The Devil's Dilemma
Chapter Five
"Revelations, Theories and Predictions"
"In the dark of the night evil will find her,
In the dark of the night just before dawn
Revenge will be sweet
When the curse is complete
In the dark of the night she'll be gone!
--"In the Dark of the Night," from the motion picture, "Anastasia"
It wasn't easy being an outcast at Hogwarts, Harry thought with immense sadness. Over the first several days at the school, Harry had grown accustomed to taking meals with only Ron and Hermione; he was still getting used to being either snubbed by other Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs or teased mercilessly by the Slytherins. The days at Hogwarts crawled by so slowly that Harry could have sworn that time was going backwards.
He could not remember a time when he had so much homework to do. Professor Sprout had assigned a presentation project involving Venus Flytraps. Professor Trelawney's project with the dowsing was due in mere days and Harry hadn't even started it yet. Quidditch trials were looming on the horizon and Harry hadn't even been able to practice his moves because he had to be home with Tessa and the baby in the evening. More than once the cry of his baby daughter had torn his attention away from his Firebolt in the corner of the family room and his dreams of Quidditch glory.
Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape had assigned a cross-specialty assignment and wanted a ten-foot parchment on the hazards of Animagus Transformation (complete with a list of the most popular antidotes for the treatment of those Animagi transformations that went horribly awry and how to prepare each of them). Everyone in Harry's class had groaned when they learned of the project, but neither McGonagall nor Snape offered to budge. In fact, Snape seemed to take a certain delight in telling Harry that a detention would be assigned for each day said project was late, if that indeed became the case. After class, he had kept the extremely fatigued Harry behind after all the other students left.
"You were late to class this morning, Mr. Potter." The professor glared at Harry with a look of pure hatred.
"I'm sorry sir," Harry answered. "My daughter was up most of the night with a cold and, when I was finally able to get to sleep, I overslept; I also Apparated to the wrong location." He looked at the floor, the tips of his ears red. "It won't happen again, Professor."
Snape was unmoved. "You might think that your recent behavior with the opposite sex and the consequences resulting therein may entitle you to certain privileges concerning your homework and when you choose to turn it in, Mr. Potter," Snape said in an oily voice. "Privileges that do not extend to your classmates, perhaps?"
"Huh?" Harry asked, not quite understanding the statement.
Snape rolled his eyes. "Do not for a moment entertain the thought that, just because you have a mealy-mouthed brat to take care of now, your homework can be late, or that you can just traipse in here anytime you wish. I will still assign you a detention, regardless of how little sleep you had the night before, or any other excuse you might chose to employ!"
"I wouldn't expect you to, sir," Harry said softly. His face grew hot under the Potion Master's stare. He willed himself not to blush, but it didn't help.
"How I longed to see the day that the celebrity Harry Potter finally fell from grace," Snape continued with an almost dreamlike expression. "I remember the first year you were here, Potter. You strutted around this school like you owned the place and the world owed you a favor, just because you were James' offspring." Snape scowled at the young man in front of him. "Despite what you may think, it is only a matter of time before others see in you what I have seen all along--that you're no higher or mightier than the rest of us!"
Harry opened his mouth to rebuff Snape's comments but, at that precise moment, Hermione and Ron called to him. He was going to be late for Herbology if he didn't get a move on. Harry left the Potions classroom in a hurry, keenly aware that the beetle-black eyes of his least favorite teacher were boring into his back.
Harry honestly felt that he could handle any unpleasantness that he endured at Hogwarts as long as he focused himself on the faces of his daughter and wife, but even that had become useless as of late. Abigail had picked up a cold and had kept the young family awake for most of the previous night with her sneezing and temperature. Tessa had fretted over the child constantly. She made sure that the room was free of drafts and would only let Harry hold the little girl provided he washed his hands first.
The evening began well enough. Harry Apparated home and entered the house via the kitchen. He lifted the lid on the biscuit jar in the kitchen and smiled appreciatively. Tessa had made peanut butter biscuits and, judging by their softness and warmness, they had only recently come out of the oven. He reached for one and took a large bite. Ahh, he thought, they were almost better than sex.
Almost.
Still in his Hogwart's robes, Harry walked up the stairs and peeked into the nursery. He gazed at mother and child from across the room. Tessa and the baby were completely oblivious to his presence; she had the child to her breast now, and was singing softly to Abigail:
"Come, Josephine in her flying machine and it's up, she goes…up she goes…
Balance yourself like a bird on a beam, in the air she goes; there she goes!
Up, up, a little bit higher. Oh, my! The moon is on fire--
Come, Josephine in my flying machine,
Going up, all on, "Goodbye!"
Both looked so content, so peaceful, as they sat together in the large rocking chair that Dumbledore insisted that they have. It was too big for his office, he had said. It may as well go to some good use. So, he had given it to Harry and Tessa to use in the nursery.
Harry continued to watch the peaceful scene in front of him. Tessa carried on singing in her beautiful alto voice to the little girl in her arms. Harry noticed, with some amusement, that Abigail stared at her mother intently as Tessa sang. It was almost as if Abigail really did understand the words to the song!
I wonder, Harry thought, if Abigail will ever know and truly understand how loved she is? She has a mother and a father who would lay down their lives in a heartbeat for her. Of course, most parents never had to make that sacrifice but, unfortunately, if things worked out the way they normally do for me, I may very well have to make the sacrifice for her someday. Despite this depressing thought, Harry smiled and sighed as he took in the sight of the two people he cared about most in the world before him.
His sigh caught Tessa's attention. She looked up at him and smiled. "Hello, Daddy!" she whispered, adjusting her dressing gown so that she was properly covered. Immediately Abigail gave a whimper of protest. She raised her little hand and pulled at the offending clothing.
