#you should hear his one about the basilisk from Harry Potter | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

saiilorstars · 1 year

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Ch. 16: Waking Up

Fandom: Harry Potter (Hogwarts years 1-7) Pairing: Draco x OFC

taglist: @ocappreciationtag @arrthurpendragon @anotherunreadblog @maaaaarveeeeel @stareyedplanet @foxesandmagic

Story Masterlist // Romina’s Masterlist

If you’d like to be a part of this OC’s work/edits, let me know!

The end of the year feast had arrived, and this time it was worth celebrating. Harry had kept good on his word to Arden that he would bring down the Basilisk terrorizing the school, though Arden would never know that the real reason the Basilisk was after them in the first place was because of Lord Voldemort - in the guise of Tom Riddle - was the owner of the diary. Harry thought that was information that Arden didn't need in her life. Besides, Tom Riddle was gone and so was the Basilisk. Ginny Weasley, who turned out to have been under control by Tom Riddle, was safely returned to normal and was once more happy as could be, especially since those who were petrified were being revived that night.

Arden would spend a whole night of anguish wondering what the hell it was that Harry would be doing to get Romina (and everyone else who'd been petrified) back.

"Arden, what did you do with the scrap of paper?" Angel asked her in the evening at dinner.

Arden chewed on her bottom lip. She could already feel Draco's burning eyes on her warning her to keep quiet. Under no circumstances did he want anyone else finding out he had to go up and near Hermione Granger.

"I, um, gave it to the rightful owner," Arden said in the end.

"What do you expect Potter to do with it?"

"I don't know, something at least? All I know is that last year, Harry was able to discover that a longtime professor was really working for You-Know-Who so I'm hoping he'll have the same luck and bring Romina back to us. Or, at least he'll put a stop to whatever did that to her."

"Why are you so interested in it now?" Theo asked Angel afterwards and brought on a whole new conversation. "We're leaving tomorrow and so far, I don't really see anyone being unpetrified, do you?"

"Madame Pomfrey said that the antidote would be ready tonight," Daphne chimed in with a smile from ear to ear. "I'm hoping Romina can come downstairs tonight. I really miss her, doesn't anyone else?"

"Debatable," Blaise said, causing Theo to snicker, "I mean, it has been quieter lately, really."

"Blaise, don't even start," Angel said, shaking his head. "What happened was horrible. Nobody should be petrified."

"Oh calm down everyone," Draco cut in, rolling his eyes. He could already see Carolinha's face growing red from alarm at the conversation. The girl really was too squeaky for his taste, or anyone's taste for that matter. "The antidote is working so like it or not," he glanced at Blaise who was eating with a smirk on his face, "Oswell will be back tonight."

Blaise looked up from his plate and, still smirking, looked at Draco. "You excited too?"

"Maybe," Draco's casual answer brought on the shocked faces of his friends until he added: "If only to see you have a meltdown."

Blaise's smirk vanished as the rest of their friends began to laugh.

~ 0 ~

It was strange being petrified. One moment, she was looking at a horrible creature in a compact mirror and the next thing she saw was that the night wing ceiling could definitely use some new paint. It was almost like she had gone through a period of time at light speed...but almost.

Romina found it strange that even though she was not awake, and she could not speak, she could still hear every now and then. Granted, it was warped and mostly chipped and no doubt distorted, but she could hear sounds. It was not comforting at all. Being not awake but almost awake is about the worst kind of torture in her opinion. When Madame Pomfrey and Professor Sprout gave her an antidote, Romina actually felt like everything was too loud. Madame Pomfrey assured her that her sensibility to hearing was completely normal given the situation and that it would go away in a few days.

Hermione, on the other hand, woke up completely fine. "I told you it was a Basilisk!"

Romina winced with Hermione's voice. She brought her hands to her ears for a moment. "Could you please not yell."

"I'm not yelling," Hermione said as she hopped off her bed. "I would never yell that I knew exactly what kind of secret creature lay in a secret chamber." She was, in fact, keeping her voice very hushed. She cocked her head to the side. "Are you alright?"

"No," Romina said sharply, bringing her hands down on her lap. "It feels like everyone is yelling."

Hermione's brows knitted together as she looked around the night wing. There was commotion, yes, as the rest of the petrified were being given the antidotes but nothing out of this world. "I promise you that no one is yelling."

"I bet," Romina sighed. "Do you think they solved the mystery, though?"

"Only one way to find out," Hermione grinned. "You think you can manage leaving the night wing altogether?"

Romina would love to say 'no' but since she spent way too much time in the night wing, it felt like she needed to get away. She slipped out of bed and very slowly tried to keep her hands on her sides.

"Girls, you can stay as long as you need to," Madame Pomfrey said when she saw Romina struggling to walk with Hermione.

"I'm okay," Romina nodded, making sure that her hands did not move from her sides at all.

Madame Pomfrey didn't seem so convinced. She told the girls that it was the last day before students were to return home. The Great Hall was filled with loud commotion that certain ears would be sensible to. Romina acknowledged the warning as she walked out with Hermione.

The two girls hurried down the stairs, reaching the Great Hall in just minutes. Hermione was all for running in and seeing her friends but she stopped at the doors when she noticed Romina was still at the steps, covering her ears.

