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OoOoO Chapter 15 - Veritaserum, Dragons, and Traitors OoOoO
"It would seem," Dumbledore started, leaning back against his chair with McGonagall by his side, "that after the events of the, 'Burning of Hogsmeade', there is a spy among us."
The room went silent, and a strong undercurrent of frigid suspicion suddenly suffocated the air around Harry. The memory of fighting on the outskirts of Hogsmeade rushed his mind, and he thought of the moment Lily had found him in the midst of the fighting, telling him that someone had taken down the wards around the town to let Death Eaters in. Harry barely smothered a flinch at the remembrance of the bodies and blood that had covered his shoes and ran the ground red.
It was another battle that he didn't need any help remembering. Different from his first piece of war, after the Battle of Hogwarts, but the same in more ways than he was comfortable with. Faces that haunted his dreams when he knew he was safe from the hate and flashes of light from his last encounter with Voldemort. Similar enough to harden him from pity or doubts when he'd struck them down. Killed them.
And this time, it was all because a spy had let them in. The deaths that happened afterward were on this traitor's hands.
"Do you have any idea who?" Mr. Weasley asked from beside his wife.
Dumbledore cast a measuring gaze across the room. "Someone with more than mediocre magic, of that I am sure. Certifiably strong, as a matter of fact, and would have access to the innards of the wards."
"So almost any adult in Hogsmeade at the time," a dark-haired older Order member Harry didn't recognize said flatly.
"Ah, but this someone would also have to know exactly where the anchors of the wards were hidden, and how to take them down," Dumbledore said, his eyes going over every member, "and in that number, are only a few in the Order." He looked towards James. "And all of them are wizards and witches that I would trust with my life."
"Well someone broke that trust, Albus," Moody said gruffly. "And it cost us lives."
"I am under no pretenses as to the product of this person's actions Alastor," Professor Dumbledore said over his half-moon glasses to the scarred wizard. "I am merely stating the fact that while I'm looking for the person who turned, I am not going to start pointing fingers at the people who might have known how to do it just because they were present in the making of the wards in the first place."
Mad-Eye didn't answer back, but he narrowed his one good eye.
Dumbledore looked back to James. "Do you have any clues as to who could have done it?" He glanced to Bill too. "Bill?"
James stood up from the chair he was seated in so that everyone in the room had a good look at his face. "I know that whoever did it isn't a professional," he started. "The leftover magic was powerful, yes, but blunt, and untested."
"Untested?" George asked. "What's that mean, like-"
"-untraceable or something?" Fred finished his question.
James shook his head. "No, untested as in… brute strength. The same sort of technique of someone who doesn't know what they're doing."
"So an amateur brought down the wards?" Remus asked skeptically.
"The magic that destroyed the workings was young. Powerful enough to have known what they were doing in direction of their magic, but not enough to know how to temper the magic trail or how to manipulate it without destroying the foundation of the ward," James explained with a sour pinch in the tips of his lips.
"Are you saying-," Mrs. Weasley leaned forwards with a look of solid disbelief across her face, "-that a child did this?"
James clenched his hands. "A young adult Molly."
Mrs. Weasley spluttered. "Well, that's completely- that's just-"
"It would make sense," Sirius suddenly spoke up with a dark look in his eyes. "Classes had been canceled for the day because Harry had shown up, and Order Leaders needed to be here. If someone caught wind that Hogwarts would be more unprotected while we were busy-"
Bill stood up from his chair too. "I've looked over the wards myself. Someone tampered with them, Mom. In the last few days, Professor Dumbledore, James, and I have gone through the minds of every Order member and adult there that day." He paused. "So either whoever let the Death Eaters in died in the battle, and we have no way to check from their minds, or it was one of the children."
"One of the older year children," Dumbledore nodding along in agreement with Bill.
Molly shook her head. "I find it hard to believe a child would do something like that. Commit something like that."
"We're not saying it is yet Molly," James said. "We're just updating everyone on what we've found out so far."
Molly didn't look any more assured to Harry, and he watched her shake her head to herself. "Will you be interviewing the children then?" she asked.
Dumbledore nodded. "With veritaserum."
Gideon and Fabian Weasley jumped up at this. "But that's illegal to use against students!" one of them shouted.
Dumbledore put up a hand against the mutterings that swept across the room at the twin's shouts. "It is, yes, but that was before lives were lost, and this person made themselves an enemy to the side of the Light."
"So you're just going to force kids to give up their right to privacy?" Harry recognized someone shout as Angelina Johnson.
His eyes stayed on her momentarily, distracted by the same-looking face, yes, but a very different hairstyle that framed her dark skin. The left side was cut short to her skull with some sort of rune etched across the short hairs, and the other side was straight and long, that swept down her face, and ended just below her jaw. Overall really, it was quite intimidating. Nothing like the warm sort of older sister figure that Harry had always known from her on the Gryffindor quidditch team.
She must have felt him staring, because she glanced at him for a moment, and Harry was thrown at how old her eyes looked. Weary. Private and hard. Like a fortress that hadn't been breached. It was exactly the opposite of the Angelina he knew in his world. Backhanded yet again at how different his worlds were.
Harry blinked and she looked away back to Dumbledore, and Harry was tossed back into the ongoing conversation like a part of his crumbling world hadn't just rocked the ground beneath him.
"We'll not be forcing anything, Ms. Johnson," Dumbledore said. "We will, of course, tell the guardians of each child the importance of their participance. Voluntarily of course."
"And if they don't volunteer?" Angelina asked with ice in her dark eyes.
"Then we will ask why, and note the importance of their answer," Dumbledore said back. Ever continuing onwards with the aura of someone with infinite patience.
A moment of silence fell across the room, letting the oldest wizard's words echo in everyone's ears. Harry sat forwards, watching Dumbledore carefully. This wizard, he was reminded suddenly, was the leader of the Light.
