Disclaimer: See Chapter I
Also, I'd like to thank those of you who have taken some time to read and review my work (you know who you are). Your kind words have been felt and hope the wait hasn't been too long for this next installment as I'm trying to update my work every three chapters or roughly once every ten days. One final bit of thanks to the Harry Potter Lexicon that is quite the resource for anything Harry Potter related.
One final note: if anyone reading this is also a fan artist, please feel free to draw any character from this work in any way you feel like going at it. Just make sure you drop a review telling where the image can be viewed.
Anyhow, without further trouble, the next chapter.
Chapter XXVII: Tears of the SoulHarry was awake, and leaning with his back to the stone wall of the Astronomy Tower. He was pleasantly tired, and relaxed, thinking, and occasionally taking a look at the stars. A thick, black wool blanket covered him and ensured he was warm from the cold wind that occasionally blew in through the open view ports of the tower.
Not that it really would have mattered, for Harry smiled and looked down at what was really keeping him warm. Ginny was asleep atop Harry's chest, and a content smile was on her face. Her red hair was laid out fan-like across his chest and neck. In the dim light, Harry could make out a couple of her freckles, and went back to what he had been thinking of a memory.
Rather, two memories came to mind. During his younger years, he had had to go to church on precisely two occasions. Both times were when Mr. Dursley and Petunia wanted to kiss some ass for a boss or two, and Harry had been jacketed into a suit so ill-fitting he had been a natural target for bullying not just from Dudley but other kids his age. He couldn't say he blamed them either as Dudley pretty much ran Little Whinging's children like his own personal fiefdom. This was, of course, before he had had his ass handed to him on a platter the previous year.
Yet, the memory Harry had was of the first, and last, time he had spent listening to a vicar in an Anglican church decrying the 'sins of the flesh'. It had taken a few years to realize just what the hell he was talking about. The second memory was of listening to the wireless one day, and hearing some American social commentator saying how it was morally wrong and traumatic for both parties, the girl especially. Harry had had to snort at that.
For starters, he thought it was rather hypocritical of the damn vicar (who it turned out had fathered something like eight kids on as many women) to berate people over something like that. Harry rather cynically thought that God, or Yahweh or Allah or whatever his name was probably had a bit too much on his hands dealing with humanity's worst excesses to deal with a little honest sex done by a pair of willing people. It also seemed hypocritical that the natural way people were created was supposed to be a sin or something. Please…Harry thought to himself.
As for the social commentator, Harry wondered if she considered the trauma he had went through before he ever got laid. For that matter, the trauma Ginny had gone through before their night. Harry had, amongst other things in his fifteen years, been: shot at, stabbed, nearly eaten by spiders, nearly eaten by a snake, poisoned by a BFS: big fucking snake or basilisk, been cursed and stunned and hexed more times then he could count, nearly been expelled, the whole Triwizard Tournament, and had seen plenty of men (mostly bad, but one good one) get killed in his time. Him and the Grim Reaper were almost on a first-name basis by now. Ginny, too, hadn't had a 'normal' teen life to begin with either. After all, spending the better part of a year under the magical dominion of a mad wizard (or his memory anyhow) was quite traumatic to say the least. Needless to say, that blew that dingbat's theory not out of the window, it threw it off the fucking planet.
Harry's whole stance, in the end, about just what he and Ginny were doing: regardless of how young they were (he was fifteen, she was fourteen), they had seen enough shit already that what they were doing wouldn't be so bad. Indeed, Harry's opinion on sex, like that of tobacco, and alcohol, shaped over the summer, was that it was a good thing, provided it was done carefully and in moderation. Not to mention the fact that one of the main reasons that the woman claimed against sex at their age (that the boy would cause serious emotional harm to the girl since he was in it merely for the physical gratification) was pure bullshit. At least in Harry's case, as he had had a fair share of women, and knew what he felt towards Ginny was different. Indescribably different.
Harry shook his head. No use thinking of such shit, not when you're bed with the finest, funniest, sweetest, fuck it all! The most perfect girl in the world! Ginny stirred against him, and Harry felt her draw him closer to her. He smiled and reached over to the pocket watch that was lying in the pocket of his robe trousers. Like Ginny, he had stacked his cloths under his head as a pillow.
