The last week of classes and the end-of-term exams meant that they were actually finished with school and they were heading home at last for Christmas Holidays. Harry was elated. He could hardly focus on the last DA meeting of the year. But he was still pleased that the meeting was going well. Rory's idea was a hit and everyone who needed refreshing on certain areas of what they'd been over so far.
When they were finished, everyone started heading out. Rory was chatting with Susan and Ara and she motioned to Harry that she would be right back as they walked out the door. Harry continued to say goodbye to his friends as they all left and he realized suddenly that the only person left was Cho Chang.
Harry had gotten very used to brushing her off and avoiding conversation with her, but Cho had been weepy and sad all evening and he didn't have it in him to just stand there and let her cry.
"Are you alright?" Harry asked her. Then he felt stupid for asking because clearly she was not alright or she wouldn't have been crying.
Cho wiped her eyes. "Sorry. It's just… This time of year and learning all this stuff… It just makes me wonder if he'd known it… If he'd still be alive."
Harry felt his heart sink a little. Cedric. Of course.
"He did know all this stuff. More even," Harry said. "It's just… Well, Voldemort. I'm only lucky to be alive honestly."
Cho nodded and wiped more tears from her eyes. She managed a smile.
"You're a really good teacher," she said.
Harry shrugged. "Thanks. I'm trying. Don't think I'd be able to do without Rory organizing all of it though."
Cho's smile faltered a little bit and she looked down at her feet.
"I get the feeling she doesn't like me very much," she said.
That would be because Rory did not, in fact, like Cho very much, but he was going to keep that to himself.
"She's just having a tough time lately," Harry said. It wasn't exactly a lie, though it had nothing to do with why Rory was so cold to Cho. "I don't think any of us is our best selves this term."
"You still are," Cho said looking up at him. She was smiling softly again. "I really like you, Harry." She took a step toward him and Harry took a step away. And now it was time to tell Cho to leave.
"Cho, you're great," he said, taking another step away from her. "But I'm with Rory."
Cho frowned a bit and her cheeks went pink. "I don't think she's very nice to you. I know she made you stop talking to me."
Harry sighed. "She didn't make me stop talking to you. I stopped talking to you because, honestly, sometimes you pretend as if Rory doesn't exist most of the time and it makes her uncomfortable. And I'm sorry if that hurts your feelings, but she is my girlfriend and I love her and I'm more concerned about her feelings being hurt than yours, honestly."
"Hey."
Harry and Cho both looked to the door and saw that Rory was back.
Cho wiped more tears from her eyes and gave Harry a nod.
"Happy Christmas, Harry," she said. Cho walked to the door and past Rory. "Goodnight, Rory."
"Goodnight," Rory replied, slightly confused. The door closed behind her and Rory walked over to Harry.
"That was weird," Rory said.
"Did you hear any of that?" Harry asked.
"None of it," she replied. "What happened?"
"Nothing important," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close. "I just finally told her off is all."
"You made her cry?" Rory asked, looking a bit shocked.
"Oh, no," Harry said. "She was already crying."
Now Rory looked even more concerned, but also slightly amused. "So she was already crying and you thought this was the moment to tell her?"
"No. She was upset about Cedric," Harry said.
"Harry, I love you, but I'm super confused right now," Rory said.
"She was upset because they got together around this time last year and she was wondering if he might still be alive if he knew all this stuff," Harry said. Rory nodded. "Then she started going on about how I'm a good teacher, and she said she liked me, and then I told her off."
"Ah," Rory said with a nod. "Bit weird though, for her to be crying about Cedric and then also say that she likes you."
"I agree, but it doesn't matter," Harry said. "I'm sorry it took so long to stand up for you. I really… I should've done it a while ago."
Rory let her fingers fidget with his tie, and she stared up at him.
"Well, you've done it now," Rory said.
"Better late than never," Harry said. Rory chuckled. "I love you."
"I love you too," Rory said. She glanced up above his head and smiled. "Look."
Harry looked up and there was mistletoe above their heads. "Probably full of nargles."
