AN: new chapter up, enjoy!
Chapter 34 - Obsession
Half of the students present in the Ravenclaw Common room were gathered around a table that had been moved in the middle. At that table, a boy and a girl were about to compete against each other in some sort of Wizarding game.
The girl was around 15-16 years old and rather tall for her age. Her white-golden waist-length hair and her blue eyes combined with the inexplicable attraction one would feel when looking at her betrayed her identity: she was a Veela. Nevertheless, at that moment, most of the students were not paying as much attention to Fleur's looks as they would normally.
As for the boy standing on the other side of the table, he was a 7th-year Prefect and the current Head Boy of Hogwarts. Tall, wearing Hogwarts robes well-adjusted to his body and sporting handsomely-styled short brown hair, John Bagnold was one of the more popular male students in the school. As the Head Boy and due to him being related to the former Ministry of Magic, Millicent Bagnold, John was one of Professor Slughorn's favourite students too.
On the side of the table, it was a first-year blonde girl that had the vibe of an airhead about her. Somehow, Luna Lovegood was the one that had organised the current scene and was acting as the referee. A referee...because Fleur and John were about to have a duel. Mind you, not a wizarding duel in the true sense of the word. It was something far less harmless.
"Sir, are you ready?"
Getting a nod of acknowledgement from the much older boy, Luna turned towards Fleur and asked her too:
"Miss, are you ready?"
Fleur nodded too, her eyes pinned on the table in front of her.
"On my mark, 3, 2, 1. Duel start!"
As one, the two duel participants pointed their wands at the table at the same time and cast:
"Piertotum Locomotor!"
"Piertotum Locomotor!"
At their chants, two wooden dolls, about 1 foot tall, seemed to have come to life and stood up on their feet.
Turning towards the excited students crowding around them, Luna said:
"Ladies and gentlemen, you are witnessing history. One day, stick-duelling will become Hogwart's official sport, surpassing even Quidditch in popularity! Behold!"
Harry burst into chuckles at her words and he was not the only one, many other students in the crowd also giggled at her.
'She does remind me of the Luna I know but she has her differences as well,' he mused.
Maybe because he and Fleur had taken the young girl under their wings or maybe because the girl's mother was not dead in this world, Luna Lovegood was much more popular and extroverted than the one from his past life. She was still an airhead most of the time, she often said strange things and she still believed in the fantastical creatures that her father believed in but she also shared the deep love for spellcasting and spell crafting characteristic to her mother. That's how Luna was one of the best students in Charms among her peers and that's also how she ended up organising the current event.
'She's quite popular, isn't she?' he thought when he noticed the way her housemates were reacting to her. It was a far cry from the bullying that the girl used to suffer at the hands of her housemates in his past life. 'I'm happy for her. If anyone deserves happiness, it's her.'
He was well-aware that she was not the Luna of his past life, that she was a different person, but he still could not help but look at her through rose-tinted glasses. But when the crowd of Ravenclaws suddenly cheered, he was shaken off from his thoughts and he returned his attention to the action.
Having enchanted their wooden dolls to 'come to life', Fleur and John started to control their movements. The reason for the crowd's cheering was that they were controlling the wooden dolls to fight against each other.
Beads of sweat started to appear on Fleur's and John's foreheads as they focused intensely on controlling their puppets. As the wooden dolls kept slugging each other in the face, the spectators only grew more excited with every passing minute.
'It reminds me of how Dumbledore used the statues in the Atrium at the Ministry to dominate Tommy in their duel,' Harry thought while looking at the animation charms performed by the two of them.
It made him think again of just how far beyond was Albus Dumbledore from most wizards when it came to his skill in magic. He could simultaneously control several enormous statues weighing tons and make them perform agile and dangerous movements without breaking a sweat.
"Tackle her puppet! Use some wrestling!"
"Fleur, do a tornado kick!" one of the muggleborn students shouted.
"No, use some wrestling too, throw his puppet off the table!" someone retorted.
