Chapter 2: Promising

He felt tired, heavy, as if the air itself was pressing him down. And it throbbed, it throbbed painfully.

"Have you seen Neville's toad?" a girl with bushy hair asked.

"Fred and George are trying to make me eat some of their stuff again, my hair turned pink last time…" Harry recognised the red head somehow.

"Die here, tonight…"

Harry awoke with a start, blinking slowly in the darkness of what seemed a room. He slowly wiped the sweat of his forehead. As he tried to get up, a stab of pain dug into his shoulder. HE gasped in shock and fell back against his cushion. What had happened? An attack, yes, that was it… Uncle Vernon had fired… and he'd been shot, in the shoulder. Death Eaters.

His eyes felt tired, and they closed a couple of times on their own accord. No, he couldn't go to sleep. He fought unconsciousness.

Where was he exactly? Where was his wand? He pushed the covers away, ignoring his blistering shoulder and swung his legs over the bed in nerve taking effort. A sudden surge of dizziness took him, the shadows dancing like sugar mice in front of his eyes.

"Potter, we didn't bring you to St Mungo's for you to go and worsen the wood." Light burst out into the room, Harry held up his hand against the sudden harshness. When he finally let his hand fall down to his side, his eyes haven just adjusted to the light, he found out that he was…alone. The room was empty, and bare of any object except his bed.

"Who's there?"

A grey form appeared beside the bed, it's deep blue eyes staring down at Harry.

For an instant, Harry thought it was Dumbledore, but this man was in fact bald, sporting a short cut grey beard. His face was completely blank, expressionless, and deadly pale. Harry could have easily taken him for a ghost.

"We're here for your protection, Potter. Miss Tonks did inform of our arrival. However, our relatives weren't aware and took fright… A small flaw of ours gave you this wound in your shoulder. Muggles, are never to be trusted with firearms." He said all this as if it had been just a normal experience.

So that was the excuse? Harry brought his hand up to his swollen shoulder, cringing slightly as he touched it. If he was at St Mungo's Hospital, why did it still hurt? It didn't have anything to do with Magical Maladies.

"What about the Death Eater Attack?" Harry asked, pondered how his Aunt was. A cold rock seemed to have hit his stomach as he wondered if she was…

"There was no attack, just muggle foolishness." The man's answers were forward, brisk and short. "Your Aunt is in Muggle hospital, she fainted," Harry felt ridiculous, there had been no attack at all. "Whereas your Uncle, he was put away."

"What?" Harry's shot up at this. What did this man mean by 'put away'?

"Police arrived at your house, they found your Uncle in the possession of a muggle weapon. He was highly disturbed."

Harry didn't want to hear about his family anymore, they'd nearly cost his life. He'd been protected from Death Eaters, but not by them. He'd been left there for about sixteen years, locked away in a cupboard, brutalised by his cousin, used like a slave for any house task, humiliated, his parents' memory insulted... The list had no end. "Give me my wand."

The man slowly reached into his large grey robes and took out the black piece of wood, looking at it thoughtfully. "I've seen another like this," he told Harry, handing the wand over, an expression of sadness, the first emotion Harry noticed from the man, cross his face. "Don't let it be used the same way."

The door opened, leaving Dumbledore enter the room, followed behind by the auror Mad-Eye Moody, his magical glass eyes swirling franticly around the room and inwards in his skull. A new scar had been added to the collection on his face, a deep red one that went from his temple to his jaw.

"Aurilius," Dumbledore greeted the grey cloaked man. They shook hands, the one named Aurelius rather unwillingly. Dumbledore then turned towards Harry, his face solemn with regret. "I'm afraid that your Uncle is out of my reach." Harry didn't say anything to this. "He's been detained in jail, and might, unfortunately… be moved to have better treatments…" Had Uncle Vernon finally lost his mind? Harry didn't want to know. "Aunt Petunia is recovering, but it might come as a bit of a shock when she learns about…"

"I don't care." Harry's voice had been cold and uncaring. Dumbledore went on as if hadn't heard, however, his normally deep blue eyes took a rather regretful look as he continued.

