Harry Potter & the Dark Lord – Chapter 11
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry or his friends L
A/N: Thank you all for your wonderful reviews. It means so much to me!! And I have the right chapter number this time ;-). Well, we left Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys headed back to Gryffindor Tower after seeing Mrs. Weasley. And the search for Arthur Weasley begins, sort of. Not as depressing as last chapter, and even a little romance (just a tad). Still H/G and R/H of course. But then again, Cho is awfully friendly in this chapter (he he)…R/R please!!
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the Weasleys headed down for breakfast together. Gryffindor Tower had been empty when they returned to get dressed as most everyone had already gone down. Harry paused at the entrance to the Great Hall, taking a deep breath before he entered ahead of the others. Everyone's heads turned as the group walked over to their table at the far end of the room. Harry was used to all the whispering about him, but he noticed Ron seemed very uncomfortable and was avoiding looking anyone in the eye. After what seemed like an eternity, they finally arrived at the Gryffindor table and took their places. Angelina and Alicia immediately rushed to Fred and George and the four were soon engrossed in conversation, with Angelina soothingly stroking Fred's hair and Alicia wrapping her arms around George. Ron began eating as if he were famished, not saying much. Ginny was equally quiet, absentmindedly playing with her porridge. Harry and Hermione looked at each other awkwardly, not sure what to say to their friends. Their quiet breakfast was interrupted by three unwelcome visitors.
"Well, well, well, the Weasel and his pack are still here," Draco Malfoy drawled. "I'd thought for sure you would go running home to your Mum after yesterday. I wasn't surprised to hear the news, though. That's what happens to Mudblood-lovers like your dad. You'd better watch out or you'll be…" Malfoy didn't get a chance to finish his taunt, as he was surprised by a hard smack across his face. Ron and Harry, who were both in the process of lunging at Malfoy, stopped mid-step as they gaped in astonishment at Ginny. Being the closest to Malfoy, she had beat them all to him and was now standing in front of him, shaking with fury. Crabbe and Goyle looked dumbly at Malfoy, waiting for a sign as to what to do.
"I would crawl back to the Slytherins now if I were you. We have nothing to say to you here." Ginny's voice was remarkably calm, but there was such an icy coldness to it, that Malfoy just looked at her as if he had never seen her before and then turned and walked away, his goons following behind. Harry looked at Ginny with wonder, but she returned to her seat and resumed playing with her porridge, oblivious to everyone's stares. Ron looked as if he were about to say something to her, but Hermione shot him a warning look and he shut up.
Neville Longbottom approached the group slowly. "Uh, Ginny," he began hesitantly. Ginny looked up at him, and Harry was a little worried to see that her eyes betrayed no emotion. "I just wanted to say I'm really sorry to hear about…about what happened. If there's anything I can do…" Ginny gave him a small smile.
"Thanks Neville, that's really sweet of you." Ginny didn't say any more after that, but Neville kept standing there, looking very uncomfortable. "Is there something else, Neville?" Ginny asked.
"Er, sort of," Neville's face had gone bright red. Ginny nodded for him to continue. "Do you think we could meet before dinner tonight? In the trophy room?"
Ginny's face grew as red as Neville's, but she responded calmly, "Of course, Neville. I'll see you there." Ginny shot a brief, pleading glance at Harry as Neville returned to the other end of the table. Harry felt a pang of guilt, remembering what Ginny had told him about her feelings for Neville, but he couldn't help feeling somewhat happy that if Ginny had to like someone else, at least it wasn't Neville. Harry saw Neville far too often to feel comfortable about seeing the two together.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione continued to eat quietly, not wanting to mention the events of the prior evening. Ginny was behaving so strangely, so incredibly calm compared to last night, that Harry was sure she must be in denial. The only emotion he had seen since last night was her brief moment of embarrassment when Neville approached. He was afraid of what would happen if he mentioned Mr. Weasley, so he kept quiet, anxiously staring at Ginny between bites of toast. Ron and Hermione seemed equally concerned, exchanging questioning looks and occasionally asking each other to pass the marmalade in hushed voices. Finally, Ginny dropped her spoon loudly, her porridge still virtually untouched, and announced she was going to the library.
"Would you like some company? I really need to look some things up anyway," Hermione asked tentatively. Ginny just shrugged, so Hermione got up, giving Ron a small hug before she left. Ron blushed furiously, and Harry allowed himself a small smile at this.