Opening the cover, he saw that it was seconds away from striking midnight. Christmas Day.
When it did so, he gently shook Ginny awake. She stirred and looked at him, "Hmm…?" Harry smiled as he kissed her on her lips.
"Merry Christmas, Gin."
She kissed back, and after a moment, as they were catching their breath, she said. "If this is a dream, I hope to never wake up."
"This is no dream, Gin. Would this happen in a dream?" Harry slid a free hand under the blankets, and after a moment Ginny yelped and shuddered.
"I suppose not…"
Harry looked at her, and held her close. "You all right?"
"Never felt better, why?"
"I was worried I was hurting you, you know, the first time around?"
She smiled at him, and ran a finger along his jaw line. "It did a little at first, and then it got better and better. Second time around it was the greatest feeling in the world. I'm glad you showed it to me Harry."
Ginny seemed to tense up, and Harry asked, "What's wrong?"
"Harry, was I… I mean, it was my first time and all, but did I…oh…"
Harry figured out what she was worried about. Smiling, he chided her, "Don't worry, you were the best, Gin. I mean, the third time around you were wilder then all the girls I met before. What's the saying? A cat tween the sheets? More like a wild one at that!"
Ginny, laughed, and then smiled at him wickedly. "An animal is it? You seemed to be enjoying it if I remember your shouting… or was it moaning? Moaning Harry?"
Harry laughed and said, "What a vixen I've got here." Ginny kissed him, and it seemed as though their fourth (or was it fifth or sixth? Harry had stopped counting a bit earlier) time was coming around when Harry's ears heard something. It sounded like music, and Harry broke away from Ginny, and listened. Ginny looked surprised, "What's wrong?" She asked.
Harry put a finger to her lips. "Shh," he whispered.
Sure enough, there was someone coming up the steps. Harry and Ginny quickly grasped the edges of the Invisibility Cloak and spread it over their corner of the room. They quieted as the veil like cloak covered them. Harry could tell it was just one person, and that person was singing.
In a low voice, almost dirge-like in tune, he (the voice was deep enough to be a man, or someone like Milicent Bulstrode) was singing softly, mournfully, The Girl I Left Behind Me.
Harry wondered who it was, and watched as the door opened, and closed. The person was obviously a man, but in the dim light, Harry couldn't tell who it was. He walked towards the center of the room, in one hand was what looked like a bottle of wine, between the fingers of which were two wine glasses. In the other hand was what looked liked a picture, framed. The man set the wine and glasses in the center of the room, and moved towards one of the braziers. He pauses as he dragged one towards the center of the room, and continued singing.
Her golden hair in ringlets fair,
her eyes like diamonds shining
Her slender waist, her heavenly face,
that leaves my heart still pining
Ye gods above oh hear my prayer
to my beauteous fair to find me
And send me safely back again,
to the girl I left behind me
Harry knew then and there whom it was that was singing, especially as the man turned, and Harry got to see his face. It was Alex, only this time his face appeared to be…Harry couldn't place it. Alex had taken out his magical eye, and Harry saw that there was naught but the gaping hole where his eye should have been.
Harry's uncle, after he sang the last line, gave a harsh laugh, "Aye, I was sent back safe again all right." Alex sat down and set the picture up. He then opened the wine, and filled the two glasses. Setting one against the frame, he clinked his against the one next to the frame. "Merry Christmas, Liz."
Alex sipped from it, and said to the picture. "Its been a long time, Liz …" He sighed. "I'm sorry I never came back earlier, but once I was here, I remembered our anniversary." He sipped again, and swirled his glass. Alex's eyes appeared to be watering, and Harry held Ginny closer to him. Harry had seen his uncle happy, angry, in a killing rage even, but never like this. Never sorry, never sad, never…grieving it looked like.
