Search:

SIYE Time:20:07 on 28th March 2024
SIYE Login: no


If The Fates Allow
By AgiVega

- Text Size +

Category: Post-OotP
Characters:Draco Malfoy, Harry/Ginny
Genres: Drama
Warnings: Sexual Situations, Extreme Language
Story is Complete
Rating: R
Reviews: 596
Summary: Ginny has been forced to marry Draco Malfoy, but her heart still belongs to Harry. Will she ever be able to break free from this unwanted marriage? Will Harry help her? A story of passion, blackmail, Greek gods and a most surreal place for playing Quidditch! Join Harry and Ginny on their odyssey through despair and hope, faith and love, amidst Voldemort's machinations!
Hitcount: Story Total: 114333; Chapter Total: 3966







ChapterPrinter
StoryPrinter


When you're alone
Who comes around
To pluck you up
When you are down
And when you're outside, looking in
Who's there to open the door?
That's what friends are for!

(Disney’s The Jungle Book)


Cedric Diggory was wondering why Queen Persephone had sent for him. He had been at the middle of a Quidditch training session when a messenger came to the pitch and told him that the queen wanted to see him in person.

What could be this important? And why would the queen want to talk to him? He had barely seen her in his whole life – correction: his life after death –, so he had absolutely no idea what she could want from him.

“Don’t be long, Ced!” shouted Godric Gryffindor from the pitch.

“I won’t Captain!” Cedric waved back, knowing what Gryffindor desired the most was to win a match against Tartarus at last. Elysium hadn’t won a single match for two hundred and forty-six years now. The members of the Elysium team had been resigning after a couple of unsuccessful years, so the composition of the team had been constantly changing, while the team of Tartarus, under the leadership of Captain Cesare Borgia, hadn’t changed since Rasputin joined in 1917…

Cedric propped his StyxSweeper 2003 broom on his shoulder and started climbing the steps leading towards the palace of the Underworld that stood on a small hill, its front door lined with elaborately carved skulls.



“Listen to this, Hadie,” said Persephone, sitting crosswise in a cushioned armchair that served as the queen’s throne. Her head was propped on one of the chair’s armrests, her legs lolling over the other armrest. She was sucking some sort of a pink, skull-shaped lollipop, deeply immersed in reading The Quibbler. Her position was as un-royal as possible, but it didn’t seem to bother her husband, who was sitting on his throne next to her chair, his face half hidden in his palms, his expression radiating utter boredom.

“What have you found now?” he sighed, rolling his eyes.

“Listen,” Persephone slightly straightened her back to show the importance of what she was about to read out. “Famous celebrity Celestina Warbeck has been caught madly snogging with none other than Michael Jackson in an infamous bar called The Blue Oyster in New York. Goblins, disguised as men in black leather thongs were hired to continue tailing the enamoured singing sensations…” the Queen of the Underworld squinted at her husband to see that his eyes were closed. “Are you listening?” she nudged him. With a snore-like snort Hades shuddered and opened his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m listening. But honestly, Persy, why do you believe all the rubbish that The Quibbler writes?”

“Should I rather read the Financial Times? That’s boring!” she snapped as a young man with dark brown hair and a broom on his shoulder entered the room. She immediately dropped her newspaper and her expression changed from furious-at-Hades into a serene, compassionate one.

The young man stopped at the door. Noticing him, Persephone pulled her legs off her chair’s armrest to sit as regally as possible. Seeing the young man’s hesitation, she beckoned him closer with a gentle smile. “Come, come my dear, don’t be afraid.”

“I’m not afraid, Your Highness,” replied Cedric. “I’m just surprised that you asked me to join you for a discussion. I’m curious to know what it is all about.”

Persephone and Hades exchanged a meaningful look, then Hades spoke up:

“As you know, young Diggory, we here in the Underworld have no clue to what is going on up in the world of the living – all we get to know comes from the newspapers that my dear mother-in-law Demeter keeps sending us through the Styx-post.”

Indeed, Demeter had been providing her daughter with information of the world above through newspapers that she kept dropping into the Styx at its source, i.e. the source of the Styx was on the surface of Earth, it just dived beneath the surface again after a short stretch. Demeter had wanted to make sure that her daughter was well informed about the events of the world above, so that when she left the underworld to spend half the year with her mother, she’d be aware of what had happened in her half-year long sojourn in the underworld. Sometimes the inhabitants of the underworld got to know about the happenings of the world above from Persephone’s newspapers, but that being the only source of information, they were mostly unaware of what was going on in the world of the living.

