A/N - Warning: This chapter contains not-entirely-consensual sex. If you don't want to read it, just drop down past the first divider (---)

Chapter 21

Harry streaked back up towards Gryffindor tower, seething in anger. The little bastard had gotten away! Now he would have to act swiftly to cover his tracks... His mind quickly clicked through the possibilities, then an evil grin spread over his face as he settled on one.

Perfect.

When he reached the tower he headed over to the girl's side. He eased up to the sixth year girls' room, listening carefully. Slipping inside, he quickly muttered silencing spells to keep any of the others from waking, then walked over to Hermione's bed. He pulled the hangings open. Hermione started to wake, rubbing her eyes, but he quickly stunned her. Just easier that way. He picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder, getting back on his broom. He dissolved the silencing spells on the other beds and flew out the window.

When he reached his own window he checked to make sure all his roommates were in bed, then slipped in, tossing Hermione's limp body on the bed as he passed it. He put his broom away, then went over to Ron's bed, removing all evidence of anything ever happening there. When he was done he went back over to his bed, pulling off his clothes, carefully mending them and removing all evidence from them as well, then casts healing and cleansing spells on his body. When he was done, he quickly stripped Hermione's limp body. Before he got into bed himself he smirked, casting a contraceptive spell on her. Unless Voldemort loaned the Ministry his wand to force the Priori Incantatem on Harry's own, they could only check the very last spell cast. Let them make what they would of THAT one.

With that, he set his wand and his glasses on the bedside table and crawled on the bed, closing the hangings. At least he'd get SOME pleasure out of this night... He grinned evilly as he shifted her legs apart. She was just starting to come back around. He kissed her hungrily as he settled down on top of her.

She slowly became aware, kissing him back dazedly. She gasped as he thrust himself into her. She looked around, thoroughly disoriented as he started moving in her. "Wha... Harry... what are you...?" She said, trying to get a handle on what was happening.

"Shh..." He whispered, "Don't try to think... just lay back and enjoy it..." He said, grinning down at her as he started moving faster.

"Ok..." She said dazedly, sounding a little frightened by the suddenness of it.

He chuckled, thrusting harder.

After a minute she started making little pained sounds. "Harry... not so rough... you're hurting me..." She said in a small voice.

He chuckled again. If she had any idea how much he was having to restrain himself just to keep from damaging her... He pounded her harder for having objected. She didn't object again, but her nails dug into his back as she let out pained whimpers. He grinned wider, enjoying the feel of her nails digging into his flesh. He let himself go a bit more, ramming into her hard a couple dozen times before tensing, spending himself inside her.

All of the tension seemed to flow out of him as he sank down on top of her with a sigh.

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Harry woke, dazed and scared as light and noise erupted around him. The bed hangings had been pulled open and there were people standing there. He tried to make out who they were, but he wasn't wearing his glasses. He reached for them and there was a sudden flash of light as something stung his hand. He jerked back, holding his hurt hand to him and he tried to get away, falling backwards off the other side of the bed, tearing the hangings down in the process.

As he hit the cold stone floor he realized he was naked. He grabbed the torn hangings, trying to cover himself as he backed up against the wall, curling into a protective ball and covering his head as figures darted towards him.

"Severus calm yourself!" Dumbledore's voice commanded firmly.

"It nearly killed several of my students. Don't tell me to be calm. That creature needs to be contained!" Snape hissed angrily.

"We don't know for sure that it was even him." McGonagall said placatingly.

Harry was peeking up fearfully from where he crouched, surprised to hear familiar voices and trying to figure out why he was being attacked. "Professor Dumbledore?" He asked hopefully, trying to make out which of the blurry figures might be him.

He heard Dumbledore sigh. "Harry..." He said sadly, "I have to ask you where you've been tonight."

Harry thought furiously. Even his memories were as blurry as his vision. "I... I went to bed... and..." He thought furiously. Why was it so hard to remember?

"Let me help you out, Potter. Next, you attacked Mr. Weasley." Snape said sarcastically.

"Severus!" McGonagall said disapprovingly.

