November, Year 6
Intermission: Confession
Harry sighed while going through the things he could do. Harry sat at the top of Astronomy Tower looking over towards the lake. Harry sat on a create that housed a telescope, and ran his hands through his hair. He had been hiding here while the whole school was outside enjoying the unseasonable warm day.
It wasn't as if I am going to ask her to marry me, he rationalized, I just wanted to tell her how he feel about her. His feelings were something he was never good at expressing and this time was no different. Susan had always taken the first step in their relationship and Harry followed. She was the first write to him, Susan was the first to kiss him, the only saving grace Harry had so far was that he did take her hand the first time. Harry took for granted that they were dating. Harry never even asked her! Harry went through the memories with growing panic over Susan's and his relationship. He didn't want that to have Susan be the first to say it. He knew now was a perfect time to tell her, but he had been antagonizing the whole problem for so long he was at his wits end. It did not help when he realized that he had never said anything like that to anyone. Harry never even remembered any one saying it to him. Maybe that is why its so hard for me. Harry thought to himself. Harry grimaced. If it was so hard, at least it meant he wasn't hopeless. It was an amazing thing that he knew what love was. But then again, he had two great friends who showed him what love can be.
, he rationalized, His feelings were something he was never good at expressing and this time was no different. Susan had always taken the first step in their relationship and Harry followed. She was the first write to him, Susan was the first to kiss him, the only saving grace Harry had so far was that he did take her hand the first time. Harry took for granted that they were dating. Harry never even asked her! Harry went through the memories with growing panic over Susan's and his relationship. He didn't want that to have Susan be the first to say it. He knew now was a perfect time to tell her, but he had been antagonizing the whole problem for so long he was at his wits end. It did not help when he realized that he had never said anything like that to anyone. Harry never even remembered any one saying it to him. Harry thought to himself. Harry grimaced. If it was so hard, at least it meant he wasn't hopeless. It was an amazing thing that he knew what love was. But then again, he had two great friends who showed him what love can be.Harry discarded the card, flowers, and candy ideas. He wanted his confession to be someplace amazing. Somewhere that was unforgettable. Harry sighed and laid his back down on the telescope crate. He looked at the sky and thought there was something in it that he should be seeing. An idea just struck his head and he sighed in relief now that he had a plan. He decided to do it this week end since it was Hogsmeade weekend.
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It was the second Hogsmeade weekend of the year and close to dinner time. The warm days during November were still present. It left many students outside enjoying the sun and the warm weather. Harry had spent the day with just Susan and left her for a few moments and returned on a broom. It started a small battle of wills that Susan was slowly loosing. "It's not that bad." Harry laughed. Susan huffed at him. Harry reached his hand out for Susan to grab it. When she didn't move, Harry lowered the broom to ground level and moved forward up the length of the broom for her to get on. The broom was Ron's broom. Harry had promised to show Susan something, but needed a broom to get there. With Harry's own broom destroyed while fighting death eaters, Harry had resorted to begging Ron to borrow his. Now in possession of Ron's Clean Sweep, all Harry had to do was convince Susan to get on. But the truth of the matter was Harry had been slowly trying to make up with Susan who was still angry with him. He had gotten into an argument with his two best friends the day before about his lack of attendance in class. They refused to believe that he had already learned the material and had more important things to do than sit in a class room all day. Susan caring for Harry's education decided to take their side over the matter. Harry was still not sure if he was forgiven but he knew he needed to say a few words to her, and wanted to be in a special place.
For a time, Harry wondered if his plan would work at all. Susan was still glaring, but at least it was at the broom and not him. "Remember the last time we were on a broom together?" She asked rhetorically.
Harry smiled saying, "This will be a nice, smooth, slow ride around the castle. No Death Eater chasing us this time. I promise." Susan gave a helpless smile and took Harry's hand and was pulled onto the broom. Susan wrapped her hands around his waist and Harry chuckled when she gripped tighter when he took off. She eeped when a side wind pressed her against her boyfriend. Harry made sure that the broom was slow and steady when he made a leisurely round around the castle. She gripped him tighter when they rose higher.
