Title: Harry Potter and the Summer's Secret
Author: Japhu
Beta reader: Chameleon
Pairing: HPSS
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Harry Potter and his world and don't make any money with it.
Summary: For one week in summer Harry disappears without trace. When he comes back he claims to have no memory. But something happened and it changed him. It remains to be seen if for the better or the worse. (will be HPSS)
Category: action/adventure/angst
Feedback: highly appreciated
Chapter 23 – New Dawn
It had taken some time for Harry to fall asleep after those morbid thoughts went through his head. However, when he finally slept, Harry did not move even once, lying motionless amidst his cushions like a corpse. Only when the magical alarm clock announced it time to get ready and Seamus leaped upon his bed, Harry fought his sleep crustedeyes open.
Brightly grinning, Seamus – in a good mood after a good night's sleep – jumped twice before he became aware of Harry's glare and got out of the way. Having a good laugh, Seamus was barely fast enough to avoid the feeble attempt of his sleepy friend to swat the unwanted guest aside.
Sighing silently, Harry curled up again. He did not like Seamus or anyone else in the morning. The awakening came always to abrupt, ripping him away from his tranquility – that was, when he did not have one of his bad dreams… or visions… or whatever else fate would come up with.
Essentially, Harry liked the night. He breathed the calm that lay above everything; the darkness, hiding all of these nasty little surprises that blazed dangerously in the light of the day. However, as life always was, all things had a good and a bad side. During the night, the shadows became alive. For Harry it was not only a children's tale. It was reality. Everything felt more real; his responsibility for the Wizarding World's future, his fear to break under the task he had loaded upon his shoulders, the consequences of failing, and the danger for his and his friends' lives. Harry could very well hide in the darkness, but he could not hide from himself.
During the day, Harry could concentrate on keeping his mind on the important things. He reminded himself to follow the path he had inevitably chosen to stay on until the very end. The night had its own rights.
Harry rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, knowing at one point he had to get up. It would be better to be prepared.
"Harry!" His bed shuddered as if a mountain troll did a tap dance on it when it only was Seamus. "Are you up?"
"Sure I am." Harry sat up abruptly, not wanting to have cold water pouring down his face at the first day of school. "Go wake Ron." Irritably, Harry wished him away.
"No way, Harry. Ron's your responsibility. You know it." Nodding, Harry unconsciously scratched his hip where the mark sat completely inconspicuous. Yes, he knew it. His friends were his responsibility.
"We're not fast enough to get out of the way." Seamus winked. "Don't take too long, anyway. We're getting our lesson plans this breakfast."
"I'll think of it." Harry said absent mindedly. Last night he had felt his mark coming to life on its own. He had the feeling that, even now, the connection he had through the mark to the bound Death Eaters was continuously getting stronger and more pronounced.
Harry had not felt the connection to the mark so clear since… ever. There had always been his magic he had to suppress to concentrate halfway on its trace. Now though, the way through the bond was frighteningly clear, and it felt more real than it ever had. Harry took a moment to think, wondering if the Death Eaters were not able to catch random thoughts of his own, as he could their's more often than not. Distracting as it was, he still could not control anything that happened through the bond. Harry did not know the way it worked, what the bond was supposed to do. Tom would hardly answer if he asked.
Harry pulled at a strand of unruly black hair. He would find a way to deal with this problem as he did with everything else. The mark was only one problem among many and Harry needed to figure out all of them. There had to be books about bonds and mind reading and a lot of stuff related to those topics. With his fingers Harry combed his hair back. It would not lie flatter if he bothered with a real brush.
Trying to keep his thinking positive, Harry remembered that not all was as bad as it seemed in broad daylight. The day too had more than one side. Harry would need to remind himself to keep from both, night and day, only the positive. He did not need to make his life darker and more depressing than it already was.
Throwing a cautious glance out of the high arched window, Harry smiled serenely. Having the sun out again, even if it was behind a rapidly growing phalanx of dark towering clouds drawing near, was not all as bad as people liked to make it out to be. For one, he had made it through another night. Harry had not dreamt once this night, at least he could not remember doing so. Secondly, he would have another day alive. With relief his head fell back onto the pillow before, with a wide yawn, he leapt to his feet an instant later, stretching when he went on his way.
After a short trip to the bath, where he overtook Seamus and Dean, Harry glanced to were Ron snored deeply. Heaving a breath, he went to his trunk, searching for something to wear.
"Are you awake?" Harry asked, glancing up doubtfully.
