Disclaimer: As always, not mine.
Ginny was not having a good week. When she had left the hospital wing and returned to lessons she had spent the entire day dodging questions about how she had got hurt, but no one seemed to take the hint that she didn’t want to talk about it. She had had so much homework to catch up with that she had hardly seen Harry; and then, Romilda Vane had stuck up a picture of Harry from the Daily Prophet in the girl’s dormitory, with a note attached saying “All mine “ R.V.”. Ginny had not been pleased. She took it down, but it was replaced the next day, so she edited the note to say “Already taken “ G.W.”. She’d been getting titters and dirty looks from Romilda and her friends since. She glared angrily upwards at nothing in particular. Truth be told, she was more than a bit annoyed with Harry. Not that he’d done anything wrong, exactly “ it was just a little tough to deal with his popularity sometimes. Mind you, she thought wryly, it’s not like he ever seems to really notice it.
Ginny yawned and stretched, her hands brushing against the curtains that surrounded her bed in the girl’s dormitory. As she did she noticed a plain parchment envelope lying upside-down at the end of the bed. She frowned, turned it over and upon seeing that it was addressed to her, opened it.
Ginny,
I hope this letter doesn’t reach you too late; Hermione said she would give it to you in your dorm, but she wasn’t really paying attention to me so I’m not entirely sure…
All the same, I have an apology to make. Ron, Hermione and I should have told you what was going on, but you’ve been so busy we’ve barely seen you.
We need you to cover for us this weekend. You know enough to guess what we’re doing; if you drop in early enough tomorrow morning, I’ll tell you a bit more. I don’t dare write it down, just in case.
I wish you could come with us; on the other hand, I’ll be incredibly glad if you stay here. I love you to pieces, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning; 4ish in the common room.
Harry
P.S. You’re much prettier, nicer, and more beautiful than any other girl I know. Ignore Romilda and co, they annoy me too. Love, Harry.
Ginny bit her lip to keep herself from giggling, pleasantly surprised by the postscript, and then sighed, looking at the time. Gone ten o’clock. They’d have gone already, then. She pushed herself out of bed and began to get dressed, wondering just how long she could keep up this staying-behind lark before it drove her crazy.
*
Hermione had been right. It was freezing cold to fly this high. Harry shivered and leaned closer to his broom, as if that would help. He and Ron had passed their apparation tests a few weeks ago, but it was too risky to apparate this far. They had apparated to the coastline and flew from there. Eventually, Durmstrang Castle loomed into view. It was smaller than Hogwarts, Harry noted, or was it merely dwarfed by the immense landscape around it?
They circled the castle twice before they found the Quidditch pitch, where a small figure in a brown cloak was waiting. As they landed, Harry couldn’t help noticing how stiffly Ron dismounted, nor how Hermione’s eyes flickered between Ron and the figure in brown “ Krum, of course.
They made their way up the narrow steps, Krum casually turning his head this way and that. When they reached the inside, the stone corridors were cool, and very quiet, but now and then they could hear voices from some far-off classroom.
It took them a few minutes, but they reached the door to the Headmaster’s chambers without any interruptions. When they had stopped outside the door, Harry took a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking to Krum.
“We should go on our own from here,” he said softly. Krum didn’t look surprised, rather resigned, but he did shift uncomfortably before asking,
“Harry; could I haff a vord?”
Harry’s memory jumped back to the first time Krum had asked him this, after they had been told about the third task.
“In private?” Krum looked uncertainly at Harry, and Harry nodded. He heard Ron give a quiet noise of annoyance, but ignored him. The two former champions walked a little way away, just enough to be out of earshot.
“What is it?” Harry asked, glancing back at the door. “Something about Karkaroff?”
Krum gave a soft, humourless laugh.
“No. I… perhaps should not be disturbing you with this now. You haff… other things on your mind.” He paused, looking at Ron and Hermione; Ron slouching against the wall grumpily, Hermione staring a little too intensely at the ground.
“What is it?” asked Harry a little impatiently.
“She writes about the two of you,” Krum said. “I know you and her are not… but I also know how to read what she thinks she does not tell me.” He glanced at the other two again, and then back at Harry, seriously.
“Hermy-own-ninny cares about him very much, I think. Different to you,” he said even more quietly.
“Yeah, I know,” Harry said, as surprised as the first time at the direction the conversation had taken. “But why would you… I mean…”
“I care about Hermy-own-ninny also; you vill look after her? It is, of course, her decision, and I know she has already decided.” He gave a sad smile. “But make sure they… he…” He seemed to run out of words, frowning. But Harry didn’t need him to finish.
“I told you before, she’s like my sister,” he said. “Ron’ll figure it out soon. But yeah,” he met Krum’s eyes, “yeah, I’ll look after her.”
“Thank you.”
“No problem.”
They stood there, a little awkwardly, for another moment, and then Harry gave Krum a nod and returned to Ron and Hermione as the other champion walked away, his footsteps echoing down the stone corridor.
“What was all that about?” Ron asked, a little sharply. Harry shrugged.
