Chapter 5
A/N: Sorry it took so long. We'd like to thank everyone that took the time to review. Even if it was a bad one, reviewing is all around good. However, we'd been a bit depressed think people hated our story because of all the bad reviews, but it was actually only three. But these three people's sheer stupidity was really getting to us.
First of, we'd like to stress a particular aspect of a story. It's called suspense. It means, we don't tell you everything that's happening right now, because later on everything's going to come together. We realize some people are having problems with this concept.
"first of all i don't know
your whole storyplot.
but Hermione and Draco?? Gin going with Draco??
and the whole Weasley family is against Harry,
just because he left after the battle?
na sorry but another story without an logical plot"
- Schnuff
Schnuff, if you're still reading we'd like you to know that Hermione and Draco is a perfectly reasonable pairing. One must simply acknowledge the effect of parental abuse that is so obvious in the Malfoy household. We never said Ginny was going with Draco. You do not know all the facts about their relationship, so we suggest you not judge on assumptions. And who said the Weasley's were angry at him just for leaving after the battle although that would be reasonable. (Also, story plot is two words.)
"I really think you are misunderstanding harry is not a person to be pushed around by anyone, and expesially a drop dead fucking bitch like malfoy, gay bastard is what he is. Malfoy is like a damn girl, always wants his way screaming and yelling until he gets it. I highly doubt that draco/hermione, would get together, infact I really dont think draco and any straight human being would get with him. "
-chris-warren876
Your opinion is that Draco Malfoy is gay, an opinion that I'm sure is shared by many people, however in this particular story he is not. It is never said or particularly mention in the books that he is gay so we're perfectly in canon. As to Harry being pushed around, it happens quite a lot in the books, perhaps you should read them more thoroughly. (Oh, and there's this thing called capitalization. You should try it sometime.)
"This would have been good, but Draco/Hermione just doesn't do it, its too far fetched even if he changes, and as for the whole ginny/draco/hermione situtation, harry leaves and suddenly draco is god and becomes friends possibly lovers of both of the heroines of the story that just is pure bullshit. sorry but it just doesn't sit right, draco was never described as being a suave, good person."
No, he wasn't. But people change. People evolve. People don't stay the same way they did when they were fifteen, and if they did we'd live in the most immature world, wouldn't we? We'd like you get the whole story before you decide that any way that Ginny and Hermione would be friends with Draco as crap. Since you don't have the whole story, you obviously assumed that they both started to like him because he was a "suave, good person." And you know what assuming does...
We'd like to apologize to all of our other readers, but these reviews just bugged us because most of them were purely against Draco, and that bugs us. We know that J. K. will never do anything with the character, but we like him and want to develop him past the sodding bastard that he was as a child. We know it's partly our fault for posting under Ginny/Harry, as Ron/Hermione seems to go hand-in-hand with that, making most people hate Draco. So, if you've suffered enough to read all of that, we apologize for it and we're done preaching now. Anyway, here's the story!
Disclaimer: Yeah, after that really long A/N, do you feel the need to read one of our witty disclaimers right now? Didn't think so.
I didn't know how I knew where I was going. I just went, knowing that I would find him eventually. And I did, by the lake. He was standing by himself, looking out at the lake, smiling softly.
I was frozen for a moment, not quite sure what to do. I wondered if I could do the killing curse. Then I wondered if it would even work on him. Was he human enough?
"Hello, Potter," he said, breaking me from my thoughts, his voice as high pitched as it had ever been. He turned to me slowly. "I was getting rather bored. You were just taking your time to get here. That's alright, though. I amused myself in other ways." He raised one long finger to point at the lake.
It took me a moment to notice what he was talking about. A large pink object was floating about twelve meters from the shore. He had killed the Giant Squid.
"So," Lord Voldemort said. "Shall I kill you?"
I jutted out my chin in a defiant way. "You can try."
Voldemort laughed. "Well, isn't that like a normal teenage boy? Being-"
"Expelliarmus!" I shouted, cutting him off. His wand flew to me.
He smiled. A horrible, cold smile. "Now what, boy?" he asked. "You've taken my wand. Now you have to kill me. How? The Killing Curse? You couldn't do that?"
I racked my brain thinking of a curse. Any curse! Something that could be fatal, finally something came to mind.
