Disclaimer: I'm not Jo. Don't sue me.
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After Runes was Arithmancy, which Angela had been dreading. She'd never been real strong on numbers. Apparently her dad had been though, so it wasn't as hard as she thought it would be.
Angela and Harry's relationship also grew over the next week and a half. Harry never missed an opportunity to tell her she was beautiful, or to give her a kiss. They spent his sixteenth birthday with each other, just enjoying each other's company. She gave him a Muggle book that she had bought in London the day before she had discovered Diagon Alley.
"A Brave New World?" he had asked, as he looked up at her questioningly.
"Well, it's a really good book. I didn't actually buy it for you, but it's all I had and I thought you would enjoy it. I'm sorry it's not much." She looked away, embarrassed that she had not been able to give him a better gift.
"Hey, look at me," he turned her head with a gentle finger on her chin, "It's wonderful, if only because it's from you." He had then kissed her. They spent the evening together by the fireplace in the common room, simply enjoying each other.
Their evening strolls soon became the highlight of both their days, and what was once just a walk around the lake quickly became two-hour journeys over the grounds. They often did not get back in until after dark, but they didn't push it too far as they knew Dumbledore would worry if they were out too late after dark. They held hands and talked about whatever topic seemed to come up. One night Angela admitted to Harry something that she never thought she would tell anyone.
"It's amazing how much I think of Morgan and Edward as 'Mom' and 'Dad'. They certainly helped me a great deal more than my birth parents. All they ever did was whatever they wanted. I know it would mean that I wouldn't be alive, but I don't think that they should have had children. I mean, they were just so…well, you've met my mother, you know."
Harry had indeed gotten to meet Angela's mother over breakfast the morning after their first kiss. To his complete disgust Angela was right. The woman cared about nothing but herself. When he had told Angela about the encounter he had also told Angela that he had wanted to scream at her mother.
"Why would you do that?" Angela had asked.
"I wanted to force her to see what a wonderful person she was hurting." Harry had replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
This had, of course, caused Angela to blush profusely. No one had ever defended her, or even, to her knowledge, had the desire to.
Angela marveled daily at the ease with which Harry got to her heart. No one had ever been able to reach her like that, and as much as she enjoyed it, it still scared her a lot. There were a few other things that she was nervous about. As they were walking around the lake one night she had finally had the courage to bring one of them up with Harry.
"Harry?" she tentatively said as she watched the giant squid in the lake.
"Mmm-hmm?" He sounded closer than she had thought, and she turned to see his emerald eyes gazing at her.
"Well, if it's not personal, what was in that letter from Ron?"
"Oh! I haven't even thought about it. He said that Hermione was there and that he wanted me to stay at the Burrow at the end of the summer."
"Oh. Are you going to?" she asked, hoping the trepidation she felt hadn't come through in her voice.
"I told him that I would love to, but not without you. You didn't think I'd leave you behind, did you?" he asked, bending down to kiss her full on the lips.
"Of course not, it's just…I don't know. I'm kinda worried that Ron and Hermione won't like me."
"They'll love you! You've got a great sense of humor, which Ron will like, and you study like Hermione. You'll get along with them both, I promise." He looked up at the sky, which was getting very dark now. "We should get back though. We don't want Dumbledore to worry."
Angela laughed. "As long as I'm with you, I doubt that Dumbledore will worry about me. Anyway, what is there to worry about?"
"Well, there are things," a look of fear flashed across his eyes ("He must be talking about Voldemort" she thought to herself) "that I'm sure Dumbledore worries about."
They began walking back towards the castle, hand in hand when suddenly they stopped. They could both feel it. Angela's two middle fingers on each hand felt as if they were on fire, and Harry clapped a head to his forehead, grimacing.
"He's here." She thought, looking wildly around. Then she saw something that made her heart stop.
Two glowing, evil red eyes just outside the gate.
She knew that he couldn't come through the gates, simply because Harry was there as Dumbledore had put a protective spell on Harry that encompassed the entire grounds. There were just too few people around to watch Harry and keep him safe that Dumbledore had felt it necessary. Voldemort couldn't touch Harry as long as he was inside the gates. But that wouldn't stop Voldemort from trying to hurt Harry as much as he could.
