Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the Potter-verse. Everything you recognise belongs to the magnificent Ms Rowling. I do, however own any characters you don't recognise.
A/N: And finally the mystery is revealed, well mostly. You find out what Ron did, but not why, how etc. that may be a while coming, but hopefully this will satisfy you. You'll all be glad to know that my muse came back and stayed on track for this chapter, but unfortunately he took a slight detour for next chapter.
Anyway, thanks again everyone who reviewed, that is (for the last chapter): Britni Puccio; Dark Elven; Gaul1; and cariluv.
Now don't forget to hit that little button at the bottom once you've finished reading!
Fulfilling Prophecies
Chapter seven
October 29th 2000
Harry spent just over an hour talking with his aunt. He told her about Ron showing up, and what it might mean, but mostly they talked about what they had been doing. He learnt that his uncle had had a heart attack about a month ago after Dudley had been arrested for assault, and was now doing much better but still taking things quietly. Harry told Petunia about the things he was studying, the grades he had gotten in his first year, and about Allie and his other friends.
By the time Harry left, he was feeling much better. He was much more relaxed, and felt he could handle what Ron would tell him. Driving down the motorway on his motorbike, Harry smiled in appreciation. The reason he had gotten his motorbike was because it reminded him so much of riding his broomstick, feeling the wind rushing past, the increased risks he could take. Harry had become a bit of a thrill-seeker after leaving the wizarding world, he would go out and do things that most of his friends thought were insane (though Lee and Chris were often egging him on), it was mostly to compensate for the lack of excitement and continuous danger he had faced back at Hogwarts.
Harry hit a few Sunday morning drivers on his way back into town, and so didn't end up getting to Jayce and Lee's place until just after ten-thirty. Unfortunately this meant they were still asleep when he got there.
"Hey, Jayce, Lee! Come on guys, wake up!" Harry yelled as he banged on the door. A couple of minutes, and one annoyed neighbour, later, Jayce opened the door.
"Whaddaya want?" He slurred, rubbing his eyes.
"You look like you've just woken up." Harry said with a smirk taking in Jayce's bare chest and blue silk boxer's, ignoring the look of indignation that crossed his face. "Can I come in? Or are you going to make me stand out here?"
Maybe I shouldn't have suggested that, Harry thought as the door was slammed in his face. Thankfully his friend wasn't quite awake enough to lock the door as well, so Harry walked in and sat on the couch, picking up a magazine and flicking through it.
The black-haired young man sat there for another quarter of an hour before Lee emerged from his room, dressed and looking profoundly more awake than Jayce had.
"Hey, Evans. I s'pose there is a reason for you waking us up at this ungodly hour?"
Harry smiled, "not really. I just felt like visiting. I've already been out to see my Aunt and Uncle out in Surrey this morning."
Lee gave him a weird look, "how on earth did you manage to get up early enough to do that and still get here at" he looked at his watch, "just before eleven? I swear you're not human, you don't act like a typical twenty-year-old male."
"Well, you see I actually have magical powers that mean I can survive on a measly nine hours sleep!" Well, usually it ends up a little less and last night was only six, and I don't tend to use my powers for that, but otherwise it's true, he thought as he smiled back at his friend.
"Yeah, sure Harry. How 'bout you show me some of your magic powers then?"
Grinning, Harry said, "ah, but that would be giving away my secrets. I couldn't let just anyone know them!"
"Oh, yeah, of course. I understand completely." Harry raised an eyebrow. "What? I do, if other people knew you could do magic, then there would be no telling the chaos! Imagine, all those people asking you to do things for them, all those girls asking such a 'powerful man' for help. Actually, I don't understand, but hey, it's your loss!"
Rolling his eyes, Harry threw a cushion at Lee, hitting him square in the face. Lee just stood for a moment, as if trying to decide whether he had the energy to start a fight he knew he would lose. He seemed to decide against it as he shrugged and sat next to Harry on the couch.
"So, what's with the visit? I know you said you just felt like it, but that is so unlike you that there must be some other reason."
"I had a visit from an old friend last night. It was completely unexpected, and I don't even know why he came yet." Harry shrugged, "I just wanted to get out for a bit. I spent about an hour sitting in a park somewhere, just thinking about it. Then I decided I didn't really want to think about it, so went visiting people to take my mind off of it."
