Chapter 15: Together

—

Harry was sat between Susan and Luna in their usual compartment. Hannah, Neville, and Ginny sat opposite them. Hermione had made the decision that she and Ron should sit with Ernie, Megan, Michael, and Mandy (the other prefects in their year from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff) for at least part of the train ride.

Harry had just finished retelling the story of how he and Snape killed Voldemort's snake. Susan was absentmindedly rubbing her hand up and down his arm across his new scar as she listened with rapt attention.

"Why did Snape go out of his way to capture a snake?" Neville asked. "And why didn't spells work on it?"

"It was a powerful weapon," Harry said, answering both questions at once. "Eliminating it is a major setback for Voldemort."

Just then the compartment door slid open and Draco Malfoy stepped on, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. A moment later Parkinson shoved past Goyle to stand just behind Malfoy.

Neville drew his wand, followed quickly by all the girls. Harry didn't bother drawing his wand and simply stood up to face Malfoy instead. On one hand, Malfoy and his goons didn't even have their own wands in hand. And on the other hand, Harry could perform plenty of spells without a wand.

"Hello, Malfoy," Harry frowned. "Come to reconsider my offer?"

Malfoy scowled and took several deep breaths. "Yes," he said finally. "We want out."

"I told you to go to Dumbledore," Harry said.

"Snape let slip Dumbledore takes orders from you," Malfoy responded. "You're in charge. I speak with you."

"You three as well?" Harry said, looking around Malfoy at Goyle, Parkinson, and Crabbe.

"Me dad wants me ta take the mark," Goyle grumbled. "Says I need to serve The Dark Lord… but he's loosin, i'nt he?"

"The Dark Lord dun't stan a chance against you an' Dumbledore," Crabbe added with a grunt. "Not anymore anyway."

"We aren't going to fight for you and Dumbledore," Parkinson said. "We just want to live in one of your safehouses over summer breaks… and I want to move my parents and sister there too. He wants my dad to join."

"And my mother," Malfoy added quickly. "She doesn't have the mark yet."

"I have terms," Harry said simply.

"Go on," Malfoy snarled.

"For starters, this rivalry between you and me… between your friends and my friends… it's over," Harry said. "We will be civil. No more name calling. No more taunting. I'm not saying we have to be friends. You don't even have to be polite. Just don't be antagonistic."

"Fine," Malfoy huffed.

"And when I say no more name calling, I mean everyone, not just my friends. If I ever hear any of you calling someone Mudblood ever again, I'll cut your fucking tongue out myself."

Crabbe's eyes went wide. Goyle's hand reflexively covered his own mouth. Parkinson glared.

"What else," Malfoy grimaced.

"Next, you and your family members will be sworn to secrecy. You will take the unbreakable vow. You will not be able to speak our secrets or betray us in any way lest you will die," Harry said dramatically.

"Figures," Parkinson said, crossing her arms.

"That's it," Harry said.

"When can you get my mother?" Malfoy asked.

"Is she allowed out of the house?" Harry asked quizzically.

"The Dark Lord never speaks to anyone before noon," Draco said. "She leaves some mornings to shop or visit with the Parkinsons."

"I'll speak with Dumbledore tonight. He'll take care of it," Harry said.

—

"Daph, why don't you take that thing off? Just let me examine it," Harry pleaded. They'd snuck into Daphne's room for some privacy.

"No, I need it!" Daphne whined. "It makes me perfect. I'm nothing without the diadem."

"Daphne, listen, you're dependent on an artifact," Harry frowned. "That's not safe. We need to go to Snape."

"No, Harry, you just can't take this from me," Daphne pleaded. "Listen, let's talk about this later. Could we maybe… um…"

Daphne approached Harry and suggestively placed her hand over his manhood, giving him a gentile rub.

"Daphne, I… oh…" Harry cooed. "Hey, wait, don't change the subject!"

"Harry, dear, may I do that thing you like?" Daphne simpered, biting her lip.

Harry's hand found her chest and he pressed her up against the post of her four poster bed. "This isn't fair, Darling," Harry said. "How can I deny you?"

—

Harry opened his eyes. He stared at the canopy of his bed for several minutes as he desperately tried to hold onto the scene he'd just drempt. He'd been dreaming about Daphne a few times a week starting around the time he cursed Umbridge, but for the past two weeks since returning to the castle after Christmas break, he'd dreamt of her every night.

Harry sat up in bed and retrieved his communication mirror from the side table. Sirius and Hermione had worked together in secret to make several more as Christmas presents for the other girls.

"Ginny," he said softly, knowing it was a long shot. He waited about a minute before deciding she was definitely asleep. He didn't want to send prongs again. She'd been pretty annoyed at that last time.

"Luna," he said. Seconds later, Luna's face appeared in the mirror.