Not agreeing to anything, a grumbling Ron curled up further under his thick blanket, nearly disappearing. Only his hair seemed to set the pillow on fire, sticking out in every direction as much as Harry's did during the day. Luckily for Ron, his hair only did it well into the night and kept its appearance all day long. Although, hair staying hair, Ron's eyes had not opened once since Seamus had pounced upon Harry rather heavily.
Harry sighed while slipping into his only shirt that did not stuck on his small finger. If he wanted to have something other to wear, he would have to repeat yesterday's whole procedure in some free moment. Cautiously, Harry glanced at his wand. It did not work the way it should. Not only did his wand depend on the amount of power it had to control, it seemed as if his magic was… stuck in it sometimes; and it did not help that he had to work around it with wandless magic.
Had his magic changed not only in the amount of power, but in some other way, too? The way the magic worked with its surroundings seemed to be different, but Harry could not be sure, he had never before seen any magic and the level of power had dramatically increased. Maybe he just needed another wand? Harry snorted. He had so much work to do, so much things to look over. It would be a wonder if he got everything done as planned.
Again, he glanced over to his friend. Reaching for a pillow from his own bed, Harry took aim and threw it right across onto the flaming red mop of hair, but a low grunt was the only answer forthcoming.
"You've got to get up, Ron." Harry wanted to get this day done and away. He needed to start his research as soon as possible. Although, the answer he finally got was something unexpected.
"My stomach hurts." Came the first coherent muttering. It reassured Harry that Ron had not somehow been transfigured into something unable to do anything but grunt.
"And my head." The redhead mumbled weakly.
"New dawn, new hope, Ron." Harry smiled down at his dozing friend. "I'm sure the breakfast will make the hurt go away." Lazily, he closed all of the three buttons that were still present on his shirt.
Another grunt came out of the depth of pillows, before the whole mass of it was thrown away and Ron finally put his feet down, his eyes thick with sleep and swollen red.
"I shouldn't have drunken all those butterbeers." came the new insight in a harsh whisper.
"And I'd have to agree with you." Harry laughed. He laughed louder when Ron hid his head between his shoulders and threw the pillow back with a glare that rivaled Snape. It was good to know that some people had normal problems to carry around.
"Do you think Hermione will spell the headache away?" Ron sounded really pitiful and he looked it, too.
"I'm not sure. I think, if she helped you, she would see it as a lesson you wouldn't learn." Smiling, Harry pulled his shoes on and went on his way. "I'll soft her down for you. Maybe you're lucky and she'll take pity on you, but the groveling you'll have to do for yourself."
"Thanks, mate." Harry was certain that Ron attempted a smile of sort, but it came across like a grimace. Harry left, feeling really good to know that, even if only a few minutes longer, he was not the only one feeling down. Hermione never let a friend down in need, even if said friend had brought it upon himself.
It took half an hour for Ron to make an appearance in the common room. During that time Hermione tried to get Harry to give her another explanation than that he had shrunken his robes and enlarged them again when he had realized that he had shrunken them way too much. It had neither satisfied her curiosity nor her need to know everything in order to help him.
Now she had him engaged in small talk about all the new ways of potting and growing plants she had learnt from Neville, in which small talk meant that she spoke and forced Harry to listen. Whenever his thoughts began to wander a painful pinch would bring them back.
Harry was not certain if he had been much of assistance for Ron to get a cure for his party hangover. Harry was almost ready to go on to breakfast without his friends when fate became reasonable and sent his friend's sister down from the one side and Neville from the other.
With a small, uncertain smile Neville just sat next to Harry and listened attentively. Probably he had heard Hermione going on and on about plants from the dormitory and did not mind a bit more – it was his favorite subject in school, after all. However, Ginny flopped down next to Hermione with only a furtive glance in Harry's direction. Quite obviously, she was more occupied with her thoughts than with the people surrounding her. Hermione was the one to ask her the question everyone wanted to know the answer to.
"Your time together with Dean was really short." Hermione said straightforward without voicing her own opinion about the other girl's rapid change of partners. "Ron said you have a new boyfriend? How is he? Do you love him?"
Girls! Harry rolled his eyes and glanced at Neville when Ginny bend forward with a secretive smile on her face. One could do nothing but let them talk and hope it would be over, soon.