Harry was now on the ground, clutching his forehead, obviously in a lot of pain. Without hesitation, Angela knew what she had to do.
She knelt and kissed Harry on the top of his head then began walking resolutely towards the gate. She knew she couldn't kill him, not alone, but she had to make him leave Harry be.
She didn't know what she would do, but she never wavered as she shouted at Voldemort.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"
The eyes turned to her, showing surprise for a moment as if he hadn't seen her before. The surprise quickly gave way to a cold grin as Angela's hands exploded with pain. She clenched her fists, trying to ease the pain. She then muttered an incantation that she had never heard before. "Subsisto Dolor!" and her hands were suddenly pain free. She unclenched her fists and smiled at Voldemort, the cruelest grin she could manage, telling him that it hadn't worked. She stopped about ten feet from the gate and Voldemort.
"I see you are stronger than young Potter. No matter. I can still kill you just as easily," he said in a high, chilling voice.
"I wouldn't bet on it," Angela heard herself say, her courage growing by the minute from somewhere deep inside her.
"Dumbledore's protective charm only protects Harry. He neglected to protect you, which tells me that even he thinks you are dispensable."
"Or that he knows I can take care of myself," she said, glaring hard at the tall man before her. "Now, leave him be," she added, through clenched teeth.
"You have spirit. I like that. It's always fun to crush a spirit before killing. Means you get to hear a lot more begging. Crucio!"
With lightning quick reflexes Angela raised her hand and shouted "Confuto!"
There was a small explosion a few feet from Angela as the spells collided, Angela's stopping Voldemort's, just as it should. A look of shock spread over Voldemort's evil face.
"Care to try again?" Angela asked coldly, still staring unwaveringly at Voldemort.
His eyes narrowed again, looking angrier than he had before. "Perhaps I'll simply kill you instead. I hear enough begging from my followers. Besides, it will be fun to see Potter cry over you." With that he let our a high, cold laugh before shouting "Avada Kedavra!" A green light shot out of the end of his wand.
Angela was ready this time. Her hand still up she shouted "Desino Mortis!" A blue light shot from her fingertips. As the two lights met, the blue enveloped the green, and disappeared.
"How- THAT CURSE IS SUPPOSED TO BE UNBLOCKABLE!" Voldemort roared.
"Apparently not. I don't think you want to try that again. I can't kill you, but if you want me to try, I will. Otherwise, I suggest you leave."
Voldemort didn't move a muscle. "NOW!" she screamed.
"Don't think this is the end of this. I will get you. Eventually, I get everyone." Voldemort vanished with a pop.
Angela took a deep, shaky breath. Now that it was over she had time to be scared. She turned and expected to see Harry coming towards her, or at least waiting for her. She saw neither. She began to run to where he had been. As she grew closer she saw the limp form of his unconscious body.
"Harry!"
She rushed over to where he lay. It was obvious that he had passed out from the pain. Knowing again what she had to do, she magicked a stretcher and began to quickly float him to the castle.
Dumbledore met her at the top of the stone steps.
"Professor! We were walking and Voldemort was at the gates and Harry's passed out from his scar! He's gone now, professor," she added, seeing his eyes dart toward the gates. He gave her a questioning look. "I'll explain later. We need to get Harry in right now."
"Of course."
They walked quickly to the hospital wing, which seemed eerily quiet. The school nurse had gone away for the summer, so she was not there to brood over Harry as he told her Madam Pomphrey had a way of doing.
They laid him on a bed and Angela quickly pulled up a chair and took Harry's hand.
"Angela?" She heard Professor Dumbledore, and looked up at his expectant blue eyes, obviously anxious to hear about what had happened.
"Professor, could it wait until Harry wakes up? I'd like him to hear it, but I don't want to have to tell it twice."
"Of course, Angela." Dumbledore went into the nurse's office, perhaps to think, or to give Angela some privacy, while they waited for Harry to awaken.
When Harry woke a half hour later he slowly opened his eyes and looked at her.
"Wha- what happened?" he asked in a groggy voice. Suddenly his eyes got very wide and he sat bolt upright on the bed. "Voldemort! He's here!" he started to get out of the bed.