"Good morning, Harry Potter," Luna smiled widely. "What are you doing waking up so early?"

"Again with the full name?" Harry laughed.

"I like your name, Harry Potter," Luna grinned. "You did not answer my question though."

"Why am I up? Oh, I, uh… had a dream and I… felt lonely I guess," Harry responded hesitantly.

"What was the dream about?" Luna inquired, tilting her head curiously to one side.

"One of my other timelines," Harry sighed.

"And was it upsetting? Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, it wasn't upsetting…" Harry replied. "It was nice actually."

"And yet it troubles you," she frowned. "Don't try to lie, I can tell."

"Luna, I feel like my life is going really well, all things considered… everything is great, apart from having a crazed murderer after me that is…"

"Yes, having You-Know-Who obsessing over you isn't ideal," Luna smiled. Harry laughed. Some of Susan's sarcasm had worn off on Luna and this was a great example of it.

"I guess I'm just afraid that I'll lose it all," Harry said. "I've lost it all before. I don't know if I lost you or anyone else in our little family."

"When you say family, you don't just mean the Weasleys do you… you mean your soul mates too." Luna smiled.

"Er, I don't like the word soul mates anymore," Harry grimaced. "The word implies a predetermined outcome… like I don't have a choice. Can we just say partners?"

"Whatever you call me, Harry Potter, I'm honored to be part of your family," Luna grinned.

—

"I've been thinking about our mobilization plan," Harry sighed, coming to rest in a chair by the fire in the Room of Requirement. It had once again taken the form of the Gryffindor common room with a handful of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff decorations. Harry looked around at the core of the DA. Hermione sat between Luna and Ginny on one couch while Susan, Hannah, and Neville sat on the other. Ron sat in another chair opposite Harry. It was a week until Easter break.

"We've been over this, Harry," Neville replied. "We all want to fight by your side. We've been training and planning for a whole year."

"But you're not adults," Harry said. "The Order and I can-"

"You're not an adult eather, Harry," Susan cut in. "I don't care how old you feel in that beautiful brain of yours. You're only fifteen."

"But Sue, I've got several lifetimes worth of combat training!" Harry said. "I'm basically an auror and you're all children!"

"Why can't you just let The Order take care of Voldemort?" Ron grumbled.

"I've told you all that there's a prophecy!" Harry grumbled.

"Prophecy, schmophecy," Hermione rolled her eyes. "I thought you said you didn't believe in destiny anymore."

"You all just don't understand the depth of my feelings for you," Harry groaned. "I can't allow you to risk your lives."

"Then what have you been training us for?" Hannah complained, crossing her arms.

"Harry," Susan said softly, reaching over and tenderly placing a hand on the scar on his forearm, "Maybe you could talk to us more about your feelings instead of pushing us away? You don't let me push you away…"

Ginny reached out as well and placed her hand on the scar from the basilisk. "We understand that you're scared, Harry. We know we matter to you… but you matter to us as well."

"I… have an idea," Harry said. "Like I said, I can't possibly describe to you all how much you matter to me… but maybe I can show you. Wait here. I'll be back." Harry then got up abruptly and left the room.

Ten minutes later, Harry returned. "I have something I think will help some of you understand how I feel," Harry said, reaching into his cloak and pulling out a butterbeer bottle. It was the bottle of emotions.

"Those are your memories from alternate timelines, aren't they?" Luna asked. "You described how they looked like a bunch of liquid marbles."

"Preciscely," Harry said. "Each of those beads is all my memories about the person I loved across about a hundred lifetimes," Harry said, repeating himself from earlier.

"Wait, did you bring the pensive?," Ron said. "How are we going to look at them?

"You can drink them," Harry said. "Using a pensive helps you meticulously scrutinize a particular memory. Drinking them will let you have a general understanding of all the memories contained."

"Won't we get sick like you did last year?" Ginny asked.

"I don't think so," Harry said. "Dumbledore said I had about two and a half lifetime's worth of memory in my body that day last year. That wasn't an issue for my spirit body in the inbetween but it was an issue for my physical body… anyway, each of these marbles of memory isn't more than maybe twenty to thirty hours worth of memories. A moment here, a minute there. Just the emotional moments regarding my partner from that timeline. You could drink them all and only gain a couple month's worth of memories, which shouldn't make you sick.

Harry waved his wand and several mugs appeared on the table. Then with another wand wave, somewhere between twenty and thirty of the orbs floated to the mug in front of Hermione. After third wave, another twenty or so flew over to Susan's mug. About twenty flew to Luna's mug with the fourth wave of his wand. Lastly, somewhere between thirty and forty orbs flew into Ginny's mug.

