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oakstone730) wrote2012-12-10 10:36 pm
The Day After (or the Missing Chapters From the End of Deathly Hallows) Part 3/5
Part One
Harry was heading down the corridor, towards the Great Hall, when he glanced through the windows overlooking the courtyard and saw Ginny walking away from the building. He slipped through the nearest doorway and started to follow her.
One of the things he had missed the most was simple things like watching her walk across the room, seeing her laughing with her friends. He’d missed hearing her shouts of laughter at catching the snitch during Quidditch practice. She was heading down towards the lake and he couldn't wait any longer -- quickening his pace he ran to catch up to her.
She turned at the sound of his footsteps. Tears were slowly rolling down her face. He had never seen her cry before, he realized with a start as he put his arms around her. Stroking her hair as she silently wept, he didn’t know what he could say to comfort her. After a moment she broke away and wordlessly, they walked arm in arm towards the lake, away from the people gathered in the courtyard, watching them.
It was no surprise to Harry when she stopped on the banks of the lake, at the tree where they used to meet after classes.
He sat down, leaning against the trunk of the tree and she took her spot in front of him, leaning against him. They sat like that, simply listening to the wind whistle through the leaves of the tree, the waves lapping against the lake.
Finally, she broke the silence, "It isn't fair. I want to be happy that you are here. But, Fred is gone, he is gone. I can't pretend that it is just one of his pranks. I want to be happy that you are safe. I don't have to worry about you anymore. But I can't be happy and I can't be sad. I don't know what to do."
"You don't have to do anything. I'm here. You don't have to worry about me anymore. This is a time for you to be with your family, to say good-bye to Fred,” Harry said as he stroked her hair. “And I'll be here tomorrow and the next day. There is no rush. We have all the time in the world now."
They sat there together with their backs against the tree talking quietly as they watched the waves on the lake and the people walking and talking along the paths. It felt so natural and right that Harry didn’t want the moment to end. All too soon Ginny turned to face him.
"I should be getting back, my aunt Muriel will be arriving any minute. Mom will need protecting from her," said Ginny as she stood up. Harry scrambled up next to her, and holding her face with both hands, softly gave her a light kiss. It was moments like this he had missed most while they were in hiding. Just being able to spend time with her and not have to worry about anything.
"I think you should let Ron have Aunt Muriel duty," he said with a smile as he dropped his hands from her face. They both knew that they had to go back to the castle though, and slowly strolled back up the hill.
"They want me to say something tomorrow," he said with a rush when they were nearly at the door.
"I heard about that and I think you should do it," answered Ginny. "Everyone in there is trying to understand what happened. I know my parents would like it very much. They think the world of you, Harry. My mom meant it when she said you were a part of our family. I, however, do not think of you as my brother." she added with a smile.
She gave his hand a squeeze before turning and going through the doorway. He started to follow but couldn't go back inside. With a start he realized there was one person he hadn't seen the early morning hours of the battle.
He found Hagrid preparing the carriages and harnessing the Thestrals to meet the Hogwarts Express.
"Harry!" Hagrid swept him up in a hug."I should be givin' yeh the hidin' of yer life. Scarin' meh like that..." Hagrid broke into a deep sobbing cry as he patted Harry on the back.
"Hagrd, Ha-grid, HAGRID" Harry cried out as Hagrid continued to pat him hard on the back. "You're hurting me..."
"Oh, sorry Harry" Hagrid drew his arm across his nose, wiping his nose on his sleeve. "But when I think of yeh, lifeless in me arms, dead to the world-"
"But I wasn't dead, Hagrid," Harry stopped him. "I'm sorry, really sorry. But I didn't dare give you any clue that I was alive or Voldemort would have probably had the snake kill me or the other Death Eaters, and that would have been really fatal."
"Sur' yeh couldn't, I know tha' but, broke me heart it did, I dunno if I'm ever gonna forget yeh, fallin' to the ground and lyin' there as dead as poor Aragog."
Harry wasn't sure how he felt like being compared to the corpse of a giant spider. "I'm sorry Hagrid, but all of those Death Eaters..."
"Don't 'cha fret yerself," Hagrid said with another long wipe at his nose on his sleeve. "Look at me sobbin' 'ere and I 'ave to be gettin' these carriages down to meet the Express, she'll be arrivin' any minute.”
"Let me give you hand."
They worked together to get the Thestrals hitched to the carriages. Harry was wondering how many of the returning students would be able to see the strange beasts this coming school year. Too many, he knew.