The rules of the Stick-duelling were simple: only by controlling their puppets, they had to either incapacitate their opponent's puppet (which was too difficult to do with such light wooden dolls) or throw them out of bounds (off the table).
Listening to the advice of the crowd, John suddenly controlled his puppet to tackle Fleur's doll. Then, with an abrupt yanking movement of his wand, his puppet lifted Fleur's doll in the air and slammed it down, out of bounds, off the table.
Half the crowd exploded into cheers, while the other half booed in disappointment at John winning and Fleur losing.
⁂
"That was so fun!" Fleur said in excitement once she was done and several other sixth and seventh year students started competing against each other in the same manner.
"It did look kind of fun. Even if you lost. Haha!" Harry said with a grin.
"My spellcasting is better, 'e just 'as better Muggle fighting technique! Anyway, don't you want to try too?"
"I'd love to but I can't. I was about to leave the common room and go to Bella's office when I got distracted."
As he said that, he started walking towards the door, to leave, with Fleur following him from behind.
"Aw, come on, I promise I'll go easy on you~"
"Sorry, maybe some other time."
"Pleeease," she begged and she draped herself on his back, leaning on him with enough of her weight to make him have trouble standing.
"Oof, you're heavy. You gained weight again, didn't you?"
"Non! You are just too scrawny!"
"Maybe we'll spend some time this weekend," he said, not continuing their banter. "I really need to go, Fleur."
The physically older girl let out a long-drawn sigh and stopped leaning on him.
"Fine, be like that!" she said with a pout.
"Don't you have stuff to do too? OWLs are close and you have Flitwick's private exam coming up soon too."
"I got everything down, I'm ready for anything 'e might throw at me. The only spell I still need to work on is the Animation Charm. And that's what I was doing earlier when I was - what does Luna call it? - stick-duelling."
Harry cracked a smile at the mention of Luna but then he opened the door and came out of the common room, with Fleur still following him from behind.
"We don't talk that much anymore. You're always busy these days, even busier than me which is strange because I have both OWLs and Professor Flitwick's apprenticeship."
"Stop whining, get some friends."
"But I do 'ave friends. You are my friend," she said, starting to get annoyed.
"I mean more friends. Not all girls hate you, you know? Some would probably want to be friends with you if you gave them a chance," Harry said.
"Even if that's the case, I can't make friends with other girls or boys."
"Why not?"
"For the same reason why you don't 'ave any friends either, I assume. I am too old for them."
The two became silent after that as they walked through the corridors of the castle. Harry was mentally in his 40s and Fleur herself was in her 30s. He understood her. It was not easy for someone of their age to be friends with children. Furthermore, Fleur had had issues connecting even with her family due to her hidden life as a serial killer, to say nothing about becoming friends with random teenage girls.
"I'm sorry. I know we haven't spent that much time together as of late," he apologised. "But I can't afford to slack off. Not when Voldemort is out there, doing god knows what. I have to be ready."
Several weeks passed since Voldemort's attack on the Ministry of Magic and it was almost the end of the school year now, it was May. The Minister of Magic did not attempt to snuff the news about the Dark Lord's return and the entirety of Great Britain and Ireland had become aware of it. In the beginning, panic gripped the general population's hearts. But after a few weeks of nothing terrible happening people were starting to forget about it.
But Harry never forgot that Bellatrix had almost been killed that day, for the second time. Though almost one month has passed, he was still as vigilant as always.
"Gaunt lost, 'Arry. Admit it."
"No, he didn't. He doesn't lose. Not while he is still alive. You don't know him as I do. He's never going to give up something once he put his mind to it. Voldemort may be many things, but he is not a quitter. He is a relentless, determined, and extremely dangerous man, not bound by common sense or logic. Not even bound by the limits of magic. Sooner or later, one way or another, he will accomplish his purpose. Unless I kill him first."
Apparently, it was a common subject of their conversation, common enough for both of them to immediately become annoyed with the other.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you admire 'im going by 'ow you're talking about 'im."
The fierce glare that Harry threw at her next made the girl freeze in her tracks.