He didn't have the love he'd grown for Harry throughout the years, as the Dumbledore in his life had. He didn't get the chance. Here, he was leading a war. An outcast from the face of the Magical Community, and one of the most powerful wizards in the world who would stop at nothing to destroy this Voldemort. Someone who was truly manipulative. Doing what he thought was right in his own mind for the greater good, but too wide-eyed to see the individual struggle.
"Do you really think it was one of the students there that took the wards down?" Harry asked, watching silently as his question not only caught the attention of Dumbledore but the Order as well.
Dumbledore nodded sagely, all expression from his face gone, as he suddenly studied Harry. "Of that, I have no doubts."
No doubt. Bill and James both said a student must have done it. They'd already interviewed all the adults. Again, no doubt.
Well then.
Harry nodded. "Then I think it's a good idea."
Fred and George stood up with their uncles at this as one, and Harry found himself shooting to his feet as well. "Whoever did that is not a kid anymore," Harry stopped their protests. "Once you've caused someone else's life to disappear because of the choices you actively made, you are no longer a child." Harry's eyes traveled over the other Order members. The ghostly feeling of Cedric's body hitting the ground echoed in his mind.
"This..." Harry looked around the room for a moment, pausing, "… traitor not only betrayed the trust of everyone here but also caused a war. Killed Order members. Friends. Put other student's lives at risk. We shouldn't be treating this as a privacy issue but as a threat to everyone's safety. This person is among you, and when's to say that this won't happen again?" Harry asked them all. "They might have failed the first time, but they will try again, don't you think? And again, and again, until they have what they want, or they've killed who they can."
No one said anything. The twins looked as if a particularly sour object had been jammed down their throats.
"All of you seem to think that because this person is a student, a child, that they can't… or couldn't do something like this. But you've seen my memories. Even from my first year, you've seen what my friends and I have accomplished together just by fear and desperation alone. If we could do all those things, anyone else is capable of doing this as well."
His eyes cast themselves over the two Potters and found himself looking into a mirrored reflection of his own eyes. A startling green that shone with… Harry thought he saw, maybe pride in Lily? Her lips quirked upwards for a moment, and Harry felt himself fill with a warm sort of determination, strength. Her eyes said that she believed in him, and at that moment, Harry's words were more than an argument in his ears, they were a conviction.
"My point is, if veritaserum is an option, we should be used to find this person," Harry rose his voice, and turned his eyes from Lily to the rest of the Order, "I believe everyone should agree with the Headmaster on this. We can not look at this as a child's reprimand. They are a danger to not only the Order but to every other student living there as well."
James stood up. "I agree," he said, and Harry couldn't shrug off the snap of delight coursing through him. "We don't know if this could happen again. Or more precisely, when it will happen again. We need to weed out the spy before any of the other children get hurt." His eyes flashed to Lily, and Harry understood that they were thinking of Jonathan, Gabby, and Nikki.
"We'll cast a vote," Dumbledore said. Harry sat back down, and as did the others who'd been on their feet. "Those in favor of veritaserum?"
More than half of the Order's hands rose in the air, the only exception being Fleur, Mrs. Weasley, Fred, and four others that Harry didn't know. "Well, then," Dumbledore said lowering his own hand. "The vote has been counted. Each student will go through an interview with the consent of the child's parents as soon as possible. If the student has no magical guardian, they will be advised per circumstance through the Order's line of authority." Dumbledore himself, Harry understood, feeling a touch of misgiving.
For the next several hours, the Order of the Phoenix members discussed things that Harry partially paid attention to. Some things caught his interest, like the funeral for Draco Malfoy that happened the day before, and the announcement of Rogan Malfoy becoming the sole heir to the Malfoy House in the Wizarding community. He also found it interesting that according to the Wizarding government, Harry was now Public Enemy number one, a parallel he shared in being the Undesirable Number one at a point in time in his world too. He'd actually had a good laugh about that when he found out, which had Harry getting odd looks from Sirius, James, Lily, and Remus.
Mostly though, his mind wandered.
Flinting back and forth from what he would have to do about Hermine with the Order being suddenly suspicious of her, to the horcruxes, the spy, Natara, getting his own wand back in this world, and strangely enough, the younger Potter twin girls. His sort-of-not-really sisters.
He had enough things to worry about, honestly, he didn't need another, but after going over the Battle of Hogsmeade in his head earlier, he'd been reminded of the girls as well. Their eyes, and face shape, the undeniable characteristics that they shared with him in only a blood-related way. Something he never shared with Dudley or the Dursleys. It made him think of the way they stood comfortably, even though they were in a terrifying situation, close to Jonathan. For protection, and security.
It made Harry pause, and reflect on his own life at that.
He'd had people come close to him for protection sure, or even when others were scared they'd look to Harry, but the ways those girls, Nikki and Gabby, had completely given themselves over to Jonathan when he'd led the kids out, Harry knew that he had never had someone look at him like that. A deep-rooted love, that had no doubts or second thoughts. A sibling love that couldn't be replaced with best friends no matter how hard Hermione and Ron from his world were close to him. They would always be that one inch from complete trust, because of blood relation, or growing up together, Harry couldn't tell, but what he did know was that looking back at that moment between the three siblings, he could feel the smallest inkling of jealousy.
Family was something he'd always wanted, always treasured. He'd never had one, not really, with the Dursleys. There was no great love, hugs, or pats on the back, no small compliments, or teachings of what was wrong and right with them. He'd never known the true love of a family except for the bits of time Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had given to him, taking him in under their wings and made him feel that first spark of parental attention.
Sirius had tried too for a time before he'd been taken away. But by then, Harry was basically an adult. Been alone for too long, with just himself for comfort. He'd enjoyed the hugs, the winks of pride and smiles, but then he'd died, and Harry had been so angry, so deep inside his own mind, that no love he'd gained, none from his friends, of the Weasley adults, could pull him back.
After that, he truly was an adult, and all family love learned and absorbed had stopped. To be reminded that it still existed was both comforting and biting to Harry. The family he'd always wanted and had dreamt about since he'd learned and understood that the Dursleys hated him, was right in front of him. He'd talked to his mother, father, younger brother, and sisters. He could wake up every morning here, and faster than a Firebolt, someone from the Potter family, whether it be James, or Lily, Jonathan, Gabby or Nikki, any one of them, would wish him a good morning, and at that moment, in these last few days, it really had been a good morning.
