Chapter Seventeen
Silence Isn't Always the Best Choice
Harry hated the look Ron gave him when all three of them sat down for breakfast the next morning (no sign of Kathleen anywhere). It was a cross between 'you-touch-her-again-like-that-I'll-curse-you' and 'I-hope-you're-okay-and-He-isn't-bugging-you'. He had taken the seat across from them and neither of them had said more than an awkward good morning. After breakfast they had sat in silence for nearly five minutes before Hermione suggested that they do homework. They retrieved their books and as they sat back down Harry spotted a bruise in the shape of a handprint on her forearm and froze completely.
Hermione glanced at him and then at her arm. A blush filled her cheeks as she pulled the sleeve down before sitting in the chair. Ron glanced at her arm and then promptly sat between them, a glare sent Harry's way. He looked away before opening his book, staring at the pages but not actually reading. Wincing to himself he looked away grabbing a piece of toast. He hated himself for doing that to her—even though Dumbeldore said it wasn't his fault both Harry and Ron didn't care; to them the same person was to blame. Hermione on the other hand had forgiven him immediately, though he noticed for the rest of the day neither she nor Ron let Harry with in arm's reach of her and today it seemed that he was doing the same thing, half between ignoring and glaring.
It was fifteen minutes before the thick silence was broken by Ginny racing into the room, giggling madly. She spotted Harry and squealed as they heard two sets of feet thundering down the steps. "Harry save me!" she exclaimed ducking behind him as Fred and George came bursting into the kitchen.
It took a full minute before anyone could completely comprehend what they were seeing. And when they did, they all burst out laughing. Both twins stood very out of breath, looking frantically for the sister, decked head to toe in matching pink and yellow out fits with butterflies on George's and flowers on Fred's, both covered in glitter. Their hair had been lengthened and George's red hair was now a nice blonde color and in pigtails sticking out of the side of his head. Fred's on the other hand was still red but in braids.
"What happened?" Hermione asked between giggles.
"Oh darling sister," sang George, looking amused and annoyed at the same time.
Ginny poked her head over Harry's arm. "Yes?" she asked, dragging the word out.
"Come here," Fred said as Ron slipped out of his chair from laughing.
She shook her head, grinning. "No."
"What happened?" Hermione repeated her previous question.
"The little brat behind Harry pranked us!" exclaimed Fred. "With our own pranks!"
George, unlike Fred was prancing around the kitchen, smiling and tickling Ron's neck with his now blonde, long hair. The youngest brother kept hitting him but was still laughing to hard to do much more.
"Nah-uh!" Ginny said, still staying safely on the other side of Harry.
Fred glared. "Yeah-huh!" He then frowned. "Well she's right, and so are we. They were our pranks but she changed them."
"How could she do that?" asked Hermione frowning.
Ginny smirked. "I have friends in high places."
"Meaning Tonks," Fred said with a glare. Ginny smirked, arching her brow. "Now change us back,"
"But darling brother—er—sister," George said in a fake high-pitch voice. "We should take her to the store with us like this. We need to show the customers that even the Pranksters get pranked."
"Not like this!" Fred shouted.
"Come on, Fred…ina. You look adorable." He continued in the high voice.
"Fredina?" Hermione questioned.
"Why of course, silly. Fredina needs to show our customers that we can get pranked as well as them."
Ginny let out a giggle as Fred stared at his twin in shock. "George," he growled.
"My name is Georgia." He said skipping over to his brother.
"Well, Georgia, you have three seconds to run before I throttle you for giving me a horrible nickname." Fred said with an evil glare.
"Oh no!" he said in the high voice before running in a very over-exaggerated 'feminine' way out of the kitchen.
"You might want to chase him, Fredina." Ginny said with a grin.
"Why? So he can bring every Order member in the house out to look at us in these ridiculous outfits," growled Fred shaking his head. "Speaking of which," he started towards her.
"But I don't have it!" she squealed, pulling Harry in front of her.
Harry laughed. "What am I, your shield?"
She giggled. "Yes. Now shut it."
"Where is it?"
"George has it. I gave it to him when he and I first made them." She said with laughter erupting from her lips.
Fred stared at her before turning around. "GEORGE!" he shouted turning on his heel and running out of the room, leaving the four in the kitchen in hysterical laughter.
"That was great," Ron gasped out.
"Thanks for being my shield Harry," she said grinning skipping from behind him towards the pantry. She grabbed a cola can and opened it.