“Yes, Your Majesty, I am aware of it,” nodded Cedric and jumped aside because a huge stack of newspapers fell through the ceiling, right where he had been standing a second earlier. The newspapers were bound together with a sticking charm and he saw that the one on the top was called The Guardian. “I’m just curious to know what it has to do with me.”

“Well,” the queen hesitated for a second, her eyes full of sympathy. Then she slid off her throne and started rummaging through a pile of magazines she had dropped to the floor after having read them through. “Ah, here it is,” she pulled the Daily Prophet out from under Le Monde and Der Spiegel, handing it to Cedric. “Page fifteen. And I’m truly, deeply sorry.”

Cedric took the newspaper with slightly trembling hands, fearing that something terrible would be in there.

The headline on page fifteen read:

HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED STRIKES AGAIN
This time not in Eurodisney, but in Great Stoatshead


Cedric gulped and read on.

It seems that after his five years of hiding and licking the wounds given to him by the Boy Who Lived (to whom we rather refer nowadays as the Boy Who Has Gone Missing), He Who Must Not Be Named seems to have returned to full power. We can only guess what he has been doing over the last five years, why he was hiding, but very likely we will never properly find out.

He has lost most of his Death Eaters – we would have said, but less than a week ago he struck in Disneyland Paris, with a group of at least fifteen dark wizards. This means he must have found a way to recruit new followers. The number of casualties of the Disneyland attack is approximately 150 people, over thirty of them dead.

After an attack of such magnitude we were fearful that next time You-Know-Who would strike in a packed shopping mall or in Diagon Alley, but instead he has chosen a smaller target: Amos Diggory of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and his wife Coré Papafotiu Diggory.

We might wonder why the Dark Lord chose this innocent couple whose only son he had already murdered. The Auror squad led by Nymphadora Tonks arrived at the scene shortly after the attack to find the Diggorys’ home devastated, Amos and Coré tortured to such an extent that they weren’t able to speak or even recognise the Aurors.

They were immediately transported to St Mungo’s in the hope of providing them with rapid treatment. However, the damage seems permanent, and the Diggorys are likely to be sent into the Spell Damage department of the wizarding hospital and remain there for the rest of their lives.

After a thorough investigation it turns out that He Who Must Not Be Named and his servants must have been looking for something in the couple’s home, for all filing cabinets were pried open, their contents scattered all over the house.

Auror Tonks found a photo album lying on the floor, several photos missing. To add an intriguing detail to the story, the photo album from which pictures had obviously been stolen, contained thirty-year-old photos of Coré Diggory (the then Coré Papafotiu, whom Amos first met on an international wizarding conference, in which Coré represented her homeland, Greece).

So far Magical Law Enforcement hasn’t managed to solve the riddle as to why You-Know-Who would need photos of Mrs Diggory’s childhood family…



The article continued with the journalist’s lamenting over the Diggorys’ terrible condition and blaming Magical Law Enforcement for their constant blundering.

His face as white as a sheet, Cedric glanced up at Hades and Persephone.

“I’m very, very sorry…” said the queen, her huge dark blue eyes brimming with tears.

“I’m sorry about your parents, and also that you had to get to know about it like this,” added the king of the underworld solemnly.

“I wish we could help you somehow…” sighed the queen.

“But you could,” replied Cedric resolutely.

“How?” Hades arched an eyebrow at him.

“I’ve heard that on certain occasions you let some of the dead leave the netherworld to join their loved ones in the world of the living… when those people were going through a really distressing time and they needed support… I’ve heard you let Caesar’s soul join Cleopatra’s when she needed support against Octavian and she never got to know that it had been her late lover’s spirit helping her, giving her the heart to carry on… I’d like to do as Caesar did. I’d like to go up and be beside my parents. They won’t know I’m there, but they’ll sense me somehow in their subconscious, and perhaps… perhaps I’ll be able to help them, heal them…”

The king of the underworld gave the young man an appraising look. “I haven’t given anyone my consent to leave my world for centuries…”

“Couldn&# 8217;t you make an exception this time, Hadie dear?” asked his wife, gently squeezing his hand.

“I don’t know, Persy…” Hades shook his head. “I’d love to help the Diggorys by letting their son rejoin them for a while, but who’d play Seeker for Elysium then?”

“Oh, don’t be such an insensitive wart!” snapped the queen. “How can that stupid game be more important for you than the well-being of two people? I’m deeply disappointed in you, Hades!”

