Chapter 30

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Harry had been sleeping peacefully deep in a REM state when his dream had brought him to stand on the rocky coastline in front of the entrance to a cave, one that he recognized from his visit to it with Dumbledore months ago, the scenery was as dark as it had been before, but it was slipping in and out of focus, and it wasn't as cold this time as it had been last.

He wasn't as nervous or confused as he had been last time either.

It was like an out of body experience. He wasn't the one standing on the rocky crag in front of the entrance.

Except he was. He was in the body that was moving towards it, but wasn't controlling it.

He went towards the secret entrance to the underground lake like a seasoned visitor and cast the spell to allow him through the passage. The journey from the shoreline to the island with the pedestal went quickly, it was like he was going through all of the movements on fast-forward.

As he approached the basin he looked down at the potion that lay as smooth as glass inside it, but it was not his own face that was reflected back at him. Lord Voldemort's gleaming red eyes shone brightly despite the darkness of the chamber around him. The green light emanating from the pedestal caused his pale skin to take on even more of a snake-like quality as he tried to stare down past his reflection and see his precious heirloom resting at the bottom of the basin.

He could not see it though, thus he withdrew his wand and lowered it to the notch in the pedestal and patiently waited for the liquid to drain down onto the rock surface of the island.

Removing his wand he stood properly to look once more into the basin and see his proof that his protection was still in place.

Harry could no longer see the face of Voldemort staring back at him, instead it was just an empty basin that was slowly filling once more with an unknown potion. Harry could feel Voldemort though. There was a ball of anger that was slowly growing in his throat, sizzling and sparking throughout his entire body until his angrily bared teeth parted and an explosion of rage poured out of him. It echoed off the water and the distant walls, a turbulent shock wave ripped through the ground and continued outwards from him as his magic was expelled causing whitecaps to ripple out through the still water.

He bent over the basin in need of its support to hold him up, his energy having been expelled more from that outburst than it had in a long time. Clutching the sides of the basin his hands vibrated with his fury which continued to build once more and the clear stone structure began to crumble under his touch.

His next wave of fury had Harry sitting up straight in his bed, a cold sweat covering his entire body and causing him to begin to shiver. But the most prominent issue he was having as he tried to catch his breath was the absolute agony that was resonating into his skull from his scar.

Gasping he crawled to the edge of his bed, simply allowing himself to fall to the floor and struggled bit by bit to find the energy to get to his closet. The hidden passageway was the easiest and quickest way to get help.

Harry's head was pounding and he didn't have the presence of mind to recall if Sirius was home tonight or our out. Ginny would be though.

He needed Ginny.

It took a few tries to get the panel down with his trembling hands and his head pounding so much that keeping his eyes open was torture, simply letting the panel fall to the floor he crawled through the entrance and began sliding down the narrow stairs. Every slight jostle was making the agony in his head amplify, but he knew that if he just got to her panel then she would hear the noise.

Finally he got there and rested his back upon the panel until it gave way, making a loud thunking noise as it hit the floor and he waited.

It was only a moment later that her closet door opened. "Harry?" she asked.

He couldn't open his eyes now, it was too much.

Ginny rushed forward and pulled him through the space. "What happened?" she asked in a panic.

Harry did his best to get up with her assistance and find his footing as she guided him to the bed. "Cave," was all he managed to get out before she had got him to lay down in her bed. He was still shivering when she climbed in beside him, placing her hand on his forehead.

He let out a sigh at her touch against him there. It had been the same last time when he had had an episode like this, he had thrown up that time and his scar had been burning just as much as it did now, but Ginny's cool hand touching his forehead eased the pain so much.

"Just rest a moment," she whispered for his benefit. "I'm going to go and get some pain potion for you."

He quickly grabbed her wrist so she wouldn't pull her hand away from him. "Little bit longer," he begged. "Please." That slightest bit of relief had been so welcome he feared that the pain would return tenfold at the loss of her touch and he was so rattled then and had used so much of his energy to get down those narrow and steep steps that he felt he would absolutely crumble if he didn't have her comfort there until he was pieced back together again.

He felt her lean back against the headboard. Her hand moved slightly, but then she brought up her other hand and started massaging him forehead and up to his hair line. It had him moaning, and this time not because of pain.

