Chapter 8: Making up for lost time

Disclaimer: All characters belongs to J. K. Rowling!

8- Making up for lost time

It was almost nine o'clock at night and Harry was already late for dinner at the Burrow. The night was clear and quite humid, and a little less cold than in Scotland. He stood just away from the anti-appearance protections that surrounded Andromeda Tonks' house and turned to watch the place again. Its lights were still on and a couple of areas repaired after the impact of some curses were visible. Hermione had left for the Weasley´s after they left the forest (she had promised to help Molly in the kitchen) and he wanted to spend some time visiting Teddy, his godson.

It was a nice house, too big for just an old witch and a baby, and he went to visited him for the first time. But in the hour and a half he was there talking with Andromeda, the almost four-month-old baby slept nonstop in his cradle.

A light on the ground floor went out, which meant that the widow was about to go upstairs to sleep. It was not a very good experience for him to have come, but he had to. Ted was almost alone and Harry made the promise to do everything he could to make him part of his life. But Andromeda, in addition to still being depressed by the loss of her husband and especially her only daughter, had been cold and distant with him. They didn't know each other, and he had never seen her except the time they "landed" with Hagrid a few months ago.

It was a strange situation to him. He was relieved when he noticed the love with which she cared for her metamorphmagus grandson, but knew that it would be very difficult for him to gain the lady's trust, especially since she had learned of his three-month "runaway" to France. Andromeda was angry about it, and he didn't know what to do; it didn´t help at all that Andromeda was the living image of her death sister Bellatrix. However, he did not doubt that he would end up loving Teddy. His tragic fate was the same as his, and just as he would have given anything for Sirius to have been present in his childhood, he would do anything to be present in the life of his godchild. Fate had tied him to a Black, and now a descendant of a branch "expelled" from the noble and ancestral family was tied to him.

He sighed. The night wrapped him with amazing strength, and the sight of some stars among the dark clouds subdued him. Looking at the stars made him happy, but at the same time made him feel like the loneliest person in the world. He knew that there were many people who loved him and that many of them were waiting for him at that moment in the Burrow, but he could not fight against his feelings of loneliness or against the anguish of not belonging...

Up there, to the north, he could spot Polaris, his favorite star. Brilliant and lonely. Like an eye in the sky that used to guide and protect him (at least he used to believe that), as it had guided travelers and adventurers for centuries.

***HP***

A couple of minutes later he appeared in the vicinity of the Burrow. He began to walk observing the strange house that could only be kept standing by magic, with his thoughts yet fixed on Teddy. It was his second favorite place in the world, but the image of the house reactivated the memories of his last visit a few months ago, just before running away to France.

"GET LOST!"

The anguish squeezed his heart. His knees loosened a little and he hesitated. He stopped walking to get back on his feet and be able to resume his way.

"Leave Hermione and me alone, and my family! And stay away from Ginny!"

He closed his eyes, sighed, and asking for permission to her legs began to walk again. He was a bundle of nerves. He was always happy in the Burrow and now he could barely get to the door.

"What do you want me to do, Harry? Tell me! Do you want me to leave? I will! Do you want me not to talk to you? Fine!

"No Ginny, I don't want that."

"Then talk to me! For Merlin´s sake, you're locking yourself and you don't let anyone come near you to..."

"I don't want anyone to help me! I don't want you to pity me, Ginny!"

His girlfriend's silence was cold and ruthless.

"You weren't like that. You always had enemies and you weren't like that. Now you don't have them and..." She regretted what she was about to say and went on. "It's this house, isn't it? This house isn't helping you."

"It's my parents' house." Harry said laconically.

"Move, you've got money. You can go wherever you want."

Harry didn't answer. After a few seconds of silence, Ginny continued:

"This is not working, Harry. You barely talk to me, we barely touch ourselves and you are getting away from everyone, I'm willing to wait for you but you're impossible. You need help, someone who..."

"I don't need anyone's help, Ginny, don´t you understand?"

"Well, that's okay! I'll go away so I won't bother you anymore! And mark my words, I will never come to this bloody house again, Harry! I hate being here!"

Harry was almost over the door. They were all inside, he could hear them laughing and talking. The warmth of the Burrow had always been a blessing to him, but he was having trouble knocking on the door to announce his arrival.

"GET LOST!"

Ron´s scream was still echoing in his ears, and his blood froze. He realized that he was still remembering some of the saddest moments of his life. He took courage and knocked on the damn wooden door.

***HP***

"Come on, Harry, tell them!"

Everyone was sitting around the table enjoying the dinner that Mrs. Weasley had prepared. He was near the head of the table where Shacklebolt was sitting; the other head was occupied by Arthur. In front of him were Bill and Fleur, and Hermione, Ron and Ginny were near the other head. Ron's cold distance had affected him, but Ginny seemed to be a little more receptive with him; neither Percy nor Charlie had been able to be there.