“Don’t call me Hades!” said the king of the netherworld, pouting.

“But that’s your name, isn’t it?” Persephone grunted and looked away.

“You know I hate it when you call me that! For you I’m Hadie!”

If his heart hadn’t been full of worry for his parents, Cedric would have been thoroughly amused by the couple’s bickering.

“As long as you don’t let this young man help his parents, you’re just Hades for me!” said the queen defiantly.

The king of the underworld sent Cedric an ‘I-can’t-believe-this’ stare. “Sorry, boy, but we can’t let Tartarus win again, can we? I can’t let you go until you find someone to play Seeker instead of you. Could you perhaps appoint another Seeker for your team?”

“I’m afraid not, sir,” the young man shook his head. “You know how dirty Tartarus is playing, there’s not a single soul in Elysium who’d volunteer for the position – at least none that I know of…”

Hades scratched his jaw, looking thoughtful. “Well, perhaps…”

But no one ever got to know what he had wanted to say, for at that second the limp body of a man fell through the ceiling.

The man fell face down on the floor, clutching a wand in his hand. He had obviously come through the Styx, for everything that fell through the ceiling always came from the river – sometimes even Muggle garbage, which was very annoying for the cleaners of the king’s palace.

Although the man must have fallen into the river, now he was absolutely dry, because the ceiling of Hades’ palace had a drying charm on it so that the newspapers dropped into the river by Demeter wouldn’t land dripping wet on Persephone’s lap.

“Is he dead?” worried the queen and crouched down next to the limp body.

“Of course he’s dead, honey, who else would be coming to the underworld?” Hades rolled his eyes.

Suddenly the man on the floor stirred and rolled onto this back. “I hate gravity. And Aurors,” he whispered, his eyes still closed. “Why did I ever want to be one of them?”

“What is he saying?” asked Persephone. “He seems to be raving.

Before her husband could reply, Cedric shouted: “It’s Harry!”

“Who?”

̶ 0;Harry Potter. My one-time fellow student at Hogwarts,” said young Diggory. “Damn it, Harry, why did you also have to die?”

Harry opened his eyes, blinked to clear his vision and turned slightly in Cedric’s direction. “Dead? No, I’m not dead… at least I don't think so. By the way, hi, Ced.” Suddenly he sat bolt upright. “Tell me, are you the real Cedric, or just another illusion trying to deceive me?”

“What the heck are you talking about?” young Diggory furrowed his brow.

“I just… the Row of Gods… Aurors came… I fell into the river, then… bugger, what if the Aurors caught Ginny? And Phaedra? And Malfoy? Hah, I’m going mad, Cedric, I actually feel worried about Malfoy.”

“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about, Harry,” replied Cedric, kneeling down next to him, “but… you’re really alive!”

“’Course I am, haven’t I said so yet?” grunted Harry, looking around. “Who’re they?” he pointed at the rulers of the netherworld.

“He’s Hadie,” the queen introduced her husband with a gentle smile.

“And she’s Persy,” added her husband, pointing at her.

“Percy?” blinked Harry. “I must have hit my head very badly. Percy as in Percival?”

“As in Persephone!” the queen corrected him. “It’s an ‘s’ in Persy, not a ‘c’. But really…” she leant closer to Harry to look into his eyes. “It’s amazing!”

“What?” frowned the young wizard.

“That you’re alive!”

“Why is that so amazing?” shrugged Harry. “I fell into the Styx in the Row of Gods, but I was very much alive there, so why wouldn’t I be alive here?”

“Because this is the underworld,” declared Hades.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, there’s a Hades’ room in the Row of Gods, this must be part of it,” nodded Harry.

“I think you have misunderstood us, young man. This is the Underworld. No room, no illusion, but the real one.”

“Wha…?” Harry gaped. “No, no… This must be just a dream… Harry wake up!” he slapped his face as hard as he could. “This can’t be true! Tell me you’re just joking!”

“We aren’t,” Persephone shook her head. “You’re in the netherworld – alive.”

“How can you tell I’m alive…I'm beginning to think I’m actually dead,” young Potter said.

“We can see it in your eyes,” replied Cedric. “They're alive. They're so different from those of the dead… just look at my eyes. What can you see there?”

Frowning, Harry gazed into his one-time Quidditch opponent’s eyes and was taken aback by what he saw there: Cedric’s eyes were just as pretty grey as they had ever been, but somehow they were translucent. The rest of his body seemed totally solid, Harry would have sworn he could touch and feel it if he reached out, but Ced’s eyes were simply unearthly. Nothing but his eyes suggested that he wasn’t a normal human being.

