Harry Potter and the Mysteries Within
Chapter Five – Hermione's Arrival
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Running down a stone walled corridor…Flaming torches everywhere. A solid black door approaching…Running towards a solid black door. Stop for breath, but heat rising, must go on…fire everywhere, must go on…
Running again, faster than ever, closer and closer to the door, dancing orange light from the torches getting more and more intense…unbearable heat. The door fly's open, banging hard against the stone wall of the corridor, so hard that stone falls to the floor, so hard that a draft extinguishes every torch. Running through pitch blackness… a red glow coming from the open door…running through darkness …closer and closer…and…through! Now a circular room, with doors on every available place on the wall… the room illuminated by four fiery red crosses on four of the doors… hit by a sudden coldness… familiar coldness… familiar surroundings…
A destination in mind…must press on… Running again, straight forward, straight to a marked doorway, through the door without it even opening… running straight into…Ginny?
'What are you doing here Ginny?'
'I've come to see you, silly' she said with a big smile on her face.
'No, you can't be here, there's Death Eaters here, you need to get out!'
'There are no Death Eaters here. They went away. It's just you and me Harry.
'What about Sirius? He needs to see me. I need to save him. Let me go and save him!' Harry yelled with a note of desperation in his voice. But Ginny had grabbed his arms and Harry couldn't escape. Couldn't stop staring into her eyes.
'He's gone, Harry, he went away. You don't have to worry about seeing him in your dreams again' Ginny said softly.
'No he hasn't! Let go of me and I'll show you. He's just waiting for me to save him... he's waiting...' But Harry couldn't carry on. He started sobbing uncontrollably and Ginny pulled him into a tight embrace.
'Sshhh, it's Ok. Everything's going to be OK' she whispered gently into his ear.
Harry opened his eyes and pulled away from her. They were no longer at the Department of Mysteries, but in the Gryffindor common room at Hogwarts. The pair didn't seem to notice the change in their surroundings though.
'Thanks' Harry said quietly, the tears now gone from his eyes.
'What for?' Ginny asked, taking a step closer to Harry so that their faces were only inches apart.
'For this' he said, and he leaned over to Ginny, pulled her to his body, and kissed her tenderly.
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"Oww!" Harry yelled. "What was that for?" Ron had just thrown his pillow at Harry, waking him up from possibly the nicest, but weirdest dream he had ever had. Well, apart from the dream he had back in third year about himself, his owl Hedwig, Errol (The Weasley's family owl), Hermione's cat Crookshanks, Scabbers (Ron's ex 'pet rat'), and Neville's toad Trevor, having a tea party, along with Fluffy the three headed dog, and, of all people, Professor Snape.
"You were...moaning in your sleep!" Ron said, his ears going pink. "I know what I said last night about you and Ginny, but that's taking it too far! I don't wanna hear you moaning over my sister, OK?"
"Sorry" Harry said, turning pink himself. He had never had a dream about Ginny before, and he couldn't help but wonder why his feelings for her were developing so quickly.
"Yeah. Right. Anyway... Hermione will be here soon, I'm going to take a shower" Ron said. It seemed that Ron wasn't bothered that Harry saw him making an effort for Hermione's sake, after the conversation they had had last night.
Ron grabbed some clean clothes and left for the bathroom. Harry lay back down on his bed and closed his eyes. 'What am I going to do about this?' he asked himself silently. By 'this' he meant Ginny. And it was true; he didn't know what to do. He liked Ginny as more than a friend, this much he knew. And now Ron knew, which meant that Hermione was sure to find out soon. He would have to talk to her and make sure she didn't say anything about it to Ginny.
But what should he do about Ginny? If he told her what he felt – if he asked her out, would she laugh in his face? After all, she had said last year that she was over him, so why should she change her mind? If only he had noticed her sooner, he wouldn't be in this position. But no, that aside, he knew that she wouldn't laugh in his face. She was too kind to do that. If anything, she would let him down gently, give him the 'I think we should just be friends' speech. And then their friendship would never be as close as it was at the moment. Sure, he knew they hadn't been close for very long, but he still felt as close to Ginny as he did Ron and Hermione.
There was also a slightly more selfish side of Harry that knew that Ron and Hermione would be going out soon, and so he would be left out regularly in favour of more intimate activity between his two best friends. It was obvious to Harry that Hermione would say yes if Ron asked her out, Ginny had told him that much. But if he went out with Ginny, then the two couples could hang out together still.
