Chapter 4: Riddle's House
Harry felt a soft breeze and a terrifying silence before he opened his eyes and recognized the place where he had appeared. The big tombstones and statues where still there, although some of them had missing arms or wings, probably because of some stray spell fired the night Harry had escaped the overgrown graveyard.
There was a dense mist in the air that prevented Harry from distinguishing anything farther out than a few feet. This was good and bad Harry thought, it would be harder for enemies to see him, but it would also be harder for him to see them.
Harry heard movement behind him and instantly the word Protego sprang to his head, but nothing attacked him, so it didn't work. But he didn't stay to find out if the spell had worked or not, he instantly transfigured himself into a rat and hid behind a statue that had an angel dancing around a little girl.
After a moment or two, Harry decided it was safe to leave the statue, though he kept his rat form. As fast as his little feet would carry him, Harry explored the area, pausing on every grave and staring round the corner, it was hard work being a rat, and he didn't see much, but he kept on investigating the grounds, getting closer to the big house with every step.
After a while of scouting he realized he was standing on softer grass, which was free of graves and statues, and rose steadily upwards. This was the hill were the house was, and sure enough, Harry could make out the outline of the fine old house on the hillside. Swallowing hard, and fearing what was going to happen, he toddled up the slope until he reached the back door of the big house. It looked derelict, with broken windows here and there and missing tiles from its roof. Ivy had crawled all over the walls, and entered the house through the windows.
He changed back into his body, and faced the old door, ivy had completely covered it, and it looked that it would fall down with the slightest kick. Nevertheless, Harry whipped out his wand and pointed it at the look, breathing hard as the spell magicked the door open.
"PULSUS!" yelled a voice right inside the house as the door opened noiselessly, causing an echoing bang that reverberated on the remaining windows. Harry was hit with the spell in the middle of the chest and soared away, falling on his back down on the eerie graveyard.
Harry thought his back had splintered when he gasped for air, maybe one of his lungs had been punctured, he tried to look around but his glasses had been blown away so all he saw was blurred mist.
He heard the rustle of robes and someone stopping right in front of him. Harry tried to sit up but he couldn't move from the pain.
"Potter, I always knew you were dim but I didn't know you were so thick as to come here," said a cold voice that Harry recognized as Lucius Malfoy's. His sneering face swam in and out of focus. He sounded a bit angry, but very pleased at the same time.
"You have made our work so much easier Potter, the Dark Lord will reward me for this," he continued talking more to him self than to Harry, "I mustn't tell anyone and keep the glory for myself."
Harry was fighting to keep him self conscious, knowing that the pain would make him faint. Malfoy's words turned into a murmur, as his senses started to shut down, and everything started to get darker. He thought he saw flashes of light, like fireworks exploding just above him, and the ground shaking beneath him as if a bunch of horses were galloping around him before everything turned black, and his thoughts died away.
The lights appeared again; only now they were of a dazzling white, they shone right through his eyelids and made him wake up. Harry opened his eyes, but instantly closed them again with a moan because of the blinding light.
"Harry?" whispered a voice behind him.
"Who's there, where am I?" Harry muttered.
"It's me Harry," the person said, "Oh, wait." Harry heard him standing up and walking across the room, there was a loud noise and then the light diminished.
Harry opened his eyes and saw Ron standing at the foot of the bed where he was, beaming at him.
"Ron!" Harry cried.
"Welcome home Harry," he said with a smile.
"I thought I had died or that I had been captured by the death eaters."
"Its ok, you're here."
"But what happened," Harry said anxiously remembering what had happened back at the graveyard, "I was blown away by Malfoy and then everything started to get dark and then… I … don't remember anything else."
"It's a long story, I'll tell you later," Ron said in a sympathetic way, "let's go down and you can eat something."
Harry got up from his bed and recognized Ron's room, with the usual Chudley Cannons decorations and Pigwidgeon's cage stood empty in a corner of the room. He realized that all the pain had gone away, and that he felt as good as ever.
"Lupin healed you; he came in carrying you in his arms and muttered some spells that made you glow… He said it was easy since you hadn't been poisoned or jinxed, that you had just broken your back…" Ron said staring at Harry, obviously noticing that Harry was wondering where the pain had gone since he was touching his back with a furrowed brow.
"Who's here?" Harry asked Ron as they left the now dark room.
"Well, its: you, me, Tonks, Lupin, Dad, Charlie, Bill, Ginny, Mum, Fred, George, Mad-eye and I've just sent Pig with a letter to invite Hermione," he said counting with his fingers.
"So everyone's here," Harry said smiling.
"Yeah," said Ron.
The started down the stairs passing various doors.
"How did the order know where I was?" Harry said suddenly. He looked at Ron who had a guilty look on his face. "You told them didn't you?"
"I sort of did," he said.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, Lupin came and asked me if I knew were you were since he couldn't find you anywhere near Privet Drive. And then I told him you had left to do something secret and he instantly started to ask me if it had something to do about the Horcruxes…"
Harry looked at Ron with an inquiring look, and Ron went on.
"They know about them Harry, I think Dumbledore left a note or something because everyone in the order knows about them."
Harry had not thought that Dumbledore would tell anyone but him about this information, but then figures that nearly all the members of the order had known him way before Harry had, so they too, were to be trusted.
They entered the kitchen and then the living room, were all the adults were talking in hushed voices, with worried looks on their faces. They all stopped talking and looked up when they entered.
"Harry!" cried Mrs. Weasley standing up and hurrying to hug him, "oh honey welcome home!"
Harry talked with all of them for a while and listened as they told him what had happened the other night.
"As soon as Ron told us you were at Riddle's house, we apparated there only to see you lying sprawled on the ground, with Malfoy standing beside you," Lupin told Harry.
"Yeah, and we started to throw spells at him, but he made some charm that made the ground shake and we fell to the floor, and when it stopped and we stood up, we saw him back at the door of the house calling for help. We didn't wish to fight so we just grabbed you and disapparated," Tonks said with an exciting tone.
"So now Harry, you can stay with us," Mr. Weasley said.
"Great," Harry answered beaming around.
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