Harry squinted at Persephone. “Your eyes aren’t translucent. You must be alive, too, so why
is it such a big deal that I’m here alive?”

“Because I’m a goddess, I’m immortal.”

“Did you just say you’ve been in the Row of Gods?” interjected Hades.

“Yeah, I’ve been there,” nodded Harry. “Had some business with The Fates.”

“And you reached them?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Because,” said Hades, “then you must be a tough fighter. No one has managed to go through the tasks and live to tell the tale for about a thousand years!”

“That must’ve been a piece of cake for Harry, eh?” grinned Cedric, for the moment forgetting about the bad news in the Daily Prophet. “He won the Triwizard Tournament, too.”

“I won it together with you, old boy,” Harry grinned back.

“C’mon, don’t be so modest!”

“I’m not modest, just… you were still better than me. You reached the cup before me…”

“Only because you saved me from Krum…”

“…and you were better at Quidditch, too…”

“Now that’s something I refuse to agree with!” protested young Diggory. “You were a much better Seeker than I ever was, I only won that single match because you got into trouble with the Dementors… To tell you the truth, I’ve never seen a Seeker as good as you, Harry.”

“A moment, please!” Hades cut in. “Did you just say he was a good Seeker?”

“Yeah, that’s right…” shrugged Cedric.

Hades and Persephone looked at each other in a rather peculiar way.

“What?” asked Harry, confused.

“Care to play for Elysium?”

“For what?????”

* * * * *


Sitting on a patch of straw, Ginny was gazing at the floor of the cell they were being held in. Draco was pacing the cell irritably, while Phaedra was standing by the bars, looking defiantly outside.

“Where on Earth are they? Haven’t they got my owl?” huffed Draco.

“Shut up, Malfoy, will you?” snapped Phaedra, but her voice was no longer as firm and determined as it had been, it was trembling and nervous. “They’ll come sooner or later, and you’ll be free to go back to your darned England!”

“What do you have against England?”

“Nothing! But my husband died merely hours ago, so I’m a bit beside myself, that’s understandable, isn’t it?” she shouted, her eyes blazing with fury and pain. “Isn’t it???”

“Yeah, yeah, of course. I’m sorry,” replied Malfoy.

“Sorry? Are you really sorry that Harry died?” Phaedra looked incredulous.

Draco shrugged. “I never liked him, but he deserved a worthier death than drowning in a stupid river.”

Ginny didn’t hear anything of their bickering, she was just gazing at the floor, her ears not taking in any sound, her mind not interpreting anything… she was in a state of shock, and even tears failed to come. Oh, it would have been a relief to cry, but she simply couldn’t. For the moment she didn’t even feel the pain Phaedra was so spectacularly suffering from, Harry’s death didn’t even properly sink in… he had just fallen into the Styx and never resurfaced. However, Ginny didn’t identify this with the fact that Harry had died. Her thoughts were hovering somewhere between dream and reality, but didn’t belong to either of the two categories, so she couldn’t even decide what had truly happened and what had just been a figment of her imagination.

She couldn’t even properly remember what had happened to them in the Row of Gods, the last four days with Harry seemed to be a blur, she could no more tell whether she had indeed visited Harry at the old Black house, whether she had let him glimpse her memories, whether they had ever eaten gyros at Nikias’, whether Spiro had ever existed, whether they had ever been to Delphi and Atlantis, whether they had indeed made love… Everything was so hazy, so fragmented that Ginny’s thoughts and memories resembled the scattered pieces of a jigsaw puzzle… she simply couldn’t put the pieces into the right places to form a complete picture, and perhaps she didn’t even want to. For the time being she felt okay just gazing at the floor, not trying to think at all.

She didn’t even look up when voices spoke from beyond the bars – and rather familiar voices at that.

“Come on,” snapped a female voice, “you can’t really think that Draco and Virginia Malfoy were indeed accomplices of a murderer!”

“I’m sorry, lady…”

“Don’t you dare call me lady, I’m an Auror just like you!” grunted the female voice.

“Oh, sorry, colleague, but we have every reason to believe that they were his accomplices, they were together at a rather shifty place, very possibly having a secret mafia-meeting…”

“Hone stly, man, what are you talking about?” said a raspy voice harshly. “Mafia? Are you out of your mind?”

