You Can Live: Chapter 46
Gosh I love you guys! Truly, you are all awesome, and every review makes my day. :) Have to admit though, that this next chapter was hard to get out. I just couldn't seem to find the right words. I hope it meets your desires though. :)
PS Just thought this was kinda funny: a reviewer commented on the first chapter of this story. They seemed rather peeved that in one sentence where I listed all the Hogwarts House colors, I said purple instead of blue for Ravenclaw. I'll be honest; I've always thought it was purple. I will also admit that I am a bit color blind. Shades of things really screw with me (pink vs red and orange vs red being the worst). So, if anything like that happens again, please be patient with me! Kisses! :)
I do not have a beta. Any and all mistakes are my own!
Disclaimer: you know I don't own HP. A very rich, brilliant lady does.
Warnings: Still much angst in this chapter!
Similarities
"This Menos guy really hurt Harry, didn't he?" Hermione and Draco turned at Ron's hushed question. The tall, young wizard had his fists clenched tightly and looked like he desperately wanted to punch something.
"Yes. He's hurt Harry for a long time. Worse than Voldemort." Luna delivered the news calmly, as she sat on the bottom stairs. Ron's face turned an exciting shade of red and his grip nearly snapped his wand from the pressure.
"I'll kill him," he hissed. Draco huffed in agreement, while Hermione wrapped her arms around her fiancé. Ron clung to her as well, burrowing his face in her hair and breathing in and out in an attempt to calm himself. He had come a long way from fourth and sixth year.
"We will. We all will." They all stared at Luna then, Ron's mouth open wide enough to catch a gnome. Draco arched an eyebrow.
"How can you be so sure?" Luna didn't answer him. She simply smiled up at them and stayed quiet.
They waited by the stairs for what felt like a long time. It made them anxious to get back in the room to start planning. However, they had never seen their friend like that, so broken and beside himself. Another accusing thought popped into their heads: maybe they had and they just hadn't bothered to actually notice. It was damning to think, but for all they knew it might be true.
"Harry has never needed you before as he does now. The past you can't change, but you can be there for him today and everyday after. He would lay down his life for any of you, and you have seen that. You would all do the same, and though he's heard it, he hasn't seen it. Despite his protestations, you must show him." Hermione's skin was itching with wanting to knowknowknow how Luna could say those things. It wasn't like Trelawney with her constant predictions of death and despair.
Luna's words held almost a tangible belief to them, as if to deny their truth was to deny magic. It was both unnerving and empowering. She made a note to try and ask Luna (and get a straight answer from her) about it after all was said and done. Right now, their first priority was Harry.
The blonde witch suddenly sat taller and smiled.
"We can go back in now." Then she stood and walked back into the living room, the other three trailing behind her.
They found Severus and Harry on the floor, Harry clinging to his guardian like an octopus. Without question, Ron moved the coffee table, and they all settled on the floor around them (though Draco did so with a scowl on his face, for old time's sake). Harry didn't look at them right away, but Snape did. The young witches and wizards saw the fire burning in his dark eyes and wondered what Harry must have told him to make the potion's master so enraged. Despite the image before them, it was Harry that spoke first, not Severus.
"I think Menos is on his last Horcrux." Both of Ron's eyebrows shot up at the statement, yet despite his initial hope, he quenched his emotions as best as he could.
"Why do you think that, Harry," Draco queried. The Slytherin wanted to believe his friend, but he couldn't rely on Gryffindor instinct alone. Just looking at his friend, he could see Harry was having a hard time articulating his reasons.
"It…Menos reminds me a lot of Voldemort." At Hermione's gasp, Harry's hands fluttered and he tried to quickly reassure her. "Not that he's going to try to take over the Wizarding World, but…Menos has been in my head. He's there with me, talking to me, interacting with me. Menos even somehow managed to get into my head when I was out under Dreamless Sleep. It always feels real, but it's not visions…except…" Harry trailed off and his eyebrows pinched together.
