Chapter Twelve: Godric’s Hollow
Harry waited nervously in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, dreading the arrival of his first class. It was a group of second year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, and they would be arriving before too long.
At breakfast, McGonagall had come to let Harry know what his schedule would be like. He had six classes to teach; two for every year. He also had training, directed by Moody, once a day, five days a week. He was due for his first training today, after teaching two more classes.
He heard someone walk in, and assumed correctly that it would be Hermione, who had managed to get the position of the first class helper, though he suspected she had used her authority to influence that situation. A surprising number of the prefects had wanted to be involved in assisting him in class, though luckily he was allowed final say in who actually did.
“Nervous, Harry?” Hermione asked nervously.
“Yeah… you?”
“Yeah. What if our lesson plans don’t work? It’ll be my fault, and…”
“You aren’t helping much, Hermione,” Harry grumbled. “Anyway, don’t forget, all I really need you for today is to watch the students and let me know the names of the ones who need points docked or detentions. I think I’m going to take McGonagall’s advice this time around.”
The class arrived in a group, clearly excited to find out what it would be like to be taught by a student. As soon as class was to officially start, Harry got to his feet, and used a hand on his desk to guide himself around to its front. Leaning back against the desk, he folded his arms and called the class to order. The whispering immediately died down and everyone waited. Fawkes was sitting in the back of the classroom behind the students, invisible, and waiting eagerly to see how Harry would handle this new task.
“Everyone, my name is Harry Potter, as you all know. While we are in this class, I expect you to call me Mr. Potter or ‘sir.’ We will have a good mixture of theory and practical application in this class, so I expect all of you to have your wands and books with you for every class. I assume you are all also aware of the fact that I am blind. Some of you may think that you can use this fact to get away with not paying attention in class or breaking rules of one sort or another. Just to give you fair warning, Miss Granger here will be able to spot anything very easily, and detentions served with me will generally be very unpleasant. Are there any questions?”
Hermione began calling on students who had raised their hands to speak, and then Harry answered their questions. The first question was about how he defeated the Death Eaters blind. So were the second and third, and then Harry stopped allowing them questions unrelated to the text. That first class he gave out three detentions and took away around 40 points total, but he was able to cover the material he had planned, and he felt like he had done a much better job than Gilderoy Lockhart had in his second year.
“That was really good Harry!” Hermione congratulated him, as she gathered her things to leave.
“Thanks,” Harry said, pleased, “I appreciate you catching the kid throwing paper airplane notes around. I probably would have missed that even if I could see. Who’s helping with the next class?”
“I think Ginny is supposed to be here.”
“I am,” came Ginny’s voice. “How did the first lesson go, Harry?”
“Pretty well, I’d say. I have to be somewhat mean right now because they think they can take advantage of me, but I think that idea will go away within a few more class periods,” he answered smugly.
“Well, don’t be too harsh,” she said, giggling.
Harry folded his arms sternly. “You’d better not be questioning my teaching methods, Miss Weasley. I have every right to give out detentions, you know, and I can think of several onerous tasks to put you to right now.”
Ginny giggled again. “Well, I can’t think of anything much worse than serving a detention with my boyfriend.”
Harry smiled, and would have continued, but the next class began filing in.
“Back to work,” he said, grinning.
***
“Welcome to hell, Mr. Potter,” Moody growled, as Harry entered the Room of Requirement.
“What?” Harry asked nervously. That wasn’t at all the greeting he had expected, or wanted.
“I mean that for the next several months, I am going to put you through hell every time you enter this room. We’re going to start by working on physical training. We’re going to teach you how to fight by feel, both Muggle-style and with magic. We’re going to teach you to fall without hurting yourself, because you’re going to fall a lot. We’ll also do everything we can to help you be able to live independently. Any questions?”
“That all sounds good to me,” Harry answered hesitantly.
“Good. We’ll start with push-ups. FIFTY, NOW!” Moody roared, his sudden shouting startling Harry and nearly causing him to fall over. He complied with what he was told, and began working.
***
When Harry woke up that night, he wished he was dead. He was aching all over from the workout that Moody had put him through, and he was also bruised and battered from the dueling he had been through after that. Moody wouldn’t let him resort to tricks like ravens or lightening bolts; he was to learn how to do everything in a traditional style so that when he did use those tricks they would come as more of a surprise. This had been intensely frustrating, because no matter how hard he listened, Moody always managed to get behind him when he wasn’t suspecting it. Despite having a wooden leg, Moody could move as silently as the wind. He had done better with Tonks, but only because she was more clumsy and made more noise.
He groaned slightly as he got up out of his bed, and wandered down the hall to the sitting room, feeling his way along the wall. As near as he could tell it was around three in the morning; the extra work had caused him to sleep an hour longer than usual.
As he settled into a chair with another groan, he heard a slight movement. Listening closely in the silence he could hear deep breathing, like someone asleep. He turned into a hawk and saw Ginny asleep on the couch, a book on the Animagus transformation draped open over her torso. He sat and admired her beauty for a few moments before turning back into himself and kneeling next to the couch.