"… Dudley is at a friend of his, and is taken care of…"

Moddy's eye was now stuck on Harry. The lad seemed hollow, dark. His family had finally been sent away, not in the best of manners and Harry couldn't seem to care. The previous year had changed this boy incredibly. Dumbledore had stopped speaking, and was now watching Harry silently too.

Moody spoke up, hoping to bring a little light to this rather dark Harry. Something he had never really done to anyone else. "Well, you'll join your friends in a day time," he said. "Miss Granger and Mr. Weasly will be glad to see you,"

"Yes," Dumbledore agreed. "At Hogwarts, of course, you'll much safer…"

"That's where you're wrong," the battle Wizard declared, raising his voice. "Voldemort will be searching for Potter in Hogwarts."

"I agree with Aurelius, just this once," said Moody, nodding slightly. "Voldemort will have cats and eyes on the place."

"Aurelius, we've already talked about this." It was Dumbledore's turn to raise his voice, locking his gaze with the man's own freezing blue eyes. "You can't take the boy away like this…"

"He needs training, he doesn't need to know History of Magic, or Divination, or transforming a pin into a flower. It's a ridiculous waste of time." Aurelius said all this with a deadly calm tone of voice. "He'll be defenceless when they'll be a Real attack."

"But you can't replace the Old Magic that holds Hogwarts together," Dumbledore explained. They seemed to have forgotten Harry's presence altogether. He sat silently, thinking on his own as he watched the older men discussing between themselves. He gripped his wand tightly. No one had seemed to notice that he wasn't a boy anymore. He was much more.

"I'll go to Hogwarts," he paused, trying to decide what to do best. "On one condition." Dumbledore and Aurelius turned towards Harry who was having a little difficulty to stand up. He finally managed, his wand still in hand. Moody who hadn't left Harry out of his sight, chuckled slightly to himself. Potter might have better resources than he'd guessed… The old Auror felt slightly proud to see that Harry had finally engraved the notion of Constant Vigilance.

Hermione Granger looked over the crowd of heads, while Ron Weasley was still in Mrs Weasly's clutches.

"Mum! I'm seventeen."

"Ron, you can't go with that stain!"

Platform 9 and ¾ was full of exited first years, hovering parents and animal cries of all kinds. The Scarlet Steam Engine smoked loudly, waiting for the children to get on board with their trunks and cages.

"I can't see Harry!" Hermione yelled over the noise to Ron who was still in Mrs Weasly's care. She bit her lip, slightly worried, standing on tip toes, trying to make out a mop of black untidy hair. Hermione hadn't grown much over the past two years, whereas Ron towered over his family and most people here on the platform.

"Do you think he's going to come?" Ginny asked Hermione. "After what happened last year?"

"Of course," but Hermione felt a tinge of doubt. "He promised…"

The Hospital wing had been silent that night. Hermione had still been recovering from her wounds, but she was wide-awake while Harry stood next to the window, looking out in the darkness of the night, the lake just faintly visible. Ron had been sitting in a chair next to the bed, falling asleep.

"It's my fault." It'd come out as a whisper from Harry's mouth, but both of his friends had heard. Ron straightened up in his seat.

"How many times do we have to tell you, mate, it's not your fault."

"You Know Who is to blame," Hermione had added pulling down her covers a little to sit up. "Not you."

"It might be Voldemort's. But I'm still endangering you." Ron didn't have to heart to contradict him, whereas Hermione, fuelling on Harry's determination, had never been this stubborn.

"Harry. What are you planning to do? Leave Hogwarts, and then endanger us from afar?"

"Yes… I mean no." Harry was at lost of words, trying to meet his friends' eyes. "I don't think I'll come back next year. Next time… It might be worse."

Hermione sighed in an exasperated manner. "You've got it all wrong, Harry." This wasn't a thing to say.

"I've got it wrong?" Harry had yelled. "What do I don't understand? Death? Danger? Voldemort wanting to kill me? I'm a bloody living target, and if I'm right next to you, I don't see how you'll escape! You're the one that DOESN'T understand."

