Chapter eleven

The following day, Hermione, Ron and Ginny turned up at Harry's to go shopping with the band. The rest of the band turned up not long after.

'So do you know some good stores for the type of clothes Madeline is talking about?' Harry asked.

'Yeah, we go to them a lot, their not cheap though, not that you have to worry about it.'

'You blokes are having financial problems now you're not working the pubs are you?'

'We were, but Madeline gave us a big advance to see us through, so we're fine.'

'If you do need more, let me know. I've got more than I'll ever use, but we should go.'

Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Ron, John, Liam, Mark and Martin all climbed into the extended back of the car while Hector got into the front and drove them all to London. The five members of Lightnings Kiss tried on a heap of different clothes, with Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Hector all giving their advice. They bought three different types of pants, heaps of different tops and a few jackets. Then they went and bought some boots to go with their clothes. They loaded the boot up and headed back to Harry's. The other members of the band put all their stuff into Mark's car, Harry took his up to his bedroom. When he came down a strange owl was sitting there with a letter for Harry.

'It's from Madeline, she borrowed her sister's owl. She wants to bring the photographer tomorrow, if it's alright with us, they will be here at eleven,' Harry looked up at the band, 'So tomorrow?'

'Yep, we're ready for the pictures, maybe we should leave the clothes here, if that's alright Harry?' Liam asked.

'Yeah, I have a room you can use, Hector's in the green room, so use the red. Take it up now while we're waiting for lunch?'

'Good idea, come on you lot,' Liam said and the members of Lightnings Kiss went outside.

'Why does Liam ask or make all the decisions?' Ginny asked.

'We needed a spokesman, Madeline noticed I didn't say a lot, so we all thought Liam would be perfect.' Harry replied to the note, gave it back to the owl then let it fly off.

'No, you don't normally say much, just what you have to and that's all.' Ginny said.

'So apart from the photo's, what else are you going to be doing?' Hermione asked.

'We're about to go into the recording studio, they have to work on films to go with some of the songs, they take a while to do. Then it will be guest spots on television shows, public appearances, basically promoting ourselves.'

'Yeah, a lot of work over the next few months, then if they like us, we won't have a lot of privacy or time,' Liam said as the band sat back down.

'Does that mean a lot of girls throwing themselves at all of you?' Hermione grinned.

'It happens, I've got a few friends that are in different bands and they do get a lot of women, some men as well. None of us are gay, so we'll go with the women.' Martin said.

'So have you heard how Hogwarts is going?' Harry asked as everyone started eating.

'The castle is looking better, we had a quick look yesterday. We saw Hagrid and Grawp mainly working around the grounds. All the teachers are repairing everything but it's still got a lot of damaged and most of that was caused by the giants,' Hermione explained.

'Yeah, they did do a lot. Have they started on the quidditch pitch yet?'

'No, Professor McGonagall said they do the castle first, then the green houses, before the quidditch pitch. But the rooms that held all the brooms were destroyed. So the four teams need new brooms,' Ron said.

'You know, I might buy them and donate them to the school. McGonagall knows how much I love that place and I was captain of our team. Hey, who do you think they will get as captain since I'm not going back?'

'I think it will be Ginny, she was the best player apart from you. Plus she can play seeker if we can't find one. Not a lot of people can play seeker, chasers are easier to find. You think McGonagall will let you pay for twenty eight brooms Harry? That's a lot of money.'

'If I buy them first, she can't say anything, but I can usually get her to come around. I know most of it was because she felt sorry for me, but she told me she came to care about me over the years.'

'You must be the only student to ever get told that by McGonagall. I don't know how many times she had me in detention, usually working in the hospital wing, or cleaning trophies,' Hector said.

'I had to do the trophies when Harry and I got detention. Harry got the easy detention though, teachers pet,' Ron chuckled with everyone.

'It was bloody Lockhart, the fraud. He wanted me to help him with his fan mail. Hagrid told me he was jealous of me because I was more famous than him, he didn't like that.'

'Is he still in St Mungo's?' Ginny asked.

'Yep, he tried to remove our memories with my broken wand and it backfired. The healers said they will be able to get him a little better, but not much. I don't really care, you could have died if he did that to me and Harry and that was just to keep it a secret he was writing books on what other witches and wizards had done. He really was an idiot.'

'Remember when he removed all your bones in your arm Harry?' Ginny chuckled.

'What?' John asked.

'Yeah, he did. see I was playing quidditch, we had this rogue bludger, there these balls. one hit my arm, broke it, so Lockhart tried to mend it, but removed my bones. I ended up in the hospital wing again, drinking skele-grow most of the night, bloody awful tasting staff that. You know, I think Madame Pomfrey makes them taste terrible deliberately to do that to her patients. All the years I was taking her potions, not one tasted any good.'

'I was in there a few times, her potions are usually thick and disgusting,' Hector said.

'Ron was in there when he was poisoned. You were unconscious though, so you never tasted it. Hermione did you tell Ron what he was mumbling in his sleep?'

'No, I didn't.'

'That was when I broke up with lavender, but I can't remember what happened with that, not that I mind. I hated her calling me Won Won.'