“Yes, they are, if they think that I had anything to do with Po…” began Draco, only to be kicked in the shin by Phaedra. “…Dursley. We had absolutely nothing to do with Dursley. At least not Mrs P… Creevey and me. As for my wife, she got kidnapped by Dursley, she’s only a victim. Mrs Creevey and I only went after them to save her from the clutches of that lunatic, so all three of us are innocent.”

“You heard him,” commented the raspy voice. “So, are you letting them go or should we get in contact with the International Auror Court of Justice?”

“All right, then, Moody, if you vouch for them, you may take them,” consented the chief of the Athens Auror team. “But I’m only letting them go because you are vouching for them.”

“Great,” chimed in the familiar female voice. “Let them out of the cell, then, will you? And give them their wands back.”

Ginny heard the door of the cell creak open, and felt someone gently help her off the straw-littered ground. Still dazed, she slowly turned her head in the direction of the person who’d helped her. “Tonks?” she whispered.

“Wotcher, Ginny,” the young Auror smiled at her and led her out of the cell.

“What… what are you doing here?” asked Ginny in a shaky voice as they left the building of the Auror headquarters.

“We’ve come to take you home. Here, dear, take your wand.”

Ginny took it without a word.

“Your husband sent us a message that you were being kept prisoner in Athens,” Tonks continued, “you know even prisoners have the right to contact their lawyers or relatives or anyone they’d like to. Your husband was clever enough to contact us, and Moody and I came to sort things out. Everything’s going to be all right now.”

“No, it won’t,” replied Ginny monotonously, surprised that she could produce any sort of a sound at all. “Nothing will ever be all right. Harry’s dead.”

“What?” Tonks’ dark eyes widened in shock. “You must be joking!”

Ginny smiled bitterly. “If only it were a joke… but I’d never ever joke about something like that, Tonks.”

“But… how? Did that Dursley or who kidnap him, too?”

“No Dursley ever kidnapped anyone. Harry went by the name Dursley… the Aurors were after him because he’d killed someone… but he wasn’t guilty, he just gave that man what he deserved.”

“What? Potter killed someone?” asked Mad-Eye, his huge blue eye swivelling madly in its socket.

“Wasn’t his fault,” interjected Phaedra. “That bastard tortured our daughter to death. If Harry hadn’t killed him, I would have.”

They all stared at the Greek witch whose normally tan complexion was ashen now.

“And,” she carried on, looking directly into Ginny’s eyes, her hands balled into fists, “it’s you who killed him. Youuuu…”

“Phaedra, I…”

“You murderer!” shouted Mrs Potter, as though something in her had finally snapped and she lunged at Ginny. Had Alastor not held her back, she would very likely have scratched Ginny’s eyes out. “You’re his murderer, you damned little bitch!” she panted, trying to throw Moody’s firm hands off herself, but they held her in place. “Had you not talked him into coming back to Greece, he would have remained in England and lived a happy life!”

Ginny gave her an appraising look. “You came to England to talk him into rejoining you and the Circle. He would have come back in any case - if not with me, then with you.”

“How can you be this… this calm?” hissed Phaedra. “You selfish little tramp, you never loved him, now I can see it!”

“I loved him more than you ever did,” whispered Ginny.

“Then cry! Cry like I do! Show that you loved him, for heaven’s sake! What sort of a love did you feel for him if you can’t even cry over his death?”

“I want to go back to England, Tonks,” said Ginny, looking away from the hysterical Phaedra.

“Shall we escort Mrs Potter back to her home?” suggested Mad-Eye.

“No thanks, I can find my way home very well on my own,” growled Phaedra, not wanting to disclose the location of the Circle headquarters to anyone.

“I agree with Mr Moody, Phaedra, you need someone to escort you home in your current condition,” said Draco.

“Hah, Mr Malfoy is worried about me? How flattering,” said the Greek witch in a sarcastic tone. “What are you worried about? That I might go off and commit suicide? Oh, don’t be afraid of that, I’m not the type. As for you,” she turned to Ginny again, “I’m more than happy to know that you didn’t manage what you wanted here, and that you’ll have to live with Malfoy again. That’s a big enough punishment for you, Virginia.”

Ginny just stared back at the other woman, not even blinking. Seemingly she had sunk back into the same benumbed state she had been in when Tonks and Mad-Eye arrived. At the moment her expression resembled Luna Lovegood’s: distant, dreamy, looking like someone who’s not all there.

Alastor and Tonks exchanged confused looks, not having the slightest idea what Phaedra was referring to and why it’d be a punishment for Ginny to continue living with her husband.

