Not the Weapon

Disclaimer: Hp belongs only to Rowling.

'Harry, you can't go!' said Kitty, grabbing his arm, 'Listen to me!'

'Let go of me, Kat!' said Harry trying to free himself.

'No! Moody, Remus, Dumbledore, all of them are trying to keep you safe. You can't just go!' said Kitty.

'Running away, are we?' said a snide voice behind them.

Kitty looked around. Phineas Nigellus had appeared on the canvas of his portrait and was leaning against the frame, watching them with an amused expression on his face.

'Not running away, no,' said Harry shortly, dragging his trunk a few more feet across the room.

'I thought,' said Phineas Nigellus, stroking his pointed beard, 'that to belong in Gryffindor house you were supposed to be brave? It looks to me as though you would have been better off in my own house. Given the choice, we will always choose to save our own necks.'

'It's not my own neck I'm saving,' said Harry tersely, tugging the trunk over a patch of particularly uneven, moth-eaten carpet right in front of the door.

'Oh, I see,' said Phineas Nigellus, still stroking his beard, 'this is no cowardly flight-you are being noble.'

Harry ignored him. His hand was on the doorknob when Phineas Nigellus said lazily, 'I have a message for you from Albus Dumbledore.'

Harry span round.

'What is it?'

'"Stay where you are." '

'I haven't moved!' said Harry, his hand still upon the doorknob. 'So what's the message?'

'I have just given it to you, dolt,' said Phineas Nigellus smoothly. 'Dumbledore says, "Stay where you are."'

'Why?' said Harry eagerly, dropping the end of his trunk. 'Why does he want me to stay? What else did he say?'

'Nothing whatsoever,' said Phineas Nigellus, raising a thin black eyebrow as though he found Harry impertinent.

Harry's temper rose to the surface like a snake rearing from long grass. He was exhausted, he was confused beyond measure, he had experienced terror, relief, then terror again in the last twelve hours, and still Dumbledore did not want to talk to him!

'So that's it, is it?' he said loudly. '"Stay where you are"? That's all anyone could tell me after I got attacked by those dementors, too! Just stay put while the grown-ups sort it out, Harry! We won't bother telling you anything, though, because your tiny little brain might not be able to cope with it!'

'You know,' said Phineas Nigellus, even more loudly than Harry, 'this is precisely why I loathed being a teacher! Young people are so infernally convinced that they are absolutely right about everything. Has it not occurred to you, my poor puffed-up popinjay, that there might be an excellent reason why the Headmaster of Hogwarts is not confiding every tiny detail of his plans to you? Have you never paused, while feeling hard-done-by, to note that following Dumbledore's orders has never yet led you into harm? No, like all young people, you are quite sure that you alone feel and think, you alone recognise danger, you alone are the only one clever enough to realise what the Dark Lord may be planning-'

'He is planning something to do with me, then?' said Harry swiftly.

'Did I say that?' said Phineas Nigellus, idly examining his silk gloves. 'Now, if you will excuse me, I have better things to do than listen to adolescent agonising ... good-day to you.'

And he strolled to the edge of his frame and out of sight.

'Fine, go then!' Harry bellowed at the empty frame. 'And tell Dumbledore thanks for nothing!'

The empty canvas remained silent. Fuming, Harry dragged his trunk back to the foot of his bed, then threw himself face down on the moth-eaten covers, his eyes shut, his body heavy and aching. Kitty did not know what to say. She went to look for Ron and the others.

Around six o'clock in the evening, Kitty and Harry were sitting and talking about Dumbledore's message.

'I don't see why you are bothering to stay in the same room as me. Why don't you go hide like the others who are scared to talk to me,' said Harry irritable. Kitty turned away, looking hurt.

'I'm sorry, Kat. I don't know what came over me,' said Harry abruptly.

'Look, Harry, let's just go and talk with Ron and Ginny and the others,' said Kitty, getting up, 'Come on!'

Harry got up reluctantly and went out of the room.

'What're you doing here?' said Kitty, seeing Hermione's bushy hair disappearing into a room. Kitty rushed after her.

