Chapter 11- Harry's pensive

The next morning at breakfast Harry and Hermione enjoyed several pieces of toast and jam while they watched Ron start on his third helping of eggs and bacon.

"Slow down Ron, no ones going to steal your food." Hermione pointed out.

"MMh…yoouhf try livffing wif five brofhers?

Just then, Draco with his gang of Slytherins marched up to where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting.

"Guess who just got an owl from his father." Draco said with a sinister smile.

"Guess who gives a dam." Harry said standing to his feet.

"Now, now Potter, you wouldn't want to miss this great news I have…" Draco said waiving the letter in Harry's face. "…it involves your precious mutt of a godfather."

"Shut up Malfoy." Ron said angrily. Hermione began to hold Ron and Harry back from moving any closer to Malfoy.

"Looks like your little mug-blood girlfriend is worried that you might go and do something drastic…we wouldn't want that." Malfoy said looking over his shoulder at Crabbe and Golye, both of them were cracking their knuckles with anticipation.

"Well, it looks like the Malfoy estate will double its wealth in the next year." Draco said smugly. "You see, by wizarding law, the entire estate of a deceased wizard goes to the closest living relative, if there isn't a will created by that wizard. Since, my mother is the closest living relative, and I doubt you flea-brained godfather had a chance to write a will while he was burying bones who knows where. Mummy and daddy promised me the house of Black once I am finished at Hogwarts. I believe I will have it demolished and open a pet store. Sounds fitting huh Potter—"

Just then, Harry leapt from behind Hermione and struck Draco in the face with all him might. Draco hit the ground hard and Harry jumped on top of him pummeling him. Crabbe, Goyle, and the rest of the Slytherins just stood there in shock of what had happened. Their lack of reaction time extended to outside a duel.. Hermione and Ron pulled Harry off a whimpering Draco. Harry was breathing hard but did not look as he was hit. His fist still clutched tightly as he yelled, "Don't ever talk about Sirius like that again!"

"Come' on Harry, lets get out of here." Hermione whispered.

Harry and rest rushed out of the Great Hall before any professors could walk in on the melee.

"You shouldn't have fought Draco, Harry, you can get into big trouble." Hermione admonished.

"He deserved it Hermione, with all he said about Sirius." Ron defended. "If he didn't do it, I would have, wouldn't you?"

"Well, um, yeah I would, but I would have gotten him back rather than fighting him then and there." Hermione said.

"It wasn't a fight, it was a thrashing, and it was better that watching the Quidditch World Cup." Ron said trying to lighten the mood.

Harry walked quietly with Ron and Hermione toward their first class of the morning when they noticed Professor McGonagall was waiting by the door of Professor's Flitwick's.

"You three come with me. Professor Dumbledore wants to see you right away." McGonagall said in haste.

Harry felt a lump grow in the back of his throat as he followed McGonagall toward the Headmaster's office. He had a sinking feeling that he was going to have to explain his fight with Draco.

"Bloody prat snitched us out." Ron whispered to Harry.

Harry could see that Hermione was also worried, she has never been sent to the Headmaster's office for being in trouble. Once they entered the office they saw Neville, Alice, and Frank Long bottom sitting together on one side of Dumbledore's desk, and Lupin sitting on along side four empty chairs on the other side. On Dumbledore's desk, Harry recognized immediately, sat a bowl of pensive. Harry and the others took their seats next to Lupin and gave quizzical looks to Dumbledore.

"Ah, yes, you must be wondering why I pulled you four out of class." Dumbledore started. "Well, it has come to my attention that you, Harry, have some memories of the night Voldemort attacked your family. When Lupin told me this last night, Alice and Frank were with me at the time. They believe that this memory of yours holds the key to what they have been working on before they where institutionalized. Well, I think they would be better at explaining it."

