Chapter 23:
Normal Pov
Harry glanced again and again at the large clock ticking on the wall. It seemed to be moving half as fast as a regular clock; perhaps Snape had bewitched it to go extra slowly? He could not have been here for only half an hour ... an hour ... an hour and a half. . . .
Harry's stomach started rumbling when the clock showed half past twelve. Snape, who had not spoken at all since setting Harry his task, finally looked up at ten past one.
"I think that will do," he said coldly. "Mark the place you have reached. You will continue at ten o'clock next Saturday."
'Yes, sir."
Harry stuffed a bent card into the box at random and hurried out of the door before Snape could change his mind, racing back up the stone steps, straining his ears to hear a sound from the pitch, but all was quiet. ... It was over, then. . . .
He hesitated outside the crowded Great Hall, then ran up the marble staircase; whether Gryffindor had won or lost, the team usually celebrated or commiserated in their own common room.
"Quidditch?" he said tentatively to the Fat Lady, wondering what he would find inside.
Her expression was unreadable as she replied, "You'll see."
And she swung forward.
A roar of celebration erupted from the hole behind her. Harry gaped as people began to scream at the sight of him; several hands pulled him into the room.
"We won!" yelled Ron, bounding into sight and brandishing the silver Cup at Harry. "We won! Four hundred and fifty to a hundred and forty! We won!"
Harry looked around; there was Ginny running toward him; she had a hard, blazing look in her face as she threw her arms around him. And without thinking, without planning it, without worrying about the fact that fifty people were watching, Harry kissed her.
After several long moments — or it might have been half an hour — or possibly several sunlit days — they broke apart. The room had gone very quiet. Then several people wolf-whistled and there was an outbreak of nervous giggling. Harry looked over the top of Ginny's head to see Dean Thomas holding a shattered glass in his hand, and Ramilda Vane looking as though she might throw something. Hermione was beaming, but Harry's eyes sought Ron. At last he found him, still clutching the Cup and wearing an expression appropriate to having been clubbed over the head. For a fraction of a second they looked at each other, then Ron gave a tiny jerk of the head that Harry understood to mean, Well—if you must.
"Harry!" Juliunna said the next day, and Harry found himself becoming nearly tackled by Juliunna's hug. "So your not mad about Malfoy?" He asked, hugging her back.
"No, he was back to normal in less then a week." She said excitedly. She pressed her lips to Harry's cheek. "And I only ignored you because it was appropriate as my role as an angry and grief sickened girlfriend. Oh…. Ginny Weasley?" She smirked. Harry released her with a laugh.
"Yeah."
…
The fact that Harry Potter was going out with Ginny Weasley seemed to interest a great number of people, most of them girls, yet Harry found himself newly and happily impervious to gossip over the next few weeks. After all, it made a very nice change to be talked about because of something that was making him happier than he could remember being for a very long time, rather than because he had been involved in horrific scenes of Dark magic.
"You'd think people had better things to gossip about," Said Ginny, as she sat on the common-room floor, leaning against Harry's legs and reading the Daily Prophet. "Three Dementor attacks in a week, and all Ramilda Vane does is ask me if it's true you've got a Hippogriff tattooed across your chest."
Ron and Hermione both roared with laughter, making Juliunna twitch in her sleep, snuggling deeper into Ron's lap. Harry ignored them.
"What did you tell her?"
"I told her it's a Hungarian Horntail," said Ginny, turning a page of the newspaper idly. "Much more macho."
"Thanks," said Harry, grinning. "And what did you tell her Ron's got?"
"A Pygmy Puff, but I didn't say where."
Ron scowled as Hermione rolled around laughing.
"Watch it," he said, pointing warningly at Harry and Ginny. "Just because I've given my permission doesn't mean I can't withdraw it-!"
"Your permission", scoffed Ginny. "Since when did you give me permission to do anything? Anyway, you said yourself you'd rather it was Harry than Michael or Dean."
"Yeah, I would," said Ron grudgingly. "And just as long as you don't start snogging each other in public –"
"You filthy hypocrite! What about you and Lavender, thrashing around like a pair of eels all over the place?" demanded Ginny.