"Fair enough." Lee stood, "I s'pose you've had breakfast already?"
"Yeah, and a cup of tea with my aunt. But I could do with a snack."
"Well then, sir, if you would proceed to the kitchen, I'm sure we can manage something reasonable." Lee said, bowing and gesturing for Harry to lead the way.
An hour, two pieces of toast and a few games on the Playstation later, Harry knocked on the door to Jayce's bedroom. "Hey, Jayce," he called through the door, through which he could hear someone moving around, "sorry for waking you up this morning. I just needed to get my mind of things for a bit. Anyway, I'm off now. I'll see you later."
Harry was turning away from the door when it opened, "Harry, wait up. Don't worry 'bout before, I was just tired and snappish." He paused for a moment as though considering something. "Hey, Harry?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you heading back to your place now?" Jayce asked hopefully.
Harry smiled politely, "yeah I am. Why?" He knew why, but it was fun watching Jayce's attempts at being casual.
"Do you think I could catch a ride?"
"What would you want to do at my place?" This is fun, Harry chuckled mentally, outwardly keeping a straight face.
"Um, I wanted to, um, see Allie."
"You're blushing. Jayce Fletcher is actually blushing. Priceless." Harry grinned at him, making him blush even more.
"Shut up. Well, can I?"
"Yeah, sure. But things are a little tense around there at the moment, an old friend of mine showed up, and, well, it's complicated." Jayce still wanted to go and visit Allie, so the two said bye to Lee and headed off on Harry's bike, Jayce on the back wearing one of the spare helmets Harry kept at their place.
Shortly before they reached his place, Harry turned into a parking lot outside a bakery. "I'm just gonna go grab some stuff for lunch, I'll be right back." He said as he handed Jayce his helmet.
After buying a loaf of bread as well as a packet of biscuits, Harry walked out of the bakery, bag in hand. He was halfway back to his bike when he stopped dead. Jayce, who was standing by the bike, looked across at his friend curiously, wondering at his strange actions.
Feeling a hauntingly familiar feeling, Harry dropped the bag, his hands flying to his forehead in an attempt to block out the pain.
It was as though something was attempting to break out, pushing at him and trying to find a weakness. The pain wasn't as bad as it had been at other times in the past, but it was more persistent, and gaining in strength. Beginning to be overwhelmed by it, Harry dropped to his knees as Jayce came running up to him, calling his name and asking what was wrong. He couldn't answer his friend's frantic calls, they were too far away, too distant. And he was in too much pain to understand them.
In the same manner it had started, it finished, gradually easing off until it was only a dull throb in his scar. Despite the fact that he had lived with the same amount of pain almost constantly since Voldemort's rebirth, Harry felt it much more acutely than he had back then. He had grown used to it being pain-free, and to be reminded of the feeling this sharply was shocking, to say the least.
Feeling more aware of himself and his surroundings, Harry lifted his head from his hands and looked Jayce in the eye. Jayce couldn't help but take a step back at the haunted and desperate look that had filled his friend's emerald eyes.
"What have you done, Ron?" Harry whispered as he sat staring at nothing, knowing all too well what he had just felt.
Voldemort, he was being revived. His remaining supporters and gotten hold of the stone and were attempting to bring him back. Harry had known, of course, when he had imprisoned the Dark Lord's soul that there was a way to bring him back. But there was only the one way; the rituals had to take place on one of the days surrounding the anniversary of his death. And they had to have the stone. Which meant that Ron had done something unthinkable, or had some knowledge of it.
Looking up at his friend with more awareness, Harry said, "I need to get home, now." Jayce only nodded, recognising the stubborn streak of his black-haired friend. At least he didn't complain when Jayce insisted on driving.
"What the bloody hell were you thinking Ron?" Harry yelled to the red head as he stormed into the room, Jayce gone to keep Allie busy for the moment. "Tell me that what I am suspecting is not true, that I am just imagining all of this. I knew when you showed up that something had happened, but I never thought you would have gone this far, done something this terrible. And to have this happening barely two years after we hid the stone, Merlin – what did you tell them? No don't tell me now. I don't think I want to hear yet. Just answer me this: are you absolutely insane? Or do you just have a death wish for everyone?" Ron cowered down in the armchair by the fire, his face turning pale under Harry's temper. "I cannot believe anyone would just go and destroy all that had been done for no reason – I can't actually believe anyone would do it at all, for that matter. Maybe you were tricked into it, threatened with curses, death – anything! I could possibly understand it then – possibly. Bloody hell, you are going to tell me every single thing that led to this, this incident." His swift anger replaced with exhaustion and a need for explanations, Harry sank into a second armchair, absently rubbing his aching scar.