Then Harry went into a rather nightmarish daydream about if he asked Ginny out, if he managed to get through all of the stuttering and embarrassment and actually asked her. It would be going fine, they would be getting close...and he'd make her cry. He wouldn't know what he'd done, but she would be crying, because that's what happened with girls he liked. And then he would go to kiss her whilst she was still crying, and because he hardly had any experience at that sort of thing, he would bite her tongue off! And then Ron would hear her screaming in pain and would run in, see the tongue on the floor and proceed to knock the living daylights out of Harry.
Harry snapped out of it then, thinking it was ridiculous. True, he had a thing for making girls cry, but he wasn't so bad at kissing that he'd bite a girls tongue off... was he?
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The rest of Harry's morning was spent with Ron. Ginny had gone to the twins shop in Diagon Alley to help out for the morning, but would be back around lunch time. So Harry was left with Ron, which would have been fine with Harry, only Ron seemed to have lost the confidence he had had last night, and was now quite distracted from the game of exploding snap they were currently having at the kitchen table. Mrs Weasley was home for a change, and was busy preparing that evenings meal on the stove. She had decided that as the whole family would he home (including Hermione but minus Percy), the meal would be a very extravagant one for the special occasion.
"Come on Ron, this is getting boring" Harry said as he won his eighth game. Ron was too busy glancing at the fireplace to keep track of the cards on the table.
"What? Oh yeah, sorry" he said, again looking at the fireplace. "She should be here by now shouldn't she, what time is it?"
Harry glanced at his watch and was about to tell Ron that it was 12.20, when there was a large bang from outside the house. Harry jumped up instinctively, his hand reaching to his pocket, only to be stopped when he caught sight of a familiar purple object speed up at almost unlikely speeds and then vanish, leaving a slightly annoyed looking Hermione standing on the dirt track leading up the The Burrow with her trunk at her feet, and a cage in her hand. The Knight Bus often did that to its passengers, but it was often the most convenient and quick method of travelling, especially to under-age wizards and witches.
Mrs Weasley, who was stood at the kitchen sink when the noise occurred, was also looking out of the window. "Ron, Harry, go and help Hermione with her trunk, where's your manners?"
"I thought you said she was coming by Floo" Ron said to his mother.
"I never said such a thing Ronald" Mrs Weasley said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "Now are you going to let the poor girl struggle with her trunk on her own? Hmm?"
Ron stood up and practically ran out of the door, leaving Harry in his wake.
"That was a waste of time cleaning the fireplace then, wasn't it!" Harry called after Ron, who seemed not to hear the joke.
As Harry went out to the garden, he saw Ron run up to Hermione. Ron reached her and the two hugged for a few seconds longer than necessary. They only broke apart when Tonks suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Harry jogged up to the little group and when Hermione saw him, she ran to Harry and the two friends also hugged.
"How've you been, Harry?" Hermione asked him.
"You know… better since being here, any way" he replied, hoping that she would end the questioning before it even really began.
"Alright there Harry?" Tonks interjected before Hermione could continue her line of questioning.
"Hi Tonks, I see you gave up with the Weasley hair-do" he joked.
"Yeah well I got fed up of people sayin' I looked like one of those ugly Weasley boys" Tonks said with a mischievous grin.
Ron was about to retaliate when Tonks handed Hermione a piece of parchment, said her goodbyes and left, saying that there was an Order meeting about to start at Headquarters. Harry instantly associated Headquarters with Sirius, but the thought of his godfather was pushed to the back of his mind when Mrs Weasley appeared at the kitchen door.
"RON" she bellowed, making herself heard from the short distance away that she was.
"I'VE GOT TO GO FOR A MEETING, KEEP AN EYE ON THE STOVE FOR ME"
"OK mum, no need to shout" he said, bending down to pick Hermione's trunk up.
"I SHOULDN'T BE LONG. NICE TO SEE YOU HERMIONE" she shouted, and then went back inside. A few seconds later a dull green light came from the window to signal the departure of Mrs Weasley.
"Need any help with that, Ron?" Harry asked, Ron obviously struggling with the weight of the trunk. He grunted a reply which Harry took as a yes, so he went over and took hold of one end of Hermione's trunk.
"I see you decided to bring the library with you this time, instead of just a couple hundred books" Harry said to Hermione, who gave him a sarcastic smile in return.
"You'll thank me one day, you always do… 'Let us see your transfiguration essay Hermione, can I copy your astronomy chart Hermione?'" she said, mocking the two boys who relied rather too much on her talents and brains. "I don't know what you'd do without me" she said.
"Neither do we, do we Ron?" Harry said, pushing the trunk they were carrying in Ron's direction so he nearly stumbled.
"Wha? Umm, yeah... you're great. I mean, you're a great help, Hermione" he stuttered, and quickly looked away so that they didn't notice how red he had gone in the face, or the disgusted look he now held for not watching what he was saying.
