The next afternoon found Andrea once again on the third floor handling
various potion ingredients and carelessly tossing them into a smoking black
cauldron.
"Ooh! Look at it bubble!" She chanted along with another voice coming from the doorframe. She turned to see Draco leaning against the door in a powder blue bathrobe covering blue striped pajamas.
"Hey. What are you doing here?"
"Got bored. Decided to pay my favorite cousin a visit." He shrugged and stepped into the room.
"I'm only your favorite because I load you up on potions. Highly illegal ones too, if I might add."
He shrugged again and pushed himself down on a chair next to the cauldron.
Draco began to pick up a variety of bottles and peer through them, trying to figure out the contents. "What are you making?"
"Oh, this and that. De-Skelo-Gro." She grabbed another bottle, and looked at it's contents the same way Draco had done and with a look of indifference, uncorked it and threw the contents into the potion.
"What's the point?"
She pondered this for a moment, not really sure why she had gotten up and decided to create this potion. "Don't know. It could remove a sixth finger or toe. Or help those Barbie-wannabe's achieve their goal by letting them lose a rib or two."
He nodded sagely. "Friend to our overly digit-ed brothers and sisters and the anorexic community."
"That's me." She nodded and picked up a ladle and began stirring.
"So.how'd you end up with Potter?" He asked nonchalantly, picking at the label of moose bile.
"I was bored. How else do I ever get into any situation?" She smiled and looked to her 'cousin', surprised that he wasn't smiling as well. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." He paused for a moment. "Do you believe we ever miss our chances?"
"At what?"
"I don't know. Happiness, riches, a family life, friends."
Andrea frowned a bit before answering. "I'm not sure. Some people believe in fate; what happens will happen if it's meant to. Some believe that God plans our lives and this is just the way our lives turn out and some people believe we make our own destiny. I guess it's just the way you look at things."
"What do you believe?"
"A little of all three." She smiled and put down the bottles to speak directly to Draco. "Things happen for a reason but I don't believe that we can't alter it. Nothing is set in stone. You of all people should know that." She gave him a knowing look, which he nodded at.
"Potter asked me to be his friend last night." Andrea raised an eyebrow but didn't respond. "It was like deja-vu. I already told you about what happened in Malkin's. Do you think I missed my chance the first time?"
"If you did, then your chance has come back to bite you in the ass." Draco chuckled appreciatively. They sat for a moment in silence.
"I think I want to be his friend." He answered in a small voice.
"What's stopping you?"
Draco gave her a wry grin, "Nothing now." He got up off the stool and walked briskly to the door but Andrea's voice called him right before he left.
"Room 412." She said, not looking up from her work. "Just for future reference."
********
"Hey, Pot-" Draco left off as he swung the door open to Harry's room and gaped at what the black haired boy was doing.
Harry turned around to greet him before turning back to the wall in front of him.
"W-what are you doing?" Draco managed to spit out as he watched Harry move his arms in graceful strokes over the wall.
"Sketching." And he was.
Harry had gotten up at seven that morning with an idea in his head. The room he was in seemed awfully drab, why not shake it up a bit? His art supplies, purchased by Dorothy and loved deeply by Harry, were still in his trunk, floating on the top of a sea of black Hogwarts robes.
He had intended to just draw in his sketchpad and hang the pictures on the wall, but when he gathered the book, he realized that every page had been filled. He flopped on the chair in frustration and ended up facing a large white wall. The idea just stemmed from there and for the last five hours he had been sketching a scene of Hogwarts from a first year's perspective on the first day of school.
He now was only a quarter finished. He had the lake done, detailed with the ripples from the boats disturbing the glassy sheen of it's surface. He scattered the small little rowboats, each with their glowing lamp and four students, across the lake with some pulling ahead of the others and already docking at the shore and some still hidden under the veil of moss. Harry had jokingly added a girl with messy brown hair, a boy with red hair, another boy with a frog and one with messy dark hair in one boat. If you looked hard enough, one person on the bank from an already docked boat had silvery hair slicked back and stood proudly even though he was dwarfed by two lugs on either side of him.
"Oh, wow." Draco breathed out as he stepped closer to the wall and trailed his fingers briefly over the light graphite drawings.
