at Ron, "So I guess I was just wondering, Ron…if she is the Heir, you know she'll have to face Voldemort with me." Harry waited for his words to sink in, not even knowing why he was asking Ron in the first place. Ginny would go with his permission or no.

Ron slowly nodded, "Yeah…I understand, Harry. But it's her choice not mine…" he smiled faintly, "…and hey, she might not even be the Heir. Then she won't even be in danger."

Harry gave him a short nod and turned to Hermione, "Could I have the sword?"

Hermione didn't look up from her essay, "Yes…just give me a minute." They all waited as Hermione finished writing a particularly long passage of her essay, taking special care to dot each i and cross each t symmetrically. Finally, she finished and exited to her room, emerging from it a few minutes later bearing the sword. She handed it wordlessly to Harry and sat back down to her essay.

Harry looked over at Ron, "If it's not Ginny…would you mind getting Luna to try out the sword? I reckon you know her better now than I do."

"Sure," Ron agreed. "Ginny's probably in the Gryffindor Common Room with her friends. You should clear them out first."

"Kay," Harry nodded. He made for the door, and stepped out of it quickly, the gargoyle sliding back into place behind him. As he hastened down the corridor and his footsteps echoed on the stone floor behind him, he found himself anxiously debating the possibilities of Ginny being the Heir. She would either be exactly as she was in 2nd year…or cold and distant as she had been at the Burrow, viciously trying to make him fail at what he attempted. Or nothing would happen at all and the Heir would be Luna. Or someone else he'd forgotten completely about.

He arrived at the Fat Lady's portrait and stated clearly, "Riget."

The Fat Lady smiled at him, "Indeed…and make sure you do, young man, there's far too many frowns around this school these days."

Harry ignored her and entered the Common Room, looking around hastily. It was mostly deserted, save for Lavender sitting alone by the fire, writing an essay.

"Lavender?"

She turned her head at the sound of his voice, "Harry?"

"Er…yeah. Could you go get Ginny for me?"

Her face brightened considerably, "Are you two going to…" she grinned, reddening, "you know?"

In fact, Harry had no idea what "you know" meant, but he was sure he didn't want to either. "No, I just… really need to see her."

Lavender giggled, "Right. I'll tell her." She ran up the stairs to the girls dormitories, exclaiming, "Ginny! Harry wants to see you! Ginny! It's Harry-!" there was a shriek of excitement from what sounded like a third year, and then Lavender replied, "I know! They're getting back together! Oh, they'll look so perfect at the Ball and … oh my gosh, I have to do Ginny's hai – GINNY! It's Harry, he's down there… like now!"

Harry groaned and fell onto the couch, his head in his hands. Great. As if his day could have gotten worse. Rowena's sword pommel poked him hard in the ribs. Before anything else could happen, Ginny could be heard running down the stairs. She jumped down the last three, her long red hair swaying behind her, her brown eyes bright with excitement.

"Harry!"

"Er…hi, Ginny," he said glumly. "Do you…want to sit?" He pointed towards the chair at the other end of the room suggestively. She sat down next to him.

"Lavender said you wanted to see me?"

"Er…right," Harry cleared his throat. "Actually…it's not what you think."

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked, still smiling. Harry winced.

"I've got sort of this…project for Defense Against the Dark Arts…and er," eh tried to think wildly of something. If only Hermione were here, she could have given him a reason. "Well, er… I wanted to know what you thought of this sword?"

He thrust it into her hands quickly and waited for something to happen. Ginny stared down in surprise at the blade for a moment, then turned to look at Harry,

"This was it? The big… 'I really need to see Ginny'?"

"…yeah," Harry muttered, hating himself for it. She threw the sword back at him and stood up quickly, making for the dormitory stairs,

"I have to go."

He could have sworn he heard a sob and groaned into his hands. The sword clattered onto the floor, and a door slammed above him. He sat down there for a few moments, lost to his own thoughts before he remembered Lavender would be coming down soon. He bent to pick up the sword and found he could do so easily. Well, she wasn't the Heir then…or at least not yet.

He jumped through the portrait hole and hastened back towards the Heads' common room just as small groups of students began to head towards the Great Hall for dinner. Ginny wouldn't be one of them, he was sure of that. But he couldn't do anything about it, he told himself firmly, he no longer reciprocated her feelings…and he'd tried to make her understand that. But she hadn't.

The gargoyle rolled aside at his words and Harry stepped inside. Ron and Hermione looked up as soon as he did,

"Well?" they asked as one.

He showed them the sword wordlessly. They both gave exhalations of relief. Ron turned to Harry,

"That's good new then," he said brightly, "…I mean, sure, we still don't have the Heir, but Ginny's not her and now well…" he looked over at the sword and sobered a little, "Reckon I should get Luna to try?"

Harry nodded without speaking and Ron took the sword, hurrying to the door, "Hey…don't wait for me. I'll just meet you two at dinner." The gargoyle groaned again as it closed behind him.

Harry made no movement for awhile, and Hermione turned back to her parchment. For a long time, the only sound in the room was the scratching of her quill, the pause when she dipped it in the ink, and then the resumed scratching – mingled with the crackling of the fire and the occasional pop as an ember leaped onto the hearth to sizzle and die on the flagstones. Harry stared into the flames, thinking hard.