He took a deep breath before starting again. "Please tell me you didn't do what I think you did." His voice held more than a little desperation as he looked directly at his red-haired friend.
"It depends on what you think I did." Ron spoke quietly, trying to avoid the explanations he would have to give.
"From the immense pain I felt in my scar just before I would have said you gave the soul stone over to Voldemort's remaining supporters, but even you couldn't be that foolish." He said, fixing him with a glare to rival Snape's.
"There were circumstances…"
"Ha! That is the most pathetic thing I have ever heard!" Harry said, cutting Ron off mid-sentence. "What were these circumstances that led you to be an assistant in the second rebirth of the darkest wizard ever? They must have been pretty damn good for you to do that!"
"It's hard to explain – I tried to last night, but…" Ron trailed off, he couldn't think of a way to explain what he had done, he didn't even want to think about it if he could help it.
"Fuck. I can't believe it. I destroyed that foul son-of-a-bitch, imprisoning his soul in a stone after losing everything to him. I was finally free after almost eight long, fucking years of fighting him. And what do you go and do? You hand it over, all that we achieved, for the sake of circumstances!" Harry was getting angry again as he listened to Ron's fumbling attempts at explanations. "And now I'm going to have to go kill that bastard again. For what? The third time? That's if I'm lucky and he doesn't kill me first!"
"I-I'm sorry." Ron apologised, his ears turning pink from embarrassment and shame. "But it's not like you have to do it, wouldn't the prophecy have been fulfilled already? You could leave it to the others this time."
"Are you insane?! Wait, don't answer that, I already know the answer." He put his head in his hands, a headache forming – again. "Of course I have to go do this – I have no fucking choice! I guess it serves me right for not doing the job properly the first time. I probably didn't fulfil that damned prophecy properly anyway, since he didn't really die, I just destroyed his body and captured his soul. I'm so sorry, I guess that was not quite close enough, better luck next time.
"Even if it wasn't my destiny to kill him – or be killed by him – I would be involved again. Do you really think he's going to leave me alone? He's going to want revenge on me for stuffing him in that stone in the first place!" The whole situation was getting to be too much for Harry now. Thinking about it, he didn't think he could stay quiet long enough to let Ron explain what happened. He told him so before making plans to go to Hogwarts. "I'm assuming you haven't told Dumbledore yet? Didn't think so, otherwise I would have heard from him. Okay, here's what you are going to do. If you want to start putting things right again after your right royal screw-up, you are going to write down everything that happened. Any observations you made about people, places, the times you met or spoke, and what these circumstances you keep bringing up were.
"Once you have finished writing that, you will owl it to me. I think it will be best if I didn't see you face-to-face before I've finished reading it." Ron looked about to object at this, but Harry cut him off. "No, Ron. I am thoroughly pissed off right now. I don't want to be taking my anger out on you. Despite all my comments, I believe that the reason you did this is not insignificant. So let me understand it first, before I try to deal with you again. I still intend to fulfil that promise I made about looking out for you, and right now, the best way for me to do that is to give both of us some space." Picking up his pack from where he had dropped it upon storming into the house, Harry turned to leave. As he reached the doorway he stopped and spoke in a flat voice, "you can stay here for the mean time if you wish. I'll go to stay with a friend till you're gone. And don't worry about Allie; I'll explain everything to her tonight." Storming out the door, he left, not even bothering to pick up any gear – he could come back for anything he needed later.
"Fuck." He kicked a lamppost. "Fuck." He clenched his fists. "Fuck." He punched a wall. "Ow. Fuck." He repeated as he shook his hand to relieve some of the pain. Harry was trying to expend some of his anger before he did anything, he knew from past mistakes that it didn't pay to rush into anything while he was angry. Unfortunately it was going to take a little more than punching a wall to get his anger under control and with his scar still sore, it would be even more difficult. He didn't want to disturb his friends while he was in this mood, and he certainly couldn't talk to Allie about anything yet. So he went somewhere that would calm him down.
