Chapter 9 - Adoption is Not an Option

"Sure you're okay there mate?" Ron asked while grabbing onto Harry's arm after he staggered slightly.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Harry said.

He hoped he would be. Truth be told, he was still feeling a bit dazed. At least his head had stopped hurting. He had Hermione to thank for that.

"How about we rest a bit more before we head in." Hermione said. "Besides, we still have to figure out how precisely we're going to get in."

Harry wasn't about to argue with that and immediately sat himself on, more fell to, the ground. He soon found himself lying down in the position he usually fell asleep in. Maybe all he needed was a bit of sleep and he would feel better….

He rolled over, feeling a slight pain on the side of his face. His hand grazed over his cheek, feeling the indentations the blades of grass had left while he had slept. He pulled himself into a sitting position.

Hermione was sleeping against Ron while he had his arms around her protectively, gazing off into the distance with a hint of a smile on his face.

Brooklyn was leaning against the same tree, except she was sitting down.

Harry stood up and he felt much better than he had before.

"Feeling better?" Ron asked in a hushed voice.
Harry nodded.
"Should I wake her up?"
"Not just yet, but soon."

Ron kissed the top of her head and then leaned his head on hers with a sigh. Harry looked past the bushes at the building. The sound of children could no longer be heard.

He already didn't like this place.

Every memory was just tied to the long string of tragedy that marred his life. Dumbledore showing him the memory in the pensieve of the young Tom Riddle, Riddle becoming Voldemort, Voldemort killing his parents, trying to kill him, branding him with his infamous scar…it just kept going downhill.

He turned his attention to the one thing he knew that could put his mind at ease and allow him to not think of all of those horrible things that plagued his mind….

Brooklyn sat with her head in one hand and an expressionless face. He walked over to her. He needed her to tell him, to reassure him like she had the day before, because she really knew and understood. He had let her see him when he felt the most vulnerable and she made him feel completely comfortable.

Some would say too comfortable.

He didn't care though. He only hoped that she felt the same way and would allow him to get close to her again. He sat himself down beside her, holding himself back from putting his arm around her shoulder.

"Hey…" He said. "I'm sorry about earlier."
She didn't turn to look at him. "It wasn't your fault."
"Are you okay with being here?"
"I've been better."
"You don't have to stay."
"I know…"

He moved closer to her so that his shoulder was touching hers. He reached for her hand and took it in his. She didn't shake him off. He intertwined his fingers with hers.

"Why are you doing this?" Brooklyn asked.
"What?" he asked confused.
She pointed to their interlocked hands.
"Because I want to." He said simply.
"Well you need to stop."
"Why?"
"Because things aren't like that between us."
"But we-" He started.
"It wasn't like that." She cut him off.
"But…"
"It wasn't like that."

He shifted his weight to get up, but she held onto him tightly.

"Please don't leave yet." She said.

Not a fiber in his being would refuse her request.

"It was to me…" He said, letting her hand go.

He took his glasses off and rubbed the sides of his nose where they sat. He leaned his head back onto the tree and stared up into the blurry scene before him. Their shoulders were still touching.

"I'm sorry if I mislead you. It was not my intention." Brooklyn said.
Harry merely nodded.
"I just don't want you to get the wrong idea, because I don't want things to get awkward again."

Did she just say again?

---------------------------------------------------------

"So how do we get into this place?" Harry asked.
"The front door..." Ron offered his logical answer.
"I highly doubt they'd just let us waltz in there and go up to the rafters." Hermione said.
Everyone turned to Brooklyn. "What?" She said.
"You know your way around this place. There has to be some sort of back entrance or secret ways in the building so that we won't be seen." Ron said.
"It's been a long time since I was last here." Brooklyn said.

Brooklyn turned her gaze towards the orphanage, appearing to be in deep thought. Hermione yawned, still trying to fully awaken from her sleep while leaning her head on Ron's shoulder. How were they going to get in? If anyone stopped them, it's not like they could just say why they were there…and they all appeared too young to be interested in adopting a child or putting one up for adoption as Ron pointed out.

"Ron, you're absolutely brilliant!" Hermione said excitedly.
"I am?" Ron asked confused.
"Do you have your cloak Harry?"
Harry nodded. He carried that thing everywhere.
"Excellent! You and Brooklyn will use that while Ron and I distract them for you."
"And how exactly are we suppose to distract people for them?" Ron asked.
"Simple!" Hermione turned to Harry. " When you find it, you'll have to figure out a way to let us know. We'll be able to apparate back in here by then."
"They're going to ask for identification." Harry said. "How are you going to get past that one?
"Harry, don't worry about us and just focus on finding that Horcrux."

Harry pulled out his invisibility cloak and stood beside Brooklyn. He draped it over both of their shoulders and noticed that both of their feet were showing and he knew it was due to his growth spurt he had last summer.