It was good that Ginny wasn't the Heir. It wasn't that that was bothering him, he was sure of that. It was rather the fact that they still hadn't found the Heir…and maybe Hermione was right, he was starting to blame himself for Lupin – deep down inside of himself, it had been gnawing away at him. If he'd only hunted down the Horcruxes sooner, found Rowena's Heir…if he hadn't been so caught up in his personal life with Ginny. Lupin wouldn't have been out there on patrol, he would have been safe with the other members of the Order…preparing for the final battle. If he'd just realized how important this was sooner… if he hadn't forgotten the emotions that had burned within him at Dumbledore's funeral. It was knowing Dumbledore was alive still, Harry decided, that led him to forget the importance of Horcruxes and the Heir. He'd thought he was protected once more…that Dumbledore would take care of him as he always did, solve their problems quickly and easily. But Dumbledore had laid those tasks on him, and he'd forgotten that Dumbledore had trusted him…he'd just imagined that-

"Harry?"

He jumped and looked up.

"Harry, don't you think we should go to dinner?" Hermione asked, looking closely at him.

"Oh…right. Yeah."

"Are you alright, Harry?"

"Yeah…I was thinking."

"Oh."

They left for dinner together and met up with Ron and Luna outside the Great Hall.

"Hi, Harry!" Luna called vaguely, waving at him brightly.

"Hi, Luna," Harry answered. He looked over at Ron who reddened and shook his head. No. Harry sighed deeply and was brought back to the present by Luna stating,

"That's a nice sword you have, Harry. It almost looks like Rowena Ravenclaw's… which was lost centuries ago in Scotland. But everyone knows that Scrimegour sent his Heliopaths to retrieve it from a rogue dragon that had stashed it in her lair. Now he has it in the Department of Mysteries, where he uses it as to control his colleagues."

"Er…"

"The sword has magical powers you see," Luna babbled, "it gives the user the ability to suck out a person's logic and force them to listen to you."

Hermione surveyed Luna without comment, her expression hardening ever so slightly. She turned to Ron and Harry, "Do you think we should go to dinner now?" Luna stopped at Hermione's interruption mid-lecture and nodded slowly,

"Yes. Otherwise the Nogles will steal it all away. Bye, Ron – bye, Harry…Hermione." She listed off their names vaguely and then drifted off towards the Ravenclaw tables. Hermione turned on Ron viciously,

"How could you tell her?"

"What?! No! I didn't tell her a thing!" Ron argued, his ears reddening, "She must've figured it out on her own – hey I thought it was loony myself when I first heard it. Come on, the swords of two ancient dead, lovers which handpick heirs each generation or whatever-!"

"Oh give it here!" Hermione hissed, her eyes flashing dangerously.

Ron glared at her but handed the sword to her nonetheless, grumbling incoherently under his breath all the while,

"You didn't need to be so rude to her, Hermione," he shot out, "She's very touchy you know."

"Yes, Ron. I do know, what surprises me is quickly you an Harry can manage pick up on how delicate her feelings are, whereas with everyone else you are completely clueless!" She handed the sword fiercely to Harry, who made to take the sword from Hermione, but found, with a growing feeling of surprise, that he could not touch the blade.

"Er…Hermione-!"

"What?" She rounded on him.

"The sword…I can't touch it."

Ron and Hermione both looked down at the sword as Harry repeatedly tried to take it from Hermione, each time his fingers came within an inch of the blade, they stopped. Wordlessly, Ron reached forwards and met the same results Harry did.

"Try it, Hermione," Harry said quietly, "Try."

Hermione placed the sword on the ground and then easily lifted it, even drawing the blade and sheathing it once more.

"Blimey, Hermione," Ron breathed, "You're the Heir of Rowena!"

Hermione's face looked completely shocked, pale with surprise. At her expression, Harry found that the growing bubble of warmth that had been stealing over him stopped abruptly, extinguishing itself and leaving him cold and alone. She didn't want it. She didn't want to be the Heir.

"I…I am," she said, her voice shaking slightly. She lowered the sword slowly and looked around at Harry and Ron. "I'm the Heir?"

Harry nodded, not knowing what to say. Ron echoed his actions to their left. Slowly, Hermione began to smile.

"Well I guess it's just us three again."

Ron grinned, "You're right! And you two are the Heirs!" He was smiling a little bit more than was necessary for the occasion and turned from Harry to Hermione, beaming with a strained smile. "That's really great…great," he shuffled uncomfortably for a moment and then pointed towards the doors, "Reckon we should go eat dinner?"

A/N:

I am majorly annoyed. I just spent an HOUR typing up replies to your reviews and giving several clues as to what will happen next. But no, my hideous machine lost it all.

That being said, in the attempt to make up for lost time (I'm on a tight schedule) in the effort to post today, I will categorize frequently asked q's/comments and give my replies to them rather than spending another hour. I'm sorry for the alteration in my usual method, but I've only got 15 minutes.

Okay...I am very sorry. My computer is having extreme problems, and I have to go now. Again, it refused to save my comments. I'll just respond to them in the next chapter. I'm very sorry about the delay, and I swear I'm going to kill this thing.

I will update as quickly as possible, but I think my computer is going through the "let's destroy this poor author's account" phase again, so I can't promise anything. But now I've gott to go.

Soory: LuvFantasy