"I really hate flying!" She squealed. Harry let one of his hands go of the broom to hold her arms close to his body. She squeezed him tighter but refused to open her eyes to his reassuring hand. Harry saw the tower appear at the right altitude and smiled, pointing to where they were going. "There! Just above the landing for the Astronomy Tower lookout."
Susan opened her eyes and gasped. A fifth spire appeared in front of her eyes. She never saw it before from any angle on the ground and doubted that it was even there in the sky when she opened her eyes moments before. The tower sat in the middle of the castle where the Great Hall should be. The roof of the tower was like a crown over the castle. Hundreds of spikes were on its roof. When they got closer, the lone towers' spikes turned out to be hundreds of stone statues. Susan screamed in fright when Harry dove the broom towards the landing at a speed that she never wanted to experience on a broom again.
The broom slowed down to a crawl and Harry held Susan until she got her foot on the floor and had stopped shaking her legs. Harry gave her a truly apologetic look and muttered, "I am sorry Susan, I really didn't mean to scare you." he kissed her forehead and held her until she stopped shaking. Harry let her go when she recovered. She hit him on the shoulder for the scare, and Harry knew she was alright.
"Jerk." When she looked around there were hundreds of stone statues. Some were as large as dragons others were smaller than her hand. "How did you find this place? And who made these?"
Harry looked to the statue next to him. The gray stone twitched before the head of a Griffin statue grunted. "We were not made girl." Susan gave a surprised scream before glaring at her chuckling boyfriend. Harry simply placed an arm around her shoulders to comfort her. The stone walked towards the girl and turned its head to one side to get a better look.
"Be nice Bakra, she didn't mean anything by it." Chided Harry. The stone beast nodded. Harry took Susan's hand and said, "This is the Gargoyle sanctuary." At that, all of the stone statues moved to look at the visitors.
Susan gasped when she realized where she was. "Harry, how did you get here, this preserve was supposed to be cut off from humans." She looked to Harry for answers.
Harry smiled sheepishly. "I was messing with some spells during the summer and noticed this tower. I went to take a look but could never find it. Finally I just flew towards where I thought the tower would be and ran right into it. Bakra here saved me when I fell off my broom."
There was a round of laughter from the gargoyles. One of them walked over to Harry and smacked him on the shoulder jokingly. "This idiot was screaming for help and ordering to be put down, conveniently forgetting that he was several hundred meters above ground. Most of us are quite literal and Bakra dropped him from there. When Bakra realized what he had done he flew after and caught him by his leg. Harry was then paraded around like a fish to the rest of us."
Harry didn't think it was that funny. When Susan saw his face she realized that it was. She laughed and her arms around her boyfriend. "Its ok Harry," She cooed. "At least your still here to try and get dropped again." Harry sighed.
"These guys were not why I wanted to bring you here." There were more chuckles from the Gargoyles who went back to their spots and resumed looking like nothing other than stone statues. Harry pulled Susan over to the side of the spire. When they got close to it, Susan slowed down not willing to go too close. Harry smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist and they both slowly walked to Harry's destination.
The destination was actually a small path that led inside the tower. The entrance was a medium sized door and a small chamber linking to another door. Susan was relieved when she was inside and away from the edge of the tower. Harry loosed his grip of her waist but didn't let go. Harry smiled the whole way through the small hallway. The doors opened and Susan gave another gasp. The room was actually a grand hall. They were on a balcony on the fifth floor of that Hall. Large Stain glass windows lined the length of the Hall. They were only slightly illuminated by the fading sun. Several of the stain glass pictures turned to them and waved for them to come closer. Susan walked in to the hall awed by they beauty of the windows. Harry whispered into her ear. "Welcome to Founders Hall." Harry let Susan go to grab her hand and pull her to the third Stain glass window. "Hello Helga, how are you?"
