Disclaimer: Anything that rings a bell belongs to J.K Rowling

Chapter Thirteen: I am your rain

27th August 2005

Harry's POV

I sighed, running a hand through my hair, trying to figure out just where I messed up this time…

I turned around, almost immediately catching stormy grey orbs.

Ky was sat at the bar, all alone.

I reached her and she held out the cocktail she had been drinking to me, and I downed its tropical contents. "You heard everything?"

"Bits." She sighed, "My two cents? You are a bigger idiot than she is. But, you've always been a bigger idiot than her, so you had a nice little head start."

I shook my head at her teasing, "How do we get out of this. How does any of this become normal?"

"I have an idea but I feel like Mi won't like it."

"What?"

She shrugged, "I can leave."

"And you think I'd like that."

"You'd get your normal back."

I glared at her, "Normal isn't normal if you're not in it." She bit her lip and I growled at the action, "Stop doing that."

"What?" The innocence in her voice contrasted with her face.

"You know what." I glared down at her, but I knew the look was substantially diluted with the amount of desire that permeated off me. Ginny was right…it was like I was dosed with love potion when it came to Ky, I couldn't think straight, stay angry…

Godric she needed to stop nibbling on her bottom lip.

"Alright, one French 75, oh." The man that arrived with a champagne flute glanced to Ky, and then me. I hadn't realised just how close to her I was standing, but didn't move a muscle at the introduction of the stranger.

"Peter! This is my husband. Darling, Peter was so kind to keep me company while you were running late."

The blond man looked like he had been momentarily confounded. I had forgotten about their stupid Bachelorette Bingo game, and Peter seemed to be collateral damage in it. The man's face changed to one of understanding.

"Rose darling, that's quite alright. Harry mate, you're one lucky man, stop keeping a flower like this one waiting lest she wilt!"

I forced a smile on my face at his terrible joke. Also, lucky was not something I was ever accused of being and nodded my head somewhat politely to the retreating stranger.

"Husband?"

Ky shrugged, "You'd be surprised how attractive married women are to men."

"Hmm. And you need help attracting men, do you?"

She laughed, "You know men don't approach me that much."

"Yeah, sure." I took the cocktail from her and sipped at it, quite liking the taste.

"I'm serious. I sat here all by myself for a whole ten minutes, nobody approached me. But, I pretended to get a call from my husband, and got really sad when he was late, again, and then suddenly, Peter."

I shook my head, handing her back her drink, and then stopped, narrowing my eyes, just realising something, "I didn't introduce myself to that bloke, how did he know my name?"

Her eyes locked onto mine, and she quickly had a calming hand on my heart, "Down boy. Cease those churning gears. I may have given your name in my little ruse. Afterall, it's always good to keep some vines of truth burried in the quicksand of deception."

I swallowed, suddenly feeling faint, not wanting to have some big emotional conversation again, and prefering to keep things as they were right now, in our most optimim state…flirty, on the edge of fighting.

I asked the bartender for another French 75, and I hid my disappointment as she lowered her hand from my chest.

"You know Hermione made a big thing just because Seamus suggested a burlesque bar for the Stag Party, and you lot are out here wreaking havoc on the unsuspecting male muggles of London." I teased, "So, what's the tally?"

She smirked, "You don't want to know."

"You're completely right." I laughed, "But as we established, I'm an idiot, so?"

"Nine."

"Drinks?" I relieved the bartender of my drink and thanked him.

"No, numbers, I got like twenty drinks but some of them were just groups of men and that shouldn't really count. Why do you think Mi's so drunk?"

"So, what other tactics did you use, other than 'neglected married woman waiting for husband at bar'?"

"Oh a witch does not reveal her ploys. If you wanna find out, you're going to have to buy me a drink, Potter."

"Ohhh, I am not playing this demented little game of yours. But, I'm not against sharing." I offered her my glass and she slowly placed her lips at the rim, and I watched almost hypnotically as the yellow liquid trickled towards her scarlet smirk as she took painstakingly slow and drawn out swallows.

Tease.

"Though, I suppose, out of curiosity, if you had to see me in a bar. And wanted me to buy you a drink, and to also get my number, how would you go about doing that?"

She stopped drinking at that and passed the glass back to me and I finished off the cocktail, "Well the married tactic definitely wouldn't work on you."

"Not a chance."

"I guess…" She turned contemplative, sizing me up, "I'd have to be really… wet."

I choked, "What?"

She pointed at the large windows, "Rain. All soaked, and cold, and disheveled."

"Disheveled?"

"Ah huh. Maybe my phone's dead, and I don't know London very well. I'm from this little village in the Cotswolds."

"The Cotswolds?"

"Yeah! And I can never understand how those tricky underground lines work, you know with all the different names, and colours and directions. And maybe the last train to my little village is leaving Paddington station in just fifteen minutes."

"Oh there's no way you're going to make that train."

She pouted, "Oh no. I guess I'm just going to have to get a hotel for the night. Hmmm, you look like a London boy, any recommendations for a safe and warm place to lay my head."

I shook my head, chuckling against my best attempts not to, "There's no way I'm inviting a stranger to stay over at my place."

"Who asked to stay at your place, I just asked for a recommendation for a hotel. Cause I'm so cold. And so wet."

I laughed, "There is no way you're saying that to a stranger. Not a chance."

"Fine. You're right. But I'd definitely shiver a bit."

I playfully glared at her teasing, "I suppose, I could offer to drive you."

"Drive me? You can drive?"

I nodded, "Sort of. I have Sirius' motorbike."

Her eyes sparkled with excitement, "You do?"

"Of course, Hagrid gave it to me after the war. He thought I'd want it. And I kind of do. I don't take it out as much as I should. So yeah, I could drive you."

"Okay." She hopped off the barstool.

I laughed, "What?"

"Well you just said you were going to drive me to the Cotswolds on a motorbike."

My chortling grew nervous, "We're playing. Aren't we?"

She pouted, and shrugged, "Well, I guess we are."

"No no no, you don't get to pout and be all…fuck. Kyrianna, we cannot just get on a motorbike and drive to a little cottage in the Cotswolds."

She cocked a teasing brow, "Who said anything about a little cottage. Someone has an active imagination…I suppose there's also a fireplace, with a massive rug in front of it to…cuddle on?"

I took a deep breath, responding to her teasing with silence, trying my best not to create the image her words painted.

She folded her arms, the action doing wicked things to her cleavage, "Fine, I guess my ploys don't work on you."

I growled, knowing that she knew full well that her pout and push up bra ploy usually worked on me, which is why she was currently utilizing it, "You're spoiled!"

"What?" She smiled.

"Oh just hush. Come on." I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the pub before rationality or our friends found us. We were outside in a few short strides, "Stewart?"

"Yeah, boss?" A gangly ginger boy walked over to us, appearing almost out of nowhere.

"Ky and I are going to be gone for ten minutes."

"Twenty."

I narrowed my eyes at her, "Fifteen. If I'm not back in fifteen, here, this should find us."

I held out my pocket watch, allowing Stewart to place a locator spell on it so that if anything happened we could get tracked. The boy looked hesitant, but it was just his first year on the job, and he knew better than to question a superior.

Even if said superior clearly lost their marbles.

I discretely conjured an umbrella, and pulled her hand into the crook of my arm, walking into the bustling Covent Garden crowd and then apparating us away.

I kept the motorbike in a magical storage space near Richmond Park, the anti-muggle wards on the quidditch pitch covering this building as well.

"Oh shoot, why am I always getting you wet." I grumbled, as the umbrella did nothing to stop the now heavy rain from pelting her body.

"Old habits die hard." She laughed, and I shook my head, annoyingly amused. "Oh I don't care. I want to go for ride! On a motorbike. With you."

"You're drunk." I laughed, but something in me purred at her words.

"So? I'm not driving." She shrugged, "And you barely drank."

I flicked open the clostest storage locker with my wand, quickly entered and then peeled back the cover on the black beast.

"Wow!" Ky ran in after me, a hand caressing the bike. "It's so big."

"Now you're just teasing." I laughed, unhooking the little side car since we wouldn't need it, passing Ky a helmet, as I swiftly put on my own, jumping astride deftly.

Ky didn't need to be told to get on, and I was glad that I couldn't see just how she looked with that tiny red dress straddling the machine.

I cast an impervius charm on us both, but was not hopeful that it would stick, but it wasn't hard to stop caring about much else when she wrapped her arms around my middle.

I took off, doing a route I was familiar with around the park, which didn't take very long to loop around and usually looked quite beautiful on a sunny day, though the rain did have a way of painting the greens of the trees interesting new shades. I glanced behind me, catching her wide red lips in the large helmet, and increased my speed, hearing her laugh even over the thundering rain, making my heart soar.

I loved making Ky laugh.

Almost too quickly, it was time to drive back to the storage space. I was sad to be done with the ride, knowing just like I knew on the fly yesterday, that this would mean the end of her arms about me. I parked the bike, taking my helmet off my head.

"Not quite the Cotswolds, but not too bad?" She didn't respond, her hands still about my waist, her head firmly against my back.

Clutching me.

I placed my hands slowly on her own, holding them there, enjoying the feel of her against me.

Suddenly her hands disappeared and I sighed, knowing it was time to go back to the real word. But then I heard quick footsteps from behind me, "Ky?".

Ky had just shot out of the storage space and I hastened after her, worried I had done something to scare her off, or that she had seen something.

I stopped just as I exitted the storage space, watching as she twirled about in the rain. I shook my head, unwillingly amused at her antics, "You still just do, no thinking!"

She laughed, "Who said I'm not thinking?"

"Surely if you were thinking you wouldn't be in the rain right now?"

"Why not?" She closed her eyes, and tilted her face up, and I enjoyed following a raindrop dance its way down her right cheek and fall off her chin."It feels good."

I shrugged off my coat, and then stopped, biting my lip in thought.

Oh what the heck…I glanced up at her to ascertain her eyes were still closed. I pulled out a random receipt from my left coat pocket, and tapped my wand to it, my muggle mobile number now shone up at me. I slipped the receipt back into my pocket.

I walked over to her, wrapping my coat around her shoulders and she shrugged it on easily, holding her hands out for me, and I took them. "Plus, I know I look good wet." She teased and I shook my head, glancing down at her rain drenched clothes, and her dark hair that stuck to her body.

She let out a deep, guttural, familiar pleasurable sigh that made me take a reflexive step closer to her.

"The day I was born it was raining. The first thing I ever felt, other than the waters of my mother's womb, were raindrops."

"What? Ky, you can't remember that?"

Her smile widened, and she still had her eyes closed, and I enjoyed just holding her hands and looking at her, "Who said I remembered it. It's not my memory."

My brows furrowed, "Whose memory was it?"

"Linus'. He gifted it to Nonno. In a penstone." I heard of penstones, but never came across one. They were incredibly hard to make, solidified memories that looked like crystals that were a more stable and secure way of passing along recollections. I remained silent, she so rarely spoke about her family, I didn't want to disturb this moment that seemed to allow her to share. "But when you were born, it was sunny."

"What?" I whispered, how could she know that?

"I bet when you were born, it was sunny."

"Oh." I laughed, feeling stupid for mishearing, "I don't know. Why?"

"Because you're my sunshine. And I'm your rain." She finally opened her eyes, and I drank in her stare.

"Kyrianna, you're drunk." I whispered, not liking the sound of her voice, or the statement. Just then my pocket watch chimed, and my alarm to get us back to the pub went off, so without another word, I apparated us back.

I dried us both off with a discrete swish off my wand, hiding behind a pillar in Covent Garden, feeling a little unsettled and not completely sure why.

Ky made to take off the coat, and I stopped her, taking her left hand and guiding it into my large pocket. I watched as she removed the little receipt and she beamed at my mobile number. She handed back my coat, slipping the piece of paper into her bra and I shook my head at her antics.

"So my ploys do work on you afterall." She muttered and I rolled my eyes.

"I never claimed to be Ky-resistant. If anything…" I left the thought unfinished, knowing that she knew just how that sentence ends.

She bit her lip, nodding slowly. She turned decisively, heading towards the pub, and I walked after her, nodding a thank you at Stewart who was stood across the street.

"Oh." I had stopped at the entrance to the pub as I just noticed Ginny kissing Ky's 'friend' Peter just at the door. I swallowed, unsure just what my body was feeling right at this moment.

"I have to go back inside." I heard Ginny mutter as she unglued herself from the blonde man, "Bye!" The guy crossed the street, grinning.

Ginny's eyes fell on us, and my skin prickled, knowing that there's no way I could explain away Ky and I disappearing together. But Ky had already slipped into the pub so thankfully this awkward situation didn't have to get worse.

Ginny folded her arms defensively. "He wanted me to go home with him, you know."

"Ginny, you're drunk. Let me take you home."

"Oh stop Harry. I just made out with someone right in front of you! You shouldn't want to take me home! You should want to claw his face off! You should be besides yourself with anger! You should…care!"

"I do care. I just understand that you're not exactly making normal decisions right now, and I don't blame you." I closed the distance between us, grabbing her shoulder, "Let me just take you home."

"Geroff me." She shoved me and a passerby stared at me threateningly. I swallowed, knowing exactly what this looked like. I ran a hand through my hair in frustration.

"Miss Weasley, I'm a huge fan!" Stewart had crossed the street, clearly noticing me and Ginny mid-argument, "I watched you in the game against the Tornadoes last June, you were perfect! I'm Stewart by the way, I am a junior in Harry's department." Stewart shook Ginny's hand politely, "I've just finished my shift, and I'm just heading to the station. I'm too tired to go the usual way. Would you like to walk with me?"

I was impressed. Stewart did well in keeping conversation vague as we were amongst muggles, but also managed to make walking to the Floo station appear to be for his benefit, when we both knew it was because Ginny was too drunk to side along apparate.

Ginny nodded slowly at the offer, gave me one last glare, and I watched as Stewart and she walked off into the crowd. I rubbed my eyes, suddenly exhausted, entering the pub and finding our large group easily.

"Okay! Winner announcements! Where's Ginny?" Fleur had directed the question to me.

"Oh, an auror is taking her home. She didn't want me to leave the party early as well, so she headed off alone. She's not feeling well." All things considered, I didn't feel that guilty for the lies.

Fleur looked sympathetic, "Again? Poor thing. Well, you can give her this when you see her later?" The tall blonde passed me a small gold trophy, "She won. She got the most points, especially as she got the most numbers and the most drinks!"

"Mate, don't feel bad, you know how competitive Gin is." George added with a commiserating pat on the back.

I nodded, glancing at Ky who was busy rubbing soothing circles on Hermione's back, as the brunette was plastered to her neck.

"Where were you all this time if you weren't out getting numbers and drinks? I can't believe you didn't get a single one!" Hermione groaned, throwing her arms about Ky affectionately. I cocked a brow at her statement, and Ky did well in avoiding my gaze. Why would she lie about not getting any numbers?

"I told you. I was sat at the bar and men kept asking about the hot drunk brunette bride to be!" Hermione laughed and burried her head in Ky's hair. I forgot about what a physically affectionate drunk she was.

"Harry?" I turned as Roger approached us, nodding a greeting to the group at large.

"Is everything alright?" I could read Roger's face pretty well, and he definitely had new information. He cocked his head to follow him to a quiet corner and I did so.

"We got in touch with MACUSA first thing in the morning. It is protocol, we uncovered an undocumented witch on their soil, the 1978 agreement dictates we have to notify them. We also thought since Ky was based in the States that it may be possible that this new threat might possibly be just that, a new threat. They of course knew nothing of her existence, but they," He glanced to the table, at Ky, who had been busy in conversation with Ron, "They got into her house. MACUSA just wanted to do their due diligence, they weren't too happy to be kept in the dark about her for this long, especially considering she's a Dumbledore. Anyway, they get there and her place is a right mess. Someone got there first, ransacked the place."