Rory cocked an eyebrow at him. "What are nargles?"
"I have no idea," he said. Rory chuckled and Harry kissed her. He felt her smile against his lips. He loved feeling her smile. He loved when she was happy more than anything.
She pulled away from him and groaned. "Why are you so tall? It's exhausting to stand on my toes to kiss you all the time."
Harry laughed. "Your toes hurt? Imagine how my back feels having to lean down to kiss you all the time."
"I think there's an easy solution to both our problems," Rory said. She pulled him over to sit on the cushions on the floor.
"This is why you're the smart one," Harry said.
"Yes, I just keep you around to be my arm candy," she said.
Harry chuckled and then they were kissing again. He pushed his fingers back into her hair and she sighed into his mouth. Her hands came to rest on his shoulders and she leaned into him. Before long, they were lying down on the cushions, letting their lips and hands explore each other.
When they were finished and the heat of the moment cooled, leaving them to share a few lazy kisses while wrapped in each other's arms, Harry felt like the luckiest person alive. He combed his fingers through her hair and listened to her breathe.
"We'll have to go back soon," Harry said quietly.
"Do we?" Rory asked. "We could just stay here."
Harry chuckled. "I think people would notice if we didn't turn back up in our rooms tonight."
"Just our dormmates. And they know where we are," Rory replied.
"People will assume things," Harry said.
"They all assume anyway. I don't care," Rory said. She scooted in close to him. "Besides… Something bad is about to happen."
"What?" Harry asked.
"Don't know. I just know it's something bad," she replied. Her finger absentmindedly traced the pocket on the front of his shirt. "It's not going to happen here. But it's going to happen. It'll upend things… We can just sneak back to our rooms really early and none of our other classmates or teachers will be the wiser. I just… I want to stay with you for now."
And how could he argue with her? He had the map and his cloak with him. Why not just stay there tonight? The guarantee of an evening devoid of nightmares, the joy of waking up and seeing her face when he opened his eyes, and the added bonus of not needing to walk all the way to the dorms.
"Think you'll be comfortable here on the floor?" Harry asked. Rory lifted her head slightly and motioned for Harry to look. He didn't know why he was surprised to see a bed there. Dobby had told him that room was able to conjure up a bed for Winky when she was too drunk to sleep in the kitchens. "Never mind I guess."
Not only was there a neatly made bed, but a set of his own pajamas (and hers) were folded at the foot of the bed. They changed with their backs to each other and Harry only turned around when he heard Rory climb into the bed. She laid her head on his chest when he climbed in beside her.
The candles that lit the room dimmed so there was only their soft glow illuminating the space just enough for them to see by.
"Can I tell you something?" she asked.
"Of course," he said.
"I've been thinking lately and… I like the way things are with us. The kissing and fooling around I mean. It's great," she said.
Harry chuckled. "Alright."
"And that's all well and good, but I definitely don't think that I'm ready for us to… You know. Sex," she said.
"Right. No. Of course not," he said. Then a horrible thought grew in his mind. "I didn't do anything to make you think that I-."
"No, it's not that at all," Rory said. "I just didn't want us to be in the moment or something and get carried away."
"I wouldn't-."
"I know you wouldn't," she said. She lifted her head from his chest and repositioned herself to lay atop him. "But… I have a difficult time telling you no, and I can only imagine you're even more difficult to say no to when you're kissing me or distracting me in other ways, as you do."
Harry understood. He remembered the first time he and Rory had been fooling around, he didn't think he'd have been able to tell her no if he'd wanted.
"I'm not ready for that either," he said. "But if you ever are-."
"I'll tell you. And we can talk," Rory said.
"We never have to do anything you don't want," he said. She leaned down and kissed him. He brushed her hair back behind her ear. Her tawny skin seemed to glow in the soft candlelight. He let his fingers brush down her cheek and she smiled at him.
"Your smile is absolutely perfect," he said.
"I bet you say that to every girl you think is pretty," she teased.
Usually, Harry would jokingly agree, but he couldn't do it right now.