A yellowed robed woman smiled at the two grandly and knelt to see the two small people in front of her. "Hello Harry, I am glad to see that you came to visit us so soon, who is this?"
"This is Susan, she is a member of your house." He said happily.
The glass woman smiled and said, "Hello dear child, it pleases me so to see such a fine young lady representing me."
Susan just stuttered. She looked at Harry while pointing at the picture. Harry smiled and said, "Yes Susan, this is Helga Hufflepuff."
Harry conjured two seats and a small table for them. Harry pulled out a small container and enlarged to withdraw tea and biscuits. Helga and Susan spoke for some time about their house and of the people there. Susan was hugging Harry when they left. "That was great Harry! Thank you so much!" Harry smiled and kissed her before holding her and walking her to the roof of the tower again. Susan looked around and noticed that the Gargoyles were gone. "Um. Harry, where is everyone?"
Harry smiled at her, "It is their hunting hour, they have all gone to the forest. Its just the two of us."
Susan nodded smiling at him. Harry tugged her hand and motioned for her to look at the sky. She grinned at him and wrapped her arms around her precious boyfriend. The sky was a deep blue with a crescent moon just barely over the horizon and was taking up most of the bottom sky line. "Its beautiful." Susan whispered.
Harry nodded and held her. They stood there together for a long time. The moon became smaller when it was well into the sky. Harry leaned into her neck and kissed it. Susan turned to look at him. She grinned when she saw his cheeks flush. "I love you." They said in unison. They looked at each other and laughed. When Susan realized what he just said she hugged him. It was the first time he had ever said it, and while she thought he might feel the same way, it was wonderful to hear those words. She kissed him for a long time. Harry repeated his confession. It was not the 'beating her to the punch' that he had planned but somehow he knew there would be things that she would always get to before him and he didn't mind. Susan sighed happily and whispered into his chest. "I love you."
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Another Intermission done. I think this will be the last one for the story, unless something happens where I can't put a real chapter up. Chapter 13 will be up next Sunday!
methoslover: Thanks for the review, teddy bear Harry… sounds like a new doll.
zero-skillz: Glad that you agree with the chapter length but I wanted to finish Part 2 in that chapter. You'll be seeing more of Cyan's plan by the middle of Part 3. And the Raiders will be making more than a cameo appearance before the end is over. I think the Cho/Neville ship is one that I think I would like to see more of too.
atlantis-rob: Thanks for the review, I tried to get every opening and concluding chapter for each Part as the close of an individual story and I very happy myself with how well the end of Part 2 closed. I only hope that I can conclude Part 3 in such a satisfactory manner.
DarkHuntress: This is where I would do a smilie to your response but fanfiction dot net doesn't like those for some reason. thanks for the review.
anonymous: I plan on doing the prequels but as to when I am not so sure. I am thinking I want to write the sequal to this story first before I pick up on the 6th and 7th years of Harry's life. And I was thinking of writing a short story later on about Neville and Cho during the 'missing Harry' years. Still thinking what does everyone else think of this. Just respond in review if you want to voice your opinion.
shawnculli: Thank you for the review, I think I surprised my self at how well it came out. I am glad to see so many others thought it worked as well.
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Chapter 13 Another Obstacle
She let out a small sigh, "Its nothing Owen, Pam got this idea stuck in my head and it's hard to get it out of there now."
Owen raised an eyebrow but when no answers were forth coming he nudged her shoulder with his. "And that was?"
Alice grinned wearily. It was hard to be angry to someone who looked as innocent as Owen did at the moment. "What is today's date Owen?"
Owen said, "January 18th."
"And how long has if been since we started going out?" She said patiently.
"Well, I guess its exactly a month since… Oooooh." He said in a cautious and sorry voice.
Alice stopped walking and Owen stopped with her. She let go of his hand and touched his cheek. "I am glad we had this talk."