"Incindio!" My voice was loud and firm, at first it appeared nothing had happened, and then, Voldemort screamed. A terrible pitching cry in pain. It appeared he was being burned from the inside out. In only a matter of seconds, his body was a pile of ashes.
I stared at it. That was it. That was all it took to kill him. One word. One moment. He was weak, for that was all it took. It was too easy, far too easy. I stood there for a long time thinking about what would have happened, if I had just done it a little sooner. If I had just killed him sooner. Tonks had died last year; would she be still alive? Michael Corner and Professor Flitwick whose body's I had found on the way down here, were among countless others. If only I had found and killed Voldemort a little sooner. If only I hadn't been afraid for years. Sirius...
I turned away and started my way back to the castle, when I froze. It had been to easy. Tears of anger were in my eyes, anger at Voldemort, and death eaters, and himself. I grabbed a handful of the ashes and threw them into the water. I grabbed another handful and started to run toward the forest. Once I entered it, I ran mindlessly dropping some of the ashes every few steps. Then, I ran back to the pile. Out of breath and covered in sweat, I kicked the remains of Voldemort with my foot.
I fell to the ground crying for all those who had died. Yet, despite this regret, I felt triumphant. He was gone, and now there was no way he was coming back. Death Eaters could not bring him back now; there was no way they would find his ashes. He was gone.
It was then that I heard it: footsteps. I stood up quickly, my wand ready. Threateningly, I pointed it at the man approaching.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry rolled over in his sleep. Unfortunately, as he did this, he rolled right off of the couch he was sleeping on. "Ow!" he shouted as his hand hit the coffee table on his way did.
"Morning, Harry," Hermione called from somewhere behind Harry. He stood up slowly, gripping his injured hand and spotted Hermione in the kitchen. "You hungry?" she asked.
"You cook?" Harry responded, never imagining Hermione as the cooking type. He made his way over to the kitchen nook of her small, one bedroom apartment.
"I cooked tea. I went out to get bagels. Do you want plain or poppy seed?" Hermione said, pulling her bagel out of the toaster.
It took a few minutes with minimal conversation for Harry to be situated with cup of tea and a bagel with cream cheese. Soon, they were seated at Hermione's small kitchen table. And neither one said a word.
Eventually, when Harry couldn't take it anymore, he said something. Something that might be considered somewhat inappropriate, considering the situation, but it was something, nonetheless. "You never answered my question from before. Did Ginny ever ... was she involved with Malfoy?"
Hermione smirked. "That really bugs you, doesn't it? Actually, when they first started spending time together, we thought they were, as you put it, involved. I mean, Ginny announces to us that she's going to bring a very special friend of hers to Christmas dinner, we all naturally assumed that 'special friend' meant-"
"A very friendly friend," Harry filled in.
Hermione nodded and continued. "Well, of course, when Draco Malfoy walked through the door, the Weasley's all almost had a heart attack. Ron and the twins tried to kill him at once and this was only settled by a few well aimed leg-locker curses cast by Percy-"
"Percy?" Harry interrupted. "What was... I thought... Percy was shunning all thing's Weasley when I left. I didn't expect him to be invited to their Christmas dinners anymore."
"They made up. He admitted he was wrong, though with much difficulty. After all, it is Percy," Hermione said smiling. "He was very big on forgiveness that Christmas, hence he saved Draco from being killed by the Weasley boys. This was then followed by a very tense conversation about Draco's whole life, seeing as how we all thought he was a Death Eater then-"
"Still not sure he wasn't. All of those things he said back then... Are you sure that he wasn't?" Harry said meekly, almost sure that Hermione would begin to yell again.
"Of course he wasn't. Draco just... well... had no independence. I know that sounds very lame," she added quickly when Harry raised his eyebrow questioningly. "But it's true. He was never taught to form his own opinions about things, he just blindly followed his father."
"Well, that's great. You're marrying someone who doesn't form his own opinions. Sounds like a very healthy relationship," Harry said sarcastically.
"He does now. He just really didn't back then."
Silence lowered over the table again. Harry finished the last of his tea, and looked around awkwardly for something to do.
Hermione broke the silence this time. "So, what are you going to do today?"
An automatic answer popped into Harry's mouth. "Work on my case."