"Hey, I was enjoying that view," Harry said with a mischievous smile.
Tessa sighed as Abigail began to nurse again. "You must be going through a growth spurt, Abbey! Mummy is tired and wants to go to sleep. Don't you?" she asked her daughter.
Tessa could have sworn she saw the child scowl.
Harry walked across the room and brushed Tessa's forehead with a quick kiss. "So, Abbey Rose has been a piglet today, eh?" he said as he offered the baby a finger to grab hold of. He never tired of feeling her tiny fingers gripping his much larger one. The child was so strong. She does come from good stock, he praised himself.
"How was school today?" Tessa asked him softly, so as not to disturb the baby.
Harry shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Don't ask. Stupid old Snape and McGonagall have decided to make my life a miserable Hell! They want a ten-foot parchment on Animagus transformations and the potions necessary to reverse any adverse affects of the change on the human body. It's due in a week!"
"I remember that project like it was yesterday," Tessa offered. "They haven't changed their curriculum in quite some time, it seems."
"Do you still have your project lying around?" Harry asked hopefully.
Tessa shook her head in the negative. "You wouldn't want it even if I did, Harry. Potions was my worst class. I remember that my parchment was full of red marks. Although," she said with a smile, "the Transfiguration portion of the assignment was excellent."
Harry untied his robes and shrugged them off. He put his arms around Tessa and nuzzled her neck.
"I missed you today, Mrs. Potter."
"And I you, Mr. Potter, but Abigail was here to keep me company."
"And what good company she is," Harry said. "Did she sleep for you today?"
"A little. Mostly just ate and pooped," Tessa said to him.
"Eurgh," Harry shuddered. His terrible day at school aside, maybe being at Hogwarts all day was a good thing. "Well, I'm glad I wasn't here for that. Honestly, I've never seen anything that can poop as much as this kid does; that includes Hagrid's Blast Ended Skrewts."
Tessa laughed.
"Can I hold her?" Harry asked.
"Wash your hands first. I don't want her getting any more germs. Who knows where your hands have been all day," she said pointedly, casting an accusatory glance at the body parts in question, as she nursed Abigail.
Her husband shot her a mildly affronted look. "They were attached to my arms, Tessa," Harry retorted. He left the room and stepped into the bathroom across the hallway. As he lathered the offending appendages, he commented, "Babies have to be exposed to things like germs eventually, you know. It'll make her stronger!"
"Typical man reaction," Tessa grumbled in a low voice. "Why don't we just throw her into the lake, because eventually she'll need to learn how to swim?" she added in a voice a bit louder than she had anticipated. Harry heard her.
"Great idea! And the fact that she'll very likely drown if she doesn't learn to swim quickly is only incentive," he called back dryly.
"I can't believe you just said that, Harry James Potter!"
"It's no worse than what you just said about throwing her in the lake! Honestly, woman!" he cried. There was no answer from Tessa. Harry sighed. For a few minutes things had been normal and easy. Lately, it seemed like all they ever did was bicker. He dried his hands and walked across the hall.
"Can I have her now? She wants her daddy. I can tell. See? She's looking at me," Harry said as he held out his clean hands for inspection.
As Harry said this, the child began to squirm against Tessa. Screwing up her little pink face, the baby drew her fists to her chest and began to wail.
Tessa sighed. "Why don't you take Abigail for a few minutes, Harry? I'm dying for a glass of water."
"All right," he said eagerly.
Tessa lifted the crying, nearly three-month old child to her father. Harry gently placed her over his shoulder. He rubbed Abigail's tiny back with a careful circular motion.
"I will buy you a racing broom if you stop crying," Harry whispered softly into Abigail's ear.
Immediately the baby grew quiet and content. Lifting her fist to her mouth, the only sound the couple could hear coming from Abigail's mouth was a sucking sound. Harry gave a wide smile as he sat down in the rocking chair.
"How do you get that child to calm so fast?" Tessa said in disbelief. "I couldn't do that if I lived to be a hundred."
"I don't know. I'm just popular with babies, I suppose," Harry answered. "Good girl," he whispered to Abigail.
"Well, at least this particular baby," Tessa said with a smile as she gestured in Abigail's direction. She shook her head as she left the room, quite unaware that Harry was staring at her departing figurewith desire burning brightly in his eyes.
As she descended the stairs to the kitchen, Tessa smiled. She had a handsome husband who loved her with all his heart, a beautiful little home in the country with a picket fence and a child that was precious and dear. If she were not a virtual prisoner, things would be just perfect, she thought.
Tessa stepped to the refrigerator, opened the door and pulled out a jug of water. She laughed as she heard Harry upstairs, trying to sing Abigail a song. Something about Quidditch, from what words she could make out. He tried to hit a high note and the pitch fell horribly flat. She cringed, knowing full well that Harry had no idea how bad he sounded. Tone-deaf people never did. The music teacher in her wanted to correct him; the lover in her said no.
CRASH!
Tessa's head snapped up from her water glass. What was that crash? "Harry!" Tessa cried. "Are you all right?"
There was no answer from upstairs. She heard a bumping sound that sounded like footfalls, followed by a thump and the howl of her child.
In that moment, Tessa's vision clouded and a wave of dizziness and deja-vu washed over her. She was dimly aware of her drinking glass leaving her fingers and crashing to the floor. The sound of shattered crystal against the tiles was far away and sounded like it was being made underwater.
