Thanks to all who reviewed. im glad u liked it. just so u know, this story finally broke the 1000 hits mark. kinda happy bout that. anyways thanks. and i wanna say a special hello to my cuzzy who i just saw has actually taken the time to read this (again). im out!
Chapter 12 Memories With a Bit of Fudge
"Look out, Neville!" Harry shouted, ignoring his own battle. Neville turned and was hit from behind. He looked at Harry for a moment before collapsing.
"No!" Harry screamed. He turned back to the Death Eater he'd been fighting and fought him all the more furiously. "Protego!" he yelled. "Stupify!"
"Malfoy?" she asked, forgetting about cursing him. He nodded, dropping his wand and brining both hands up to where she could see them. "What do you want?"
"You need to get to Dumbledore. Someone's got to warn him; he'll be able to help you," he said to her.
Ginny nodded and lowered her wand. "But why are you here with them?"
"That doesn't matter now! Just go!" he shouted, pushing her out of the alley.
With a last confused look back at him, she dashed down the street to Honeydukes, praying it wasn't locked. It wasn't. She raced inside and down the stairs to the storage room. She looked around at the floor, trying to remember where Harry had said that the trapdoor was. She found it and dropped through it.
She sprinted down the passage as fast as she could, but she still didn't feel like she was going fast enough. The only sound she heard was her beating heart and the pounding of her feet on stone. Her heart leapt as she saw the end of the tunnel.
She burst into the brightly lit corridor and paused a moment before rushing off again. She barreled around a corner and ran straight into the object of her search.
"Miss Weasley," he cried in surprise. "What is it?"
She tried to calm herself enough to explain herself but it didn't work. Instead, the words came out in a jumble she hoped Dumbledore would understand.
"DeathEatersinHogsmeadandweneedhelp," she said in one breath.
Dumbledore paled. "Is Harry still down there?"
Ginny nodded.
"Go warn the rest of the school to stay inside and make sure the teachers know what is happening."
Ginny was off running again.
Harry was trapped; no more than a caged animal. He gazed around as if in some sort of spell, and his heart dropped into his stomach. No one would save him this time. He turned back to the Death Eater closing in on him and raised his head high. Harry stared down the end of a wand and closed his eyes, not wanting to die wide-eyed and staring.
"STUPIFY!" someone shouted.
"What?" Harry asked, opening his eyes. His Death Eater lay unconscious on the ground at his feet. Harry looked up for the sound of his voice and only saw another Death Eater coming his way. "Must have wanted to kill me himself," thought Harry bitterly, wishing his wand wasn't lying mere feet away but still just beyond his reach.
But to his amazement, Harry saw the Death Eater stoop and pick it up. Handing the wand to Harry he said, "Don't actually curse me; just pretend. Dumbledore's on his way."
"Dumbledore's on his way…" The words echoed loudly in Harry's mind and gave him a familiar sense of comfort.
"Why are you here?" Harry asked as he pretended to fire a curse at Malfoy.
Ducking, Malfoy said, "Lucky me got called out here."
"Why?"
"Duck!" Malfoy shouted suddenly.
"What?"
Malfoy didn't answer again. Instead he pushed Harry down flat on his back and stooped over him, pointing his wand at Harry. Harry saw a curse whiz harmlessly over their heads.
"Thanks," he whispered as he scrambled to his feet again.
Malfoy stared over Harry's shoulder. Harry turned to look and found Dumbledore striding purposefully toward the fray with a few members of the Order and teachers following him. Around Harry, all fighting stopped and a few Death Eaters even turned and ran.
"He's made it so they can't Disapparate," Malfoy whispered to Harry.
"Then what about you?" Harry asked. "You can't get caught, can you?"
"No." With that, he dashed into a dark alley and pulled off his black robes to reveal his Hogwarts ones underneath. He tossed his old robes into a stinking trashcan and hid among the shadows.
Harry watched Dumbledore in amazement. With a quick flick of his wand, something like and invisible barrier went up around the Death Eaters. Some tried to escape, but they were just thrown roughly back inside. Once Harry was sure that no one could escape the spell, he dashed over to Neville, who was still lying motionless on the ground.
Harry knelt down beside him. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Neville's chest rise and fall. Thankfully the curse had only knocked him unconscious.
Feeling movement beside him, Harry looked up and saw Madame Pomfrey kneeling in the dirt next to him. Quickly she muttered the countercurse and Neville started to stir. Harry helped him to his feet.
Harry turned around to look for Dumbledore, but both he and the Death Eaters were gone. He wondered where they'd gone. Azkaban was no use; they'd just escape from there anyway, and the Ministry couldn't help either. Harry shook his head.
"Harry!" shouted Hermione from across the common room later that night. She ran to him, scowling.
"What do you think you were doing out there?" she asked fiercely.
"What do you mean?" he asked back stupidly.
"You should not have been out there! You're the one who has to stop Voldemort! We can't have you killed fighting some stupid Death Eaters," she shouted.
"I'm fine!"
"But things could have turned out differently…and what if they did?" she asked him.
"I was trying to help my school! To help you!"
"I know, and I thank you for that, but you really must start being more careful," she pleaded.