Harry was staring up with wide-eyed shock. "Ron was attacked?" He asked in alarm.

"As if you didn't know." Snape growled.

"Harry," Dumbledore said softly, "When was the last time you saw him?"

Harry searched his memory, "I... I woke up... I heard something... I went over to his bed... he looked like he was having a nightmare, so I tried to wake him... then Neville woke up... and... Ron left..." Why did that sound so strange to him? It was what he remembered... wasn't it?

"So then you just crawled back into bed and went to sleep without any witnesses and just now woke?" Snape asked sarcastically.

"He was with me!" Hermione's voice said defensively from the doorway. The figures all turned. "I was just... returning to my room when you came in..." She said, her voice dropping off a bit with embarrassment.

"We'll deal with you later Miss Granger. Disgraceful. You know very well it is against the rules to be in the boy's dormitories!" McGonagall said in a highly disapproving tone. Harry's nakedness hadn't passed her notice.

"I think that Harry and I are old enough to be seeing eachother after curfew if we want! You don't object when the others are snogging in the middle of the common room!" Hermione said defensively.

Snape snorted derisively. "We really don't care about your sex life Miss Granger. Go shag the whole House for all I care!"

"Severus!" McGonagall said, shocked.

"We are here for the safety of the students! If he didn't do anything, why did he reach for his wand when he saw us?"

"He was obviously reaching for his GLASSES!" Hermione said irritably.

Harry started slightly as someone came closer, but then realized it was Hermione. She leaned down and slipped his glasses on his face. He adjusted them thankfully, relieved to have the world in focus once again. That was, of course, until he saw the expressions on his professors' faces.

"What's this about?" He asked worriedly, "What happened to Ron? Is he ok?"

"Oh stop playing innocent. He have over a dozen witnesses!" Snape said, his eyes narrowed.

"Severus, please..." Dumbledore said gently. He looked down at Harry. "We'll have to take him somewhere we can safely test him. It will be readily apparent if he is lying. A creature powerful enough to do that much damage should be easy enough to recognize with the proper spells." He looked down at Harry again, looking him in the eyes for the first time in a long time. "Will you come willingly?"

"Who's going to be doing this testing?" Harry asked, eyeing Snape's angry countenance fearfully.

"You will not be harmed." Dumbledore said reassuringly.

Harry glanced down at himself. "Um... can I get some clothes on?"

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"This is ridiculous!" Snape said, pacing.

"Severus, we have conducted every test three times. There is simply no creature or entity in him, and we all know there is no way a mere mortal could have cast even half of those spells. Perhaps it has fled, and if so, I fear we may never find it."

"If that is the case, if it did simply flee him, why is Miss Granger insisting that he was with her the whole time?" Snape countered.

"Perhaps he was. We cannot completely rule out Miss Granger's suggestion. Anyone with polyjuice potion or some similar spell could have made themselves look like Harry... and he did leave enough blood on the playing field the other day to make it a simple thing for anyone to acquire the necessary ingredients for such a spell..."

Snape snorted derisively. "I have one student blinded, four with injuries that might take WEEKS to recover from fully, and a whole slew of other injuries... Madam Pomfrey still hadn't finished with half of them last I checked! Not to mention a highly damaged corridor. It looks like a war was waged down there! It'll take days to repair it! If I didn't have a protective spell in place that the Devil himself couldn't get through it may well have slaughtered every last one of them!"

"I understand your concern, Severus! Believe me, I am just as worried about the safety of all of our students as you are... but you can't punish Harry for something that we simply cannot prove he did! He has no injuries, nor indication of possession... his wand is clean... according to Poppy, he and Miss Granger do appear to have... been together tonight... there's nothing more we can do. He has been very cooperative with the whole process, and expressed nothing more than confusion and fear at the allegations against him. I will of course allow the Ministry officials to examine him when they arrive, but you know as well as I do that our own tests are more thorough than theirs. You have to accept that he may not have been the one who did this."

Snape narrowed his eyes angrily. "You can accept that, but I believe my students." He said, spinning around and storming out.