"When did we get cola?" asked Ron getting a hold of himself as he stopped the fizzy Muggle beverage.
"We didn't," she said sitting down on the table in front of Harry's books. Harry stared at her. "Kathleen did. She's obsessed with Cherry Coke. It'll keep her up all night because she hates coffee."
"How would you know that?" asked Hermione curiously.
"She and I talk a lot. She's sleeping in my old room and I go in periodically to get some things that I forgot." She smiled broadly. "Couldn't you tell by the shirt?" Harry glanced at her shirt. It was a black shirt with the words 'The Penguins are stealing my sanity' scrawled across in white letters and fishnet sleeves. He felt his cheeks color as he realized that he had been staring at her chest. He quickly looked at her face and she smiled at him. "Mum nearly had a cow."
"She doesn't like Kathleen much does she?" asked Harry quietly. "I wonder why,"
Ginny frowned, sliding her wand into her hair, resting it just above her ear. She's been hanging around Luna way too much. Harry mused. "I don't think it's anything specific….Kathleen is bitter, sarcastic, and a know-it-all but she's that way for a reason and mum can't completely understand it."
"Do you?" Ron asked indignantly.
The red haired girl frowned, a far off look entering her eyes. "In a way." They all heard a loud thump before she could explain. She smiled. "Gotta go and make sure that Fredina doesn't kill Georgia for the antidote." And with that she left the room leaving them in silence.
Harry smiled after her and turned around to meet Ron's brotherly glare. The mood darkened about ten notches as they looked at each other, Harry trying to give him a half grin. He swallowed hard, the silence awkward as he looked back at his book. He had finished most of his summer homework already and only had his potions essay and the last part of his History essay to write. He chewed his lip and then sighed. "What are you workin' on, Ron?" he asked trying to lighten the mood back up.
Ron tried to smile but failed horribly. "Professor McGonagall's essay."
"Oh," He had finished that essay already. He sighed after a moment of awkward silence passed between the three 'friends'. This would just be my luck, wouldn't it? I'm finally here early and then stupid Snake-face had to piss me off so I hurt Hermione. He thought bitterly. He sighed again, shaking his head and closing his book.
Hermione glanced at him. "Where are you going?"
"To hang myself," he muttered, wondering idly if that would be even possible in this house. "To, to go find Buckbeak." He said the first name that came to his head. He stopped for a moment, he hadn't thought of Buckbeak in a while. Tears nearly filled his eyes at the thought of the last thing to spend time with Sirius.
"Oh," Hermione said but made no move to stop him.
He turned to leave when the fire turned green. "Er, was anyone supposed to be coming back here?"
Ron glanced at the fire and shrugged but Hermione frowned. "I don't know, most of the Order was out late looking for Kathleen but the search stopped a couple hours ago."
Harry remained at the door until a flaxen haired, filthy girl came tumbling from the fire and was sprawled across the floor. He watched as the girl moaned and hit her head on the ground, immediately all three of their wands were out. The girl stayed on the floor for a moment. "Who are you?" asked Harry, taking a step in front of Hermione and Ron.
She peeked an eye open and stared at Harry. "Huh?" she glanced to the side, still sprawled on the floor. "Oh, right, disguise." She muttered before limply waving her wand before shutting her eyes again.
Her hair changed into a deep dark brown, her eyes the rich chocolate brown, her face the similar to—"Kathleen?" Harry gasped, lowering his wand.
The person's eyes opened and her head rolled to look at Harry. "Hey there, Wonder Boy, give me a hand up will you?" she asked.
He held out his hand and helped her to her feet. She was filthy and smelled of, what was that? Whiskey? He remembered the sent from when Vernon came home with it on his breath. A faint bruise traced her cheek and her shirt was torn slightly. "Are you all right? Where were you all of yesterday?"
She rubbed her wrist and sighed. "Out getting drunk and trying to think up the best way to kill myself, I came up with four ideas: slitting my wrists, using Avada Kedavra on myself, going to Voldemort and pissing him off, or pissing Snape off, what do you think?" she spat out with a grin.
Harry wasn't sure if she was joking or not but shrugged it off. "Didn't work?" he tried to add light heartedly but something about the look in her eyes told him that she was only half joking.
"Nope, couldn't find Voldemort, Snape was being an asshole and wouldn't kill me no matter how I insulted him, and I figured slitting my wrists would take too much work to clean up. And I discovered that curse doesn't work when you're trying to cast it on yourself." She said glancing at Hermione and Ron. "Now if you excuse me, I need a hangover potion and a shower."