"Thanks, I think." Harry smirked as he grabbed a chair to help him reach the peak of one of the Hogwarts' towers. Harry paused to think for a second and then turned to Draco. "How'd you get in here anyway, Malfoy? I thought I requested no visitors."
"You did." Draco said distantly, still staring in awe at the picture before finally noticing his little portrait. "Hey, is that me?"
Harry nodded impatiently. "Yes. Now answer my question."
Draco tore his eyes away and smirked at Harry, which infuriated him for some reason. "I charmed my way in. Malfoys are very.persuasive."
"Really?" Harry settled for a look of disbelief since he couldn't manage lifting one eyebrow like Draco and Andrea could.
"Yes. Really." The blonde hair boy paused for a moment. "I am part veela, you know." He smiled as Harry's eyes bugged out at that admission.
"No, I didn't know that. How much?"
"Little less than half. I've got some elf thrown in too so I'm probably more creature than human, which disturbs me to no end." Draco shuddered.
Harry stared before chuckling lightly. "All this time you've gone on and on about how purebloods were better than everyone else when you are barely even human."
"Laugh it up Potter but I'd rather be a wizard/elf/veela mix than a ginger haired Weasel." He sneered crossing his arms and perching on the edge of Harry's bed.
Harry shook his head and faced the wall again. "Don't say that. Ron and his family are good people."
"The Weasleys are uncultured sods."
"That's not true. What about Percy? He was Head Boy. And so was Bill and Charlie's in Romania working with dragons."
"Know who else works with dragons? Your pal Hagrid, and what's he? An expelled unlicensed wizard with no regard for laws or other people's health."
Harry whirled around to face him, eyes flashing deep green. "You don't have any idea what you're talking about. The Weasleys may be poor and Hagrid may be a little wild but at least they aren't prejudiced and Voldemort's right hand man and teaching their children the dark arts like they're just parlor tricks!"
Draco's eyes flashed with something unrecognizable before turning a steely gray, masking off all emotions besides hatred. He spoke through gritted teeth to Harry and clenched his hands into tight fists, leaving crescents marks against the palm of his hand from his nails.
"Don't you dare talk about my father that way. You don't know him and you certainly don't know me. He might be prejudiced against the mudbloods but don't you even think of telling me that the Weasleys aren't as biased as you accuse my family of being."
"What?! That's not-"
"Yes, it is Potter. It is true. What's the first thing you heard about the Slytherins or me?"
Harry remembered what Ron had said to him the very first day they met.
There isn't a witch or wizard who hasn't gone bad in Slytherin.
Harry didn't say anything but Draco could tell from his face.
"Exactly. You heard we were all evil Dark Magic users. You think Dumbledore didn't use Dark Magic to defeat Grindewald? And on that subject, did you know that Grindewald wasn't a Slytherin? He was a Ravenclaw and about a fourth of his followers were Gryffindors." At Harry's shocked look he added smugly, "See? Gryffindors aren't the epitome of righteousness. Look at Peter Pettigrew. He was a Gryffindor and look at what a little rat he turned out to be." Harry looked up sharply at the mention of his name.
"How did you know Pettigrew was the traitor?"
Draco gave Harry a look that said 'Do you think I'm stupid or something?' "Potter, you're talking to me. Death Eaters visit the house regularly. This summer I've had tea with Voldemort and I've talked to him about school. He once asked me about girls! Which I told him that if I had to marry Parkinson, I'd wait till after the wedding, load up on champagne and promptly throw myself off a cliff to a fate more merciful than seeing Pansy naked."
Harry cracked a small smile but it was hidden from Draco as he bowed his head in shame.
"I'm sorry." He whispered ruefully, lifting his bright green eyes to meet smoky gray ones. "You're right, but what the Weasleys are against is the fair, right thing in this particular situation."
"The side you're on is always the right side."
"Even so, you don't have to insult Ron like that."
Draco snorted at this and got up to lean against the wall next to Harry. "And what happens when he insults me? You going to defend my honor?"
Harry blushed and studied the ground intently. "I'll work on Ron and you. I won't have two of my friends insulting each other." That statement filled Draco with pride for a moment before he countered it.
"You're getting ahead of yourself Potter. We're not friends yet." Draco spoke this in a slightly teasing manner.
