Chapter 17 – Phorion reunited.

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Harry popped his head out long enough from the veil to see Fred fall over onto Ron, blood spurting all over him.

'That's not very nice,' he said, half of his mind yelling at him to jinx Ginny, the other half content on looking for Sirius.

'That will be all,' a cold voice said, as its owner entered the room.

He turned to Harry.

'Wake up, little Harry Potter,' he mocked, and Lord Voldemort flicked his wand up.

Reality hit Harry like an axe.

'What am I doing here?' he asked to no one.

'Get out, no. All of you,' he added silkily, as Ginny showed signs of protest. They all walked out, many of the carrying the limp bodies of their friends.

Another person walked in.

'Wormtail,' Harry said in disgust, his hand trembling as he held his wand.

'Yes, yes, that's Wormtail. We have more important matters that I wish to explain to you before you die.'

'OK,' said Harry shakily, his eyes darting for an escape route, 'why am I here? How did I get here?'

'What a shame,' Voldemort said, and Wormtail sniggered. 'You don't even recognise a tiny little voice in your head?'

The sentence hit Harry hard.

'You've been in my head? You made me do all of it? Why?'

'Long story, Harry. Let's start slowly, so your pitiful mind can cope with it. It started when I failed to get the prophecy. I knew you knew – and still know- what it means. So I needed to interrogate you. But not now.' he paused, stroking his wand. 'I realised, as any great wizard should, that you would be well protected at Hogwarts–'

'So you decided to bring it down!' Harry spat at him.

'In a manner of speaking. I still control half of your centaur herd, and they have been working hard for me. Under the Imperius curse, Harry. All I had to do was kill a pathetic centaur, and that was it. Easy. I made one small girl curse another, who cursed another. An effective chain, I think.

'But I still couldn't get into your head properly. I still couldn't make you come to me. You are, and I regret it, too strong. But by then, I had taken over the school. But I still couldn't get into your head. Do you know why, Harry? No,' he laughed to himself, 'of course you don't. I couldn't access you, because I hadn't broken you down. Yet. But the curse worked wonders for everyone else – did it not? I had all of the pure-blood, and some of the other houses, including a Ms. Weasley, whom I understand I have already, ah – what is the word – met before.

'But then, an idea struck me so obvious that I marvelled that I hadn't seen it before. All I had to do was make you think that your fool of a godfather was alive, and you cracked within a couple of weeks! Maybe even less!

'So you came here, in search for your beloved Sirius, and I got my companions,' he jerked his head towards the door, where Harry knew the Slytherins were all listening intently.

Harry noticed Phorion stirring behind Voldemort. He tried to show no sign of changed emotion, and kept on listening to Voldemort, who was still talking.

'And here we are Harry. Around now is the time to tell me the prophecy. Or should I get it out of you?' he asked menacingly.

'No!' Harry shouted, but not to Voldemort; Phorion was racing towards Voldemort, and she hit him so hard with her from legs that he fell over. She continued kicking a confused Voldemort, until he disappeared. A triumphant look came on Phorion's face.

'Harry – are you alright?' she asked, running over to him. He hugged her.

'Of course I'm alright,' he said over her shoulder.

'Where's He Who Must Not Be Named?'

'I dunno,' said Harry, but he had a suspicion where he was; Wormtail was bent over, screaming silently in what Harry knew was pain. Harry still held onto Phorion. 'Is everyone else OK?' he said.

'Well, no,' she said bluntly. 'But they'll be fine. Now He Who Must Not Be Named is gone –'

'Who said I was gone?' Wormtail said, standing up strait. Phorion let go of Harry slightly.

'Rat-Man!' Phorion called out.

'I am never gone. I can never die.'

'You possess that poor man!' Phorion cried in outrage.

'I wouldn't say "poor",' Harry said.

'Be quiet, Phorion,' Wormtail said in a voice not like his.

'You know my name?' she whispered deadly.

