I Own Nothing! Okay, the poll results were tied, so I went in the middle and decided to add Ginny now, with only four questions left. :)
All heads swerved to Minerva McGonagall as she pinned the three with her eyes. "I wish to know what you were doing last year when you were hiding from Voldemort."
Three went back into a huddle at once. "Can we trust these people? I mean Dumbledore told us to tell no one." Ron asked. Hermione rubbed her forehead, behaving eerily reminiscent of Harry.
"I think so. There's the charm too. It's not as if anyone here would is as crazy as Voldemort was. Harry, what do you think?"
Harry frowned, deep in thought. "Dumbledore hasn't said anything, so he can't disapprove. Neither has Snape. I think we should, these people deserve to know." At that moment a familiar voice burst through the door.
"I cannot believe you didn't tell me about this!" Ginny screamed. "Something this important, who knows what I've missed? Oh, wait. You ALL do!" She lifted her palms to the ceiling and huffed.
"Ginny, calm down. The only reason we didn't tell you was because we thought it might be too upsetting." Molly reasoned.
"There you go again! I don't need babying mother. I had as much to do with the war as any of you! I cannot believe that you thought you could leave me out of this!"
"How did you find out?" Bill asked.
"I ended up hearing it from Luna, who couldn't come. You told LUNA and not me!" Ginny looked livid. The infamous Weasley temper was raging, and Harry stepped up in an attempt to quell it.
"Gin, it's not like I wouldn't tell you if you'd asked. You were busy with Teddy anyway… Can we just move on and you can shout at me later?" He asked wearily. Ginny made to argue, but at the fierce glares from both Hermione and Ron she relented.
"Fine. But you are telling me eventually." Ginny went and sat away from the others, glaring to make sure they knew she was still angry.
Harry then moved back to the centre of the room. He ruffled his hair and drew a breath, looking briefly at his old headmaster who nodded encouragingly. "Do any of you know what a horcrux is?" He asked. The room's reaction was varied. Some gasped and buried their heads, others looked confused and some even sighed in resignation.
"When a person commits murder, they split and damage their soul. A horcrux is that piece of the person's soul living inside an object. It's very dark, very unstable magic. Voldemort made seven of them." Gasps went around the room again, as people put their hands t their mouths and gathered their loved ones in their arms.
"It was our job to find and destroy these things. It wasn't easy, because the object needed to be irreversibly damaged. Two had already been taken care of, one by Harry and the other Dumbledore. Ron ended up destroying one, Slytherin's locket. I destroyed Hufflepuff's cup," Pomona winced. "Neville took care of Nagini, Crabbe burned Ravenclaw's diadem" Filius moaned at the loss. "…with his fiend fire and Voldemort…killed Harry." More gasps were emitted.
"But…How?" Poppy stuttered
"When he killed my mother, and was injured a piece of his soul latched on to me. That's why we had the connection. And he didn't know because he nearly died. I can't speak parsletounge anymore now."
A trembling Minerva turned to Albus "Did you know of this?" The headmaster sadly nodded. Instead of the expected explosion Minerva turned away looking deeply hurt.
"…Minerva? Min? Tabby?"" Albus tried weakly. Then he gave up and sighed sadly. "I am truly sorry Harry, I didn't want to hang that over your head. So I kept the fact hidden from you until the right moment. That is why you and he were so similar." Harry nodded solemnly, remembering when the hat had wanted to put him in Slytherin.
The ensuing silence was uncomfortable and Suddenly Molly jumped up. "Would anyone like a cup of tea?" She asked, and then bustled around making one, withdrawing the ingredients from her bag.
Ron carried on their tale. "The horcurxes weren't easy to get a hold of. First we had to find them. Doing this weended up doing some crazy things like; infiltrating the ministry and busting out a load of muggle borns, riding bareback on a dragon's back, we had several close captures and we nearly starved to death sometimes. It wasn't pleasant and I even left at one point. I'm ashamed to admit it.£ He avoided people's eyes and looked straight down. "But I went back and got beaten up by Hermione." there were a few small laughs "…And we got through the rest together." Ron smiled weakly and reached out for their hands. "Just like we'll get through everything that's happening now together." He whispered squeezing their hands, and noticed their guilty and upset looks.
"….So you really broke in to Gringotts and survived? Riding on a dragon?" Ginny asked cautiously. Harry nodded.
"We gained a piece of Bellatrix's hair and had Hermione polyjuice into her. Hermione transfigured Ron so he looked different and I hid underneath an invisibility cloak with a goblin that helped us." Ron coughed, and was hit by Hermione.
"What? He only did it to get Gryffindor's sword and he even double crossed us." Ron said. He folded hi arms over his chest.
"We were going to do the same to him!" Hermione argued back.
"Yeah, but we wanted to save lives not steal a sword that wasn't even ours! We had to, he didn't!"