Harry's mouth was set in a small frown, smashing his eyebrows together in thought. "And when will we be?"
"When we can have one conversation without fighting over my family's morals or what I think and believe just because it differs from you."
Harry nodded in consent and picked up his pencil he dropped in the heat of the fight. He poised the tip against the wall, ready to make the graceful curve of the front door at Hogwarts.
"Hey, Malfoy?"
Draco turned to face him only to see green eyes roll back into Harry's head and the black haired boy's legs buckling under him, dragging the pencil against the wall down to the baseboard where Harry's crumpled body lay.
At the other end of the hospital, Andrea fell to the floor to, dragging a cauldron full of De-Skelo-Gro with her.
************
"Oh, it was horrible!" Hermione wailed as she flung herself at her parents, enveloping them in a hug. The three of them relocated to a chair and sat with Hermione as she sobbed on their shoulders.
"Arthur..." Mrs. Weasley began but was cut off as her husband wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her hair. At a loss of what to do, she just patted his back gently. Ron took one step and fell to the ground. Fred and George rushed over, followed by Ginny and Percy. They wrapped their arms around him and Percy grabbed one of his hands and squeezed them in comfort. Bill and Charlie cam next, piling on top of Fred and George and Ginny, giving the whole group a hug.
Sirius made it to a chair but collapsed in exhaustion and buried his face in his hands, murmuring something in audible over and over. Ari sat next to him and tried to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder but he flinched away. The Auror bit her lip and tried to hide her hurt. She felt too tired to cry; her grief was beyond tears anyway.
Albus simply walked to the end of the hallway and stared at Harry's door. Little did he know, or did anyone know, that Harry had just snuck out moments ago with a certain aid, and was now being led downstairs.
The entrance to the waiting room burst open and Remus Lupin walked in, his tattered robes swirling behind him.
He took one look at everyone's faces and knew he had missed something; he could smell their grief in the air. He spotted Sirius rocking back and forth on the edge of his chair and walked over to his oldest friend. Ari looked ready to stop him but Remus brushed past her and sat down in the chair next to Sirius, prodding the unstable man in the shoulder.
Sirius looked up through a glossy layer of tears before trying to move away from the werewolf, but Lupin would have none of that. He wrapped his arms around the other man and held him tightly as Sirius beat his arms against him in an attempt to get free. He eventually realized he couldn't and finally broke down, weeping into Remus' chest.
"This may be a stupid question, but what happened?" Remus' voice cut through the crowd and everyone looked up to face him
"They went into Harry's pensieve." McGonagall said neutrally, as she had no idea what had happened.
"Well, what did you see?"
Hermione spoke first, lifting her head from her father's shoulder.
"Oh, Professor. It was horrible. There was so much blood, so much blood." Hermione trailed off and her mother pressed her daughter's head to her shoulder in hopes of giving her some comfort.
They all turned to Ron whose head was barely visible in the pile of Weasleys on the floor.
"He's my best mate. He's my best mate." Ron looked around at his family in panic. "I-we-someone should go to him! What if something's wrong? He needs friends!" Ron looked to the point of panic and struggled to escape the hold of his brothers and sister but they wouldn't yield. Instead he collapsed against them in tears. "I'm his best friend! I should've helped him! I-I.should be there. He's all alone." Percy whispered something soothing to Ron and the red head calmed down a bit and buried his head in George's shoulder.
"Arthur?" Remus tried, trying to get some answer from anyone.
The balding man lifted his head and stared straight into Remus' eyes. "I think of that boy like a son. I'd never ever want to see any of my children in pain but every time I close my eyes." His voice dropped to a whisper, "Everytime, I see that scene and it will be burned into the back of my mind until the day I die." He spoke up again. "I don't know what I saw but I saw Voldemort murder Dorothy Figg and then I saw him harm Harry. That bastard better watch his step because he now has the clan of Weasleys on his tail out for his blood." Every member of his family nodded in agreement, Ron more vehemently than anyone.
"Sirius?" The werewolf tried again, once he realized that the Weasley family would talk no more that night.