Harry looked at Mcgonagall who was sitting next to Molly. She was asking him to tell everyone about the try-outs at Puddlemere United. It had been about ten minutes since the boy had arrived and he noticed with some discomfort that the conversations between them had been interrupted by his arrival. Everyone greeted him warmly, but Hermione and Ginny barely smiled at him from their chairs, and Ron did not even look at him.

"Tell us Harry, what it is?" asked Molly anxiously.

Luckily the boy's mouth was full of potatoes and he couldn't answer. He knew what the professor was talking about and he was dying to tell everyone, but he feared the reaction of younger ones, especially Ron.

"Oh what the hell!" Said the headmistress, "I can't take it anymore. Harry was invited to a try-out for Puddlemere United, as a reserve seeker!"

The table filled with opened mouths and astonished looks for the news, and silence reigned for a few seconds until George and Bill reacted.

"Wow Harry, congratulations!"

"The Puddlemere is great, you'll be with Oliver!" Bill added as he stretched across the table and hit him on the crown of his head. Everyone congratulated him, except for the ones he expected the most.

After a couples of hugs of Molly and Fleur, all of them spent several minutes talking about the Puddlemere and Quidditch. Harry had well received the congratulations of them, even from Hermione and Ginny, but very badly the indifference of Ron. He looked at Ron from time to time and noticed how uncomfortable he was, eating with his eyes fixed on his plate and occasionally exchanging words with Hermione or Ginny, without getting involved in the conversation about Quidditch. His friend was having a really bad time in his own house and with his own family, and he didn't even want to get involved in the sports talk he liked the most. Hermione turned to Ron and after passing him a piece of bread said something to his ear that made him smile, patted him on the shoulder and kissed his cheek. Harry stared at his plate, mortified by sadness. His friends wouldn't even speak to him. He wanted to hit Ron just for all the things he said before he left the country, but he felt sorry that he was so uncomfortable in his own house.

"WHAT?"

Startled, he looked in terror at Arthur who had been the one who had roared. He had not noticed that the whole table was looking at him.

"Yes, just as you heard it. Bill told me everything."

"Why didn't you tell me anything about it?" Arthur asked angrily to his oldest son.

"I didn't get a chance, okay?" Bill answered unwillingly.

"But... it can't be possible! Death-eaters in France? Harry please tell us what happened!" Now it was Molly who was alarmed.

"Oh... well..." Harry didn't know where to start. Everyone looked at him with a frightened face, but Hermione's gaze was one of complete dread.

Fleur rolled his eyes and decided to speak for him. "Two attacked him while Hagy was sending a letter, and then the next day anotheg two in his house in Fgance."

"Don't worry Molly, Fleur's father works at the French Ministry of Magic and they have already contacted us informing us that they are investigating the two attacks. I must say that Bill, Fleur and Harry captured them and kept them locked up. Next week they may be extradited to England." Explained the minister.

"Don't worry, you say?" Molly began to be furious, to which Arthur reacted and stopped her by interrupting him.

"Molly, will you calm down? Harry, did you recognize them?"

"I think one was Scabior, a marauder. The rest didn't."

Molly put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him in disconsolation.

"How did they know he was in France?" McGonagall asked still stunned.

"No one knows. The French Ministry doesn't have many resources as the English. They didn´t detected those magical entgances to the country." Fleur said and then looked at Harry. "My fatheg is very grateful to you Hagy."

"That's right." Bill nodded. "When we went to the French Ministry to testify, Mr. Delacour and the vice minister did not stop hugging him and thanking him."

"I must ask why so much gratitude in such high-ranking officials." Kingsley asked with a brief smile. Harry always had the feeling that Kingsley was always aware of everything.

"Well, ´cause he saved my life, didn't you, Hagy?" The French woman said gently and gratefully. "He threw me to the ggound when they casted a killing curse at me."

Again everybody looked at him, stunned. Ron was finally looking at him, preoccupied, and Hermione was about to explode. Fleur looked at him thoughtfully and intensely, and added:

"Even though he was having pgoblems…" She interrupted herself and asked him for permission with her gaze; Harry looked at her and shrugged slightly. Sooner or later they would find out because the officials who questioned him were surprised by the failure of Harry Potter's magic.

"…With his magic." Ended the French witch.

If everyone was alarmed before, now they didn't even move a muscle. Tired by the situation, Harry sighed and dared to look at them all, hoping that someone would say something and that they would break that silence that was really bothering him. He noticed that Fleur looked at Hermione a couple of times, and his friend was petrified with her eyes fixed on her empty plate.

"Harry, is that... possible?" George asked in a whisper.

No one was talking, and no one was looking anywhere but him. He looked at George but Kingsley answered first.

"Well... it's very unusual, but it's possible." Even the Minister could not have imagined this, he looked thoughtful and worried.

"And how did he save you when you were on the floor, if Harry couldn't... do magic?" McGonagall asked, trying to understand.

