A/N: Yes, yet another chapter. I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I do not have ownership of Harry Potter or anything of the characters or places associated with Harry Potter. If I did it would be very scary indeed.
Chapter 10
Rain poured down and thunder crashed in the sky above as forked lightning flashed across it and Harry and Bella hid beneath a bush, sheltering from the storm.
"How long do you think this storm'll last?" asked Bella. She hoped it wouldn't last long. If it did they would probably end up being caught by the ministry, or, worse, Death Eaters.
"I don't know," Harry sighed. "But we should probably get going soon though. It might give us a better chance of getting away."
Bella nodded. If they were to set out whilst it was still raining, hopefully the rain would wash away any footprints. It would mean that the rain would slow them down slightly, but that couldn't be helped.
Over about the next half an hour or so the rain showed no sign of ceasing. In fact, it was just the opposite: it increased, causing the already water-logged ground to be covered with muddy puddles of water
"We should go now," Harry said eventually. "The rain probably won't stop for awhile. The sooner we go the better."
Again Bella nodded. She hated rain, and walking just as much, so naturally walking in the rain was probably one of her worst nightmares… if you didn't count losing a certain someone.
Hermione stared out of a window at Grimmauld Place. It wasn't raining, which was basically the first time that week that it hadn't done so, but judging by the sky it would start up again soon.
It was a grey, miserable day, which came as a shock for summer. For some reason there had been nothing but rain and terrible weather in general for a few days, starting only a couple of days since the latest Azkaban breakout, but no one could figure out why. She had even heard that the ministry couldn't figure it out, and they, after all, were the ones who basically decided the weather.
Looking up at the sky, she realised it was a perfect mirror for how she was feeling. Grey and miserable. The thunder and lightning that had been going on previously partially symbolised the person she was currently thinking about.
Harry. She had known him for years, and because of that she felt sure she knew that he would never go dark, or join Voldemort. That would be the one thing he would never do, especially willingly. Why would he? Voldemort had taken away everything from him. His parents, Sirius, several friends (though she wasn't all to certain that Harry quite counted Cedric as a friend at the time), the majority of people Harry cared about, in fact. So it made no sense for him to join that monster.
Given the choice between joining the Dark Lord and living, she knew that Harry would not choose Voldemort. Given the choice between the Dark lord and his death she knew his answer would be death every time. To tell the truth, she knew there was only one way that Harry would ever join up with the man that had made his life living hell: if his friends' lives were threatened. And she knew Voldemort would most definitely sink to that level.
But something still told her he hadn't joined Voldemort. It could have been denial, but somehow she didn't think so. After all, she had always realised that there could be a slight possibility that he could, but it had always been so small that it had always been almost non-existent.
Looking over, Ron saw that Hermione was staring out of the window again with a look of sorrow on her face. The two of them had had yet another fight, and once again it had been about Harry.
He knew that she had some good point, but he did too. There was definitely a large possibility that Harry could join You-Know-Who, especially after discovering that Dumbledore deliberately kept several important issues about Harry's life secret until the end of the previous school year, but he hadn't truly believed in such a possibility until Harry had left Azkaban.
He and Hermione though, nowadays they seemed to be constantly at one another's throats, whereas before it wasn't really too often. Harry had always managed to keep the peace between the two of them, by simply being more interested in Quidditch than Hermione and more interested in whatever Hermione was interested in than him. Without him, the two of them seemed to fight constantly.
It was a puzzle really, on how much a single person could keep so much peace. And it wasn't just on a small scale either. He had heard from his dad about things from all over the wizarding world.
There had been mass-riots erupting all over the place, mainly between those that believed in Harry's innocence and those that did not. Many people had lost the person they most believed in, and seemed to be lashing out at those that still thought that such a person was still on their side. Indeed, many would have been shocked at the lack of co-operation between the people of every country.
'United we stand, divided we fall…' For some reason those words came back to him, though he couldn't really remember where he had heard them. It was probably from one of Dumbledore's speeches at the end of one of their years at Hogwarts, probably one of the last two in fact.
But those words did seem to take on special meaning right then. Harry had basically united the wizarding world to an extent, so before Harry's arrest they would have stood a much greater chance at stopping You-Know-Who, but afterwards the world had pretty much fallen into chaos. And it was all down to Voldemort, with perhaps a little help from Fudge.
Ugh! The word 'fudge' was supposed to bring thoughts of that sweet, the muggle one, but nowadays it tended to bring up thoughts of incompetent ministers that had sent his ex-best friend to prison, though it was possibly one of the few right things he had ever done.
But for some reason, as much as he felt the evidence had pointed to Harry being guilty, he couldn't believe it. His head told him he should but… something was holding him back from believing.
Before anyone of them could say another word though, a loud sound penetrated the silent air, setting Mrs Black off ranting again. Someone was knocking on the door.
A/N: Okay, so evil cliffie, but hopefully I should update again soon. This chapter was just kinda hard to write for me. That's why it took a couple of days longer than I would have hoped (I could have got it up at the week-end otherwise) but I should be able to get the next one up soon. Hopefully.
Smackskiller: Oh! I didn't realise you said it was by Master Eldryn! If I had of I would have realised there was a very small chance it would be weird (you've found yet another fan of him, as you can tell). But Harry and Bella aren't cursing one another anymore!
padfootjr23: Okay!
The Vampire Story Hunter: Okay, more detail, check. Will do in the future. But Harry not forgiving his friends? I'm not so sure I'll do that. Forgiving Ron is totally out of the question, but as for Hermione… I'm not so sure.
Launigsiae: I loved that ending too! It as the first time there seemed to be any actual romance!
Hikuro Hoshi: Yah, it is a weird pairing, but there probably are weirder ones possible, just no one's ever really thought of them. Here's the next chapter, even though I didn't manage to get it out at the week-end.
X: Errr... ok!
Sword of Darkness: I know! I'm currently trying to persuade people of the greatest that is Harry/Bella!
diamond004: The daisy petals? Well, the only other thing was that once they were ingested (not advisable in real life though) you had to say the incantation for a spell, 'glamouris' in this case, in this case, and then add a name on the end. Harry had added on the name of a Death Eater that wasn't in the Inner Circle, but he had over-heard the name of in his eavesdropping session. I hope that answers your question.
jeangab057: Bella fate will be revealed next chapter (my way of saying I have no idea!).
vghgygytfrgkufkyttrgfmghd: Well, I suppose it's better than no name at all. Is this update soon enough?
Vegita43: *blushes* Me? A genius? You seem to have me mixed up with someone else. Besides, it wasn't even totally my idea for this pairing! That was mainly Nightwish_sama's idea!