'Yes. The centaurs know everything …'

'You – you killed my Firenze!' she yelled, starting to charge towards him.

'No!' Harry yelled, and grabbed her arm. 'Don't be stupid! He'll take you out!'

'Not before I take Harry "out",' Wormtail said mockingly, with an unusual swagger of confidence that Harry knew was Voldemort.

'Never!' Phorion cried.

'How about now,' Wormtail said sardonically, and he pointed his wand to where they were standing. 'Avada Kedavra!' he cried, and Harry saw the beam of green light come towards him; he didn't have enough time to yell out loud …

Harry stood very still. Then he opened his eyes, and immediately shut them again. He did not want to see it again. He squinted, and grief rose in his throat.

Phorion was laying on the floor, just like her love, Firenze. Her hair was fanned out, and her eyes shut peacefully.

Harry couldn't believe it. His head swan in circles; he was responsible for another death – how could he have done this?

'Oops,' Wormtail said mockingly. Harry could almost see Voldemort working his jaws as he had once moved his own…

'You gonna kill me now?' Harry yelled up at him, angry at Wormtail, angry at Voldemort, and angry at himself.

'Well, that's the plan, you see. You can never escape me. I am invincible.'

'You'd think,' Harry said sarcastically, avoiding looking at the small mound of bloody bodies of his friends…

Wormtail raised his wand.

'Avada Kedavra!' he cried, just when Harry yelled:

'I saved your LIFE!'

Harry saw the beam of green light, but it never came close to him; Harry's mouth dropped open. He saw Wormtail drop to the floor just as a door crashed open.

'Harry raised his wand, but the new figure was pointing at Wormtail, not at Harry.

'Stupefy!' she said. Wormtail didn't move, but a ghostly rush of black rose from his body: Voldemort. It rushed through the wall, and Harry could only look at it. Then the new figure tuned to him; Harry got yet another shock.

'Aren't you s'posed to be in France?'

'Great greeting, Harry,' she said, and, as she stepped into the light, Harry saw all of her. He ran and hugged her.

'Seriously, though, what are you doing here?'

'I'm taking my portkey in a few minutes, and I heard something here.'

'You knew to come here?'

'You dropped this,' she said, and held up the little sphere, in which Harry knew had brought her here. 'Let's help everyone else.'

She wiped blood off of them, but Harry couldn't do anything. He kept on staring at Phorion, who was lying oblivious to Harry.

'Phorion, get up, help me bring Hermione round. Phorion? Hello? Wake up –' she shook Phorion gently. 'Wake up!' she said, sounding more hysterical. Harry hated himself. 'Renervate! Renervate! Harry, what's wrong – she isn't – she not –'

Harry nodded, and tears fell down his face.

'Renervate,' Harry pointed his wand at Ron, who woke up feebly.

'Hermione!' he yelped, 'is she OK? Oh, God, it'll be my fault if she's dead – oh no, oh no, oh no –'

'She's fine. She – she was just hit b-by a curse. She-she's still al-al-alive,' she finished, and dissolved into tears. Ron saw Harry silently crying, sitting next to Phorion. He put two and two together.

'Oh,' he said quietly, and absent-mindedly brushed blood off of the floor.

'L-lets just keep on reviving people, eh?' Andrea said shakily, and they soon brought Fred and Hermione round. But they couldn't wake up George.

'Not George too,' Ron moaned, and Fred and Hermione saw Phorion on the floor.

'No!' Hermione said softly, tears falling fast into her lap; she was sitting up against the veil. Ron hugged her, and she clutched him gratefully.

'Renervate!' Fred was saying over and over again. 'Renervate! Renervate!'

'The Ministry had healers somewhere,' Harry suggested.

'No. They'll think you've gone really mad, won't they?' Andrea said wearily, clearly forgetting her portkey.

'Yeah,' said Harry. 'We can take him to Pomfrey. She'll sort him out, I'm sure of it. She doesn't ask too many questions.'

