More prepararation for the end of the war. Oh yeah, my lawyers insist that I inform you yet again that I do not own Harry Potter. As if you didn't know that already!
Dudley led his mother to the room that Ginny had said and sat in a large armchair to watch the conversation.
"Petunia, what are all of these tears for?" Lily's portrait asked astonished.
"Harry has gone and challenged Lord Voldemort to a duel Lily. How can he hope to win when you and James failed to even challenge him?" Petunia asked trying to stop her tears.
"Well, I'd like to think we did challenge him somewhat" James said lightly, "I mean, the fight destroyed the house!"
"James!!" Lily said outraged while Petunia chuckled lightly. "You know what she meant!!"
"Yes dear I do," James said smiling, "But at least I got her to stop crying."
Lily rolled her eyes muttering something like "Men!!" "Petunia really, Harry would have to face him anyway and I imagine Harry is just ready for this all to be over. He is exceptionally strong and well loved. He has the power to destroy Voldemort easily."
"So… You're not at all worried that your son has just asked the most feared man in England to come have a go at him?" Petunia asked skeptically.
"Of course I'm worried." Lily said and then seeing her sister triumphant look she explained, "I'm just not worried for the same reason you are."
"So why are you worried then?" Petunia asked getting slightly angry.
"I'm worried that he won't remember the feeling of being loved, I'm worried that he will listen to his head and not his heart. If Harry fights with his heart Voldemort will die quickly and easily. If he tries to fight on skill alone… then I don't know" Lily finished quietly.
"What do you mean Aunt Lily?" Dudley asked coming forward to stand in front of the portrait.
Lily smiled at her nephew, "Harry is a very skilled wizard Dudley, but he is at his best when he acts on instinct alone not when he plans out his actions. On instinct Harry duels to protect those he loves. That emotion will drive him to do things even he cannot imagine."
"Like he did to my dad right?" Dudley said.
"Exactly," Lily said her eye twinkling at him. "If Harry had stopped to think he never would have fought your father and who knows what your dad would have done. Instead, when Harry saw your mother under attack he couldn't stand to watch it. No matter what she had done to him she is the last of my family and Harry loved her for that if nothing else. So he did what anyone would do, he fought back. And in so doing he fought on instinct, knowing he was not strong enough to take on your father in a fair fight he allowed your father to beat himself. His fight with Voldemort will be similar. Harry has the power and strength to win but he doesn't think he does."
While Harry's aunt was comforted by his mothers portrait the rest of Harry's companions had returned to work.
"Remember Harry," Remus said looking over the pile of notes he was holding "Voldemort likes to tease his victims. He likes to show them he is in control, that is when he is most vulnerable. He's not paying attention properly and a non – verbal spell should hit." Harry nodded.
"Yeah, and watch out for him to throw out his elbow." Ron piped up, "Your dad's notes say he does that just before he uses a particularly nasty curse."
"Right, well I think that's enough for one day" Harry said stretching. "Tomorrow we'll start practicing, we'll keep that up until Ginny and her team come up with something." Harry looked at his watch, it was ten o'clock. "Well I think I'm going to go to the library and force my wife to go to bed. Ron you should go convince your fiancé to do the same and you Sirius should collect your cousin." They all laughed as Harry left the room to do exactly as he said.
Ron and Hermione stayed up late that night talking in the same study that Harry had spent the day in. "It's so frustrating Ron!" Hermione said sniffing back her tears as Ron rubbed her aching shoulders.
"I know love, but you're being too hard on yourself." Ron said soothingly. Hermione turned her head to look at him. "I mean, your brilliant you know that but not even a genius like you can solve everything in a day Hermione. God took seven days to create the world we live in, surely you don't expect to save it in one" Ron smiled at her and she chuckled at his teasing tone.
"Maybe not" she sighed, "but I had hoped to make some progress. I mean you guys pretty much mapped Tom's style in a day so I feel like I should have found something." She looked at her hands in her lap. Ron hated hearing the defeat in her voice.
