Title: Kiss.

Author: AspergianStoryteller.

Genre: Supernatural/General.

Summary: When a dementor tried to Kiss Harry Potter, it got more than it bargained for. And Harry did not walk away unaffected. Don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 33: Action Saturday.

Harry enjoyed his time with them, and when Ron and Hermione came back, they had a good talk about the mysterious goings on.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Remus and Sirius (when Madam Pomfrey was out of the room) talked about current – and past events linking together. In the past, Mr Crouch had been Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and set to become Minister for Magic, for his harsh methods against the Death Eaters were effective in the war. He sent many captured people straight to Azkaban without a trial, including Sirius. He even sent his own son who'd been caught in their company to the dementors. That shocking event had broken his family and image.

'He gave his own son to the dementors?' Harry was shocked.

'Of course,' Sirius's eyes looked dead as he recalled Azkaban related memories. 'The most he did for his son was give him a trial, though that was probably just to show that he didn't offer leniency to anyone.'

And Crouch's son, only nineteen when arrested, died a year later. Not an uncommon occurrence at Azkaban. People just lost the will to live there. Or went mad.

Back in those terrifying years, Sirius told them with haunted expression, you didn't know who might be working for Voldemort, even amongst your own family and friends. People were disappearing every day. Bodies turned up every day. Keeping things from the muggles, also dying and disappearing, was extremely difficult. Every day was a nightmare. The war had been compared to World War Two, actually, because of dissension within families, and because Adolf Hitler's "Arian race" idea was similar to Voldemort's pureblood superiority one.

Another interesting thing was that Ludo Bagman had once been arrested for being found in the company of Death Eaters, though he was released because he'd simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hermione thought he was more likely to have nicked Harry's wand in the Top Box at the Quidditch World Cup, and cast the Dark Mark than Winky.

Of present, Mr Crouch had been ill and absent, so it wasn't likely he was investigating Snape, infamous in his own schoolboy years for being a Dark arts enthusiast. Sirius listed off other former Slytherins Snape had been in a gang at school with – students who almost all became Death Eaters.

'Rosier and Wilkes,' he said, 'both killed by aurors the year before Voldemort fell. The Lestranges, a married couple, are in Azkaban. Avery is still at large; I heard he talked his way out of it. Claimed he was under the imperious curse. I don't know that Snape's ever been accused of being a Death Eater, but he'd be cunning and clever enough to stay out of trouble.'

Both Sirius and Remus agreed that they couldn't see Dumbledore letting a former Death Eater work at Hogwarts.

After a discussion about the still missing Ministry witch Bertha Jorkins, the conversation turned to more personal matters.

'Why is it that you three smell of Dark magic?' Sirius asked. 'I caught a whiff of it as Padfoot.'

Harry struggled to keep a shocked and guilty expression off his face. You could smell Dark magic?

'Moody does it on us in class,' he said. 'Not the really dangerous or permanent stuff, just a bit to show us what it's like. So we know what we're up against.' He wondered if he should tell them about the extra practise he, Ron and Hermione were getting out of class. If there were any adults who wouldn't completely freak out, it was Remus and Sirius. They could probably offer good advice.

And to be honest, he was getting a bit worried about Hermione. She had been the most concerned about Dark magic in the beginning – now she was the most keen to practise it. Harry hoped it was just Hermione's love of learning coming out.

'He's using Dark magic on you?' Remus repeated.

Ron nodded.

'You should see it!' he said. 'It feels kind of creepy, and Harry can resit the imperious really well now. And I can too, a bit.' Actually, Ron was starting to do really well in Defence. Since the morning of the first task, Harry had noticed a subtle change in his friend. While hot tempered and immature sometimes, Ron seemed calmer and less insecure most of the time.

Sirius grinned.

'Good on you,' he ruffled both boys' hair.

'She's back!' Ron hissed.

Madam Pomfrey's foot poked through the door to her office and when the rest of her followed, Sirius was a dog once more.

'It's nearly time for dinner now,' she said. 'Mr Weasley, Miss Granger, you can go now. You may visit Mr Potter after dinner for a brief time. Mr Lupin?'

'I'll take tea with Harry if that's alright.'

Madam Pomfrey nodded. Harry thought she had a soft spot for her former student.

'Your pet can have his dinner on the floor. I'll bring a bone and water.'