"Moony.He's my godson. I should have protected him. I should have been there." Remus tried to soothe him but to no avail; Sirius simply wouldn't be stopped. "I should have been the one to be hurt. I should've been the one stabbed with a knife, not Harry! None of this should have ever happened to my godson!" He roared in frustration, only in his seat because of Remus' tight grip on him. "James and Lily wanted me to protect him. I made a promise to James that nothing bad would ever happen to Harry as long as he had me around with him. I'm so sorry James!" Sirius flung himself on the ground, kneeling and praying to both God and James for forgiveness. Remus let him go and looked to Ari who was staring at Sirius.
"Ari?" Her head whirled around to meet Remus'. "What happened?"
She took a deep shuddering breath before starting. Ari could collect herself like no other in the room. She had seen the horrors on her job and learned early that it was important to report anything and everything in a dispassionate voice.
"It started out with them playing cards and then Voldemort bursts in with some lackeys. All masked, I couldn't recognize them. They tied them up and Harry watched my mother get tortured. He pleaded with them to stop and eventually they did but not after using over a dozen knifes on my mother. Voldemort moved on to Harry next and then used the Cruciatius curse on him. After he was done toying around with him, Voldemort cast the Imperious curse on him and ordered him to kill my mother." She heard a few gasp and looked up to see McGonagall being held up by Snape after nearly fainting and Ginny gripping Ron's hand so tight she could see her knuckles turning white. "Harry couldn't fight it off, not completely."
Remus took a deep breath before responding. "What happened?"
"He stabbed her in the thigh instead. Voldemort finished her off." Her voice shook at the end and she looked to Dumbledore for help.
The elderly wizard picked up where she left off. "Harry caught him off guard and stabbed him, but it did nothing." Hr bowed his head before lifting his eyes towards his teaching staff. "Voldemort had become immortal again." He heard gasps from the other wizards and witches around him but he continued the story. "Then Voldemort branded him with the Dark Mark." Once again, gasps of surprised, shock and disgust reverberated around the room followed by a cry from the Weasley pile on the floor.
"Son of a bitch!" All heads turned towards the person in surprise. Percy.
"Right on!" George shouted as Bill and Charlie stared in shock at their younger brother.
"Never heard truer words in my life." Fred added with a grin, shaking his head at his parents' expressions. "But what happened next?"
After the brief moment of hilarity, Ron seemed to have regained his wits and spoke up first. "Then they dueled."
"Harry couldn't have had his wand the whole time. Did You-Know-Who give it back?" Ginny asked shyly.
Ron shook his head. "No. It was strange. You-Know-Who shot the killing curse at him but then Harry just raised his hands, said 'Imperio' and the curse rebounded." Ron seemed to be in awe of his best friend at the moment.
"But not for good." Snape said, answering the question that many had been asking themselves. "He hasn't even changed to the spirit form. I assume that Potter merely banished him. Where, I can not say." Dumbledore nodded his head in thought.
"Well, if there is nothing more to do, I would like to retire to bed. Minerva, Severus, Hagrid, are you three coming?" Both nodded their heads and three glided out of the room while Hagrid clomped as noiselessly as possible.
"Come on, Hermione. Let's go home." Her mother insisted, pulling at her daughter's sleeve now that they were standing up again.
"No. I'm staying." With firm resolve, she sat back down in the chair and crossed her arms across her chest.
"So am I." Ron walked over towards his other best friend and took the seat next to her. Hermione shot the red head a grateful smile.
Mrs. Weasley sighed in defeat and took her seat again while pulling out her knitting and beginning to work on her famous Weasley sweaters.
Arthur kissed his wife on the cheek before standing to go. "Boys, do you have work tomorrow?" Bill, Percy and Charlie nodded their heads and they both stood to leave with their father.
Ginny had a look of indecision but finally sat next to Hermione and took her had reassuringly.
"Let's go Sirius." Remus grabbed the protesting man and then stunned him to get him to come along peacefully. "Ari, would you like to stay at my cottage tonight also?"
"No, I should get back to head quarters and file this report. Thanks for the offer." With that, she dissapperated.
Remus bowed his head to the remaining Weasleys and left.
They were all left to their thoughts. **********
Thanks for everyone who reviewed and I am sorry to say that this will be slash. I've probably lost half my readers but I need some plot and if I knock it out then I have war and evilness, which bores me. But don't worry; I will not fluff my story and no romance will happen for quite some time, after all, this is only like a prequel. Keep reviewing! Oh and thanks to my beta who has finally sent this chapter back.