The dream of so many months ago was becoming a reality. She could see blood…lots of blood pooling around a helpless Harry…a slash to the throat, the knife cut looking like a grotesque and taunting smile. She saw herself on the floor by his side, cradling his lifeless body in her arms. The pretty white curtains surrounding the open window behind him billowed innocently--stark purity against an evil black sky. Abigail was nowhere to be seen. As she watched the scene unfold, Tessa heard a voice to her right…squeaky and familiar…
"Listen to me T--Tessa…I show you what has the potential to be ch--changed…"
Tessa turned sharply in the direction of the voice and saw nothing. "Wormtail?" she asked in a small voice. She took another tentative step toward the Tessa-Who-Was-Not, still looking around the room. "Wormtail? Are you here?"
The doppelganger Tessa looked up from Harry's lifeless body then, straight into the real Tessa's face. A sinister smile spread slowly across its face. Tessa watched in mute horror as the thing opened its mouth and spoke, but the voice was not hers; it was eerie and cold, without pity:
"The Dreamfaster cannot help you, cursed bitch!" The being gestured towards the now-lifeless body of the savior of the Wizarding world. "You thought you could save him from the most powerful being on Earth, Tessa. Pitiable wards and silly spells won't keep me away…I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end…I always win. I ALWAYS WIN!"
In horror, Tessa watched as the Tessa-who-was-not reached up to its face and placed its fingers in the corners of its eyes. The doppelganger suddenly dug fiercely at the face, causing Tessa to cry out in alarm. Skin and sinew, chunks of flesh and bone fell away from the face to reveal two red eyes. Two very red, very evil eyes…a snake-like face with a mouth that was wide--too wide for a normal face…
The Dark Lord was here.
Tessa screamed and her vision cleared immediately. She was still in the kitchen. Her glass lay in pieces on the floor and the jug had overturned. Cold water covered the floor. With dismay, she saw that her feet were wet. She hadn't even felt the liquid against her flesh. Her heart felt like it was in her throat and she fought to draw breath as she raced up the stairs two at a time. "Harry! Harry, are you all right?" She burst through the door of the nursery.
Abigail was in her cradle crying. Harry was crouched near the far wall in the nursery, grasping one hand in the other, his eyes closed in pain. Tessa raced to his side. She looked to the floor and saw a print in jagged pieces on the floor. A few drops of bright red blood clung to one particularly sharp shard of glass.
"Honey, you've cut your hand," Tessa said in a gentle voice. She placed her fingers around Harry's wrist and turned his palm up so that it faced her. A fairly deep cut crossed his palm.
"Thanks for the news update, Tessa," Harry said with a grimace. "I was being careful, but I somehow managed to slice it on this mirror," he gestured to the ground.
Let me get a cool cloth to wrap around that wound, sweetie," Tessa offered. She left the room, hurriedly ran a washcloth under the tap to wet it and walked back into the nursery. As she wrapped his hand in it she looked to the shards of glass and then to the wall.
"I can't imagine how that mirror fell to the ground like that," Tessa said in a slightly uneasy voice. "It's been a solid fixture on the wall since before we even came here," she voiced. She walked over to the wall and inspected it closely. She placed one hand against the wall's smooth pink surface and rapped on it. The wall seemed very solid, as it should have been. What was most curious to Tessa was the placement of the nails: they had not come out of the wall in the fall and were still as straight and as solid as they ever had been. A cold feeling seeped into Tessa's very being.
"We were really lucky, I suppose," Harry said as he too inspected the wall. "It happened so suddenly. Had Abigail and I been sitting two feet closer to the wall, that heavy mirror would have crashed on us."
"I'm glad you're both okay," Tessa said as she allowed Harry to embrace her. Harry thinks this was a simple accident and perhaps he's right. Still, I am not wholly convinced that's all it was, she thought.
Her mind drifted back to the vision she had experienced in the kitchen. She had dreamed all of this before, with slight variations in events and she knew it. A large fear was beginning to be recognized to her: Voldemort intended to kill Harry and take Abigail and he would stop at nothing to ensure the plans' successes.
Later that evening, after Abigail had settled down for the night, Tessa went to Harry, waking him from a sound sleep in the way that only a wife could. Her fingers were warm against the smooth, unmarked flesh of his chest, her lips a searing heat against the spot on his neck that fluttered with his steady pulse.
Harry raised a sleepy hand and ran it through her hair. She sighed at his touch and took his hand in hers. She kissed the palm and leaned into him; her lips pressed against his, softly at first, then with more urgency. Harry helped her to slip off her thin cotton nightdress and ran his hands over her silky soft shoulders.
What followed next was a very tender joining of flesh. No words were spoken between them during the physical act: none were necessary. Each seemed to know what the other needed that night and was determined to see to it that the other's needs were fulfilled.
After the lovemaking, Harry laid on his left side with Tessa in front of him so that they resembled spoons. His arm was draped over her hip and her hands were pillowed against her cheek. Both seemed fairly content.
"Harry?"
"Yeah?"
"We really are safe here, right?" Tessa asked.
"Of course we are, honey," Harry said in a reassuring voice. "Dumbledore knows what he's doing. If he thought for a moment that we were unsafe here, he would move us." Harry stroked her hair. The movement of his hands through her brown tresses was almost hypnotic and Tessa closed her eyes.
"I suppose he would at that," Tessa acknowledged. "I just have a bad feeling that we're not as safe as he might think we are."
"What makes you say that?"
Tessa opened her eyes. She bit her lip, debating what she should say. "Harry, you saw the mirror this afternoon. I have a hard time believing that it fell from the wall purely by accident…I think it was meant to be a warning of sorts."
"A warning, you say? From whom, Tessa? Voldemort? He doesn't strike me as the type of wizard who leaves any sort of a warning before he attacks."
"That's true," Tessa said softly, "but maybe someone close to him is." Tessa rolled onto her back. "I just don't feel wholly secure. Something's going to happen; I can feel it." She rubbed her arms and took a deep breath.