Once the girls had left, Ron immediately turned to Harry. "So I've been thinking. If you'll lend me your invisibility cloak, I can nip out of here…"
"Hold on a minute," Harry interrupted, "You don't think you're doing this without me, do you?"
Ron grinned at this, "I was hoping you'd say that. Actually, if you could get in touch with Sirius and find out what he knows, then maybe we could go to Hogsmeade. You know, investigate the scene. And Dumbledore said that Snape might be able to get some information. I haven't been able to figure out just how to get to Snape yet. I don't imagine he would just volunteer to tell us what he knows. But maybe Fletcher knows something. After all, he hasn't left Hogwarts yet, we still see him at meals, but since he's not teaching now, he probably has a lot of time to go snooping in Snape's office. And we already know that he's helping Snape with something, I wish I knew what."
Harry looked at Ron as he rambled on, impressed at how much thought Ron had apparently put into this. Fred and George heard the conversation and scooted closer to Ron and Harry. "So Harry, how about George and I take your invisibility cloak and go into Hogsmeade. We've been there so often, we can find our way around blindfolded."
"Plus, we've never had a chance to use an invisibility cloak before," George added, barely disguising his excitement.
Harry was uncomfortable letting Fred and George head into Hogsmeade alone with Voldemort lurking about. After some discussion, they finally agreed that Harry would owl Sirius and try to meet with him before they did anything else. Fred and George still looked uncomfortable at the mention of Sirius Black, but they didn't make any comment. Just as they were about to leave for the owlery, another visitor dropped by the Gryffindor table, although this one was a bit more welcome than Malfoy.
"Hi Harry," Cho Chang approached the table cautiously. She glanced at the Weasleys and then, looking down at her hands, said to them, "I read about what happened last night in the Daily Prophet. I'm really sorry about your father. I'm sure they'll find him really soon." Ron, Fred, and George, appearing rather awkward, mumbled their appreciation at her words.
Cho turned back to Harry. "Harry, this may not be the right time to say this, but I just wanted you to know I had a really good time last night." To Harry's amazement, red splotches were appearing on Cho's cheeks. Cho continued, "Parvati had made me a little nervous. She said you practically ignored her at the Yule Ball last year, but I didn't think that at all last night. Thanks for taking me."
Harry was at a loss for words. He felt his own cheeks flushing, ignoring the snickers he heard coming from Ron's direction. "Er, I had a really nice time too," Harry replied. After all that had happened, the actual dance seemed ages ago. And when he did think of it, it was Ginny that seemed to come to mind. Still, it was rather nice to have Cho seem nervous about him for a change.
"So," Cho said, "I heard the Quidditch match next week may be cancelled. It looks like we won't get to play against each other for a while." At this, Fred and George grew indignant.
"Cancel the Quidditch match? Are they out of their bloody minds!?! How do they expect us to keep our spirits up if they take away the one thing we look forward to?" Fred was nearly shouting at this point.
Angelina broke in with a soothing voice, "Hon, I'm sure if we speak to Professor McGonagall, she'd let us play the game. I mean, there can't be any harm to it. We're just as safe on the Quidditch field as anywhere else in Hogwarts." Fred appeared to calm down slightly as Angelina spoke to him in a pacifying voice. Harry was amazed at how well she seemed to know him, and at how easily she was able to comfort him.
"Well, I for one am going to get this straightened out right now! Are you coming, Alicia?" Alicia followed George out of the Great Hall, nearly jogging to keep up with his quick strides.
"I guess I should go too, as co-captain. Thanks for letting us know Cho. We'll see you at next week's game," Fred nodded his goodbyes and left with Angelina on his arm.
Ron rolled his eyes, "Talk about too much togetherness. How sickening are they?" Harry could think of another two people who were together an awful lot the past day, but he kept his comment to himself, instead turning back to Cho.
"Well, er, I guess I'll see you around," Harry racked his brain, but couldn't think of anything else to say. His mind was too focused on getting a letter out to Sirius.
"All right, Harry," Cho responded with a smile, "And I'm really glad you're not hurt." With that, she returned to her friends.
"How do you do it?" Ron asked incredulously, "Last year she barely said two words to you, and this year…" Harry, his ears burning from embarrassment, ignored Ron's comments.
"Let's get to the owlery and send the letter," Harry said, taking one last bite of toast before heading out with Ron.
Later that day, Ron and Harry were lounging in the common room, having already sent an owl to Sirius explaining all that had happened. Anxiously awaiting his reply, they had decided to kill time by
enjoying a game of chess. Ron had just won, as usual, and his king was doing a little victory dance on the board, while Harry's pieces were shaking their fists at him for what they thought was an incredibly stupid move on Harry's part. Harry scowled at a knight that had just made a very rude gesture at him.