"Romina, are you alright?" Hermione turned away from the doors altogether. "Is it — is the noise too much?"

With a groan, Romina came to take a seat on the last step, covering her ears. "It's alright, Hermione. You can go in. Bet you're hungry. We haven't eaten in ages."

Hermione hurried back to the steps and sat down with Romina. "The same goes for you. Bet your friends are missing you too."

"Mm," Romina scrunched her face. "Maybe. It's complicated, that lot. Most of them aren't exactly the expressive kind. Well, maybe Carolinha but that's only because she can't hide her feelings at all." Hermione gave a light chuckle. "Like I said, you should go."

"I'm not leaving you out here," Hermione motioned to the empty hallway. "We were petrified together. Kind of bonds us for life." This time it was Romina who laughed. "Besides, I think your friends really do miss you. More than you think."

Romina lowered her hands when the noise settled a bit more. "What do you mean?"

Hermione made a face as if she were still debating whether or not she had spoken more than she should have. "When you were petrified, did you hear anything? See anything?"

Romina shrugged. "A little bit of hearing. No sight whatsoever. What I heard were moments of Arden, I think? Angel too. I think they were the ones who came to see me most, if not the only ones."

"They weren't the only ones," Hermione said, swallowing thickly. "I don't even believe it yet."

"What?"

Hermione seemed ready to talk when someone zoomed past them down the stairs.

"Oi! You two!" It was Justin Flint-Fletchley, another fellow petrified student, who stopped a few feet away from the girls. "Aren't you starving!? Being petrified works up an appetite! C'mon!"

The girls exchanged glances and ultimately Romina agreed that she was indeed hungry. They stood up together and headed for the Great Hall. Romina was reluctant to walk in at first, and it took a bit more seconds for Hermione to finally convince her to go in with her.

Celebrations were going everywhere. Romina winced every now and then as some yelling became too much. She didn't notice that Hermione had led her to the Gryffindor table, although it wasn't very surprising. What did she expect? That she be walked to the Slytherin table?

Harry and Ron were excitedly waiting for them and hugged each girl tightly (at the last moment Ron decided to shake hands with Hermione, for some reason), profusely apologizing for what had happened to them.

"If I say it's alright will you stop yelling?" Romina said, once again bringing her hands to her ears.

"Well, that's rude!" Ron exclaimed.

"She's experiencing some sensibility to sound," Hermione explained, "So lighten up already."

"Oh Rom, I'm sorry," Harry made a face. The Great Hall probably sounded like it was exploding in Romina's ears.

"Don't worry about it," Romina waved a hand and slowly lowered the other one from her ear. "I'm just happy you guys did it. Whatever it is that you did."

"It was not easy," Ron made clear to the two. "Nearly died back there. And by the way, Hermione, professor Lockhart was a total farce!"

Hermione rolled her eyes. Ron went into a ramble about how Lockhart had admitted to stealing other people's stories and then obliviating them to keep them quiet.

"It doesn't matter," Romina said in the end, "Like I said, I'm just happy you guys did whatever it is that you did."

"With loads of help from you," Harry said, then added, "And from Arden. She's the one that saw the slip of paper in Hermione's hand."

Hermione looked uncomfortable though, as she was about to add more. She looked at Romina again, wearing the same expression she had when they were outside on the step. "Erm, well, Arden may have seen the paper but it was actually Malfoy who got it out of my hand in the first place."

Ron nearly fell forwards. "What!? I'm thinking that petrifying condition must have confused you, Hermione!"

Even Romina seemed a little surprised. "Seriously?"

Hermione nodded firmly. "I heard Arden, and then I heard a conversation between Malfoy and Angel Paes."

"And what did they say?" asked Romina.

Hermione bit on her bottom lip. The conversation she heard had not been for her ears and because Angel was pretty nice, she didn't think telling his secret was the best way to be a friend to him. "I-I don't remember everything...but I know Malfoy was mad he couldn't get the paper out of my hand at first."

"Interesting," Romina said, a smile growing across her face. "Maybe I was wrong."

"Wrong about what?" Ron scowled.

"Nothing," Romina said with a wave of her hand. "Let's not worry about the details. I'm hungry. And I would really like to see my other friends now." She gave the Gryffindors each a hug and then hurried towards the Slytherin table. She was subjected into a second round of welcomings from her friends, none stronger than Arden's hugs though. Well, Angel could rival her.

"I have never been so grateful to Harry! He did whatever it is he usually did and got rid of that Basilisk thing!"

Romina laughed and patted Arden's back. "Well, I hope you know that Madame Pomfrey and Professor Sprout told us that Dumbledore has issued 100 points to those who helped Harry and Ron in the first place." And as she spoke these words, she sent Draco a significant look that made his eyes widen in horror. It was clear he didn't want his name anywhere near the spotlight. It confirmed Hermione's story. "Don't worry, I heard he's awarding them in silence."

Arden, thinking Romina was still speaking just to her, laughed and said she didn't care about the points. Romina shot Draco a knowing smile and started to eat.

"What was it like?" Daphne asked her out of sheer curiosity. "Being petrified?"

Romina was piling on dinner on her plate pretty fast. "I mean, at times I could hear things. Actually, my hearing's a bit sensible right now. It's like being in slow-mo for ages. My ears have to catch up to real time now."