But Ron's tolerance was not to be tested much as they moved into June, for Harry and Ginny's time together was becoming increasingly restricted. Both Ginny and Juliunna's O.W.L.s were approaching and they were therefore forced to revise for hours into the night. On one such evening, when Ginny had retired to the library and Harry was sitting beside the window in the common room, supposedly finishing his Herbology home-work but in reality reliving a particularly happy hour he had spent down by the lake with Ginny at lunch-time, Hermione dropped into the seat between him and Ron with an unpleasantly purposeful look on her face.
"I want to talk to you about the Half blood prince." She said.
"Harry," Juliunna called, making Harry turn to her. "Hey-! Hey why are you using that?" Harry said, standing up. Juliunna was sitting on the couch, pointing her wand at a mega huge stuffed bear, leaning against a wall.
"I'm practicing the Dark Arts for my exam. An instructor all the way from Durmstrang is coming down to give me my OWL for it. Ginny said I could use it." She said with a shrug. Harry frowned. He had mail ordered that bear for Ginny.
"What did you want?" He asked.
"What was the spell you used on Draco?" She asked, raising her wand in a ready setting. "Sectumsempra. But don't-!"
She brandished her wand in a flourished motion silently, and cuts like a sword appeared on the bear's body, white fuzzy insides spilling out a little. Harry choked.
"Oh don't worry, I can fix that." She smiled over her shoulder. She turned back to the bear with a small ball of gold from her wand, the bear was whole again, as if it had been perfectly stitched together.
"Juliunna, your going to have to use your spells out loud." Ron said. "How else are we going to learn from you?"
Juliunna sighed. "Yuvarious Texro!" She snapped, pointing out the bear. Its limbs separated, flying against the wall, tufts of stuffing flying everywhere.
"Blimey!" Ron said. "Repairo." She said, ignoring the three of them as the bear flew together.
Harry was shaken from these bitter reflections by the appearance at his side of Jimmy Peakes, who was holding out a scroll of parchment.
"Thanks, Jimmy ... hey, it's from Dumbledore!" Said Harry excitedly, unrolling the parchment and scanning it. "He wants me to go to his office as quick as I can!"
They stared at each other. Juliunna looked back, smiling. She pointing the wand over her shoulder, and the bear flew apart as if it was floating in space.
"Blimey," whispered Ron. "You don't reckon ... he hasn't found ...?"
"Better go and see, hadn't I?" said Harry, jumping to his feet. She waved the wand again and the bear formed back together.
"Good luck. Think fast." She said to Hermione. She slashed her wand at the bay window inches above Hermione's head, and the bright pink hex slashed over Hermione's head and hit the window with the force and sound of a lightning bolt, blasting it into a thousand pieces of glass.
"Juliunna!" Hermione shouted.
"Sorry." She said with a laugh.
Harry walked out the door, listening to Hermione yell at a laughing Juliunna.
…
Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione were sitting together in the common room when he came back, Juliunna dragging her wand across the bear's throat, creating a thin slice. "What does Dumbledore want?" Hermione said at once. "Harry, are you OK?" She added anxiously.
"I'm fine,'" said Harry shortly, racing past them. He dashed up the stairs and into his dormitory, where he flung open his trunk and pulled out the Marauder's Map and a pair of balled-up socks. Then he sped back down the stairs and into the common room, skidding to a halt where Ron, Juliunna, and Hermione sat, looking stunned.
"I haven't got much time," Harry panted, "Dumbledore thinks I'm getting my Invisibility Cloak. Listen ..."
Quickly he told them where he was going, and why. He did not pause either for Hermione's gasps of horror or for Ron's hasty questions; they could work out the finer details for themselves later.
"... so you see what this means?" Harry finished at a gallop. "Dumbledore won't be here tonight, so Malfoy's going to have another clear shot at whatever he's up to. No, listen to me!" he hissed angrily, as both Ron and Hermione showed every sign of interrupting. "I know it was Malfoy celebrating in the Room of Requirement. Here –" He shoved the Marauder's Map into Juliunna's hand. "You've got to watch him and you've got to watch Snape, too. Use anyone else who you can rustle up from the DA. Hermione, those contact Galleons will still work, right? Dumbledore says he's put extra protection in the school, but if Snape's involved, he'll know what Dumbledore's protection is, and how to avoid it - but he won't be expecting you lot to be on the watch, will he?"
