LittleGinny15: Wow, thanks! That's a big compliment! Sigh, me too. Rose gets David…I want David!...Who says I never planned to slip Bad Wolf in somewhere? I mean it was practically the biggest thing in the newest series; I couldn't really miss off a mention. And I think I've found the perfect place to bring it back. My fic will become an AU! afterwards, though. Not just yet...but it will be back, soon. Thanks for reviewing!
Enjoy!
Remembrance is a Painful Thing
Harry got slowly to his feet and moved towards the large, stained-glass window at the far end of the Room. The low hung clouds and lingering mist did nothing to improve his spirits. He knelt against the window-sill, searching through the fog for anything remotely appealing. A tiny blue dot on the edge of the forest caught his eye, and he stared at it, frowning.
"Er… Doctor?"
"Yeah?"
"…What does your ship look like?"
"Are you trying to avoid the subject, again?" Rose asked shiftily. The Doctor flashed her a small smile. Harry ignored her.
"Is it blue?"
"Yes, a blue, 1950's police box. We landed on the outskirts of a forest, if you can see it from there. Don't worry, it's empty… unfortunately," he added, sighing.
"Right." Harry shook his head and moved away from the window. He crossed to a large multi-level shelf that wended along the entire room, dragging his hand gently over the items on display absent-mindedly as he past them.
"Well, I don't know what to say," he said finally, as the silence spiralled horribly.
"I suppose… who you are would be a good place to begin," The Doctor said, smiling weakly. "Who are your parents?"
"They're… they're dead," Ginny said quietly. Rose looked horrified, but The Doctor glanced at her, and nodded with acceptance.
"I kind of expected that," he muttered sadly.
"Lily and James Potter… Head Boy and Girl during their seventh year here. My dad was a born wizard, but my mum was Muggle-born. She looked a lot like Ginny, actually."
"Whereas Harry's a spitting image of his father," Ginny smiled. Ron and Hermione both nodded.
"They were killed… well, murdered… on Halloween, 1981, by Lord Voldemort. The Avada Kedavra Curse is one of The Three Unforgivable Curses; a group of spells that can grant you a life sentence in Azkaban if you used them on another person."
"So that's… a prison, is it?" Rose asked. Harry nodded.
"Avada Kedavra is The Killing Curse. Then there's The Imperius, which gives you total control, and Cruciatus, The Torture Curse. And I've been on the receiving end of all three," Harry announced, his face blank.
"So you're famous for surviving Avada Kedavra, then?" The Doctor said. When Harry nodded, he shared a look with Rose. She sighed and smiled, accepting the fact that the 'new' him was probably going to be right about everything.
Smart Arse! she thought, her heart thumping a little harder than usual as his 'I told you so' look burnt through her. That conversation in The Hospital Wing seemed a lifetime ago to her.
"I was one, when they died. Voldemort came to where my parents were living, in a village called Godric's Hollow. He killed my father, and then turned to me. My mum was in the way, though. She didn't have to die… he only wanted me. He killed her, but her sacrifice marked me… so when he turned his wand on me, the Curse back-fired and hit Voldemort instead. He vanished, not dead because of his Horcruxes, but… vanquished, I suppose. Spirit-form, neither alive nor dead.
"I was sent to live with my mum's sister, Petunia. I spent ten years living in Hell, with my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin, until my eleventh Birthday when I received a letter from Hogwarts telling me I had a place here.
"Well, naturally, I had an enemy from my very first train-ride here. Draco Malfoy. Need I say more? Luckily… I found a best friend on the same journey, too," he added, smiling at Ron. Ron beamed back. "We were sorted into Gryffindor. There's four school houses, you see; Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin."
"So where do you come into it, Hermione? Were you in Gryffindor too?" Rose asked, curiously.
"Yes. I was the resident Know-It-All," Hermione said, smiling.
"Was? You still are!" Ron cried, indignantly. Ginny snorted. Hermione glared at him, but he ignored her and turned to Rose instead.
"We saved her on Halloween in our first year," he said, smugly. "A mountain troll. Me and Harry found her in the Girl's Bathroom and I knocked out the troll after Harry had distracted it."
"With a spell that I helped you with! And I was only there because you upset me, in the first place, Ron!" Hermione responded, scathingly. Ron stuck his tongue out at her, and smiled. She glared back, sticking out her own, and Harry rolled his eyes.