"Uh, yes, ok, lets see, we did mention last time we met that we were working with James and Lily on a secret mission." Frank started. "It was for the Order and only us four and Dumbledore knew about this mission. James was an expert at Dark Arts and Lily of Charms and Transfiguration, they headed the project we worked on. Alice and I had our expertise in Potions and Herbology so we did a lot of research since our skills are honed on research. The four of us spent almost a year and a half before you two were born researching spells, plants, potions, whatever we thought could work. We looked at Egyptian magic, Indian Magic, and even Voodoo. But we were going nowhere. It was only a few months before the attack that we started to make some progress. It was Lily and Alice who first set us on the right path. They were the more focused of the four of us since they were pregnant and didn't have much time to be doing other Order duties…"

"Um, Mr. Longbottom, what are you talking about?" Hermione politely interrupted.

"Oh, yes yes, this doesn't make sense without knowing what we assigned to do. What no one thought was possible but we had the task of making it possible…"

"Honey, you're still rambling." Alice said gently.

"Ok, Ok, Dumbledore had given us a task to find a way to take away the fear that Voldemort and his Death Eaters had placed on the community. Something to empower wizards to stand up against the darkness that was spreading." Frank said thoughfully, "We were to come up with a defense against the Killing curse."

Everyone other than Dumbledore, Alice, and Frank gasped. Lupin sat up in his chair even more so. McGonagall looked to Dumbledore for reassurance of what Frank was telling them truth.

"Isn't that's impossible!" Lupin asked.

"Well, we thought so too at first, but the more we research the more we discovered it wasn't." Alice reassured. "With magic, everything has a balance. We saw some Indian spells that counter some spells here that were long believed to be uncounterable. So, our task was to find the balance, the counter to the Killing Curse. And we did."

This time everyone looked at Harry and his scar.

"How did it work, mum?" Neville asked.

"Well, we are not sure." Alice started, "Lily and I knew that the emotion behind the killing curse must be with evil intent. That's why it's such an easy curse for dark wizards. But one day when talking how we would like our kids to go to Hogwarts and all types of emotional stuff that comes up when you are an expecting mother, we both realized, almost simultaneously, that a spell with such a strong emotion of hatred behind it can only be countered with just as strong emotion, love."

"Once Lily and Alice got this idea, James and I researched it and we saw that this was more than a plausible theory." Frank added. "We named the spell Gryffindor's shield, in honor of Hogwarts greatest founder, and began to test the theory out. Unfortunately, we couldn't test it out properly."

"Why not?" Lupin asked looking very intrigued.

"Well, it was hard to practice a defense of a killing curse that we weren't sure would work. James was willing to be a target, but thankfully Lily talked him out of it. Then there was the attack on the Potters and we were told to go into hiding. We didn't know that Harry had escaped the Killing curse."

"Neville told us all about you Harry and your scar. Yesterday, when Remus said something about you remembering your attack we thought there might be a possibility that we can find out the missing link to complete the spell."

"How would you do that?" Harry asked.

"The pensive Harry." Dumbledore said pushing the bowl of pensive to the edge of his desk. "There is a way to get your thoughts into the pensive allowing the Longbottoms to see what had happened that caused the Killing curse to be deflected from you."

"But I don't remember all of what happened." Harry replied.

"Well, I believe using my Legilimency skills I can extract the entire suppressed memory." Dumbledore said.

"I have never heard of this before." Lupin said cautiously.

"I have done this a few times to help aid in the defence of few wizards, and a brother. Its perfectly safe."

"Let's do it." Harry said.

"Are you sure Harry?" Lupin asked.

"Yes, I am for anything that can help defeat Voldemort."

"Ok, Harry just stand next to the pensive, I want you to clear your head, don't try to push me out. I won't poke around too much. Once I get a bit of the memory, I can put it in the pensive. Now try to relax." Dumbledore said softly.

Harry closed his eyes as everyone watched. He felt the tip of Dumbledore's wand on his temple. Shortly afterward his head began to swirl. He saw what he believed to be the inside of a crib, then he heard a loud scream and flash of green. Soon his head began to swirl again and his mind was clear once more.