"Really? You could hear at times?" Draco drawled suddenly, meeting Angel's gaze with a smirk. The brunette stiffened in his spot. "Did you happen to hear anything interesting?"

Romina was none the wiser about their little secret. "Not really. The pieces that I did hear were just that: pieces. Everything was kind of slowed down, you know? Hard to make out a conversation."

Angel visibly relaxed but his sister shot him an odd side-glance. "Well, we're just really glad that you're back, Romina," he said.

Romina briefly paused to smile in his way. "Me too."

"But you know," Pansy started and it wasn't far fetched to believe that the next thing that would come out of her mouth was a sort of 'I told you so', "I bet if you hadn't been with Granger, you wouldn't have been petrified in the first place."

"Wow, the first time Parkinson said something smart," Blaise said, "But if you wanna keep hanging out with her and getting into all sorts of situations like that, by all means go for it."

Romina shot the boy in question a sour smile. "I missed you too, Blaise."

"No, but I think Pansy might have a point there," Daphne spoke up, "You should stay clear of her and Harry and Ron. You don't want to get into more trouble like that."

"I have known Harry my entire life," Romina said, "So has Arden. We're not splitting up for anything. And besides, it wasn't Harry's fault."

"No, it was probably your fault for sticking your nose where it didn't belong, huh?" Draco asked her.

"I missed you too, Draco."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Sarcasm was not missed. And I'm telling the truth, aren't I? Tell us right now that you didn't get yourself petrified because you were doing something you shouldn't have been doing?"

Romina put her fork down on her plate and turned her body in Draco's direction. "You know, that's a lot of talk for someone who always sticks their nose where it doesn't belong. I had to learn it from somewhere, didn't I? What, with it coming with the 'pureblood' label, right?"

"Yeah, things are definitely back to normal," Arden said with a beam on her face. Meanwhile, Romina and Draco were stuck in a glare-off.

McGonagall interrupted them shortly afterwards to gather their attention at the front table. Dumbledore rose from his centered seat and began addressing them. "Before we begin our feast, let's give a round of applause to Professor Sprout and Madame Pomfrey, whose Mandrake Juice has been successfully administered to all those who had been petrified."

Of course everyone gave an applause.

"Also, in the wake of recent events, as a school treat, all exams have been cancelled."

The entire room burst into a new sense of applause.

The front door burst open to reveal Hagrid coming in. Everyone silenced but Hagrid sheepishly smiled. "Sorry I'm late. The owl deliverin' my release papers got all lost 'n confused. Some ruddy bird named Errol."

Romina giggled remembering the old owl Ron was always embarrassed over. Soon, however, they were drowned out on account of almost the entire school clapping and cheering for the return of Hagrid. Needless to say, the night was full of joy and lots and lots of food.

~0~

When it came time to leave for the Hogwarts Express, no student was left in deception. With no work and all friends returned, who could bother to be sad? All the way back on the express, talking was incessant. Among the topics was being petrified. Hermione surprised Romina with the information that she heard a lot more than Romina had for some reason. That was how Romina found out who had given her the secret Valentine day card.

"That was sweet of him," Romina said with a small smile. Apparently, she was the only one out of everyone who didn't get the memo about Angel's crush. Hermione didn't have the courage to tell her at that moment either.

"Okay, guys," Harry suddenly changed topics and had taken out a quill and parchment. Hermione and Romina recognized a number, more importantly that it was Harry's phone number.

"This is called a telephone number," Harry said for Ron's benefit. "I told your dad how to use a telephone last summer — he'll know. Call me at the Dursleys', okay? I can't stand another two months with only Dudley to talk to. . . ."

"Hey, thanks," Romina sarcastically waved a hand.

"You know what I mean," Harry said as he handed his number to Ron and Hermione.

"Well, in that case, I'll give my number to Hermione and Ron, and not you," Romina stuck her tongue out at Harry.

"Rom, I already have your number."

"Shut up, Harry."

"Your aunt and uncle will be proud, though, won't they?" Hermione asked when they got off the train and spotted the Dursleys with their grim faces. It was nothing compared to Romina's cheerful grandparents waiting just behind them.

Harry snorted. "Proud? Are you crazy? All those times I could've died, and I didn't manage it? They'll be furious!"

"What a lovely world it is at the Dursleys'," Romina apologetically patted Harry on the back. "Don't worry, Arden and I can keep you company. Speaking of, I should probably go find her. I can't trust that she and Pansy won't try to kill each other by the end of the train ride. How they manage to survive without me is beyond me."

"You're like the peace mediator, then?" Harry mused. He knew Romina all too well. She had a kind heart but could also be a bit of an instigator as well. It was all fun when she did it to Dudley - hilarious, actually.

Romina's smirk was promising. "Something like that."

A/N:

End of Book 2! Once again, Book 3 will continue within the same story ;)

#ocappreciation #fd: harry potter #harry potter #draco malfoy #draco malfoy fics #draco malfoy imagines #draco malfoy x oc #harry potter fics #harry potter imagines #hp #hp fics #hp imagines #oc: Romina Oswell #fic: Legacies

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up-to-some-good · 3 years

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Part 5: 5 times I fixed it...

“Mr and Mrs Potter,” Dumbledore started. “I’m afraid I have some bad news regarding the prophecy.”