“Nothing. Right, let’s get this over with.” He drew his wand and put his hand on the door handle. Ron and Hermione raised their wands ready, and after a second’s pause, Harry opened the door and stepped through.
*
“Has anyone seen Harry and Ron?”
Ginny looked up from where she was working in the Gryffindor common room to see Neville at the bottom of the boys’ staircase, looking confused.
“They’re around somewhere,” she answered. “Hermione’s going mad over their N.E.W.T. revision already “ she’s holed up in some dark corner of the library “ and I think they’re hiding from her.” This got a few laughs “ most of the Gryffindors knew that Hermione nagged her best friends more than she did anyone else when it came to schoolwork. Ginny waited for a minute to make sure that everyone was satisfied with her answer; it might have been only Neville who asked, but it wasn’t easy for the Boy-Who-Lived to disappear without people noticing. Seeing that everyone was engrossed in their own conversations, she went back to work.
*
Ron, Hermione and Harry arrived back on the Sunday, the day that it had started to snow. They had returned to the castle more or less unnoticed “ Harry suspected that Professor McGonagall knew they had been gone, but as a member of the Order of the Phoenix she undoubtedly knew about them leaving Grimmauld Place in the summer already and had been expecting something similar. Now they were sitting in the otherwise empty boys’ dormitory with Ginny, recounting their adventure.
“ “ And it was completely pitch black, couldn’t see a thing; even wand lights didn’t show much. We spent ages looking, but no luck,” Ron finished.
“So there wasn’t one there?” Ginny asked. Harry shook his head, looking tired and frustrated.
“We knew it was a long shot,” Hermione said comfortingly, “it’s a good thing that we checked, though “ just in case.”
“We can’t afford to waste time looking everywhere,” Harry said. “Every day is riskier, there’s always a chance that he’ll find out “”
“-what Potter is doing, my lord, but Hogwarts is too well protected for us to penetrate, and we have no spies inside.” A hooded figure with a blank, white mask stood in a dark, curtained room. The same room, Harry realised with a jerk, that Rookwood had been questioned in by Voldemort.
“Dumbledore may have been a Muggle-loving fool,” Harry said, his voice cracked and sibilant and horribly familiar, “but he was not stupid. He will have left instructions for Potter. I need to know what they are.”
“Harry? Harry focus on us, now, Harry?” Hermione sounded nervous, uncertain. Harry felt Ron’s hand on his shoulder.
“Take it easy, mate,” he said. “You alright?”
Harry opened his eyes slowly; he couldn’t remember shutting them. He was still in the Gryffindor boys’ dorm, but the others were closer. Ginny was holding his hand. Part of his mind hoped, fairly childishly, that Ron hadn’t noticed.
“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
Ginny glanced at Ron and Hermione, and then back to Harry.
“What did you see?” she asked quietly.
Harry didn’t want to describe it; instead he answered with, “we don’t have much time. Sooner or later he’s going to find out what we’re doing “ and then we’ll have no time at all.”
“We will, Harry,” said Hermione. Ron nodded.
“We’d better,” said Harry. There was a silence.
“How was your journey back?” Ginny asked, trying to change the subject.
“Cold!” Ron complained.
“I said you should have used a Warming Charm.”
“I did, it just wasn’t enough.”
“Well, then you should’ve let me do it.”
Ron rolled his eyes and Harry laughed. At least Ron and Hermione bickering was normal. But how long would it last?
“You didn’t fly the whole way, though,” Ginny said.
“No, we Apparated from here to the coast “”
“Hi Neville.”
Ron, Hermione and Ginny looked around to see that Harry was right; Neville was standing in the doorway, the door having just swung from ajar to open. No one spoke for a moment; Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny glanced at each other uncertainly. How much had Neville heard?
Neville seemed to know what they were thinking. He picked his way across the messy floor to his cupboard, rummaging inside it for whatever it was he had come to fetch. When he turned around to the four of them still watching him, he gave a faint smile.
“Don’t you think I learnt in first year that you lot only break the rules for a good reason?” he said lightly. He walked back the door, and then paused.
“I won’t say anything,” he said, meeting Harry’s eyes.
“Thanks, Neville,” Harry replied; the others nodded and Neville smiled.
“Oh, and by the way, whatever you’re doing “ good luck.”
They heard him pad down the stairs in his bare feet back to the busy common room, and carried on their conversation as though they had not been interrupted. But somehow, there was a little more warmth in the room than before.
*
For the Christmas holidays, they went to Grimmauld Place. Harry spent most of his time trying not to think about the last time he had spent Christmas here, Sirius singing carols and putting Father Christmas hats on the stuffed House-Elf heads. But it was difficult; every part of the house was a reminder.
Eventually, on the morning of Christmas Eve, Harry ended up sitting in the drawing room where he and Sirius had discussed the Black family tree.
Harry rubbed his forehead out of habit, wincing as his scar sparked with a sharp pain. It had been hurting on and off all day. Frustrated, he lent back in the chair and stared in irritation at the tapestry. From here, he could clearly see the tiny burn marks where various Blacks had been blasted from it. He could just imagine the woman in the portrait downstairs scrutinising it carefully, picking her spot and “ what would she use? Some inaudible but venomous mutter that would send furious green sparks spurting out of the end of her wand, obliterating the name from the tree and from existence. He allowed his eyes to wander over the names, unavoidably drawn to Sirius’s scorched place on the tree, remembering that day in Grimmauld Place, over two years ago now.