“Ginny?” he whispered, shaking her. She woke with a start.
“Harry? What time is it? I must have fallen asleep,” she yawned widely as she said this.
Harry took her book away and set it aside, before helping her up.
“It’s sometime around three in the morning. You can still get another three or four hours of sleep in your own bed. Come on,” he told her, wrapping an arm around her, and leading her down the wall, though she still steered some.
She let him walk her to her door, and he held her close for a long moment before kissing her goodnight. She sighed gratefully as she sunk deep into the soft mattress of her bed. Harry stood in her doorway for a short while before whispering, “Good night, Ginny. I love you.”
“I love you too, Harry.”
Harry then walked over to the window, which opened silently at a wave of his hand, and turned into a hawk, soaring out into the night to fly with Fawkes.
***
Ginny listened as Harry flew out the window, wishing fervently that she could join him. She had been left out by Harry, Ron, and Hermione on so many occasions in the past, and even though she knew that Harry loved and depended on her, she hated anything that left her behind. She had been doubling her efforts with the transformation, and was certain that she was close to finally becoming an Animagus. Then she and Harry could go out together. Sometime soon, she was certain.
She yawned again before dropping into a deep sleep filled with dreams about flying with a hawk.
***
After a week of classes and training, Harry was growing more confident as a teacher. He was gaining more and more independence in his living habits, though he wasn’t sure Ginny was as happy as she said she was about that, and the students were finally beginning to respect him. Today was Friday, and he hadn’t had to give a single detention. Moreover, he had actually given more points than he had taken away.
After the first couple of days, Mr. Filch had come to like Harry very much; Harry had been turning the majority of his students serving detentions over to him, and he had worked them mercilessly. Harry had decided he wouldn’t have the heart to be so severe himself, and anything to overcome the enmity he and the caretaker had long shared was good in his opinion.
After dinner, Harry had gone back to his rooms, and waited patiently for the others. At the sound of the door opening, he smiled and stood up.
“Sorry, Harry, I’m not Ginny,” Ron laughed, “but she is right behind me.”
Scowling, Harry took Ginny, who came into the room a second later, into his arms and kissed her.
“How was your day?” he asked, his scowl replaced by a loving smile.
“It was great! No really hard classes and hardly any homework over the weekend.”
“Good. I was thinking we could go for a trip over the weekend instead. Is Hermione here?”
“I’m here, Harry, but I have to warn you that I do have lots of homework. What are you planning?” Hermione asked suspiciously.
“I think I’m finally ready to take that trip to Godric’s Hollow,” Harry announced.
***
Ginny waited patiently with Harry for Ron and Hermione to get back from informing McGonagall about their trip. They didn’t expect to stay for too long, so they weren’t concerned about the security. Harry was absently stroking Fawkes, who was waiting on his perch with them.
She was excited to see the place where Harry had lived as a baby; hopefully they would be able to find some pieces of his past and help Harry find more direction in his future. She fervently hoped that the trip would be good for him and not bring him down in depression.
Finally, Ron and Hermione returned, and Harry had them all grab onto him while he grabbed onto Fawkes. In a flash of bright flames they were suddenly outside standing in front of the collapsed ruins of an old house. Ginny kept a hand on Harry’s arm, and watched as Fawkes disappeared. Harry had told her about the bird’s ability to become invisible, so she wasn’t concerned; Fawkes would be there if they needed him.
“It looks like a ruin, Harry,” Ginny told him, as she looked around. “I can see some other houses just a little ways away down the hill, so we must be on the edges of a small town.”
Harry nodded absently. “Can you point my wand arm towards the middle of the ruin?” he asked.
Ginny did as he asked, and then watched in awe as he began a complicated set of wand movements, before loudly saying “Aedifico!”
The ruins shuddered and, right before their eyes, the house began to rebuild itself. After a very short while, the ruin was replaced by a modest two story home, painted white with red trim on the window and door frames. Ginny described what had happened to Harry, and led him in the door.
Once inside she was somewhat surprised to discover that the spell had not repaired everything. There was a conspicuous lack of furniture, and broken items lay strewn around the floor. Harry said nothing as she described what she saw, though asked to hold some of the things that they found; regular items like a single shoe or broken figurine, all made special by the fact that they had once belonged to his parents. Harry asked Ginny to take him upstairs, and in one room they found a small crib, and a few filthy and broken toys scattered around. Harry was silent as he stood in the room where his mother had died, and where Voldemort’s powers had been broken.
Ginny watched sadly as tears began to course down his face, and pulled Harry into a comforting embrace. He clung to her desperately and she could feel him shuddering as he mourned for the life he had never been able to have. She felt her own eyes burning as she thought of how unfair fate had been to Harry and how little he had deserved the life he had lived. Finally, after what seemed like a long time, the shuddering ceased, and Harry pulled back.
“This is why I have to destroy Voldemort,” Harry stated simply.