"Voldemort killed my parents. He murdered everyone I've ever cared about. The ones I saw as my family in all but blood became nothing but charred corpses. I didn't even have their bodies to bury them, to give them a proper funeral. And now he tried to kill Bella twice. You think I admire him?"
He was not shouting, and his voice seemed normal too. But there was a dangerous edge in his tone, one that made Fleur's skin break into goosebumps.
"Sorry. I may 'ave crossed the line," she apologised in a small voice.
"Yes, you have," he stated and proceeded to walk ahead.
But Fleur caught up to him and, albeit hesitatingly, she took his hand in hers.
He stopped and looked at her questioningly.
"I didn't mean that. I'm really sorry. I just-"
His expression softened and he squeezed her hand a little. "I know. But I still need to go."
She did not let go of his hand and they started walking like that towards the office of the Professor of DADA, towards Bellatrix's office.
"I still stand by what I said," she began to say again. "Gaunt lost. I won this time. 'e is nothing without 'is followers." Seeing that Harry was not interrupting her, she continued, though in a more subdued voice: "I killed Fudge, I killed the Malfoys, I took out all the influential purebloods that had facilitated 'is rise to the seat of the Minister. Gaunt is politically dead. 'e has no supporters anymore."
Harry shook his head.
"You don't understand," he said and just left it at that because they had had this conversation many times before and they have never reached a consensus.
The Voldemort from Fleur's future, Thomas Gaunt, was not as cruel as Harry knew him to be - maybe because Fleur had not seen first-hand the terror of one of the most dangerous Dark Lords in modern history. Voldemort from Fleur's memories was a politician, not a terrorist like the one from Harry's past life.
'But now it's impossible for him to rule through legitimate means because all his inner circle followers were killed off. Recruiting other influential purebloods won't be easy at all either due to Bella's Magic Ancestry research. Besides, purebloods themselves don't even have the same pull as before, their power has started waning; so even if he gets a few frustrated purebloods at his side, he won't accomplish much politically. Thus, with his path to becoming the Minister cut off, what will he do next? He will take what he wants by force. I am sure of it.'
Fleur sighed when they finally arrived at the office.
"Think about what I told you, 'Arry. I'm worried about you. You've given up on Quidditch, you've stopped attending Professor Black's and Professor Slughorns' clubs, we barely see each other anymore outside of lunch breaks, and you spend every bit of your free time on your totems or whatever it is that you are doing it... You are obsessed with Gaunt and don't you even dare to deny it!"
Harry did not contradict her. Instead, he took her by surprise when he wrapped his arms around her waist and embraced her. It was a short hug but it was enough to bring a smile to her face because he rarely initiated such gestures.
"I understand your concerns," he said after breaking their short hug. "But don't worry, I'm almost done. I've finished carving my last totem a few days ago, now I'm just waiting for its acknowledgement. I promise to spend more time with you starting with the next week, okay?"
"You're missing the point," Fleur said and sighed. "Oh well, guess I should take what I can get. Anyway, I won't 'old you any longer. See you later in the evening?"
"I think I might get back late tonight."
"Alright then, see you tomorrow. Take care of yourself, 'Arry, promise me."
"I will. See ya."
When Fleur turned around to leave, Harry suddenly said:
"Hey, about what we've talked a while ago. About letting Bella know about you, have you given it some thought?"
"I don't think it's a good idea..." she trailed off. Seeing the bummed-out look on his face, she added: "The future I know 'as already changed. My knowledge of the future doesn't mean much anymore. I 'ave created too many ripples, changed too many things, for the good. Most of the main actors of Gaunt's regime are gone. Telling Professor Black about myself wouldn't 'elp with anything... It'll do nothing except for exposing to a second person the dangerous truth about who I am. About what I've done."
"I trust Bella with my life," he said categorically.
"It's not a matter of trust. Think about it. I killed 'er younger sister's 'usband and son less than two years ago. You think we're going to become best friends after something like that?"