Liz…Wait, that's…Harry's thoughts were interrupted as Alex leaned over and started tracing his finger along the outline of the photograph. He started speaking, "I know you're wondering, but you were right about my nephew Harry. The lad's a handful all right. Our motto is the bravest and the boldest are words; that boy, nah man, he lives it. I remember that time me and you first saw him, all pink and cooing and I remember you asking me if you could have one like him to. Yeah, I remember holding him high in the air, and he pulled my hair and you laughed and we were all happy." Alex cracked a sad smile, "It would have sounded nice wouldn't it? Elizabeth Falkirk Evans with a son named Gerry and a daughter named Jane, eh?"
He took a finger, pressed it to his lips, and pressed it against the frame. Harry knew whom Alex was talking about now: Elizabeth Falkirk, the 'close friend' of Alex's. While he was curious as to about this woman that so affected his uncle, at the moment all he wanted to make sure him and his woman weren't caught. So far, his luck was holding out: Ginny was doing a passable impression of a statue and was barely breathing, whilst Alex seemed to be concentrating on the picture.
Which was probably when the fickle finger of Fate entered into play. Also known as bad luck or just plain stupidity, a gust of wind blew into the tower. The gust was swift, strong and cold. Harry and Ginny snuggled closer, but Harry watched as a piece of parchment blow across the floor and rest in front of the picture. Harry would have shrugged it off except for the salient fact he knew that that piece of parchment was very familiar. Indeed, he had remembered using it to check, when Ginny was asleep just what everyone else in the school was doing thirty minutes earlier.
The parchment was the Marauder's Map, and Harry remembered, to his immediate relief, that he had cleared it, and all his uncle would see would be a blank area of parchment.
Alex picked up the parchment, and looked at it. He started talking to Liz again. "It's been a long time since I saw this, and last I heard Moody had it sent back to Harry before he left last year. Now, I wonder what the hell it's doing up?" Alex laughed, "Only one way to find out." He drew his wand, tapped the parchment, and spoke the words. "I swear I am up to no good."
Harry thought his heart just stopped right there and then. Ginny, he could feel, just stiffened up in shock as well. He couldn't blame her, and somehow managed to bring his breathing back to the light breathing he had done before.
Alex looked down at the parchment, and started to laugh manically. He turned to the photo, and gasped out, "God, this too much, Liz!" After a moment, during which he managed to cough and choke his way back to reality (for the first time, Harry hoped his uncle choked and passed out, so that he and Gin could beat a hasty retreat), he got up and spoke, his voice in his best sergeant's voice: loud, commanding, but not yelling.
"Right, Harry, get your kit, and get dressed out here. Allow your girl the privacy of your Invisibility to get dressed. Now, lad, now."
Harry sheepishly (he was quite sure if he could see himself better in the light, he would be blushing bad) grabbed his clothes and rolled out of the bed. Ginny had sat up and shrugging into her own clothes. Alex smiled at him as he came out from under the cloak. Harry dressed hurriedly in front of him, and wondered just his uncle was going to do. After a couple of minutes, Ginny came out and stood next to Harry. Harry slid a hand through one of hers, and Ginny looked at him. Together, they looked at each other for a minute before staring back at Alex in defiance.
Alex took a look at them, his face smiling, the glass eye he wore gleaming. "Harry, my compliments for getting yourself one hell of a woman. My compliments for being one, Miss Weasley." His tone was light, and he motioned to them to sit down. They did so, and Alex sat down across from them. Alex started to speak, "Now, as a teacher I'm supposed to disapprove and turn you in, but I think I won't do that…As a man and a comrade of yours, Harry, I'm tempted to leave and wish you to go forth and sin some more. But…" Harry could tell his uncle was enjoying himself immensely. "You two sit here, and when I leave, Ginny over there may go first, then me and Harry. Good?" Harry and Ginny nodded.
Alex looked at the two of them, and his expression became somewhat more somber, though it still seemed happy. "Were you watching when I…" He trailed off, and looked towards the photo. Ginny spoke first, asking, "Who was she, sir?"
"Call me, Alex." Alex sighed, and began to speak, "Her name was, is, Elizabeth Abigail Falkirk. She was of house Gryffindor, and she was the woman I loved."
"What happened to her?" Ginny again.
Alex looked to Harry, "Harry, I believe I told you once to come see me in ten years, after you've lost someone dear to you…I lost her, back in 1981, after Voldemort was defeated that first time."