"Hi Ron, Harry," Hermione had returned from the library, and sat down between her two friends. Ginny followed behind, mumbled her hellos and flopped onto an oversized chair by the fire.
"So," Ron asked, "What have you two been up to? You must've been in the library for three hours!"
"Four," Hermione corrected him, "but it was worth it. We're really close to figuring out what potion Fletcher was making for Snape!"
"What?" Harry asked in surprise, "How?"
Hermione rushed on, "Well, when I went to the library with Ginny, I was rather curious to find that she was looking up all these books in the restricted section…"
"I got Professor Figg to give me a note," Ginny explained, seeing the confused looks on Ron's and Harry's faces, "I told her about Tom Riddle and pretended that I was convinced Voldemort would try to take me again." Ginny ignored Ron and Hermione's surprised expressions when she said Voldemort's name. "So she gave me permission to do extra research to protect myself."
"Right," Hermione continued, "Although I do wish she had told me about it, we might've figured this out long ago. It turns out Ginny has been researching this since we told her about Snape. When we finally spoke about it today, I remembered that Snape asked us about the Skeltonomus potion on his first day back. I was rather suspicious about it when he asked, because I know that wasn't in any of our textbooks. I had read it in one of the restricted books ages ago when I got permission from Lockhart." Hermione still blushed slightly at the thought of how enraptured she was with their former teacher. "Anyway," she continued, ignoring Ron's smirk, "when I spoke to Ginny, I thought perhaps Snape came across the Skeltonomus potion when he was reading about whatever potion he and Fletcher are working on. I couldn't remember which book I had seen it in, but I think we finally got the right one." Hermione finished speaking with a triumphant expression on her face.
Ginny took out a large dusty, very old looking book from her bag. "The Skeltonomus potion was in a book of Ancient Runes," Ginny explained, "At least an older form of it. I would never have found it without Hermione's help. Now all we have to do is figure out which of the potions in the book is the right one. We've narrowed it down a bit, though."
Harry was incredibly impressed with the two of them. Here he was, worried that Ginny was in denial about her father while she and Hermione were accomplishing a lot more than he and Ron had. "Wow, Ginny, I would never have guessed…"
Hermione gave Harry a superior look, "Well it didn't surprise me at all. I've always known Ginny had a brain in her. But some people don't notice anything."
"I knew Ginny was smart," Harry sputtered, "I've noticed her! I mean, er…" Harry felt himself going very red, and Ginny was trying not to smile. Awkward as the moment was, Harry couldn't help but be pleased with himself at making her smile, especially since her father had disappeared and she had precious little to be cheerful about.
"What do you mean, you've noticed her? This is my sister we're talking about!" Ron was giving Harry a very strange look, as if he were just starting to figure something out. Harry immediately changed the subject while Ron still appeared confused.
"Anyway, Fred and George spoke to McGonagall. The Quidditch match is still on!"
The diversion seemed to work. The cloud of suspicion immediately lifted off of Ron's face as he began speaking animatedly of all the moves he had planned for his first match. Harry, Ginny, and Hermione gladly joined in, eager to take their minds off of the potion and Snape for a while.
Harry found it more difficult than usual to sit through classes that week, as he was very preoccupied with their plan. He had gotten a response from Sirius, and was planning to go meet with him that weekend after the Quidditch match. They were discussing this over dinner one night, Ron suggesting they handle it the same way that they had last time, since it had worked out so well. Harry tried not to laugh as he noticed Ron's ears had grown quite red as he said this.
"All right," Harry offered, "I guess you and Hermione could use another romantic evening together. After all, you do like her." Harry ducked to avoid the roll that was thrown his way, chortling the whole time. With all that had happened, he hadn't had a chance to tease his friends about their little revelation at the Masquerade Ball, so he figured he should try and catch up.
Hermione, her cheeks slightly pink, ignored Harry's comment and supplied, "I think Ginny should come with us this time. Ron and I will stand watch while you two go speak to Sirius." Seeing that Harry had opened his mouth to protest, Hermione continued, "She could get his help with figuring out the potion. Face it Harry, only Ginny and I know enough about it at this point. I could come along, and leave Ginny to stand watch with Ron, but I don't think too many people will be convinced they're out on a romantic walk together."
Ron didn't argue with this. "But what about Fred and George? I know they'll want to come along. They've been really curious about Sirius since they found out," Ron noted.