Just as they were finishing up, Ron and Hermione came up to them. Harry looked at them with surprise, they had come up from the lake path but he hadn't seen them down there while he and Ginny had been by the lake.
"Where have you two been?" he asked curiously. Hermione gave a little jump and moved away from Ron with a guilty glance.
"Oh, we just wanted to take a walk," she said, looking down at the ground.
"Yeah," Ron grinned, "Just wanted to take a walk."
Harry looked from one to the other; Hermione was blushing to the very roots of her hair. "I suppose it is a nice day for a walk," he said with a laugh.
"Yes, well, Hagrid, we are supposed to meet the train, can we ride down with you?" Hermione said briskly, clearly trying to change the topic.
"Of course yew can, Harry, are yew comin' along too?"
"Sure, why not, unless Ron and Hermione don't want any extra company," Harry said, winking at Hermione just to see her blush again.
"Oh, get off it, Harry! Why wouldn't they want company," said Hagrid, fixing that last of the harness, climbed up into the carriages and with a call out from Hagrid the carriages all started moving down the twisting path towards the station.
"So what do we have to do?" asked Harry
"I don't know, Flitwik just said to wait with the carriages," replied Hermione.
"I still don't understand why they needed us to help, everyone knows how to get to Hogwarts from the train, and they'll be in the carriages," said Ron as they climbed out of the carriage at the station. "But it gets me away from Aunt Muriel, so that is alright by me."
"There are a lot of Muggles coming, which is why they are coming by the train, can't apparate," explained Hagrid.
They watched as the train pulled into the station and the passengers started to disembark. Hermione suddenly let out a scream. Ron and Harry both pulled out their wands and looked around for someone attacking. Hermione brushed past them and ran towards the Muggle couple that had just gotten off the train. "Mum! Dad!" Hermione flung herself at her mother and then her father with deep sobs of joy.
"Bloody Hell, where did they come from?" breathed Ron to Harry. But Harry wasn't listening; his eyes were fixed on the two people who had stepped down from the train carriage after the Grangers. The woman was holding her purse grasped tightly in her hands in front of her like a shield. The teen-age boy was looking around hesitantly, standing close to the woman.
"Hey, isn't that your aunt and cousin?" Harry shook his head in denial as his eyes remained fixed on the train to see if anyone else was getting off. Hermione's parents turned back and were pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley forward to meet Hermione.
Harry retreated to the other side of the carriage. He pulled the Invisibility Cloak out of his robes and put it on without hesitation. "Are you hiding, Mr. Big Time Horcrux Hunter?" laughed Ron but he didn't wait for an answer as he walked over to greet Hermione and her parents, nervously wiping his hands on his clothes.
Hermione was still in shock and was gripping her parents tightly as she introduced Ron. The Grangers greeted him warmly, and then introduced the Dursleys. Harry's aunt gave a tight lipped 'hello'. She clearly remembered the last time they had met. Dudley nodded but didn't say anything, holding his hand in front of his mouth. Ron remembered with a laugh that the last time they had met Dudley had eaten one of Fred and George's trick candies that had made his tongue swell so large it touched the ground.
When they found themselves sitting in the carriage Hermione finally composed herself, "What are you doing here? You are supposed to be in Australia!"
"Living as Monica and Wendell Wilkins?" winked her father.
"Yes! I still don't understand. How did you get here?" asked Hermione.
"We have been in hiding for the last year with Harry's family," said Mrs. Granger.
"You couldn't have! I altered your memory!" protested Hermione, "I'm sure I did the spell correctly."
"I'm sure you did, and you will never attempt to do such thing again," said her father.
"To think that you would try to erase you from our memory," said her mother. "We had been worried about you last summer, clearly was something wrong and you wouldn't tell us what. We, well, intercepted one of your owls and sent a message to Professor McGonagall.”
"Your Professor McGonagall had arrived just before you tried your spell and she did something to prevent it from reaching us," said her mother. "She had already been planning to come to talk about us going into protection. The Order was concerned about our safety and plans were being made to move us along with Harry's family."
"Where is Harry?" asked Dudley speaking at last.
"I don't know where he has gotten to, he came down with us," said Hermione looking around,
"Hagrid, have you seen Harry?"
"Canna say that I hav'," said Hagrid gruffly, but he looked pointedly towards the Thestrals. Hermione and Ron looked forward and realized that only the front end of one of the Thestral was now visible. Harry clearly wasn't ready for a family reunion, but he didn't want to miss out on the conversation going on.
"So you all stayed together? Where? How?" Hermione asked, still unable to fathom her parents and the Dursleys together, she had never met Harry's aunt before, but knew enough about his history that they were not an easy family to get along with.