His eyes were rolling back in his head at the touch and after a few minutes he still felt lousy, but yet a hundred times better.

"He went to the cave, he knows that Horcrux is gone," he murmured.

Harry had been around his girlfriend enough know to know exactly what face she was making from hearing this information. Her lips would be pursed, her jaw set and her eyes narrowed; an expression that shouted she had been anticipating this moment for a while.

Ginny shifted down to lay beside him, keeping one hand on his face, her thumb constantly moving in a luxuriously kneading fashion against his forehead. "We have to tell Sirius," she sighed. "He'll want to know as soon as possible."

"I couldn't remember if he was here or not. When I woke up all I could focus on was getting here," he told her.

She shifted around and he managed to open his eyes right before her lips pressed against his in a sweet kiss. Ginny moved to lay back down, but he pulled her closer. "Harry," she warned gently. "You need to rest."

"I am resting," he argued. "You make me feel better." He wasn't trying to pull anything but her touch was literally magic, the feel of her against him and holding him made everything right again. And he so wanted to feel right again.

He felt her smile against his mouth.

When they broke apart a few minutes later Harry barely remembered the pain he had been in when he first found his way into her room. The only painful part on his body now was most certainly not in his forehead.

It had been a while since they got carried away to the point of him messing in his pajama bottoms, but considering he really needed to relay an important piece of information on to Sirius now probably wasn't the right time to get carried away like that either.

He just needed a moment to calm down before they went to wake him.

()()()

It took a while, but eventually Harry and Ginny were allowed to go to Potter Manor with Sirius or Bill when they went to check in on the detainees.

At first Ginny wasn't sure what the harm would have been for them to join any of the Order members going there, but once she was in the Stable House she understood. Sirius and Mrs. Tonks had figured out how to remove the Dark Marks and didn't want Harry or Ginny anywhere close to the Manor in case Riddle figured out the location by tracking one of the few that had been captured and bore the Mark.

A simple explanation that could have saved she and Harry a lot of irritation.

Currently none of the residents of Stable House were adorned with that ugly tattoo.

"They didn't all have them," Sirius told she and Harry. "Riddle must have wised up about how marking them was an easy way of spotting them. That or he was only marking his inner circle this time around. None of the new generation of Death Eater's we got from our list had the Mark except for the Malfoy boy. We've only had to remove three marks."

Ginny looked around at the Stable House and the many compartments that had been created for their temporary inhabitants.

It was the end of June now, Ron and Luna would be finishing up at Hogwarts and coming home soon. Ginny was hoping that there might be a way to allow Luna to come to Grimmauld Place, she already knew about the Order, her father wasn't a member though.

Harry was looking forward to seeing Ron again, and Hermione when she could make it over to Grimmauld as well, she hadn't mentioned other summer plans during their chats, which they managed about every three days. He was glad to hear that his two friends weren't getting hounded about his whereabouts any more, but he did get jealous when Ron would carry on about great the last Quidditch game of the year was, Gryffindor taking the Cup with a swift defeat of Hufflepuff.

They were both glad that there hadn't yet been any backlash against the Weasley Wizard Wheezes over their catalog as well. Fred and George had both got their ears boxed by mum over that one. They'd sworn up and down that they had the place completely booby-trapped though and anyone trying to send a hex at, or attempt to enter, their establishment uninvited would wind up way worse than anything they might have planned in retaliation for their fun.

So far it had done wonders for their sales and that was it.

Ginny clutched Harry's hand as they took a look around at the old Stable House. Harry had asked to come back and see it. She couldn't tell if he was more interested in seeing his family property or the Death Eaters that were now stored there.

"I saw them once, you know," he told her as they were strolling back to the house from the beach at a very leisurely pace while Sirius was checking on the prisoners and consulting with Dobby about any needs for the property.

"Them?" Ginny asked.

"My grandparents. At least, I'm sure it was them. And not just in a portrait or something. In my first year there was this Mirror of Erised. When someone looked into it they saw what they desired most." Harry paused. Ron and Dumbledore were the only one's who had known about this. Dumbledore had known what it all meant. "Ron didn't quite register how sad it was because Ron had always been surrounded by a loving family all his life."