"They haven't changed much," he muttered to Rose and The Doctor. They smiled.
"Well anyway," Ginny interrupted loudly, pulling Ron and Hermione from their private 'who has the longest tongue?' competition. "They were friends from then on. They worked together to break a series of obstacles that were guarding the Philosopher's Stone at the end of their first year."
"The what?" Rose asked, interestedly.
"A blood-red stone that contains the key to both wealth and immortality," The Doctor replied, watching Harry for agreement. Harry nodded again. "It's pretty advanced alchemy. Few can master creating them; well, not for a few hundred years, anyway. You'll get there, eventually," he grinned, turning back to Ginny. Harry was examining a small mirror on one of the shelves with interest, only half-listening to the conversation.
"I started at Hogwarts the following year," Ginny continued. "Harry stayed over at our house that Summer. It was so embarrassing," she sighed. "I couldn't do anything right whenever he was around." Harry looked up at her.
"The butter dish," he said simply, smiling.
"Aargh! The butter dish! I can't believe you remember that!" she laughed, holding her head in her hands and shaking it violently. "I was pathetic!"
"So we were in our second year, then. Harry and Ron flew Ron's Dad's car to Hogwarts when they missed the train. You know that huge tree in the Grounds?" Hermione asked. The Doctor nodded, and she grinned evilly. "That's the Whomping Willow. They crashed a bright blue Ford Anglia into the most 'snappy' of all trees, and got away with it!"
"Didn't! We got such a talking to from McGonagall and Snape and Dumbledore afterwards. That was not pleasant, Herms!" Ron shot back.
"Oh, don't forget the Howler," she added, cheerfully. "This scarlet letter exploded in the middle of Breakfast in the Great Hall, and Ron's mother was heard shouting herself hoarse at him. You should have seen his face. Priceless!" she laughed. Rose snorted, and The Doctor shook his head, wearing a 'you did break the rules' look that Ron thought was an uncanny imitation of Hermione.
"What else happened that year?" Hermione muttered vaguely.
"You mean besides Muggle-borns getting petrified by a gigantic snake, the entire school finding out that I can speak Parseltongue, which is just a fancy word for Snake Language," he added hurriedly before Rose could speak, "Riddle's Diary bewitching Gin, Gilderoy sodding Lockhart, us accusing Hagrid of setting a Basilisk on students, Killer Bludgers from Dobby, Duelling Club, Polyjuice Potion, those Huge Spiderish ancestors of Aragog, and The Chamber of Secrets?" Harry asked, counting the events on his fingers.
"Don't forget Ginny's love poem for you, Harry," Ron added.
"How could I?" he muttered. "I'm sorry, Gin, but 'His eyes are as green as a fresh pickle toad'? I mean…what was that about?" Ginny blushed as Rose and Hermione collapsed with laughter.
"Sorry! I was eleven, Harry!" she replied, indignantly. "Besides, it got your attention, didn't it?" she added brightly. Harry snorted but said nothing.
"You talk to snakes?"
"Oh, yeah. I've been doing it for years. Before I became a wizard, even."
Rose stared at him, then shook her head and turned to face Ron, who was smiling.
"Then came year three," he said. "Harry left The Dursley's with a special leaving present."
"What was that?"
There was a pause.
"He blew up his Uncle's sister, Marge," Ron grinned. Rose choked and stared at Ron in shock.
"Are you serious?" she cried. The Doctor stared at Harry, his eyes wide.
"How'd you do that, then?" he asked, restraining a wide grin with difficulty.
"Just lost control, I think. I mean, a few weeks before I started at Hogwarts, I set a Boa Constrictor loose on my Cousin, Dudley, at the zoo on his Birthday. That's what I was talking about before. First time I spoke to a snake. I never did find out if it made it to Brazil like it said it was hoping to. Anyway, if I get rattled enough, I end up casting accidental magic. It's getting better, though," Harry smiled, trying to sound defensive.
"Was she hurt?" Rose whispered in horror.
"Oh, no I didn't 'blow her up', I just, 'blew her up'… inflated her, somehow," Harry reassured her. "I mean, she was a huge woman, and she just got a bit bigger… well, a lot bigger, actually. She was floating around on the roof like a balloon when the Ministry arrived." Rose and Ginny were rolling around in their seats.
