Chapter Forty-One: The Break-In

The next few weeks went steadily for Harry. He began to spend more time with Katie, not that she minded. Early in February, Katie approached Harry about this.

"Harry, why have you been spending so much time with me?" asked Katie bluntly.

"What do you mean?" asked Harry as he looked up from his potions essay.

"Well, before that vision, you would spend time with Ron, Hermione, Neville, and me mostly. Lately, it seems that you spend more time with me than them. I was just wondering why," said Katie.

Harry looked to the table in silence before speaking.

"Ever since that vision, Voldemort's been forcing weird dreams on me. In them, all of you are begging me to join him to stop him from killing you. He seems to torture you especially. It's been all I have to not say anything," said Harry.

"Really? Oh, Harry, I'm sorry you have to go through that alone," said Katie as she draped her arm around his shoulders.

"What ever made you talk to me in the first place?" asked Harry suddenly.

"I… don't know. It's hard to explain. I had this urge to be around you. It was intoxicating. Whenever I'm around you, I feel instantly better. It's weird, I've never felt this way about anyone," said Katie.

Harry began to look at Katie oddly.

"What?" asked Katie.

"It's probably nothing but I felt the same way around you," said Harry.

The pair stared into each others eyes before returning to their homework.

That night, Harry was again visited by Voldemort.

Harry seemed to be in a field of some sort. He knew this place well; he'd visited it every night since his vision. He turned and saw Katie. Her eyes were white and glazed over. Drool was hanging from her mouth. Her hair was standing straight up. Harry blinked and when he caught sight of her, she looked normal. Suddenly, he heard a high pitched cackling.

"She'll be dead soon, I promise," whispered Voldemort into Harry's ear.

"NO! I won't listen to you!" yelled Harry as he turned and saw Ginny.

She had the same white- eyed drooling expression that Katie had. Instantly, she looked like herself.

"She'll be dead, too," whispered Voldemort.

Harry turned again. He saw Ron and Hermione looking the same way he'd seen Katie and Ginny.

"They'll all die unless you join me," said Voldemort menacingly, "If you do, I swear that I'll leave them be."

Harry turned again only to see Dumbledore. Unlike the others, Dumbledore looked normal except the normal twinkle in his eyes had vanished.

"If you join me, I'll only hand him to the dementors. If you don't, I'll kill them all slowly," said Voldemort.

"NOO!" shouted Harry as he dropped to his knees, feeling utterly helpless.

"You have four months to decide. Until then, get used to seeing their vile faces," hissed Voldemort, "Each night will be some form of torture…"

With that, Harry woke up, panting for breath.

"No, I can't join him. I have to kill him," whispered Harry to himself.

The next day, a Saturday, Harry was moping around the common room, trying to avoid his friends. Every time he looked them in the face, he saw them white-eyed and drooling like zombies. Feeling overwhelmed, Harry left the common room and walked the corridors for hours. He finally ended up in the Defense classroom. Wanting someone who might be able to comfort him, Harry knocked on the door leading to Strindell's study. As he knocked, the door opened. Harry cautiously walked in. As Harry looked around, he caught sight of some papers on Strindell's desk. Harry bent closer and read the upper most documents. After a few lines, Harry realized that it was a complete inventory of weapons in the Potter vault. A number of the items were circled. Suddenly, there was a loud pop and Harry looked up to see Dobby the house elf.

"Harry Potter, sir! The most unthinkable has happened! Harry Potter's vault has been broken into!" squeaked Dobby.

"What do you mean my vaults be broken into? That's impossible," said Harry as he realized the most likely suspect, "No, not again."

"Excuse Dobby, Harry Potter, sir, what is you saying?" asked the house elf.

"Nothing, don't worry about it," said Harry as a brown owl landed in the study.

Harry noticed that it was addressed to him. Harry ripped open the letter. It was from Gringotts and it stated that his vault had been burglarized. It also had a list of stolen objects. Harry compared the list in the letter to the one that was on Strindell's desk. They were an exact match; every item that was circled was stolen. Just as Harry dropped the letter, he noticed that Strindell had entered the study. Harry noticed that Strindell was wearing all black.

"Harry? What are you doing here?" asked Strindell nervously.