Harry propped himself up on one arm and stroked her cheek. "I promised that I would keep you safe when I married you, Tessa, and I am sticking by that promise. You have no reason to be worried or scared anymore, sweetheart." He placed a kiss on her shoulder. "I will keep you safe. I would die before I let anyone hurt you. You and Abigail are worth protecting, Tessa." He smiled at her.
Somehow, Tessa thought, Harry always knew the right words to say. "I don't deserve someone like you, Harry," she stated. "I am so sorry for everything."
Harry didn't answer her as he lay quietly beside her. He was tired of apologies from Tessa. He wanted answers to his questions about her dreams. Several times in the last week, she had awakened from these awful visions crying and sweating. Sometimes she spoke in her sleep, but her words were garbled and incoherent. Sometimes she clung to Harry, her fingernails digging into his back, and one time she had actually pushed him away and sworn at him. That night terror had been the worst yet. Maddeningly, Tessa still refused to divulge the dreams.
As he listened to Tessa's steady breathing, Harry wondered just how long his married life was going to continue on the track it was on. He didn't want to be at school because he was an outcast, yet he didn't want to be home because his wife was behaving like she was a card short of a full deck. He didn't know what to do for the best.
And it tired him.
"Ron, as much as I hate to say this, and believe me when I say I do, we really need to start this assignment of Trelawney's," Harry said as he picked up his L-rods from the ground. "I don't want to have to take this home tonight; I'll never get it done," he added.
Ron rolled his eyes as he picked up a smooth round stone and attempted to skip it across the moat. The rock skipped twice, then fell beneath the water's surface with a 'plink'.
"That wrinkled old bat Trelawney is a menace. Honestly, to give us homework on what has to be the most perfect day of the year! It makes me want to—"
Harry laughed as he raised a hand in the air, palm out, facing Ron. "Um, Ron? Trelawney assigned this nearly a week ago."
"You're missing the point, Harry! She knows us too well: she knew that we would wait until the last minute to do this. She can probably predict the weather, too. Therefore, technically, this is all her fault."
"It's her fault that we waited?" Harry asked with a placid smile. Ron looked to his best friend with a frown.
At Harry's statement, Hermione's head popped out of the book she was reading. A smile spread across her face as, for the first time in her life, she heard Harry express an interest in actually completing his homework without her prodding.
"Gah," Ron sputtered, unable to completely digest what his friend had just said. "That's Hermione logic, Harry!"
Harry laughed.
The two friends stood underneath a spreading oak tree, next to the great moat that surrounded Hogwarts castle, skipping stones across its murky surface. Hermione lay on her stomach in the tree's shade, studying text from her Ancient Runes book. It was late in the afternoon, after the last classes of the day had finished, and both boys felt the need to burn off a little energy. Hermione had pooh-poohed the idea of going outside, protesting that the library would be a better place to get work done efficiently, but had closed her mouth when both boys shot her glares.
Harry and Ron's original plan was to work on broomstick maneuvers on the pitch. However, the Quidditch area was already booked for a practice by the newly-chosen Hufflepuff team, so the boys' idea of soaring through the air was out of the question. Hogsmeade wasn't an option either, so they decided to camp out underneath a tree and just relax.
However, people could only throw stones into the moat and annoy the giant squid for so long before it became a trifle boring. Harry therefore decided that perhaps he should do his homework before it was too late. "This was supposed to be a partnered project, Ron. You know I have to go to Tessa tonight: she hasn't seen me since Sunday night. I can't hang around here anymore, so let's get this done."
So, we're supposed to use these rods to dowse for things, huh?" Ron asked. He looked at the sticks in his hands for a moment and then looked back at Harry. "What d'ya suppose we ought to look for?"
Harry shrugged his shoulders as he lay under the sprawling oak tree. "I don't know. Maybe treasure."
Ron set his face in an expression of grim determination. He pointed the sticks parallel to the ground and cried out, "Gold, here I come!"
Just as Ron uttered these words, a blond head appeared over a nearby knoll. It was Draco Malfoy, who was swaggering about like a proud peacock and smiling like the cat that ate the canary. He walked over to where the two boys stood, his mouth curving into a contemptuous sneer and his gray eyes flickering, as he surveyed them both.
Ron groaned. "That wasn't the gold I was looking for," he said. Harry nodded his head.
"Well, if it isn't Hogwart's newest daddy and his penniless sidekick!" Draco drawled.
Ron shot Draco a withering glare. "Hey, Malfoy, isn't there a village somewhere looking for its idiot?"
Draco chose to ignore Ron's snide comment, focusing his attention instead on the dowsing rods in Ron's hands. "What's with the sticks, Weasley? Are your parents so poor that you're trying to build your very own broom? How creative," he added in a condescending tone.
"Nope," said Ron. "We're dowsing."
"Dowsing? What the hell is that?" Draco asked.
"Dowsing, dimwit. We're looking for things," Harry remarked. "We're working on our Divination project, not that it's any of your business. We were told to dowse for something and write down our findings."
Ron positioned his L-rods so that they were horizontal to the ground and proceeded to walk slowly in Draco's direction. "I think I'm going to look for your brains, Malfoy!" Ron's face broke into a sarcastic smile as he stepped very close to Draco and placed the sticks over his blond head. The sticks did not cross. He looked over to Harry who was snickering. "Well Harry, what would you say?"
Harry made a show of intently studying the furious blond boy. "No evidence of a brain found: duly noting the fact onto my parchment." Harry was laughing so hard that he would later swear that he had punctured a lung. He turned away from the sight so that Draco would not see the tears of laughter that were rolling down his cheeks.