Ginny furrowed her brow in confusion. “I thought the prophecy…” she began, but Harry interrupted her.
“The prophecy wouldn’t be enough for me,” he said, and then gestured around the room. “This, everything that he took from me, is what drives me. This and the life I might be able to live if I can defeat him.”
“You will defeat him, Harry. I know you can, and then we’ll have a lifetime to live together.”
Harry pulled her in for another hug, and then they made their way back to Ron and Hermione. As soon as all of them were outside, Harry waved his wand again and the house returned to being a collapsed ruin, once again burying the haunting memories of his past. Harry wanted to visit the town’s graveyard as well, and there wasn’t much daylight left. They walked for about half an hour before they arrived, and then Ginny led Harry through the rows of graves, searching for where his parents finally rested. At last they found a beautifully carved stone above two side by side plots, with the names of James and Lily Potter engraved on it in beautiful script. Below the names and the dates of their births and death, read the inscription:
To die so that one you love might live is no death at all. Love set the course of our lives and defined our actions to the end.
All our love to our son,
James and Lily
As Ginny read the inscription to Harry, her voice broke. Instead of a generic eulogy, a last beautiful message had been left to Harry. Harry dropped to his knees in front of the stone, tears again running down his face.
“I’d like some time alone please,” he whispered.
Ginny’s heart was breaking for him, but she led Ron and Hermione out of the graveyard where they waited for him, listening to the sorrowful song of Fawkes mourning his friend’s loss and pain.
The song cut off instantly, however, as a dozen loud ‘pops’ intruded into the evening air. Ginny looked around in horror as a dozen Death Eaters stood before them and a sickeningly familiar voice called out.
“I knew the little baby would come looking for his mother,” Bellatrix Lestrange cackled wickedly, as the curses began flying.
***
Harry couldn’t decide how he was supposed to feel, kneeling over his parents’ graves. He was deeply touched by the inscription that Ginny had read to him, and felt the love his parents had had for him surface in those words. Harry offered no words or promises to his parents, certain that wherever they were, they would know that he would honor their sacrifice and do whatever he could to rid the world of Voldemort’s evil.
His reverie was broken by the distant sounds of people Apparating, and Harry felt the alarm flooding his mind, both from himself and from Fawkes. He got to his feet quickly and started forward, but tripped on a gravestone. Cursing, he turned into a hawk and peered out towards the graveyard’s entrance. Ginny, Ron, and Hermione had taken refuge just within the gates, and were valiantly hurling curses in an attempt to drive their attackers back. The Death Eaters were pushing them steadily backwards and Harry knew they wouldn’t be able to hold long. Confident no one had seen him turn into a hawk because of the failing light, Harry took flight and circled around the Death Eaters swiftly. Still unnoticed, he flew behind a tree and changed back into himself.
Taking a deep breath, Harry walked silently towards the Death Eaters. As he neared them, he began to hear the desperate cries coming from the entrance and quickened his pace. He was almost upon them when he heard one of them cursing for the others to look behind them. Harry raised his shield and hurled himself into the midst of the group, where practically every curse he hurled would connect with a target, shouting his rage at the people that wouldn’t even let him grieve in peace.
***
Ginny watched in horror as Harry casually walked up behind the Death Eaters. When they noticed him, he leapt into the group and began moving and casting spells like a mad man, shouting out wordlessly as his opponents began to fall. Ginny started throwing her own hexes out, but was limited because she didn’t want to hit Harry.
After a few minutes, there were only six Death Eaters still standing, though even they were looking worse for wear. Still, they had managed to get behind Harry so they were only facing one front. Harry was left alone with no cover, trying to shield himself against the curses coming at him, while Bellatrix shrieked incessantly for the others to bring him down.
“Come on, we have to help him!” she shouted to Ron and Hermione. They rushed out of the graveyard to stand next to Harry and add their spells to his.
For a moment, it seemed like they would be able to defeat the Death Eaters in front of them, but then Ginny was hit in the arm by a cutting hex from Bellatrix. As her skin was torn open, Ginny couldn’t suppress the cry of agony that escaped her lips as blood began to spatter all around her.
“Ginny!” Harry cried, panicked that he couldn’t see what was wrong with her. He was distracted long enough that a blasting curse caught him full in the chest, and he was knocked back several feet to lie gasping for breath. Ginny rushed to his side and clutched his arm, raising a shield around them both. She knew she wouldn’t be able to hold it long.
“Anguis!” Harry muttered, and Ginny was doubly horrified to see blood at the edges of Harry’s mouth and several dangerous looking serpents appearing from his wand. Harry then uttered a few unintelligible words in Parseltongue, and then passed out. The snakes slithered toward the Death Eaters and began striking at them and curling around their legs.
The distraction was enough. Fawkes appeared and grabbed onto Ginny’s shoulder, and in a flash she and Harry were back in the hospital wing at Hogwarts. Ginny was beginning to feel dizzy, but managed to stay conscious long enough to see Fawkes disappear and reappear seconds later with a horrified Ron and Hermione before she passed out.