Lily had had a bad feeling when he had pulled them out of the meeting early to talk. They had heard about the prophecy a month ago, but at that point it was between her baby and Alice’s, both born at the end of July.

“He thinks it’s about Harry,” she said.

She thought of her son. He was with James’s parents at Potter manor while they were at the meeting. He had been asleep when they left for headquarters. It was hard to believe there was a target on his back.

“Indeed,” Dumbledore responded.

James took a sharp breath and pulled Lily’s into his lap, squeezing her fingers. He reached for her whenever he needed comfort; every time he found out about another casualty, he pulled her into his arms. It was a comfort to both of them, but it didn’t work this time.

“What do we do?” James asked quietly.

“I believe you should go into hiding,” Dumbledore said. “Are you aware of the Fidelius charm?”

“Yes,” Lily said. “You conceal the secret of your location in another person. You cannot be found unless that person chooses to divulge the secret, but it cannot be coerced or otherwise forced out.”

“Correct,” the old man said, his eyes twinkling.

For a moment, Lily felt like she was back at Hogwarts, answering her Professors’ questions to win back the house points the man sitting next to her had lost.

“I suggest you use it to hide your family, until all is safe,” Dumbledore said calmly.

“All due respect, Albus,” a voice came from the door. “But that is a terrible idea.”

Professor McGonagall walked into the room and passed each of the Potters a biscuit from the tray downstairs. Dumbledore gave her an indecipherable look.

“We all know there is a spy in the Order,” she continued. “You cannot guarantee the person you choose will not betray you and, even if they do not, they could be found and killed or tortured until they revealed the location.”

“What do you suggest, Professor?” Lily asked.

“Leave the country,” she said simply. “Go somewhere far away, like Australia, where there are no Death Eaters, and return when the war is over. I suggest the Longbottoms go with you as a precaution.”

“How do we stop Voldemort from simply following us? We won’t have back up in Australia if he comes for us,” James questioned.

“A simple diversion will do,” McGonagall responded. “We will place two houses under the Fidelius as if you were living there. They will serve the purpose to hide your true location without putting you at risk.”

“Who will be the secret keeper?” James asked.

“Myself and Alastor,” McGonagall said easily.

“Okay,” James said. “I trust you.”

Two days later, the Potters packed their bags and headed for the airport. They said goodbye to Euphemia and Fleamont the night before at dinner, pretending they would be reunited, but knowing the elder two would not be around much longer. Alice and Frank met them at the airport with Neville and gave them tight hugs. No one in the Order, not even the other marauders, knew where the families were going, just that they would be in hiding for the foreseeable future.

“Ready to go?” Frank asked.

“As much as we can be,” Lily said.

The six passed through the airport and boarded the plane together, disappearing for the next year.

***

When he arrived at the flat, Sirius poured himself a glass of Firewhiskey and retreated to his bedroom. James and Lily had been gone for a month and things were getting harder. The remaining marauders were always on separate missions, gone for days at a time and not telling each other where they were going.

Remus came back injured and held on to Sirius as tightly as he could when he came back, but they didn’t talk. Sirius loved him as much as he ever had but wondered how much longer he could go without knowing what Remus was doing or telling Remus what he was doing.

Peter did nothing but talk, guessing who the spy was and changing his opinion daily. The day he suggested Remus, Sirius asked him to move out of the apartment. He had to trust Remus and Peter. They were all he had left without the Potters.

A sound from the living room startled him. Someone had apparated into the flat, someone unexpected. Remus always apparated outside the front door, so his boyfriend wasn’t back, and Peter always sent an owl ahead, so it couldn’t be him.

He grabbed his wand and stormed into the living room to find –

Regulus, lying on the floor and drenched. He looked like he was breathing, but the strain of apparating had clearly knocked him out. There was some sort of locket clutched in his hands.

“Merlin,” Sirius said, running to crouch at his brother’s side.

He started casting every healing and warming spell he could think of, grateful for Remus’s lycanthropy for the first time. Regulus was a known Death Eater so Sirius shouldn’t have been helping him. He was his little brother, though, and he couldn’t watch him die on his living room carpet.

Eventually, Regulus started awake, sitting up rapidly and nearly collapsing again from the effort. Sirius caught him before he fell and moved him carefully to the sofa.

“Sirius?” he asked weakly.

“What the hell happened, Reg?” he asked.

Regulus started laughing, leaning his head back on one of the throw pillows. Bewildered, Sirius watched his brother laugh hysterically for a few minutes before he calmed down and looked back at him.

“I should be dead,” he said eventually. “I thought for sure apparating to a place I barely remember from underwater would kill me, if the inferi didn’t first.”

“What are you talking about?”

Regulus didn’t answer. Instead he sat up and threw the locket at Sirius, who caught it easily.

“What do you know about horcruxes, Siri?” he asked tiredly.

Within the next few days, Regulus repeated his story multiple times, to Dumbledore, Remus, Moody, and any other Order member who wanted to hear it. He wanted to join the Order, help with the hunt for horcruxes, but few trusted him.

“I’ll swear an Unbreakable Vow,” he said eventually. “I’ll vow that I won’t betray the Order, that I’ll be loyal.”

Dumbledore agreed and, once the spell was cast, Regulus was welcomed into the Order of the Phoenix.