Angela stopped him, trying to tell him to settle down. "Harry. Harry!" he finally looked at her. "He's gone."
"But…how?"
"Well," she started. Just then Professor Dumbledore came out of the office and walked over to the bed. Angela looked at both of them. "I guess I'll start with the walk."
As she explained the events of earlier that night Harry looked more and more astonished. Dumbledore, however, didn't bat an eye until Angela reached 'Avada Kedavra' and how she had blocked it.
"Interesting! Very interesting! I knew your mother had developed a block for the Cruciatus Curse, but not Avada Kedavra. That spell was developed to be unblockable." He had a very thoughtful expression on his face.
"You mean, that's not a normal spell? I thought Voldemort was just being dense when he said it was unblockable."
"It is a very unusual spell indeed. You are now one of two people to live once Voldemort had decided to kill you." He looked at Harry, who was still staring at Angela, as if he couldn't believe what she had said. "This also, I think," Dumbledore continued "explains why your mother asked me to come to their house the night they were murdered. She said she had wonderful news, and this is wonderful indeed. What was the incantation again?"
"Desino Mortis. From the Latin I remember from school that means 'stop death'."
"Indeed. I wonder, however, if there is not something else you must do for the spell to work…Perhaps it is similar to another powerful protection spell. Tell me, were you feeling any emotion particularly strongly when you performed the spell?"
"What do you mean feeling? Why would feeling have anything to do with a spell working?"
Dumbledore opened his mouth to answer, but Harry, having finally come out of his stupor, beat him to it and answered first.
"Well, the spell you have to use to protect yourself from Dementors requires you to be very happy or thinking a very happy thought at the time."
Dumbledore smiled at Harry. "Precisely. So, can you think of what emotion, if any, you were feeling when you did this spell?"
Angela thought back and tried to remember exactly what had happened. "Well," she thought to herself, "he had been talking about…Harry. He wanted to hurt Harry by killing me!" With a start she realized what emotion this had made her feel strongly.
She looked over at Harry, then up at Dumbledore.
"Love."
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows slightly before Angela blushed and looked down at her hands, which, at the moment, were trying to tie themselves into knots. For a tense moment or two she was afraid that Dumbledore would ask what could have provoked her to feel love before she performed the spell, but thankfully he didn't.
"That makes complete sense," Dumbledore began, "After all, love is a very powerful magic in itself. It saved Harry when he was a baby. And now that I think about it it's actually very obvious!" He sounded as if her were surprised that he hadn't thought of it himself.
"I need to go and send a few owls. You two should get back up to your dormitory and try to get some rest. You start Divination tomorrow, Angela."
Harry and Angela walked back to Gryffindor Tower silently, pondering the events of the night. They were almost to the portrait of the Fat Lady when Harry spoke up.
"Angela, um…what was it that made you feel love around Voldemort? I mean, what did he say, because I know it's hard to feel anything but hate around him. Purple rose," he added as they reached the portrait, which swung open slowly, as the Fat Lady was yawning.
Angela was blushing, trying to think of something, anything she could tell Harry without telling him that she was in love with him. "What if he says that he doesn't love me? I don't think I could take that right now," she thought to herself. But she couldn't think of anyone else that would have produced an emotion that strong. Voldemort didn't know about her real parents, how could he? And Angela didn't love her birth parents that much, nor anyone else that Voldemort could have mentioned. Harry was the only one that he knew about, and there was no denying it.
"Well, it was…he was talking about killing me, just so…so he could watch you cry over my body." She couldn't look him in the eye as she said it, too embarrassed to even chance a glance.
"You mean…it was me who made you feel love?" Harry asked, sounding incredulous, but somewhat hopeful. All Angela could do was nod her assent, still not looking at him. She closed her eyes, waiting for the words she knew would come – "Oh. Well, um, that's great. I think," seemed the most likely in her mind, though she could think of at least a hundred others. But nothing could prepare her for what happened next.
"I…I love you too, Angela."
Surely she hadn't heard that right. Harry Potter, saying he loved her? She slowly looked up and saw Harry looking at her with something she had never seen in anyone else's eyes. Love.
"You—you what?" she heard herself ask.
"I love you," he said softly, before kissing her.
Angela had never been so happy in her life.