'Bella never cared about Draco and Lucius and she's quite happy that they are gone since she got her sister back...' Harry wanted to say but kept his thoughts to himself instead. He understood that Fleur was not comfortable with letting anyone else besides him find out the truth about her. 'Can't say I blame her though.'
After telling each other goodbye again, he fished out a special key from his pocket and unlocked the door to Bellatrix's office. Waving one last time to Fleur, he closed the door after him. Making sure that Bella's warding spell was working properly and that the door had automatically locked itself back, he went to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of Floo powder.
Green flames appeared out of nowhere and he stepped into the fire before calling out the name of his destination:
"The Blackthorn!"
⁂
While Harry was at the Blackthorn trying to connect with the spirit of his last totem, Ekwensu, the god of Tricks, Bellatrix was in the Transfiguration Office together with Professor Dumbledore and another person. The third person was a blonde-haired woman in her mid-thirties wearing dark clothes and a veiled black hat. She was Bellatrix's younger sister, Narcissa Malfoy.
Although a year and a half had passed since her husband and son's untimely deaths, the Mafloy widow appeared to have still not gotten over it. She was a far cry from the glamorous woman she used to be, nowadays wearing mostly plain dark clothes and a hat with a veil that obscured the upper half of her face. Furthermore, the fact that the Dark Lord was back and the knowledge that he was out there to get her had made her become a recluse, seldom leaving the safety of her house. At least, thanks to Belaltrix's expertise in warding spells, the Malfoy manor had become one of the safest places in Great Britain. She had even cast a Fidelius Charm on it and made Andromeda Tonks the Secret Keeper. Narcissa Malfoy had never been as well-protected before.
Nevertheless, there she was now, outside the safety of her home, at Hogwarts, in the middle of an important conversation with her older sister and Dumbledore.
"For how long has this been in your possession?" Dumbledore asked while looking at the leather-bound simple diary on his desk.
"The Dark Lord gave it to Lucius roughly 15 years ago, not long before he vanished after failing to kill the Longbottom boy. We were told to protect it at the expense of our lives," Narcissa said and then she made a pause to compose herself. Even after all this time, it was not easy for her to talk about her husband.
"I suspect this isn't the only Horcrux he's made," Bellatrix said. "But I have no way of proving that or finding others. It's just a theory," she added, anticipating Dumbledore's question. "But I need to warn you about something. The Longbottom boy."
Whatever was that Dumbledore had expected her to say, it was not that.
"Neville Longbottom? Why is that?"
"Are you aware of the incident during Slughorn's party about a month ago?"
"I am, yes. Something about him yelling in pain and fainting while holding his scar," Dumbledore said and nodded in acknowledgement.
Bellatrix formulated her next words in her head before saying them. She could not simply tell him that her speculation was based on the knowledge of Harry's past life. Besides, she had confirmed her suspicions by performing tests on the boy herself after the incident.
"I spoke to him. There seems to be a connection between him Voldemort. And his scar reeks of Dark Magic."
Dumbledore became pale in the face at her words.
"By Merlin..." he said, understanding what she was alluding to.
"Despite my tests confirming it, I can't say for sure that Neville is the same as the diary. I think it's a first in history that someone attempted to make a Horcrux out of another living human. Voldemort may have very well failed. I say you keep an eye on him as much as you can...and it would be better if Frank and Alice don't hear a thing about this. It's better if nothing else leaves this room at all. This information is too dangerous to become public," Bellatrix said gravely.
What Bellatrix, Dumbledore, and even Harry did not know, however, was that they were all chasing after something that did not exist. The Diary was the only Horcrux that the Dark Lord had ever created (minus the accidental one in Neville Longbottom's forehead). Recognizing the side-effects of splitting his soul, Voldemort had chosen against doing it again. They were all on a wild goose chase.
AN: As someone has pointed out in a review, this Harry does not really know moderation. From saying that he wanted to avoid the war completely, he had become obsessed with it. Obsessed with preparing for his eventual clash against Voldemort and with making sure he was powerful enough to protect the ones he cared about this time around.
Hope you liked the chapter. I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!