Everyone’s missions were cancelled, unless absolutely necessary, in lieu of the hunt for horcruxes. Dumbledore guessed at the number and objects and sent them out to look for them. Within a few months, the Order had gathered the cup, locket, diadem, diary and ring after a few daring missions and one small, albeit destructive, heist from Gringotts.

“Now what?” Sirius asked. “How do we get rid of them?”

“There are two known methods,” came the calm answer from Dumbledore. “Basilisk venom or Fiendfyre.”

“So we’re fucked?” Remus asked incredulously. “Unless someone as a pet Basilisk they’d like to share?”

“There’s rumoured to be one at Hogwarts,” Regulus said mildly. “But I don’t know where.”

The Order looked at the objects on the table and collectively sighed. The few months tracking them down meant nothing if they couldn’t destroy them.

“Anyone have a house they’re willing to burn down?” Remus asked the room eventually. “Preferably one with an astounding amount of protective charms so we don’t have to cast them?”

Sirius and Regulus shared a look. Walburga Black had died just a month ago, leaving Grimmauld Place entirely empty. Orion had been an especially paranoid man, so the house had always been protected with every charm he could find. Neither of them wanted the house and they had already set Kreacher free – it was perfect.

“Actually,” Regulus said. “I think we do.”

Watching the house burn was incredible, skulls rising from the smoke as Voldemort’s soul died in the fire. It was almost fun – until the Death Eaters arrived.

A fierce battle started, everyone fighting to get to the centre, where Voldemort himself was fighting Dumbledore. Sirius stood with his back against Remus’s, righting Bellatrix and Rowle simultaneously. Remus was engaged with Yaxley and Malfoy, occasionally shooting a jinx at Goyle, busy fighting Regulus.

Across from them, Peter and Snape were engaged in a duel, neither of them focused on anything around them. Unexpectedly, Peter stunned Snape and moved on. Even more, unexpectedly, he joined Sirius’s duel – on the Death Eaters’ side.

“You little rat, Pettigrew,” he yelled. “How could you?”

“You’re not going to win, Black,” Peter yelled. “Last chance to switch sides!”

“Fuck you,” Sirius sneered.

A second later, everything changed. Dumbledore landed the killing shot and Voldemort crumpled. Bellatrix pointed her wand at a distracted Sirius. He yelled in pain and fell to his knees, but she didn’t let up, keeping her focus on torturing her cousin as if he were personally responsible for her master’s death. Peter cursed Remus before disapparating with the other Death Eaters as Moody began stunning everyone in sight.

Remus collapsed next to Sirius, blood pouring from the cuts on his chest.

“Avada kedavra!”

A green beam of light hit Bellatrix in the chest, she and Sirius collapsed simultaneously, the latter panting and shaking.

“I never liked her,” Regulus said mildly, pocketing his wand.

Sirius and Remus woke up to a sound in the living room a week later. They had left the hospital a day before, both of them still exhausted and still in pain, but alive. They slowly got up and grabbed their wands before padding to the living room, where they were tackled into a group hug by a flash of red hair.

“Lily,” Sirius said breathlessly, hugging her tighter. “You’re back.”

He pulled away and looked up to see James, holding Harry, who was almost a toddler at this point.

“We’re back,” James said quietly.

#five times i fixed harry potter and one time i absolutely did not #harry potter #harry potter fic #harry potter fix it #fix it fic #marauders #marauders fic #marauders fix it fic #james potter #lily potter #sirius black #remus lupin #peter pettigrew #regulus black #regulus black redemption #wolfstar #jily #tomorrow is gonna be rough #5+1 fic

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amphxtrite · 3 years

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what I miss most // c.d

cedric diggory x slytherin! reader

warnings: swearing, spelling/ grammar mistakes.

summary: the reader is chosen for triwizard tournament instead of cedric. He helps you with the first task and finds himself at the bottom of the lake.

a/n: thank you to anon for sending this request, I absolutely loved writing this, but I apologize if it’s kind of shit.

tag list: @cupidpoison @wonderful-writer @inglourious-imagines @mullthingsoverinthehotwater @cedricsyellowscarf @coldlilheart @glossierkisscs @hoe4cedricdiggory

word count: 3.9k

enjoy <3

__________________________________________

“And the Hogwarts champion for the triwizard tournament is.” Dumbledore’s voice booms as the entire student body sits on the edge of their seats waiting patiently as the goblet of fire spews out a sheet of parchment. “Y/n L/n of slytherin!”

The entire house of black and green shouts in excitement as you stand and make your way to the front of the hall, accepting pats on the back and high fives your entire way down.

Cedric Diggory sighs in defeat as your name is called instead of his. He slowly raises his head from his arms to take a look at the girl who would be in the tournament instead of him. He doesn’t know what to expect as he finally finds you in the crowd, but needless to say he’s surprised. Beautiful cascading h/c hair, bright eyes, a playful smirk resting on your face and a loose green tie adorning your neck. He could barely take his eyes off of you as you shake hands with dumbledore and enter the back room, his eyes trailing after you until you’re finally out of his line of view.

“She’s gorgeous.” The hufflepuff sighs, resting his chin on his hand.

“Ced, she took your spot!” Ernie Macmillan calls, shaking his head at the star struck brunette.