"Harry –" began Hermione, her eyes huge with fear.
"I haven't got time to argue,' said Harry curtly. "Take this as well –" He thrust the socks into Ron's hands.
"Thanks," said Ron. "Er - why do I need socks?"
"You need what's wrapped in them, it's the Felix Felicis. Share it between yourselves and Ginny too. Say goodbye to her from me. I'd better go, Dumbledore's waiting –"
"No!" said Hermione, as Ron unwrapped the tiny little bottle of golden potion, looking awestruck. "We don't want it, you take it, who knows what you're going to be facing?"
"I'll be fine, I'll be with Dumbledore," said Harry. "I want to know you lot are OK ... don't look like that, Juliunna, I'll see you later "
And he was off, hurrying back through the portrait hole towards the Entrance Hall.
Juliunna lifted the map to her eyes. "How about I go down to the common room and sit with Draco instead? Keep an eye on him." Juliunna said.
"Juliunna I'm telling you, we probably don't have to do anything." Hermione said. "I think Harry's just…"
"Harry's just what?" Juliunna said, narrowing her eyes. "Hermione I'm telling you, Draco admitted to me that he's working on something for Voldemort, and he was really happy earlier. It's probably almost finished. Do you trust my judgment?" Juliunna asked. Hermione nodded. "Yes, yes of course."
"Well I trust Harry. And I say that what he's doing is right, and what Draco is doing is plotting. I'm going to give you guys the map." Juliunna said, passing the map to them. "I'll see you later. I'm going to go keep an eye on Draco." She said with a smile.
"And if," Ron said, frowning. "If we had to find you there, what's the password. I mean seriously, if there's a chance of danger, we need you."
"The password's Tinklebinkle." Juliunna said.
"Eh?" Both Hermione and Ron said.
"I'm a prefect. I figured that if I made the password sound cute, no one would guess the right one. They would go with the obvious ones like Pureblood, Snake, Salazar, ect." Juliunna said with a small shrug.
"Heh, wise choice." Ron shrugged.
"But what do we do now?" Hermione said when Juliunna stood up. "Warn the DA members that there might be a need for their services." She spoke, and clutched the teddy bear tighter.
"And when should we distribute Felix?" Ron asked, holding up the vial. Juliunna frowned and bit her bottom lip softly. "I say we wait until suspicious activity is afoot." She said. Ron nodded.
"Juliunna, I think we need to reorganize." Hermione said, frowning.
"Eh?"
"Malfoy's running up the stairs now. Look," She said. Juliunna and Ron sat into the chair on either side of Hermione and squeezed together, staring at the map. "Yeah." Ron said with a frown. The dot labeled 'Draco Malfoy' was entering the seventh floor. They watched him stand outside where the Room of Requirement was, walk forward, and then disappear.
"Right. I have an idea." Juliunna breathed, a glare etching at her lips.
…
"I want Hermione and Luna to sit outside Snape's office. Keep an eye on him." Juliunna said. She was facing Ron, Hermione, Luna, Ginny, and Neville.
"Okay." Luna said excitedly.
"The rest of us will be stationed outside the Room of Requirement." Juliunna continued, and her eyes flickered to the side. They were standing in the hallway outside Gryffindor Tower, Juliunna holding her wand close to her chest.
"And if anything happens?" Hermione said, her lip bubbling. "Nothing will. And if it does, trust me, it'll work out. I want everyone to take a sip of Felix. Only a tiny sip, because we have to balance it through the six of us." She said, smiling.
"Alright, hand it over Ron," She said, and as she spoke, she waved her wand. In front of her, all lined up, were tiny bowls the sizes of tiny pill tablets. Ron handed over the vial, and Juliunna opened it. With a flick of her wand, all of the potion was distributed evenly into the bowls.
"Everyone take one please, and then be let's all be off." She said, and everyone moved forward, grabbing a tablet. They drowned it all in one gulp. With words of pleasantries and well wishes, the kids spread into groups of two and set off to do as they were told.
