A FINAL CHANCE
By: Shadowedheart89
Disclaimer:I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters, nor do I claim to.
Chapter Nineteen: Hogsmeade
"Where are we going first?" Ron asked excitedly nearly hopping up and down in place.
"Let's just walk down the main street. We can go into whatever stores we find on the way. This way Marlene can get to know the town better," Hermione reasoned.
"Ok, but we are still going to Zonko's and Honeydukes right?" Ron asked.
She rolled her eyes, "Of course, Ron." He started grinning like a maniac.
"Zonko's is the best! Except for the twins' store of course," Ron told me.
"The twins?" I asked.
"Yeah, my twin older brothers opened up their own joke shop in Diagon Alley. They are genius. Never trust anything they give you though, they like to test out their products on unsuspecting friends and relatives," he explained.
I laughed, "Thanks for the warning." I looked to Harry who was being awfully quiet this morning. He was walking a bit away from the rest of us. I fell into step next to him and nudged him. "Are you alright?"
He looked at me startled, and his bright green eyes met mine for a moment before he turned away with a shy smile. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Are you sure? You are pretty quiet today."
"Yeah, just have a lot on my mind I guess. I'm fine though. Are you excited to be here?" he asked, obviously trying to change the subject.
"Yeah, are we going to be back before Christmas or should we do our shopping now?" I asked hoping I still had time to figure out what I wanted to get everyone. I didn't want to get too ahead of myself but it looked like this might be the first year I had actual friends to give gifts for. Sure I considered Severus and Xavier to be my friends, but it just wasn't the same.
He laughed, "We'll be back at least one more time. Besides you can always order stuff by owl." I sighed with relief and grabbed his arm and dragged him with me to catch up with Ron and Hermione, trying to infect him with all of our good cheers.
We visited quite a few shops. In one I found a beautiful necklace with a silver dragon with green eyes on a black cord. It reminded me of Draco for some reason, so I bought it for him. I knew that it wasn't really his style and that he would much rather have expensive designer stuff, but I took the chance that he might like it.
We spent quite a bit of time at the candy and joke shops that Ron was talking about. I noticed that Harry was getting the most stuff and when I started making fun of it he looked embarrassed and pulled me away from the other two. "Ron's family isn't exactly…well off. And he's really sensitive about it. So whenever we come I try to overstock my supply and gradually pass some of it along to him so he won't feel like I'm trying to make him into some kind of charity case." He was even kind of blushing as he explained. He looked absolutely adorable.
"You're a good friend Harry. Ron's lucky to have you."
He shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "In the muggle world I don't have a penny to my name. I know what it's like. Ron is a good guy, and his family is too. It's just that there are so many of them, I guess and he's the youngest boy…" he trailed off as if suddenly ashamed of going into some of the details of Ron's family.
I nodded, "Let's stock up then. We can have a little party and get pumped up on sugar," I said trying to redirect the conversation away from more sensitive issues. He grinned at me and returned to grabbing things off the shelves.
After we finished filling bags of sweets and tricks, we started heading to a pub they called The Three Broomsticks. As we entered, I scanned the room for any kind of danger and froze. There was something in the room that was off, something that shouldn't be there. When I froze however, Harry who was right behind me ended up walking right into me and jarring me out of my concentration. "Everything ok?" he asked, putting a hand on my shoulder to balance me as I almost fell over from the impact.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. I should have signaled or something," I told him with a grin as we followed after the other two and I scanned the room trying to figure out what was wrong that had threw me off. I couldn't put my finger on it so I just tried to push it to the back of my mind and remember to be on the lookout. It didn't long for danger to come to me though.
We were all about half way through our first butterbeer when a man in a dark cloak approached us. "Having a good time Marlene?" Uncle Damien asked removing his hood.
I glared at him feeling my defenses lock into place. "I thought I told you to stay away."
He chuckled, "Your mother was worried about you. She hasn't heard from you for awhile so she asked me to check in on you."
"You and I both know if that was really the case my mother would show up here and there wouldn't be a thing in this world that could stop her. If she was really that worried she would have sent me more owls or gotten in touch with Uncle Albus. She has never had a problem getting into contact with him when she needed him. You would be the last person she would have sent," I told him coolly.
"I happened to be in the neighborhood, and to be honest, your Uncle Albus as you call him is a bit of a flake. He does what he wants with no accord to other people. I really don't think your mother trusts him as much as you think."
"My mother trusts him with her life and with mine. He does what he has to and nothing he has ever done has harmed me. Don't you ever dare insult him. He's been more of an uncle to me than you ever have," I snarled at him.
"Well maybe I'm trying to change that my dearest niece. Aren't you even going to introduce me to your little friends? You are being quite rude you know," I looked at my friends, having for a moment forgotten that they were there. They were all looking at me, a bit nervous. I couldn't really blame them, I mean a complete stranger approached us and I was being quite hostile to him though it was obvious that I knew him.