"How could you do that? I invite you back into the family and you betrayed me," spat Harry, "Consider yourself estranged, again. Keep the weapons; all you had to do was ask. I would have given them to you. But no, you had to sneak behind my back and steal them. Looks like I was too quick to believe that you had really changed."

Harry stormed past Strindell.

"Harry-" started Strindell but a loud bang cut him off.

Harry watched as Strindell soared past him. Harry turned to see Dobby with his hand outstretched. A look of fury was upon his face.

"You are not to be speaking to Harry Potter anymore, thief," said Dobby lowly, "Harry Potter is a great and kind wizard who was gracious enough to allow you back into his family after they turned their backs on you and you betrayed him. That… is… unacceptable."

Harry had only seen the house elf defend him once, when Lucius Malfoy had threatened him after Dobby's release. It hadn't turned out to be a pleasant said and neither was this. Strindell was lying in a heap, limbs twisted. He seemed to be dazed.

"Dobby speaks true, you are not to talk to me nor my friends at any time except during class time," said Harry as he turned and left with Dobby trailing his every step.

"Thank you, Dobby. That meant more to me than you know. It is only fair that you know stop calling me sir, not that you'd listen to my pleas," said Harry as he placed his hand on the house elf's head.

"Harry Potter is too kind," squealed Dobby, "Dobby must be returning to the kitchens now. Good bye, Harry Potter, sir."

Harry chuckled softly to himself. As he walked back to the common room, he began to think that rehabilitation for criminals seemed to be a deception. As he entered the common room, he saw Katie bound toward him. Suddenly, a pain coursed through Harry's body. Instead of seeing Katie's unblemished face, it was cut viciously and blood was pouring from every puncture in Katie's face. Sick to his stomach, Harry turned his head and threw up all over the floor. When he'd finished, he turned and ran into his dormitory. Harry threw himself into his bed and closed the curtains. He pulled the covers over him, hoping that the whole day was just one giant nightmare.

"Harry?" called the voice of Katie softly.

"Go away," whispered Harry.

"Not until you tell what's wrong," said Katie firmly as she pulled curtains around Harry's bed back.

Harry was happy to see that nothing had actually befallen Katie.

"What happened? None of us have even spoken to you today. You leave for hours to who knows where and when you finally return, you take one look at me and through up all over the common room," said Katie despondently, "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing," lied Harry as he buried his head into his pillows.

"I know that's not true, now tell me what happened," said Katie.

"Trust me, you don't want to know," said Harry weakly.

"You're wrong," said Katie, "If something has happened to you, I want to know about it. You're the first person I've really cared about since my parents."

Harry looked up at Katie in surprise.

"What?" asked Harry.

"At least now you'll look at me," said Katie as she wrapped her arms around Harry to stop him from escaping, "Now, what happened?"

"Fine," said Harry grudgingly as Katie laid down next to him, "Over the last few weeks, I've been seeing you, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all be tortured in both magical and muggle ways. The things that I was forced to see were gruesome. I was forced to watch, helpless, as you were all tortured. The whole time, you were begging me to join him. He cackled as he watched me agonize over the decision, saying things about how he'd stop if I agreed. I swear that I can't keep this up. When I walked into the common room and saw you, he forced me to see you as if you were beaten and bleeding. The sight was so realistic that I threw up. I couldn't stand to see you like that. To make matters worse, my dear uncle betrayed me. He broke into my vault and stole a number of weapons from me. When I found out, I started to yell at him. When I stormed out, he tried to stop me. If Dobby wasn't there, I don't know what I would have done to him. Dobby just sent him flying. Sometimes, I'm glad that little house elf tries to save my life. Ugh! I can't shake the sight of your… mangled face. I don't think I can last much longer."

"Harry, don't you see?" asked Katie, "Voldemort's just trying to drive you over the edge. He's just trying to trick you into joining him but you mustn't."

"I know but you have no idea what it's like to see what he's shown me," said Harry as he hugged Katie.

"I know I don't but that doesn't matter. As long as you know that they aren't real, you don't have to worry about it," said Katie as she pushed Harry's head back into the pillow and laid her head on his chest, "Don't forget that your friends will always be with you. We won't ever abandon you."