“Who cares mate?” Cedric laughs, wrapping an arm around the younger boy with a smirk on his face.

Your confidence seemed to double as you walked up to Dumbledore and shook his hand, but sitting in the waiting room with the other champions grew rather awkward and you knew you’d have to be the first to break the ice.

You turn and wave to the Beauxbatons girl and introduce yourself. Fleur seems happy to have someone to talk to and you eventually pull Viktor into your circle, talking about your schools and your excitement for the tournament. A shuffle of shoes is heard and you turn, expecting Dumbledore, but see Harry Potter’s mop of brown hair and glasses instead.

“Harry what are you doing here?” You question, walking up to the shaky boy and putting a hand on his shoulder. Harry was like a younger brother to you, and you’d grown rather fond of him despite your house.

“I-I don’t know! He just called my name.” He stutters, looking around anxiously and fidgeting with his fingers.

“I didn’t put my name in, I swear!” He rambles on, taking hold of your sweater.

“I believe you Harry, there’s no way you could’ve made it past the age line.” You state, ruffling his hair and sighing.

“You know you should really get this cut.” You laugh, pulling him towards the other champions.

“Really y/n, now?” Harry rolls his eyes, but cracks a smile, allowing himself to be dragged over and introduced.

Days pass and you grow more and more excited for the first task, you get close to the other champions and you have overwhelming support from even peers you’ve never talked to before, but as more people support you, they seem to turn on Harry. Badges with the phrase ‘Potter Stinks.’ And ‘Support y/n the real Hogwarts champion.’ Begin popping up everywhere and despite your pleas for people to take them off more and more people continue.

“Please Draco, I know you don’t like Harry, but I would really appreciate it if you and your friends stopped wearing them.” You try to reason with the young slytherin, but everyday is the same response. “No need to be modest y/n! We all know it’s true!”

You sigh and shake your head turning back to Fleur and her friends as one of them shakes your shoulder. “I think you’ve got yourself an admirer.” She smirks pointing behind you.

“That’s very sweet Claire, but I don’t want to see anymore badg-“

She cuts you off. “Non, no badges, that boy is gazing at you!” She squeals, shifting your body so you’re facing the other direction. Your eyes lock with a pair of grey ones and the owner immediately drops his gaze. Your cheeks flash a light pink as you smile at the adorable boy, but you’re pulled from your little moment by a tapping on your back.

“Um y/n, c-can I talk to you?” Harry’s shy voice calls out. “Read the badge Potter!” Draco’s distinct voice responds as you turn to shush him.

“Of course Harry, lead the way.” You smile.

“Listen I’m sorry about the badges. I’ve told them not to wear them, but” Harry lifts his hand to stop you.

“I know, it’s alright. I just wanted to warn you. The first task is dragons.” He whispers before scurrying off to find his friends.

Nodding your head in disbelief, you run back to Fleur’s group and apologize, telling them you’d be in the library if they needed you.

Dragons. Why did it have to be dragons? You sigh in frustration as you open another book on the fire spewing reptiles, your eyes fighting to stay open. “H-hey, do you need any help?” A low voice wakes you from your half asleep trance and you snap up. “What? Um, yes. Please. What was the question?” You lift your hand to your mouth to block your yawn as the voice comes closer.

“I-I’m sorry I didn’t mean to bother.” A boy comes into view. “Oh, you’re the hufflepuff from the courtyard!” You smile, motioning for him to take a seat next to you. “Yeah that’s me.” He chuckles, placing his book bag down and falling into the chair. “I just noticed you in here and was wondering if you wanted any help?” The hufflepuff sighs, scratching the back of his head in a nervous manner.

“Yeah! I mean that'd be great!” you grin, picking up your pen. “Does the hufflepuff have a name?” You tease, pulling a textbook towards the two of you. “Yeah, Uh- Cedric. Cedric Diggory.” He smiles extending his hand.

“Well Cedric, I’m y/n.” You respond, taking hold of the brunette’s hand. “I know.” He nods before blushing and shaking his head.

“That seemed really creepy, I didn’t mean anything weird.”

You laugh and for a moment Cedric is sure he’s in the presence of an angel. Your face lighting up and the sound of your voice reminded him of something divine, and Merlin did his heart soar.

“Alright Cedric, let’s get down to business.”

You spend the afternoon and most of the evening researching all you could about dragons. You had explained the situation to Cedric to give him a better idea what to look out for and he’s had his nose stuck down a book the whole time looking for the right way to succeed.

“You could try flying?”

“I’m horrid on a broom Ced.”

“Stun it?”

“That’ll only make it angry.”

“Freeze it?”

“It’s a fire breathing reptile Ced.”

“What about a distraction?” Cedric suggests, reading over a line of text.

“It won’t anger the dragon, there shouldn't be any need for fire, you just need to transfigure a distraction.”

Your lips pull into a smirk and you wrap Cedric into a hug.

“That’s brilliant! How did you know Transfiguration is my best class?” You laugh.

“Lucky guess?” Cedric smirks in response, returning the hug with a huge smile.

“You’re the best Cedric, I’ll see you later?” You pack your bag and squeeze the hufflepuff’s shoulder before walking away.

“Yeah, see you later!”