"I guess we'll have to bend down some when we walk." Harry said.
"I'm not the tall one here." She said while pulling the cloak over her head.
He disappeared underneath the cloak as well. "Okay, so I'm a bit tall."
"Harry we can see your feet!" Ron said.
Harry bended his knees and hunched over a bit until he was level with Brooklyn.
"Much better mate!"
"I told you it was you." Brooklyn said.
They started walking toward Ron and Hermione.
"Umm…that's not working very well." Hermione said.
Harry took the cloak off. "What do you mean!"
"You are just going to have to stay really close together or else the cloak simply will not cover all of you."
Harry threw the cloak back over himself and Brooklyn.
"Well, you heard her." He said pulling Brooklyn as close as he could without impeding his ability to walk.
"Much better!" Hermione said.
"You look quite uncomfortable." Brooklyn said.
"You try walking like this." Harry scoffed.

They followed Ron and Hermione through the front entrance. As the seemingly distraught couple approached the front desk, Brooklyn pulled Harry in the opposite direction toward a hallway.

"My best guess is that it would be somewhere down this way." Brooklyn said, grabbing onto Harry's arm tightly.

The sound of children grew louder and Brooklyn became tenser.

"Down to the right." She said shakily. "That's where I stayed. They never once moved me around like most of the others."
Harry was about to embrace her in a hug, but she pulled him. "It's this way."

He followed without hesitation. She opened a door with a spell and inside appeared to be a recreational room. She pointed towards the ceiling.

"This area has been off limits since I can remember." She said. "They said they were renovating."

There was only half of a ceiling, the other half showed the exposed rafters. It was time to go get Ron and Hermione.

----------------------------------------------------------

"There they-" Brooklyn's sentence was cut off by Harry's hand.
"Whisper…" Harry said softly, as he glanced over toward the now nervous looking Ron and Hermione.

Harry heard footsteps coming from behind them. The hallway was small enough as it was and Harry and Brooklyn were talking up half of it. A quite large man came into view. There was no way that he would be able to get by without bumping into one of them.

"Wow…he gained quite a lot of weight." Brooklyn whispered.
"Come on, let's go out there." Harry whispered.

Just as they went for the door, the woman talking to Ron and Hermione appeared in the doorway. She appeared to be waiting. Most likely waiting for the man who was now probably 50 feet away from them. But the closer the large man got, the woman from the doorway began to step forward. Now there was no way they would not be caught.

"Get on the floor." Brooklyn said.

Harry didn't ask questions, nor had time to as she started positioning both of them to take up a little space as possible and still have the cloak cover them the whole time. By the time she was done, both of the approaching people were standing right beside them, merely inches from touching one of them.

Harry opened his mouth to whisper something, but Brooklyn mouth formed the word 'sshh' before he could say anything. He had forgotten what he was about to say when her lips ever so slightly brushed against his ear when hushing him. The man's hand waving an inch over their heads was pushed out of his mind and replaced by the breath he could feel coming from her. He had no idea what they were discussing or when they left. He was too entranced by the one thing that could make him forget everything.

"We can move now, Harry." Brooklyn said, trying to get up.
"Right." He said dumbly.

In one ungraceful movement, Brooklyn tripped and both of their heads collided, making them both let out a sound of pain. She was now kneeling next to him, holding onto her head. She took his now broken glasses off of his face and repaired them.

"Sorry." She said while handing them back. "Something wrong?"
Harry was staring at the blurry pair of feet that now stood next to them.
"It's just Ron." Brooklyn said, putting his glasses back on for him.
One crack later Hermione showed up.
"I still can't believe you made it sound like I was pushing you into the adoption thing." Ron said.
"It's not like its true." She said. "Besides, the woman turned us away because of it, so it got us out of there."
"I would never put my own kid up for adoption!"
"I know Ron, but-"
"Acting like this was all my fault!"
"Well, you are the one that got me pregnant."
"You should have been on birth control!"
"You could have done the same."
"So, do I get to see this kid before you guys put it up for adoption?" Harry said sarcastically.
"Shut it, Harry." Ron mumbled, his ears turning an intense shade of red.
"We should probably get out of this hallway before we get caught." Brooklyn said, obviously amused by the situation.

They all followed Brooklyn to the same recreational room where the exposed rafter resided. As Hermione cast a spell so no one would be able to get in, Harry pondered the infinite amount of ways he could go about trying to destroy the Horcrux…and every way they could go horribly wrong. One thing was for sure, the Horcrux was most likely hidden in the completed section of the rafters and they would need to get up there.

Wingardium leviosa!" Hermione said.

Harry began his ascent up to the rafters, followed by Ron and then Brooklyn, who took the liberty of levitating Hermione up there with them.

Now where was it?

More importantly…what was it?

Harry could hear creaking with each step he took. Maybe this wasn't as stable as it looked.

"Lumos!" was said almost in unison by them all.

The light wasn't helping much. All that could be seen was roof beams and the beams that they were walking on, talking care to not step on the seemingly unstable floor that was the ceiling of the recreational room.

"There." Hermione said in a hushed voice. "It looks like…a cup?"
"Helga Hufflepuff's cup." Harry said, just able to make out the small cup sitting where a ceiling and room beam connected.

Now it was in front of him. The small, fragile cup was merely two feet in front of him. He knelt down and reached out his hand. There was no invisible barrier surrounding it, but he dare not grasp the handle.

Harry turned his head and looked at the three pairs of eyes staring at him, full of anticipation.

"What are you waiting for?" Ron asked.

Everyone looked at him for a response.

Harry looked at the seemingly harmless cup again. "This just seems too easy."