…
Juliunna sat down against the wall with a loud yawn. The four of them had been sitting against the wall for almost an hour, staring at the stretch of space where the Room of Requirement should have been. "It's been forever." Ron groaned, and sat down beside her.
Ginny and Neville sat down too. "Anyone know what he could be doing in there?" Neville asked. "No idea-!" Juliunna shut her mouth, and everyone stood up straight. In front of them, the wall was materializing into a large wooden door. They all lifted there wands precariously.
The door open, and Draco stepped out. He looked around, and upon seeing them, smirked. He stepped fully into the doorway, and they could see him properly. One hand was clutching a shriveled mobile arm, the other hand some kind of powder. Juliunna's eyes widened as she noticed what he was holding.
"Draco-!"
He threw the powder up and suddenly the hall was covered in pitch black. "Ah!" Ginny screamed, running into the wall hard. Everyone was stumbling. "This way." Draco said to someone. They could hear people hurrying by.
"Stup- Stupi-!"
"No!" Juliunna said hurriedly to Neville. "You might hit one of us. Just get to the wall." She directed them. They all walked like zombies until they hit the familiar stone wall. Then they moved forward. Neville, who had been going confidently fast, crashed into a column and hit the floor.
"This is hopeless. Lumos!" They could hear Ginny say. Nothing happened.
"I'll try Incendio." Juliunna said, and then waved her wand, thinking of the word Incendio very hard. Again, nothing happened.
"Come on, let's keep going." She said with a sigh. It took minutes to get out. They tripped over each other, and went to far and how to double back into the right hallway. By the time they reached light, they had to blink to get used to the sudden brightness.
"Come on, I'm pretty sure they went this way." Juliunna breathed. She took off down the hall hurriedly, her wand at the ready, and the others followed suit. When they rounded the corner, Juliunna let out a laugh of relief. The order was there. Tonks, Remus, Bill, Professor McGonagall and Flitwick. "Death eaters! In the Castle! This way!" She said excitedly, pointing down the hall. The kids hurriedly told them about what they saw. "Let's go." Remus said. The crowd hurried down the hall.
A few minutes later, they were facing the Death Eaters. They were about to enter the Astronomy Tower. Everyone raised there wands. For a second, there were two sides. The order and the kids, and the Death Eaters on the other side.
And then it was complete chaos.
"Be careful Neville!" Juliunna screamed as a Death Eater shot a hex that missed him by seconds.
"I'm good. Behind you!" He snapped, pointing his wand at her. She ducked and his spell hit the death eater behind her, flying backwards and hitting the wall. She saw Fenir Greyback run forward and tackle Bill, but before she could raise her own wand, she was pushed out of the way, her wand rolling across the floor. It was dark and dim in the room.
The room was filled with loud bangs and lights as spells went flying across the room. A death eater that Juliunna couldn't recognize ran up the stairs. She ran to her wand and scooped it up, turning around with a swivel. She shot a hex but it rebounded off a wall and hit Neville in the face, making him buckle to the floor in pain.
"Oh my goodness! Neville I'm so sorry!" She screamed. She leaned down and grabbed him. The death eaters scattered as Gibbon ran down to join the fight. She then remembered what she was doing before her distraction. Tonk's flew by her, but was back on her feet in a snap.
"Bill!" Juliunna screamed. She turned around and raised her wand. Fenir and Bill were locked in combat as they wrestled in front of the steps. She raised her wand and Fenir flew off of Bill with a loud growl. She gasped in pain. Someone behind her grabbed a fistful of her long hair, pulling her head back so hard she screamed. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the Death Eater that had ran up the stairs come back down, and get hit by the Killing Curse that managed to just miss Remus.
"Argh!" Neville leaped forward and tackled the death eater to the floor. Ginny leapt aside as a Death Eater reached out, and the spell hit the wall beside her. Felix was working.
Juliunna raised her arm and angrily flipped it down, aiming at a short blonde one. Immediately, a bright red lightning bolt spewed towards him, and he was hit, falling down.
"Avada Kadavra-!"