"With a geduct." Fleur said, and instantly opened his eyes, looking at Harry as if she was aware of something.

"A Reduct?" Molly, Arthur, George and McGonagall questioned at the same time as if they had practiced it.

"Yes." Harry finally said, and explained. "I hadn't been able to cast the stunning spell twice and when I was on the ground with Fleur I used that spell to win some time."

"And you did it!"

"Yes, I got very angry because of the killing curse they thrown at you."

Fleur smiled as Bill hugged her.

"Somebody can explain to me why Harry can't do magic," Molly asked after a few seconds, his voice barely audible.

For some reason Harry believed that Hermione would raise her hand anxious to answer, but she did not.

"Well, our magical core responds to our state of mind, and Harry has been very depressed because... well you know." Bill had begun to explain what he believed but didn´t continued, apparently not to make things worse.

"I never heard that happen... bloody hell Harry, what about your Patronus?" asked George in consternation.

Harry only shook his head, getting a snort of frustration from the twin. He noticed an atmosphere similar to a funeral, as if they thought his magic would never return. But he clung to what Bill had told him about the relation between his mood and his magical core, and hoped that his magic would return in time.

"Well, I remember Bilius, his magic was out of control when he lost his mind." Arthur reasoned.

"But why he could cast the Reducto?" Ginny questioned unexpectedly.

Fleur raised his eyebrows thoughtfully and commented: "Well, the geduct is not a spell that depends on feelings, true?"

"Possibly." Kingsley answered. "You were ambushed for the first time in Gap, is it right?"

"Yes, and Bill and Fleur stunned them." Answered Harry.

Kingsley looked at the boy. "So they caught you by surprise, couldn´t you defend yourself?"

"I was caught without the wand... so what?" Harry justified himself against Bill's annoyed gesture and Kingsley's stunned face. "I didn't think it was necessary, my wand was useless anyway..."

"Thank Merlin that Mad-Eye didn't hear that, otherwise he'd kill you with his own hands." George said very slowly with a small mocking smile; Harry smiled as he imagined it.

He noticed that Ron was very thoughtful, and Hermione a bit dejected, when even a few minutes ago she was in a good mood and conversational. He hated seeing her like that and would do anything to cheer her up but that was literally impossible.

"Well." the Minister sighed. "Either way this coming Wednesday you will have to go to the Ministry, Harry, to testify. I must confess that there was a commotion when the French Minister of Magic himself sent us a notification about what had happened."

Harry got pissed. Thinking about going to the Ministry to declare and testify really annoyed him, he was still traumatized by the court hearing he had to attend because of the attack of the two dementors in Little Whinging, and he still had fresh memories of many who managed to escape and who claimed to have been under the Imperius curse during the last hearings a few months ago, after the end of the battle.

"And it would be good for you two to come too." He told Bill and Fleur who nodded without hesitation.

"Do I need witnesses?" Harry asked sarcastically.

"Not as witnesses, Harry. Just to corroborate the facts and give them legal and irrefutable consistency."

"You talk as if they won't believe me."

"They will believe you, Harry, it's just a legal formality."

"They didn't believe me when I told them that the death-eaters who hadn't been captured and those who escaped would be still active." Harry said, chewing his rage with his eyes fixed somewhere on the table. "Paranoid was the least they told me."

Kingsley only nodded. The table was quiet again, and spirits were on the floor. Harry had the feeling of having ruined the evening, and he was starting to want to return to Godric Hollow.

"You find trouble even running away from them, Harry. Even in France," George said, breaking the silence.

"No, problems usually find me."

After a while, the conversations changed the subject and Harry felt relieved. He never liked being the center of attention, and now that the talk was drifting to the most diverse topics he felt less pressure and calmer.

"So Arthur, congratulations on your speech. Surely it will be in the Prophet tomorrow!" Kingsley exclaimed, lifting his glass. "And you too, Harry, your speech was very emotional and really impacted us, even if you've been a little hard on someones!"

"Amen," Bill greeted with his cup.

"I still can't believe how well the two of you spoke in front of so many people!" Mrs. Weasley laughed. "I honestly thought you both hated that!"

"Oh well, George helped us a little, didn't he, Harry?" Arthur winked at him in a gesture of complicity. "He gave us one of those tablets to calm and release tension before public speechs."

George choked on the beer he was drinking and was coughing and laughing for a long time until he was finally able to speak.

"I gave you and Harry some common vanilla tablets. We don't have that kind of product in the business."

Harry's eyes were popping out, he should have imagined he wasn't going to come out unscathed from the help the twin had so selflessly offered him. While everyone was still celebrating George's occurrence, Mr. Weasley continued with the same gesture on his face as Harry until he could react.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?"

Laughter was widespread, and even Harry ended up laughing even though he was still terrified by what he said to so many people deceived by a fake tranquilizer tablet. But the only person who didn't seem to share the widespread laughter was his best friend.