Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
Half-Blood Blessing
Chapter Fifty-One: Visiting Grimmauld Place
I shifted into the room at the top of Sirius' house; the one Buckbeak had been kept in. It looked untouched, dust laying thick over the floor and empty shelves. I left the room and went down the stairs but it wasn't until I went into the front parlor that I found anyone. It didn't take long for Ginny to notice me. No one else did until she was halfway to me. Her embrace was half hug and half tackle. Hermione was equally enthusiastic and so was Ron in his way.
"Hello, Harry," said Luna in her reserved absent fashion.
"Harry, I've been so worried about you all. Why didn't you visit?" Hermione let go of me and punched my shoulder. I shrugged; the time had not been so long since I had seen them.
"Everyone's here mate." said Ron, and then his mood dampened, "Well not Fred or George, mum's mad at them for some reason. But Charlie and Bill…"
"I'm sorry Ron; I wish they weren't upset with each other." It was partially my fault in some respects; in all the respects that counted.
"It's alright. The twins invited us over later, so maybe we'll slip out. We haven't left this bloody house since we arrived."
"Careful about the language you use to refer to my house." Sirius stepped into the room followed by Remus. There was a second round of enthusiastic greetings. I knew both men had become uncles to them over the year Remus had returned to teaching.
I stepped back from the group feeling out of place.
"Dinner should be starting soon; the order is just finishing up a meeting."
"Ginny, Ron… didn't your mum ask you to set the table?"
Ginny flushed and darted from the room. Ron dragged his feet.
"Come on, if dinner's about to start, we might as well join them."
We traveled down the stairs into the lower level of the house but Remus and Sirius headed in another direction at the top of the basement stair. The stone kitchen was as I remembered, though strung up with so many lights it looked happy. I had no intention of eating but the friendly hubbub of a dinner table was worth the nuisance of probing questions about my health. Tesla and Neville were due to arrive soon. Severus would have been here but for losing his place as a spy.
I sat down at the end of the table. Luna sat down and Ginny next to her, their shoulders touching. Hermione sat down next to me, leaned her head on her hand, and stared at me. I ignored her look and played with the flame of the candle. Ron set the last placing and dropped onto the bench on the other side of Hermione. Conversation started slowly but eventually I forgot enough to laugh with them. The herons had all been touched a little too much by war not to be deadly serious most of the time. Even when we did laugh it was the sort of laugh that resulted from the shock at finding ourselves whole or else it was cynical. It was not long before the adults filed in somber and quiet, knots of them still talking. Tonks, a heart-shaped face and short black hair today, walked in with Sirius and Remus; she was certainly the most energetic of the lot. Sirius put an arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple, laughing. She was his favorite cousin and he, hers.
Soon, food was floating to the table and just as the last dish settled itself, Neville and Tesla stumbled out of the fireplace and sat in the empty spaces left for them near our end of the table.
Peoples' hands darted out for serving spoons and soon plates were full, all but mine. Arthur had his wand out and was directing a bottle of wine around, pouring generous amounts into each goblet. It wandered down to our end of the table and to my shock it was offered to all the students though Ginny and Luna received noticeably less than the rest of us.
It was chilled and my fingers felt numb on the glass. There were several significant looks up and down the table, resting on me a little too long, glasses raised and sips were taken and I felt like they were honoring me though no words were spoken. I frowned back at them and refused to acknowledge their recognition with anything more than the pointed look.
Conversation was split evenly; the witch and wizard sitting on just the other side of Neville and Tesla turned their shoulders just enough to make it clear that we were not part of their conversation. My friends bantered back and forth. Neville was happy to see Luna and Ginny who he treated much like younger sisters.
But I remained silent, watching the other end of the table. Dinner was closing and more wine had been poured for everyone. Remus, Sirius and Tonks were laughing hardest, merry perhaps with the glee of being alive still, though everyone seemed giddy with drink. Eventually the strangers gave final smiles and disappeared by the floo network. It left only the Weasleys, Sirius, Remus, Tonks, Neville, Tesla, Hermione, Luna and me.
It was suddenly somber. Molly was staring at me; she knew well enough that I was the source of rebellion among her children. Arthur was considering, and even Sirius, Remus and Tonks remembered the state of things. Tonks took an embarrassed sip from her goblet.
"Ron, Ginny, would you clear the dishes?" Molly's voice was sharp; certainly it was a demand not a request. Hermione and Luna excused themselves to help them and Neville and Tesla said their goodbyes and left. Conversation resumed between the older generation, but Bill and Charlie were left out. They stood up, rolling their eyes at their mother; love was there but exasperation too. As Charlie was following on the heels of his brother up the stairs, he lifted his chin to me and grinned.
I excused myself from the table, not that I really needed to with as little attention as I was receiving, and followed.
As I reached the top of the staircase, Bill snagged me and pulled me down the hall and into a hidden room at the back of the formal dining room.
"Sirius showed us this," he said gently.
"Harry, I'm sorry about mum, you remember how she was when Percy left… It's worse this time."
I nodded.
There was silence as we stared at each other. I didn't really know what to say to him; despite the fact that I had only been in his company a few times and not at any time recently, Harry had become like a brother and I held only concern for him. Bill was a little more distant about it but we both knew how the twins were about him. We had been in close contact with the two since they had left school, Bill hadn't exactly approved of their early exit but their immediate success had quieted him. In late September they had asked where we stood; being close to home they knew significantly more of the situation than we did. I had jumped to their side though Bill and I both kept our position in Dumbledore's order so that we knew what was going on. I passed on information to Fred and George and they to Harry, though they said that often as not he already knew, always touching his scar absently when he refused to explain how. My look drifted up to it; today it was an old scar but even as I looked it flashed momentarily to fresh wound and back.