"Ooh! Look at it bubble!" She chanted along with another voice coming from the doorframe. She turned to see Draco leaning against the door in a powder blue bathrobe covering blue striped pajamas.
"Hey. What are you doing here?"
"Got bored. Decided to pay my favorite cousin a visit." He shrugged and stepped into the room.
"I'm only your favorite because I load you up on potions. Highly illegal ones too, if I might add."
He shrugged again and pushed himself down on a chair next to the cauldron.
Draco began to pick up a variety of bottles and peer through them, trying to figure out the contents. "What are you making?"
"Oh, this and that. De-Skelo-Gro." She grabbed another bottle, and looked at it's contents the same way Draco had done and with a look of indifference, uncorked it and threw the contents into the potion.
"What's the point?"
She pondered this for a moment, not really sure why she had gotten up and decided to create this potion. "Don't know. It could remove a sixth finger or toe. Or help those Barbie-wannabe's achieve their goal by letting them lose a rib or two."
He nodded sagely. "Friend to our overly digit-ed brothers and sisters and the anorexic community."
"That's me." She nodded and picked up a ladle and began stirring.
"So.how'd you end up with Potter?" He asked nonchalantly, picking at the label of moose bile.
"I was bored. How else do I ever get into any situation?" She smiled and looked to her 'cousin', surprised that he wasn't smiling as well. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." He paused for a moment. "Do you believe we ever miss our chances?"
"At what?"
"I don't know. Happiness, riches, a family life, friends."
Andrea frowned a bit before answering. "I'm not sure. Some people believe in fate; what happens will happen if it's meant to. Some believe that God plans our lives and this is just the way our lives turn out and some people believe we make our own destiny. I guess it's just the way you look at things."
"What do you believe?"
"A little of all three." She smiled and put down the bottles to speak directly to Draco. "Things happen for a reason but I don't believe that we can't alter it. Nothing is set in stone. You of all people should know that." She gave him a knowing look, which he nodded at.
"Potter asked me to be his friend last night." Andrea raised an eyebrow but didn't respond. "It was like deja-vu. I already told you about what happened in Malkin's. Do you think I missed my chance the first time?"
"If you did, then your chance has come back to bite you in the ass." Draco chuckled appreciatively. They sat for a moment in silence.
"I think I want to be his friend." He answered in a small voice.
"What's stopping you?"
Draco gave her a wry grin, "Nothing now." He got up off the stool and walked briskly to the door but Andrea's voice called him right before he left.
"Room 412." She said, not looking up from her work. "Just for future reference."
********
"Hey, Pot-" Draco left off as he swung the door open to Harry's room and gaped at what the black haired boy was doing.
Harry turned around to greet him before turning back to the wall in front of him.
"W-what are you doing?" Draco managed to spit out as he watched Harry move his arms in graceful strokes over the wall.
"Sketching." And he was.
Harry had gotten up at seven that morning with an idea in his head. The room he was in seemed awfully drab, why not shake it up a bit? His art supplies, purchased by Dorothy and loved deeply by Harry, were still in his trunk, floating on the top of a sea of black Hogwarts robes.
He had intended to just draw in his sketchpad and hang the pictures on the wall, but when he gathered the book, he realized that every page had been filled. He flopped on the chair in frustration and ended up facing a large white wall. The idea just stemmed from there and for the last five hours he had been sketching a scene of Hogwarts from a first year's perspective on the first day of school.
He now was only a quarter finished. He had the lake done, detailed with the ripples from the boats disturbing the glassy sheen of it's surface. He scattered the small little rowboats, each with their glowing lamp and four students, across the lake with some pulling ahead of the others and already docking at the shore and some still hidden under the veil of moss. Harry had jokingly added a girl with messy brown hair, a boy with red hair, another boy with a frog and one with messy dark hair in one boat. If you looked hard enough, one person on the bank from an already docked boat had silvery hair slicked back and stood proudly even though he was dwarfed by two lugs on either side of him.
"Oh, wow." Draco breathed out as he stepped closer to the wall and trailed his fingers briefly over the light graphite drawings.