He hadn't meant to let the sad part of that slip out, but it had been the only time he'd seen who his Grandparents were. He didn't even remember Aunt Petunia having pictures of her parents, or any of his mum. He definitely would have remembered seeing a picture of his mum. It had been something he would have cherished. Now though he had the lovely photo book that Hagrid had given him and it was one of his most prized possessions.

"I remember hearing about the mirror," Ginny told him, giving his hand a squeeze. "I remember thinking about it when I was in the Chamber, because there were those mirror's down there. It might have been some nice company, but probably would have distracted me from my mission of getting out."

Harry nodded, he was glad she understood that same longing a bit. "I don't know if what I saw of them in the mirror was an accurate rendering. It could have just been a figment of my imagination. My mum and dad that I saw though looked a lot like what they really did. That could have been me really remembering, but when I saw them again in the cemetery they looked the same."

Ginny stopped walking then and Harry was pulled back slightly from her hand still clasping his. She had this look of bewilderment on her face.

"What?" he asked.

"What do you mean 'what'? You just told me you saw your parent's in a cemetery, want to explain that to me a bit?" she asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"Oh!" he smiled, though it wasn't actually funny. "It was when my wand and His connected, after he came back. There was this odd thing that happened, it's called 'Priori Incantem', it was like the ghosts of his last victims came out of the magic in his wand. My mum and dad were the forth and fifth that came out."

It was now odd to him that he didn't think about that more. It had been an amazing thing to experience. His mum and dad had helped save him then too, the magic of their shadow forms rushing to delay Voldemort for long enough for him to get to Cedric and the cup. He was flummoxed now that he hadn't reflected on it more. Had there simply been so much else going on that he couldn't appreciate the magnitude of what had happened?

"That's incredible," Ginny whispered in awe.

"It was. But I had so much going on that it was barely even a blip on the radar with the rest of the events of that night," he frowned.

Ginny squinted at him a bit. "Radar is a Muggle thing, right?" she asked.

That had Harry chuckling softly for a moment. "Yes, radar is a Muggle thing. It's an expression, it just means that there was so much else going on that it was just one of the many crazy things that happened that day." He looked around them, they had been walking for a while and Sirius had told them to take an hour to themselves so long as they stayed inside the perimeter of the grounds, which was a decent amount of space to wander in. They were on the grass now just over the hill that ran along the beach dividing the beach and land and it was a slightly cloudy day with some blue sky above them.

He pulled Ginny to lay with him on the grass and told her the whole story of that day starting before the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament and ending with finally getting to go to the Hospital Wing and the Minister of Magic throwing a bag of Galleons at him. She'd heard bits and pieces of it before, but not all of it, and until he had told her he hadn't realized just how insane that day had been and that he had never told the whole story to anyone before.

"And I thought my life was crazy," Ginny murmured, several minutes of silence had passed since Harry had finished his story.

"Eh, you didn't miss out on too much being in the Chamber," he dismissed. He never would have guessed that telling that story wouldn't hurt as though he had just relived it again. Instead he was able to focus on the good aspects more. He had seen his parents, it was the beginning of Sirius having more stability, the Order formed once more, he had been given the money that helped the twins start their business without their parents knowledge.

There was good that came with the bad.

Eventually they made their way back to the Stable House. It looked like any barn might when you just walk in; slightly dilapidated and solely for the purpose of storing animals or equipment. They waved to Dobby who had made a room for himself just inside the Stable House door. From the entrance they could see hay sprinkled on the dirt floor, giving the impression that there were actually horses being boarded there. Five gates on each side lined the middle aisle and they too looked just like what Harry imagined one would see when they entered a barn. The gates came up to his chest height and had a pen style to them. The real magic involved in converting the Stable House into a holding area for the Death Eaters came when you tried to open one of the gates.

Inside each of the gates were two bunk style holding cells for the captives, each in a deep sleep in an immaculately clean area, that they would need a special potion administered to them to awaken from. One of the gates held a hospital bed in it though, and that was the one where Mrs. Tonks, Dobby or Sirius was removing the Dark Mark and held the Dialysis machine. That one looked like a surgical suite.

There were still several spots left available here, but the Death Eaters that had been captured so far were viewed as the important ones that hadn't been stashed away in Azkaban, it was too bad that they didn't know for sure who all of the second tier one's were though, because those were the one's that would go slightly buck wild with their Muggle torturing and such.

