Author's notes – Apologies to Ssam for the last cliffy. It would be a shame
if you to end up in a nuthouse so I'll try not to do it again, too much.
Author smiles evilly. So it was so long coming, but it's here now, I hope
you enjoy it.
-Chapter Fifteen-
Playing with Fire
Time seemed to stand still. Memories were flooding into Harry's mind. It was as though Snape had cast Legilimens on him again, as he watched: Dudley punching him. Running from Dudley's gang. Dudley trying to make him stand in the toilet. Dudley humiliating him. The fifteen years' worth of bitter resentment and unjust treatment was building the hatred and anger up inside him, such that he had never felt the like. It was so powerful that he knew he would not be able to contain it for long; it was only a matter of time before it burst free. His eyes began to burn red hot. He could not contain it. His eyes were burning. He could barely see, but in the instant before he lost control he caught sight of Dudley's face.
Dudley's huge face was turned towards the ground in horror. His wide eyes reflected the people standing below him. A new emotion, an unfamiliar emotion was building up inside Harry. The hatred had dissipated, although the anger had not. It was still there, but it had changed; it was no longer directed at Dudley.
It was every bit as powerful as its predecessor. The burning in his eyes was gone, only to be replaced with cold. The cold streaked out from his eyes, blinding Harry.
There was a gasp from the people standing around him. When he could see, he saw that Dudley had stopped falling and was floating down gently. Hermione was standing next to Harry, a frown of concentration depicted across her forehead, her wand in her hand. She seemed to be guiding Dudley down slowly to the ground with her wand. Harry noticed that some of the others were looking at him oddly.
As soon as Dudley's feet were on the ground, Hermione lowered her wand. Dudley wavered for a second before he fell bodily to the ground. His face turned green; he lay trembling on the ground for a moment, before throwing up violently.
Hermione ran forward to see if Dudley was all right; Madam Hooch moved frontward. He was still lying on the ground trembling. Harry and Ron turned away in disgust. Madam Hooch was now attempting to get the shaking green Dudley to his feet, but she soon discovered that this was a much harder feat than it appeared to be.
Ron tapped Harry on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's go and get something to eat. I'm starved."
With one quick glance at where Madam Hooch was just managing to pull Dudley up, Harry started towards the castle with Ron. However, Harry noticed that the people who witnessed Dudley's fall from his broom were still throwing him odd looks, and whispering behind their hands.
Hermione joined them as they were going up the stair at the entrance. "He -should- be all right," Hermione panted, out of breath after running to catch up with them. "I think it was just the shock."
Nothing more was said until they were sitting down at Gryffindor table. Ron and Hermione did, however keep shooting odd glances at him. The silence was beginning to irritate him.
"What?" he asked at last, more forcefully than he had intended.
Ron, whose mouth was, as usual, packed with food, could only manage, "Wathapzed wizhe oom?"
Despite himself, Harry started to laugh. Hermione threw Ron a repulsed glare before turning to Harry. "We were just wondering how you did that?"
"Did what?" Harry said in confusion. He had not done anything, had he? No, he had not. It was Hermione who had stopped Dudley's fall.
Ron swallowed his huge mouthful with a loud gulp, earning himself another glare from Hermione. "You stopped him falling," he said, sounding slightly unsure of what he was saying. "Didn't you?"
"I didn't do anything," Harry said firmly. He glanced at Hermione. "It was you who stopped him."
Hermione shock her head impatiently "No, he'd already stopped falling by the time I had my wand out. He was kind of hanging there, so I just guided him down." She was now looking at him oddly. "I could have sworn you'd done something-"
"How could I have done something?" Harry said, beginning to feel uncomfortable. Maybe he had done something. "I didn't even have my wand out."
"That's right. You didn't, did you?" Ron seemed satisfied, and turned to address Hermione. "You just must have been quicker than you thought." He evidently regarded the subject as closed, for he returned to attacking his huge plateful.
Hermione, however, who was not as easily satisfied, sat in silence for ten minutes, while Harry and Ron discussed the DA meeting that was to take place later that day.
"Do you still think you could conjure a Patronus?" Ron asked Hermione, trying but not succeeding to hide a smile.
"I don't understand," Hermione said looking, not at Ron but at Harry.
"What is there not to understand?" Ron said. "Either you can still do it or you can't."