"We had a lovely place in Wimbourne," said her father. "The Order seemed it was best to hide us near one of the wizard communities, but we were a little bit out of town."
"How are you doing Petunia?" asked Mrs. Granger looking over at Harry's aunt who was perched on the edge of seat.
"Fine," came the tight-lipped response, her eyes refusing to look anywhere but her purse tightly gripped in her lap now.
Knowing that Harry would want to hear why his aunt and cousin had come to Hogwarts. Ron asked "Mrs. Dursley, did you come to see Harry?"
Petunia did not respond. Dudley, after a moment, replied "I came to see Harry, an' mum did not want me to come alone." He added hesitantly, "The whole time we were hiding the wizards who were watching us kept talking about Harry and they listened to Potterwatch whenever it was on. Couldn't believe they were talking about Harry. And then everyone in Wimbourne started celebrating yesterday and shooting off stars into the sky and shouting that Harry had killed Voldemort."
Hermione looked at him sternly, "We've been at war and Harry did what he had to do, we all did. Voldemort was an evil wizard who had been causing all the trouble for years," she looked at her parents and Aunt Petunia, "Voldemort tried to kill Harry."
"A lot of people died yesterday, good wizards that died fighting Voldemort," said Ron grimly.
"I know who Voldemort is, he killed my sister," said Petunia, pulling herself up even straighter. "That is why I came, I wanted to see the place that took her away from me. I came to see what was so special about this place that she would leave a family that loved her. "
"We are coming up to Hogwarts, can you see the castle?" Ron asked, not sure if the castle would be visible to them, its enchantment made the castle look like a ruin to Muggles who would happen to come across its remote location.
"It's huge," Dudley said with a gasp, "I always thought it would be like a dungeon or something."
"It looks just like you described it, Hermione," said her mother, with a pat on her daughter's hand.
They made their way up the long driveway and pulled into the entrance way and climbed out of the carriage. McGonagall was there, greeting and directing the families.
Harry climbed down from the Thestral and watched as the group went into the castle. He slid the cloak off and started slowly walking towards the doors. Looking over, he realized that the Creeveys were walking next to him as they were entering the castle.
"Excuse me, I wanted to tell you how sorry I am about Colin, I am Harry..."
"I know who you are, Harry. Colin brought home a lot of photographs of you his first year," Mr. Creevey held out his hand to Harry. "He always believed in you, was so proud to be a Gryffindor, to be a part of Dumbledore's Army. Colin wanted nothing more than to go to Hogwarts and be a wizard."
His voice cracked but he went on, "He swore he would fight to make sure that Hogwarts was a safe place for wizards and Muggle-borns," He held out his left hand, clasped in it was the coin from so long ago. "When he got the signal he told me that he had to go and help."
Harry nodded "Colin was very brave. They tried to get him to leave because he was underage, but he snuck back in so he could fight. He was too young to die."
"And now Dennis will be able to go back this fall," Mr. Creevey said with a nod to the grieving boy standing there with his head down. "If he still wants to that is,"
Dennis looked up and exclaimed fiercely, "Try and keep me away!"
Together they walked through the doors of Great Hall. The number of mourners in the room had grown tremendously since the morning. "If you will follow me Mr Creevey, Colin is this way," said McGonagall soberly, leading the way.
Harry trailed slowly behind the group as they walked through, watched as Wood and Finnigan were hugged by Mr Creevey. He couldn't bear to watch as Mr. Creevey and Dennis looked down at Colin.
He saw Hermione's parents consoling the Weasleys. His aunt and Dudley stood awkwardly off to the side, Dudley looking around gap-jawed at the roomful of wizards. Reluctantly Harry walked up to them. "Aunt Petunia, Dudley, I heard you were here." None of them pretended there was a necessity to hug.
"Hullo, Harry," Dudley said, his eyes were looking up at the Enchanted Ceiling that was glistening in the afternoon sun. "Your school is amazing."
For the first time Harry got a good look at Dudley. "Have you been sick, Dudley?"
"Huh?"
"You look like you lost a lot of weight," Harry said.
"Oh. For a long time I was too scared to eat much of anything at the house where they put us. Afraid of something happening," Dudley looked a little green at just the memory, "So I lost a lot of weight, and by the time I knew it was safe to eat most of their food, I just ate less. Dad is mad about it, says I won't be able to wrestle my weight anymore."
Harry stared at Dudley and almost started to laugh. He had never heard Dudley talk so much, but then he had rarely spent time with Dudley when Uncle Vernon wasn't there to rule the conversation. Petunia still hadn't said a word. "Where is Uncle Vernon?"