'Ah, I've just remembered,' Harry muttered when she was gone. 'Si- Padfoot. Did you have any real therapy or medicine after Azkaban? I've still got loads of pills in my dorm. They taste like chocolate.'

'I'm afraid Padfoot can't have medicine prescribed for you, Harry,' Remus explained. 'Yours is made specially for you.'

'So you didn't get anything?'

Padfoot had to wait until Madam Pomfrey had brought their dinner (and another nutrition potion for Harry) to transform and reply.

'At the time, being free from that hellhole and the purpose of protecting you -'

'- And getting Wormtail.'

'And getting Wormtail was enough to keep me going. Really, it went a long way.'

'What about now?' Harry hadn't touched his food yet.

Sirius shrugged.

'I'm still living free. Sort of. And I'm in contact with sane people. Although, if you could sent a chocolate dessert with your letters...' he grinned.

Halfway through dinner, Harry asked the adults what they personally thought about Dark magic. Their reactions were similar to Ron and Hermione's.

Sirius, having grown up in very Dark family, despised and distrusted the stuff. Remus was more neutral about it, but he was uneasy. Harry knew that werewolves were naturally Dark creatures. He wondered how that affected Remus.

'Why do you ask?'

'I'm curious,' Harry said. 'Since we started learning about the nature of dark magic and stuff, you know, legal stuff, good vs evil, I started wondering. Moody even said it's just an umbrella term for the really dangerous stuff, harmful spells, magic that uses emotion and magic that actually has Darkness in it. Whatever that really is. In fact, at St. Mungos I found out my magic is kind of Dark because of the killing curse affecting it when I was little.' He forked a Yorkshire pudding and stuffed it into his mouth.

'Oh Harry,' Sirius drew him into a careful hug, minding his tray. 'I don't think there's anything wrong or evil about you,' he said. 'Dark magic is a tricky subject anyway. I'm not lumping you with the nasty kind of Dark wizards.'

They had already talked about Harry's out-of-body experience in the lake ('Cool!' 'Only if I get it under control by next year, or I can't play quidditch.' 'I think you should be more concerned about if it happens during the third task.'), his stress-induced health decline ('We're not teachers so we're free to help you as much as we can for the third task.'), the fun of Culture Week, the vampire patient at St Mungos and the underwater drawings of the basilisk, so it about time to drop another bombshell.

Padfoot (his bone tasted better that way) and Remus both went quiet and still when Harry told them he apparently had a piece of Voldemort's soul inside him. Well, quiet and still after Remus did a spit take with his pumpkin juice.

'What?'

'You heard me,' Harry said quietly. He quickly went over his space out and possession by Myrtle in the Prefect's bathroom.

'It makes sense. It's why I can feel something in me, why it hurts to get close to it, why I can speak Parsletongue, why I'm like him, even why I survived the dementor's Kiss. It didn't want to get eaten, so it worked together with me, sort of, to save itself.' He smiled grimly. 'I bet that's what saved him on that night.'

Padfoot jumped onto Harry's bed, transformed and smothered him in a fierce hug. Remus jumped to stop the tray from falling off.

'Don't you dare think badly of yourself,' Sirius growled. 'You did nothing wrong. You were just a baby.'

Harry stared into space, saying nothing.

'You know that, right? This soul thing is just a weird accident.'

'I know it's not my fault,' Harry murmured. 'I didn't ask Voldemort to try and kill me. I didn't ask Mum to do what she did to save me. When I wasn't too busy with the Tournament to think about it, I thought about everything I've heard so far. Dumbledore told me it's our choices that make us who we are, a couple of years ago. Tom Riddle told me we were similar, but he made different choices.'

'You're nothing like him -'

'I am similar to him,' Harry cut in. 'We both grew up in similar homes. We're both good at being sneaky. I nearly even got Sorted into Slytherin. And I'm okay with that now. My problem is that I don't know what's me and what comes from him. And even though his bit of soul isn't really doing anything, I don't want it there.' Harry frowned. 'Nathaniel is going to call in a fidelimense to look at me. And Dumbledore said he'll do his best to figure it out, and Hermione's been racking the library.'

Sirius ran his fingers absently through Harry's hair.

'You're going to be okay, Harry,' he said. 'I promise. We're going to get you through this blasted tournament alive and figure out how to deal with this thing. In the meantime, I'm quite glad it saved you from the Kiss. It's a good thing really.'

'What?'