"No, not that," said Hermione impatiently. "I don't understand who stopped Dudley fro-"
"Are you still on about that?" Ron asked incredulously. "Considering you're so intelligent, you're being really thick. You stopped him from falling; Harry didn't. You had your wand out; Harry didn't. You were just quicker than you thought."
And they were off bickering like normal, which suited Harry fine. He needed time to think.
Why had all those people been staring at him like he had sprouted antlers? And why was Hermione insisting that he had done something, when he was sure he had not? He would know if he had, wouldn't he? His eyes had felt funny, but he didn't have his wand out; it had been in his bag. And even if he'd had his wand, he had not said anything.
Harry was not sure afterwards how he managed to get through double Charms that afternoon. Ron and Hermione had bickered their way through lunch, and by the time they got to Charms they were not speaking to one another. They sat down on either side of him. Neither of them said much to him as they took down notes on the form of magic that they had tried last lesson.
They were only just beginning to talk to each other again when the three of them set off to the Room of Requirement for the DA meeting.
Slowly people started to arrive in small groups, mainly twos or threes. The first thing Harry noticed was that there were quite a few new people coming in with the old members; the second, that quite a few people were missing. All of last year's seventh years were missing, but others were missing from different years.
The Creevey brothers were first to arrive with their little sister Emma and a couple of other first years, including Mark Evans and Grant Pleming. Harry did not comment. Next came Neville, Ginny and Luna. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil arrived together, followed closely by Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott.
Cho Chang, her friend Marietta Edgecombe and Michael Corner were noticeable by their absences, not that Harry had expected Marietta to appear. He would have been horrified if she had turned up, but he had thought that learning Defence mattered more to Cho than that.
Sometimes when he thought about Cho, he felt the way he had for most of last year. He would get that funny feeling in his stomach, then he would become confused, and be angry with himself for messing it up with her. But then ... but then more painful recollections would intrude, and the feelings would evaporate, leaving behind an empty place deep inside him. He had spent most of the summer there, trying not to think. Coming back, back to Hogwarts had helped, coming back home, but even that was beginning not to help any more. He was finding himself in that empty place more and more often now.
"Harry, are you alright?" Ginny was talking to him.
"I'm fine, just thinking," Harry said, trying to ignore the strange looks Ginny was giving him. He shook his head to clear it and looked around the room, and did a double take. There were lots more people in the room than he would have believed.
Standing next to Ginny was Megan Otten, who had tried out for the Quidditch team with Ginny. Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Anthony Goldstein and Zacharias Smith were standing together. Katie Bell was talk animatedly to Dean and Seamus. Harry had to suppress a groan when he spotted Gwen and Albert Jackson, both of whom had tried out for the Quidditch team. Terry Boot, Padma Patil, Lisa Turpin and Morag MacDougal, who he recognised from Potions, were standing near the door waiting for the meeting to start. Jasmine Beazer was standing by a very tall girl, whose name Harry did not know. Here and there were other people Harry either knew by sight but not by name, and some he was sure he had never seen before.
There was an excited hush in the room. Harry cleared his throat to indicate that the meeting was about to start. Everyone slowly moved into the center of the room and sat down on one of the many cushions that lay on the floor. Seeing that everyone was settled, Harry began with, "I was going to start with saying we should get some more people interested in the DA, but I don't really think we need to do that any more." Hermione was beaming on her cushion.
"I don't know how much you've been told about what we did last year but-,"
The door opening distracted Harry from what he was saying. Standing on the other side of the door were a tall boy, dark with brown hair, who Harry thought was called Blaise Zabini, and a girl with curly light brown hair, whose name Harry did not know. But he did know that they were both Slytherins.
They stood there framed in the doorway. Every head had turned to see what Harry was staring at, and time seemed to stand still. Someone coughed, someone else cleared their throat, others moved around uncomfortably. Hermione was on her feet, so the older students followed suit. There was still a heavy silence hanging aimlessly in the air.
Blaise Zabini and the girl were staring at Harry now, who was beginning to feel decidedly uncomfortable. How long this would have continued it is impossible to say. Ginny, who was on her feet, moved over to stand next to Harry and said, "What do you want?"
She had broken the spell.
Blaise Zabini took one hesitant step into the room leaving the girl outside the door. "I er – that is we-" he said.
"Yes, we got that," Harry said, coming to his senses and feeling curious.
The girl stepped past Blaise Zabini, "We'd like to join," she said firmly.
"Why?" asked Harry.