"Droll, Weasley. Very droll," Draco said dryly. To Harry, he said, "Heard from that whore you knocked up, Potter? I'll bet not. You know, by now your kid's probably been born. It's only a matter of time before the bastard is found. It'll probably be fed to wild dogs, if Fudge has his way. My father says he's going to raise the reward for her capture."
This information worried Harry. Draco's father was a heavy player in Fudge's social circle; he was on the Board of Governors for Hogwarts and, more likely than not, interacted with the Minister of Magic on a regular basis. Lucius Malfoy probably knew what he was talking about.
The sensible side of Harry wanted to ignore Draco's cutting remarks and simply get out of there, but the impulsive side wanted to rearrange Draco's face. In the end, Harry's brain opted for a compromise.
"They can raise the reward all they want Malfoy. It's pretty obvious that nobody knows where she is. If they did, they'd have turned her in already," Harry said reasonably.
"Oh, I don't know about that," Draco quipped in a self-satisfied voice. "It seems to me that if the price is right, anyone will talk; even those who might have supported her decision to run away from the loony bin all those months ago." He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his robes. "Yes sir, someone's going to find her and she's going to get a little kiss faster than you can say 'paternity test'."
"I'll believe it when I see it," Harry said.
"Draco!" Another voice sounded from the knoll now. It was Pansy Parkinson. She wore an exhilarated expression. "Come and see! The Quidditch trial results have been posted, and you're team captain!" She motioned for him to follow her.
This apparently interested Draco a great deal and he left the trio; but not before he asked Hermione if the Department of Magical creatures had asked her to register her bushy hair in the Dangerous Animals registry. Ron scowled; Hermione merely shook her head.
He sighed as he looked at the two dowsing rods on the grass. "This project is due in tomorrow and we've done very little on it. I'm sorry, Ron." He picked up his parchment. "I find it unlikely that Professor Trelawney is going to accept 'Draco Malfoy has no brain' as our only result of dowsing."
"Make something up," suggested Hermione. "That worked wonders for you last year."
Ron smiled at his girlfriend. "I'm shocked that you'd say that. Absolutely shocked…and also more than a little impressed. Anything you'd especially like to find if you were dowsing, Harry?"
How about a really powerful memory charm to cast on Fudge so that he'll leave Tessa alone? Harry thought. How about looking for a place where Tessa, Abigail and I can live happily without fear of being attacked by Voldemort? "Well, lately clean nappies are a concern. Perhaps that?" he asked aloud.
Hermione snickered. "If you put that on your parchment tongues are going to wag!"
"Well, I don't know what to look for," Harry said. "Professor Trelawney said something about a letter in her quote unquote 'prediction' to me last week. Why don't we find that?"
Ron brightened. "Sounds good. Tell you what, I'll write it out tonight and you can buy me a butterbeer next time we're all at Hogsmeade. Deal?"
"Deal," Harry agreed.
As Harry sat in the library, he could hear the roar of the other Hogwarts students as they hurried down the corridor, heading out to Hogsmeade. The very idea saddened Harry considerably. He was forced instead to stay in the library and concentrate on his studies; Hogsmeade was merely a lovely memory now. He had a wife and child to support. He could not afford to fail out of Hogwarts.
His mind drifted back to earlier, happier days; days filled with Quidditch games, enjoying dinners in the Great Hall with Hermione and Ron; lazy weekends doing nothing but playing wizard's chess and eating Honeydukes chocolate.
As Harry stared blankly at the Potions textbook in front of him, he realized that those days were long gone. Any innocence he might have possessed once before was now wholly gone; he would never get it back. His life was to be doomed to changing nappies and dealing with a wife that he was beginning to think may very well be one Unforgivable short of life-time banishment to St. Mungo's.
It was at this point in Harry's bout with self-pity that the door to the library opened and Hermione and Ron stepped in, hand in hand. They approached Harry's table and he pretended to be extremely interested in his quill. He knew what they were going to say…he had already heard it from Hannah Abbot, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Colin Creevy, and Cho Chang. Cho had been especially insistent that he take some time to go to Hogsmeade. She had even suggested they go as a couple.
"Harry," Cho pouted, "all work and no play makes you a very dull boy!"
Harry merely shook his head politely at her and remained steadfast to his idea that he was going to complete his homework.
"I'll bring you back some lemon drops. How about that?" Cho asked.
"Yeah, that's fine, thanks," Harry said absently without looking back up at her. Cho shook her head and left the room in a huff, obviously not used to being dismissed in such a manner.
"Harry? Are you coming to Hogsmeade with us?" a female voice asked.
Harry looked up into the expectant faces of Hermione and Ron.
"Sorry, I can't. I have to finish my Potions essay."
"You haven't finished that yet?" Hermione asked. "It was incredibly easy for me."
Harry shook his head. "Perhaps it was for you, but not for me. I'll probably have it finished by the end of the day, though. You two have a good time at Hogsmeade. Go on," he added as he looked out the window. "It looks like it's going to be a great day for the trip."
"Harry, it's not as much fun without you."
"I can't go! I have to finish my work!"
"Harry, I'm all for you doing your schoolwork and being studious, but you need a break," Hermione said in a concerned voice. "You study all the time, now--"
Harry shot Hermione a hard look. "I would have thought that of all people, Hermione, you would be happy about that," he said. "I'm taking your advice: I'm concentrating on my studies."
"I'm worried about you Harry. Ron and I both are. Take some time off and come to Hogsmeade with us today, hmm?" Hermione's face was the picture of concern.
"I can't," Harry said in a flat voice. "You two both know why. I have a wife and daughter who are depending on me to finish Hogwarts, get a job and become a productive member of society."