"You don't need to know their names. You aren't going to be around long enough to get to know them either. Now tell me what you want and get out of here," I told him coolly.
He sighed as if he were being tormented. "Like I said I am trying to be a better uncle to you. I know I haven't been there for you when you needed me in the past, but I was thinking about what you said last time I saw you…"
"You mean when you broke into the castle and attacked me?" I interrupted. I felt my friends stiffen and even saw Harry's hand slide towards his wand.
Uncle Damien just glared at me for a moment before continuing, "…and you were right. I have been completely out of line. I want to be more involved in your life. I want to be your real uncle, a person you can come to with all of your teenage problems."
I shook my head and laughed bitterly. "You just think that if you get closer to me, you'll be able to use me as you see fit. It's not going to work. I will only tell you this one time. Stay away from me, and don't even think about going anywhere near my friends or Draco. I never told my mother about the incident in the castle, but you better bet that she will hear about it now."
His eyes blazed at the threat and his friendly façade came crashing down. I don't really know what hold my mother had over her brother, but I was sure going to use it and he knew that my threat wasn't an empty one. "Oh grow up," he snarled. "You just want to run to your mommy like some little girl. When are you going to learn how to deal with things on your own? Do you think there will always be someone to have your back? And what do you think your mother's going to do when she finds out that you are dating Draco Malfoy, the boy she explicitly told you never to talk to again?"
I rolled my eyes. "You tell me to grow up and then threaten me that you are going to tell my mom about my boyfriend? You can tell her, and I will take whatever punishment she gives me. She's the one looking out for my best interests, not you. And I know that no matter how much she might hate it and yell at me, she just wants me to be happy and will let me make my own decisions. You just want to make me into some kind of weapon that only you can control. She knows that better than I do."
I saw his hand twitch toward his wand for a moment, and I prepared myself for having to curse him, but after a moment or two, he seemed to calm down. "Well, if that is how you feel."
"It is," I told him clearly.
"I hope you will remember this the day that you need me."
I laughed again. "I won't need you Uncle Damien. The only things that you could help me with I have no interest in learning. I'd rather die than take that route."
His eyes flashed again, and he opened his mouth as if to retort before abruptly turning and leaving the pub. I sighed and slumped in my seat feeling extremely relieved that he was gone.
"What was that all about?" Harry asked, seeming to be the first to find his voice.
"That would be my charming Uncle Damien. He's my mother's brother and a right bastard."
"You two seem to have a rather, uh, explosive relationship," Hermione commented.
"What's with him attacking you in the castle? When did that happen?" Ron blurted.
I sighed. "When he found out what I really am, he kind of took it upon himself to take over my training. It soon became apparent that he wanted to make me into a weapon to serve his own purpose. Personally I think he was trying to become the next Voldemort. Anyways, my mother realized what he was up to and they had this huge row. My mother has always had some kind of hold over him, but I'm not quite sure what. She made him back down and leave. He was supposed to stay away from me, but somehow he got back in her good graces a few years ago. My mother still doesn't really trust him though, and he's supposed to stay away from my training, but he likes to butt in sometimes. A few weeks ago I was walking through the corridors, on my way to meet Draco, when he grabbed me and cornered me in an empty classroom basically."
"What did he want?" Harry asked.
"The same thing he wanted now. He's trying to get close to me again so maybe he can have some kind of hold over me. He'd put me under the Imperious curse if he could. I think his current method of getting to me is trying to act reformed, as if he trying to see me as an actual person."
Harry stared at me for a moment then shook his head, "Uncles," he murmured with disgust. I looked at him, surprised for a moment, thinking about what he had told me about his uncle before I started laughing. A slow grin spread across his face before he too started laughing. Soon Hermione and Ron joined in. We gathered looks from some of the other patrons of the pub, but none of seemed to care, since we were all enjoying ourselves immensely and glad to be rid of the tension that surrounded us just minutes ago.
"Ron and I are going to go down to the Quidditch pitch. Want to join us?" Harry asked when we got back to the common room. We decided to call it an early day from Hogsmeade and go back to the castle, but it was still early.
"Sure, let me just grab my broom," I told him, packing up my parchment and quill where I had been writing a letter to my parents.
I ran up to my room and grabbed my Nimbus 2001. It was a present from my parents along with a couple of other brooms I had stored away in my bottomless bag. They felt bad about pushing me so hard in training and having to move all the time, so they tended to spoil me with material things like my brooms and my art supplies.
When I came back down I saw Ron eyeing my broom with longing and when I saw his old broom, I was tempted to offer him one of my old ones, but I remembered what Harry said earlier and decided against it. I didn't want him to think I pitied him or something.
