And if you're wanting something to read in between updates, I've posted a couple chapters of a crack!fic called "The Trio and Ginny Read Fanfiction"...I think you all would like it. Especially since everyone on SIYE is staunchly HG RH ship, lol. I saw you guys waving Hermione/Draco banners over there! Anyway, check it out...
Hope you like this chapter... be prepared for some Lupin/Tonks in the next chapter. And in the next one after that, I PROMISE to put in some HG.
So, I'll ask you guys the same question I asked them over at fanfictionnet: Who would you like to see Leila get together with in the sequel (which I am writing after i finish this story)? A. Theodore Nott. B. Ronald Weasley (please don't get your hopes up that this will happen--i'm very much for canon pairings). C. Draco Malfoy. D. Jeremy Javan. E. Other Gryffindor, say Neville, Seamus, Colin, Dean--oh, I don't know, take your pick! F. Other Slytherin--Zabini?!?
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The World As We Knew It | ||||||
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Category: Alternate Universe Characters:Harry/Ginny, James Potter, Lily Potter, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, Sirius Black Genres: Action/Adventure Warnings: Death Story is Complete Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 309 Summary: Destroy the Horcruxes—that’s Harry’s goal, until an Aperio throws him and two other unknown people into a world where the prophecy never existed, his parents and Sirius are alive, and Ginny went to Azkaban for opening the Chamber. Canon pairings, pre DH. Hitcount: Story Total: 150278; Chapter Total: 4210 Author's Notes: |
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The cell door swung open, and Sirius and Aperio-Harry froze. “Darnit, I can’t see!” Ron muttered, trying to get a look, but then Sirius moved forward, and Ginny came into sight. She looked even worse than Harry remembered, but maybe it was because this was the second time around, and he wasn’t having a Dementor hangover. Once again, Ginny was curled up in a little ball, covered in filth. Every bone was visible, displayed by the skin stretching tight over her pitifully small frame. Her hair was matted and long, and her face was buried in her arms. Ron gave a deep guttural moan and swayed a little. Hermione put both hands over her mouth and just stared wordlessly. “Don’t just stand there, boy, get over here and help me!” Sirius barked, and Aperio-Harry moved forward, allowing the trio room to move into the cell. Hermione ventured in, her eyes sweeping quickly over the horrible conditions, the slimy stone walls, the small barred window at the top of the cell. Harry started to follow her in, but Ron was still standing frozen in the doorway. “Are you alright, mate?” Harry asked quietly. Ron shook his head and his hand reached out for the frame to steady himself. “God, Harry, what have they done to her?” “She’ll be alright,” Harry mumbled. It hadn’t been a good idea to bring Ron here. He should have skipped this scene… He shouldn’t have put his best friend through this… But if he’d done that, they would have never understood. “She’ll be alright,” Harry said again, a little louder this time. “I promise, Ron, she’ll be fine. You’ll see. It gets better.” And then it gets worse. But worse for me, not for them. His words seemed to have an effect on his friend. Ron took a deep breath and looked up. “She’ll…she’ll recover?” “Yes.” With another deep breath, Ron nodded and followed Hermione into the cell. “Who are you?” Ginny was whimpering, looking very scared and alone. Sirius introduced himself and dished out the potions. In any other circumstances, Harry was sure Ron would have given him a hard time about Polyjuicing into a girl, but neither Ron nor Hermione said anything as they watched the plan being carried out. Finally, Sirius said, “Harry, be careful,” and left. The cell dissolved, and both Ron and Hermione turned to Harry. “What now?” Hermione whispered. In reply, Harry pointed. They were back in the same cell, but it was dark, save for the faint light shining through the window. “Lumos,” Hermione whispered, and the cell was filled with light. A visibly thinner Harry was huddled in the corner of the cell. The wandlight showed dark circles under his eyes, and dirt and grime all over his clothes. “You look like you haven’t slept in days,” Hermione breathed. “I didn’t,” Harry said, studying himself. “The Dementors.” As they watched, Aperio-Harry pushed himself up, took one cautious look around, and then closed his eyes. “What are you doing?” Ron asked, frowning, but Hermione’s mouth had dropped open. ”Harry, you’re…you’re…” A second later, there was no Harry. Only a tawny brown falcon with bright green eyes reflecting the light. “Bloody hell,” Ron muttered. Then the falcon took flight and disappeared through the window. Hermione turned to Harry. “That was brilliant,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief. “The perfect escape plan. You were incredible.” “Sirius helped,” Harry began, but already the colors were changing again. They were in the Gryffindor Common Room. “Hang on, it’s too fast,” Ron said as Harry and Leila pushed their way through the crowd, heading for their favourite seats by the fire. “What happened?” Harry shrugged. “Regulus met me behind that bar Sirius and I stayed at before we went to Azkaban. He apparated me back to Grimmauld Place where I spent a few days recuperating and trying to convince my parents that I was fine. Ginny was put on strict bedrest and the Weasley family was informed. Then…” But he never finished, for Hermione had thrown her hand over her mouth again. “Oh my. Look, Ron!” “Oi, Harry! Where have you been, mate?” Jeremy was saying. “It’s Jeremy!” Ron exclaimed. “What…how…?” “He was my best mate in the Aperio world,” Harry said, frowning. But how on earth do you know him?” “He transferred to Hogwarts this year,” Hermione explained. “And Melissa, too, though she was Sorted into Hufflepuff.” “Why…” Harry began, but Hermione shushed him. “I want to hear what you’re saying.” “That Clark woman is a hag,” the black boy was saying, and Aperio-Harry replied. “Nice one,” Ron said when Harry told Jeremy that he’d decided to be an Auror. “Not a lie, but not the whole truth why you’re changing all your classes around. Ancient Runes…” He snorted, and Hermione gave him a disdainful look. When we had career meetings in our fifth year, I told McGonagall I wanted to be a Curse Breaker,” Jeremy said suddenly. “I always thought it would be cool, and Ancient Runes was always my favorite class.” “That’s cool! Isn’t Bill Weasley a Curse Breaker?” Harry replied. “Yeah, and I’ve always wanted Ron to introduce me to him, but we’ve never been on the best of terms. Especially because I’m friends with you.” Ron looked disgruntled. “All over a stupid girl. I’m sorry, mate.” But he cheered up when he heard about the prank he’d supposedly pulled on Harry the year before. “Who’d you kiss, Harry?” “Parvati,” Harry admitted, glaring at the floor as Ron howled with laughter and Hermione shook her head. “Boys,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Jeremy kissed Parkinson,” Harry said defensively, and Ron began laughing again. “I can’t wait to bug him about it,” Ron said, but then his face fell. “Oh, right. It wasn’t him. Merlin, this is strange.” Harry had included one of his classes with Clark in the memories, so they could see exactly how awful she was. “She’s a horrible old cow!” Ron exclaimed after Clark had taken away thirty points from Gryffindor when they were doing much better than the Slytherins. “But…but Harry, you’re doing the counter spell for Vanishing,” Hermione said. “That was sixth year curriculum.” Harry sighed. “The Minister of Magic is Malfoy. The whole curriculum was simplified, and all the tests were rigged so Purebloods will get better scores.” “That’s horrible,” Hermione whispered, and while Harry agreed with her, he knew there were much bigger problems in this world–some of which they would discover soon. For Ron, he’d pulled out some of his Quidditch memories. Of course Ron wanted to know all about the teams; who was playing each position, why he hadn’t been on the team himself, and who had become the next Seeker. “I put you on the team and played Seeker,” Harry said, a little embarrassed. “Evidently Dad...taught me to play Keeper growing up. Leila says I was good at it, but obviously I’m not now. So I needed a Keeper, and you were the best option I had.” Ron’s ears turned red, but he grinned. Ron and Hermione watched intently as the next Order meeting flew by. “Spells to destroy the Horcruxes,” Hermione said thoughtfully after Regulus’s report. “I guess Regulus would have been an expert, huh? Too bad he’s…dead. He did all the work, and now we’re going to have to go through the same process here.” Ron was outraged when McGonagall proposed Luzita Clark joining the Order. “No way!” “Yes, way,” Harry said grimly. “I don’t see why you’d be that upset, Harry,” Hermione said, pursing her lips. “ I mean, she doesn’t seem like a very nice person, but one more person working to defeat Voldemort won’t hurt, will it?” “This one will,” Harry said, clenching his jaw. Hermione and Ron exchanged looks, but didn’t say anything. Harry hadn’t wanted to include the scene where he and Ginny talked, feeling it was too personal, but he knew that Ron would want to see at least a little of his now somewhat healthier sister. He hung back as the scene changed into Ginny’s bedroom. “Yup, same Ginny,” Ron said lightly, at the end of the conversation, but Harry could hear the catch in his voice. “I think she hit the nail on the head, though,” Hermione said, grinning at Harry and punching him in a very un-Hermioneish way. “Romantic motives, you know.” No matter now hard he tried, he couldn’t keep the blood from rushing to his face. The bedroom faded into the Owlery. Aperio-Harry was there, and a moment later, Hermes soared into the Owlery carrying a package. “You were getting packages from Percy?” Ron said incredulously. Harry rolled his eyes. “Not Percy, the twins. Percy let them borrow his owl.” “Which is something this world’s Percy never would have done,” Ron muttered as he, Harry, and Hermione followed the other Harry down the steps and through the seventh-floor corridor. “The Room of Requirement? But why is this important?” Hermione asked after the other Harry had bumped into Leila and the two had fled into the Room of Requirement. “You’ll see,” Harry said, following himself down the aisles. Aperio-Harry stowed away the book in the cupboard, and turned back to leave, but was confronted by his sister who wanted to stay and look around. Then he caught sight of the tiara. “A tiara? What’s so special about that?” Ron began, but Hermione gripped his arm. “Don’t you remember? Ravenclaw’s tiara! But how on earth did it get here? I just can’t see Voldemort hiding a Horcrux here at Hogwarts.” The scene changed, and McGonagall, Sirius, and Moody were all crowded around the tiara. The letter was produced and read. “A.Y.,” Hermione mused. “Who’s that? Maybe it is a Pureblood like Moody suggested…but it could have been almost anyone, huh? Though the letter does seem like a Pureblood wrote it…” The Room of Requirement faded into the Great Hall, and Harry suppressed a grin. He’d included parts of the Prank War, knowing that Ron would enjoy seeing himself. Aperio-Harry and Jeremy were watching Ron intently as Ron picked up his goblet. “Don’t drink it…” Hermione said, shaking her head, but of course the other Ron couldn’t hear her. A second later, he’s turned to a Ravenclaw prefect and said, “Do you want to snog me in the broom cupboard?” Harry laughed, and Ron scowled. “I bet I got you back good for that one,” he said. “You did,” Harry assured him. “You hexed our beds so they felt like nails. Jer and I had to sleep in the Room of Requirement until we could figure out how to remove the jinxes. The Ravenclaws were behind you–they helped you plan all your pranks. But we had Fred and George, so it was about equal.” Now they were standing in the green house. “What…?” Ron began, but Harry pointed. Leila and Theodore were snogging, and Aperio-Harry was approaching, looking extremely upset. “Is that Nott?” Ron exclaimed incredulously. “GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MY SISTER!” the other Harry bellowed, as the real Harry nodded. “But…but he’s a Slytherin!” “I know,” Harry said. “I have no idea how they met, only that it didn’t start this year.” “Wow,” Ron commented, watching the shouting match that followed. “Remind me never to snog your sister, Harry.” Hermione hit him. “Ron! I’m sure you won’t be doing that. Besides, it looks like she’s only got eyes for…” She trailed off and her eyes widened. “Harry, do you think…. Leila, I mean, will she… Theodore…” Harry sucked in his breath. “No, she wouldn’t.” But he wasn’t sure. Would Leila pursue a relationship with Nott in this world? Nott was probably a completely different person in this reality…maybe he’d already taken the Dark Mark. It was very likely, actually. Leila wouldn’t be so stupid…or would she? She’d been genuinely infatuated with him in the other world. He shook his head. “We’re jumping to conclusions,” he said, watching Leila put the Silencio spell on him. “Actually, remind me never to cross your sister at all,” Ron said, elbowing Harry good-naturedly. “It looks like she’s got you under control, anyway.” “Shut up,” Harry said irritably, at the exact same moment Hermione said it too. “I’m trying to listen,” she clarified, when both boys turned to her. Aurelia Yaxley was revealed to be A.Y., and Nott left with Harry, Leila, and Sirius. The scene changed again, and they were at the next Order meeting. Moody and Harry had a quick conversation, and then the meeting begun. Clark was there, and they discussed the Horcruxes. The meeting was just as boring as Harry remembered, but he was tense, knowing what was coming next. Now they were in the Gryffindor common room, and Aperio-Harry was slowly pulling himself away from the crowd of students partying. He headed up the stairs, and the trio followed. “What was the party for?” Hermione asked. “We won our first match.” Aperio-Harry plopped down on his bed and spread his books out, but then Lupin began calling his name. “That mirror was a marvelous idea,” Hermione said, as the other Harry fished it out of his trunk. Harry was quiet. He didn’t want to watch this scene–not again. He turned away. “Voldemort’s found out that the Order has been destroying his Horcruxes,” Lupin said, and Hermione gasped. Harry stared pointedly in the other direction, his shoulders tense as Lupin listed the people dead. He heard Ron groan again when Bill was mentioned, but when his parents’ names were listed, there was only silence behind him. The scene began to fade, and he slowly turned back to his friends. Hermione was staring at her feet, silent tears dripping off her nose. Ron looked stricken, the streetlight illuminating his pale face as a back street in Hogsmeade materialized around them. “Mate, I’m sorry.” “It’s in the past.” “But seeing them again, and then finding out they were dead… I’m sorry.” Harry closed his eyes. “I can’t change things now. At least…at least I’ve got Leila.” “That you do,” Ron said. He was quiet for a moment, then he said, “How…how did my parents take it?” “I don’t know,” Harry said honestly. “I didn’t see them again.” The black dog in the alleyway changed into Sirius, and the falcon on the signpost flew closer, transforming back to Harry. Ron and Hermione silently watched the scene unfold: the fight with the Death Eaters, Snape’s appearance, the truth about the third person in the Aperio, the real story behind Dumbledore’s death. “That’s what the Pensieve said too,” Hermione said as the colors swirled around them at the end of the memory. “The last memory in the Pensieve was a memory of Dumbledore writing a letter…a letter to you, Harry. The letter said we were not to tell the Order of Snape’s true loyalties, that as Voldemort’s second-in-command he would be better able to kill Nagini, and that Dumbledore himself was planning his death, though he wasn’t sure yet when it would occur. We didn’t tell anyone.” “Good,” Harry said, as the Hog’s Head came into focus around them. The conversation with Snape passed quickly, and before Harry knew it, they were following the other Harry through the halls of the school at a run. Hermione sucked in her breath sharply as they skidded to a halt at the top of the stairs leading down to the entryway. “Death Eaters!” she whispered. “How’d they get in the school?” “You’ll see,” Harry said. “Come on.” Ron and Hermione watched the duels open-mouthed. But when Aperio-Harry confronted Clark and she turned out to be Narcissa Malfoy… “That bi…” Ron began, but Hermione stomped on his foot. “Language, Ronald!” she reprimanded, then turned to Harry. “Merlin, Harry, do you know that this means? She could be anywhere–acting as one of the Order members, pretending to be a teacher, playing Minister of Magic…” Harry nodded grimly. “Which is why we need to inform the Order as soon as possible and begin using some type of true identification system…maybe Veritiserum or perhaps a secret coded password…” “Duck!” Ron yelled, and Harry turned just in time to see himself hit by the stunning spell. Hermione gasped. But before she could speak, the Pensieve had gone dark. “Where are we?” Ron asked. “Oh, never mind.” He pulled out his wand. “Lumos.” Hermione gasped again. “Oh my god. Harry, is that you?” Ron whistled. “You look horrible, mate. What’d they do, try every kind of Muggle and magical torture on you they could think of?” Harry studied himself. It had only been a couple days since he’d taken captive, but he already looked much worse than he had after three days in Azkaban. He was huddled in the corner of the cell, gasping for breath as he kept his arms wrapped tightly around his broken ribs. He was also covered in blood from the interrogations, not to mention being extremely thin and dirty. He was suddenly glad that he hadn’t included any memories of the actual torture sessions–there were some things Ron and Hermione definitely didn’t need to see. The door banged open, and several Death Eaters entered to take Harry away. The trio followed, and both Ron and Hermione were horrified to see that Lupin had been captured as well. Lupin and Harry talked, and Ron actually laughed when Aperio-Harry told Lupin that Voldemort thought he was the Heir of Slytherin. When the scene changed, they were still in the cell, but Lupin was looking very, very different. “He’s going to transform,” Hermione exclaimed, horrified. “Harry, he’s going to transform into a werewolf…look at him!” “I know,” Harry said wearily, watching himself huddled at the other side of the cell, throwing frightened glances at his former teacher. “That was the idea.” “But he’ll kill you!” The cell door opened, and there stood Dolohov. “Watch,” Harry said quietly, as the Death Eater told them to say their last goodbyes. He turned away, but suddenly he cried out and fell to the ground, blood pouring out of wounds. Hermione put her hand over her mouth and clung to Ron’s arm. Snape strode in, his robes billowing magnificently behind him. “Over here, Potter! Can’t you see we’re out of time?” Hermione let out a sigh of relief as the Portkey whisked away the three members of the Aperio. “I was worried there for a moment,” she sighed. “I can’t believe they locked you two up in a cell for the full moon. That’s barbaric!” “Since when have the Death Eaters been civil to their captives?” Ron pointed out, then frowned. “Where are we now?” Harry looked around. The bedroom was bright and sunny, the light falling on the still figure on the bed. “We’re at Lupin’s house,” he said. “Snape brought us here.” “You look awful,” said Hermione unnecessarily, walking over to the bed. “Oh, you’re awake! Why can’t you move, though?” Harry watched the door, waiting for Ginny’s entrance. “Aftereffects of too many Cruciatus Curses,” he said simply. “My name is Harry Potter,” the other Harry said carefully, and Ron snorted with laughter. But he cut off mid-chuckle when the door opened and Ginny slipped into the room. “And I’m Ginny Weasley. It’s nice to meet you.” The look of relief on Ron’s face at seeing his sister well, even if she was a little thinner and her eyes a little more guarded, was worth a million galleons. “She’s OK,” he mumbled, not taking his eyes off of Ginny. “She’s alive.” “That she is,” Harry said, smiling. “But why is she here?” Hermione asked, patting Ron’s arm. “She couldn’t exactly stay with the Weasleys, now could she?” Harry said. “The Aurors are still looking for her. For the first two months she was living at Grimmauld Place with Regulus, so naturally she stayed there when she got better. And then the attacks occurred, and they had to evacuate. So they went to Lupin’s house.” The conversation continued, and Ron choked when Ginny called Snape by his first name. “Thank you,” Harry said loudly. “I thought it was weird too!” “Oh, cut it out, you guys,” Hermione snapped. Things moved very quickly after that. Harry wisely had omitted the conversation with Ginny when things had gotten just a little too carried away. The memories picked up when he and Ginny entered the living room. Hermione smacked her head. “Of course you’ll have to leave,” she said when the conversation was finished. “You’re the Secret-Keeper! That’s why Lupin was so anxious to get you out of there.” Harry nodded appreciatively. “Right.” Rather than take them through his last memories of Hogwarts, he simply explained that the International Portkey was bound for Beauxbatons and that Leila had convinced McGonagall to let her go too. The way Hermione’s eyes widened at the word “Beauxbatons” let Harry know that she had not forgotten that this was the part of the story where she came in. Ron whistled at the high ceilings and elegant marble floors of the French equivalent of Hogwarts. “I’m glad I don’t go here.” Harry agreed wholeheartedly, but Hermione was watching the students with a gleam of jealousy in her eye. It suddenly occurred to Harry that his best friend was a girl. Odd as it sounded, she’d been more of a tomboy during their earlier years at Hogwarts, but of course that usually came with having two boys as your best friends. Maybe on the inside, Hermione was just as girly as Lavender and Parvati… Maybe she too craved pretty dresses and elegant rooms and delicate jewelry… Harry made a mental note to remind Ron of this fact, but then the surroundings melted into Madame Maxime’s office, and Harry nudged Hermione. “Here’s your entrance,” he said. But first, Hermione had to get over seeing Nicholas Flamel alive. “I can’t believe it,” she exclaimed. “The smartest man in the world… And I read that he could have defeated Grimwald if he’d felt like it.” “It’s true,” Harry told her, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice. “Guess why he hasn’t lifted a finger to stop Voldemort yet?” Hermione’s eyes went wide. “No… Are you serious?” But then, the door opened, and Ron sucked in his breath. Harry and Hermione turned, and for a moment, Harry was frozen. Aperio-Hermione hadn’t seemed that different from the Hermione he knew, but when both were in the room, there was an obvious difference. Aperio-Hermione was an ice queen. She stood tall and stiff, her clothes perfect, her hair shiny. Ron was gaping; Hermione simply stared. “I looked like that,” she whispered. “Yeah,” Harry said. “No, I mean, I looked like that.” Harry finally got her meaning, but surprisingly, Ron, who was usually like a block of wood when it came to these things, got there first. He picked his jaw up off the ground, grabbed Hermione’s shoulders, and spun her to face him. “Listen to me, Hermione. You’re a thousand times prettier than she is.” Hermione stared back. “Really?” she whispered. “Really,” Ron said. And it was true. Watching his best friends, Harry knew that Ron wasn’t lying. Even in her robe, her hair a frizzy mess, her eyes shadowed with black circles from lack of sleep, her face sporting a few more lines than it had on the last day of school, she looked much more beautiful than the Hermione who had attended Beauxbatons, grown up with the popular girls, and become Madame Maxime’s personal assistant. Her eyes were kinder, her features softer, and her smile wider. Ron and Hermione had been staring at each other for a long time, completely disregarding the events occurring around them. For a moment, Harry thought they would kiss, but since he really didn’t want to be a witness to that, he cleared his throat loudly. “Um, guys…” Ron and Hermione jumped, the blood rushing to their faces. “What?” “This is important.” They were in the library. Leila was buried behind a large stack of books. Harry was sitting nearby, twirling a quill in his hands. “Lot of help you were, mate,” Ron said, having regained his composure. “We convinced the Headmistress to let you help Flamel with the Aperio research,” Harry told Hermione, ignoring Ron’s jab. Just then, the doors of the library flew open. “I found it… I found it!” she was yelling, waving a piece of paper. “Found what? What did I find?” Hermione said, bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet. She quickly crowded around to see what was drawn on the paper. “The triqueta! Of course,” she finally breathed, stepping away. “Why didn’t I think of that before?” “Probably because Harry didn’t ask you to solve the Aperio,” Ron said as they followed Harry, Leila, and Hermione up the stairs to Flamel’s office. Things moved quickly. Ron and Hermione watched as Hermione and Flamel worked frantically to complete the preparations to reverse the Aperio. “It’s so complex,” Hermione breathed as the other Hermione and Flamel painted the triqueta onto the marble floor. “I can’t believe we even figured it out. Harry, you do know how close you came to being stuck in that world forever, don’t you?” Harry nodded. “I know.” The drawing completed, Harry, Lupin, and Snape stepped into their respective triangles. Flamel and Hermione had just begun to erect the layers of spells when Leila suddenly darted forward and threw her arms around Harry. “I