"They confirmed magical involvement? The house was probably empty for a while, right? Ky said she was with Malfoy for weeks, could be just a muggle break in."

"They've confirmed it's magical. It doesn't really make sense for these two things to be connected though. If whomever was looking for Ky's remains knew she was alive, then, they wouldn't be looking for Ky's remains."

"Or, maybe, since they now know she's alive, they found out where she lived and acted fast, got to New York last night? It wouldn't be that difficult surely, she'll have a digital fingerprint in the muggle world, even if she changed her name, she didn't change her face."

"Yeah but they knew she was in England, with you, and the might of the Ministry as protection. They couldn't expect her to go back to New York, so why go there and break into her place? I don't know, I think it's not connected. MACUSA is still investigating, we don't even know when the break in happened, but they're sending us updates every few hours, I'll relay what I know. There's something else." He glanced uncertainly at the table again, "Someone who looked like Trevor Nott was spotted in London last night."

"Trevor Nott's in Azkaban." I stated firmly, having been the one that captured him and put him there myself, and Roger let out a huff.

"That's what we thought, so when we heard the report we paid his cell a visit this morning, just to be sure. And, well… polyjuice." I grew furious at the word, "Kid who was impersonating him jumped into the North Sea before we could question him."

"Fuck." I spat, "Fucking dementors-"

"I agree with you on the dementors, I know Harry. And in a weird way this will help in the case that I know Hermione is building to get rid of them as guardians of Azkaban permanently. But given the fact that Trevor Nott isn't in Azkaban, it is quite possible it was a correct sighting last night."

"Godric, it's him. He is after Ky? What would his motive be! Why would he want her remains?" I glanced back at Ky, who was now busy in some sort of drinking contest with George.

Roger shrugged, "I don't know, though, I reiterate, just because he was sighted in London does not mean he is after Ky. Though, he may have motive, maybe he knew something about Theodore Nott helping her? The fucker couldn't be happy that his son is actually on the side of good, and maybe he blames Ky for that? I don't know." We both fell into contemplative silence, mine far colder than Roger's, "All this to say, with this news, I think it's best we tighten security. Nott isn't someone to play around with. He was one of the Dark Lord's most loyal servants, and the head of their," He looked around and dropped his voice, "Muggle Hunting Contingent."

I nodded, knowing full well what Trevor Nott was capable of, "We'll cancel the club tonight. We should have called everything off. I just…Ron and Hermione have risked their lives for me so many times, I just want them to have one weekend. Damnit!"

"Look, they can still have the wedding. We have every auror and magical law enforcement officer scheduled for duty on that day, and even civilian volunteers. We know who Ron and Hermione are too Harry, we know what we owe them. Tomorrow's activities need to be cancelled though, it's too risky. Tonight, rather than a club, if you move the party to someone's house, that could work, ideally magical rather than muggle. I can have six men pacing the perimeter, and a Maker to reinforce the wards at the place if you let me know where to go."

I nodded, this was a decent compromise. I gasped, just remembering,"Ginny. Ginny's she's home alone."

"I bumped into Stewart and Ginny at the Paddington Floo station. I let Stewart know he isn't to leave her alone, and that they should go to the Burrow instead of her place. Sarah and another four of our guys, and a Maker, are there already, we knew Andromeda Tonks was looking after the children there."

"Thank you." My voice shook slightly, and Roger clasped my arm.

"It's all precautions. There's no reason for us to believe Nott is after any of you, or Ky. We don't know how long he has been out for, and it makes more sense for him to just stay the heck out of everything, to lie low. It might just be coincidence he is in London."

I nodded, knowing Roger was just trying to calm me down, but it wasn't necessary.

I wasn't panicking.

I glanced back at Ky, who had been laughing at whatever Ron just said.

This time it would be over my dead body if anything bad happened to her. I'm not losing her again.

Not a chance.

A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope you're enjoying it so far! Any guesses as to who is after Ky? Reviews/comments are always appreciated!

Kalina