"I hope not. Thank you for pulling me out of that," said Harry as he fell into a sea of unconsciousness.

Harry again dreamed that Voldemort was torturing his friends.

"Crucio!" yelled the voice of Voldemort.

Harry jumped between the delirious and limp bodies of his friends and the spell. Harry collapsed to his knees for a few seconds before standing back up.

"Cruciatus doesn't… work… on… me anymore," panted Harry.

"That's too bad. Imperio!" shouted Voldemort.

The spell connected and Harry could hear Voldemort's voice in his head.

"Kill them… You know you want to… After that, no one will tell you what to do… You'll be free…"

"He's right, you know…" said a small voice in the back of Harry's head, "You can end it all now…"

"Who are you?" shouted Harry at the voice.

"You'll know in the end… If you kill them, you'll be free but you'll be racked with guilt. In the end, you'll be overcome with pain that you'll kill yourself, just to join them. Only you won't die, you'll remain here… You won't be dieing anytime soon… But don't worry, neither will Katie…" said the voice.

"NO!" bellowed Harry as he threw off the Imperius curse.

Harry looked around and saw that he hadn't moved. Voldemort was looking at him in utter shock. Just as Harry tried to lunge at him, Voldemort caused the vision to wash away.

Harry awoke with a start and found that Katie was asleep in his arms. Thanking Merlin that he hadn't woken her, Harry looked around and noticed that it was passed midnight.

'How am I going to explain this in the morning?' thought Harry to himself as he gripped Katie tighter and fell back asleep.

The next morning, Harry awoke to the dormitory door being slammed open. In walked a fuming Hermione, Parvati Patil, and Lavender Brown.

"HARRY JAMES POTTER!" yelled Hermione.

"HOW DARE YOU SLEEP WITH OUR DORM MATE!" screeched Parvati.

"What?" said Harry incoherently as he looked down and saw Katie's confused face, "Whatsamatter?"

"YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT'S THE MATTER!" yelled Hermione.

"YOU BROUGHT OUR DORM MATE IN HERE AND DIDN'T EVEN ENTERTAIN THE THOUGHT OF RETURNING HER!" shouted Lavender before all three girls burst into a fit of giggles.

"I swear, I barely remember yesterday!" yelled Harry before he realized that the girls were laughing at him, "But I have a splitting headache, that's for sure."

After the laughing girls and the disgruntled boys, who had lost a nice amount of sleep, left, Katie looked into Harry's eyes.

"Have you really forgotten last night?" asked Katie.

"Not a chance," said Harry as he placed a kiss on Katie's lips, "But I do have that headache."

"I love you, Harry Potter," said Katie as she placed her head back on his chest.

All Harry could do was open his eyes in shock.

"What?" asked Harry, "You… love me?"

"I do," said Katie, "Although, it's customary for someone to repeat it when said."

"I'm sorry but you caught me off guard. I don't know what to say," said Harry as he let his head rest against hers, "I don't know what love is… I've never really felt it. I do know that I care about you more than anyone I've ever known but I don't know that it's love. I'm sorry. Love is a difficult concept for me to grasp."

"That's okay, Harry," said Katie, "I understand. You went eleven years before having any friends who didn't care about your past. You went thirteen years without any kind of real parent. I understand that it's difficult for you. Just know that I'm always here for you."

"I think that it's time we made our relationship a little deeper," said Harry as he kissed her on the lips.

"I think so too," said Katie as she turned her head and kissed Harry on the cheek before climbing out of the bed and leaving the dormitory.

'I really hope that Rita Skeeter stays away from me or I'll have to burn down the Daily Prophet to keep that from the wizarding world.'

A/N: Well, that's it for now. My beta has been begging me to develop this so I'm sorry if you don't like it. It's not really my element but that's about as good as I can get. Also, my beta hates this chapter but oh well. The ball chapter should be soon but it'll take longer than most. My beta said that she wanted me to let her help since I'm no good at the touchy feely stuff like that. I had to wrack my brains just to get that far. Thanks for all my reviewers and I hope that you like my latest chapter.

Crimson Katana: The first answer won't be answered until the end, as is true for the third. Hopefully this will quell your questions about Strindell.