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Harry sat in the little cell they had put him in, staring up at the ceiling, his mind in turmoil. This had to be a nightmare. There was simply no other logical explanation. He glanced around distractedly at the room. A sleeping mat along the wall opposite him and a small sitting pouf were all the furnishings it contained. It didn't pass his notice that they seemed to have very carefully removed anything and everything that could possibly have been used as a weapon. There wasn't even a torch. Instead there was just a section of the ceiling that had been spelled to emit light. It was a pale light that reminded him of muggle florescent panels. It didn't really do much to dispel the dank, eerie half darkness of the cell. He imagined it looked much like a cell at Azkaban. That thought made him shiver. There was a sleeping mat... just how long did they plan on keeping him in here?

He looked up sharply, his errant thoughts dispelled instantly as the door opened. He sighed in relief as Dumbledore entered. He came over to stand before Harry as the door closed and locked behind him. Harry felt queasy in the pit of his stomach as he saw the troubled, sad look in Dumbledore's eyes.

"The Ministry officials are here, Harry. They are preparing their tests."

Harry let out a shuddering sigh and nodded. He drew his knees up, staring at the floor.

"How's Ron?" He asked, fearing the answer.

"He should recover in a day or so. Others will be longer in their recovery, but with luck there should be no lasting damage."

Harry swallowed and nodded, the tightness in his chest easing just a bit.

"Arthur Weasley has asked to be the one to administer the tests."

Harry sighed in relief, then paused, looking hesitantly up at Dumbledore, the tension returning to his muscles, "Does... he think I did what they say I did?" He was Ron's father after all... and he had seen the man hold a grudge! They STILL weren't speaking to Percy, and he was family!

Dumbledore studied him for a moment, then said in a gentle voice, "He will be fair and impartial, Harry. No one knows for sure what happened, and he knows this. He didn't request this duty to condemn you. He knows full well how the Ministry has reacted in the past... how they jump to conclusions when they feel it will make them look better. He knows there will be pressure on the Ministry to catch the culprit... he just wants to make sure they catch the right one."

Harry nodded, staring at the stone floor as his chest ached with tension.

"Is there something troubling you Harry?" Dumbledore asked gently.

Harry would have laughed if his throat weren't so tight. Was something troubling him? Everything! Still, he knew from the tone Dumbledore was referring to something more specific. He often wondered if the soft spoken man had some natural Ligilimency talents...

Slowly he nodded.

Dumbledore conjured a chair and sat, waiting patiently for Harry to continue.

Harry looked up, noting that the chair was a somber, straight backed wooden one... not the usual laid back and over stuffed lounger Dumbledore usually summoned to sit on. It made the situation seem all the more serious. Harry took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "I feel... strange..." He said, trying to figure out just how to put his feelings into words. "Every since Sirius..." He trailed off, his vocal cords tightening painfully and cutting him off as his eyes got glassy. After a moment he swallowed and went on, "Everything has just seemed so... disjointed... like nothing was... real... I just thought it was... dealing with... things... but... now... I'm not so sure..." He took another deep breath and looked up at Dumbledore searchingly. "Do you think I did this?" he asked seriously.

Dumbledore watched him in silence for so long Harry started feeling queasy. At length Dumbledore sighed, "I'm afraid it is not beyond the realm of possibilities that it was indeed you that did this... From what we can tell of the creature responsible, if it was you that it was inhabiting, you would most likely have been oblivious to it's presence. That is the nature of these creatures. I would like nothing more than to believe you were innocent beyond a shadow of a doubt... but I simply can't do that."

Harry dropped his eyes and nodded.

Sensing the discussion was at an end, Dumbledore rose, banishing the chair. Harry tried to pretend he didn't see the pitying look that crossed Dumbledore's face just before he turned and left without another word.

Harry hugged his legs to his chest, huddling back into the corner and resting his forehead against his knees as he started sobbing softly.

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A/N - And now this is where I apologize to the Harry HATERS. Sorry. Well, he's obviously going to be feeling horribly guilty, so that should please you ;) Least I got in some good bashing while it lasted, eh? And never know... there might be more in his future...........