"So anyway… that year, there was the Dementors to look forward to." The atmosphere thinned, slightly. "They guard Azkaban usually- not anymore, like, they've joined Voldemort, now- but they did originally. Only in our Third year, Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban and was on the hunt for me. Only, it wasn't me he was after, but Pettigrew. Sirius is… was, my Godfather, and my Dad's best friend. There was also Remus Lupin; who was our Defence Against The Dark Arts Teacher in our Third Year, and Peter Pettigrew. The four of them invented The Marauders' Map, an amazing map of Hogwarts. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. Lupin was a werewolf, and we found out that my dad, Sirius and Wormtail became Animagi while they were at school to keep Moony company when he transformed. My dad became a Stag, Sirius was a Dog, and Wormtail was a Rat."
"So Animagi change their appearances?" Rose confirmed. The teens nodded at her, and she fell silent, listening.
"Harry, Ron and I discovered the truth, and worked to free Sirius, who had been wrongly framed for Pettigrew's murder." Hermione said. "Everyone had believed that Sirius betrayed Lily and James' whereabouts to V-Voldemort. But it had been Pettigrew, not Sirius. He'd cut off his own finger in the middle of a street full of Muggles, and shouted that Sirius had betrayed them all. Then he'd transformed and fled, leaving Sirius standing in the middle of an explosion, with a finger lying in front of his feet. The evidence against him had him sent straight to Azkaban, where he was imprisoned until our Third Year."
"Harry and Hermione helped Sirius escape on the back of a stolen Hippogriff," Ron continued, "and he spent the next year in hiding. We saw him a couple of times, though. He was staying in Hogsmeade, up in the mountains, so we saw him on our days off."
"Fourth Year was… eventful," Ginny agreed. "There was The Quidditch World Cup, which was brilliant until Death Eaters started attacking everyone there. They work for You-Know-Who," she explained when The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her. "They didn't at the time; it was just for fun, at the World Cup. Letting people know they were still around, even though You-Know-Who wasn't."
"Harry was entered into The Triwizard Tournament, in our Fourth Year," Ron said, quietly. "It was the first time the Tournament had been held in years, due to dangerous tasks and deaths of competitors. But they brought it back with an age-limit. Mad-Eye Moody entered Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire, which chose the contestants from each of the three schools, so there ended up being four champions."
"Yeah, but it wasn't Mad-Eye, was it?" Hermione added. "Barty Crouch Jr did it after he'd used Polyjuice Potion to take Moody's place as Defence teacher. He looked a lot like you, actually Doctor… Must be the side-burns…" and she fell silent, blushing.
The Doctor grinned cheekily. He loved the effect his new appearance had on the ladies. Rose, however was oblivious.
"How many teachers have you had for that subject?" she asked, astonished.
"Oh, a different one every year. Quirrel, Lockhart, Lupin; who was best by far, Moody-Crouch Jr, Umbridge and Snape."
"But you said Snape was a Potions teacher… the one who killed Dumbledore," Rose said, confused.
"Yeah, but he bagged Defence in our Sixth year," Ron replied. "Slughorn took over potions. He's still here now."
"Oh." Rose disguised her confusion, not wanting to drag the conversation out any longer than it had to be, and turned to Harry, who was sitting silently in a chair next to Ginny, lost in thought.
"Are you alright?" she asked, concerned. Harry glanced up at her, and nodded.
"Yeah, just… remembering…" and he fell silent.
"So what happened during this Tournament?" asked The Doctor.
"Well, there are three main magical schools; Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons. A handful of students from both schools came to Hogwarts with their Heads and on Halloween, The Goblet of Fire picked out three names, one from each school. There was Fleur Delacour, Viktor Krum, and Cedric Diggory."
"But, Harry's name had been submitted under a fourth school, so he was called out, too. Ron became jealous, mainly because of Harry's fame, and the fact that he was a Champion as well, now. There was gold, and the exclusion from End-of-year Exams as a reward for taking part, too. He received so much stick for being made an under-age Champion. Everyone apart from Hermione was against him, and thought he'd done it to up his fame level."
Ginny paused as she thought, her eyes lingering on Ron, who shifted guiltily in his seat. Hermione reached across and squeezed his hand reassuringly. "There were three tasks for the Champions. The first was a dragon. Harry used his Quidditch skills to overcome that task, and he made up with Ron afterwards."
