And so, Dumbledore told them…everything. He told Harry the truth about how his mistake about the number of Horcruxes lead to Voldemort rising again, he told him the truth about his plan to have Snape kill him-- for obvious reasons, Harry did not take this well--, he told Harry the truth about the bit of Voldemort soul that was attached to him, then he told Harry the last awful fact, that in order for him to defeat Voldemort, he must first die himself.

Harry was silent for several moments; then he glanced up at Dumbledore. "I'm sorry, sir, I just… I need to think." He left the room without another word. It was not more than a moment later when Malandra jumped up and ran after him. Snape sneered, "A daughter of mine running after a Potter, what's the world coming to?" Albus merely smiled.

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Malandra found him on the Quidditch pitch, just as she knew she would. The pitch was his place, he always went there to think or--in this case-- brood. She remembered seeing him there, looking very much as he did now, the day they got the news of her parents deaths. She had went out there to find privacy herself, and had found him instead. They had just stood there silently grieving. Together and yet separate. It had been just a brief month later that word came that Harry Potter, the boy who lived, lived no longer.

Malandra sighed, when Harry went off on his own to think, it normally lead to him doing something reckless and very stupid, she was determined that he would not die a second time. She laid a hand gently on his shoulder. "Harry?" She whispered. He shrugged her arm off. "Leave me alone."

"No." She said, "I won't. I know how you are when you get like this, you brood and you get angry, and you are no use to anyone like this. You have to be strong now, the world needs you to be strong, you friends need you, I need you." Harry glared up at her. "You think I care? I'm sixteen fucking years old! I just got a girlfriend! I've spent the past six years of my life first worried that Voldemort was going to kill me, then wanting to kill him, then knowing I have to kill him because of some damned prophesy, and now, now I find out that not only do I have to kill him but in order for him to die, I have to die to! So excuse me for really not giving a fuck about the world right now!"

Malandra moved to where she was standing in front of him. She didn't say a word, she just stared. After several moments, Harry found that he could no longer tolerate her watching him. He looked up at her. "Well," she asked, "Are you quite finished?"

She sighed and once again placed her arm on Harry's shoulder this time, she was pleased to say, he did not shrug her off. "Harry, I know it's hard, believe me, you're not the only one that lost a lot in this war. I lost my parents too, my grandmother was killed by death eaters when I was two weeks old, I lost my godmother and her husband and so their two children lost their parents, and then, just when I thought I had nothing left to lose, I lost the last real link I had to my mother, you."

She sighed trying to stop the tears that were building up behind her eyes. "I don't want the world that I left to be the one I return to, but Harry, we need you to help us, so please, be scared, be angry, feel the pain then scream your lungs out to get rid of it, but for God's sakes Harry, don't shut yourself away, please?" He was silent before looking up at her, "You you really think that we can fix things?" He asked. She smiled, "We can try."

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Ginny couldn't help it, she really couldn't. She was a jealous person by nature, and she had waited for Harry for too long to let some new girl just waltz right in and take him from right under her nose. Even if the new girl was pretty, and smart, and the headmaster's niece. It didn't matter, that girl was not going to steal Harry from her, no way.

Of course, at lunch when she voiced my suspicions to Hermione she told her that she was being ridiculous, that Harry would never do such a thing, that being jealous of Harry and Malandra was almost as preposterous as being jealous of her and Harry. But still, Ginny noticed the fact that both Malandra and Harry were both absent during lunch.

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Malandra's POV

I could not tell you how long we stayed there on the Quidditch pitch, there was really nothing more we could say, and yet, we spoke volumes with our silence. After awhile, he finally spoke. "I'm going to be in a hell of a lot of trouble for skipping class all day. I smiled, "I'm sure Dumbledore will get you excused, he knows it was hard for you to… hear all that."

He smiled at me. "So," he said, "We've already missed lunch and there really doesn't seem like a point in going to my last two classes, what do you want to do?" I rolled my eyes, the logical, academic, bookworm, side of my brain that I had inherited from both my parents screamed about how wrong it was to skip lesson, that learning was important. Thankfully, I had become quite adapt a blocking that voice out. I smiled. "I dunno, but I'm sure we can think of something…" What, did you expect me to be exactly like my parents?