Chapter 4:
A/N: Hello allo! Thanks to all the people who reviewed the last chap; meant a lot to me! Yay! I have another chance to write today coz our school has an extra day of Easter holidays… personally I think too many teachers just wanted extra holidays but whateva… I'm not complaining… :)
(Review responses at bottom)
For disclaimer and summary see Chapter 1
For a couple of minutes there was dead silence in the house as Draco and Harry just stood and stared at each other and the rest of the 'intruders' looked nervously between the two of them, obviously anticipating a fight.
No one however anticipated the terrified scream or crashing that came from upstairs.
Immediately breaking out of his trance, Harry sprinted up the stairs so fast that everyone else had to actually use a spell to track him down.
Harry meanwhile had already reached Chloe's room and as soon as he opened the door a little bundle of green ploughed straight into his legs almost knocking him over. He soon recognised this green bundle that was crying on him as his daughter.
"Chlo? Chloe, what happened?" He asked the crying toddler.
Receiving no answer, he attempted to look past her and what he saw made his blood run cold. At first he saw some sort of mutant bunny creature but as soon as the thing looked at him it changed. At once, Harry knew this was a boggart but he couldn't seem to react fast enough.
As time itself seemed to slow down for Harry, he watched it change into people he thought he knew; people he thought he loved; people he thought loved him.
At first it was Ron and Hermione, both yelling at him for betraying them; for killing Bill and Charlie and numerous others.
Then it was his parents screaming about how he was an unworthy son; that they wished they had lived instead of Harry.
Next it was the Gryffindors yelling about how he wasn't worthy to be one of them; how he was a Slytherin coward
Then it was the smirking Slytherins, the Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, the teachers of Hogwarts, Dumbledore, and the Weasleys.
The people seemed to get less and less significant all the time yet one thing remained the same; none of them liked Harry at all and none of them were holding back their thoughts on him.
Choking back tears as so many painful memories from his past resurfaced, Harry was forced to his knees, trying desperately to tell these people that it wasn't him; he was innocent.
As his vision became blurry, Harry knew he was losing consciousness from the impact the emotions took on him and the only noises he could hear were calling to him. Chloe and everyone else were trying to get to him and the last thing Harry heard before he blacked out was a familiar voice yelling, "Ridikulus"
Harry had no idea how long he had blacked out for or at the moment, why he even blacked out. All he knew was that he was alive and awake.
"Harry?" he heard a female voice calling. It seemed familiar yet he couldn't seem to place it. "Harry", the voice called again, "Wake up"
Opening his eyes slowly, Harry barely recognised a mass of red towering over him and another warm hand covering his own.
He registered that he was in his bed but who these people were he had no idea. Thinking it over for a minute, it all came rushing back to him and he sat up at such a speed that most of them gasped.
Before he could say anything though, his daughter climbed up on his bed, beaming from ear to ear.
"Yay! Daddy's awake! You had a really long nap daddy. Daddy? Who were all those people who kept changing? I didn't like them. They were mean and they almost made you cry. Do you want a hug daddy?"
Smiling to himself at how much like her mother she was, Harry tucked her soft brown curls behind her ears and said, "No thanks sweetie, I'm fine"
Standing quietly in the background, Harry now recognised everyone else but didn't say anything to them. He knew they had seen everything the boggart changed into and he wasn't proud of it.
"Chlo, why don't you go play with Ruffy for a while. Daddy needs to do some things."
Ruffy was their small brown sausage dog that absolutely loved Chloe to bits so Chloe was only too happy to go play with him.
Running off with her curls flying all over her face, she could be heard yelling the dogs name all down the stairs.
When her footfalls had faded, Harry was left in the room with everyone else. Nobody was saying anything, not even Harry.
"How are you feeling?" asked Mrs. Weasley softly after awhile.
"Fine thank you" answered Harry, distractedly running his hands through his hair much to the amusement of Remus and Sirius.
"Um, I suppose I should thank you for… well… you know, stopping the… boggart and all so… well… thanks" finished Harry awkwardly.
"No problem and we really should thank you for the whole Voldemort thing. You didn't owe us anything yet you still did it. I know its not enough but thank you Harry." Replied Ginny softly.
With a small inclination of his head, Harry slowly slid off the bed and walked into his wardrobe; someone had apparently changed him into his nightclothes that were lying on the chair in his room and he wanted to get out of them.
While he was still picking out his clothes he heard someone call, "Harry, can we please talk to you downstairs when you've finished. Just hear us out?"
Harry gave no answer to their plea but he heard them walk down to the lounge anyway and sighed to himself. Just when he thought life was getting normal, his past seemed to kick back at him again.
A/N: Yay! The end of another chapter! I'm actually quite happy with this one but please review and let me know your thoughts on it anyway.
Here are those review responses:
Shark Byte: Heh! Yea I tried reading it too and had probably less success than you had! Thanks for reviewing!
India Ink: Thanks India! Nice to hear from you after ages. Yea I really like the way Chloe's turned out; I might describe her looks a bit more as the story develops…
Orlin: Thanks very much! Please review this chap as well!
Emma Barrows: Heya! Thanks heaps for reviewing. I might not get around to reading your story anytime soon as I'm mega busy at college and things but I'll try read it when I can…
Jbfritz: Thanks very much… will do!