I put my hand in the deep pocket of my coat; there was the faint crinkle of disturbed paper. My fingers clinched around a small vial. It had been a shock to receive an owl this morning, thankfully it had found me before I joined my family for breakfast or else there would have been awkward questions. Severus' rather distinct black owl was known to all the members of the order and Mum would surely have asked why Severus was contacting me and that could have easily ended in another row, especially if she did find out why.
Charlie,
I know how unusual this will seem, me contacting you. You are the only person I know who works with dragons, at least the only one I trust. The vial with this letter is a sample of blood that supposedly came from Harry Potter. It has properties too similar to dragon's blood for me to believe that it really does. I would appreciate whatever you can tell me about it. Also if there is any lore surrounding this sort of thing I would like to know; it might mean someone's life.
Please don't let anyone know.
Regards,
Severus Snape
I had only had time to visually inspect the sample of blood before shoving it in my pocket this morning. It did seem to be dragon's blood; it was viscous, heavy and most tellingly, had a tint of green to it, almost a sparkling.
"I'm sorry, this is awkward; we just didn't want to desert you in there with mum and dad. Mum's kind of upset with just about every one of us and she's put you as the root of the discord."
He laughed, "I kind of am, even Percy. It's alright; I have to say I understand." His smile left quickly and then returned, "How are the dragons?"
I jumped on the subject though in the back of my mind the letter and vial nagged at me, I almost told him that Snape had sent it to me. The conversation stayed away from all the troubles of today. The reserve I worked on was almost a separate world and the events that shook the rest of wizarding society seldom touched us. Even with only a few days back in England I was itching to return. I told them all about the egg that had been found and brought to us when it was obvious there was no mother. I had been chosen to mother it as long as I could without injury to myself. But it was eight months old and had not shot fire in my direction once. She was also only the size of a large dog, a very large dog, though normally by that age they were more than half grown. Her build was also odd, slender and snake-like, much more like the oriental dragons but while they didn't have more than vestigial wings, she did, true and powerful things. I had to wonder if she would ever bear a rider. Harry seemed quite charmed by the idea. I remembered I had a picture and summoned it from my room; it wiggled under the almost invisible gap under the door.
"She looks very sweet."
I had to laugh, "Everyone else said dangerous. I bet Hagrid would say the same though. I haven't told him yet."
"He'd be so jealous,"
"Yeah, though the department of magical creatures has come out to look at her and they say they think that she's not only a new species but that people could keep her kin as pets."
Harry grinned. "When I was growing up with the Dursleys I always wanted a pet dragon."
We chatted on until we were reasonably sure the dishes were done.
We left the secret room and went in search of Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Luna so that I could bid them farewell. Before we were a third of the way down the hall, raised voices reached my ears. I followed the sound to one of the sitting rooms. I stopped in the doorway.
Molly and Ron stood across the room and both were flushed bright red.
"Ronald Weasley you will not leave this house!" It sounded like the third or fourth repetition of that statement
"Why not mother? Is it because I'm going to see your wayward sons? The ones who offered you protection and when you were going to expose us decided to protect the rest of us instead of letting that happen. Any of us can walk without fear of ambush and you were going to give away the secret. How long would it have stayed out of Voldemort's hands? An hour? A day? Certainly not more than a week… The one defense..."
Molly yelled over him. "Selfish, that bit of magic could have protected our side, saved so many people."
"Until Voldemort got it?" I was growing rather proud of Ron saying Voldemort's name, he wasn't even flinching, he was probably too mad to notice.
"I'm going to visit Fred and George. You can't stop me."
"Ronald!"
I didn't move but someone else must have because Molly looked at us, she was close to tears. Ron glanced our way but then looked back at Molly.
"You did this, you pulled apart my family." Her furious, teary glare was directed at me.
"I can't say that I did not, but I love you and your family, I don't want any harm to come to them. I came to say goodbye to my friends before I left. Goodbye Ron. It appears the rest are all upstairs." I turned coolly, and said over my shoulder, "Ron, I might suggest that you just go, you are a guest in this house, a guest of Sirius, not your mother. Goodbye, I'll see you later." It was for Ron's ears, I knew no one else heard, and only the last was audible to everyone. I climbed the stairs.
"Hermione?"
A door opened a crack, "Harry, are they finished arguing?" I nodded. "They do that every few days, so far Ron always obeys his mum but I think the tighter a rein she puts on him the farther away he's going to run and the longer it will take him to come back."
"I reminded him he is an adult and a guest of Sirius, free to come and go."
"Oh, Harry, Mrs. Weasley is already mad at you."
"I know. She made that quite clear."
Hermione sighed. "What can I do for you?"
I paused, "find a peaceful place to lay my bones," I wanted to say. "I don't know. I'm sorry…"
"I know, I'm sorry, too." She smiled sadly. Then she stepped forward and put her arms around my neck and her head on my shoulder. Her embrace was brief but when she pulled away there were tears in her eyes. "Who would we have been, Harry?"
"I try not to think about it." She blushed realizing why. "It's okay, sometimes I can't help it, but all I ever come up with is that we will never know. We can't."
She nodded and wiped away a tear. "Adieu." The word was solemn almost despairing.
"You'll see me again." I wanted to laugh to show her it would be alright.
She smiled again. "I'll come on the solstice," she promised, "I almost have my Animagus form."
I grinned. "See you then."
I left her and went down the hall. I bid Ginny and Luna farewell, Luna was setting out Tarot cards in all seriousness but Ginny was rolling her eyes and laughing joyously.