It was the girl again who spoke. "We want to be able to defend ourselves against the Dark Lord and his supporters."
"I've only ever heard Death Eaters call Voldemort the Dark Lord?" Harry accused. There was a general flinch at Voldemort's name.
"Well, we're not Death Eaters, and we don't support Him either," Blaise Zabini said angrily.
"I never said that you were," Harry said smoothly. "I just made an observation."
"What makes you think that we'll let you join?" Ron said from next to Harry, making him jump for he had not noticed him.
"We thought we'd ask," the girl said defensively, "but it seems you're too narrow minded to think that Slytherins can do anything but support the Dark Lord!" She turned around and walked out of the room.
"Wait a minute," Harry called after her. "Who says we're narrow minded?"
Ron was staring at Harry like he had just turned into something very nasty and smelly. The girl turned around. "Well aren't you?"
"I don't think we are," Harry said, looking around the room. Most of the people met his gaze, but some did not.
"Will you let us join then?" the girl asked quickly.
"We'll have to see," Harry said slowly. At the disappointed look on her face he added, "I'm not saying yes or no, I'm just saying we'll see. What's your name by the way?"
"I'm Blaise Zabini," Blaise said, "and this is Cressida Moon," indicating the girl.
"Can we stay for this meeting?" Cressida asked eagerly coming into the room again.
For the first time since the two had entered, Harry looked at Hermione for help. She was looking at him and she did not look too happy. She shook her head once.
"I don't think you should stay for this meeting," Harry said, trying to make what he was saying sound better than it was. "You won't miss much. We're just going to talk for most of the meeting. And we can talk later, okay?"
Blaise nodded. "We'll come back later, to talk. Come on Cressida, let's go."
Harry watched them go with a funny feeling. As soon as the door was closed, a buzz of conversation broke out. Most of it sounded indignant.
"You're not seriously considering it, are you?" Ron asked, in an oddly hoarse tone.
"Yes, I am," Harry replied coolly. "But we can talk about that later."
The people who had gotten to their feet sat down again, looking at Harry expectantly. "Well, as I was saying I don't know what you have been told about what we did last year, so I'm just going to give you an outline of what to expect- yes Colin?"
Colin's arm was in the air. "What happened at the end of last year?" Others nodded in agreement.
Harry sighed, he had been expecting this, but he still did not want to talk about it. Ginny came to his rescue. "The six of us," she gestured at Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna and herself, "went to the Ministry to, er, get something, and we kind of got attacked by Death Eaters and-" she trailed off unable to say anymore.
"To get what?" Ernie asked. Ginny looked uncomfortable, but it was Neville who answered.
"We went to get a prophecy," Neville said simply.
"And what?" Zacharius asked.
"Well we got split up, then when we got back together again, Hermione was unconscious, Neville's nose had been broken and so had my ankle," Ginny said. "Oh yeah, and Ron was acting odd. Then Dumbledore turned up. No wait, that was later."
"We were in a room full of brains," Luna continued in her sing-song voice. "We were trying to lock all the doors but the Death Eaters got to the one that I was trying to lock first and that's all I remember until I woke up in the hospital wing," Luna finished impressively.
just reworked this next paragraph ... tried to keep the same rambling style for Ginny
Ginny took up the tale again. "Anyway, this room we were in, there were glass tanks full of brains. Ron summoned one over to him and it attacked him. He started acting really odd after that. By this time, the Death Eaters were streaming into the room, yelling for the prophecy-thing. Harry had that. Anyway, he ran from the room and the Death Eaters followed him and then Neville followed them. I couldn't walk so I crawled over to help Ron. About two minutes later, Dumbledore ran into the room and then through the same door the others went through." Ginny paused for breath. "A couple of minutes later I could hear Harry yelling something and then a Death Eater ran back through the room, followed by Harry and a minute later by Dumbledore. That was the last I saw of Harry until we got back to school."
There was a long impressive pause. Harry knew it would not be long before they would ask him what had happened up in the Atrium, and- and why he had chased Her at all. He was back in that empty place, where he could not feel, where he just was. Neville was taking up the story now and Harry could not bear to listen. He had lived that moment too many times before.
How long he stood there, he had no idea. The next thing he was aware of was the group discussing what the veil could be. He felt sick, and knew that if he did not sit down soon he would fall down. They were talking about Sirius's death like it was a Quidditch match, not that they knew whose death they were talking about. Harry sat down on the floor where he was and wished that they would all go away.