Ron threw up his hands. "You spend too much time with Tessa, you know that? I remember the good old days when you'd be complaining about Trelawney right by my side and then we'd just make up predictions at the last minute and laugh our arses off when our parchments came back with 'Lovely work' written on them in sparkly ink. I remember when we would sit in the Great Hall and mentally undress the girls we liked. I remember when we'd send Snape little bottles of shampoo by public owl post and how we'd laugh when he looked at the bottles like he didn't know what they were for. I remember when we used to go into Hogsmeade and drink butterbeer like it was going out of style and--" Ron stopped his tirade as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I miss my best friend. You've become too mature."
"I haven't had a lot of choice, Ron!" Harry exclaimed. "I have a family now!"
"Mr. Potter--" spoke Madame Pince in a warning tone of voice. "Keep it down!"
Harry lowered his voice. "I don't have time for anything anymore. I don't remember the last time I was able to do something just for me. I'm either changing nappies or writing an essay for Snape or Trelawney or Sprout or changing a nappy or comforting a wife who's been so distant and distraught lately and won't tell me why! I don't remember the last night I slept all night. I think I'm going slightly mad!"
"You said the nappy part twice," Ron pointed out.
"That's because Abigail goes through so bloody many of them, I felt it was worth mentioning twice. Did you know that the average baby uses ten nappies every day? Let me just say that Abigail is doing her part to bring the average up! Last night I changed her and before I finished putting the nappy together she had gone again!"
"And I thought I wouldn't learn anything new today," Ron said weakly. "Too much information, Harry!"
"Babies aren't easy, Harry," Hermione spoke gently. "You're doing very well, considering…uh…the unpleasantness." She sat down and motioned for Ron to do the same.
Harry was beside himself with frustration. "Do you know that the whole of Gryffindor House still looks at me like I've sprouted two heads because I blew the Quidditch Cup for them last year? I can't even give them a decent excuse as to why I left the pitch. The hardest part about all of this is that I can't even tell people what's going on, aside from you and Hermione, and even then I haven't told you the half of what's going on. I don't want to drag you down with all the details. My life is so bogged down and difficult that sometimes I just don't want to go back to—" Harry stopped speaking and bowed his head.
"Harry," breathed Hermione. "You don't want to go back to where?"
Harry looked upward. His eyes were that of a tortured soul. "Home…to Tessa and the baby. I know that's wrong, I really do. I'm just so tired…"
"Have you talked to Tessa about this?" Ron asked.
"No," Harry answered. "It would only worry her. She's got enough worries lately without me adding one more thing. She's still having those nightmares, like the ones she had before we were married. They scare her and she refuses to sleep. Tessa will not divulge information about them. She actually told me one night that she was afraid I would leave her if she told me anything." Harry scratched his head.
"It almost seems like she feels she has something to hide." Ron looked at the floor for a moment. The tips of his ears turned a bit red as he shuffled his feet. He really didn't want to ask the next question, but it begged to be asked. "Um, do you think she's in love with someone else?" Ron asked quietly.
Harry expression of melancholy became sadder still as he remembered the wedding ring he found in the sink. Tessa's ring. She had taken it off her finger before Edward took her to the hospital. Of course, she had never mentioned the fact that it was on her finger again, but…maybe she really was in love with Edward and didn't want to say anything.
Harry's mind conjured up the still-painful image of walking into the house on Valentine's Day. He had some daisies in hand, a smile upon his face, and saw his bride of six weeks passionately snogging Edward McMurray, the handyman Hagrid had hired to fix things in the house before the baby was born. He remembered the look of shock and sorrow etched into her features as he cleared his throat and she turned slowly…ever so slowly around and met his gaze. It was a face he would never forget if he lived to be a hundred and the pain of the entire evening still stung. He had never mentioned the night to anyone, not even his best friend and now…
"Harry?" Ron asked quizzically.
"What? Sorry," Harry answered, "my mind was wandering."
"That's obvious. You didn't answer my question," Ron said. "Could she be in love with someone else?"
Harry had reached his breaking point. There was only so much a young wizard could take. He choked back a sob at the thought. "I don't know, Ron. I really and truly don't know."
With that statement, the floodgates of Harry's troubles burst open like a broken dam. He spilled everything to his friends—about how he loved Tessa, but she seemed like a whole other person since being in her coma; how he had caught her wrapped up in the arms of Edward, and how he had struck her out of anger. He told them about finding Tessa's wedding ring in the sink and how Tessa had not spoken of the incident even though she now wore Harry's ring on her finger. When he finished, his two best friends had contemplative looks on their faces.
"Something isn't sitting quite right with me, Harry," Hermione said. "Your story doesn't make any sense."
"Well, it's not as if I left anything out, Hermione!"
"Based on everything you've said here, I'm not so sure that Tessa took her wedding ring off willingly," Hermione declared.
"Of course she did!" Harry answered. "Edward's not a wizard…he couldn't have Imperioed her into doing it. She had to have done it on her own. Why would she do that? Because she loves Edward McMurray! Although, for the life of me, I don't know why…"
"Can I ask you a very personal question?"
"Go for it."
Hermione leaned forward and whispered the question, so not to raise the ire of Madame Pince. "Have you and Tessa--er, had sex since the baby?"
"Hermione!" Ron cried. Madame Pince threatened to throw the trio out of the library.
Harry could feel his cheeks growing hot at Hermione's query. "Why do you need to know that? Yes, we have," Harry answered shortly.
Hermione paused, deep in thought. "If Tessa no longer loved you, wouldn't it stand to reason that she wouldn't want to have sex with you? And don't you find it rather odd that she hasn't run off with Edward?"