'Yeah.' Sirius grinned. 'I'd rather you were intact than Voldemort dead and you not here.'

'You're far more important than him,' Remus added.

Harry thought that was one of the nicest things he'd ever heard.

'So,' Sirius leaned back put Harry's tray back on his lap. 'You were nearly a Slytherin? Seriously?'

'No, you're Sirius,' Harry started on his mashed potato. 'And yeah, the Sorting Hat considered putting me there. "Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness,"* it said. You'd better not hold that against me.'

Harry laughed at his godfather's open mouth. 'I asked it to put me in Gryffindor, its other choice, because I'd just met Draco Malfoy and Ron. And I knew Voldemort was a former Slytherin. Anyway, there's nothing wrong with being sneaky sometimes. It's a good survival skill.' A survival skill he'd learnt from the Dursley's, actually. And they were pretty unpleasant too. Ugh, thinking about where parts of him came from was troublesome. Maybe it didn't matter?

'Sirius and I won't begrudge you,' Remus sipped his pumpkin juice. 'Each house has its good qualities. Right, Sirius?'

'Ah. Yeah. Of course.' Sirius released Harry helped himself to Remus' juice. 'Now about Culture Week. The photos. I want some.'

XXX xxx XXX

Remus didn't stay the night because students aware of his condition had seen him at school. Padfoot, however, cosyed up at the foot of Harry's bed. He hung out with Harry most of the next day as Madam Pomfrey had given him (ordered) the day off lessons. When he was allowed out for a walk, he gave Padfoot a brief tour of the Chamber, pointing out possible prank opportunities and where the events from his second year played out.

'Merlin,' Sirius whistled. 'Check out the size of that thing! You took it out? With just a sword?' His eyes ran over the length of the still impressive giant snake.

'Well, yeah.' Harry wondered when he'd be able to talk about it with full enthusiasm, unhindered by memories of terror. 'I did have help from Fawkes though.'

'Gods, Harry. You've gotten into so much trouble. Probably more than us Marauders.'

'Wasn't most of your trouble your own doing?'

For future use, Sirius taught Harry the incantation and wand movement for the bubblehead charm before they returned upstairs. Stairs there were now. Harry couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it earlier. During his last detention Snape had suggested Harry ask for stairs in Parsletongue.

'You know what?' Sirius said as they walked up. 'There's loads of snaky things in my old childhood house. You could probably uncover some interesting secrets if you tried that hissing out there.'

XXX xxx XXX

That evening, Harry was released from the Hospital Wing with a few vials of sleep potion to continue using and a nutrient potion for the night. Padfoot left for the cave he was occupying in Hogsmead, with a chocolate bar and meat package.

'Where are Fred and George?' he asked his friends. 'And Lee?'

'They lost a bet, remember?' Ron said. 'Weird. They don't usually lose bets.'

'Again, Ron, swallow before you talk!'

'Oh yeah. It must be big if they couldn't do everything before hand.' Harry downed his potion.

Fred, George and Lee enacted their bet/dare during dessert. It was quite spectacular.

It started with an eerie green light. The light started as a small spot in the ceiling, like a star, and grew bigger and bigger, or closer and closer, until it lit the entire Great Hall.

'This reminds me of something,' Harry said. 'No, not that,' he answered several fearful looks. 'I swear I've seen this in a movie or something.'

'I know,' Hermione said. 'Hmm.' Then she started giggling.

'What's going on?' someone asked. 'What's so funny?'

Something swooped across the sky. Harry peered closely at it and started laughing when he saw more lights.

'What is it?' Ron whispered. 'Oh Merlin!' A colossal, round vehicle moved to hover over everyone's heads, lights around its edge revealing a circular shape.

'It's a U.F.O.,' Harry explained. 'An alien spaceship. This is so awesome.'

'Oh my god!' someone from Ravenclaw shrieked. 'Alien invasion!'

Harry, Hermione and several Gryffindor muggleborns and halfbloods cracked up laughing, realising what their missing members were up to. Other students were muttering in confusion, loudly asking what the hell was going on or screaming.

'Argh! A tractor beam!'

'Look! They're abducting someone!'

A blue beam was indeed hovering a human shape up towards the spaceship. Since it was really happening outside, they couldn't see clearly, but that made it scarier.

'What's an alien spaceship?' Ron said nervously. 'What's it supposed to be doing?'

Harry explained between laughs that aliens were people living on other planets and that an spaceship was like a special car for travelling in space. Muggles had them too.