Author's notes – Thank you to everyone who reviewed.
-Chapter Fifteen-
Playing with Fire
Time seemed to stand still. Memories were flooding into Harry's mind. It was as though Snape had cast Legilimens on him again, as he watched: Dudley punching him. Running from Dudley's gang. Dudley trying to make him stand in the toilet. Dudley humiliating him. The fifteen years' worth of bitter resentment and unjust treatment was building the hatred and anger up inside him, such that he had never felt the like. It was so powerful that he knew he would not be able to contain it for long; it was only a matter of time before it burst free. His eyes began to burn red hot. He could not contain it. His eyes were burning. He could barely see, but in the instant before he lost control he caught sight of Dudley's face.
Dudley's huge face was turned towards the ground in horror. His wide eyes reflected the people standing below him. A new emotion, an unfamiliar emotion was building up inside Harry. The hatred had dissipated, although the anger had not. It was still there, but it had changed; it was no longer directed at Dudley.
It was every bit as powerful as its predecessor. The burning in his eyes was gone, only to be replaced with cold. The cold streaked out from his eyes, blinding Harry.
There was a gasp from the people standing around him. When he could see, he saw that Dudley had stopped falling and was floating down gently. Hermione was standing next to Harry, a frown of concentration depicted across her forehead, her wand in her hand. She seemed to be guiding Dudley down slowly to the ground with her wand. Harry noticed that some of the others were looking at him oddly.
As soon as Dudley's feet were on the ground, Hermione lowered her wand. Dudley wavered for a second before he fell bodily to the ground. His face turned green; he lay trembling on the ground for a moment, before throwing up violently.
Hermione ran forward to see if Dudley was all right; Madam Hooch moved frontward. He was still lying on the ground trembling. Harry and Ron turned away in disgust. Madam Hooch was now attempting to get the shaking green Dudley to his feet, but she soon discovered that this was a much harder feat than it appeared to be.
Ron tapped Harry on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's go and get something to eat. I'm starved."
With one quick glance at where Madam Hooch was just managing to pull Dudley up, Harry started towards the castle with Ron. However, Harry noticed that the people who witnessed Dudley's fall from his broom were still throwing him odd looks, and whispering behind their hands.
Hermione joined them as they were going up the stair at the entrance. "He -should- be all right," Hermione panted, out of breath after running to catch up with them. "I think it was just the shock."
Nothing more was said until they were sitting down at Gryffindor table. Ron and Hermione did, however keep shooting odd glances at him. The silence was beginning to irritate him.
"What?" he asked at last, more forcefully than he had intended.
Ron, whose mouth was, as usual, packed with food, could only manage, "Wathapzed wizhe oom?"
Despite himself, Harry started to laugh. Hermione threw Ron a repulsed glare before turning to Harry. "We were just wondering how you did that?"
"Did what?" Harry said in confusion. He had not done anything, had he? No, he had not. It was Hermione who had stopped Dudley's fall.
Ron swallowed his huge mouthful with a loud gulp, earning himself another glare from Hermione. "You stopped him falling," he said, sounding slightly unsure of what he was saying. "Didn't you?"
"I didn't do anything," Harry said firmly. He glanced at Hermione. "It was you who stopped him."
Hermione shock her head impatiently "No, he'd already stopped falling by the time I had my wand out. He was kind of hanging there, so I just guided him down." She was now looking at him oddly. "I could have sworn you'd done something-"
"How could I have done something?" Harry said, beginning to feel uncomfortable. Maybe he had done something. "I didn't even have my wand out."
"That's right. You didn't, did you?" Ron seemed satisfied, and turned to address Hermione. "You just must have been quicker than you thought." He evidently regarded the subject as closed, for he returned to attacking his huge plateful.
Hermione, however, who was not as easily satisfied, sat in silence for ten minutes, while Harry and Ron discussed the DA meeting that was to take place later that day.
"Do you still think you could conjure a Patronus?" Ron asked Hermione, trying but not succeeding to hide a smile.
"I don't understand," Hermione said looking, not at Ron but at Harry.
"What is there not to understand?" Ron said. "Either you can still do it or you can't."
"No, not that," said Hermione impatiently. "I don't understand who stopped Dudley fro-"
"Are you still on about that?" Ron asked incredulously. "Considering you're so intelligent, you're being really thick. You stopped him from falling; Harry didn't. You had your wand out; Harry didn't. You were just quicker than you thought."