"Well, Dean is really nice and everything," shrugging, but smiling secretively, Ginny glanced over to where the boys' dormitories were, "but Tore is much more mature. I know he is a Muggle, but he is really kind and understanding. He has brown eyes and dark curls. I really like him." Ginny's eyes glimmered, but Harry found that she did not look very much in love, is seemed much more like a cause of infatuation. He shuddered to think himself on the repeating end of her feelings. It was really lucky that she had grown out of her blind obsession with Harry Potter, even if it had been funny in the beginning. Whatever it was with Ginny and boys, Harry nodded with understanding and kept his silence.
"Tore knows about magic." Ginny continued to explain. "He's really fascinated with our world. He's a bit sad though, that his sister is coming to Hogwarts and he won't ever be able to."
Harry's brow rose questioningly. "In which House did she get sorted, by the way?" He had forgotten the little girl an Ron's task to help her around.
"Sinje? She's in Hufflepuff. How do you know her?" Ginny scrutinized him carefully, as if jealous – of what Harry could not begin to fathom.
"We were just helping her to find her toy." Hermione answered before Harry could even open his mouth. What was it with girls these days?
"Her doll." Ginny smiled, a smug glint in her eyes. "I know. She carries it everywhere. It was a present from her aunt, I think." Her eyes narrowed barely visible.
"What is it?" Hermione caught on fast enough.
"Oh, it's about her aunt," Ginny shrugged, her expression compassionate. "She vanished. I don't know why or how and when. Tore didn't tell me and Sinje doesn't talk to anybody about it."
"Did they come here because of that?"
"Well, Tore said their father had gotten a new job, much better paid than before, but I don't know. It's a topic he doesn't like very much. I don't think his parents would like it much more if I asked them sensitive stuff about their past, so I left it." She shrugged uncomfortably. "I hope I get to know the whole story when I see him again."
"Hm." Hermione hummed thoughtfully. She seemed to feel with the family. Harry tried not to give away any of the things he felt.
He knew that it could not have been Voldemort when whatever had happened to the girl's aunt happened during this summer. It was another matter when it had happened before Harry's sightseeing tour at Voldemort's hideout. Perhaps some straying Death Eaters had made a little excursion out of their traditional hunting territory. Either way, Harry would get the little girl to talk to him, even if it was only to get her to open up. Talking about unsolved problems was said to give relief. Harry still had to try it sometime.
"Anyway," Harry's attention snapped back to Ginny. "Dad had a hard time with them. It was not easy to convince her parents to send her baby to Hogwarts. They all thought it to be much safer if she stayed with them … under one roof so to speak."
"What did –" Sudden noise from the boy's dormitory stairs made Hermione halt in mid sentence and she looked imploringly to see whoever made such a ruckus.
Dean was the first to stumble forward, laughing loudly before he noticed the silent group of students, watching them intently as if they were a foreign species of bugs.
"Still here everyone? Breakfast doesn't wait forever, you know?" Seamus piped in as he jumped down the last steps of the stairs, unaware or simply not willing to recognize the heavy mood in the common room. "Isn't anyone of you guys hungry?"
Clearing his throat, Neville got the attention at once. Harry had forgotten that the quiet boy had been right next to him, and he didn't seem to be the only one.
"I'm hungry." Neville said in a thin voice and glanced at Ginny apologetically, taking the chance to escape.
"Great to know there's still someone sane around, come on Neville." Seamus waved lively, already on the way to the portrait.
"Hey!" Harry stopped them on their way with his sudden shout, as he remembered something. "Is Ron up, finally?"
"Yeah," Seamus grinned gleefully. Being one to never get a hangover, Seamus could afford to gloat. "He's busy retching."
"That doesn't sound good." Hermione turned to Harry. "How much of those spiked butterbeers did he have?"
"How should I know?" Harry held up both hands in a defensive gesture. "As you should be aware, I went to bed early." Harry saw the wink Seamus gave him the moment the three boys left the common room. Certainly, Seamus had been the last one standing and able to get his friends to bed. His 'Irish blood' he would say. Harry sighed and turned back to a miffed looking girl.
"It was the welcoming party, Hermione. It was just once and it was his first time to get his hands on real alcohol. I'm certain Ron's cured from this experience." Harry suppressed a grin. "You can lecture him, though, if you like. I just don't want to have to deal with a hangover suffering, hot tempered redhead for the whole first day of classes, if you get the gist." He made puppy dog eyes until Hermione pulled a face.
"Maybe you are right." she frowned, a smile in her voice. "I'll give him the talk, though."