One by one at the sound of the canon the champions before you face their dragons. Sitting in the tent in your sports wear, anxiety floods your veins as the sounds of thrashing mixed with ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ from the audience ring in your ear and cause your heart to race. Harry does his best to reassure you, but it seems more like a comfort to himself than you. You couldn’t blame the boy, a fourteen year old who had faced Voldemort, a basilisk and now a dragon.

The canon bangs again and someone enters the tent to retrieve you.

“This way please miss l/n.”

You stand and take a deep breath, smiling to Harry before following the man through the curtains.

You begin stretching out your arms and giving yourself a pep talk. You were smart to have taken the time to study dragons, because you didn’t know the first thing about Swedish Short- Snouts before your study day with Cedric.

You begin your walk into the stadium and the rocks begin to come into view.

The chanting of your name is distinctly heard and a silver dragon resting on a stone perch greets you, it’s yellow eyes piercing into your heart like a sword. You swallow and take a deep breath to calm yourself, pulling your wand from your pocket and putting on your brace face.

Students scream as you are finally visible and you can hear bets being made, the dragon stands from the stone and growls.

“Let’s do this.”

You slowly pace towards the dragon as it shoots a flame out towards you. Quickly rolling out of the way, you cast the rock to dog transfiguration on a medium boulder before crouching behind a large rock.

The dragon curiously follows the dog with its eyes before stepping from its nest to follow it, the scraping of chains being your cue to go. The dog begins to run and you quickly sprint in the direction of the eggs, the golden one shining in the centre must be your goal.

As you approach the nest, a brilliant blue flame shoots from beside you, barely missing your body, but burning you down your arm. The dragon begins bounding towards you, and with pain coursing through your left side you scoop up the golden egg and loudly cast the sleeping charm multiple times on the silver beast before it finally falls to your feet in a low slumber.

The stadium erupts in excitement as you walk out with the egg in your arms, as you scan the crowd for your hufflepuff helper. You spot the brunette in the stands and throw him a thumbs up and a huge smile. He grins back at you and mouths congratulations as you are greeted by medical assistance and pulled into the hospital wing.

You’re laid in a white bed as Madame Pomfrey treats your burns. The medicine does cause you to flinch and your arms turns a strange colour, but it does seem to cool after it’s finally wrapped up. You’re about to fall asleep when a flash of red and brown enters your line of sight and begins to chuckle and stutter with a huge smirk.

“Heard you pulled quite a stunt in the arena.” You grin at Harry with a light roll of your eyes.

“It was amazing y/n! You should have seen me fly up and around the Horntail!” Harry gushes, explaining every moment of his first task in great detail. Pomfrey begins bandaging his scratchers as he begins swinging his arm around explaining the great chase.

“And then I flew up and back down right past the dragon’s spines!” He lifts his hand up and drops it back down.

“Then-”

A boy in a yellow tie pulls open the curtains to your bed and steps inside.

“Hope I’m not interrupting.” He grins sheepishly, pulling two bouquets of flowers from behind his back.

“Of course not, you don’t mind do you Harry?”

You smirk at the boy and he shakes his head.

“I was just stopping by to drop these off from the judges.” Cedric explains handing a bouquet to you and Harry.

“Great job out there by the way. Both of you.” Cedric compliments, placing the flowers on your bed before stepping back out again.

Months passed and the buzz from the first event had still not diminished, so when the Yule Ball was announced, the entire school went absolutely crazy. People you’d never seen before began confessing their ‘undying love’ for you and asking you to accompany them to the dance. You almost felt bad denying them a date, but the truth was you only had one person in mind who you wanted to take you to the ball, the hufflepuff brunette who had helped you conquer your first task.

Cedric had been planning on asking you to the Yule Ball, but as he watched people swarm you, he lost hope that you’d still be single for the dance. He felt it was rather useless to try, but Harry wasn’t going to allow Cedric to give up.

“She likes roses. Yellow ones with red tips are her favourite. She grows them at home.” The gryffindor shrugs nonchalantly, nudging the hufflepuff in the shoulder.

“Okay?” Cedric shifts uncomfortably in his seat. “She doesn’t have a date you know. She rejected everyone who’s asked.” Harry continues.

“And how is that supposed to make me feel better?” Cedric sighs, poking at his food.

“She’s waiting for you.” The gryffindor finishes, turning over and noticing a sparkle in Cedric’s eyes. “Just thought you’d ought to know.” Harry smirks,standing from the hufflepuff table and wandering over to his.

Cedric made his way to professor Mcgonagall right after that to ask how to transfigure the exact form of those roses and worked at it till he was sure he’d mastered it.

He found you reading on special charms in the library with the girl from Beauxbatons, and taking a deep breath he summoned the flowers from the top of his wand and presented them to you.

“Y/n, I-I know it’s not much, but I was wondering if you would go to the Yule Ball with me?”

He almost toppled over when you jumped up to hug him, he had to pinch himself to make sure this was really happening. That you had actually said yes.

The ball arrived and it was absolutely magical. You and Fleur were gushing over each other’s dresses as Viktor talked to his date and Harry stood awkwardly in the back. Cedric arrived and together you made your way into the ballroom.

You danced for hours, anything from waltzing to just jumping around until you pulled Cedric away from the dance floor and into the courtyard.

“I see you’re wearing my flower, love.” Cedric grins, looking down at you as you swayed in his arms.