It was both wonderful and exhausting. To feel that sort of warmth again. Guilt came over him whenever he was looking at James and Lily like they were the same young couple from his world. Even though they weren't, and Harry was starting to learn the differences from the second-hand stories and the real-life experiences from them as fully grown adults in his own time. It was something he never thought he'd be able to do. It was confusing, and Harry felt as if he were talking and walking on tip-toes all the time around them, for he didn't know exactly how to fix their current situation. His current situation.
Harry looked up, shaking himself from his depressing inner monologue right as there began to be a lull in the conversation around him. He looked to James, Lily, and Sirius next to him a couple of chairs over, and sighed inwardly. He knew that at the end of all of this, whatever the hell this was, he was going to have to make a choice. To stay or to go, was the question, and Harry began to realize that in either direction he chose in the future, disappointment, and notoriously, pain, was going to follow whatever choice he made.
Harry breathed in and took Draco's stolen wand from his pocket, gaining the attention of the adults closest to him. As Harry was still here though and could do nothing of choosing the future, he decided to do what he could in the present moment. Like getting the hell out of the Order meeting and back to Hermione so he could gather more information on her old life if just to prove Moody wrong.
He held the wand to his forehead and started pulling out memories from his fourth, fifth, and sixth-grade years at Hogwarts. The Order watched around him in silence.
"Anyone going to be looking after Harry this time around?" Sirius asked the Order, his eyes scanning the people around the room with a weighted gaze. His voice was swift and sarcastic, and James's hand went to Sirius's shoulder in either warning or comfort, Harry didn't know, but it kept the taller of the two men from saying anything else as eyes suddenly found themselves gazing at either Harry or another particular wizard in the room.
Most heads looked to Moody, who kept his normal eye passively on Sirius, and his magical eye fixed on Harry. Harry ignored both of them and concentrated on only giving the Order parts of his memory that were absolutely needed from his history. Like the rebirth of Voldemort in his fourth year. Dumbledore's Army. His finding of the prophecy. The attack in the ministry that led to Sirius's death. The attack on Hogwarts. Dumbledore's death.
Harry skipped over parts that hit too close to his heart or things too private he'd rather not share with the wizards and witches around the room. Like him and Ginny. Or his attempted unforgivable against Bellatrix.
After a moment of silent communication between the two Aurors, Moody's regular eye turned to Harry, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "I'd say Potter doesn't need a sitter if he can invade the Malfoy home and come back out alive in the same day. He's fine where he is," Mad-Eye said, surprisingly gentle.
Harry didn't know whether or not to let himself look surprised, though an old sort of warmth crept into his chest at the praise very clearly raised in the Auror's voice. It sounded like something that his Moody would have said too. Harry leaned back in his very uncomfortable chair and briefly locked eyes with Dumbledore. "It's ready," he told the Headmaster.
Dumbledore bowed his head slightly and raised his wand erect, moving the bowl in front of Harry into the air. He split it into smaller sections of stone like the last time Harry had shared his memories. For some reason, the spreading cups reminded Harry of the promise to Jonathan he'd somehow made his first Order meeting here, of letting the younger wizard see his Quidditch matches as Jonathan had never seen one himself, courtesy of the war with Voldemort.
As people started to settle over their cups and dive into Harry's memories, Harry stood up from his chair and rolled an aching neck to one side, his wand slipping back into his robes as well.
"Going somewhere?" James asked lightly, looking up from his seat.
"Just going for a cup of tea," Harry answered. Bill and Remus sitting close to the group, not yet lost to their cup of memories, exchanged a glance with one another that Harry did not miss. Yes, tea was starting to become a tradition, it seemed when other people were looking through Harry's past. The young man shrugged to himself internally and decided that there were worse traditions that he could be keeping, and started to head to the kitchen.
"Need some company?" James asked from behind.
Harry looked over his shoulder to find both Potter's eyes staring after him. Harry raised an eyebrow. "I thought Moody said I didn't need a sitter?"
"There's a difference between being the company and being a guard. I only asked if you wanted someone to be with," came the smooth reply.
Harry felt a grin crack his features and he shook his messy hair. "I'll be fine. You'll need these memories anyways. This is when things started to get interesting."
"Kicking arse on the Quidditch field?" James grinned back good-naturedly.
Not exactly. "More like trying to outfly a dragon," Harry quipped, enjoying the moment of shock on James's face for a moment.
"You're having me on one, yeah?" James asked dryly.
Harry's grin spread that much wider and he placed his hands in his trouser pockets. "Do you wanna take a bet on that?"
James's grin turned wicked.
"No," Lily interrupted between the two dark-haired men, her green eyes rolling upwards like she mentally praying for patience. "They'll be no bets on dragon flying of any sort." She faced her husband and gave him a steely eye. "You should know better."
"Oh, but Lils-"
Lily Potter put up a hand like she wasn't going to have any of it, and her husband fell silent beside her, his eyes amused in a rumbling sort of mischief that Harry had only ever seen in the faces of the Weasley twins before. "You start watching," Lily nodded her head at the cup in James's hand. "And you," Lily said turning her head so she was talking straight to Harry, "get something to eat. Don't think I didn't see the way you ate this morning." She put up a finger in warning like it was the whip to her circus ring.
Harry's grin didn't slip from his face when he nodded, and managed a "Yes ma'am," before slipping into the kitchen for tea and a late morning snack.
Minutes passed, and Harry sat down at the kitchen table alone, with a hot cup of tea in between both of his hands and an apple to the side, looking up at the farthest kitchen wall with a blank face. Now all he had to do was wait.
And wait, he did.
It had been about two hours, Harry decided, when he heard a noise from the Order's main chamber. It was the sound of a crackling flame and swift footsteps, like someone, had just stepped out of the floo network. Standing up, Harry set aside his empty teacup and headed outside towards the noise, with his wand within reaching distance, just in case.