'How do we get home? Hermione moaned, breaking off from Ron, clutching his hand. 'Only Fred can apparate, and he might not be up to it –'

'I'll do it. Let's just go. I don't ever want to come here again,' Fred said.

'I'm sorry,' Harry said.

'S'not your fault,' Fred said instantly. 'We knew why we came here, and we did what we had to do, didn't we? You're still alive, and – and you know Sirius is gone, so can we go?'

'I need to go to France, guys. I'll see you around,' Andrea said, adding, 'someday,' under her breath. Only Harry heard her. After many hugs goodbye, she walked up the steps. Harry joined her.

'I'm so, so sorry,' he said. She stopped.

'For what?'

'Don't be stupid, I was a prat. This sucks, because I really, really like you.'

'I know,' Andrea said. They had reached the top of the steps. 'Bye,' she said, looking at up him.

'Bye,' Harry said, and he kissed her.

After a few moments, they broke apart.

'I'll never forget you,' Andrea said, as they walked to the black door.

'Me too,' Harry said, wishing she didn't have to go.

'Bye,' they said in unison, and they let go of their hands, and Andrea disappeared through the door. Harry sat down on the floor, his head in his hands. He looked up, and saw Ron next to him.

'Sorry, mate,' Ron said, sitting down as well.

'I didn't deserve her,' Harry said. 'I don't deserve anyone. I got my friend killed, all because I had my brain mucked with? How could I have let her come along? I'm so stupid. Let's go, before I kill one of you lot.' He said to the group. George finally stirred.

'What?' he said groggily.

'George!' yelped everyone on the vicinity, and they went over to him, including Harry.

'You OK?' Fred asked.

'Course,' George said. 'Where's Phorion?'

'Over there,' Hermione said, pointing to the veil. Phorion wasn't there.

'Phorion?' Harry yelled to no one. No one replied.

Hermione suddenly yelped behind them, pointing at a new, ghostly figure. 'Phorion?' she said uncertainty. The centaur shook his transparent head.

'It is I, Firenze, with my Phorion –' he held his hand out, and Phorion materialized, as a ghost-shadow.

'Wha–?' Ron said, but Fred nudged him in the ribs. He fell silent.

Phorion turned to Harry.

'Thank you, Harry. Thank you for everything. I am where I want to be – I am at the veil, with my love.' She and Firenze clasped hands. 'I must go now –'

'No! Don't go,' Harry said, hardly believing his eyes – was she a ghost? 'This is my entire fault!'

'I am foretold to be in the veil. It is my destiny. I knew I would see Firenze. The stars never lie. Bye, my friends.'

She added to Harry, 'thank you for avenging me.'

'I didn't do anything,' Harry said bemusedly.

'The Rat-Man is dead. Thanks to you.'

And with that, she and Firenze stepped into the veil, only looking back once to smile warmly at them.

'I didn't think I'd make it here,' George said thoughtfully, staring at the ceiling.

'Me too,' Hermione and Fred said from their beds.

It was two o' clock, and Harry and Ron were visiting their friends in the Hospital Wing.

Harry smiled – he didn't want to tell them what had happened after they had all lost conscious.

'Hello,' Harry called out to them.

'Hi, 'Mione, Fred, George,' Ron said.

'Fine,' Fred said in a fake sulky voice, 'put your girl friend before us. See how I –'

'– We–' George amended.

'– care,' Fred finished, but he smiled at him anyway.

'So, what did Dumbledore want, Harry?' Hermione asked; Harry had just been to the Headmaster's office.

'Just explained a few things,' Harry said vaguely, but they all stared pointedly at him, and he gave in and told them what Dumbledore had said.

'Well, I didn't die, 'cause I saved Wormtail's life. Well, that's the short story.'

'What's the long story?' Hermione asked.

'I dragged you all to the bloody Department of Mysteries. And you came,' Harry said, hating himself.

'We came because we wanted to help you, Harry,' Hermione said earnestly.

'She's right, you know,' Fred said, and George and Ron nodded.