"Well, fine! Next time anyone needs their ass saved, I will make sure that I'm a good boy and that I sit by and watch!" he fumed. With that, he stormed up to his dormitory without a second glance.
As he entered the quiet sanctuary of the dormitory and flopped facedown onto his bed, he thought to himself. It had been a while since he'd gone to pieces like that. He knew Hermione had only said those things because she cared but he still wished he could make her understand. A soft knock interrupted his musings. Harry expected it to be Hermione coming to apologize but he wasn't ready to hear it so he kept his face smothered in the sheets.
He heard the door open and close and sensed someone standing near his bed. "Go away, Hermione," he said to into his comforter.
"I'm not Hermione."
Harry looked up as Ginny sat next to him. "Ginny, I feel awful. Hermione and I never fight. Sure she would get mad when I took Ron's side in something but we've never really argued. When Ron and I got into it, no matter what she was always there…for both of us."
Ginny rubbed his back and spoke softly to him, as Harry supposed a mother would have done. He suddenly felt himself longing for his parents and a lump formed in his throat. He swallowed and focused on what Ginny was saying.
"She only said those things because she was worried about you today. She cares about you and doesn't want anything to happen to you."
"Where is she now?" Harry asked, wondering if she was reacting anything like him.
"Downstairs with Ron. I think he's telling her pretty much the same thing I said."
Harry pushed himself off his bed. "I should go apologize," he said, heading for the door. He opened it and found Hermione standing with her fist poised to knock.
"I'm sorry," they blurted at the same time.
Harry grinned and beckoned her into a hug.
Neville returned from the hospital wing later that night shortly after Harry had climbed into bed. No one said much and for this Harry was glad. He hadn't been one for conversation lately so his roommates mostly left him alone.
Long after everyone else had fallen asleep, Harry lay staring at his hangings. He found it difficult to believe that not even twelve hours ago, Hogwarts, his home, had been blatantly attacked. If Dumbledore hadn't shown up, he didn't want to think about what would have happened. He and his friends would probably be dead by now. He shuddered.
He rolled over onto his side and stared at the hangings around his bed. Neville muttered something about fudge in his sleep and Harry vaguely wandered why the boy was dreaming about chocolate. At least Neville was getting some sleep then, and not everyone was awake late into the night tonight.
Harry had almost completely fallen asleep when a shout from one of his roommates woke him. He threw back his hangings and stared about wondering who it could possibly have been and why. His gaze fell to Neville who was sitting straight up in bed and looked near as pale as Nearly Headless Nick.
"What is it, Neville?" Ron asked groggily, rubbing his eyes.
"I…Fudge…He…" Neville gave up.
"What?" Harry said, confused.
"He was the one who…He helped that Lestrange woman with the Cruciatus Curse on my parents," he mumbled to himself.
"Who?" Dean inquired, more awake now than he had been a few moments earlier.
"Fudge!" he shouted, causing Harry to jump. "I've remembered! I was there! He put a Memory Charm on me, even though I was a baby."
"Wait…Fudge is the reason your parents are in St. Mungo's?" Harry asked slowly, things starting to click into place. Bertha Jorkins had been forgetful, or so he'd heard, only after she'd had a powerful memory charm put on him. Sirius had even said at Hogwarts she'd had a memory for gossip quite unrivaled at the time. Neville had always had an amazingly poor memory, worse than could possibly be natural. It only made sense.
"And that's why he wouldn't join our side after You-Know-Who came back?" Ron asked.
Harry nodded. "Crouch Jr. knew," he said, quite aware that everyone was staring at him. He'd never talked about what had happened to him after the third task with anyone but Hermione and Ron. He thought back to that night. Fudge had hurriedly administered the Dementor's Kiss before any one could question Crouch. Apparently he knew something Fudge didn't want known.
"But, Harry," Ron said, interrupting Harry's reverie, "Fudge was killed by Death Eaters this summer. Why would they kill oneof their own?"
"I don't know," Harry whispered.
"You need to tell Dumbledore," Seamus said, looking quite pale himself.
Neville and Harry both nodded.
Harry and Neville both slept late the next day. It had been very late when they'd returned from speaking with Dumbledore, so late that the early risers at Hogwarts were starting to straggle down into the Great Hall. Harry did not like the fact that he had Quidditch practice today on top of everything else either. With a moan he collapsed onto a couch next to Ron in the Gryffindor common room.
"What'd he say last night?" Ron asked as soon Harry had settled in.
"He said he'd been suspecting it for a while but he couldn't be sure. Even now he can't tell 'cause we don't even have a body to find Voldemort's mark on," Harry mumbled, sinking deep into the chair and letting the warmth from the fire wash over him.
Apparently Ron couldn't take a hint though. He kept questioning Harry. "How did Neville remember all of the sudden?"
"Well, a memory charm can be broken with powerful magic. I guess whatever curse Neville was hit with in Hogsmead was powerful enough to do it."
"Why'd Fudge put a memory charm on him in the first place? I mean, he was just a baby," Ron said.
"I partly remember Voldemort killing my parents, I just thought it was a car crash. Maybe it was just a precaution."
"I still can't believe Fudge would do that. Hey, is there practice today?"
Harry groaned.