"Hmmm…" Harry responded. "She knows she wouldn't be safe with him…at least, I would like to think she knows that. Love can be so blind sometimes…"
"I don't believe that Tessa took her ring off willingly, Harry. I would wager just about anything that Edward had something to do with it. Maybe Tessa's dreaming about him--maybe he attacked her or something. Maybe she's embarrassed to tell you. Women that are attacked generally don't want to relive the scenario by talking about it."
"Well, I suppose that's possible…" Harry remarked. "It would go a long way to explaining things. She has been extremely jumpy lately. She saw that the locks in the nursery were broken and cried for hours and hours. Maybe she still expects Edward to make a visit." Realization that Tessa may very well be acting oddly due to very real fright hit Harry like a sledgehammer. "Oh my God. That is so twisted."
"It also leads to another thought: if Tessa was as ill as she was, combined with being in labor, I find it hard to believe that she would take the time to take off her wedding ring in anticipation of leaving you for Edward. Her thoughts would be on the safety and well-being of her baby, I would think." Hermione folded her hands on the table. "Something's not adding up here."
"Wait," Ron breathed. "What about this--Edward professes his love to Tessa and she balks…he attacks her…Tessa is scared."
"Go on," Hermione urged.
Ron's face lit up as the idea presented itself to him. "He knocks her to the ground, thereby hurting her, and she becomes ill. Then he somehow pulls her ring off her finger. You said that he had a bit of a thing for her, right?"
"But why would Edward donate his own blood to save her? He knew that she was going to stay with Harry," Hermione interjected. Hermione ran a hand absently through her hair as she pondered the situation. Then, out of nowhere, she sat bolt upright. She slammed her hand down on the table. "Oh my God, it's too easy," she cried.
"OUT!" shouted Madame Pince.
"What's too easy?" Harry asked once the trio was out of the library and heading down the corridors toward the Gryffindor common room.
Hermione plunged ahead with her explanation, speaking quickly and jumping from idea to idea. "He takes Tessa's ring off of her finger out of anger. He has professed his love to her, but she spurns him. But then, Edward gets scared: Tessa's on the floor, possibly dying, and he knows that you know that he loves her." Hermione turned to Harry and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Edward donates the blood because he loves her," Hermione whispered. "He thinks that by saving Tessa's life, she may learn to love him and leave you."
"Meanwhile, he bides his time, allowing Tessa to build up in her mind a horrible scenario of what might happen if she tells me what was going on that day. He knows that she's going to be afraid to tell me because the last time she had an interaction with him I slapped her and proceeded to rape her for all intents and purposes," Harry spoke sadly.
Hermione looked at Harry with a horrified expression. "You did what?" Ron took her hand and shook his head at her.
"Later," he mouthed to her. "Leaving Edward in a position to make her life a living, breathing Hell," Ron said. "Brilliant plan. Nasty and sick, but brilliant," Ron said in a louder voice.
"I think I know the solution to your problem, Harry," Hermione said, a thoughtful expression on her face. "The time has come for you to pay a visit to the handyman."
"But if Tessa finds out, she'll kill me for sure," Harry whispered.
"If you don't find out and she's not willing to tell you anything, you'll start wishing you were dead," Hermione pointed out. "Hagrid would know Edward's whereabouts. Let's talk to him," she suggested.
"If she's in love with him—" Harry began. He couldn't finish the sentence. It was too painful to even contemplate.
"Harry, you have to find out now rather than later. This is eating you alive," Ron said. "Besides, if we have the details of the fourth of June straight in our heads, she doesn't love him at all. Wouldn't you rather know?"
Harry pondered this. He supposed he would at that. He did want to know exactly what had taken place the morning that Tessa had gone into labor. Had Edward attacked her? Was that the root of Tessa's problems? "All right," he agreed. "Let's go see Hagrid."
As the trio made their way down the corridor, to the stairs that would lead out of the school and to Hagrid's hut, the Headmaster stopped them. His expression was unreadable.
"Harry, could I speak with you for a few moments?" he asked. The young wizard nodded and stepped to Dumbledore's side.
"I'll see you two in the Gryffindor common room in a little bit. Don't do anything without me," Harry advised his friends. They nodded in agreement.
Together, the old man and the young wizard walked away from Ron and Hermione. For ten minutes or more, neither spoke.
"Are you glad to be back in school? I trust your summer has been well; that is, after the events surrounding the week of the fourth of June?" Dumbledore asked.
"The summer was all right, I suppose," Harry answered half-heartedly. "As odd as this may sound, I think that being back in school is a bit of a break."
Dumbledore nodded and smiled. "It doesn't sound as odd as you might think, Harry. I suppose that for you it must be, in a way." He lowered his voice and leaned in closer to the Wizarding world's Wonder Boy. "How are Tessa and Abigail?"
Harry looked over his shoulder to make sure that nobody was around. "Abigail is wonderful, sir. She's so beautiful. I am honestly shocked that I helped in the creation of something as amazing as she is. She's everything I dreamed she would be, with the possible exception of an ungodly number of nappies and her propensity to not sleep for longer than three hours at a time. Other than that," he said as he stood a little taller, "she's a chip off the old block." Harry beamed with pride.
"And Tessa? How is she, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.
Harry reddened. "Ah, well, she's…she's…" She's something else, that's what she is, Harry thought. "She's all right, I suppose. She's not sleeping too well lately, but hopefully sleepless nights will be a thing of the past soon."
Dumbledore concurred. "She seems like she's acting like a typical mother. She's probably constantly worrying about her little girl."
No, thought Harry, she's a little more off her nut than that. He did not say this aloud, but Dumbledore sensed the pause in his voice. Sensing that perhaps there was more to Harry's situation than the young man was willing to let on, Dumbledore said, "Is there anything you wish to talk about, Harry?"