Kathleen stalked out with a sight stagger and Harry decided she probably was still a little drunk. He glanced at Ron and Hermione and then sighed. "I'll go, um, oh forget it." He walked out and found Kathleen sitting on the fifth step, her head on the banister. "Kathleen?"
"I got up this far and decided I'm still too drunk to make it all the way up, the world is spinning with each step." She muttered without opening her eyes. "That and my head hurts like hell."
"Here, I'll help you," he lifted her to her feet, surprised how light she was.
"Feather-weight charm, Harry." She muttered. He felt a blush creep into his face as he wrapped an arm around her, was he really that obvious? "Yes."
"Oh," he said moving slowly up the steps. "What happened to you?" She glanced at him and shrugged. "You look horrible and there's a bruise on your cheek."
"I was a little too drunk for my own good and then the greasy ball decided that he'd take my wand so when a freaking Muggle attacked me I had no way to defend myself because wandless magic only works if you can have concentration and concentrating and being drunk is not something that goes hand in hand very well."
Harry looked at her in shock. "You were attacked?"
"Yeah," was all she said. Her weight was becoming slightly heavier as her steps were obviously becoming harder. She grimaced. "Sorry," she muttered spitefully, the spite obviously at herself. "The headache is getting worse." Harry shrugged, he didn't have anything he wanted to do. Ron and Hermione obviously weren't going to spend much time with him that day. "So how was your day?"
"Horrible."
Concern lit her eyes as she looked at him. He could almost see the friend he had in River shining through. "What happened?" Harry grimaced and relayed to her what had happened between him and Hermione. She raised an eyebrow at him as they rested before the last staircase. "You haven't been doing Occlumency?" A blush rose in his cheeks. She closed her eyes briefly. "Oh, right, pompous ass stopped the lessons." Harry jerked his head to look at her. "How did I know that? Trust me, I know a lot more things about you, some that you've probably never told anyone."
"Oh." Harry wanted to get away from her, he liked her and all but they way she knew so much about him unnerved him. "Ready to tackle the last staircase?"
"As ready as I'll ever be." She muttered as he helped her up. "Thanks for helping."
"Not like I have anything better to do." He said softly. "What did they say to you the other day? When you stormed out? You had everyone from the Order looking for you for the entire day."
He watched both guilt and hatred flush her face. "Snape accused me of killing my old partner. He called me a murderer and he blamed me for the scene in the kitchen."
Harry had figured he blamed her for the scene in the kitchen but he had a hard time understanding why Snape kept calling her a murderer, unless Kathleen left something out of the story. "Do you think you are one?" he asked as they reached her room.
She glanced at him the look in her eyes telling him all he needed to know but her words contradicted it. "No. Why would I be? I didn't ask him to come to save me, I didn't want him to! I didn't pull the trigger of that damn gun. That bastard was responsible."
"I just wanted to make sure," he lied as she turned away from him, unlocking her door.
"Well, I'm not a murderer." She shut the door, not with a slam but one a firm hit.
He sighed and walked back down the stairs feeling very displaced at where he should go. He decided that he might actually do what he told Hermione and went towards the old room Buckbeak was in. He opened the door to Buckbeak's room and was surprised to find Lupin feeding the animal. "Harry?" he questioned glancing up. "What are you doing here?"
Harry slid into the room and shut the door behind him. Buckbeak was at the other end of the room, glaring at Lupin as he filled the animal's food bowl. Harry frowned. "Why is he doing that?"
"He knows I'm a werewolf and animals don't generally like werewolves, no one really does." Lupin spoke as if he was detached and it didn't affect him but Harry knew better. "How are you Harry?"
Harry met Buckbeak's eye and then bowed. Buckbeak bowed his head down and allowed Harry to stroke his face. He had forgotten how soft the fur…or was it feathers that was around its—his head. "Hermione and Ron are still acting weird, not that I blame them."
Lupin sighed shaking his head. "Harry, it wasn't your fault, Albus explained that to you."
"But it was still me, Lupin. I still was the one that gave her that bruise." He snapped shaking his head. Just like you were the one who went to the ministry and got Sirius killed. A voice in his head taunted.
Lupin didn't try to change his mind and Harry was partially glad, he didn't feel like arguing with Lupin. They were both quiet for several minutes. Lupin broke the silence. "Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"What?" Harry had been lost in thought, most of them about Kathleen.
"About how you were being treated at that house." He spat the two words out as if they tasted horrible.