"Are you going to try out for the team?" Ron asked as we made our way down to the pitch. "Nah, I can't. I won't have time for one, and secondly, I would have a bit of advantage over the other players. And my mom would kill me if she found out."
Harry chuckled, "Do you fly a lot?"
I shrugged, "When I can. I'm a decent flyer."
"We'll see," he said with a grin as he took off running towards the pitch. I laughed and followed with Ron at my heels starting a race. Ron with his extremely long legs one, of course. As soon as we reached the pitch I hopped on my broom and took off, pushing my broom to its limits. I relished the feeling the wind blowing all around me and decided on doing my favorite trick, the one that always gave my parents a heart attack no matter that I had yet to ever get hurt doing it. I shot straight up into the sky, then let go of broom free falling. I spun and flipped in the air, letting gravity pull my closer and closer to the ground. I was just about to summon my broom to catch me when suddenly I was caught in someone's arms.
I turned my head to see a very scared looking Harry. "What are you doing?"
"Catching you. You fell," he told me, sounding dumbfounded.
I laughed, "That was very heroic of you, but I was in perfect control."
He looked dubious. "You were falling hundreds of feet through the air. How exactly, were you in complete control?"
"Let me go and you'll see," I told him with a grin.
He shook his head and his grasp on me tightened slightly, "I think you hit your head."
I sighed, "Would you just trust me?" He stared at me for a moment, before reluctantly loosening his grip on me. I slid off his broom falling quite a few more feet before I summoned my broom and caught a hold of the handle, swinging myself back onto it. "See? Easy as pie," I told him with a grin.
Ron caught up to him and was staring with his mouth agape. "That was blood brilliant!"
"What in Merlin's name made you decide to do that?" Harry asked, sounding a bit angry.
I shrugged, "The first time it was an accident. I really did fall, but I managed to accidently summon my broom. After a couple of times I was able to do it on purpose. I fell in love with the feeling of free falling. I see why some muggles jump out of planes." Ron looked confused so I explained, "A muggle contraption they use to fly. It looks like a giant metal bird kind of."
"Teach us how to do that," Harry exclaimed, his eyes bright.
I shook my head. "Not bloody likely. It's too dangerous, and you have to have mastered wandless magic anyways. You too will kill yourselves." They both began muttering but I just rolled my eyes at them. "So are we going to play or are you two just going to pout?" I asked, smiling mischievously at them.
"So did you have fun with Potter and friends?" Draco asked, sounding a bit bitter. We were making our way back up to the tower that we always snuck off too. It was becoming a bit of a ritual.
"It was okay. It got kind of dramatic, and I wish you were there."
"Dramatic?" he asked, his interest piqued. I could tell that he was hoping for some big blow out between me and Harry.
"You remember me telling you about my uncle Damien? Well he showed up," I told him as we settled in our usual positions on the floor. He wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled me a little bit.
"What did he do?"
I told him everything, from the conversation in the castle to the threat to tell my mother about my relationship with him. As I told him the story I could feel him start to tense up. "It's ok. I already took care of it."
"Are you sure? I'm sure I could pull some of my father's connections and get him taken care of," he just about growled.
"I'm positive. I have my own connections." I had finished my letter to my parents, letting them know about both incidents, and I even notified Uncle Albus. I was fully prepared to be summoned to his office within the next few days. "I got you a present," I told him, trying to change the subject.
"A present? Why would you do that?" he asked, sounding genuinely confused.
"I just felt like it," I told him pulling the small box out of my robes. I fingered it for a moment before slipping out of his arms so I could turn to face him. I handed him the box and he stared at it for a moment before opening it. He took it out of the box and held it. "Do you like it?" I asked.
He just kept staring at it, with a blank expression not saying anything. I was starting to worry that he hated it and was about to start laughing or just throw it over the tower wall. Finally, he looked up at me and smiled. "It's perfect."
"Really? I know it's not your usual style, and you always say a necklace is kind of girly, but when I saw it I thought of you."
He shook his head. "Really, it's great. Thank you. I'm not really used to getting things from people, except from my parents at Christmas and my birthday," he told me almost shyly as he fastened the necklace around his neck. It was so uncharacteristic of him, and for some reason I just found it adorable.
"Probably because you are a big bully and take whatever you want. There is no need to give it to you."
He smirked regaining his usual personality Well his personality he used with me anyways. "You have a point. Once I have my eye on something, I don't stop until its mine." He pulled me roughly towards him to illustrate his point. Then he ruined his whole tough façade by kissed me softly. "I feel kind of bad that I didn't get you anything."
I shrugged, "I'm sure you can make it up to me somehow."
He gave me an evil grin, "Any suggestions how?"
I grinned back at him. "You're a smart guy. I'm sure you can figure something out."
"Wow a compliment and a present in the same day. It must be my birthday or something," he told me just before he figured out exactly how he could repay me.