"Hermione" he said softly as his hands left her shoulders to cup her face and force her to look at him. "We didn't do anything but review other peoples work today, it was all there laid out in an orderly pile of reports. All we did was consolidate the piles of reports into one basic report by eliminating the duplicate points in each one, and that took us all day. Besides, Harry's aunt barging in and going mental did not help your team."
Hermione let a small smile grace her lips, "Yes, Ginny was rather distracted after that" she murmured allowing Ron to pull her into his arms.
"Do you think it was because his aunt was so worried or that Harry looked ready to kill them?" Ron asked amused.
"Oh, I definitely think she was far more worried for his relatives than Harry" she said really smiling now. The two sat in an armchair fondly remembering the way that Ginny had stepped in the middle of the fight and taken control of it. And then how she never stopped caressing Harry's face even when he wrapped his arms around her and the tears leaked from his eyes. "She really understands Harry doesn't she?" Hermione asked quietly.
"Better than I will ever understand anyone I think" Ron answered.
"Nonsense, you understand me that well" Hermione said dismissively. Ron raised an eyebrow at her. "Well, it's like tonight" she explained, "you knew that my shoulders hurt before I told you. And you knew that sitting here with you in this chair with you rubbing my back would be the most soothing thing in the world for me without me asking" Ron smiled thinking that anyone could have seen the stiff way she carried her shoulders and the worry on her face. "And you knew exactly what to say to make me feel like I wasn't a failure today. No one else would have known those things Ron" she cupped his face gently, "So thank you." Hermione closed her eyes and kissed him and Ron forgot all about anyone else understanding Hermione. As he enjoyed the kiss he shared with the woman he loved he allowed his mind to accept that she was probably right as usual.
The next week was grueling for those in Potter Manor. Hermione, Ginny, and Bellatrix continued their frantic research of the "love prison" Ginny had thought of while Harry began to practice dueling with anyone and everyone that could hold a wand telling everyone to hold nothing back. Aunt Petunia was calmer after speaking with Lily and James' portraits most of her first night there and spent her days cooking with Mrs. Weasley, who was the only one spared from dueling Harry, and telling Harry about his mother's childhood during Harry's breaks. Dudley was determined to be useful and could usually be found watching the duels and telling Harry when he missed an opportunity to strike. Being a champion boxer he found, to the surprise of all who witnessed this, that he was quite good at it. He kept Lily's fears in mind and as he watched he found that she was right. Harry was good, but it was like he was holding back. Finally on Saturday, after watching Harry lose spectacularly when Bellatrix took a break from research and joined the fight, Dudley had seen enough. He stormed over to Harry and grabbed him by the front of the robes and hauled him up nose to nose with himself.
"I'm only going to say this once Potter" he growled turning every head in the room and drawing a gasp from Ginny and Hermione who had taken a break to watch. "Everyone in this room loves you dearly and you love most of them just as much. You aren't fighting at your best; my dad could have taken you easily like this." Harry sputtered in an outrage but Dudley silenced him with a glare. "You're better than this so get out of that thick head of yours and fight from the heart like you did to protect my mum and my home!" Dudley shouted before releasing Harry. "Again" he roared and everyone but Ron, Arthur, Sirius, Remus, the twins, Charlie, Bill, Percy and Bellatrix waited with bated breath as Harry and his opponents began a furious duel. Ginny, of course, was the first to see the change. Harry was defensive for about ten minutes while he thought over Dudley's words, as the truth sank in his eyes took on a fiery gleam.
"That's it" Ginny said under her breath. Hermione stared at her amazed for a second before everyone got a new shock. Harry went on the offensive ducking, rolling, twirling out of the way of curses or blocking them effortlessly while sending curses of his own at unbelievable speed. He looked like a dancer not a dueler, in minutes only he and Bellatrix remained. All the others stood at the side and watched the two literally dance a deadly dance. More than once the green killing curse sped toward Harry only for him to spin away letting it speed past whipping his robes like a tornado. Five minutes after the one on one began Harry scored with a combination of a stunner and the levicorpus spell leaving Bellatrix unconscious hanging in midair by her heel. Harry fell to his knees exhausted as applause exploded around him. He waved his wand and Bellatrix woke up and, after figuring out where she was, laughed gleefully before performing the countercurse and landing on her feet still laughing.