"Then there was an Underwater task," Hermione took over. "Each Champion had to swim to the bottom of the Black Lake to rescue someone they held dear to them. Ron and I were both taken for that. Harry saved Ron, Viktor saved me," Rose registered the blush in Hermione's cheeks as she said that, "and there was Cho Chang who was saved by Cedric. Fleur's sister, Gabrielle, was saved by Harry, too, when Fleur never turned up…"
"…All thanks to my 'saving people' kick," Harry spoke suddenly. His eyes were blank, emotionless. His voice was empty. "Those tasks were nothing compared to the last one. They'd built a maze on the Quidditch Pitch. It was huge. We had to make it to the centre of the maze, where the Triwizard Cup had been placed. That was a challenge in itself. It might have been fun if it hadn't ended the way it had.
"The cup… it transported, Cedric and me to a graveyard… to Voldemort."
He fell silent, and The Doctor studied him, thinking.
"If you don't want to… you know… go into details, you can leave it, Harry," he said, softly. "It might help to talk, though." Rose nodded her agreement, her eyes flickering over each face in front of her. Harry curled his knees into his chest on the chair, resting his chin on top. He waited, before continuing, his voice quiet, dull.
"Pettigrew was there, and he killed Cedric about a minute after we'd landed. I was tied to a tombstone of Voldemort's father, and forced to sit and watch as Pettigrew brought Voldemort back right in front of my eyes." Rose gasped, but no-one else made any kind of response. They'd heard it all before, and The Doctor seemed too concerned to interrupt.
"Bone from the father, unknowingly given
You will renew your son…
Flesh of the servant, willingly given
You will revive your master…
Blood of the enemy…forcibly taken
You will resurrect your foe…"
An uncomfortable silence followed, lingering horribly. Nobody had heard that before.
"He returned… there were Death Eaters… a speech… Wormtail's sliver hand… and then we duelled…
"Our wands share the same core. Fawkes was Dumbledore's pet phoenix, and both my wand and Voldemort's have one of Fawkes' tail feathers as our wand-cores. So our wands are basically brothers. And they connected when we set them up against each other… Priori Incantatem, the reverse spell effect…
"My wand forced Voldemort's to show the spells it had conjured before the joining. There were ghosts of all of the people Voldemort had killed before his down-fall… including my parents…"
"Harry," Ginny muttered, reaching across and grasping his hand. She didn't know what she could say, though. He needed to talk about it, no matter how hard it was to listen.
"They told me what I had to do, in the end. My parents. I got back to the Cup, grabbed Cedric, and we were sent back to Hogwarts. It was unreal. There was just… chaos, everywhere. I don't know what happened after that until I kind of, woke up, in Moody's office. He revealed himself, confessing all sorts of acts… and he was about a second from killing me when Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape burst in, stopping him before he could even start.
"He changed back into Crouch, and was given Veritaserum. Then I was just sat there for about ten minutes, while Dumbledore questioned him about everything. Working for Voldemort, Imperiusing his father, killing his father, the Cup and watching over me.
"I was taken up to Dumbledore's office, and questioned myself. Sirius was there, and then I was sent to The Hospital Wing, where Fudge, who was the Minister for Magic then, refused to accept that Voldemort was back."
"Harry's Fifth year was a killer," Ron said, shaking his head. "He was attacked by Dementors at his Aunt's, and he was sent to a Ministry Hearing just for saving his own life and his cousins'."
"They let me off, but it was a close thing," Harry muttered darkly. "Then there was the uncovering of The Order of The Phoenix, which was founded by Dumbledore. It's an association working against Voldemort and the Death Eaters. That's where the meeting's going to be tonight. It'll probably be back at Grimmauld Place… Sirius' old house. Technically, it's mine, now, because Sirius left it to me in his will. He died in my Fifth Year," he added, almost inaudibly, when Rose opened her mouth to ask.
"Harry had been having flashes from Voldemort all year, until our History of Magic exam, when he saw Sirius being tortured by Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries which is at The Ministry of Magic. He'd seen loads of things before… Ron's dad was bitten by a snake while he was guarding the Department of Mysteries, and Harry saw the whole thing. It was because of Harry that Mr Weasley survived," Hermione said, sadly.
"Only this time," Ginny began, "You-Know-Who had tricked Harry into going to the Ministry of Magic. He knew Harry would want to help Sirius, so he made Harry believe that Sirius was in danger."