'Oh Won Won,' Ginny chuckled with Harry.

'You kept saying my name, Lavender heard you say it and realised you liked me more than her. She ran out of there in tears. Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, Slughorn and Pomfrey were all there listening.'

'So what were these death eater blokes like?' Mark asked.

'Not just blokes, woman too, but they were cruel, evil and didn't care about anything but Voldemort. Hermione, Ron and I were away for months, not sure how long.'

'Nearly nine months Harry,' Hermione said.

'Oh, okay, well when I got this vision of Voldemort thinking about Hogwarts and Ravenclaw, that's one of the houses. We turned up, Neville was bruised and cut all over, so were a lot of our friends. The Carrow's were running the school for Voldemort and used torture as punishments.'

'Harry, they used that on me a few times. mainly the cruciatus curse, they found out I was you're girlfriend and wanted to know where you were, but I didn't know,' Ginny said softly.

Harry closed his eyes for a minute, 'You said mainly, what else did they do, because Neville said he got you out because girls were being raped.'

'Well, Goyle, Crabbe, Zabini, Parkinson, they used their fists a lot. Parkinson hated me, so she kept hitting me when they chained me up in the dungeons.'

Everyone around the table saw Harry's face, 'Calm down Harry, Ginny got out of there remember,' Ron said standing up and putting his hand on Harry's shoulder, 'Hector, you might need to contain Harry if he doesn't calm down.'

Ginny reached over and put both her hands to Harry's face, 'Harry, I'm fine, so please, it's okay now.'

'It's not working Gin, so just move away for a minute,' Ron said anxiously as he got his sister stand behind him.

Harry got up and started pacing, 'I left you there to get put through that, Hector, where's Parkinson?' Harry shouted.

'We don't know Harry, she escaped that night, so did Zabini. We know Crabbe is dead, Goyle's locked up though.'

Harry started pacing again, 'Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh, I'll kill the bitch,' Harry shouted and the side wall of his house exploded outward.

Hector ran over to Harry then waved his wand petrifying him, 'Blimey, that's some power Harry has. Hermione can you fix the wall so I can make sure Harry's got a few minutes, sorry mate.'

Hermione and Ron moved to the wall and repaired it, before they turned back to Harry.

'Okay, let him go Hector,' Ron said nervously.

Hector waved his wand releasing Harry, 'Sorry, but you were losing it Harry.'

'It's fine and I was,' Harry looked at Ginny, 'Sorry, I broke up with you to keep you safe, I never expected them to hurt you.'

'You didn't know Harry, it was too dangerous to contact anyone. They had everyone trying to find you, checking all forms of communication, owls, floo, everything. Remus told us you couldn't take the chance,' Ginny put her hand to Harry's face, 'Let's go upstairs for a while?' she said softly, Harry nodded and they both disappeared.

'What just happened?' John asked looking worried.

'Sometimes when a witch or wizards get really angry or upset, their magic can just explode from them without meaning to do it. We've seen Harry angry before, normally we can calm him down. It's all to do with everything he went through, also what he felt and saw,' Ron said sitting back down.

'Harry could see through Voldemort's eyes, he saw people getting tortured, even murdered. Ron and I noticed Harry was looking through him and told us he'd just seen Voldemort murder this woman and her two little kids. But Ginny, Harry broke up with her before we left. He thought it was just too dangerous for her and it was. Ron and I knew the danger of being Harry's best friends, but we wanted to help him and we were of age, Ginny wasn't. See only aged witches and wizards can use magic outside of school so Ginny could have been found if she used magic. When Harry saw these things, he felt the pain, he's had a very hard life because of it, painful as well.'

'Painful, what do you mean?' Martin asked.

'Voldemort tortured Harry a few times, once when he was fourteen. He'd just seen a friend murdered right in front of him, then Voldemort touched his scar. Harry and Voldemort were sort of connected, so whenever they were close, Harry felt severe pain in his scar. Harry said it was more painful than the cruciatus curse, that's basically a torture curse, but then he had that used on him not long after. He was lucky to get away that night, but it wasn't over. Before Voldemort touched his scar though, a death eater sliced down Harry's arm to get his blood. After he escaped he made it back to Hogwarts. While Dumbledore was trying to console Cedric's parents, that's the friend that died, Mad-eye Moody, an auror took Harry into the castle. The only thing was, he wasn't Mad-eye Moody, but a death eater using polyjuice potion. He was just about to kill Harry when Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape blasted the door in. We saw Harry not long after in the hospital wing, cuts and bruised all over, bleeding everywhere.' Hermione explained.

'He looks so resigned, like the pain he was feeling was his life. Madam Pomfrey gave him some potions, one was a dreamless sleep potion, because she knew Harry suffered from some very severe nightmares. I'm usually the one that wakes him up and untangles him from his bed covers.' Ron said.

'Since Voldemort died though, Harry has been better. It's just Ginny that set it off. He thought he was protecting her, which is what Harry will do for anyone, then he finds out she was tortured because of him. Normally Harry's pretty calm especially now,' Hector said trying to relay to the band that what they saw normally wouldn't happen.