He turned the corner to the room, and came face to face with a very curious-looking Charlie Weasley, looking around at the Order members as if he was truly confused as to why every Order member had their faces stuck into glowing cups.
"They're extensions of Dumbledore's pensive," Harry said lightly, announcing his presence in the room and jerking Charlie from his silent observations.
The older man's head snapped up, and his eyes narrowed in on Harry. Harry stayed silent in the few seconds Charlie took the time to take in Harry's face, clothes, and stance against the door frame of the kitchen. "Harry Potter I take it?" Charlie guessed.
Harry nodded and put his hands in the pockets of his robes. "Charlie Weasley, right?"
The redhead nodded. "Just got in from Romania, yeah." He traveled closer to Harry and let out a hand for the younger wizard to shake. "Nice to finally meet you in person."
Harry grasped his hand firmly and returned the handshake. He took in the form of the second oldest in the Weasley family and concluded quietly to himself that this world's version of Charlie was nearly identical to the one in his world.
Charlie's famous Weasley red hair was cropped short to his head, burns from previous dragon encounters littered the strong arms and hands, and he was wearing dragonhide boots, jacket, and fingerless gloves. A wand holster was strapped to his left arm and Harry could barely make out newly pink skin from under his right glove, new skin from a new burn, Harry guessed.
All in all, the military simplicity of the second oldest Weasley brother was just like the Charlie Weasley Harry knew in his own world. Almost no difference, except that this Charlie had a little more wrinkles around his eyes, and didn't entirely seem like the smiley type.
"Nice to finally meet you too," Harry said, releasing his hand, and the listing comparisons in his head.
Charlie must have deemed Harry okay, as he turned his head to the Order and flicked a wrist out in pointing. "So, pensive cups?"
Harry leaned back against the doorframe. "Dumbledore's idea."
Charlie accepted the response. "What are they watching?"
"School memories of myself." Confusion crossed the older wizard's face, so Harry went on. "At first it was to gain information and see if I was really who I said I was, and done what I said I'd done. But now though, I think it's probably just curiosity." He paused. "Maybe a hint of actually trying to gather information against Voldemort," he answered blandly and with a touch of dark sarcasm.
Charlie raised a solid eyebrow. "Mhmm," he nodded lightly. "'Done what you said you'd done'." His statement came out more like a question.
Harry felt a bit of a silence come between them. He wondered if the Order had told him about his 'purpose' here."You have no idea why I'm here do you?"
"No. Not a clue," Charlie shook his head instantly. "The Order and I… well we don't get on well. We tend to ignore each other actually. I know you're from another world though," he started, "Lily told me that, and that you're her kid, or well… her other sort of kid, but nothing about why you're here or about what exactly you're doin here."
"Here to kill Voldemort," Harry stated honestly, and in hindsight, a little too bluntly.
"Sorry?"
"The Order. They sent for me to kill Voldemort."
Charlie unconsciously seemed to have the need to look him up and down. "Right."
Harry shrugged his shoulders, with a tiny burn against his pride at Charlie's sheer disbelief heating his chest. Not the first time in this world someone had done it, but still. "It's true. That's why I'm here."
Charlie blinked, and honest surprise seemed to nearly jolt him back. "You're serious?" He looked Harry over again."But you've gotta be… what, sixteen, maybe seventeen?"
He barely managed from rolling his eyes. "Almost eighteen thanks."
"But-" Charlie scrunched his eyebrows together for a brief moment before he straightened, and seemed to have shrugged off the information. "You know, never mind, I'm not here for the Order." He looked at Harry seriously. "I'm here for the dragon, Natara, and you."
Well, Harry had no problem changing topics then. He nodded and headed into the kitchen, feeling Charlie follow after him. "In that case, Lily told me you could tell me more about Natara's and I 'bond'." Harry sat back down at the kitchen table and fingered his long empty cup. "What it is, how long it'll last, if she'll have to return with me when I leav-"
Charlie sat across from Harry and laid his hands flat on the wooden table. "Where you go, she'll inevitably have to follow," Charlie cut him off, stating quickly. "It's part of being bonded to something. It lasts forever and is incredibly strong, only breakable by death. So if you do end up leaving to-" he waved his hand outwardly to nothing, "-wherever it is your from, she will have to come with you. She'll die or you'll die if you're separated universes apart. One of the few drawbacks to having a magical bond, especially to a creature." Charlie nodded like he expected Harry to be all caught up with what he was saying. "Now, if you want to know how strong the bond is between you two, I'd have to look at Natara next to you, and your magical core next to her."
Harry blinked. His list of forming questions fleeing his head. "My, my magical core?"
Charlie nodded. "Your magical essence." He paused and waited. "Life support? What keeps you from being a squib or muggle?"
Harry shrugged lightly. "Never heard of it before." Never heard Hermione mention it before actually either, now that Harry thought about it.
A look of part confusion and surprise crossed over Charlie, but he cleared his throat. "To put it in its' simplest terms I guess, a magical core of a wizard is what holds the magic within us. Like a storage shed. It can be depleted from too much magical use or can burst outwards if an individual witch or wizard has too much magical energy inside them for their cores to maintain. It's why younger students start off with simpler spells, and why someone can feel tired after spellcasting all day."
"Burst out?" was Harry's first immediate question. It made him think of a bomb, or exploding dam.
Charlie grimaced. "It's not a pretty sight, trust me," he said ending that line of questioning. "A person's magical core can also be measured to define the level of power of a wizard or witch, or can be inspected for the potential of other magical bonds. In your case, a Dragon's Bond."
Harry blinked. "Right."
Charlie huffed out a sarcastic laugh and stood up. "Let's go see your dragon. I'll explain there."
Harry got to his feet after him. "She's not my dragon, and what about Dumbled-"
"I'll leave a note," he interrupted and flicked his wand. "Secondly," the dragon trainer continued, "she is your dragon. You're bonded. Basically married really, as it's all under the same sort of contract. So deal." Charlie turned on his heel back to the floo, and Harry found himself following close after. He didn't have time to question the older wizard further, or to really think about what he was doing, as Charlie grabbed a handful of floo powder, pulled Harry in roughly by the shoulder, and shouted, "Hogwarts Garden!"
Headquarters disappeared in a burst of green flames, and the world spun. When they arrived at their new destination, Harry blinked wildly at his surroundings. He had tumbled from the fireplace, surprisingly, to the outside of the castle instead of Dumbledore's office like he had flooed into the last time. Taking a few steps forward, he noticed that a large fireplace that Harry was sure was not in his world was set into the side of a greenhouse.
Harry gaped, his eyes flinting over the school grounds around him. There were rows of mundane crops spread in neat sections spread out to the edges of the Hogwarts boundary. Maize, spring barley, kidney beans, oilseed rape, potatoes... and many others that Harry didn't recognize. "Where are we?"
"Garden. An extension of the greenhouses really. Had to grow their own food at some point to limit access to you-know-who and followers. Natural grown and the lot, but it keeps the risk down."
Wide eyes took in the expanse of crops. Another thing irrevocably different, he thought to himself.
"Come on," Charlie pushed, turning from the land, and the pair of them headed upwards to Hagrid's hut.
"She's taken a beating," Charlie started when he got a good look over Natara, expert eyes going over the dragon's missing scales and healing wings. The three of them sat in a hastily constructed stone building a few meters away from Hagrid's hut, cutting into the forbidden forest. It was a wide enclave dug into the ground, stone walls as tall as a three-story building, with a partial cemented overhand as a ceiling. Something to keep Natara in without students or other people seeing, and a base of operations to care for the hurt dragon.
"It was a war," Harry answered, but it didn't feel right. A coward's excuse. He grimaced at her injuries.
Charlie scowled, probably thinking along the same lines. "Let's just get this over with. Come put your hand on her."
Harry looked to Natara, who was watching Charlie with a low sort of amusement. Harry came close and held out his right hand. "Like this?"
"Well, preferably touching her," Charlie said dryly.
Harry felt heat chase up the back of his neck and he touched Natara lightly. A shiver of… something raced down his back, and his eyes widened. Had she..?
The enormous green orbs of her eyes slowly blinked, focusing intently on Harry, and he felt ... perhaps caution? And then a bloom of something lighter rose.
"She's wary," Harry warned, his eyes staying on Natara's. "But interested in us. Curious at whatever ... whatever we share now. She can feel it too." He paused and looked to Charlie, "Just don't take out your wand or anything suddenly. She might eat you."
Charlie crouched to the floor making himself appear smaller, and stared between Harry and Natara seriously. "I'll keep that in mind. How do you know what she's feeling? Can you hear her thoughts? See her needs?"
"I can feel her reactions, sort of," Harry admitted, looking back to the Green Welsh. "What she's feeling in this moment. Whatever emotion comes first, the most powerful I guess."
"Any images? Impressions of things like Zago could do with Drago?"
"Um, yeah. We did," Harry nodded, recalling their first meeting. "When we found her... I gave her a memory and she asked me a question back with a couple of images."
The older wizard stilled. "You gave her a memory?"
"I thought of a dragon I'd met in the past," he clarified, "and she asked if he was safe. I told her, yes, and she… well. You saw pictures of Hogsmeade in the Prophet right?"
Charlie raised his ginger brows. "She's a powerful dragon. Not one to be taken lightly. Or controlled for that matter," he narrowed his eyes, "so how exactly, did you form your bond? Was it through blood, your magic, or-"
"I immobilized her and tried to speak to her through her thoughts," Harry admitted. "She was attacking Jonathan and me outside of a secret entrance into Hogwarts where she was guarded. I used 'Immobulus' to freeze her so-"
"Hold on, guarded? As in, you were in her established territory?"
"Yes," Harry nodded slowly, unsure as to how that would be relevant. They hadn't meant to drop into her space, she was just there. "When I got her to stop completely, I didn't want to hurt her. I just wanted to tell her that I needed to get by with Jonathan. I didn't know if it would work of course, but I thought if I could communicate with her-"
Charlie breathed out heavily, looking crossed between confused and astonished with dawning realization. "Then you performed Legilimens on her." He looked to Harry. "Didn't you?"
"Well, I didn't know it would bond us or anything! I just didn't want to die!" Harry defended.
"You performed Legilimens, and it worked?"
Harry looked to Natara, who was staring between the two wizards with low contempt. Nearly annoyance, like she didn't like the fact that their attention wasn't on her. "Well, yeah."
Charlie turned his head in thought. "Were you speaking in Parseltongue?"
"I-" Harry would have said no, but when he thought back onto his meeting with Natara, he couldn't be sure. He'd just been speaking, it hadn't been intentional to slip into a different language. Although whenever he spoke Parseltongue, it nearly hadn't ever been. "Uh, I.. don't know. I might have." He looked to Charlie "Why? Is that what connected us?"
Charlie huffed out his sarcastic laugh again. "Do you know how many dragon trainers have tried to bond with dragons? It's not something that's just done. It has to be accomplished correctly or not at all," he said. "Trainers have used Legilimens on dragons before, maybe even once or twice with a parseltongue in our history, but there have only been a handful of recordings in success." He licked his lips, "No one can just get into a dragon's mind and do it, it takes two to make a bond. Both halves of magic." He huffed a breath out in disbelief. "It took you," he pointed to Harry, "and her," he moved to Natara, "to do what you did. Whatever you were feeling, or thinking, affected what it meant to form between you two."
Harry let the information settle like a physical weight over his shoulders. "I was just…" He shifted through his memory of what had happened. What had he been feeling? Thinking? He shrugged. "I was just ... trying to protect Jonathan."
Yelling at him to go, he remembered. Trying to let him escape first.
Charlie breathed out and put a hand to his forehead like he was rubbing away a headache. "Well. Then there you have it. That's why you're bonded."
Harry frowned, more confused than ever. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"You were protecting your nest-mate. Blood. Family. Specifically, your younger sibling. So, no-" Charle held up a hand to stop Harry from correcting him. "Technically you are biologically related here, and dragons have a very strong awareness of family hierarchy. Especially human-trained ones like Natara, who can sense family magic within their trainers."
Harry's mind whirled. "So, she could sense Jonathan and I's family magic ... and reacted to me trying to save him?"
Charlie motioned lowly at Natara. "Well she's female, isn't she? What are female dragons most known for other than being more ferocious than the males?"
Understanding passed over Harry, and he thought to his first tournament in the Triwizard Tournament. "Protecting their eggs."
"Exactly. Protecting family. The same blood, same magic - the same nest. You were protecting yours, and she saw that. Understood that on an instinctual level most importantly. So."
"Bond," Harry said.
"Bond," Charlie agreed with a nod.
Merlin and Morgana. "Right," he said, shaking his head and swallowing. It was all a little insane, wasn't it? Formed by an action so simple to him. "Do we still need to see my core or whatever to know how strong the bond is then?"
Harry heard something, some sort of commotion echoing from outside their enclosure, but he paid it no mind assuming it to be the noise of passing students or Order members.
Charlie looked to the partial ceiling and cleared his throat. "Don't need to. An already powerful dragon bonded through the most powerful instinct a dragon possesses." He shrugged. "Then, possibly bonded to strong magic as you've already killed a powerful wizard in your past, and powerful magic leaves a powerful mark, how strong do you think that bond would be?"
Harry looked to his hand on Natara's neck. "Shit."
"Yeah," Charlie nodded and crossed his arms over his chest again. "That's for life."
For life. Him, magically bonded to a dragon. Forever. "What exactly does that mean for my magic? Or her magic? Is there going to be any-"
"HARRY!" Hermione's scream of panic stopped Harry's train of thought, and possibly the blood in Harry's veins.
"Hermione?" He turned, confused. Charlie's wand was out and up when a closely shaven head pushed open the metal door of Natara's room, causing Natara to rise to her full height.
"Harry!" Hermione half screamed in relief, her face wild with panic. Blood dripped down her face from a cut at the crown of her forehead.
Harry stepped in front of Charlie's suddenly upraised wand. Natara reared back, and Harry reached out instinctually, thinking of a tranquil open sky. Serene. Soothing. Everyone needed to calm the hell down before Natara took the building down atop them all, and why was Hermoine bleeding?
He took a step forwards, reaching out, but Hermione's fearful gaze locked on the dragon. Tears blurred the colors of her eyes. "Y-you have to come quickly!" she managed, dropping her gaze from the tensing magical creature to Harry. "We didn't know what she was doing, and when he came, no one knew who he was, so we thought he was a Death Eater-"
Situations flew through his mind, stopping on Death Eater and then grew. Hermione was in trouble. The school was in trouble. The Spy.
Hermione sucked air and blinked her wide eyes like she was trying to force the terror away from her face. "It's Ginny Weasley! I don't know what she was doing, but she's the one! The one they were all talking about. The spy! It was her!"
"What?" Charlie's angry voice demanded, stepping from behind Harry towards Hermione. "What are you talking about?"
Harry ignored him, mind whirling. "Where?" he asked instead. It couldn't be. Not Ginny.
"She attacked Gabby right at the front entrance, Gabby Potter. Said she had no choice," Hermione shook her head, looking between the three of them. "That she needed to take her to whats-his-face to get someone back. I don't know who. But she was crying and hurling these spells at everyone who tried to come near, and I tried Harry. I did, but a part of the front gate was blasted away, and people were screaming, and it hit me before I could do anything-"
"Did she take Gabby?" He pressed. A fear far darker than anything Harry had ever felt before hit him directly through his stomach, itching its way up. "Did she take Gabby?"
"No! No, that's what I meant. It happened so fast, but somehow, I don't know, something opened up in the sky-"
"What?" Both wizards echoed.
"This… portal? Doorway? I don't know what you people call them, but it opened up above everything and everyone stopped, including Ginny, and someone fell out of it. A person. This… this man," Hermione shook her head. "Right in front of Ginny and Gabby. And when he got up, Death Eaters were apparating outside the ward lines, and that man, he started running away from them. Ginny was running towards them with Gabby, but he tried to stop them."
"Who-?"
"I don't know who he was, but he grabbed them as he was passing and just pulled them back into the ward lines. Spells were flying everywhere as he was yanking them back, and I tried running to get Hagrid since he's the closest from the wards, but I couldn't find him, and I heard your voice, and I just- Harry I didn't know what to do, There were so many of them. Like last time. They were everywhere."
Charlie pulled at Harry's shoulder trying to get closer to Hermione. "My sister, Ginny, where is she?"
"Unconscious? I don't know," Hermione said, looking up at Charlie for the first time. "She- wait a minute. He looked like you."
Charlie blinked in honest shock, and Harry's mind stopped for a moment, then fast-forwarded. "What?"
"The man. His face, and hair, his eyes. He looks like you."
Oh. Oh no.
Harry's feet were moving before he was thinking, and he was out the door towards the front gate before he could take a breath. "Wake up the Order and get them here!" he shouted back at the building. He faintly heard Hermione and Charlie yelling after him.
Harry headed towards the front gate as fast as he could. His mind was tripping over itself trying to understand what was happening. This couldn't be happening. Holy Merlin, Morgana, Christ. Ginny couldn't be the spy. Not her. She was too… Ginny wasn't capable of-
Harry nearly stopped when he yet again realized that Ginny could have very well in fact been the spy. Be the spy. He knew almost nothing about her. She was not the same girl he knew in his world. She was… not her.
Screams and shouts, catcalls and yells of spells reached Harry's ears, and he pushed himself to go faster up the hill between them to the farthermost part of the front gate. And Gabby. Good Merlin, he hadn't felt that sort of fear since- well since he knew he had to die. If she was hurt at all, and Harry meant at all, well just the thought had a black ink-like quality drowning his veins and covering his eyes. She was a child.