There was currently one of the Rosier cousins in the first pen area having his Dark Mark removed. Sirius was in there making sure that it was going smoothly, they had left the gate open enough that Harry and Ginny could see in.

From Harry's expression at seeing that Ginny knew he thought she was right, he may have seen and had to do several disgusting things over the years but seeing a stretch of skin cut away from someone's forearm was absolutely nauseating. She gripped his hand tighter at the sight before them and turned her head into his shoulder with a small repulsed groan.

There was a trickle of sweat on the Death Eaters forehead but other than that he seemed to be in no distress from his situation.

Considering Harry knew firsthand the kind of torture Dementors could be he'd come around to believing that this really was a humane way to deal with the Death Eaters. They were de-branded and put into a deep sleep. The Order probably wasn't planning on reviving them unit Voldemort fell and the Ministry felt empowered enough to make some decisions regarding Riddle's army.

"I'll be done in another few minutes," Sirius told them and gutted his head to indicate they wait back outside.

Ginny tugged him back into the sunshine.

()

"We should see if we can bring our brooms next time," she mentioned.

"We would have to keep low to the ground," he commented. "But there should be another gathering at the Burrow with Ron coming home from Hogwarts soon."

Ginny shook her head, "you know that you would need to be disguised if we go over there now. There is a high probability that a Ministry official could stop by at any time. They know how much the Weasley's count you as one of their own."

Harry's cheeks grew warm at that comment. He didn't reflect on it often, but once in a while it really hit him that he was surrounded by a loving family. Ginny, Sirius, Remus, Tonks and nearly all the Weasleys made him feel like he belonged with them, something he never had until he met Ron and he was really looking forward to seeing him again.

"I don't care if I have to be disguised as one of your many cousins or something. It'll be good to get back over there and on a broom again," he told her honestly.

"I know what you mean by that," she nodded. "But just know that you won't be snogging me while you're looking like a Weasley."

Harry snorted a laugh, "I think that'll be okay, I've already told you I prefer the real you as opposed to how you look with all your glamour charms."

"Yeah, I know you're only with me for my looks," she said as she tossed her hair back over her shoulder.

"That's true," he shrugged and kept up his lazy pace as they walked around the Stable House.

Her only reaction to the comment was t o give a small huff and shake her head, a smile firmly affixed to her face.

They had both been working hard lately. Just because they weren't at school didn't mean Remus wasn't being insistent that they take their exams and schoolwork seriously. He had tested them thoroughly and it had only been slightly less exhaustive then Harry remembered his OWL year being.

It turned out that Ginny was nearly as good a nag as Hermione had been, although she generally rewarded him with something more than a 'good job' comment.

Aside from missing his friends and Quidditch he wasn't missing Hogwarts all that much. Ginny and Sirius' methods of simply chatting openly with him about what was potentially going to happen between he and Voldemort at some point down the line was helpful, though he still wasn't comfortable divulging what Dumbledore had told him.

Bill and Tonks had been taking turns teaching him a few different things that they had learned through their specialized training, but other than that there wasn't much he could do but sit back and wait. Sirius and the other Order members had flat out refused to let him do anything more with their missions until he was of age. He hadn't had any other episodes of Voldemort discovering his Horcruxes missing either.

"So," he started. "It's Friday."

Ginny smirked and cast a sideways gaze at him. Since his move into Grimmauld had been official and she had decided they should try to keep to their own beds, Friday had been the day that they would break the rules and take turns sneaking into one another's rooms. Really they would just get up to some heavy snogging and petting, rarely getting him to the point of messing in his pants, but it had happened a few times and he'd gotten her there a few times as well. It just felt so bloody brilliant, and neither of them were embarrassed about it either, which was also brilliant.

He looked forward to Friday's all week, and he was pretty sure that she did as well.

On one hand he was glad that she had instated that little rule, because it gave him something to look forward to all week and insured that he didn't take what they got up to for granted. On the other hand, would it be so bad if they got up to that, and possibly more, every night of the week?

"I believe it is your turn to come to mine tonight as well," she said softly, taking their clasped hands and moving his to wrap around her waist.

Harry grinned and bent down to kiss her cheek.