'In fact, we probably wouldn't've gone if Phorion didn't tell us.'

'She wouldn't be dead, though would she?'

'You heard her, she's not dead,' Ron said. 'It's that veil thing.'

'Well, she's happy anyway, so that's fine by me,' Hermione said. 'So Voldemort took over the whole school?'

'Yeah,' Harry said, like it was no importance, but he knew it meant a lot to him. 'Under the Imperius curse. I think he got Hannah first, and then the whole school fell down.'

'Well, he won't do it again,' George said.

'How d'you know?' Ron asked.

'Cause Dumbledore's put loads of charms on it, and you can't apparate within, like, half a mile.'

'That reminds me, how did we apparate? And what was up with the Prophet? I haven't seen a black owl since.' Hermione asked. Everyone looked at her. Then she said in exasperation, 'Oh, come on; I don't know everything.'

They all turned to Harry.

'Dumbledore said that it was probably 'cause I was half Voldemort, wasn't it?' he said in silent disgust.

'But the –'

'Dumbledore thinks that Voldemort must've got hold of the Prophet system, and used, well, black owls. Typical,' he added; how couldn't he have seen it?

'Maybe he found a hole in the gate to apparate through, and he painted all the owls black, and wrote articles with subliminal messages in it?' George suggested, and they all grinned; it was very unlikely, but no one else had a theory.

'Well, anyway, we'll be taking this year again. Everyone will; McGonagall told me yesterday,' Hermione said. 'What, I'm not supposed to ask her?' she added, smiling.

'Good, we can learn it all again,' Ron said. Then he turned to Fred and George. 'You two gonna stay for the next year?'

'Nah,' said Fred.

'We're gonna do our shop up, you know, get back on track…'

'You saying you wasted a year here?' Ron said in fake aggression.

'We learnt loads,' Fred said.

'Speak for yourself,' George said. Then, as an afterthought, he added, 'well, I s'pose I did learn loads –'

'But you never went to any lessons because of me!' Harry burst out; he felt that it was his entire fault that they had missed out on a year's worth of magical education.

'They didn't mean spells, Harry,' Hermione said. 'They meant new things, which I'm sure they have plenty of now. We all have it. Loyalty, trust –'

'– The ability to do crazy things, and come out alive,' Ron said.

'Well, that too. But we all learnt that friendship, and the power of it. I, myself know that I have friends that I am very, very thankful for. Thanks, Harry, for everything,' Hermione ended.

'Thanks,' they chorused at Harry, who felt his face go red.

'Well, enough of that soppy stuff, who wants to play Exploding Snap?' Fred said brightly, and they all engaged themselves into a tournament, resulting in singed eyebrows, and a few burnt cards.

A couple of weeks later, they had all boarded the Hogwarts Express, and were just finding a compartment.

'Hey – this one's empty,' Ron called, and they all went into it. Harry took a window seat, staring at the castle wistfully – a whole summer stood in between Harry and the castle. He told Ron and Hermione, who were in the compartment with him.

'I think you'll be able to come out earlier, Harry,' Hermione said.

'What makes you think that?' Ron said, before Harry could say something.

'Yeah,' Harry said, 'what does?'

'Well, he won't let you stay there for too long, because you spent the whole holidays there. If you ask me, he's going to get you himself.'

Harry snorted.

'Yeah right,' he said. 'Just like Snape'll stay Defence teacher.'

'Well, he wasn't a bad teacher,' Hermione said, and both Harry and Ron looked at her in alarm.

'What?' she said defensively.

'Hey guys,' Ginny said, entering the compartment.

'Ginny! Are you OK?' Ron asked, hugging his little sister. She blushed, sat down and turned to Harry.

'I'm sorry,' she mumbled.

'S'not your fault, Gin,' Harry said kindly. He knew what it was like to have Voldemort influencing you.

'So – er – what happened when You-Know-Who left?' Ron asked Ginny.