Severus thought back to Harry's fear of going to sleep the previous evening and it made sense then. The boy's 'He'll get through' comment reverberated in the potion's master's head as he pieced all of the instances together. His attention was brought back to Harry when the boy quietly spoke.
"Sir?" Once he met the boy's eyes, Harry looked away but continued speaking. "When you and Draco were gone for the trial, I was with Luna." Severus raised a brow for Harry to continue on past the obvious. "Well, I fell asleep before you came back, and I was having a nightmare. Or at least, I thought it was just a nightmare."
"What makes you think otherwise?" Harry's eyes darted to Hermione, and then to Luna for reassurance.
"Because within the hour the Minister of Magic came here and told me that Frederick Strant had been killed in the exact same way that I had dreamed about. It was like being in Voldemort's head all over again! I was the one to ward Strant's office so no one would hear him. I was the one who stunned him and listened to him beg. I was the one to snap his wand and watch as his own magic massacred him." Severus squeezed Harry tighter as the boy grew more agitated.
The potion's master's eyes kept drifting to his boy's hands. Harry had taken to viciously scratching his wrists since he no longer had access to a knife to cut.
"I thought I was going crazy! Well, that might still be the case, but I think that might have been something from Menos." Hermione looked hesitant as she next spoke.
"But, Harry, you don't have a connection to Menos as you did to Voldemort…as far as we know. It probably wasn't the same thing." Harry bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from snapping at his friend.
"I understand that, Hermione, but it was very similar. Maybe he posed it like that on purpose. He said he started…messing with me for fun. Maybe that's what all this is! Menos is trying to make me think I'm crazy. He really pulled out all the stops on that dream though." Harry had gotten quiet at the end, staring at the floor.
"What do you mean, Harry," Snape asked. It took his ward a moment or two to answer.
"I used Sectum Sempra to finish Strant off." Both Slytherins took in a sharp breath and shared a look. The Aurors that had originally informed them of Strant's death had said the man appeared butchered. Sectum Sempra combined with the snapping of Strant's wand could certainly give such an appearance.
"Alright, mate." Ron looked a bit green around the gills. He had, of course, read about Frederick Strant's death in the Daily Prophet a couple weeks ago, but they hadn't given any details. "But what does this have to do with you thinking Menos is on his last Horcrux?"
Harry was struggling to put everything into words. A lot of it was simply instinct, a feeling, nothing more. That combined with his intimate experiences with Voldemort's death had lead him to that conclusion. He was near certain of it. However, he still had to convince everyone else.
"Whenever one of Voldemort's Horcruxes was destroyed, I felt it as much as he did. It was a visceral tugging and tearing that also pulsed in our magic. Each time, my connection to Voldemort flared and then weakened. We were still connected, but I could only see or hear him when he was extremely angry or upset. I also felt a shift in Voldemort's magic." Harry felt as though he was baring extremely private information to the eyes of his friends, and fought not to hunch in on himself any further than he already had.
"My magic would drain, but then fill back up, as if someone had pulled the plug in a full sink and then stuck it back in again. His magic though, weaker slightly…but also seemed to get wilder. It wasn't as controlled; it dragged him along rather than the other way around. It made him more desperate and even more insane, if that was possible. By the end, when it was just him left, it was like his magic had finally given up. It was still powerful and wild, but it was barley hanging on. Voldemort's magic became like a rabid dog, attacking anything. It knew it was dying and was desperate to give it's host anything to drive it forward. Voldemort became a parasite to his own magic."
Everyone in the room shuddered at the mental image provided. It was darker than any of them had ever thought. It cast a different light on the whole war and on Harry himself. Here was the boy who had witnessed and been an unwilling party in to the Dark Lord's rise and fall. Harry had seen all of that, felt all of that, and was still perfectly sane, though some might argue otherwise. Harry's words broke the spell cast over the room.
"You're right, Hermione. I don't have a connection to Menos like I do to Voldemort, but he's been in my head enough times that I've felt his magic. It feels the same, if not even more unstable." The witch in question was quiet, blinking back silent tears as she them all go through the war in her head all over again.