Harry thought for a minute, "Well if they come along, there'll be too many of us and it could attract attention. We just won't tell them about it yet. Hopefully, they'll be too occupied celebrating our Quidditch victory to notice us sneaking out. Don't worry," Harry assured Ron, seeing his skeptical expression, "We'll bring them with us to Hogsmeade…they could be a real help there."
"Well, okay," Ron answered slowly. He seemed deep in thought for a moment. "But Harry, if Ginny goes with you, try not to be too friendly with her. I think she's starting to have a crush on you again, and we don't want to encourage that. She should know better anyway. I mean, she's with Neville and you're with Cho," Ron grinned at his friend, nudging him as he mentioned Cho.
Harry laughed uncomfortably, not sure how exactly to respond to Ron's concern. "Well, I'm not really with Cho, you know," Harry began.
"Well, maybe not yet, but that won't be for long," Ron said as his grin widened. He thinks that I still like Cho and that I'm leading Ginny on, Harry thought to himself, frowning. Cho was really nice, but as he had gotten to know her, his feelings turned friendly and he no longer got nervous at the sight of her. But part of him was very excited to hear that Ron, at least, thought Ginny might like him again. Maybe Harry was wrong about Justin. He and Ginny had gotten closer that night, so maybe…
Harry's thoughts were interrupted by Hermione, who had been giving Ron a disgusted look as he spoke. "Well, here comes Ginny now, so maybe you'd better just drop this conversation."
"What conversation?" Ginny asked, a slight frown on her face. She sat next to Harry and looked around the table expectantly.
"We were just talking about meeting Sirius," Hermione explained, "And I think you should go with Harry so you can try to find out what you can about Snape's potion."
"Oh," Ginny looked a little unsure, "I guess so. When are you meeting him?"
Harry didn't get a chance to answer as Ron had stood up with an outraged look on his face. Harry turned to see what Ron was looking at, and his jaw dropped as he saw Neville Longbottom walking into the Great Hall, holding hands with Hannah Abbott.
"That bloody two-timing git!!! He can't do that to my sister!"
"No, Ron…" Ginny started, but it was too late. Ron had already run to Neville and punched him right in the face. Neville never even stood a chance.
A second later, Harry, Ginny, and Hermione had rushed to Ron's side. Neville was lying on the floor, his head cradled in Hannah's lap, his nose bleeding. Harry didn't want to say anything, but it looked to him like Ron may have broken Neville's nose. Neville looked up at Ron in fear. Ron still had his fist clenched, rage etched on his face. Hermione grabbed his arm to prevent him from throwing another punch. Ginny was distraught, but managed to blurt out, "Ron, you don't understand!!"
Ron was looking a little confused now, lowering his arm and staring at Ginny, as if he could see what she was thinking in her eyes.
"Neville and I aren't seeing each other! He likes Hannah. He told me the other day. It's okay," Ginny rushed out.
Ron wasn't quite ready to let go of his anger. "It's not okay! So he leads you on and then dumps you for another girl!!" Ron glared at Neville, who trembled in fear, "What about your feelings? Did he think of that when he took you to the Ball? And his timing! As if you needed something else to worry about right now!"
Ginny seemed very embarrassed as she answered, "Ron, you don't know what you're saying! Neville and I had a long conversation. It was mutual. He and Hannah were already good friends from Herbology class and then, at the Masquerade Ball…" Ginny paused. "Well, the point is I like someone else too!"
Ron was taken aback. He looked down at Neville, now seeming rather ashamed at what he had done. The small crowd of people that had gathered at first had already dispersed, losing interest when they realized that no one was going to throw any more punches. Ron turned back to Ginny, still not quite believing her, "Yeah, well, then who do you like?"
Harry's stomach tied itself into knots as he waited for Ginny's response. He tried to steel himself to hear Justin's name, even as a small voice deep inside was pleading, please say me, please say it's me.
Ginny was positively distraught. She looked at Hermione, who was giving her a very sympathetic look, and then glanced at Harry. Harry held his breath. "It's Harry," Ginny choked out, before turning and running out of the Great Hall.
A/N: I didn't mean to stop right there…all right, maybe I did, but it was getting kind of long. I didn't even have a chance to fit Snape in like I had planned. Well, there's always next time! That is, assuming that you all haven't lost interest and don't bother to read the next chapter. Well, please give me your comments, questions, opinions, etc. In other words, PLEASE REVIEW!!!! Love ya all!