"Nice combo Harry" Bellatrix said lifting him to his feet and hugging him. He smiled and patted her back before releasing himself and going to Ginny who was grinning like she never had before.
Sirius came up behind her and whispered in her ear, "You went a little rough on him didn't you Bella?"
"No," she said, "I did what he told me, I dueled as the Dark Lord taught me to. It's as close as he can get to the real thing, and I knew the killing curse would never land on him" she said smiling as her cousin rubbed her shoulders
"And why is that?" Sirius asked.
"Because none of you would have let him die" she said simply as everyone went to the dining room for lunch.
As Harry passed Dudley he heard Dudley say softly, "That's more like it Harry." Harry stopped and stared at his cousin for a long time before pulling the startled teen into a hug.
"Thanks for that Dud, but you were wrong about one thing" Harry said releasing Dudley.
"Really, and what was that?" he asked.
"I love you and your mum and dad just as much as everyone else" Harry said and then he turned and walked to his dining room leaving a stunned and teary eyed Dudley and Petunia in his wake.
Bellatrix returned to the library after lunch and continued her research with Ginny and Hermione who worked with renewed vigor after seeing that duel. "How did you know he was going to win?" Hermione asked Ginny while she searched through a book of basic building spells.
"I saw the fire in his eyes" Ginny replied flipping a page of Love, Emotion of Emotions "That only happens when he is feeling a powerful emotion like love, or anger, or determination."
"I saw it too," Bellatrix said looking up from her copy of A History of Azkaban, "and I knew I was, as the muggles say, in deep kimshi." Hermione and Ginny stared at her and then laughed hysterically.
"They say what?" Hermione forced out still laughing.
"In deep kimshi" said Bellatrix chuckling, "well it's better than the alternative way to say deep trouble." Hermione and Ginny fell off their chairs laughing at her. Bellatrix just shook her head at the two of them and turned back to her book. Hermione and Ginny finally got their laughter under control and returned to work both muttering, "I've never heard that before."
The week continued like this, Harry dueling and the girls researching. By Wednesday before the duel everyone was amazed at Harry. He dueled gracefully like a ballroom dancer, light as a feather on his feet and hard as steel in his cursing. At one point Dudley had called out with a defeated Fred and George, "Hey Harry, when you're done with Voldemort maybe you should enter one of those muggle dance competitions." Harry had just grinned while Sirius snorted. Dinner that night was a lively affair. Everyone was telling Ginny, Hermione, and Bellatrix about Harry's latest duel and how he was beginning to look like he was dancing not dueling. In fact, they said, no one knew whether to call it beautiful or scary.
"That is good news" Bellatrix said quietly turning all heads. "Dueling is a dance" she said stressing the word "is". "A deadly dance, but a dance none the less. The best duelers are dancing as they duel" she explained again stressing the word "are" as she spoke.
"You never dueled like that with me" Sirius told her sounding offended.
"I was too intimidated to dance with you Siri, you were too good. I could barely even land a curse on you, besides I did dance with you at the Ministry" she said quietly.
"Yeah," he said slowly, "I'd forgotten how you looked that night." He looked at her and grinned, "I remember that you beat me rather easily that night though."
"You weren't giving me your best" she said sorrowfully, "and I nearly killed you." She looked down at her plate willing the tears not to come.
Sirius went to her and pulled her into his arms, "That night was the best I've ever dueled Bella and you won fairly, it's not your fault that they never bricked up that stupid arch." Everyone seemed to realize that this was another private and intimate moment between family members so they all left them in peace and retired to other parts of the house to relax for the night. Bellatrix stayed in her cousin's arms tears streaming down her face as she clung to him for a long time. "I'm very proud of you Bella," Sirius said stroking the top of her head, "and I've always loved you." She looked up at him with wonder in her eyes.
"Even when I was a Deatheater?" she asked fearing the answer.
"Even then," he said smiling, "I didn't like your choices but you were and are my cousin. As long as you are my blood I will love you. I would still have loved you if you had killed me that night. We are family, and a good family stays bound by love no matter what." Bellatrix squeezed him tightly in her arms for a moment and the suddenly let him go.