"We'd started this Anti-Umbridge Defence group," Ron continued, smiling. "She was a complete failure as a teacher, and refused to let us use practical defence. We found out it was because Fudge feared Dumbledore wanted to overthrow him by attacking his government with students. Ironically, we called ourselves Dumbledore's Army. It caught their attention. So we started our own classes. Harry taught us spells that he'd mastered, because he has to be the best Defence student Hogwarts has had in a long time," he called proudly. "So there was a group of us from The DA, who went with Harry to help at the Ministry."
"We were fighting against Death Eaters when we arrived and found out that Sirius wasn't there," Ginny said. " I think Harry and Neville were the only ones who were fighting when Sirius died. A load of the Order had come to help when they heard about what Harry had seen, from Snape. Most of us were injured."
"Sirius shouldn't have been there," Harry muttered wildly. "He should have been at Grimmauld Place. He only left because of me, and I shouldn't have made him come after me."
"Don't blame yourself Harry," The Doctor called, sharply. "You were tricked into helping. Believe me, I'd have done exactly the same thing if it had been me."
"Hear, hear!" Rose added, nodding.
There was a pause, until Hermione cleared her throat and took over telling the story.
"We came into our Sixth year with… I don't know, worry, I guess. Voldemort was public, now, after fighting with both Harry and Dumbledore at the Ministry and getting discovered by Aurors. Fudge was ousted and Rufus Scimgeour overtook management. Harry's sixth year was mainly preparing himself for the inevitable fight against Voldemort."
"Dumbledore had revealed a prophecy to me after Sirius' death, telling me about why Voldemort had singled me out as a baby. This prophecy had told of a child born at the end of July who would bring about The Dark Lord's Downfall. It turned out to be me in the end, but it never had to be. It could have been… someone else, but Voldemort chose to mark me instead. That's why he was set to kill me. He didn't want to wait until I learnt the truth, because it would have been harder to kill me if I was prepared for it. It backfired nicely, though," he added, an evil glint within his startling eyes.
"Dumbledore told me, and showed me, about Voldemort's past, and we found out that the reason he survived when Avada Kedavra backfired was because he had created Horcruxes. In other words, he'd split his soul through murder. Nothing could kill him, because it wasn't all of him. His soul would have survived if anything harmed his body.
"The night Dumbledore died, we'd gone in search of one of the Horcruxes. We think he made six, and had a seventh piece inside his body. We've found and adjusted three of them, so there are three left somewhere. We got back, and Death Eaters had entered the Castle with the help of Draco Malfoy.
"We landed on the Astronomy Tower. Dumbledore was injured, from a strange potion that had been guarding the Horcrux we'd gone for. He was weak, ill… dying, I think. Malfoy cornered us, but he couldn't kill Dumbledore. He was just stalling, though. A load of Death Eaters were there within about five minutes, and Snape arrived just after them.
"It was strange… I mean, Dumbledore actually pleaded… he was begging for something, but Snape just ignored him… Avada Kedavra, and then, that was it… the fall of the greatest wizard ever… Just like that…" and he fell silent. Ginny squeezed his hand again, as the room fell into silence.
Ron and Hermione were staring at the floor, as Rose and The Doctor watched Harry. He seemed to have reached the end of his story, or at least, wasn't about to tell them anything more. They had to admit, though; they'd received a lot more than they'd expected. A lot of their questions had been answered, too.
The Doctor sighed, and nodded. They'd heard enough.
"Thank you, Harry," he said, quietly. Rose sniffed, fighting back tears yet again. They'd cried enough that day.
Harry glanced up and stared intently at The Doctor.
"No… thank you," he replied, softly. Ginny stood up and moved to sit on his lap, kissing him gently on the forehead. He sighed, and fell back into his chair, eyes closed. "You were right… talking does help."
Somewhere beyond their notice, the bell rang to signal the start of afternoon lessons for the few Hogwarts Students remaining at the Castle. The six friends sat in companionable silence in the Room or Requirement, thinking over everything they had heard from each other, and about what was still left to be said.
The Doctor sighed and glanced at Rose. He smiled, faintly.
"I think I need a cup of tea," he sighed, finally.
Thanks guys! I hope you liked it! As always, R & R!
Oh, and enjoy your Holidays, too!