"Thanks, I think." Harry smirked as he grabbed a chair to help him reach the peak of one of the Hogwarts' towers. Harry paused to think for a second and then turned to Draco. "How'd you get in here anyway, Malfoy? I thought I requested no visitors."
"You did." Draco said distantly, still staring in awe at the picture before finally noticing his little portrait. "Hey, is that me?"
Harry nodded impatiently. "Yes. Now answer my question."
Draco tore his eyes away and smirked at Harry, which infuriated him for some reason. "I charmed my way in. Malfoys are very.persuasive."
"Really?" Harry settled for a look of disbelief since he couldn't manage lifting one eyebrow like Draco and Andrea could.
"Yes. Really." The blonde hair boy paused for a moment. "I am part veela, you know." He smiled as Harry's eyes bugged out at that admission.
"No, I didn't know that. How much?"
"Little less than half. I've got some elf thrown in too so I'm probably more creature than human, which disturbs me to no end." Draco shuddered.
Harry stared before chuckling lightly. "All this time you've gone on and on about how purebloods were better than everyone else when you are barely even human."
"Laugh it up Potter but I'd rather be a wizard/elf/veela mix than a ginger haired Weasel." He sneered crossing his arms and perching on the edge of Harry's bed.
Harry shook his head and faced the wall again. "Don't say that. Ron and his family are good people."
"The Weasleys are uncultured sods."
"That's not true. What about Percy? He was Head Boy. And so was Bill and Charlie's in Romania working with dragons."
"Know who else works with dragons? Your pal Hagrid, and what's he? An expelled unlicensed wizard with no regard for laws or other people's health."
Harry whirled around to face him, eyes flashing deep green. "You don't have any idea what you're talking about. The Weasleys may be poor and Hagrid may be a little wild but at least they aren't prejudiced and Voldemort's right hand man and teaching their children the dark arts like they're just parlor tricks!"
Draco's eyes flashed with something unrecognizable before turning a steely gray, masking off all emotions besides hatred. He spoke through gritted teeth to Harry and clenched his hands into tight fists, leaving crescents marks against the palm of his hand from his nails.
"Don't you dare talk about my father that way. You don't know him and you certainly don't know me. He might be prejudiced against the mudbloods but don't you even think of telling me that the Weasleys aren't as biased as you accuse my family of being."
"What?! That's not-"
"Yes, it is Potter. It is true. What's the first thing you heard about the Slytherins or me?"
Harry remembered what Ron had said to him the very first day they met.
There isn't a witch or wizard who hasn't gone bad in Slytherin.
Harry didn't say anything but Draco could tell from his face.
"Exactly. You heard we were all evil Dark Magic users. You think Dumbledore didn't use Dark Magic to defeat Grindewald? And on that subject, did you know that Grindewald wasn't a Slytherin? He was a Ravenclaw and about a fourth of his followers were Gryffindors." At Harry's shocked look he added smugly, "See? Gryffindors aren't the epitome of righteousness. Look at Peter Pettigrew. He was a Gryffindor and look at what a little rat he turned out to be." Harry looked up sharply at the mention of his name.
"How did you know Pettigrew was the traitor?"
Draco gave Harry a look that said 'Do you think I'm stupid or something?' "Potter, you're talking to me. Death Eaters visit the house regularly. This summer I've had tea with Voldemort and I've talked to him about school. He once asked me about girls! Which I told him that if I had to marry Parkinson, I'd wait till after the wedding, load up on champagne and promptly throw myself off a cliff to a fate more merciful than seeing Pansy naked."
Harry cracked a small smile but it was hidden from Draco as he bowed his head in shame.
"I'm sorry." He whispered ruefully, lifting his bright green eyes to meet smoky gray ones. "You're right, but what the Weasleys are against is the fair, right thing in this particular situation."
"The side you're on is always the right side."
"Even so, you don't have to insult Ron like that."
Draco snorted at this and got up to lean against the wall next to Harry. "And what happens when he insults me? You going to defend my honor?"
Harry blushed and studied the ground intently. "I'll work on Ron and you. I won't have two of my friends insulting each other." That statement filled Draco with pride for a moment before he countered it.
"You're getting ahead of yourself Potter. We're not friends yet." Draco spoke this in a slightly teasing manner.
Harry's mouth was set in a small frown, smashing his eyebrows together in thought. "And when will we be?"