"You can open your eyes Harry, I've got it." Dumbledore said.

"That was quick?" Harry said sounding surprised.

"Well, I think you had it ready for me, maybe you didn't want me to see what happened between you and Malfoy earlier."

"Oh, uh, yeah."

"I will speak with you later about that Mr. Potter." Professor McGonagall said from her seat.

"All we have to do is touch the pensive to witness the attack." Dumbledore instructed. "Harry, the Longbottoms need to see this, and so do I, but if you don't want to, I'll understand."

"No, I need to know. I am going in." Harry said, "Remus, would you like to see, they were you friends."

For a moment Lupin sat there thinking, and then stood up and walked toward Harry. "Harry I hope you don't mind me not joining you for this." Lupin said with his eyes getting watery, " I know this is important but I rather remember them how they lived. I don't think I could bare seeing it."

Harry, Frank and Alice, stepped up to Dumbledore's desk. Each dipped their hand into the bowl. Immediately Harry felt himself jerk forward, the shelves in Dumbledores office turned into a wall with pictures of Sirius, Lupin, the Potters and many others. Harry could see his mother and father in the living room huddle close to a baby. Harry noticed how happy his Mom looked when she was holding him. He felt a sudden pain in his heart when he realized what is about to take place.

"Just like I remember it Harry." Frank said placing his hand on Harry's left shoulder.

"Oh, look at that picture," Alice squealed, "this was taken probably a few months before all this. Neville used to be so plump."

Harry saw his parents posing with him, beside them, the Longbottoms were posing with Neville. It was a very cheery photo like most of the photos in the house.

"How can I remember all this?" Harry asked.

"The mind is a mysterious creature in itself." Dumbledore said looking at a picture of James Potter and himself playing a game of wizard's chess. "He would always beat me you know. I think he would give your friend Ron a run for his money."

Suddenly, there was a commotion at the front door. Harry could hear muffled voices from the other side of it.

"Here, my lord, in here." Said a squeaky voice that Harry had known to be Peter Pettigrew.

"Wait here, Wormtail," said another voice, "I will deal with them myself."

Harry saw the door blast open, and in walked Voldemort. Before he knew, James had shot a stunner directly at Voldemort only to be deflected.

"Run, Lily, run. Get Harry out of here." James shouted.

Harry was amazed how quick his father reacted. He was going spell for spell with Voldemort. Lily grabbed the baby Harry and made for the stairs. Harry noticed that she dropped her wand as she was running with Harry.

"We must follow her Harry, your memory continues with her, not here." Dumbledore said guiding Harry to the steps.

"Terrible just terrible…" Frank said shaking his head.

They followed Lily to Harry's baby room. Alice stayed the closest to Lily, observing her very closely. Once they saw Lily place Harry into his crib they saw a flash of green coming from the living room downstairs. Harry knew that his father had just died. His mother began to tear up, she realized she had left her wand. Harry and the others listened to footsteps as Voldemort made his way up the stairs.

"Are you hearing this Frank?" Alice said trying to get his attention away from the stairs.

"Oh my, yes, yes I am." Franks said moving closer to Lily.

Lily was bent over Harry's crib whispering something Harry could not hear from across the room. Soon Voldemort entered the room and pointed his wand at Lily. Voldemort chanted the Killing curse and a moment later a Lily was dead on the floor. Harry could feel the tears swell up inside him as he witnessed all this. He knew he couldn't do anything right then, but he swore to himself he would defeat Voldemort if it was the last thing he did.

Voldemort walked up to Harry's crib and pointed his wand down toward Harry, chanted the Killing curse once again. But after the flash of green there was a glow of red coming from the crib. Alice and Frank were the only ones close enough to the crib to see what the glow was from. Harry then saw Voldemort scream in pain. A beam of light from the crib hit Voldemort in the middle of his chest. A moment later Voldemort disappeared, leaving his robe and wand behind.

