HARRY POTTER AND THE UNFORGIVEN
A Sixth Year Harry Potter Fanfiction
BY
Jayiin Mistaya
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
...never tickle a sleeping dragon
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to Harry Potter. Those rights are held, exclusively, by JK Rowling, and any other entities, corporations, subsidiaries, or groups not named here possessing legal rights to the aforementioned books and/or trademark.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks to everyone who has been reading, even if you haven't reviewed, and especially to those people who have me on author alert or favorites.
I have one more update after this one to go up tomorrow. However, things are gonna slow down again without reviews.
More information on Harry Potter and the Unforgiven can be found at my website, which is linked in my Author Profile.
Feedback of any kind is always appreciated.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:Thanks to Elusive Evan for making me continue to post this.
LETTERS IV
Harry was glad to see the letter on his pillow.
Not only was Ginny the only one of his friends writing him, he was enjoying getting to know her. That he hadn't heard from Dumbledore yet – well, that was just proof the old wizard didn't care nearly as much as he said he did.
Harry picked up Ginny's letter and opened it, enjoying the feel of parchment under his fingers again.
Harry,
Okay. I promise that I will always be honest with you, no matter what. I won't try to protect you by not telling you. If I can't do anything else for you, I will do that.
But I expect the same from you! That means rant all you want or need to. If I'm your friend, then that means something that's hurting you is my business. So don't hide things from me or try to protect me from what you're thinking or feeling. It's pushing all that stuff inside that makes you the grouchy and grumpy Harry we had to deal with all last year. Not that you didn't have reason, but you were rather difficult to deal with.
I don't know what to say about Cho Chang. I wish you had never been with her. She wasn't ready, not after Cedric. I'm not sure you were. It's not fair to expect you to know what to do with a girl, or how to think or behave in a relationship. You've never had an example to work from, or anyone to go to for advice. I'll admit I'm mad at Hermione. She didn't handle you and Cho well, didn't tell you what you needed to know.
What's this about a 'saving people thing'? That's what makes you who you are. You're willing to risk yourself to protect someone else? What if what you had seen in your vision had been true? What if Sirius had been in danger? Even if we had been able to talk to him, how do we know that he wouldn't have been forced to tell us a lie? I can speak from experience – it's hard not to do what He wants when He's in you.
I got very lucky that He didn't make me kill someone. He tried. He made me want to kill. But Colin, Miss Norris, Justin, Hermione, Penelope...they all got away because of luck or poor planning on His part. I'm glad you have a 'saving people thing' or a lot more people would be dead. Like me. Or my father.
It's hard looking at what I did while He was in control as anyone but me. It was my body commanding the Basilisk. It was my hands that strangled the roosters. My hands and my blood wrote the words on the wall. But you're right. It wasn't me.
I guess I know something of what you mean when you talk about being judged based on who other people think you are. I mean, look at how some people treat my family, just because of what my father does, or how much money we don't have or even how many of us there are. People like Draco Malfoy, Snape, the Dursleys are always going to be there. You've just had the bad luck to have them be such powerful forces in your life.
You have an odd way of thinking about us Weasleys. That we're all somehow good guys. Percy may be standing up for what he believes in, but so is Voldemort. Tom Riddle believes with everything in him that Muggle-borns and half-bloods are going to destroy the wizarding world and that the only way to save wizard-kind is to destroy them. Because he sees this as truth, he's made himself the Dark Lord and feels entitled to have the power to do enforce that.
Percy is the same. He believes rules and laws and the structure of the Ministry will be what saves us from Voldemort, not real protection or the violence that has already happened. And he believes because he sees this answer he has the right to be in charge and to tell everyone else what to do. All of us are fighting Voldemort, just like Percy is fighting Voldemort...but we don't believe that just because we're fighting him we automatically have the right to be in charge or to control others.
And yes, Harry, people blame you for being born. I know I do, every day of my life. So do my parents and thousands and thousands of others. You were born, the only son of Lily and James Potter and you did what no one else, not even Dumbledore could do. Because of you, I grew up for eleven years in a world where people didn't hide in fear. If you were to be someone else, then I'm not sure the world I live in would be a very good one. If it was some other baby who had defeated the Dark Lord, Tom might have still been gone, but I don't know that any other baby would have grown up to be who you are.
I like who you are.
You keep saying you're not a good judge of character, but you turned away from Malfoy before you even knew what a Slytherin was or what it meant to be a Malfoy. You refused to become what the Dursleys wanted you to be. At every turn, you have shown that even if you don't always understand what to do around people or how to react to people, you're very good at judging who they are. Except yourself.
There are so many kinds of love, Harry. I think you understand that better than you think. You're selling yourself short, thinking that you won't ever fall in love, get married, have children – have a family around you. Don't listen to prophecies or fears. Listen to me. I am your friend, and I think I am beginning to get to know you.
And I know this: you are a very rare person, Harry Potter. You will not face this alone. I won't let you. Ron and Hermione may be too afraid to write you or too daft to realize you need the letters. But I'm not.
I won't let you face this, or anything, alone. I promise.
Ginny W.
P.S. Write me back. And I didn't want to hit you.
Okay. Maybe a little. But I'm worried about you. I won't spend any of your money without you here to help me spend it!
I'm glad the glove has helped.
End Chapter
Revised 12-25-07