"Just you. Only you," he said.
She kissed him again and gave him another flash of the brilliant smile. She laid beside him and rested her head on his chest.
"I love you, Harry," she whispered. He could tell she was already drifting off.
"I love you too," he replied. Harry felt like his life would be absolutely perfect if her voice was the last one that he heard every night before he fell asleep.
Rory hadn't been entirely truthful with Harry when she said she didn't know what was going to happen. She knew something bad was going to happen outside of Hogwarts, but she knew Harry was going to see it.
She woke from her sleep because Harry was fidgeting a lot. She lifted her head from his chest and looked up at him. Even in the dim light from the candles, she could see the sweat coating his forehead.
And then he was groaning, his hand came up to the scar on his forehead. He was screaming. Rory was trying desperately to wake him, shaking him, calling his name.
When he finally opened his eyes and sat up, he was clutching his forehead.
"Harry it's alright," she said.
He squeezed his eyes closed tightly and leaned over the edge of the bed and vomited into a rubbish bin that had magically appeared there. Rory rubbed his back.
"Harry, what's wrong?" Rory asked.
"Mister Weasley," Harry said scrambling from the bed.
"What?" Rory asked.
"He was attacked. At the Ministry. He needs help," Harry said.
Rory didn't argue. Harry was unsteady on his feet and he held an arm around her as they walked to the door of the Room of Requirement. The only thing Rory hated about not having slept in their rooms was that they were so far away from McGonagall's office.
But when they pushed the door open they stepped out into the corridor just down from McGonagall's office. Harry was hardly paying attention as she pulled him the short distance to her office.
Rory banged on the door and a moment later Professor McGonagall was standing there.
"What on earth?" she started.
"It's Mister Weasley," Harry repeated. "He was attacked by a snake. He's hurt badly. I saw it. He needs help."
"You saw it?" McGonagall asked.
"Professor, he's telling the truth," Rory insisted.
McGonagall stepped out of her office and led the pair of them to Dumbledore's office. Rory wasn't surprised when Dumbledore seemed wide awake as they entered the office. She doubted the man ever slept.
Harry seemed to be doing better now. He didn't appear to be as shaken or frantic. Rory sat in a chair beside him as he explained his dream: a snake, Voldemort's snake, attacked Mister Weasley in the Ministry of magic. He kept insisting that even though he was asleep he saw it happen and knew it was real.
"And from what perspective did you see this attack?" Dumbledore asked.
Harry looked confused for a moment, and so was Rory.
"I guess," Harry paused, "I guess I was the snake."
Dumbledore nodded as though he suspected that was the answer Harry would give.
Rory thought about her own predictions. They were all different. Sometimes they were like dreams, as though she was watching something happening on television, other times she saw them through her own eyes, mostly though they were just impressions and feelings, hazy half-formed images in her mind's eye.
But Harry wasn't a seer. He was seeing Voldemort's snake attack someone in real-time. Because he was connected to Voldemort somehow. Which wasn't a secret. But this was more than just his scar hurting now.
"Miss Lupin," Dumbledore said, shaking Rory from her thoughts. She looked up at him and she knew he'd asked her a question that she hadn't heard. "Harry says you knew this would happen?"
"Not exactly. I just knew something bad was going to happen," Rory said. "I don't always know what."
Dumbledore nodded and then examined a silver object on his desk. There was silence while they sat there. Then a person appeared in one of the portraits hanging on the wall. Rory couldn't remember him leaving.
"It looks like Arthur has been badly injured," the man said.
Then another man appeared in a different portrait.
"They're taking him to St. Mungo's," he said.
"Minerva, can you fetch the Weasley children?" Dumbledore asked.
McGonagall gave him a nod and walked out of the office.
Dumbledore turned to a portrait of another sleeping man on the wall. Rory recognized him from a portrait hanging at Grimmauld Place, Phineas Nigellus.
"Phineas," Dumbledore said. Phineas didn't acknowledge him. "Phineas." Dumbledore sighed. "Phineas."
Finally, seeming rather irritated, Phineas stirred.