"How, Uncle?"
Alex took the glass of wine, and sipped from it. His voice became steely and emotionless. "Not long after he was defeated that time, there was a renewed effort to eliminate his power base, which involved a massive hunt within the Ministry to discover who had spied during the war. We knew there were at least five high-placed agents within the ministry, and within the Order itself due to a defector we interrogated following the assassination of Minister of Magic Appscott. Three were readily identified due to the fact they worked in Finance and Accounting, not to mention the fact they came forward and confessed to the 'fact' they had been under the Imperius curse; they being Lucius Malfoy, and his two goons Crabbe and Goyle. Suspect number four was Augustus Rookwood, who was sniffed out when Karkaroff was interrogated."
"And the Fifth Man?"
Alex sipped his drink, his eyes still vacant. "There were two suspects I had in mind. However, that idea came to naught when the whole business with Sirius Black arose. We presumed then that it was Black who had been the Fifth Man, but Liz had always liked him, and investigated further. To this day, I don't know what she uncovered, but she told me, before she went to see the Auror in charge of the case with her information, that it could blow the lid off a hell of a game of intrigue. She went to the Auror's house, and there…" He paused, and looked at the two of them. "The AIC was Frank Longbottom, and the day she went to see Frank was the day they were attacked by the Death Eater elements. She arrived after they were done with Frank and his wife. From the report I read, there were only like five Death Eaters there, but they managed to subdue her, rape her, and then kill her after they were done. I was going to propose to her that night, and I had the ring ready in my pocket."
Ginny gasped, and Harry tightened his hand around hers. His uncle's words the day of the interrogation were ringing in his ears…Would he go as far as his uncle would if something like happened to Ginny? Harry looked at Ginny, and tried not to think of it, but couldn't…You would be worse then him, Harry…You would have peeled that vampire like an orange and laughed as you did so if something happened to Gin…The little voice in Harry's mind taunted him.
In order to escape it, he asked one thing that was bothering him. "You said something of a man named Mueller, did he have something to do with this?"
Alex nodded, "During the war with Voldemort, he employed a German vampire, who before he was turned worked as a high-ranking member of the German Gestapo during World War II, as his spymaster. The man's name was Joachim Mueller, and from what Liz told me, he had given her a real treasure trove of information that day. She was going to give the information to Frank, who would follow up on it, but things went to hell. I tried following things up, but Mueller vanished. From what I was later able to piece together, it seemed Mueller sent the Death Eater's to Frank's, and then sent Liz with bogus information there as well so that she would be killed, and provide him the coverage to escape. Anyhow, after all was said and done, the case was closed, the hunt for Mueller was curtailed, and I was so disgusted at the way things were going under that moron Fudge I turned in my badge, wand, and left our world. From there, I joined and well…" He shrugged, and took out a watch.
"Today was the anniversary of the first date I took her on, to the Yule Ball, in the winter of 76. Now, I want you two to say your goodbyes, and Ginny, go down to the Gryffindor tower first, all right?" Ginny nodded, and after Harry hugged and kissed her good night, she made her way to the door, but stopped and turned to Harry. She pulled a small parcel out of her cloak pocket, and handed it to Harry. "Merry Christmas, Harry." Harry opened it to find a small, golden trinket, which looked like the letters H&G intertwined. There was a small loop where he could attach it to a chain or something. He smiled to Ginny, and said, "Thank you, love. Now we both can wear something close to our hearts." As he said this, he pulled out of his shirt the dog-tag chain which he wore the ID discs his uncle had made for him, Neville, and Dudley when they were up north. Besides the two discs (taped together to prevent noise), Harry now slipped on the golden trinket, and as he put it back under his shirt, he went to Ginny and kissed her goodbye once more.
As he and his uncle watched Ginny go, Alex turned to him and said, "Love her, Harry?"
"Yes sir."
Alex nodded, than said, "Merry Christmas then, Harry. I won't betray your secret, not now, never." He placed a hand on his shoulder, "And I'll make sure you, unlike me, get the chance to live with your woman happy. You understand?"
Harry nodded, and after a minute of silence, left for the Gryffindor Tower.