"That…that makes quite a bit of sense actually, Harry." Next to her, Ron shot her an incredulous look.
"How does any of this make sense?!" Anything else the red-head might have said was quelled by the glares of Draco and Snape. Luna simply watched the proceedings with an airy smile on her face and Harry and Hermione just didn't pay the others attention.
"What we witnessed was as Severus said, a Shade. Shades are more commonly known as ghosts and have been written about for centuries. Menos could have been living off of who knows how many Horcruxes over the years. We've seen how the Dark Lord turned out after only a handful of them and only over a few decades. At this point, Menos has probably been torn apart and sewn back together by magic so many times that his magic is struggling just to hold a corporal body together. In a sense, he is a ghost, but he's cheating death so much that his own body has given up, and he has to rely solely on his magic to allow him to be seen and solidify. I'm guessing he tends to take advantage of that fact and only use his energy to be seen and touched by you."
Hermione broke her stare with Harry to catch Severus and Draco's eyes. "You two were able to solidify Menos, because your spells poured more magic into his form, forcing it together rather than apart. Menos is both extremely powerful and extremely weak." While not completely heartening, her last statement was enough to raise the hopes of those around her, that they would be able to destroy this new Terror.
Draco opened his mouth to say something when he was interrupted by a quiet 'Ding'. Severus and Harry sat up so straight so fast, the others were sure they cracked something. Harry noticed their questioning glances and slid his wand out.
"That was the ward alarm. Someone's here." In a moment, the three across from them were on their feet, wands drawn. Luna, however, stayed seated on the floor. Severus, though reluctant to release Harry, nudged the boy until he was off of his lap and they had joined the others in standing.
Not twenty seconds later, there was a knock on the door very similar to the last one. Before Severus could insist the children stay back while he go check the door, Luna popped up.
"I'll get it!" She then skipped out of the room and to the front door. Snape moved to go after her, but found himself stopped by Harry gripping his arm. The boy's green eyes told Severus to trust the blonde witch.
They all tensed when they heard the door open and Luna speaking with someone. The tension mounted when the distinct sound of two sets of feet were heard walking towards the living room. Wands at the ready, everyone braced themselves for whoever was going to walk through the opening.
The barest hint of a hand was seen, and they all nearly fired. Luna came around the corner next to none other than the Minister of Magic. To say the man was shocked to find four wands pointed at him was an understatement. While Harry had his wand out, he hadn't lifted it, trusting Luna to not let a danger into the house.
"What is this? Severus, Harry? What is going on?" Snape narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him, even as the young blonde witch watched contentedly.
"Who did you fight next to at the Battle of Hogwarts?" Kingsley looked confused for a moment, before answering the question.
"Arthur Weasley….Severus?" Once the potion's master lowered his wand, the others did too, though very reluctantly.
"We have a severe problem. Another dark wizard has targeted Harry, and not half an hour ago, he came to the front door with your face." Righteous anger flew over Kingsley's face and he stood even taller.
"I can assure you that I am myself. I came to tell you two that we haven't found anymore suspects in Strant's murder, though the medical examiners at St. Mungo's were able to determine that he did not die from his wand being snapped. He would have eventually succumbed, but whoever killed him sent some sort of slicing hex at him before that could happen." Everyone looked at Harry, who'd gotten a bit paler in the last thirty seconds or so.
"We can help you, Minister. We know who it is, and we'll need your help to stop him." The tall man turned to the blonde witch beside him, shocked.
"What? Who is it? How did you find out?" The Minister looked at the others in the room and saw the way they were gathered protectively around the Saviour of the Wizarding World. "It is the same wizard tormenting Mr. Potter, isn't it?" Severus nodded and laid a hand on Harry's shoulder.
"Yes. His name is Menos, and I hope you don't mind, Minister Shacklebolt, but I full intend to kill him as soon as I get the chance." Kingsley only raised a brow.
Please let me know if you think Harry was a little OOC or if his character in this chapter works in line with the story as a whole. Felt kinda off writing all this this week.
Please Review :)