"Oh," Hermione said, feigning a disappointed tone. "Here I thought you were here just to see me get married."
"W- I was!" Harry stuttered. "It's just that- Well, there's this murder too. It was my excuse to get time off to come here. I really did just want to-"
"It's okay, Harry," Hermione said, laughing a bit. "I was just joking. But can I suggest before you go around looking for clues or something, you might want to visit the Burrow."
~*~*~*~*~*~
At the time, Hermione's suggestion had sounded like a very good idea, but now that Harry was standing on the doorstep, he was wondering what made him decided to listen to her.
He raised his fist, and knocked softly on the door. He waited a brief moment, before changing his mind and turning around. He was about three steps away from the door, when it swung open. Harry turned again, because he knew he had been caught.
A woman with blond hair pulled back into a pony tail stared back at him. Her eyes vacant, as though she didn't really know he was there. It was that vacant stare that made Harry realize who he was looking at. "Luna?"
"Yes?" she asked, her voice sounding as though she was thinking about something else.
"It's me," Harry told her slowly. "Harry Potter. Remember?"
Luna stared for another second. "Oh, right!" she suddenly said loudly. "Harry's back. Of course! All this time I thought the Weasley's were making a big deal about someone's hairy back. Are you coming in? All of the Lutrets come rushing into the house if I don't shut the door in a minute."
Harry stepped into the house without a second thought. Unfortunately, once the door was shut behind him and he was in the Weasley's kitchen, second thoughts flooded back into his mind.
The kitchen was empty except for the two of them. The sink was full of dishes and charmed brushes that were washing them. It seemed so normal. For one second, Harry felt that not everything had changed.
A three year old girl came running into the room, being chased by an older boy. The girl's hair was a darker shade of red than most of the Weasley's, and her skin was the shade of coffee with cream. Her cheeks were dusted with freckles, leaving now doubt that this was a Weasley child.
The boy proved to be a Weasley as well, as his hair was the exact same shade as Ron's. However, he had no freckles and extremely blue eyes that reminded Harry of someone, though he wasn't sure who.
These two children ruined the time-standing-still feeling that Harry had had when he entered the room. They stopped when they saw him.
"Who are you?" the boy said, positioning himself in front of the girl.
For a moment, Harry wasn't sure about what to do. After a moment of brainstorming, he crouched down and extended his hand to the boy. "I'm Harry Potter. Who are you?"
The boy looked him up and down, then finding him no threat, answered, though he didn't meet Harry's hand shake. "I'm Andre," he told Harry firmly. "This is my cousin Madison," he said, motioning to the girl standing behind him.
"I know you," said Madison, peering over Andre's shoulder. "Uncle Percy doesn't like you. And neither does Uncle Fred."
"Be nice, Madison," Andre told her.
Harry pulled his hand back, figuring that no one would be shaking it anytime soon. "Do they really," he said, though he figured that they most likely did. "What about your Grandmother? Can I talk to her?"
"Grandmum's in the living room," Andre asked Harry, offering his hand up to Harry. Harry wrapped his fingers around it gently and allowed himself to be led into the living room. He waved briefly at Luna, who busied herself with a book lying on the kitchen table.
Molly Weasley wasn't the only person in the living room. In fact, it looked almost like he had walked into a Weasley family reunion. There were various members of the Weasley family scattered around the room. When Harry walked in, all conversation ceased.
"Harry," Molly whispered, bolting to her feet and running to throw her arms around Harry's neck. Harry lowered his head onto her shoulder and closed his eyes. "I missed you so much," she whispered into his ear.
"I missed you too," he said. She pulled away and he opened his eyes to survey the room.
He recognized Arthur, Bill, Percy, Fred, George and Ron. He also noticed that Angelina, Alicia, and Fleur were seated around the room in various places as well. Alicia looked very pregnant and Fleur had a girl about four seated on her lap.
George, who seemed to be uncomfortable by the silence jumped up from his seat. "Harry!" he said, striding forward to pull Harry into a manly hug. "Good to see you, old boy. How've you been?"
"Great," Harry said absently, somewhat put of by the murderous glares of Fred and Percy.
"You've met my daughter, I see," George continued.
"Yeah, I... wait. I thought that she was..." Harry trailed off, looking confused. Fred and Angelina had been dating when he left and he figured that Madison would be their child.