()()()

Ginny was dishing up some homemade pizza for the boys, sure to make extra for anyone that stopped through. It was the easiest go to meal that seemed to put everyone in a good mood, plus it got rid of all the little bits of food that were left over before restocking the ice box. Growing up she'd seen her mother putting all that leftover food into soup or feeding it to the pigs. Ginny and the boys didn't have any pigs and it was too hot for soup so she threw it all on her self made pizza dough with a tomato paste base and cheese on top.

Instant party pleaser.

Sirius was a little less his boisterous self today, which he usually was after he had to assist with capturing a Death Eater or removing a mark and Ginny thought that this might help return him to his usual state.

There was a good mix of that going on with all the Order members right then. They had been capturing Death Eaters and Riddle had figured out that at least two of his Horcruxes were destroyed so everyone was waiting for the next shoe to drop on his end. There were two Order members at a time stationed at the Gaunt Shack now in case Riddle showed up to check the treasure he left there, but as of yet no one had seen anyone in the area. Harry hadn't had another shared consciousness episode either.

Those episodes were a concern. Twice she'd seen him go through that, and apparently Ron had seen it a few times in their shared dorm room as well. She didn't want Harry to think that they were talking behind his back, but she also didn't want Harry to know exactly how scared she was those two times. She had managed to keep her calm, she'd always been good about repressing those kinds of feelings to deal with later, a skill she'd honed further during her incarceration, but she had needed to discuss it a bit, and Ron knew him best.

There didn't seem to be anything Ron thought they could do to stop it, they could both simply be there for him during it.

Whatever this link was with Harry and Riddle it only seemed to trigger when Riddle was really worked up over something.

Harry appeared almost instantly soothed after she had massaged his head, and he seemed completely fine after they'd snogged. To be fair though, considering how intense their snogging sessions would get she would probably have been a little insulted if it hadn't put a smile on his face.

They were all about to dig into their plates when Tonks came bursting into the kitchen out of breath. "Azkaban. Attack," she gasped in a few deep breaths. "Dementors. Gone. All gone." She clutched at the back of the chair in front of her, then at a stitch in her side.

The three of them sat there staring at her as they digested that information. Tonks was white as a sheet and it seemed like she had rushed there straight from the Ministry.

"The Death Eaters have been broken out again?" Harry inferred, asking slowly with his glass still raised halfway to his mouth.

Tonks plopped herself down in the seat and stole Ginny's glass of water. "Yes," she said finally after gulping it down. "But not just them, all of the prisoners that were in there."

"All of them?" Sirius asked astounded.

"All of them," she confirmed. "Dementors and prisoners all gone. The junior Aurors that were posted there had all been attacked and… and," she shook her head, clearly telling them that the Junior Auror's hadn't made it. "We found out when the next shift was headed there and came straight back."

"They attacked in the daytime?" Harry asked.

"It hardly matters at Azkaban," Sirius told him. "The place is shrouded in dark clouds of doom, hard to tell day from night anyways; they wouldn't have needed the cover of night."

Tonks leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table, her head in her hands. "Is Remus here?" she asked looking down at the table. Tonks was shaking slightly and still taking in deep breaths.

"No," Ginny shook her head. "He was taking the day to read over some of our essays and have a quiet day at home. We've been out at the property today." She moved closer and put her arm around Tonks to try and bring her some comfort. "Did you know them well?" she asked in concern.

Tonks didn't have too many close friendships with those she worked with, but there were a few Auror's that she preferred to pal around with a bit and liked to keep an eye one at least one of each of the groups in the new recruits, she liked to think that it would boost the spirits of a few of them if they knew a seasoned Auror knew their name and held regard for some of the work they had been doing, like a Mentor. Tonks herself had that when she was a new recruit and it had really bolstered her confidence.

Tonks nodded but didn't give any names or further information about who had been lost. "Any word on if we've narrowed down where You Know Who has set up shop now?" she asked Sirius.

His jaw clenched a bit at the question. "There is a selection of Manor homes that he might have set up his new headquarters in, but none of us can be sure where exactly." He pulled out his golden Galleon. "Have you?" he asked Tonks. He was asking if the rest of the Order had been informed of this new development.

As he held it up though it trembled in his hand, and it had not been from his own nerves.

"Kingsley got word out," he said with a deep breath. "Looks like we'll be hosting a few more tonight."

()()()