And they were off bickering like normal, which suited Harry fine. He needed time to think.
Why had all those people been staring at him like he had sprouted antlers? And why was Hermione insisting that he had done something, when he was sure he had not? He would know if he had, wouldn't he? His eyes had felt funny, but he didn't have his wand out; it had been in his bag. And even if he'd had his wand, he had not said anything.
Harry was not sure afterwards how he managed to get through double Charms that afternoon. Ron and Hermione had bickered their way through lunch, and by the time they got to Charms they were not speaking to one another. They sat down on either side of him. Neither of them said much to him as they took down notes on the form of magic that they had tried last lesson.
They were only just beginning to talk to each other again when the three of them set off to the Room of Requirement for the DA meeting.
Slowly people started to arrive in small groups, mainly twos or threes. The first thing Harry noticed was that there were quite a few new people coming in with the old members; the second, that quite a few people were missing. All of last year's seventh years were missing, but others were missing from different years.
The Creevey brothers were first to arrive with their little sister Emma and a couple of other first years, including Mark Evans and Grant Pleming. Harry did not comment. Next came Neville, Ginny and Luna. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil arrived together, followed closely by Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott.
Cho Chang, her friend Marietta Edgecombe and Michael Corner were noticeable by their absences, not that Harry had expected Marietta to appear. He would have been horrified if she had turned up, but he had thought that learning Defence mattered more to Cho than that.
Sometimes when he thought about Cho, he felt the way he had for most of last year. He would get that funny feeling in his stomach, then he would become confused, and be angry with himself for messing it up with her. But then ... but then more painful recollections would intrude, and the feelings would evaporate, leaving behind an empty place deep inside him. He had spent most of the summer there, trying not to think. Coming back, back to Hogwarts had helped, coming back home, but even that was beginning not to help any more. He was finding himself in that empty place more and more often now.
"Harry, are you alright?" Ginny was talking to him.
"I'm fine, just thinking," Harry said, trying to ignore the strange looks Ginny was giving him. He shook his head to clear it and looked around the room, and did a double take. There were lots more people in the room than he would have believed.
Standing next to Ginny was Megan Otten, who had tried out for the Quidditch team with Ginny. Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Anthony Goldstein and Zacharias Smith were standing together. Katie Bell was talk animatedly to Dean and Seamus. Harry had to suppress a groan when he spotted Gwen and Albert Jackson, both of whom had tried out for the Quidditch team. Terry Boot, Padma Patil, Lisa Turpin and Morag MacDougal, who he recognised from Potions, were standing near the door waiting for the meeting to start. Jasmine Beazer was standing by a very tall girl, whose name Harry did not know. Here and there were other people Harry either knew by sight but not by name, and some he was sure he had never seen before.
There was an excited hush in the room. Harry cleared his throat to indicate that the meeting was about to start. Everyone slowly moved into the center of the room and sat down on one of the many cushions that lay on the floor. Seeing that everyone was settled, Harry began with, "I was going to start with saying we should get some more people interested in the DA, but I don't really think we need to do that any more." Hermione was beaming on her cushion.
"I don't know how much you've been told about what we did last year but-,"
The door opening distracted Harry from what he was saying. Standing on the other side of the door were a tall boy, dark with brown hair, who Harry thought was called Blaise Zabini, and a girl with curly light brown hair, whose name Harry did not know. But he did know that they were both Slytherins.
They stood there framed in the doorway. Every head had turned to see what Harry was staring at, and time seemed to stand still. Someone coughed, someone else cleared their throat, others moved around uncomfortably. Hermione was on her feet, so the older students followed suit. There was still a heavy silence hanging aimlessly in the air.
Blaise Zabini and the girl were staring at Harry now, who was beginning to feel decidedly uncomfortable. How long this would have continued it is impossible to say. Ginny, who was on her feet, moved over to stand next to Harry and said, "What do you want?"
She had broken the spell.
Blaise Zabini took one hesitant step into the room leaving the girl outside the door. "I er – that is we-" he said.
"Yes, we got that," Harry said, coming to his senses and feeling curious.
The girl stepped past Blaise Zabini, "We'd like to join," she said firmly.
"Why?" asked Harry.
It was the girl again who spoke. "We want to be able to defend ourselves against the Dark Lord and his supporters."