Juliunna pointed her wand at Ginny, and the curse bounced off her. Ginny nodded in thanks, but then everyone was distracted. "Alecto! The wall!" A girl screamed. Juliunna smirked. It was Alecto and Amycus Crowe. She had read about them, and she was going to enjoy punishing them for their future treatment of the children of Hogwarts. She curiously looked over to the wall Amycus mentioned. Instantly Alecto flicked his wand, and then everyone was screaming. Hex after curse after spell bounced off of the wall. Half of the ceiling caved in, and as three death eaters ran up the stairs, Juliunna had no choice but to let them go and block in the ceiling with a shield. With a crash, the wreckage fell into the shield, but everyone was dodging. A death eater was sending more spells off. A curse managed to miss Neville by inches. Ron ran forward and tripped over Bill's body with a yell.
Juliunna lurched over and fell. Snape had just pushed pass her, his black cloak billowing as he ran as fast as he could. He ran up the stairs and disappeared into the Astronomy Tower, and it was then that Juliunna realized that Draco was missing.
"Get up!" She screamed to Ron, slashing her wand like a knife at another Death Eater.
"We have to get upstairs!" Remus screamed. Neville reached the stairs first, running at full speed. Once he hit the fifth step, the atmosphere on the stairs turned into a transparent wall and he was thrown back at full speed. "Ah!" Juliunna screamed. She waved her wand, but it missed and Neville hit the floor hard, rolling shoulder to shoulder. Remus tried next, and he was thrown back.
"Stop trying!" Tonks screamed, and ran forward. The remaining few Death Eaters left ran up the stairs, leaving bouncing hexes.
"Reducto!" She screamed. And her spell hit red wall. "Reducto." Everyone yelled in unison. It did very little to the shield. Frowning, Juliunna walked forward until she was toe to toe with the line. She stepped over it, and then stepped back again.
"I knew it." She whispered. She raised her wand, ready to cast the spell that would send the wall crumbling, but froze.
"What's wrong?" Ron asked. She frowned softly. There was a small ripple on the other side. A shadow…
"Get back!" She shouted to the others, running backwards. The order hurried to follow her orders, and then the room exploded into darkness and light at the same time.
The Death Eaters ran forward, and the fight was back on. Juliunna waved her wand hard, and a ripple of electricity flew towards Amycus. Snape came through running, his hand on Draco's shoulder. Draco looked pale and sick. He looked up and gasped as he saw a distracted Juliunna was almost hit with a angry red hex that looked suspiciously like the Cruciatus Curse.
"It's over!" Snape shouted. "Let's go." He shouted at the Death Eaters, who slowly moved the battle to the hall.
"Juliunna-!" Draco snapped as a Death Eater's palm connected with her cheek, sending her crashing to the floor.
"Leave her. She will be worse off where we're going." Snape snarled in his ear. Draco nodded, and Juliunna, looking set, let them pass. She set the cruciatus curse on the Death Eater who hit her, and the room interrupted with his screams. With a flick of Snape's wand, Juliunna's wand shot up into the air, and fell. Then Draco and Snape were rounding the corner and disappeared.
Juliunna had just stood up, when she was knocked off her feet. Harry ran pass her, his feet parading angrily as he ran down the hall and rounded the same one Draco and Snape had went down.
"Argh." Bill groaned, almost unnoticeably. With a sigh, she stood up. The last Death Eater in the room disappeared down the hall. When she reached the forgotten wand by her feet, she gave it a wave, and a stretcher appeared beside Bill, floating in mid air. With another flick of her wand, Bill floated up and landed on the stretcher softly. "Don't worry, we'll get you to the Hospital Wing B-!" She screamed loudly out of shock. Bill's face was so slashed and rippped, she was trying not to vomit. It was barely a face anymore. She couldn't make out any distinct features. Slowly, she held her wand out, and the gurney followed her as she moved towards the door. Ginny moved closer and gasped as she saw Bill. "Where are we bringing him?"
"Hospital Wing." Juliunna choked. As she passed a window, she glanced out the hall. She could see her boyfriend reach the Entrance Gates to Hogwarts. She could see Hagrid's hut, drenched in fire. Two figures, one of whom she was sure it was Harry, were fighting on the one noticed her wandering eye as she watched Draco look back at the Castle. She could tell it was him from his posture, his distinct smallness in height compared to the other Death Eaters running to the Entrance Gate.