"Oh no! See, Angelina and I got together about six years ago," George explained. Meanwhile, Alicia managed to pull herself onto her feet.
"Harry," she said, smiling brightly. She leaned forward and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Glad you're back. Perhaps you will have some helpful information to add on our topic. You see, we're discussing names for my baby and Percy has the horrible idea of naming it after his great-grandfather, Frederick. Now, in case you haven't noticed, we already have a Fred in the family and Fredericka is such a awful name. What do you think?"
Harry was at a loss for words. Alicia, though they had been on the same Quidditch team for five years, had never said so many words to him at once. Luckily he never had the chance to respond, as Percy got to his feet angrily.
"Alicia," he said, trying to keep his voice calm, but it sounded as though he would be yelling at any moment. "We are not asking Harry Potter's opinion on what we should name our baby."
"Just because-" Alicia started.
"Just because of what? You know what he did!" Percy had lost control of his voice now. "And you know what happened to Ginny, when-"
He trailed off as Ginny came down the stairs, smiling. "Are we finally discussing the naming the baby after me?" she said, happily.
Harry's heart flipped. He hadn't seen Ginny looking that cheerful since he left. That brief confrontation at the Rehearsal Dinner did not compare to seeing her like this.
But then Ginny spotted Harry in the room and her smile faded. Without another word, she turned on her heel and dashed back up the stairs.
Harry, without a moments hesitation, started to sprint to the stairs, calling her name when Fred got up and blocked the way. He glared at Harry, his eyes very stern and Harry realized that Fred had not said one word since he entered the room.
"Let's take a walk," Fred said, leading Harry outside with a strong, if not forceful, hand. Once the door had slammed shut behind them, he looked at Harry, angrily. "Why did you come back?" he asked, his voice betraying no emotion, though his face did.
Harry floundered for words, not used to seeing Fred like this. "I...er... wanted to see Hermione. I heard she was getting married."
This, if anything, made Fred look even angrier. "You didn't even think about seeing Ginny again, did you?"
"Yes," Harry said, simply. "I did."
"You probably thought she'd be here, waiting for you. Ready to jump into your open arms and forgive you. Am I close?"
Harry shifted his eyes away, not wanting to admit that this was exactly what he had thought.
"Well, I'll tell you something, Potter. Ginny was waiting for you, ready to jump into your open arms and forgive you for about two weeks after you left. Then she started to lose hope, blame herself for your leaving."
"But it wasn't because of her-" Harry interjected angrily.
"Yeah, but you should have tried to tell her that. She cried every night that summer. But we never detected. We were hardly there for her, we were lost in our own grief. So when she stopped eating, we hardly noticed," Fred finished, his voice stern and hard, leaving no doubt that he blamed Harry.
"She... What?" Harry felt as if he couldn't have heard him right. That he must have said something else and Harry had just interpreted it wrong.
"The Muggle term is Anorexia. She thought that if she was more beautiful, maybe you would come back. So she starved herself."
Harry felt as if he was sinking. He had had no idea that he had hurt her so much. No idea the impact he had had, and he understood why so many of the Weasley's hated him. "Oh, God."
"That's right. And you wonder why we accepted Malfoy so easily. He was the only one who was able to talk some sense into her. He stopped her problem," Fred continued. An ironic smile played at his lips. "Without Draco Malfoy, she might have died."
"I'm... I'm so sorry," Harry said, not able to string together any other words.
"It doesn't matter. It's still your fault," Fred told him. He seemed like he was about to go back inside, but Harry thought of something. Something that Fred had said earlier.
"You said that you were all lost in your own grief. What grief? I mean, you all weren't so terribly upset about my leaving were you?"
Fred stared at him as if he was the stupidest man alive. "I guess you didn't notice that Charlie wasn't inside then did you? He was killed about three days after you left." Fred turned around to go back inside. Before opening the door he turned to look at Harry. "Don't come back, Harry," he said. "Don't ever come back here." And Harry thought he saw a tear slide down Fred's cheek, but before he could be sure, the door slammed, leaving Harry alone out side of the Burrow.
A/N: And see? That author's note didn't effect the length of our chapter one bit. Okay, let's try being less 'Draco-bashy' in our reviews this time, kay?