'But it's only the twins and Lee. They aren't really kidnapping anyone for dissection and experiments.' Ron went pale.

It was a really good prank. The next morning, a crop circle was found burnt into the snow and grass outside.

XXX xxx XXX

Harry's weekend was an interesting one. On Saturday, he and Snape were down in the chamber as usual when he heard a familiar screeching speech. He looked around and spotted four merpeople heads sticking out of the water near the statue of Salazar Slytherin, their yellow eyes wide at the sight of the basilisk.

Snape heard the screeching and walked over to the water. Harry was surprised to hear him screech back. Judging by Snape's gesturing, grimace when he pointed at Harry and the merpeoples' shocked looks, the professor was explaining the basilisk situation. Then they got all excited. One of them actually reached out and touched the great snake where its body was in the water.

'Sir?'

Snape walked back to the box they were putting scales in and carried it to the merpeople. They began piling scales into several weed bags they had with them.

Harry watched curiously as they worked and Snape, his Mermish clearly not fluent but enough, screeched out the odd word that was probably a warning to be careful.

'Potter,' he snapped out, aware that Harry was idling. 'Keep working.'

Harry set about extracting scales again and watched the merpeople fill their bags. When they were done, they grinned at the two humans and disappeared underwater again.

'Some of them asked after you, Professor,' Harry said. 'During the second task. Do you know them? They called you "the potion-man."'

Snape took a moment to answer.

'Some of the ingredients used by the school and by myself are harvested underwater,' he said. 'Including a particularly useful plant known as gillyweed, though we have our own stock in Greenhouse Two. Does that sound familiar to you, Potter?'

They had gillyweed in one of the green houses?

'I've heard of it,' Harry said warily.

'More than heard of it, Potter. The whole school saw you use it for the second task.' Snape dropped a scale into the now empty box more heavily than usual.

'Well yeah. I grabbed some from the green house on my way to the lake,' Harry lied. 'It was a last minute thing.' He moved along the basilisk's body, close to its head. He hadn't taken any scales from there yet while Snape was still removing teeth. Snape followed him.

'Then why is it that my office has been broken into once again-'

Oh shit-

'-and the only thing missing is a Potter-sized amount of gillyweed?'

'I-'

'Didn't think I would notice?' Snape hissed. 'Did you think you could get away with it again?'

'No – but-'

'I won't tolerate theft, Potter, even if you're in a competition for adults. I told what would happen if you went into my office again-'

'I wasn't anywhere near your office!' Harry interrupted. 'I don't know how to break in and I certainly didn't steal from you! I woke up and the gillyweed was next me with note. I don't know where it came from!'

'Where is the note?' Snape demanded.

'I threw it away,' Harry said, not liking the situation one bit.

'Really Potter? I think you're lying. If you didn't break into my office then you're covering up for whoever did.'

Shit. This was not good. What would a bully like Snape do to Dobby if he found him out? Loyal Dobby, who was tough, but couldn't hope for help from authority. No one really cared about house elves except for people like Hermione.

'I don't know who helped me,' Harry said determinedly. 'but whoever they are, I wouldn't turn them in.'

Snape glared furiously at Harry for a second and plunged his hand into his robes. Startled, Harry scrambled for his wand.

'Expell-'

Flick! Snape was faster. He wordlessly, effortlessly sent Harry's wand flying. Harry panicked and pushed at Snape with both hands, dropping his tweezers. They landed on Snape's foot. He wasn't strong enough to push his angry teacher far, and Snape's dragonhide boots were tough, but he was deterred for a couple of seconds.

In those couple of seconds, Harry slipped on the wet floor and tumbled past the steel props holding the basilisk's mouth open.

XXX xxx XXX

I think single speech marks are the standard in England, Australia and New Zealand, so I'm going to stick to them. And besides, it would be weird switching this far in.

* Quoted from the book.

Answers to a few reviews: I heard the pavlova is an NZ made dessert, though there's been some debate on that. Paua is a shellfish and you can eat it. I will put more detail about Harry's Medi-Alert in the fic somewhere, probably as dialogue. As for Bloody Water, some readers seem unsure about the end. It's suspense, not tragedy. And I guess they didn't think of undoing the anti-summoning ward.

Not sure that I'll actually tell, but does anyone fancy having a guess at my gender? I'm curious to know if my writing reveals that.