"Oh, what?" Phineas asked.
Dumbledore relayed the information of what happened to Mister Weasley to Phineas and asked him to report the incident to Sirius and inform him that the Weasleys would be by tonight so that they would be able to visit their father.
Phineas disappeared from the portrait. They continued to sit in silence until the Weasleys arrived. Dumbledore explained the situation to them—Just that their father was injured and was in St. Mungo's and they'd be going to Grimmauld Place so that they could easily visit him in the hospital.
Dumbledore set up a portkey for them to head to quickly transport them to Grimmauld. As they stood around it, each of them touching it, feeling tired and worried, Harry clasped Rory's hand tightly. And something felt wrong. She knew it was Harry's hand, but she could feel anger, evil, and hatred. She wanted to pull her hand away, but she still felt Harry. All of that anger, that evil, it wasn't Harry. She held his hand tighter, trying to feel Harry underneath it all.
And then she felt herself being sucked through a tube and she landed with a thud in the drawing-room of Grimmauld place.
As soon as she got her bearings she turned to Harry. He still had a glazed-over look in his eyes. She grabbed hold of his hand again and he looked over at her. And it was just Harry. Whatever had been there before was gone.
"Are you okay?" she asked, voice barely above a whisper.
"I dunno," he said and he squeezed her hand tightly. "Thank you."
Harry recounted his story to the Weasleys and Sirius. Rory sat on the couch beside him in the lounge, holding his hand and tracing small circles with her thumb on the back of his hand as he told them.
They got a letter from Mrs. Weasley saying she was heading to St. Mungo's and to stay put until she turned up. She would let them know what was going on as soon as she was able.
After that, they sat around, drifting off, waiting. Rory didn't leave Harry's side. He knew whatever he'd felt in Dumbledore's office, a sudden urge to attack and hurt Dumbledore, she'd felt it too and she was worried about him. He was worried about himself too. He felt like he was going crazy.
Around five in the morning, Rory was asleep, curled up to him, tucked beneath his arm, her fingers still laced with his. She'd known something bad was going to happen and she'd wanted to stay with him. And she still had, even after feeling whatever it was that had come over him.
Under normal circumstances, he would not allow himself to be so close to Rory here, especially with Sirius in the room with them. But Harry didn't care. She felt safe like she was tethering him to his sanity on a night when he felt absolutely insane. And Sirius hadn't commented on it, so Harry wasn't going to argue with it.
The door to the lounge opened and Mrs. Weasley walked in. She looked absolutely exhausted. Everyone in the room perked up, and even Rory woke and lifted her head.
"He's alright," Mrs. Weasley said. "We can go and visit him later. He's sleeping for now."
The Weasleys all breathed a sigh of relief.
Sirius called out for Kreacher to get breakfast started, but got no response.
"No answer. Shocking," Sirius said with a roll of his eyes.
"I would rather have a bed than food honestly," Rory said, even as her head dropped back against his shoulder.
Mrs. Weasley ushered the children toward the dining room and Harry and Rory finally stood from the couch.
"I'm going to lie down," Rory said.
Harry didn't blame her. She looked exhausted. He did need to talk, but that could wait until after she got some sleep.
She walked to her room and Sirius hung back so that he could talk to Harry.
"You alright?" Sirius asked when they were alone.
Harry told him all about his dream and the feeling that he had before he took the portkey from Dumbledore's office.
Sirius gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder.
"I wouldn't worry about it," Sirius said. "It was probably just a lingering aftereffect of your dream."
Harry frowned. "I feel a bit like I'm going mad."
"I promise you're not. Don't stress yourself out about it," Sirius said.
Harry nodded, but he couldn't help but worry. This was the worst his scar had ever felt. Harry felt like he was that snake when he was in Dumbledore's office. He really wanted to hurt him. It hadn't felt like the dream was lingering on. It was more like the snake was in his head, like it had temporarily taken over his body.
Sirius led him to the dining room. Harry wanted to tell Rory what had happened. She might really be the only one who understood.