A handful of memories self duplicated and ended up in more than one mug. Harry assumed these were the timelines where he loved more than one person. One of these orbs that split had actually sent half to Hermione and the other half back to Harry's butterbeer bottle. Harry thought he knew which timeline that one was.

"Sorry Neville… Hannah… but I've never dated either of you in any timeline so you don't get any memories," Harry explained.

"Its okay, Harry, you're not my type," Neville joked.

"You dated me once, right?" Ron said.

"Yup," he said, handing the nearly empty butter beer bottle to him. "Just the once. "Will you all please drink these memories?" Harry asked.

Luna didn't need any more convincing. She downed her mug of memories. Everyone watched her as her eyes went wide in wonderment.

"Oh goodness," Luna squeaked. Even more so than normal, she was staring into the middle distance as if she could see something that the others present could not see… except, this time she definitely could see, or at least recall, things the others could not.

"Oh, my…" Luna bemoaned. "Oh, Harry dear… she got up and stumbled to him, falling into his lap. She curled up like a child and he held her close as tears began to flow. "Harry, you've loved me so much and so many times. I'm overwhelmed."

"Yeah, it was overwhelming to me as well," Harry said. "Except mine was four times worse because I drank all of these at once."

"Luna, what's it like," Hermione half whispered.

"Amazing," she sobbed. "He loved me so much in those other lives." She tilted her head up and kissed his jaw through her tears of joy.

Hermione chewed her lip pensively. Neither Susan nor Ginny made any sort of move towards their mug. They both seemed even more apprehensive than Hermione appeared to be.

"Mine can't be that bad," Ron shrugged, gulping down the single memory. He screwed up his face as he allowed the new memories to wash over him. "Geez, Harry, this is weird considering you're my brother," he said.

"Why do you think I'm so hesitant?" Ginny said. "Mine's going to be fifty times worse."

"Yeah, I'm not exactly sure what to do with the knowledge that Harry has soft lips… but the rest of this is nice to know," Ron grinned. "I love you, brother."

"Love you too, Ron," Harry smiled.

"Go on, Mione," Ron said encouragingly. "It will be alright. You'll get to feel how Harry feels. That can't be a bad thing."

Hermione looked at Ron and nodded. She then gave Harry one last look before downing her mug. A moment later Hermione gasped and dropped her mug. It bounced off the couch and landed on the floor, breaking off the handle.

"Are you okay, Mione?" Harry asked.

"Oh my god!" Hermione said. "Harry… if you think I'm going to let you face him alone, you're mad."

"What? No, I'm giving you these to help you understand why I can't risk you," Harry complained.

"Harry," Susan said, her eyes tearing up. Her mug was empty. She'd downed it while everyone was watching Hermione. "I don't deserve this much love. I shouldn't be this important to you. I… I…"

Luna had mostly composed herself by now. She quickly got up to go sit on Susan's lap instead, pulling her into a hug. "Yes you do, baby, yes you do," Luna said, petting Susan's hair softly as Susan sobbed.

Hermione, seeing her opening, got up and sat on Harry's lap instead. "How can one person love so much," Hermione asked, burying her face into his chest.

"Dumbledore says love is 'the power he knows not'," Harry said. "Well… that's what he thought it meant in several other timelines. In this timeline, he understandably things it's my futuresight."

"Harry," Ginny said hesitantly, looking around at Hermione, Luna, and Susan. "I… don't know if I should drink this. You've got enough partners and if I drink this… I feel like I won't be able to keep my emotions in check anymore."

"Anymore?" Harry asked curiously. "Do you feel like you've needed to keep your emotions in check regarding… us?"

"I've loved you ever since I met you, Harry," Ginny sighed. "I knew when you came to live with us that I had to cut it out, so I buried my feelings… but they never went away. I do love you like a brother, Harry, but there's more to it. If I drink this… I don't know how I can stay away from you anymore."

"Ginny, we don't mind if you want to be with Harry," Hermione said, finally looking up from Harry's chest.

"Yes, Ginny, I thought we talked about this," Luna added.

"Are you afraid of what mum and dad will say?" Ron asked. Ginny nodded solemnly.

"Forget mum and dad, Gin… what do you want? Harry asked.

Ginny thought for several seconds. "I… I want to know how you feel about me," Ginny said. Then, without warning, she downed the memories.

Hermione quickly got off Harry in anticipation of Ginny needing him. Ginny just sort of froze.

"Ginny?" Neville asked. She hadn't moved in nearly twenty seconds. Hannah leaned forward and waved her hand in front of Ginny's face. Ginny twitches and then blinked rapidly as she came back to the present.

"We had kids," Ginny said softly. "We were a… a family."

"Yeah," Harry smiled. "We did."

Ginny finally looked at him as tears welled up in her eyes. "We're going to kill that bastard, Harry. All of us…together."