was wondering when that would happen,” Ron muttered. Hermione slapped his arm. “Obviously, Ronald, they’re really close, or she wouldn’t have wanted to go. Think about it…she left everything. Her godfather, her friends, her boyfriend…” She fell silent, watching the exchange that followed. But her mouth dropped open when Aperio-Hermione suggested the soul-binding spell. “But that’s Dark magic!” Hermione exclaimed. “And very dangerous! I can’t believe…I mean…” “And the time-stopping spell you performed before we came in here wasn’t dark magic? Sure,” Ron said sarcastically. “That was different,” Hermione said defensively. “That spell doesn’t work like a Time-Turner. You can’t hurt anyone, or change the past or future. Anything you do, anywhere you go, any object you move or paper you write or spell you perform, all will be as it was when you undo the spell.” “So what’s it good for?” “This,” Hermione explained impatiently. “Viewing memories. Reading about things. Talking. Things that you can remember, but don’t leave a change in the world around you. Actions that only affect your memories and thoughts.” She turned back. The soul-binding spell was almost completed. Silently, they watched Leila and Harry take their place once again in the third triangle. “Thank you. You don’t know what this means to me,” Aperio-Harry told Aperio-Hermione before she pulled out her wand and began to cast spells. The layers of magic grew thicker and higher and more colorful. Then just as Harry was sure not another layer would fit into the room, Hermione and Flamel cried “Priori novo fatumetas!” And they vanished. The Pensieve went black, and Harry followed Hermione’s lead, pointing his want upward and letting it pull him out of the basin of memories, back onto reality… Harry stumbled out of the Pensieve, gasping for breath. He reached out blindly and found the edge of the table to steady himself on. When the room stopped moving, he carefully maneuvered himself into a chair. Hermione was shaking her head. “What a journey,” she breathed. Ron nodded emphatically. They sat at the table for a long time, not speaking. Harry glanced up at the clock on the wall; it was odd to see its hands still frozen on five forty-five–he knew it’d been hours since they’d entered the Pensieve. “So,” Hermione finally said, clasping her hands. “What do we do now?” Harry stared at the table. “I suppose we have to tell your family some of what I showed you,” he said to Ron. “They’ll want to know, mate.” “But not the Horcruxes.” To his surprise, both Ron and Hermione nodded. “We won’t tell them about the Horcruxes.” “But the rest of the Aperio–do I have to explain it all?” Hermione looked over at Ron. “Just an outline should be fine, I think,” she said softly. “What about the other Order members?” “We’ll need to let Shacklebolt, Tonks, Diggle, McGonagall, Moody, and the others who have been looking for you that you two are back.” “And Ginny?” Ron and Hermione exchanged another glance. “Uh, that one we’ll let you decide, mate,” Ron said, shifting uncomfortably. “Personally, I don’t want her to get hurt just as much as you do, but there are some things she deserves to know. I know she’s not seventeen yet, so she can’t exactly go Horcrux-hunting with us, but then again, your sister’s not seventeen, and I can’t see her willingly going back to Hogwarts with Ginny…” “But then again, there’s only one more Horcrux to find,” Hermione said, pursing her lips. “We need to find out what happened to the locket. We already know where the cup, the tiara, and the snake are.” Harry sighed; he’d have to decide about Ginny later. He suddenly felt his eyes growing heavy. He suppressed a yawn, but Hermione noticed anyway. “You need to go back to bed, Harry,” she chided. “I’m sure you’re exhausted. Honestly, we can figure this all out later.” Ron nodded. “Yeah, go to bed, mate. Hermione can reverse the spell, and you can sneak back upstairs. When Mum gets up, we’ll just tell her you’re not awake yet. You can stay up there as long as you want, until you feel like coming down.” Harry smiled gratefully at his friends. Once again, they knew exactly what he needed. Rest, and then time. “Thanks, Ron, Hermione. Thanks for everything–especially for understanding… you know.” “No problem,” Ron said sincerely, replying for Hermione as well. “Now go.” |
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