"Oh, that." He had been hoping nobody would ask him. "I don't know."
"Yes you do." A voice behind them said. Harry glanced back sharply. Hermione stood there, a book clutched to her chest. "You just don't want to tell us."
"Hermione,"
"Ron thinks I'm resting." She said shutting the door behind her. "You didn't want us to know,"
Harry turned his back to her and stroked Buckbeak. "Why?" Lupin questioned softly.
"What would you have done?" Harry asked through clenched teeth. "My only other guardian is dead and was a convict, they have legal right over me, you all knew I hated going back."
"But you never told us why!" argued the werewolf.
"I was told not to by the person you place my well-being in the care of. Where would I have gone in any case?" He refused to look at them. This was not how he wanted to start talking to Hermione again. "I couldn't live with you, Lupin, the ministry would never allow it. I wouldn't be able to live with Ron because of the same reason, Hermione lives in the Muggle world and they wouldn't want that either. They would never let me stay at Hogwarts or with Dumbledore, or any member of the order, so where would I have gone?"
"Harry," Hermione tried.
"Besides the fact that they needed my aunt's blood to keep me safe."
"They would have found a way."
Harry rolled his eyes looking at them. "You're acting like it was abuse every day and he treated me like a slave—which I suppose they did—but it doesn't matter! I rarely got hit by anyone but Dudley and that could be explained away by 'they were rough housing'. They never hurt me that much, just locked in my room a lot and conveniently forgot to feed me. But you knew all that so I never really kept anything from you, now did I?"
"The magnitude of how much," Lupin said bitterly.
"So I got hit, big deal." Harry gave up trying to ignore them and leaned against the wall looking at them. "I don't care, it's not the first time they've hit me. I know Kathleen told you the instances that it happened but even she said that they weren't as bad as it could be."
A silence passed over the three of them. "You still should have told someone," Lupin said softly.
"Why? So you could raise hell about nothing?" Harry snapped, his temper now getting the better of them. "I know people who have had it worse than me and the moment they told someone it just got worse. There was nothing you could do about! Go help some other cause! Go help someone of the Slytherins, for Merlin's sake, you know enough of them are probably getting beaten worse than me!" he shouted.
Buckbeak reared his front legs up, sensing the tension and anger in the air. Hermione let out a tiny scream as one of the hoofs came down towards her. Quick as lightening Harry dove forward shoving her out of the way. She slammed into the wall as Harry got hit in the chest with Buckbeak's hoof.
"HARRY!" both Lupin and Hermione shouted as he rolled out of the way of the other foot.
"Shut up!" he said back getting onto his feet and looking the animal in the eye. "It's all right, Buckbeak. It's all right, no one is going to hurt you," the animal was staring at him as Harry reached out. Buckbeak moved back slightly but Harry continued reaching until he touched the animal's face. "See, no one here wants to hurt you." He said stroking the beast gently. "There you go." He reached for the food in Lupin's hand and he, dumbstruck, gave it to Harry willingly. "Here, have some food." Buckbeak snapped up what was in Harry's hand and probed him for more. "Nope, that's all I have," He motioned the other to move towards the door. "Over there," he pointed to the food bowl filled with dead mice and a few dead birds mixed with what looked like dog food. Buckbeak trotted over and began eating as Harry ushered them out.
"Harry…that was…amazing," Hermione said in shock.
"I've never seen someone calm Buckbeak down like that since…" Lupin paled looking away.
Harry looked away, ignoring the pain tearing through his heart at the thought of him. "It's nothing."
They were silent for a moment before Lupin spoke. "Harry, how is your chest. He hit you pretty hard."
"I'll survive," Harry said with a smirk.
Hermione smiled weakly. "You need any help with homework?"
He arched his brow, staring at her. "Won't Ron be mad at you for coming with in three feet of me?"
"What?" Lupin interjected.
Hermione snorted. "Ever since yesterday Ron won't let me get within arm's reach of Harry, it's kind of funny."
"Hilarious," Harry said sarcastically as they walked towards the stairs.
"Harry, I'm sorry. It's just—"
"I know Hermione. I know. It was me shouting and hurting you." He nodded glancing down.
"I'll play you a game of wizard's chess,"
Harry gave her a funny look. "I thought you hated that game,"
"I do but," she shrugged. "It made you smile."
Harry chuckled weakly. "Do think Ron will ever stop glaring at me?"
"Oh, I'm positive that by tomorrow that crazy red-head will have forgotten all about it." Hermione said laughing as she pulling him towards the kitchen.