“Whatever you say, Phaedra, I’m not letting you go home alone,” said Draco firmly. Had Ginny not sunken back into her withdrawn condition again, she would have been gaping at him with a ‘have you gone mad, Draco?’ expression. “Mr Moody, Miss Tonks, I’d be grateful if you escorted my wife back to England while I take care of Mrs Potter here.”

“I said I don't need your care, Malfoy! I’m not a little girl anymore, I can take care of myself, thank you very much!” snapped Phaedra.

“I think Mr Malfoy is right, Mrs Potter,” commented Tonks, trying to hide her surprise over the fact that Harry had married this woman. She, Tonks, had always thought that Harry would one day marry little Ginny… she had been surprised enough when the news about Ginny and Draco’s wedding came out, then the disappearance of Harry Potter… yet, she found it somewhat hard to imagine that Harry could have liked this temperamental, hysterical, Mediterranean chick. Tonks simply couldn’t see them making a happy couple… and now she’d never ever see Harry being happy with anyone.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and fought back the tears that wanted to flow down her cheeks. What would Remus say when he got to know about Harry’s death? What would the whole wizarding world, especially British wizarding society say? Horror clutched at her heart – what would be You-Know-Who’s reaction???

* * * * *


Sitting under a mahogany tree, Harry was staring at the article in the Daily Prophet. His heart ached for the poor Diggorys, but the thing that most shocked him was the maiden name of Mrs Diggory…

“Papafotiu?” he looked up at Cedric with knitted eyebrows.

“Yeah, that’s my mum’s maiden name,” nodded Cedric. “Why?”

“Because I happen to know certain Papafotius in Athens… Spiro and his sister Leto Papafotiu. Are you related to them by any chance?”

Young Diggory looked thoughtful. “I think so. Mum has once mentioned a cousin of hers, who had two kids by the name Spiro and Leto, but I’ve never met them.”

“What could Voldemort want from a photo album of the Papafotiu family?” wondered Harry, while Cedric slightly shuddered at the name. Seemingly even the dead could be afraid of the Dark Lord…

“No idea, mate,” Cedric shook his head, idly twirling a dandelion between his thumb and index finger. The tree under which they were sitting, stood not far away from Hades’ palace, in the picturesque Elysium.

The Underworld was divided into two parts: Elysium and Tartarus. Elysium was the place for the good, while in Tartarus resided those who had lived twisted, evil lives.

Harry had only seen a part of Elysium so far, but had a very good idea of what Tartarus must look like: he imagined it exactly the way Hades’ room in the Row of Gods had looked: dark, gloomy and totally devoid of happiness.

Elysium, on the other hand, was a rather pretty place with fresh air, green meadows, colourful flowers, gurgling little creeks and enchanting birdsong. He hadn’t seen a lot of it yet, he had just been escorted from the king’s palace to this mahogany tree by Cedric where he had been given the newspaper. In the far distance forms were moving, most of them clad in white, pale pink and friendly yellow clothing, as though they had been dancing spring flowers.

“But… the Death Eaters must’ve been looking for something in that album, don’t you think?”

“Oh come on, why would they want photos of my mum’s relatives?” waved Cedric. “Seriously, I’m not interested in what they were looking for, all that matters is that my parents have to heal… and I could help them… And Hades doesn’t want to let me go because then my team, Elysium won’t have a Seeker.”

“I understand this, Ced, but you can’t expect me to stay here for who knows how long and play Quidditch while Ginny might be incarcerated by those stupid Aurors! I’ve got to help her, and my wife, too…”

“You’re married?” young Diggory looked surprised.

“Um, yeah.”

“Is it Cho?”

“Who?”

“ Your wife.”

“What? Oh, no!” Harry shook his head with a small smile. “Why did you think that she and I…?”

“I might have been blinded by my love for Cho, but I wasn’t totally blind. I saw your infatuation with her.”

“Did you?” Harry bit into his lower lip. “Well, no. We went once out in my fifth year at Hogwarts, but… that was all. We simply weren’t made for each other…” And certainly you shouldn’t have slept with a woman whom you believed to be Cho, if you knew you two weren’t made for each other, a voice in his head reminded him.

“Did she find someone else?” asked Cedric. Harry gave him a sideways glance to see that he was smiling wistfully. “Is she happy now?”

“Yeah,” Harry nodded. “She married a bloke called Michael Corner…”

“I can’t recall this Michael…” young Diggory said.