With a small turn, Draco apperated on the spot, and he disappeared. With a sigh, she continued on, her wand guiding them.
…
The Next Day, After Dumbledore's Funeral
Hermione grinned a little through the small tears, though her smile faded as she looked up at the castle.
"I can't bear the idea that we might never come back." She said softly. "How can Hogwarts close?"
"Maybe it won't," said Ron. "We're not in any more danger here than we are at home, are we? Every where's the same now. I'd even say Hogwarts is safer, there are more wizards inside to defend the place. What d'you reckon, Harry?"
"I'm not coming back even if it does reopen," said Harry.
Ron gaped at him, but Hermione said sadly, "I knew you were going to say that. But then what will you do?"
"I'm going back to the Dursleys' once more, because Dumbledore wanted me to," said Harry. "But it'll be a short visit, and then I'll be gone for good."
"But where will you go if you don't come back to school?"
"I thought I might go back to Godric's Hollow," Harry muttered. He had had the idea in his head ever since the night of Dumbledore's death. "For me, it started there, all of it. I've just got a feeling I need to go there. And I can visit my parents' graves, I'd like that."
"And then what?" said Ron.
Then I've got to track down the rest of the Horcruxes, haven't I?' said Harry, his eyes upon Dumbledore's white tomb, reflected in the water on the other side of the lake. "That's what he wanted me to do, that's why he told me all about them. If Dumbledore was right - and I'm sure he was -there are still four of them out there. I've got to find them and destroy them and then I've got to go after the seventh bit of Voldemort's soul, the bit that's still in his body, and I'm the one who's going to kill him. And if I meet Severus Snape along the way," he added, "so much the better for me, so much the worse for him."
There was a long silence. The crowd had almost dispersed now, the stragglers giving the monumental figure of Grawp a wide berth as he cuddled Hagrid, whose howls of grief were still echoing across the water.
"We'll be there, Harry," said Ron.
"What?"
At your aunt and uncle's house,' said Ron. "And then we'll go with you, wherever you're going."
"No –" said Harry quickly; he had not counted on this, he had meant them to understand that he was undertaking this most dangerous journey alone.
"You said to us once before," said Hermione quietly, "That there was time to turn back if we wanted to. We've had time, haven't we?"
"We're with you whatever happens," said Ron. "But, mate, you're going to have to come round my mum and dad's house before we do anything else, even Godric's Hollow."
"Why?"
"Bill and Fleur's wedding, remember?"
Harry looked at him, startled; the idea that anything as normal as a wedding could still exist seemed incredible and yet wonderful.
"Yeah, we shouldn't miss that," he said finally.
"What about Juliunna?" Hermione asked. "We could really have some use for her. And she's in as deep in You Know Who's book as you." Hermione said. Harry looked over her shoulder at Juliunna. She was standing alone in a crowded group of Slytherins trying to catch her attention. She was staring at Dumbledore's grave, shaking her head briefly. He walked forward.
The Slytherins parted as he walked forward, and he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Juliunna, I suppose you know what me and the rest are doing." He said, jetting his head towards Hermione and Ron. The Slytherins stared in interest, but Juliunna turned around, smiling now. "Yeah. I do. And I'm going to have to have to think about it." She said, and turned to look at the Horizon.
"Would you really want to go with You Know Who? After-!"
"Of course not." She snapped at him. "I'm just… Trying to figure out if my story resides with you guys, or with him. It's all the matter of choice. Both can live without me, but then again, both want me." She laughed. She looked away from the admiring Slytherins in awe, and leaned in close to Harry's ear.
"Let me think about it at the burrow. And if it still resolves into a choice, I'm sure I'll chose right." She said, and pecked Harry on the cheek with her smooth lips. "No matter what, I do wish you good luck with your mission though." She said with a pearly wide smile.
His hand closed automatically around the fake Horcrux, but in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path he saw stretching ahead for himself, in spite of the final meeting with Voldemort he knew must come, whether in a month, in a year, or in ten, he felt his heart lift at the thought that there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione.