Harry Potter and the Curse of V'Ardian

Chapter 26

Of Answers and the Afterlife

Standard Disclaimers Apply

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The weekend was a welcome break from homework and studying that Harry happily embraced. Things had returned to normal at Hogwarts, even for Harry after he had talked with Dumbledore. The headmaster had assured Harry that the charm he had placed on Emily was nearly identical to the Fidelius, and her identity would remain a secret unless either he or Emily should choose to willingly divulge it. Harry was glad for this, and he planned to tell Ron and Hermione if Emily agreed, though he wasn't sure when he would do that.

Hogsmeade visits were banned after the recent breach of the Hogwarts grounds, so now he and Emily were sitting in the shade of a large tree at the edge of the lake, talking. He was glad for the fine weather because it meant that he could escape out of the castle, where more and more people had taken to avoiding him if they saw him, and he hated seeing the fear and mistrust in their eyes.

Harry was finding it increasingly hard to care about that though. The teachers and his friends had all been commenting on how happy he seemed, and Harry had to agree. He was getting to know Emily and she him, and he enjoyed her company. She told him that she felt things in her scar too, but not to the extent he did. It happened more often now that she was closer to him. He told her about the prophecy and his adventures with Ron and Hermione and she told him about her life in Italy.

He envied the freedom she had had, but didn't tell her that. They went back up to his dorm and he showed her the pictures he had of their parents and he was astonished to see that in most of the photos there was now a second chubby little baby.

They stood up to go down to lunch and she hugged him fiercely.

"I'm so glad I met you, Harry," she said.

"Me too," he said, hugging her back.

"Oh, sorry," came a small voice from the staircase. Harry looked over to see Ron and Hermione standing in the doorway with shocked expressions on their faces.

Harry stepped back from Emily and motioned for Hermione and Ron to come in.

"It's all right. I need to tell you guys something anyway," he said, quite sure they were getting the wrong message.

"Oh, okay," smiled Hermione brightly, and dropped herself down on Ron's bed. Ron sat next to her and Harry and Emily sat across from them on Harry's bed.

"Well, what we wanted to tell you guys is…" Harry stopped, not quite sure how to continue. "Well, you might find it a bit hard to believe at first, but I can assure you that I'm not joking."

"Harry, it's okay, really," Hermione interrupted. Harry was quite sure she was getting the wrong end of the stick.

He grinned slightly.

"Okay, well, meet Emile Potter, my sister," Harry said, gesturing towards Emily. Ron's head shot around so fast that it crack and Hermione's jaw fell.

"Bloody hell!" swore Ron, pale beneath his freckles.

"Oh my," said Hermione. "Harry, she looks exactly like you but…Harry, you don't have a sister," she said, sounding stunned. Harry frowned.

"Well, I didn't know either till the other day. Dumbledore hid her and used some charm so that everyone forgot I was a twin."

"Bloody hell," repeated Ron, staring at Emily. "I thought you were gonna tell us you were dating her or something, Harry," he said, aghast.

In perfect contrast, Hermione's stunned face split into a wide grin.

"Harry, this is wonderful," she said, beaming. She frowned for a second. "I can't believe Dumbledore would do something like that."

Harry shrugged, frowning a little.

"Yeah, well, we all know he screws around with my life," he said. He refrained from telling them about Snape and Katherine, as he had taken an oath not to, but it didn't really matter. After a few more 'bloody hells' from Ron, and assurances that they wouldn't tell anyone (Harry didn't tell them that they wouldn't be able to say anything anyway), the four of them headed down to the common room. Hermione and Ron were making a much bigger attempt to get to know Emily now and Harry left them to it as they headed out of the portrait hole to go to lunch, telling them he'd meet them later.

He waited until they left and collected the Marauder's Map and the Invisibility cloak and found Katherine. She was in the Great Hall Eating lunch, so he headed down there and crept along behind the Slytherin table. Feeling mischievous and being in particular high spirits, Harry pulled out his wand a sent a curse at Malfoy, whose hair turned dark red with golden bows in it. Katherine, sitting across from him, looked up and nearly choked on her mouthful of water.

"What's wrong?" asked Malfoy in his arrogant tone as another Slytherin thumped Katherine on the back. Feeling slightly bad that Katherine had nearly choked, Harry sent another curse at Malfoy whose robes turned dark red as well. This made him feel in much better spirits.

Malfoy was still oblivious to his Gryffindor appearance, though other Slytherins were now looking at him strangely and students from the other houses were laughing in amusement. One of the Slytherins pointed out Malfoy's state of dress to him and Malfoy jumped up screaming and uttering quite rude obscenities. At the head table, Snape stood up and flicked his wand at Malfoy, who quickly returned to normal. Malfoy, red faced and fuming, snapped something under his breath at his friends and stormed out of the Great Hall amidst the raucous laughter of the other houses.

Some of the other Slytherins, apparently fearing for their own dignity, followed suit and eventually Katherine followed them out as well. Harry followed her out and slipped an arm around her waist. She stiffened slightly before relaxing and let him lead her to a disused classroom. He shut the door behind them and she spun out of her arms. She appeared mad, but he could see that she was refusing to laugh, however much she wanted to.

"You did that to Draco," she said accusingly as Harry pulled his cloak off. Harry grinned apologetically and her face relaxed into a grin. He stepped closer to her and pulled her into a kiss.

"Got any of that potion stuff on you?" he murmured in between kisses.

"Mhmm," she confirmed, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Good," he muttered, before pulling her closer. He moved his attention from her lips down to her neck, nuzzling the soft skin behind her ear. When his hands began to get adventurous, she laughed and pushed him away, pulling a small vial from her pocket as she did so. She swallowed it quickly and he resumed kissing her, but he soon felt himself needing more and allowed his teeth to pierce her neck.

She drew in a sharp breath and her breathing quickened as he drew the blood from her, and he pulled her closer, letting her rest against him as he fed. Feeding from Katherine felt comfortable now and not wrong at all. He drank slowly this time, eyes shut, letting his tongue play across her neck. This time he felt it when she wanted him to stop and he withdrew, holding her until she regained her balance.

"That makes me dizzy," she remarked, leaning her head against his chest and closing her eyes. "And sleepy," she yawned. Harry laughed and wrapped his arms around her.

"Thankyou," he said. He angled his head to look at her neck and saw that the bite marks were gone already, completely healed.

Katherine sat down on the floor behind the desk and Harry sat next to her, drawing his knees up and taking her hand.

"I still can't believe that you've known my sister all these years," he murmured softly.

"You have no idea how surprised I was to go up there and see her. I didn't know what to think," Katherine said. "She's a lot like you, you know, quiet and serious."

Katherine paused a moment as though recalling something and laughed softly.

"She loves pulling pranks on people," she recalled. "She has the most evil sense of humour. Back at school in Italy, she used to drag me along and do something really sneaky and then act all innocent. Everyone loved her."

Harry smiled sadly, wishing he hadn't had to miss that. She sounded exactly like their father. He was about to reply when the door to the classroom burst open and slammed and something banged into one of the desks in the room. Harry froze and pulled the cloak over to him when he heard someone speak. Katherine stiffened as they realised that it was Snape.

Katherine started to rise but Harry held tightly to her hand to keep her down.

"It has been six months, Mister Malfoy, and you have yet to act. You know, I am sure, what I will be forced to do if you fail," Snape hissed. It sounded like he was blowing things apart with his wand. Malfoy's voice echoed in the quiet classroom loud, clear and arrogant as ever.

"Well I didn't think I needed to anymore! He was as good as dead and suddenly he comes back to life!"

Harry hoped they weren't talking about Dumbledore.

"Well do something!" Snape hissed. "I have no desire to prolong this charade any longer than necessary. If your mother had not asked me, I would not be doing this at all."

"I don't want to do it at all," shot back Malfoy.

"You have no choice, Draco. From all accounts you were quite eager to do this."

"Well, I wasn't going to tell him to stuff it, was I? You know very well he only asked me because of my father's mistake."

"Be that as it may, you have dragged me into this and jeopardize my position at Hogwarts. I will try to persuade the Dark Lord that he is more useful alive at this moment, but how I do not know."

"Yeah, well that's not the truth, is it?" Malfoy said.

"There is no room for excuses anymore, Draco. You should have thought more seriously before you took the Mark instead of rushing to please your father if you did not want to do things like this. This is what Death Eaters do. Had you gone to Dumbledore he would have protected you, but it is too late for that now. You have a deadline," Snape finished. "Make sure you meet it."

A second later the door opened and slammed again and there was silence. Malfoy swore out loud and there was a crash as he punched something. It seemed the opportunity to speak to him had come to Harry without him even trying.

"Stay here," he whispered, handing Katherine the cloak and standing up. He made it halfway across the classroom before Malfoy noticed him. His face paled.