"It doesn't matter!" Hermione said briskly.

"Your lives matter to me!" he'd declared. Harry had marched over to Hermione, his face red with anger. "Why? didn't your leg being ripped off matter to you? Ron struck by a poisoning curse? You tell me you don't care?"

"Please…" Ron had tried to calm them.

"Listen to me Harry James Potter for a second!" It was Hermione's turn to yell. In her already weak state, it was taking a lot of effort to sit up straight and try to convince Harry at the same time. "It won't matter to Voldemort-Ron, for Goodness Sake- if you're here or on the other side of the planet! It's exactly what he wants. He knows we're your friends, the whole world knows. He'll try to use us against you." Her brown eyes were wet with tears by now. "Hogwarts is your fattest chance to be safe, for all of us."

"Yeah, Harry, we're the Fabulous Trio, we have to stay together." Ron had told him, putting his hand on Hermione's shoulder, trying to soothe her before she would need Madame Pomfrey, again.

Harry didn't know what to say. "When I will... kill Voldemort, you'll distract me."

"Harry, it could be today, tomorrow or in fifty years' time. You need to learn as much as possible, here at Hogwarts."

"And we want to help you, no matter what we lose," Ron had added, surprising Hermione by the sensibility he was showing, for once.

Harry sat down in a spare chair, running his hand through his jet black hair. He looked so much older than what he was. All these years were finally taking their toll on him. "I don't know what to do," he confessed.

"Let's promise," Ron proposed. "Let's promise not to leave each other until the end."

"To share whatever burden you have… we have," Hermione had said. "To never be left out; whatever happens, until the end."

"He'd promised." There was no more time to waste; the train would leave any minute now. Ron took Hermione by the arm and led her into the compartments. "Ron, he didn't come," she told him, still not believing what was happening. They were going to Hogwarts, and Harry wouldn't be there. "He couldn't have left us."

Ron had a sad look as he squashed their trunks in an empty compartment. Hermione let herself fall on a seat, her eyes vague. After all what they'd done together, he was leaving them like this? Without any goodbye? She couldn't sit and do nothing about it. "There must a good enough reason." Hermione shot up and grabbed her trunk again, pulling it back out of the compartment. "Something might have happened. I'm not leaving without him."

"Hermione!" Ron caught the other side of her trunk, stopping her from taking any more steps. "Hermione, he left us, but it's Ok. We can't do anything about it. I'm his best mate, and I understand. He's worried about us. Dumbledore will take care of him wherever he is."

"No. He needs Hogwarts, and if he's too stupid to see it… I'll will at least tell him!" Heads were peeping out from compartments into the corridor, talking between themselves. Hermione's trunk was halfway though the compartment sliding door. "He promised!"

"Hermione. You're so naive. It's not the first time he's lied to us!"

"Ron, stop acting stupid. Of course he might have lied, but I'm not letting him getting out of it!" Hermione let go of her end of the trunk and stormed off, heads popping back inside as she walked down the corridor briskly, her cheeks red and her eyes flashing.

"Hermione!" Ron jumped over her trunk that was blocking his way out and ran after her. "Please, come back in. Think about being a Head Girl! It's what you've always wanted."

"I don't care!" came her reply, but she did miss a step when Ron mentioned her new position. Head girl WAS what she'd always aimed for, it'd been her dream. She'd worked so hard for, but sometimes things were just more important than work. She was already at the end of the wagon and ready to jump down on the platform with just her wand in hand, leaving her belongings behind, when she came face to face with…

"Harry?!"

"Sorry, I'm late," Harry said, pulling his trunk into the wagon, Hedwigs' empty cage in his other hand, having said goodbye to Mrs Weasly who he'd just crossed. Hermione had an irresistible need to slap Harry for have made her lose her temper with Ron-which actually wasn't an unusual casualty when it came to Ron. But before he knew what came next, he was in one of her air choking hugs.

"Harry, mate, you're here!"

"Do you mind leaving me some air?"