'Well, we all kind of, I dunno, snapped out of it. It was horrible – I could see blood on my robes; and I was with Slytherins. Well, mostly, but I s'pose we'd all converted or something.'

'Yuck,' Ron said, pulling a face, 'I'm never converting to Slytherin. It'd take more than You-Know-Who to make me wear green and silver, and worship bloody snakes.'

Everyone smiled at Ron's expression. The compartment door opened again as the train stared moving.

'Hi, Draco!' Hermione called out to Malfoy. Ron's ears reddened.

'Hi,' Harry and Ginny said.

'Hello,' Malfoy said, uncertain whether or not he could sit down; the nearest vacant chair was next to Hermione.

Ron glared at Malfoy.

'Well, er, just thought I'd say hello,' he said, and walked out of the compartment, shutting the door behind him

'Really, Ron, you could have said hello,' Hermione said.

'Hey – I'll join Slytherin before I call Malfoy "Draco",' Ron said. 'And I've already given you my views on that haven't I? Plus, he'll be evil when he comes back. Trust me.'

'Yeah,' Harry said, cutting their conversation off.

'So – you guys would be doing another sixth year?' Ginny said, taking Harry's nudge and interpreting it correctly to change the subject.

'I'm glad,' Hermione said, 'I didn't learn much; we didn't even start on non-verbal stuff, did we?'

'Non-verbal?' Harry and Ron said in shock.

'Yeah. Like this,' Hermione said, and pointed her wand at Ron, and his wand flew out of his hand. 'There. Just disarmed you.'

'Well, I'm glad I don't have to duel you,' Ron said as he searched for his wand, oblivious to the fact that Ginny was holding it under her robes, stifling her giggles by stuffing her fist in her mouth.

Although Malfoy didn't return to the compartment, a majority of people stopped past their compartment, to thank him. Harry, who was getting redder and redder with every hand he shook, was relieved of having to do anything more by Hermione, who cursed the door shut.

'Thanks,' Harry muttered to the floor. As much as he liked being thanked, he also found it uneventful. For instance, Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbot had come to say that they were sorry.

'But you didn't do anything!' Harry said to Ernie, who had a small bruise above his eye.

'I nearly helped her,' he said, 'and that's bad enough for me.'

'Well, Hannah, don't get to worried about it, 'cause it happened to all off us, OK?'

'OK,' she said, and she and Ernie went out of the compartment, Hermione finally shutting it again.

Sooner or later, the train shuddered to a halt, and they took their luggage out.

Ron managed to kiss Hermione goodbye just as his mum came to greet him.

'Oh, Ronnie!' she cried, and Ron turned beetroot pink.

'Surprise,' he croaked, looking uncertainty to Hermione, whose hand he was holding.

'Oh, Ron, it's OK,' Hermione said, smiling, although she too had gone a bit pink.

'Of course it's OK, dear. You two must come over in the summer.'

'Thanks, Mrs Weasley,' Harry and Hermione said, grinning at Ron's expression; it looked like he was half-happy, but half-mortified.

Harry laughed, went through the barrier to a disgruntled Uncle Vernon, whose moustache was twitching in the daylight that was pouring in to the station.

'Come on then, boy,' he grunted.

'Hang on,' Harry said; he was waiting for Ron and Hermione to get through the barrier. They came through a couple of seconds later.

'Bye, Harry,' Hermione said.

'See you soon, mate; I promise,' Ron said, nodding. Harry noticed that he was still holding Hermione's hand. Uncle Vernon was staring at them in disgust.

'You his friends?' He said abruptly.

'Yeah,' Ron said, tightening his grip on Hermione's hand a bit more. 'And we're gonna get him out of your hellhole, so just you bloody wait, Mister Dursul.'

'Dursely,' Hermione muttered to him, grinning.

Uncle Vernon turned around and started to walk as quickly as he could to the exit. Harry smiled at Ron and Hermione and hastened to walk after Uncle Vernon's silhouette, which was grunting and panting loudly amidst the quiet hubbub of the station.