Harry reached the top of the hill and looked downwards at the ground below. A few dozen students, all in Hogwarts uniforms and a few older looking teachers or Order members stood on one side of the wall, while the other was filled with dark-robed Death Eaters and their white masked faces. Everyone was yelling, and several Death Eaters were shooting spells at the walls and ward line, only for them to disappear as they crossed a certain distance towards the mass of students and teachers. Teachers looked to be trying to get everyone to go inside, and Order members seemed to be trying to round up the kids as well, but what Harry saw most was in the very middle of the chaos, and it made his heart sink to the bottom of his stomach.
Harry didn't waste another moment and raced towards the crowd below. Some must have seen him coming, or felt his anger, Harry didn't know, but students moved aside when he crossed them, and the mass stood farther away as he got towards where he heard fighting and yelling the most.
The first thing he saw was her long red hair. Swishing and flicking in the air with Ginny's body as she ducked and turned away from oncoming spells from the few students or teachers around her. The second was Gabby. She'd lost her robe at some point and was being yanked back every few seconds by Ginny who had a fist full of her grey jumper. She was trying to duck and tear herself away from Ginny at the same time, and the Order members and teachers throwing spells were trying not to hit her.
The last thing he noticed was another familiar redhead. One that shouldn't have been there. Not in this world.
"Ron?" he shouted, his voice lifting over the fighting and the chaos.
A tall, partially gangly, red-headed boy turned from where he was fighting two Order members and looked at Harry with surprise and relief. "Harry?"
Relief of his own, and then surprise filled Harry like an inflating balloon. How wasn't the question at this point, he was here, but no one else knew him. Order members were throwing spells in uniformed tandem, as Ron ducked and weaved. Harry ran and put his hands up to the Order members, throwing himself in front of the ginger wizard. "It's okay! He's fine! He's with me, he's fine!" he tried yelling.
Two Order members, who Harry had never seen before, paused but Harry, whose patience had run out for the moment, stunned them and turned to Ron. "Y- you're here? You're really here?"
Ron nodded, twisting his wand in his fingers, and looking Harry over before glancing around him. "Yeah. I'm here. Now what the bloody hell's goin on?"
Harry opened his mouth, closed it, and then ran past Ron. He didn't exactly know how to tell him at the moment that his sort-of-sister was a traitor and responsible for a bloody battle only a week before. "Come on!" he yelled instead as he passed him.
He ran towards Ginny and Gabby and ducked a purple colored spell. One or two of the Order members glanced at Harry and lowered their wand's a bit, but the others ignored him completely, too caught up in their task. Harry and Ron exchanged a nonverbal cue, already on the same page. "Ready when you are mate!" Ron yelled.
Harry nodded, then lifted his wand to the closest Order member. "Now!"
Unprepared for an attack to the side, Harry and Ron's stunning spells caught the Order members in the sides and sent them to the ground without a single retaliating spell. Harry turned from the fallen Order members to Ginny, surprise written over her panicked face, who then pulled Gabby closer to her in warning.
Harry lifted his hands and took a few steps towards her. "I'm not going to hurt you, Ginny."
She pointed her wand at him. "Then stop where you are! Don't take another step towards me."
Harry paused but then looked to Gabby. Her wide hazel eyes had filled with tears, swimming in terror and betrayal. "Release her."
An ugly look passed over her hardened face. "Don't try and tell me what to do. I said don't move."
Harry lowered his wand. "I know you don't want to hurt her. I know you don't want to. Let her go, she's a kid. Come on."
Ginny pressed her lips together and raised her wand a little higher, "I c-can't."
Ron stepped up beside Harry, eyebrows furrowed and angry. "Gin, let the girl go."
Ginny looked at Ron, confused. "What are playing at? Who's he?"
Ron frowned, and Harry remembered then that Ron didn't know a thing about this world. Including the fact that he was dead.
"It doesn't matter who he is," he dismissed quickly, ignoring Ron's turn of objection. "Give me Gabby, Ginny. I don't why you're doing this, but you've got to stop. If you don't, this could turn into another battle."
Harry saw tears fall down Ginny's face, mingling with dirt and some blood from the small cuts across her cheek. Heartbreak across her expression. "I can't," she cried, and Harry felt a part of him crush. "I have to do this. I swear to Merlin I never wanted to, but if I don't, they'll kill him. They'll kill him."
Harry stepped forwards a little, palms open and wide. "Kill who?"
"Dean," she cried, more tears escaping and rolling down the sharp panes on her face. "They'll kill him and the rest of his family if I don't."
He's alive here? Harry immediately thought. His mom had been a witch and his father a muggle, Harry remembered, but he thought that Dean would have been dead in this world for that alone. "Who will?"
"You-know-who," Ginny said. her fist white on Gabby's abused jumper.
So it really was true, a part of his mind scrambled together. Ginny was the traitor. She had let the Death Eaters in. She was kidnapping Gabby. Had to kidnap Gabby. To save… her-? Harry didn't want to think about it.
"Ms. Weasley I demand that you let go of Ms. Potter this instant!" a shrewd-looking teacher or Order member Harry had never seen before shouted somewhere behind him.
Ron's brows knitted, staring at Gabby and Ginny, and then his eyes widened, jaw going slack. Harry watched horrified as Ginny took another step back to the Death Eaters beyond the Front Gate.
"Where is he?" Ginny screamed to the other side of the boundary at the Death Eaters. "Where is Dean?"
Harry needed to do something. Anything.
"Come, you foolish girl! Give us the Potter brat!" Spells being thrown against the shield had stopped, and at the sound of the Death Eaters voice on the other side, silence covered both sides.
"Not until you give him to me, not until I know he's alive!" Ginny screeched back through the silence, her red hair wild around her face.
Move. Do something. Do something, Harry thought to himself furiously. But what?
A masked Death Eater with a darkly robed figure tripping beside him was thrown to the ground before them all. "Enough!" The Death Eater yelled. "Our Lord honors his bargains made with the children of true blood. See for yourself our Lord's word." The hood was yanked backward by the wizard, and a thin, bloody, ragged-looking version of Dean Thomas was thrust forwards for all to see.