"I've only ever heard Death Eaters call Voldemort the Dark Lord?" Harry accused. There was a general flinch at Voldemort's name.
"Well, we're not Death Eaters, and we don't support Him either," Blaise Zabini said angrily.
"I never said that you were," Harry said smoothly. "I just made an observation."
"What makes you think that we'll let you join?" Ron said from next to Harry, making him jump for he had not noticed him.
"We thought we'd ask," the girl said defensively, "but it seems you're too narrow minded to think that Slytherins can do anything but support the Dark Lord!" She turned around and walked out of the room.
"Wait a minute," Harry called after her. "Who says we're narrow minded?"
Ron was staring at Harry like he had just turned into something very nasty and smelly. The girl turned around. "Well aren't you?"
"I don't think we are," Harry said, looking around the room. Most of the people met his gaze, but some did not.
"Will you let us join then?" the girl asked quickly.
"We'll have to see," Harry said slowly. At the disappointed look on her face he added, "I'm not saying yes or no, I'm just saying we'll see. What's your name by the way?"
"I'm Blaise Zabini," Blaise said, "and this is Cressida Moon," indicating the girl.
"Can we stay for this meeting?" Cressida asked eagerly coming into the room again.
For the first time since the two had entered, Harry looked at Hermione for help. She was looking at him and she did not look too happy. She shook her head once.
"I don't think you should stay for this meeting," Harry said, trying to make what he was saying sound better than it was. "You won't miss much. We're just going to talk for most of the meeting. And we can talk later, okay?"
Blaise nodded. "We'll come back later, to talk. Come on Cressida, let's go."
Harry watched them go with a funny feeling. As soon as the door was closed, a buzz of conversation broke out. Most of it sounded indignant.
"You're not seriously considering it, are you?" Ron asked, in an oddly hoarse tone.
"Yes, I am," Harry replied coolly. "But we can talk about that later."
The people who had gotten to their feet sat down again, looking at Harry expectantly. "Well, as I was saying I don't know what you have been told about what we did last year, so I'm just going to give you an outline of what to expect- yes Colin?"
Colin's arm was in the air. "What happened at the end of last year?" Others nodded in agreement.
Harry sighed, he had been expecting this, but he still did not want to talk about it. Ginny came to his rescue. "The six of us," she gestured at Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna and herself, "went to the Ministry to, er, get something, and we kind of got attacked by Death Eaters and-" she trailed off unable to say anymore.
"To get what?" Ernie asked. Ginny looked uncomfortable, but it was Neville who answered.
"We went to get a prophecy," Neville said simply.
"And what?" Zacharius asked.
"Well we got split up, then when we got back together again, Hermione was unconscious, Neville's nose had been broken and so had my ankle," Ginny said. "Oh yeah, and Ron was acting odd. Then Dumbledore turned up. No wait, that was later."
"We were in a room full of brains," Luna continued in her sing-song voice. "We were trying to lock all the doors but the Death Eaters got to the one that I was trying to lock first and that's all I remember until I woke up in the hospital wing," Luna finished impressively.
just reworked this next paragraph ... tried to keep the same rambling style for Ginny
Ginny took up the tale again. "Anyway, this room we were in, there were glass tanks full of brains. Ron summoned one over to him and it attacked him. He started acting really odd after that. By this time, the Death Eaters were streaming into the room, yelling for the prophecy-thing. Harry had that. Anyway, he ran from the room and the Death Eaters followed him and then Neville followed them. I couldn't walk so I crawled over to help Ron. About two minutes later, Dumbledore ran into the room and then through the same door the others went through." Ginny paused for breath. "A couple of minutes later I could hear Harry yelling something and then a Death Eater ran back through the room, followed by Harry and a minute later by Dumbledore. That was the last I saw of Harry until we got back to school."
There was a long impressive pause. Harry knew it would not be long before they would ask him what had happened up in the Atrium, and- and why he had chased Her at all. He was back in that empty place, where he could not feel, where he just was. Neville was taking up the story now and Harry could not bear to listen. He had lived that moment too many times before.
How long he stood there, he had no idea. The next thing he was aware of was the group discussing what the veil could be. He felt sick, and knew that if he did not sit down soon he would fall down. They were talking about Sirius's death like it was a Quidditch match, not that they knew whose death they were talking about. Harry sat down on the floor where he was and wished that they would all go away.
Author's notes – Thank you to everyone who reviewed.