"Oh, sorry," Hermione said, letting go of Harry and blushing lightly while Ron gave him a good slap on the back which made his glasses nearly fall off his nose. "Gave us a fright, Harry. We thought you'd gone for good." Hermione didn't know what to say, Harry was nearly as stubborn as her, she had her doubts that she hadn't convinced him that night in the Infirmary.

Ron led the way, Harry following with his trunk, Hermione behind. Again noses were drawn back into their compartments as the three friends passed. Harry turned his head back at Hermione and gave her- Hermione swore that she hadn't dreamt- a wink. She blinked, trying to put her thoughts back into place.

Back in the compartment, Ron put Hermione's trunk back and lifted Harry's up next to hers. "What held you up?" he asked Harry.

"Mad Eye Moody," he explained putting down Hedwig's cage. "Wanted the platform to be less crowded, letting me go on the train at the last minute. A Constant Vigilance thing."

"That sounds like Old Mad Eye Moody to me," Ron thought aloud. The train whistled and the Hogwarts Express was off.

"Sorry, but I wasn't able to send it." Hermione looked into her bag and took out a wrapped up parcel out, handing it to Harry. "Happy birthday, Harry."

Harry seemed uncomfortable as he took the parcel. "I think I'll open it later," he declared giving Hermione a smile and putting it away. She frowned, a little hurt. "What did you do this summer?" he asked her instead.

"I went to Krum's Manor, in Bulgaria, with my parents." But, she'd told him this already just before the Holidays, didn't he remember? She frowned, starting to get suspicious.

"Yeah, what did you do there?" Ron asked. "Didn't send any owls to us."

"The family has a 'shady' past. Viktor's Great grand-parents aren't what you could call 'clean'. A simple precaution. They're a Pure Blood Family."

"So, what did you do with Vikky?" Ron asked, a rather sly gin on his face.

"We studied-," Hermione replied quickly, seeming rather uncomfortable with the subject. "-we have our NEWTs this year. The Manor has one of the most complete libraries- of course Hogwarts' one is also rather complete- but…" Hermione decided that telling about her library events wasn't what was on Ron's mind. "…And other stuff that you won't find interesting enough to know."

"Meanwhile, you got us worried," Harry told her.

Rain pelted down on the Hogwarts Express a couple of hours later. Clouds had been threatening with a storm for a long while now and it had just started pouring down with water. Silence had fallen over the three, not daring to speak what they knew would come next. The Second War against Voldemort, Harry's fate. Hermione was pretending to read a book, but she would glance at Harry a couple of times in a while, he was frowning, looking out of the window. Ron had taken up reading a Quidditch magazine. Finally, Harry decided to brake the silence.

"Anyone in for a game of Exploding Snap?" Harry took out the cards from a pocket as he got up, and unfortunately let the packet slip from his hands, the cards floating down to the compartment floor.

"Sure," Ron said, throwing his magazine away after have had another look at a picture taken at a Quidditch match, Plymouth against Preston.

Hermione gaped, she hadn't expected this. She snapped her book shut and left it on her lap. "Isn't there more important things to do? First, there's our NEWTs. And I'm not going to be planning your revisions again."

"Hermione, can't you relax for even a minute?" said Ron. "Harry, guess what was the first thing she asked me."

"No, that's the third thing I asked you." Harry was busy picking the cards up one by one. "Harry, how can you be so calm?" Hermione finally asked, not believing what she was hearing. Relax? When Voldemort was out there?

Harry froze as he was about to pick up a rather disgruntled Queen of Hearts that was weaving her sword madly at him. If only they knew. "It's your last year at Hogwarts, Voldemort's loose, but you can't lose you head about it. I agree with Ron, you have to learn to relax a bit, or when we'll be in front of an important threat, you might just freeze up."

"Excuse me, but I don't see Mad-Eye Moody playing cards, because he wants to relax," Hermione told him trying to picture the Old Moody ever playing at something. "This is serious. My parents are Muggles, they could get hurt in this."

Harry didn't reply to this. Of course it was serious. But how much time did they have left before… something happened to them. Voldemort had tried to stay quite, but when he would strike, not much would be left standing. They were both right.