'To tell you the truth, skiing is not really my thing. So, I've come here for Christmas,' said Hermione.

Ron and Ginny were sitting on the bed, with a plate of sandwiches between them.

'How're you feeling?' asked Hermione, looking at Harry.

'Fine,' said Harry stiffly.

'Oh, don't lie, Harry,' she said impatiently. 'Ron and Ginny say you've been hiding from everyone since you got back from St. Mungo's.'

'They do, do they?' said Harry, glaring at Ron and Ginny. Ron looked down at his feet but Ginny seemed quite unabashed.

'Well, you have!' she said. 'And you won't look at any of us!'

'It's you lot who won't look at me!' said Harry angrily.

'Oh, stop feeling all misunderstood,' said Hermione sharply. 'Look, the others have told me what you overheard last night on the Extendable Ears-'

'Yeah?' growled Harry, his hands deep in his pockets as he watched the snow now falling thickly outside. 'All been talking about me, have you? Well, I'm getting used to it.'

'We wanted to talk to you, Harry,' said Ginny, 'but as you've been hiding ever since we got back-'

'I didn't want anyone to talk to me,' said Harry, who was feeling more and more nettled.

'Well, that was a bit stupid of you,' said Ginny angrily, 'seeing as you don't know anyone but me who's been possessed by You-Know-Who, and I can tell you how it feels.'

Harry remained quite still as the impact of these words hit him. Then he wheeled round.

'I forgot,' he said.

'Lucky you,' said Ginny coolly.

'I'm sorry,' Harry said, and he meant it. 'So ... so, do you think I'm being possessed, then?'

'Well, can you remember everything you've been doing?' Ginny asked. 'Are there big blank periods where you don't know what you've been up to?'

Harry racked his brains.

'No,' he said.

'Then You-Know-Who hasn't ever possessed you,' said Ginny simply. 'When he did it to me, I couldn't remember what I'd been doing for hours at a time. I'd find myself somewhere and not know how I got there.'

'This was different,' said Harry, shaking his head. 'I was inside that snake. It was like I was the snake ... what if Voldemort somehow transported me to London-?'

'One day,' said Hermione, sounding thoroughly exasperated, 'you'll read Hogwarts: a History and perhaps it will remind you that you can't Apparate or Disapparate inside Hogwarts. Even Voldemort couldn't just make you fly out of your dormitory, Harry.'

'You didn't leave your bed, mate,' said Ron. 'I saw you thrashing around in your sleep for at least a minute before we could wake you up.'

Harry started pacing up and down the room again, thinking. What they were all saying was not only comforting, it made sense ... without really thinking; he took a sandwich from the plate on the bed and crammed it hungrily into his mouth.

I'm not the weapon after all, thought Harry. Kitty was thinking along the same lines.

Kitty awoke on Christmas morning to find a large pile of Christmas presents at the foot of her bed, and Hermione already halfway through opening her pile.

'Oooh, thanks Hermione,' said Kitty tearing off the wrapper of the first present to reveal a set of books: Important Modern Magial Discoveries, Muggles Who Notice and House Elves and Self Hatred.

Remus and Sirius had also given her books: The Dark Arts Outsmarted, A Guide to Medieval Sorcery and Confronting the Faceless. Ron and Dennis had both given her sweets: Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Botts' Every Flavour Beans. Luna's gift comprised a set of weird looking instruments and a pocket handbook entitled 'How to Catch and Tame a Crumple Horned Snorkack.' Harry had given her a Reusable Hangman, which had a tiny figure of a screaming Umbridge that Kitty could hang again and again. Fred and George had given her a large box of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. Hagrid had sent her a furry brown wallet that snapped ifyou tried to put money into it. Vandyll's present turned out to be a snowglobe with tiny moving and talking figures of Kitty and Vandyll inside. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had given her the usual hand-knitted jumper and some mince pies, and Dobby a truly dreadful painting that Kitty suspected had been done by the elf himself.

'Do you think Kreacher will like this?' said Hermione showing her a bright patchwork quilt, she had made for him.

'Write a note saying that it's from Sirius' mum and he'll love it,' said Kitty, grinning.

Review please!