"Dean," Ginny whispered in tears.
"Ginny no! He'll kill us anywa-" Dean called through a reedy voice before the Death Eater behind him kicked the air from his lungs and across his jaw.
Dean's head snapped around, blood flying through the air, and Ginny screamed.
Gabby started crying, horrible fat streams filled with despair and anguish.
They had probably known each other their entire lives, Harry realized, drowning between the two witches. Order families that had grown up together, loved one another. The heartbreak was real in Ginny's eyes, but so was the betrayal in Gabby's. The hurt and grief.
It angered him so much, the thought of such anger and treachery, that orange and blue filmed fire erupted across his vision, throughout his mind. A warmth Harry knew couldn't possibly be human rose in his chest, a barrel of furious retribution and revenge, and an animalistic urge to shout, to roar, blew up his senses and rushed his mind.
"Stop! Stop! Leave him alone!" Ginny screamed again, her long strands of hair stirring in the wind.
Harry blinked and her hair changed from its vibrant red to something fiery in his eyes.
"The child!" the Death Eater yelled back. He toed Dean's face back around, so she would see the broken nose and blood dripping from his hair, and Harry's heart rate jumped up. The urge to roar, to jump forwards, to kill blanketed his body and consumed his turning one-track mind.
Natara, Harry recognized. Their bond. Natara. NATARA!
"Give her to me!"
"Ginny don't!" Ron yelled besides Harry.
Tears fell and Ginny continued backward as Gabby desperately tried to unhinge herself from the older witch's hands. Others around the gate, from both sides, began to call at her, desperate and taunting.
"NATARA COME" Harry shouted through the warmth and the haze. The changing colors around him snapped back into place, but the blood-thirsty urge to leap forwards and tear still rang throughout his body and sang in his blood.
Evidently, Harry must have screamed for Natara out loud, because for a moment as Harry began to get his bearings again, both sides of the boundary fell silent and stared.
The moment didn't last long though, as Ginny's arms went slack and her eyes bulged at something behind Harry. The Death Eaters behind her started shouting, disapparating, and throwing spells upwards.
"Burn," Harry thought through the same too-warm connection in his head. A visual image of flames extending over the group of Death Eaters, punishing and exquisitely violent, escaped him. The resonant feeling of vicious glee reverberated between them, their joined minds and connected souls, guarantying her acceptance and participation.
Harry didn't turn around to look at the fast-approaching dragon, but sprinted forwards, aimed, and disarmed Ginny. He twisted and stunned her for good measure, getting to Gabby as Ginny hit the ground. Harry caught the young witch's shoulders as she fell forwards and tried to turn to look at her fallen capture.
"Get inside the castle," He ordered, looking down. His hands were tight on her arms. "Do you understand me? Get inside, take as many as you can with you, and wait for the Order to arrive." Her eyes were wide, face pale. He shook her slightly. "Do you understand?"
Gabby nodded, her auburn hair falling in wild ropes over her face, and her hands coming up to the front of his robes. "Thank you," she whispered, eyes terrified and wide. "I don't- I'd-" she flew forwards wrapping her arms around Harry's waist and placed her head in the middle of his chest. "Thank you."
Harry froze, managed to hold his arms around her in an off-brand version of her embrace, before letting go and gently pushing her to her feet as fast as possible towards the castle. He watched her start to run to safety and turned back towards Ginny.
Natara flew directly overhead and released a tornadoing rainfall of fire across the clearing of Death Eaters.
Ron was sitting with Ginny's head in his lap, looking up at Harry torn with confusion and guilt. "Why would she-"
"Later, Ron," Harry said, moving past him and running to the Front Gate. He knew that people couldn't come in without some sort of permission from the wards and the gate, but he didn't know if that was true for leaving as well. He would have to find out the hard way.
Harry's wand was up at the scrambling Death Eaters and the towering flames beginning to emerge across the grass. Death eater's scrambled, near a dozen spreading out. Masks were aflame, spells were cast, and wands were pointed to the sky. Harry marched across, felt a powerful force of other zip across his skin as he opened the gate, and stepped out. He closed the front gate behind him, intent on only one thing.
There was no hesitation with the dragon's cry in his blood, and he shot spell after spell as he made lurching steps forward. He worked as they stared up at the sky or escaped, and they fell as Harry's wand tip moved onto the next one. He stopped when he found himself in front of a broken, bleeding, but breathing Dean, who looked up at him from the smoke and the heat waves blearily. "You-" he croaked.
"Get up. We have to go," Harry interrupted, leaning down and pulling him half up against himself.
Natara roared, and the sounds of yells and dissaparation filled Harry's ears.
"I can't-"
"You can. Just move." Harry wrapped an arm around the man, pulling them both to their feet. Dean's weight was mostly set against him, but together they moved slowly over the ground in the midst of flames. No one stopped them.
Smoke burned in Harry's nostrils. The beat of Natara's wings sent gusts of wind and ash at his back, and he felt the heavy thump of Natara's landing. He could no longer hear the call of spells or the sound of apparation.
"G-Ginny, is she-" Dean choked.
"She's fine."
"Will she-"
"Honestly," Harry grunted helping them to the enormous iron welded gate. "I'd worry more about yourself at the moment than her."
"But you-"
"Am dumping you here," Harry stated, releasing Dean, and letting him fall to the ground in a heap. He stunned him as well, not really knowing what else to do with him at the moment, except to keep him there, and realized as he looked up, that the Front Gate was not opening back up to him.
A much larger group of Order member wands were pointed at him from the other side.
Actually, more specifically, their wands were pointed at Ron on the other side. Who had his hands in the air, staring strangely at Molly Weasley, who in turn was wide-eyed and gaping at the wizard with her daughter's head in his lap.
UPNEXT: Two mirrors equal a door, a big ole' Weasley gathering, Ginny's repercussions, and a talk about worlds.
~Missmusicluver