"What are you doing here?" he spat.

"I heard everything, Malfoy," said Harry. "And now you are going to tell me the truth, otherwise our deal is off. Voldemort gave you a job to do at Hogwarts and you haven't done it yet. What is it?"

Malfoy backed up, sneering.

"Why the hell were you in here, Potter? Were you spying on me?" he asked.

Harry took a step closer to him.

"What do you have to do?" he asked levelly. Malfoy's face gave in to a look of defeat and he swung himself into a chair. The look seemed completely out of place on his face.

"I have to kill Dumbledore," he muttered, so quietly that Harry barely heard him.

"You're not serious?" sneered Harry.

"Get used to it, Potter. If I don't do it he'll kill me and my mother and I'm sorry to say that I value my life more than that old fool's."

Harry took a threatening step closer to Malfoy, who looked slightly wary now.

"I told you to be straight with me, Draco, when you first came to me. I can't help you if you won't tell me what's going on. Did you even have any idea that there was going to be an attack on Hogwarts?"

"I had no idea," Malfoy denied. "Even Snape didn't know, and you know how trusted he is."

Harry sneered.

"You're running out of chances, Malfoy," Harry said. "You should listen to Snape."

"All right," ground out Malfoy. "I get the idea. If I hear anything, I'll come straight to you."

"Does Snape know about us?"

"No."

"Good. Keep it that way," said Harry dismissively, and Malfoy stood up and headed out of the classroom.

"Oh, and Malfoy," called Harry to his back. "You look good in red."

Malfoy swung around and sneered, but if he thought Harry was the one that had done it he didn't say anything, and disappeared from sight.

Harry watched him until he was around the corner and felt Katherine come up beside him. She looked at him accusingly.

"What are you up to, Harry? And what is my father doing?"

Harry sighed and swung himself into the same chair that Malfoy had just vacated.

"I really think you would be better off not knowing," Harry said in a pleading voice. "You're in enough danger already."

"Tell me, Harry," she said, her voice growing stony. Harry stood up, angry.

"Really, Katherine. I don't want you involved. There's stuff that I haven't told anyone, and I don't plan to change that now, and it isn't just to do with Malfoy. When I sort things out with myself…maybe then, but until that time I have to be careful about what I say to people."

Katherine stepped back to him, her eyes glinting in anger, and Harry realised how alike she and Snape were.

"I wish you could trust me, Harry. What could be so bad that you can't tell anyone about it?"

Harry's good mood of a few minutes before had quickly dissipated and he was left with a bitter sinking feeling. He felt like events were speeding up, far out of his control and he didn't like that. And now another person wanted to know things, and Harry felt his grasp on the situation slipping. The more people he told, the more fragile his position became and he knew that their silence would not last forever.

"Please, Harry," Katherine pleaded and it was partly because of this out-of-character behaviour that he relented. "I need to know if it has something to do with my father, and I want to help you."

"There's nothing you can do to help me, Katherine," he said, but if you want to know that badly then I'll tell you. Just- don't tell your father anything, okay."

"All right," she agreed.

So Harry recounted the story of the prophecies- both of them, and about his visits to the eves and the vampires. He told her about the scar on his left arm and about healing Dumbledore, and how he needed to find Voldemort's Horcruxes to kill him, which was something he had learned from the elves. He told her everything but for fact that he had the Dark Mark, and he didn't tell her about Tonks.

He wasn't sure if telling her was a good or bad thing, but he felt safe in the knowledge that she was probably the safest person to tell. It also helped him realise something. He made a connection that he should have made a long time ago.

As he told her about the Horcruxes, he thought about Riddle's diary, which he thought might be one, and because of that he thought of the empty journal of Sirius' and Regulus' that lay hidden in his trunk upstairs. He was sure something so old must have had a use, and he was determined to find out. He thought maybe if he tried the same thing as he had done with Riddle's diary…maybe then it would work. He didn't tell Katherine about this either, and when they parted he went straight to Gryffindor tower to test his theory.

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A/N: I know it's short, but I'm going away today and I already posted the promised chapter. Should I make Snape and Katherine into loyal Death Eaters or keep them as they are? I think no, because that would be too mean, but I want your opinion. Well, hope you enjoyed it; remember to review and thanks to those who already have. Today is the 18th of December. The next chapter will be posted in a month, which will be the 18th of December (maybe a few days earlier if I'm keen). Cheers- Wujjawoo

Chapter 27: Of Discoveries and Devastation