"Like now for instance. You could have asked me to place a levitation charm on the trunk so you didn't have to carry it, but you chose not to" Hermione said, knowing too well that neither boy thought to use the charm, and seen as though they were at the kitchen door now, it was too late to use it anyway.
"And you seem to forget that we can't use magic outside of school" Harry said, not being able to hide a smile. It wasn't often that he got one over Hermione. And the look on her face was enough to tell him that it was a good job that he didn't do it often.
"How was your holiday, Hermione?" Ron asked, trying to forget his stuttering and make his way into the conversation. "Where did you go again?"
"Oh it was great...two whole weeks by the sea with my family. It's nice to spend time with them, you know, after not seeing them all year. They seemed happy too, happier than I've seen them for a while. They're always so worried about me, because I'm away all year and they know I don't tell them everything that happens. I imagine they would stop me going to Hogwarts if I mentioned there was an evil wizard out to take over the world, who just happened to have a specific interest in my best friends... and me now, I suppose. They don't even know I was hurt and unconscious last year." She paused here, seeing the look that Harry was giving her, which she interpreted as 'it's all my fault'.
"Harry, it is not your fault what happened, we do not blame you for what happened, it was us who made you let us go with you that night, we knew the consequences, we accepted them and we dealt with them. So please stop thinking that everything was your fault, because it certainly wasn't." she said, taking both Harry and Ron by surprise at the frankness of what she had just said.
"Where did that come from? I didn't even say anything" he said quietly, wondering how long she had been waiting to say that.
"I saw the look on your face, and besides, I had to say something about it."
"I'm hungry, shall we eat now?" Harry asked, wanting to forget what Hermione had said. He wasn't thinking that it was all his fault at the time Hermione had said it, he was merely grimacing at the rather large rumble his stomach had just made. He had skipped breakfast because he woke a little later than usual that morning.
"Sorry Harry, I just thought...oh never mind" Hermione said
"It's Ok; I know you're just looking out for me and everything. But really, I'm fine, stop worrying so much." Harry said sincerely. "Now, what can we eat?"
"I'm going to take my trunk upstairs first" Hermione said, quite obviously not wanting to leave it lying around.
"We'll do that for you" Ron said, picking up his end of the trunk again.
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Ginny arrived back from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes not long after Hermione had arrived. She told the trio that Fred and George had been called into Headquarters too, which indicated to Harry that something important had happened. However he quickly forgot about this, as the two girls cooked lunch and Hermione told them about her holiday and how a '20 year old boy' asked her on a date. "Well he was a little bit intoxicated, but he had no chance really" she commented.
"You still never told us where you went on holiday" Ron said. Harry stopped what he was saying to Ginny and looked at Hermione. He had noticed how she had avoided the question earlier, and he guessed where she must have gone. Why else would she hide it from Ron?
"Bulgaria" she said simply in reply.
"Right...OK...Great" Ron said. Hermione looked at him incredulously.
"Is that a problem Ron?" she asked, obviously annoyed at the fact that Ron wouldn't want her to go to Bulgaria because of a certain world-class Quidditch player.
"Ron, I just remembered your mum asked us to make our beds, come on" Harry told him. There was something Ron needed to know.
"My beds allr… err…yeah, yeah she did…" he stopped himself halfway through saying 'already made' when he noticed the important eye contact Harry was making with him.
Harry and Ron went up to the second floor landing, where Ron stopped and asked Harry what he wanted.
"I just thought I should help you out. As much as I love you and Hermione arguing, you need to know. Viktor doesn't even live in Bulgaria. Sure, he plays for their Quidditch team, but he lives in Russia, closer to Durmstrang. So don't argue over nothing, OK?"
"We weren't arguing!" Ron said a little loudly.
"No but you were about to. I've seen enough of it to know when it's coming." Harry said, and he shoved Ron lightly. "Come on", and they made their way back down the stairs, only to be met by Mr and Mrs Weasley, Tonks, Remus Lupin and Professor Dumbledore. All five adults wore very anxious and worried looks, but Harry failed to notice as he spotted Remus.
"Professor Lupin!" Harry said as he rushed over to his former teacher, and the closest thing to a father he had left. Lupin shook Harry's hand.
"Good, I'm good" he said wearily.
"Harry..." It was Dumbledore who spoke next.
"Professor...what's wrong?" Harry asked, a note of uncertainty in his voice.
"There's been an attack Harry," Dumbledore said with the familiar twinkle absent from his eyes.
"Where?" Harry asked, knowing it must concern him personally by the worry surrounding him.
"Little Whinging. Your aunt and uncles house."
End of Chapter 5
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A/N - Please Review!