"Anyway, I've got my Head Girl meeting on the train before we get to Hogwarts." With this she got up and left the compartment, her head high, still a little stung from Harry's remarks.

"Harry, you didn't need to be so hard on her. We're a tad bit worried about… You-Know-Who." He grabbed black wizard robes and put them on. He then rummaged through his pockets. "Where is it?" He finally took out a Chocolate Frog Card out of his pocket; it looked a bit battered. "Look Harry," he said throwing it at Harry who caught it.

Harry chuckled slightly. On the Chocolate frog card was his portrait, he was sitting on his FireBolt, the scar on his forehead in plain view.

"Hermione would have had a fit seeing it. You're the youngest wizard ever to have been put on the Chocolate Frogs…" Ron looked at Harry guiltily. "I'm sorry, Harry I wasn't thinking about, You Know Who…" He knew how much hated his fame, brought by the death of his parents. No one would wish it.

Harry kept silent for a while. "It's Ok, Ron."

Ron sighed in relief. "Comin' to see Dean and Seamus?"

"I'll stay here," Harry said. Thunder struck outside, and the light in the compartment flicked off for a second.

Ron shrugged, "Ok. How do I look? Just in case I cross Cecilia."

"Still fancie that 6th year Huflepuff Beater?" asked Harry.

"What you're talking about, she's Chaser," said Ron, but he was too preoccupied about what Harry would say on his appearance to make much notice of the error. Harry looked at him up and down. Ron looked like… Ron. Lanky, tall, red hair and you clearly could see he was nervous, his ears were turning into a bright shade of pink.

"Fine, get her Tiger."

Ron left, still feeling a bit guilty about the Chocolate Frog Card, leaving Harry alone in the compartment with only the rain against the window for company, disturbing the silence. HArry sat down and started shuffling the cards and was about to fish something out of his pocket only to be disturbed by the door sliding open. Harry thrust the thing back in his robes.

"Harry." Harry looked up to find Neville Longbottom.

"Hey Neville. How was the holidays?"

Neville nodded. "Went to Ireland for a month with my Grand-Ma. Have you seen Hermione?" he asked. Harry was aware that Neville was looking at him strangely, a little pale in the cheeks. He also noticed a Head Boy pin on Neville's chest. His fourth year had taken away all trace of fear and had, finally, met up to Potion standards. Snape was now the last of his fears.

"She just left for the meeting… something wrong?"

"Harry. If you need me for anything, if there is anything that's happening… I would like to help." He had a look of pure determination, his lips formed a thin line of determination. Harry knew the fate of Neville's parents, driven mad by Bellatrix Lestrange, that feeling of vengeance.

Neville closed the door without another word, leaving quickly for the meeting. Finally alone once more, Harry took out a small leather pouch out of his pocket, loosening the lace to open it. He brought it up close to his mouth.

"Any news about Harry, Kingsley?" he asked. He then put the opening to his ear to hear the answer.

"Harry's still hasn't arrived with the Battle Wizard, Tonks. Time Turners are tricky."

"He better hurry, Hermione and Ron won't be fooled very long… And beside, I hate 'being' a guy." Tonks still had the Chocolate Frog in her hand. She gazed down on it, wondering where the famous Boy-Who-Lived could be at the moment.

Cliff-hanger.

Well, I hope that went Ok, so Harry's been using a time turner for something? Tonks can't be aware about all of Harry's life, but she has been filled in (how could she know about Cecilia? I can't miss out on the red haired twins…)

Oh, well… yawn, getting a bit late here, gotta get up early.

Enjoy then

Undine: thanks for the great enthusiasm

HarryLuva2004: I might hurt Harry, but I won't kill him… Voldemort might (suppose the Dark Lord is searching for 100 and 1 ways to get rid of Harry.) But well, he'll have Hermione before the end, I just hope Tonks won't mess up their friendship. Well, Hermione is a clever girl…

Oh, while I'm at it, can't remember where, but Hermione is actually a Greek name… I'll find where exactly, something in the Iliad, maybe. Well, it had to do with a royal family, I think (stopping babbling now.)

REVIEW! merci