“Don’t worry, I also never knew he existed until Ginny turned out to be going out with him,” replied Harry with a grimace. “Fortunately they broke up after only a couple of months of dating. Well, the point is that Michael seems to be a nice chap, and I heard that he and Cho even have a son… named after you.”

“Me?” Cedric’s eyes widened.

“Yeah,” young Potter grinned at him.

“Well… I’m happy that she’s happy. She deserves to be happy.”

So does Ginny, thought Harry, and she’s not happy as long as she’s with Malfoy… but then again, they’ll very likely get out of prison sooner or later, Malfoy’s the type to wriggle out of every tight hole, he’s done it on several occasions… and if I went back now, I wouldn’t be able to help Ginny, she’s bound to Draco for another ten months… On the other hand, if I took on playing Seeker, then Cedric could perhaps help his parents… Harry stared at the grass in front of him, deep in a dilemma. But if I don’t go back now, then Ginny and everyone else will think I’m dead… oh, God, Ginny’ll be broken, and Phaedra, too… and Ron, and Hermione… and Remus… he ran a hand through his dishevelled jet-black locks. Aren’t I selfish? Isn’t it selfish to want to go back just to tell them that I’m alive, while Mr and Mrs Diggory might be shut into the same ward as the Longbottoms for ever? I have made so many wrong decisions, firstly sleeping with the fake Cho, then letting Voldemort blackmail me with Amrita… running away from England and hooking up with Phaedra… then killing that Sicilian… had I been able to control my temper, I could as well have just Stunned him, and then the Aurors wouldn’t have come after me, I wouldn’t have fallen into this stupid river and I shouldn’t be worrying how my friends will take the news about my so called death… it’s all my bloody fault, after all! He screwed his eyes shut. I simply can’t let Cedric NOT GO and help his parents if there’s even a little ray of hope that he could help them… I could have helped so many people, but just brought trouble upon them by making the wrong decision five years ago… I can’t make a wrong decision again! Ginny and Phaedra will suffer for sure, so will all of my friends, but their suffering will subside as time goes on, while the Diggorys might suffer till the end of their lives if I continue acting the selfish idiot!

“All right, then,” he looked up to meet Cedric’s eyes. “You go and help them, and I’ll stay and play Quidditch.”

Cedric’s face lit up, as if a hundred of little suns had suddenly illuminated it. Even his slightly translucent eyes were alight with happiness, and looked much less unearthly now.

“How can I ever thank you, Harry?” he beamed.

“You don’t need to thank me, I owe the world a sacrifice,” replied young Potter.

Under normal circumstances Cedric would surely have asked what sort of sacrifice Harry owed the world, but he was simply too hyper now to care about the subtle meaning behind Harry’s words.

“Or… you know what, Ced?”

“What?”

“ ;You could help somehow… you said you could help your parents by being with them, giving them the heart to live and heal… could you visit Ginny for a couple of hours, too? You could just visit her in her sleep and suggest her that I didn’t die and that she had to hold out… or something like that?”

“Of course, mate, you can count on me,” Cedric nodded, still smiling widely. On their way to the mahogany tree, Harry had quickly filled him in on what had happened to Ginny because of Draco, so Cedric was well aware how important Ginny was for Harry. “Come, let’s go to Hades and tell him the news that you’re playing Seeker for a while. Oh, and just a bit of advice: keep your eyes on the players of Tartarus. They tend to play dirtier than the Slytherins… which is funny, because none other than Salazar Slytherin is their Keeper.”

“You’re kidding,” Harry said.

“Am not. Actually Godric Gryffindor is on our team, he’s the Captain.”

“Wow, are Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff also playing?”

“No, they’re just supporting Elysium,” Cedric winked at Harry. “Very cheery witches, you’ll like them. Oh, and don’t be surprised when you see that Muggles are also playing on the teams. In the underworld everything’s weird, it’s sort of a world turned upside down, and here even Muggles can fly a broomstick.”

“Cedric… what’d you think, will I meet my parents and Sirius here?”

Cedric let out a hearty laugh. “You bet you will, mate!”

* * * * *


“So, where do you live?” asked Draco as he led the still hysterical Phaedra across Falaf Alley.

“D’you expect me to tell you where the Circle headquarters can be found?” she snapped. “Because if you do, then you’re stupider than I thought!”

“Thanks, but if you don’t mind, I don’t take this insult to heart, knowing that you said it when you were not in your right mind,” he replied coolly. “If you don’t want me to escort you to your home, then I’ll take you to a hotel.”