"That's it!!" she cried. She jumped to her feet, kissed a bewildered Sirius on the cheek and flew out of the room to find Ginny and Hermione.
"What is this all about?" both Ginny and Hermione asked breathlessly as Bellatrix dragged them to the library at a run.
"We've been looking at this the wrong way" Bellatrix gasped, "We don't need a prison that the Dark Lord can't escape from, no prison is perfect, we need to bind him to the place and then hide it." She began to call out every binding topic she could think of and as the books started to pile themselves on the tables Hermione's eyes lit up.
"A binding of love is unbreakable even in death" she said.
"Right" Bellatrix said grabbing a book titled The Ties of Love. Ginny began to understand as she dove into the project right behind Hermione and Bellatrix. They worked all night with no break, threatening anyone who entered the library with a painful death ensuring that they could concentrate fully on their task. By morning only Harry had the courage to enter the library.
"So, what have we found?" he asked quietly rubbing Ginny shoulders. Ginny closed her eyes and leaned back into her husband. Ron and Sirius were waiting outside the door to pick up the pieces of Harry after the women cursed him, but seeing that he wasn't dead they decided the other two women could use a massage too. Bellatrix smiled in appreciation as Sirius gently rubbed her stiff shoulders and Hermione let out a blissful sigh as Ron administered one of his famous backrubs that turned her to jelly.
"Well, I think we've got something" Hermione said after a few minutes. "It's called amore incarcerous."
"Meaning love binding" Harry said frowning in concentration.
"Right" Hermione said, "It was Bellatrix's idea. She dragged us here last night after dinner and explained that we had been trying to find a prison, but what we wanted was a way to bind Tom to one place. Something that Sirius said to her told her that the bonds of love were unbreakable even to death so we started working on that and we think if you use that spell and think of the conditions you want you should be able to create the bond you want."
"That's brilliant Bellatrix!" Harry exclaimed.
"Oh I can't take credit Harry" Bellatrix said grinning, "I got the idea from Sirius but had no clue what to do with it. Ginny was the one to suggest looking into the marriage binding and Hermione was the brilliant one that adapted it and combined it with the binding spell to create our spell" she said looking proudly at the other two. "I want you two to know that the last week and a half have been the best of my life. I am honored to be able to help you and loved getting to work with you like this"
Hermione and Ginny got up and hugged her tightly, "The honor was ours Bellatrix" Ginny said for them both.
Harry spent the rest of the day practicing the new spell slowly moving up from snails to Percy, whom he left imprisoned for an hour in the garden as a repayment for his estrangement from his family. Percy had understood and spent the hour sitting in the small golden dome the spell created reflecting on the biggest mistake of his life and vowing to never allow himself to be separated from his family again. Finally Harry had imprisoned Dobby for ten minutes because house elves could apparate out of almost any bond. When the spell released him Dobby leaped into the air whooping loudly until Ginny and Harry calmed him enough to tell them what happened.
"Dobby tried every way he knows to escape Harry Potter sir" the elf said bouncing on his feet gleefully. "Nothing works, Dobby examines the walls of the dome sir and finds that the walls are made of pure love. Dobby knows better than to try to walk through the walls Harry Potter. The energy would kill him sir."
"I'm sorry Dobby but I had to know this would work" Harry said hugging the elf while Ginny whooped and ran to tell the others and calm a distraught Hermione who thought Harry was being cruel to further imprison Dobby. Ginny dragged Hermione to the door of the kitchen just as Dobby said, "Oh no, Harry Potter. Dobby was in no pain sir, he is happy to help Harry Potter. The inside of the dome is quite comfortable and Dobby is only trying to escape because Master Harry tells him to. Dobby would have stayed in that dome forever happily. Dobby only wished that he could show Winky sir." Hermione wiped her eyes silently finally understanding that Dobby was happy in his service to Harry, and that house elves in general wanted to serve good masters. It was only gits like Lucius Malfoy who abused their position as master that caused the elves pain.
"Some day Dobby I'll do it to you both if you like so you can show Winky, but I'll leave a door so you can come and go as you please" Ginny and Hermione both laughed silently as the elf's ears perked up and he hugged Harry's knees.