"ANYWAY." Harry roared over them, effectively cutting off their argument. "Hermione also had Bellatrix's wand-" Eyebrows were raised in disbelief, but Harry ploughed on. "–So with a little 'persuasion' the goblins let us through. When we got down there our disguises wore off and we had to get into her vault quickly. We found Hufflepuff's cup there, but it was protected by a gemino enchantment. We were burned getting out and the goblin alerted the guards. So we escaped on the dragon's back. It flew for ages; I think we were in Wales when we got off. From there we apparated to Hogwarts where the battle took place." By the end of his tale mouths were open in disbelief.
"That is all going down in the history books my friend!" George happily declared. Molly was seen mouthing the word 'dragon' repeatedly and Ginny clutched at Harry as if he would disappear.
"That was so reckless…" She murmured.
"That was so cool! Charlie would flip if he found out…" Bill cheered. "Well done!"
Slughorn was chuckling madly to himself. "Good flying my boy, excellent. I dare say that'll be remembered for years to come!"
Some weren't so happy. "Why must you insist on putting yourselves in danger?" Minerva whispered.
"How dangerous! A dragon! Could you not have asked the order for help?" Arthur demanded.
"We had no way to get a hold of any of you!"
"It seems like you didn't even try!"
"LOOK." Ron bellowed. "For six whole years before that we'd been I life and death situations every year without your help. I think we're going to have more experience than you. Just leave it. We didn't tell you all this so you could moan and lecture. We told you because we thought you deserved to know!" By the end of t Ron was heaving, and he took one last look at the stunned adults before turning and rapidly storming out. Hermione and Ron followed him. As soon as the door closed Ron started shouting again. "Who do they think they are to suddenly start telling us off? We wouldn't have had to have done half of that stuff if they'd have listened to us! And then they suddenly wonder why we don't come to them! Am I right?" Ron suddenly addressed the other two.
"You have a point Ron, but getting angry solves nothing." Hermione reasoned. "It just proves that we're not mature enough to talk like adults."
"How are we supposed to do that when all they do is shout!" Ron yelled, throwing his hands to the sky. "Why did we even tell them in the first place? They don't need to know by any means!" He suddenly turned to Hermione. "This is your fault!" He poked a finger at her.
"Ron! CALM DOWN!" Harry suddenly roared between the two of them. Ron stopped and started pacing, eventually slowing down enough to think. He turned to Hermione again.
"look, Hermione I'm sorry I sho-" But she had fled from the corridor in tears. This left Harry staring back at him coldly.
"Happy? First you tell me Hermione is upset and needs our help, and then you go and blow your head off in front of her. Real encouraging." Ron looked down.
"It's alright for you. You've got patience, but it kills me to know she's hurting and hasn't said a thing."
"She hasn't really had a chance."
"Even so with all of that, and their constant lecturing and criticisms. It doesn't help." Ron admitted lowly.
Harry sighed. "All you can do is apologise. I'll be in there if you need me." He walked slowly off.
Ron looked in the direction Hermione had gone and started to trace her path. Eventually he came upon her sitting curled up, looking at an ugly scar on her arm. With a jolt he realised it spelt 'mudblood'.
He wondered what to do and awkwardly sat down. "I'm sorry." He admitted lowly, and suddenly Hermione was on him in tears. "Oh Ron. I'm not mad at you I just…I miss my parents and I'm worried I can't find them because I've been trying for months…" The words were now tumbling out. "And on top of all of that I have to hide from Madame Pomfrey in case she figured out I was tortured and keeps me here…Oh Ron. I don't know what to do!" She cried into his shoulder. Ron was dimly aware that this was what he had wanted, but he had no idea what to do. So he held her and whispered soothing words until she calmed down. When she had, he looked her in the eye.
"Hermione." She flinched, and he stroked her hair. "I want you to know that I'm going to help you, we all will and we will not stop up until we've found your parents. We will keep searching forever if necessary, and you know Harry and me would be more than willing to look through the whole of Australia for you. To be honest I don't know why you didn't tell us in the first place." He placed a finger on her lips to stop her talking. "Shh. And as for Madame Pomfrey and the others… you may not want them to see your scars but I can assure you that they would never stop you looking for your parents. They may not let you do it personally, but they would make sure someone looked. We do understand you know, and we just want what's best for you." He tenderly wiped her tears from her eyes. "I don't even know why you worried."
She pulled away, embarrassed. "Well you make it sound so logical…" He chuckled, but soon became serious again.
"If you're ever worried like that again, tell me or Harry. We were all worried for you." He whispered. "Now, are you ready to go back in?" They waited a few moments before re-entering.
The room watched them sit, but stayed silent. Harry had told them to lay off for a while.
Gingerly, a softer voice spoke up. "My question's not particularly happy either….i suppose I should go next." They stood, and pulled out some pictures, enlarging them. The room gasped as they saw them, and a few looked green. Hermione was almost in tears again.