"He went straight back to our house to make sure the house was okay," said Dudley.
"Do you want me to show you around the school?" asked Harry, not sure what else to do with them. "The battle was here so there is a lot of damage but you can see what it is like."
They both nodded their consent. Harry led them out of the Great Hall and down the corridor. "Hogwarts has been here for over 900 years, so there are a lot of additions. I should warn you that there are ghosts, nice ghosts, for the most part," he said hastily as Petunia gave a little shriek.
"Who are they?" she said speaking for the first time.
"Just people who died a long time ago who chose not to go on I guess," Harry still couldn't grasp why Dudley and his mother had traveled all the way to Hogwarts. Aunt Petunia had always forbidden him from talking about the school, and here she was looking around in wonderment at the moving portraits and endless staircases. He wasn't sure where to take them, so he just randomly started to point out things like the classrooms and trophy cases as they went by.
Dudley stopped to look into the one of the cases. "Harry, this one has your name on it."
"Oh, right, that is the Quidditch cup from a couple years ago. Quidditch is a game, like football but on broomsticks. I played on the Gryffindor team."
"Qwidditsh, yes, we heard a lot about it while we were with the witches at that house. Everyone was always talking about the match-ups with the Tutsills Tornados," said Dudley. "What position did you play?"
Harry couldn't figure out why Dudley was showing so much interest. "I was the Seeker, my job was to..."
"Catch the snitch," finished Petunia, "Just like your father. Lily was always talking about what a good Seeker your father was on the Quidditch team."
"Yes, my father played too, that is him up in the team photograph up there," pointed Harry. Dudley stared fascinated at the people moving in the photograph.
Harry was amazed at how civil Petunia was being, Dudley too, but his aunt had never gone this long without a disparaging remark towards Harry or his parents. A horrible thought ran through his head "Wait here, I'll be right back." and he raced back down the hall.
He caught up to McGonagall as she was coming out of the Great Hall, "Professor McGonagall, I think my aunt and cousin are under the Imperius curse."
"Whatever makes you think that?"
"They are being nice."
"A very strong argument indeed, Potter, but no, your family is not under the Imperius curse. Your aunt and uncle, and you will not breath a word of this to anyone, may have had a slight shall we say adjustment in their attitude," McGonagall straightened her robes out, not quite meeting his eyes. "It made life in the house considerably more bearable for Dedalus and Hestia. I expect it will wear off your aunt in time. Your uncle is already back to his true form. Your cousin, on the other hand, simply grew up and started forming his own thoughts instead of mimicking his father."
Harry gave a sigh of relief and turned to go back down the hall, "Harry, we are going to need a decision about tomorrow, soon. The ceremony starts at ten o'clock in the morning."
"I have to get back to my Aunt before Peeves drops a bucket of water on her head," said Harry hastening down the corridor again. He slowed down as he saw that Dudley and Petunia were talking with Hagrid.
"Hello Harry, I was just tellin' yer Aunt here about how yew were killed by You Know Who an' then came back," Hagrid turned back to Petunia "such a shock I tell yeh, one minute I was holdin' his poor lifeless body an' then the nex' minute he had disappeared from the ground where I'd set 'im. And then jus' like tha' he was duelin', an' You Know Who was dead on the ground."
Harry groaned. Dudley and Petunia were both staring at him like he had two heads. "You died?" Dudley said slowly.
"In a way, but not really since obviously I'm still here-OUCH!" as Petunia pinched him hard on the arm. "Why did you do that!"
"Are you a ghost like the ones you warned us about?" She asked looking suspiciously at him. "No, I'm not a ghost! That is what a ghost looks like!" and he jabbed a finger towards the Bloody Baron who happened to be floating by. There was a thump and Petunia fell to the ground in a dead faint. Dudley fell to his knees and started patting her face.
"Just terrific," Harry ran his hand through his hair, he couldn't believe he had to deal with his own family today of all days. "I suppose it could have been worse and it been Nearly Headless Nick that had come by, Hagrid do you know where they are supposed to sleep tonight?"
"They 'ave made up the classrooms into sleepin' quarters, I think these two are in Professor McGonagall's classroom."
"Could you carry her there, and Dudley, would you like to go with them and make sure your mother is okay?"
"Um, sure, Harry, Where are you going to be?" asked Dudley slowly, clearly not sure he wanted to be left alone.
"I need to go see someone, I guess I'll see you at supper," and without a backwards glance Harry fled the castle.Part Four
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