"No," Harry said, looking away. "Everything's fine."
There was a large pause, as the Headmaster seemed to gather his thoughts. Finally, Dumbledore opened his mouth. "Harry, we have a bit of a problem."
Harry stopped where he was and looked into the eyes of the Headmaster. His heart sank into his shoes. "What's the matter, sir?"
"A contact I have at the Ministry has informed me that employees in the Department of Magical Births made a discovery a few days ago that they shouldn't have, Harry. The secret of your double life is most likely going to come out very, very soon." He shook his head as he placed a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder. "I'm sorry, son. While I placed protective wards around your home and did my best to ensure that you and Tessa would never be found out, I honestly forgot about the quill. In my desperation to save your family from Voldemort and Fudge, I completely neglected to consider the matter of the quill in the Department of Magical Births."
"What is so important about the quill?" asked Harry.
"Harry, the Department of Magical Births employs a special enchanted quill which records the names of all the wizarding babies born in the world. Because Abigail is a witch, her name was recorded in the Magical Register. Parent's names are written in as well and that is where the trouble came about."
Harry paled. "Does Minster Fudge have any idea where Tessa and Abigail are?" he asked weakly.
"Well, there seems to be good news on that front: the wards around your house are, in part, concealing charms. While the Quill was able to accurately identify you and Tessa as Abigail's parents, it failed to locate your home. So, as of now, Cornelius Fudge, or anyone else for that matter, who wishes you harm cannot possibly know your family's whereabouts."
Harry sighed in relief. "That's one good thing," he said. "But now Fudge knows that I am married, it's only a matter of time before he comes after me, sir. If he tests me with Veritaserum…" Harry trailed off. The rest of his sentence really wasn't necessary: both knew what the repercussions of that would be.
"To completely refuse Fudge entry onto Hogwart's grounds puts me in a precarious position, Harry. Suspicions are going to run rampant if I do not at least allow his presence here. However, I will assure you that you will never be alone with Fudge," Dumbledore promised. He scratched his chin. "He is going to want to question you, however. You must warn Tessa of all this. Be prepared to leave Staplehurst at a moment's notice." Dumbledore's eyes darkened. "I don't think I have to tell you how grave the consequences of Tessa's discovery would be for her, Harry. She is a fugitive in the eyes of the Ministry."
Harry's eyes darkened. "They're never going to leave her alone, are they…Fudge and all of them? She's going to be confined to a house for the rest of her life, isn't she?" Harry looked to the ground. "Take this in the way it's meant, sir, but she would have been better in Azkaban. At least after the kiss she would have no soul," he said in a soft voice.
"Harry! What a terrible thing to say about your wife!"
"I don't mean it unkindly, sir. What I mean is that, if she's confined forever, she's always going to know what's out there--what she can't have. Eventually, she's going to resent me, sir, for being able to leave the house and experience the world. She's going to resent living vicariously through me. I don't want her to have to go through this until she's ninety and senile! If she got kissed before all this mess started, she wouldn't know any better anymore. To me personally, that would be a comfort."
Dumbledore was aghast. "She's not going to be imprisoned forever, Harry."
"Can you guarantee that? Can you stand before me and tell me with one hundred percent confidence that she's going to be able to walk into Madame Malkin's one day soon and buy a new set of robes?" Harry's voice rose. "Can you tell me for certain that I'm going to be able to take her on a proper honeymoon? Can you?"
Dumbledore sighed. He looked at his young charge over his spectacles. "I have to believe that she's going to be exonerated, Harry, for your sake. I just don't know when. If I did, I'd be a true Seer."
"I don't know how I am going to tell her this. It's going to rip her apart. She's already a bit tetchy about being in the house all the time; to tell her that it's going to be for a lot longer is going to send her over the edge. She's emotionally frail lately as it is!"
Dumbledore's heart broke for his student. "I know I've said this to you before, Harry, but you're shouldering a grown wizard's burden and you're doing a wonderful job. You have chosen a tough path and I have to harbor the hope that things will work out for you in the way that you deserve. Many men older than you would be broken, but you're not. Let's not worry about things in terms of forever just yet. Please go home to Tessa tonight, Harry. Tell her what I've told you. Tell her to be in readiness."
With those words, Dumbledore walked away from Harry who merely stood in the corridor for a long time afterwards, pondering the Headmaster's words. It was a full fifteen minutes before he returned to Hermione and Ron, who were in the Gryffindor Common Room playing wizard's chess. Ron was very clearly winning; Hermione only had her king and a pawn left on the board and Ron's pieces were doing celebratory dances of victory.
"Ron, I need to get to Tessa right away," Harry said. "Professor Dumbledore just gave me some news that I need to share with her."
"But we were going to see--" Hermione started.
"Sorry, Hermione, but I have to get going. See you later," Harry said as he walked off.
When he was safely out of earshot, Hermione picked up her books and stood next to Ron. She stared in the direction that Harry had left.
"I wonder what Dumbledore told Harry?" she asked. "It must have been very important for him to leave in such a hurry. Did you see how pale he looked?"
Ron raked his fingers through his bright red hair. "I have a feeling that pale is going to beHarry's look for quite a long time." He took Hermione's hand. "Do you get the feeling that Harry's not giving us the full story of what's going on with Tessa and him?"
"I do, actually, and I wonder if he's embarrassed about something; or is it that he doesn't want us to know too much in case we happened to be questioned?" Hermione pondered.
Ron thought about it for a moment. "I think, Hermione, that it's a little from both columns."
"He's not going to tell if pressed either, is he?" Hermione prodded.
"No, I really don't think that he is," Ron said. He squeezed Hermione's hand. "Why don't we go back to the Main Hall and grab some dinner?"