"When we can have one conversation without fighting over my family's morals or what I think and believe just because it differs from you."
Harry nodded in consent and picked up his pencil he dropped in the heat of the fight. He poised the tip against the wall, ready to make the graceful curve of the front door at Hogwarts.
"Hey, Malfoy?"
Draco turned to face him only to see green eyes roll back into Harry's head and the black haired boy's legs buckling under him, dragging the pencil against the wall down to the baseboard where Harry's crumpled body lay.
At the other end of the hospital, Andrea fell to the floor to, dragging a cauldron full of De-Skelo-Gro with her.
************
"Oh, it was horrible!" Hermione wailed as she flung herself at her parents, enveloping them in a hug. The three of them relocated to a chair and sat with Hermione as she sobbed on their shoulders.
"Arthur..." Mrs. Weasley began but was cut off as her husband wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her hair. At a loss of what to do, she just patted his back gently. Ron took one step and fell to the ground. Fred and George rushed over, followed by Ginny and Percy. They wrapped their arms around him and Percy grabbed one of his hands and squeezed them in comfort. Bill and Charlie cam next, piling on top of Fred and George and Ginny, giving the whole group a hug.
Sirius made it to a chair but collapsed in exhaustion and buried his face in his hands, murmuring something in audible over and over. Ari sat next to him and tried to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder but he flinched away. The Auror bit her lip and tried to hide her hurt. She felt too tired to cry; her grief was beyond tears anyway.
Albus simply walked to the end of the hallway and stared at Harry's door. Little did he know, or did anyone know, that Harry had just snuck out moments ago with a certain aid, and was now being led downstairs.
The entrance to the waiting room burst open and Remus Lupin walked in, his tattered robes swirling behind him.
He took one look at everyone's faces and knew he had missed something; he could smell their grief in the air. He spotted Sirius rocking back and forth on the edge of his chair and walked over to his oldest friend. Ari looked ready to stop him but Remus brushed past her and sat down in the chair next to Sirius, prodding the unstable man in the shoulder.
Sirius looked up through a glossy layer of tears before trying to move away from the werewolf, but Lupin would have none of that. He wrapped his arms around the other man and held him tightly as Sirius beat his arms against him in an attempt to get free. He eventually realized he couldn't and finally broke down, weeping into Remus' chest.
"This may be a stupid question, but what happened?" Remus' voice cut through the crowd and everyone looked up to face him
"They went into Harry's pensieve." McGonagall said neutrally, as she had no idea what had happened.
"Well, what did you see?"
Hermione spoke first, lifting her head from her father's shoulder.
"Oh, Professor. It was horrible. There was so much blood, so much blood." Hermione trailed off and her mother pressed her daughter's head to her shoulder in hopes of giving her some comfort.
They all turned to Ron whose head was barely visible in the pile of Weasleys on the floor.
"He's my best mate. He's my best mate." Ron looked around at his family in panic. "I-we-someone should go to him! What if something's wrong? He needs friends!" Ron looked to the point of panic and struggled to escape the hold of his brothers and sister but they wouldn't yield. Instead he collapsed against them in tears. "I'm his best friend! I should've helped him! I-I.should be there. He's all alone." Percy whispered something soothing to Ron and the red head calmed down a bit and buried his head in George's shoulder.
"Arthur?" Remus tried, trying to get some answer from anyone.
The balding man lifted his head and stared straight into Remus' eyes. "I think of that boy like a son. I'd never ever want to see any of my children in pain but every time I close my eyes." His voice dropped to a whisper, "Everytime, I see that scene and it will be burned into the back of my mind until the day I die." He spoke up again. "I don't know what I saw but I saw Voldemort murder Dorothy Figg and then I saw him harm Harry. That bastard better watch his step because he now has the clan of Weasleys on his tail out for his blood." Every member of his family nodded in agreement, Ron more vehemently than anyone.
"Sirius?" The werewolf tried again, once he realized that the Weasley family would talk no more that night.