"Do that." Glad to have done the good deed for his friend, Harry got to his feet. "I'll go and get him away from the pot. You wait here, wand ready." Hermione nodded wordlessly, a book already open on her lap. Harry shook his head and sprinted upstairs. He still wanted to get some of his clothes back to – at least – their original state. For that though, Ron had to leave and take Hermione with him, lest she became curious and sent the redhead up to investigate.
"Ron?" Cautiously, Harry opened the door and looked around. It seemed as if his friend was really busy getting up what had gotten down only yesterday. Smiling, Harry made his way to the bath.
"Are you in there?" He stuck his head into the open door where the lavatory stalls were and Ron, its only occupant, hanging uncomfortably over a basin.
"Seamus indicated that you're having difficulties to get up from your knees." Harry said diplomatically, ignoring Ron's wince at his voice. He really hadn't spoken all that loud.
"If you can make it downstairs, Hermione is waiting." Harry rubbed calming circles on his friend's back. "She's ready to play nurse, though you'll have to listen to her take-responsibility-for-your-actions-talk, as I said you would." Harry shrugged unconcerned when he friend groaned miserably.
"Sorry, I couldn't convince her to leave it this time." Harry mentioned innocently. "But maybe if you'd actually heed her advice for once, she'd stop doing it."
"Yeah, as if." Ron ripped off a long sheet of toilet paper, rolled it carelessly and wished his mouth inside and out, before he heaved again.
"You really shouldn't drink so much spike, you know." Harry helped him up and didn't say anything else when Ron mumbled his obligatory "I'll never drink again."
"Can you get down the stairs on your own?"
"It'll do. I'm not an invalid, Harry."
"Sure not, you only act like one." Harry grinned behind his friend's back. "Go down already, okay? I have to search for some books I need. If I'm not down when Hermione's through with you, go on to breakfast, I'll catch up. All right?"
"'K." Ron never took his right hand away from the wall. Harry watched for a moment to make sure Ron was well on his way and not falling down the stairs like that unlucky first year, even if the stairs were not moving on its own, but in Ron's head.
Closing the door, Harry flexed his hand and gripped his wand with new awakened determination. He knew what had gone wrong yesterday. It was not enough to say the spell and to take care of the amount of magic he used. His magic was still powerful enough to leak not only through his wand but his body too – at any time. His magic had gone through a much heavier and more important change than Harry had previously given thought to.
Now, that was much more awake and he had his wits with him, it would not take all that long to accomplish the feat that had cost him many years of life only yesterday. The thought came to him right after standing up. Harry needed his wand working together with its surroundings, or better said, he needed his magic to do it. Harry didn't know how, but he knew he had done it before. Without thinking long, Harry opened his trunk and fished one of the shrunken shirts out of its depth.
It helped Harry to know that the magic was there, even if he could not see it anymore. Although, for now it was much easier to work properly with his magic if he closed eyes to get his concentration up to the level were he could actively work with his new magical abilities – some of them at least.
Harry could feel the magical energy. He saw it growing and wavering in front of his inner eye as he reached deep within himself. His body trembled when he felt out his own magic and found the intensely glowing point from were his magic flew steadily through his body, radiating heat and a sense of life. Harry followed its way through his arms, up to his hands and further still. With a soundless pop that rang through his whole being Harry felt the magic connecting with the stone that surrounded him, with everything that had to have even a tiny bit of magic in itself.
Slowly Harry opened his eyes to slits, directed his wand to the well worn doll's cloth and spoke the incantation clearly and with calm. His concentration never wavered. It took no effort to feel the magic withstanding his wish to take the prepared but too narrow way through his wand.
Harry did not know how he did it, but he … split the magic. The most part of it he sent through the air and stone itself, so the rest could flow through his wand unhindered. A small, satisfied smile struggled to break free of his calm mask of concentration when Harry felt the magic he had sent on its way through his wand reaching out to connect with its other half. He allowed his smile to blossom as he watched the shrunken shirt enlarging itself just the way it should, doing neither more nor less than he had intended.
There had not been anything to see. It did not look as if his wand and magic worked different than they had done before this summer, but then it would not, not when no one was able to see the magic itself. Harry thought about what he had done. With a little bit of practice, a little more concentration than he would have applied to so called "wand waving" last year, he knew that he could easily do it again.
It really did not take much to repair his clothes. When the next week started he would have no problems in class. Harry was well aware that he had worked out only a compromise, but it was one that worked. As long as he was careful in everything he did – and in front of whom – that was what counted. It was incredible how much a bit of concentration mattered when doing magic, but all too much could go wrong if his mind was wandering. However, it was a great feeling to be able to use his wand again, which ever way he did it.