“All right, then, if I can’t get rid of you any other way, then let’s go to Nikias’, he has rooms above his tavern,” she grunted and they made their way to the restaurant.

“I’d like a room, Nik,” Phaedra told the owner.

“As you wish, Mrs Creevey… but, may I ask what happened to you? You look sad.”

“There’s no Mr Creevey anymore, Nik,” she whispered.

“What?” the owner’s eyes widened. “You don’t mean that Colin… died?”

“That’s exactly what I mean, Nik.”

“I truly feel with you, my dear,” sighed Nikias. “How did it happen?”

“Perhaps I’ll tell you another time… I’m just too tired now.”

“Of course. Here’s your key, dear,” the owner handed her a key. “Seamus, take care of her,” he looked at Draco whom he believed to be Harry’s cousin.

“I will,” nodded Draco, feeling slightly uncomfortable, and followed Phaedra up the stairs.

“You can leave me alone now, Malfoy,” she said as she entered the room, followed by the young wizard. “I’m safe and I promise I won’t commit suicide nor will I set fire to this place or anything…”

“Right, 221; he nodded. “Calm down and sleep, and tomorrow you’ll see everything differently.”

“Differently? ” she turned to face him, her huge black eyes again ablaze with fury. “What would be different tomorrow? It doesn’t matter which day it is, my husband’s dead, and won’t come back tomorrow, or any other day!”

“I know… and I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? Oh, good that you show a bit of compassion, Harry’s death being just as much your fault as your wife’s!” she yelled at him.

“Mine?” he blinked.

“Yeah, yours!” she stabbed him hard in the chest with her index finger. “Had you not forced that red-haired trollop to marry you, then she wouldn’t have wanted to be free and wouldn't have asked Harry to help her… and then Harry wouldn’t have died…” at the end of the sentence Phaedra was no longer shouting, her voice faltered and she broke out in tears again.

“Hey, come here,” he gathered her into his arms and she sobbed on his shoulder. Draco gently caressed her raven black hair as her body quivered in his arms.

She drew back a bit and looked into his eyes. “Why, Malfoy? Why did he have to die…? Am I cursed?”

“Of course you’re not.”

“Two weeks ago I lost my daughter… yesterday… I lost my husband… who will I lose next? My brother? My friends?”

“You won’t lose anyone else… on the contrary… you’ll have new friends… I’ll be your friend, too. I am your friend.”

“Are you?” she furrowed her elegant eyebrows, sniffing.

“Someone who teamed up with me to get our loved ones back, can only be my friend. A quirky, temperamental, sarcastic friend, but a friend nevertheless.”

“Were you describing me, or yourself?” she smiled faintly.

Without answering, he reached out and wiped a tear away from her face. Before he could pull his hand back, she grasped it, as if never wanting to let go of it. For a moment they stood there like that, neither of them moving, just staring into each other’s eyes… in the next moment Phaedra’s mouth was on Draco’s, he could taste her salty tears on her lips. What am I doing? – the question ran through his mind, but he forgot it as quickly as it had occurred to him…



Author’s note: yay, almost up to 100 reviews! Thank you, folks! Can I get my 100th review now? ;)
Nemo1024: I won’t try to convince the SIYE mods to allow the original pond scene, because they won’t allow it. If they thought that the Ginny-watching-Harry-swim part in chapter 12 was already too much of innuendo, then they surely wouldn’t accept the pond scene. Anyway, glad you liked the original scene, I liked it much better than the one I submitted here :)
Megan: thank you very much, I’m glad you think I managed to merge Greek mythology nicely into the fic!
Also thanks to: J.C., strawberry, Erin, Angie and ally
Reviews 596
ChapterPrinter
StoryPrinter




../back
‘! Go To Top ‘!

Sink Into Your Eyes is hosted by Grey Media Internet Services. HARRY POTTER, characters, names and related characters are trademarks of Warner Bros. TM & © 2001-2006. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions on this site are those made by the owners. All stories(fanfiction) are owned by the author and are subject to copyright law under transformative use. Authors on this site take no compensation for their works. This site © 2003-2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Special thanks to: Aredhel, Kaz, Michelle, and Jeco for all the hard work on SIYE 1.0 and to Marta for the wonderful artwork.
Featured Artwork © 2003-2006 by Yethro.
Design and code © 2006 by SteveD3(AdminQ)
Additional coding © 2008 by melkior and Bear