Harry walked toward the crib that was still glowing red. Before he could see inside he felt himself being jerked backward. Suddenly, he was looking down at a marble paperweight on Dumbledore's desk. He looked around to see McGonagall, Ron, Hermione, Lupin and Neville staring right at him.

"Are you ok Harry?" Lupin asked.

"Y—yeah, I'm ok." Harry said realizing there were tears rolling down his face. Harry looked behind him to see Dumbledore, Alice, and Frank all standing on the other side of the desk. Dumbledore handed Frank and Alice each a tissue and took one for himself.

"I believe you were able to get what you wanted from that." Dumbledore said drying his eyes. Alice nodded but sat quietly. Frank, too, was quiet allowing himself a moment to compose himself.

"Harry, your parents, were very very brave." Frank sniffed.

"Thanks." Harry said quietly.

"We were able to get the information we came for, but it will take some time to put it all together. Once we do, Harry, we will definitely let you know." Frank said.

"Ok." Harry agreed.

Dumbledore excused Harry from classes for the rest of the day. He felt Harry need sometime to deal with what he just witnessed. Harry spent most of the day down by the lake. He replayed his parents' murder over and over in his head. Even though he had glimpses of their murder in past, seeing it unfold completely was frightening. It wasn't until early evening did Harry find himself hungry and drained from walking around the lake all afternoon. He thought that he might be able to get some food before most of the other students went to dinner. It wasn't until he entered a half full Great Hall that he realized he had made it in time for the beginning of dinner. He only saw a few Gryffindors at the table, mostly third years. Harry spotted a gloomy Ron sitting by himself; picking at his plate of mashed potatoes and baked chicken.

"Not hungry for once, Ron." Harry joked.

"Yeah…hey you ok, Harry." Ron asked.

"Yeah, but I don't want to talk about it right now."

"Hey, I understand. I can only imagine what you have been going through today…have you seen Hermione by the way?"

"No, I have been outside most of the afternoon. Why, is something wrong?"

"W—well, after lunch, Hermione and I went to the library, not my idea mind you," Ron started, "it was the first time we actually got to be alone for a while, so I asked her about that kiss after the Hogsmeade trip and well…she said it was nothing."

"What? Are you sure she said 'nothing'?" Harry asked.

"She said it was the heat of the moment and that we should just remain friends…but I think she is just saying that…she sounded very unsure of what she was saying."

"Then what happened?"

"Well I told her that I wanted to be more than just friends and I had liked her for a long time…and I didn't want to bottle up my feelings anymore. After that she just left…I think she was crying. I haven't seen her after that."

"Why would she kiss you and then just want to be friends?"

"I saw Ginny a few minutes later, she asked why Hermione was crying, and I told her…she knew about the kiss already."

"How would she know?" Harry asked naively.

"Well, apparently those girls talk about everything," Ron answered, "and Ginny and Hermione have been talking about this for years…Ginny said Hermione had liked me for a long time too."

"Then why would she run off like that?" Harry asked sounding more perplexed.

"That's what I asked Ginny," Ron said, "and she said that 'its complexed' whatever that means…she was like 'Hermione really likes you but she over analyzes your relationship. She doesn't want to lose your friendship.' Why would I not be her friend if we were dating?"

"See, this is why I don't understand a thing about women." Harry shrugged, "I hadn't a clue about how to deal with Cho."

"At least Cho wanted to be 'more than just a friend'. Ginny said Hermione will come around sometime, but I don't know how long I can wait."

"You've waited all these years." Harry pointed out.

"Yeah, but its different now," Ron said, "everything is out in the open, and I don't want to keep it in anymore."

"Well, good luck." Harry said not knowing what to say. They sat there silently for a few moments picking at their food.

"I wonder how much Ginny and Hermione talk about us?" Harry said out loud.

"I bet a lot from what it sounds like." Ron added, "Seems like Ginny knew about Hermione's feelings for a few years too."

"No wonder we have terrible luck with girls," Harry said shaking his head, "they stick together so well."