“My sweet old mother blasted me off after I ran away from home…”
Next to the charred place where Sirius’ name had been was his brother Regulus’. Harry remembered the story Sirius had told him of the younger brother, the better son, who joined the Death Eaters and got cold feet…Regulus Black…Regulus Black…
Realisation dawned in Harry’s mind slowly, a bit at a time. Regulus Black…R.A.B.…could it be? He had been a Death Eater, after all, and he had tried to duck out… I know I will be dead long before you read this…
“Dinner!” called Molly Weasley from the kitchen, but Harry wasn’t listening. He got to his feet and raced up the stairs to his and Ron’s room, his mind still putting the pieces together. Regulus Black… Regulus something Black. Alphard? Arcturus? Both were names on the family tree, people he could have been named for “ after all, there were repeated names across the whole tapestry, it could have been traditional. He paused outside the door to his and Ron’s room, still thinking, before a strange noise interrupted his thoughts. He frowned, puzzled, and leant carefully around the door, which was ajar. There, in the middle of the room, were Ron and Hermione. His eyes widened as he saw that they were so closely intertwined that there wasn’t space to slip a piece of parchment. Entirely distracted from R.A.B. and Regulus Black and biting hard on his bottom lip to keep from laughing, he tip-toed away walked downstairs to the kitchen, just as Charlie said,
“ “ never known Ron to be late when there’s food around.”
“Oh, there you are, Harry!” Mrs Weasley looked mildly harassed. “Could you be a dear and run upstairs to get Ron and Hermione? They don’t seem to be answering me.”
Harry swallowed back several suggestions to explain his friends’ absence before nodding and turning to the door. However, Ron and Hermione had apparently managed to prise themselves apart, and entered the kitchen “ Hermione looked pleasantly flushed and Ron seemed to be trying to pretend he wasn’t pleased with himself. When Mrs Weasley’s back was turned, Harry gave Ron a thumbs-up, and Ron’s eyes widened before he grinned sheepishly.
Christmas day was wonderful; the happiest day Harry had had in a long time. But that didn’t do anything for the undercurrent of tension that ran constantly through his mind. We don’t have time for this. We don’t have time for this. We shouldn’t be here. He ignored it as best as he could while Ron challenged him to chess, Hermione blushed when Ron’s hand touched her own accidentally, and Ginny sat next to him by the fire. But still it was there.
Boxing day. Spent lying around and eating leftovers and throwing balled up wrapping paper at each other. We don’t have time for this. We can’t stop here. We don’t have time for this.
A day passed, and then another. Harry couldn’t settle. He kept fidgeting, moving from room to room, pacing when he was alone. He knew they had to move on, but he couldn’t see how. They had no idea where to move to.
He talked about R.A.B. to Ron, Hermione and Ginny. They agreed; it had to be Sirius’ brother. But when they had broken into his old bedroom while the others were busy downstairs, they had found only a tidy, dusty room, probably untouched since its owner was a student at Hogwarts. They had searched, and found nothing.
Harry wracked his brain to try and think of something, anything that would give them something to go on, somewhere to look “ but he could only go over, uselessly, the list in his mind. The locket, lost; the cup, hidden; the snake, protected. The locket, lost; the cup, hidden; the snake, protected.
With every hour of every day that passed, Harry became more and more convinced: this task that he had been set was impossible. And impossible tasks were doomed to failure.
*
It was late evening on the day before New Year’s Eve when something finally happened. But it wasn’t the something that Harry had been hoping for.
Mr Weasley, Bill and Fleur, Charlie, Fred and George were out at their various jobs. Ron and Ginny were playing chess on the rug in front of the sofa; Hermione was talking about something intellectual (Harry had tuned it out) with Kingsley and Tonks, and Mrs Weasley and Lupin were discussing plans for the following night. Harry was gazing into the fire sleepily, the flickering shapes enough entertainment for a tired mind. Suddenly something silvery and long-limbed leapt out of the fire. It was a patronus “ a silver monkey. It spoke with the voice of one of the Weasley twins.
“Death Eaters surrounding the shop “ we need help, come quickly!”
There was a pause in which horror rose in Harry’s throat like bile, and then everyone was moving. Lupin took charge.
“Molly, Ginny “ get hold of the others and get them there. Everyone else, wands out, let’s go.”
Harry heard Ginny start to argue but knew she would not succeed. Following Lupin with his wand out and ready, ignoring Hermione’s “but Harry, you should stay here too”, Harry stepped into the flames.
*
The quotes used are credited below:
“My sweet old mother blasted me off after I ran away from home…” - OotP p103 (UK hardback)
I know I will be dead long before you read this… - HBP p719 (UK paperback)
Thanks for reading, reviews are appreciated.
Hazel
All for All by HermitKnut
Chapter Notes: A/N: mgle_teacher - I made an alternative edit to your first correction, I hope that it's acceptable. HK