"Moony.He's my godson. I should have protected him. I should have been there." Remus tried to soothe him but to no avail; Sirius simply wouldn't be stopped. "I should have been the one to be hurt. I should've been the one stabbed with a knife, not Harry! None of this should have ever happened to my godson!" He roared in frustration, only in his seat because of Remus' tight grip on him. "James and Lily wanted me to protect him. I made a promise to James that nothing bad would ever happen to Harry as long as he had me around with him. I'm so sorry James!" Sirius flung himself on the ground, kneeling and praying to both God and James for forgiveness. Remus let him go and looked to Ari who was staring at Sirius.
"Ari?" Her head whirled around to meet Remus'. "What happened?"
She took a deep shuddering breath before starting. Ari could collect herself like no other in the room. She had seen the horrors on her job and learned early that it was important to report anything and everything in a dispassionate voice.
"It started out with them playing cards and then Voldemort bursts in with some lackeys. All masked, I couldn't recognize them. They tied them up and Harry watched my mother get tortured. He pleaded with them to stop and eventually they did but not after using over a dozen knifes on my mother. Voldemort moved on to Harry next and then used the Cruciatius curse on him. After he was done toying around with him, Voldemort cast the Imperious curse on him and ordered him to kill my mother." She heard a few gasp and looked up to see McGonagall being held up by Snape after nearly fainting and Ginny gripping Ron's hand so tight she could see her knuckles turning white. "Harry couldn't fight it off, not completely."
Remus took a deep breath before responding. "What happened?"
"He stabbed her in the thigh instead. Voldemort finished her off." Her voice shook at the end and she looked to Dumbledore for help.
The elderly wizard picked up where she left off. "Harry caught him off guard and stabbed him, but it did nothing." Hr bowed his head before lifting his eyes towards his teaching staff. "Voldemort had become immortal again." He heard gasps from the other wizards and witches around him but he continued the story. "Then Voldemort branded him with the Dark Mark." Once again, gasps of surprised, shock and disgust reverberated around the room followed by a cry from the Weasley pile on the floor.
"Son of a bitch!" All heads turned towards the person in surprise. Percy.
"Right on!" George shouted as Bill and Charlie stared in shock at their younger brother.
"Never heard truer words in my life." Fred added with a grin, shaking his head at his parents' expressions. "But what happened next?"
After the brief moment of hilarity, Ron seemed to have regained his wits and spoke up first. "Then they dueled."
"Harry couldn't have had his wand the whole time. Did You-Know-Who give it back?" Ginny asked shyly.
Ron shook his head. "No. It was strange. You-Know-Who shot the killing curse at him but then Harry just raised his hands, said 'Imperio' and the curse rebounded." Ron seemed to be in awe of his best friend at the moment.
"But not for good." Snape said, answering the question that many had been asking themselves. "He hasn't even changed to the spirit form. I assume that Potter merely banished him. Where, I can not say." Dumbledore nodded his head in thought.
"Well, if there is nothing more to do, I would like to retire to bed. Minerva, Severus, Hagrid, are you three coming?" Both nodded their heads and three glided out of the room while Hagrid clomped as noiselessly as possible.
"Come on, Hermione. Let's go home." Her mother insisted, pulling at her daughter's sleeve now that they were standing up again.
"No. I'm staying." With firm resolve, she sat back down in the chair and crossed her arms across her chest.
"So am I." Ron walked over towards his other best friend and took the seat next to her. Hermione shot the red head a grateful smile.
Mrs. Weasley sighed in defeat and took her seat again while pulling out her knitting and beginning to work on her famous Weasley sweaters.
Arthur kissed his wife on the cheek before standing to go. "Boys, do you have work tomorrow?" Bill, Percy and Charlie nodded their heads and they both stood to leave with their father.
Ginny had a look of indecision but finally sat next to Hermione and took her had reassuringly.
"Let's go Sirius." Remus grabbed the protesting man and then stunned him to get him to come along peacefully. "Ari, would you like to stay at my cottage tonight also?"
"No, I should get back to head quarters and file this report. Thanks for the offer." With that, she dissapperated.
Remus bowed his head to the remaining Weasleys and left.
They were all left to their thoughts. **********
Thanks for everyone who reviewed and I am sorry to say that this will be slash. I've probably lost half my readers but I need some plot and if I knock it out then I have war and evilness, which bores me. But don't worry; I will not fluff my story and no romance will happen for quite some time, after all, this is only like a prequel. Keep reviewing! Oh and thanks to my beta who has finally sent this chapter back.