“Of course Ced, I love it.” You respond, a smile growing on your face. “I grow these back home, they’re my favourite.” You smirk, pulling the rose from your hair and holding it up to your nose.

“Do you know what they represent Ced?” You raise your eyes to meet Cedric’s dazzling grey ones.

“No I do not, Care to enlighten me?” Cedric grins sheepishly, twirling you in the light snowfall.

“Yellow roses with red tips, mean friendship and-” You pause looking up to the falling snow and back into Cedric’s eyes. “Falling in love.”

Your lips had almost met that night, but the sound of footsteps pulled the two of you apart and the two of you parted not long after.

When the second task arrived you were ready. You had figured out the egg and had given Harry a hint to figure out his as well. You had managed to find a spell on your own to help you in the underwater field, but on the day of the event you couldn’t find Cedric anywhere. No matter where you looked or wandered the boy in that yellow tie was nowhere to be found. Lined up on the wooden deck, you pull yourself together, shaking Cedric from your mind to grab your wand from your jacket pocket and shrugging off your outer layer, leaving you in your bathing suit in the unforgiving winter air.

They sound you to begin and you cast the bubble head charm on yourself before diving into the freezing water. You swam as fast as you could, dodging the grindylow as you made your way through the tall underwater foliage. Wandering further into the dense green, you were sure the water was playing tricks on you because tied to the bottom of the lake was Cedric, still clad in his full uniform. You spot Harry gazing stupidly at the victims and you nudge his shoulder. shooting a spell at the weed tied around Cedric’s leg before tapping your wrist in the universal sign for ‘time.’ You grab around Cedric’s chest and push his head down as you surface through the waves, The brunette’s head popping up as soon as his head breaks through the lake. You gently pull him back to the docks and wrap towels around your arms and his as people flock to you and congratulate you on your victory.

“W-What happened?” Cedric stutters, his teeth chattering like crazy.

“You were at the bottom of the lake Ced. Do you not remember?” You giggle.

“No, I-I just remember being told to go to the office and when I got there, everything went black.” Cedric shivers as you scoot closer beside him.

A line of the poem from the golden egg bounces through your mind.

“We’ve taken what you miss the most.”

Cedric glances at you in confusion, but a smile dawns on your face.

“I missed you the most Ced, that’s why they chose you.” You laugh, wrapping the hufflepuff in a hug as his eyes widen in realization and his cheeks heat up.

The third task arrives and you and Harry are tied for first. The two of you enter the stadium together and stand in front of different entrances to the maze. You nod to Harry, wishing him good luck and he does the same. Dumbledore finishes his speech and the task has begun. You start slowly, walking with slight hesitation as the maze walls swallow you whole. As soon as the cheers of the student body are no longer heard, you pick up the pace, dodging magical creatures and running around blocks and dead ends. You had the feeling you were close when you noticed Viktor prowling in the opposite direction.

“Viktor! The cup’s that way.” You nudge him on the side as in a flash he turns and grabs you by the throat.

“Finally I’ve found you.” He smirks his usual accent disappearing as his glassy eyes look you up and down.

Clouded eyes and a voice that wasn’t his, there was only one explanation. “Let Viktor go!” You squirm in his grip as a devilish smile descends his face as he chokes you out and lifts his wand. “That should be the least of your worries y/n.”

His lips just form a curse when a loud “Stupefy!” Is heard.

Viktor falls back and Harry comes rushing to your aid.

“Are you alright?”

You immediately begin taking deep breaths of air and turning to face Harry.

“The Imperius curse. Someone cursed Viktor.” You mumble in between gasps for air.

Harry helps you up and pulls you forwards through the final part of the maze, finally finding the glowing blue cup.

“Go on, you did save me.” You smile, pushing Harry closer to the cup.

“Nonsense, you were closer. You should have it.” Harry argues, pulling you further up.

“Together?” You grin taking a step closer.

“Together.” Harry agrees.

You reach up to the cup and at the count of three you both place your hands onto the trophy.

The world begins to spin and contort. You begin to feel dizzy as Harry’s shape begins to swirl and his loud breathing is the only thing you hear.

You land on a field and the two of you stand nauseously. You hold your head in your hand as you hear Harry utter the word ‘portkey’ and you turn to access your surroundings.

“It looks like a graveyard.” You sigh, turning back to Harry. “Is this like a joke or somethin-“

“Look out!”

From behind you a hidden figure emerges and pulls out their wand.

“Petrificus Totalus!”

Your body seizes up and you fall onto Harry’s chest. “Avada Kedavra!”

“No!” Harry jumps and tumbles down a hill with you in his grasp, running and placing you behind a tombstone to face this opponent.

You can only lay there frozen as Harry screams. The bubbling of a cauldron, cackling, multiple voices, and a hiss of a snake is heard. Your bonds seem to break for a second, perhaps the person had just transferred their wand to someone else. You slowly turn and peak over the grave, a scream of fear nearly leaving your mouth at the sight of Voldemort and his death eaters.

Voldemort begins throwing the gryffindor to the sides like a ragdoll as he begs Harry to duel, Harry tries to counter the killing curse with expelliarmus, a thick veil of light emerges from their wands and soon the two are hidden from view. For agonizing minutes you sit there in fear for your friends life. Hoping and Praying Harry would be alright.

The light disappears and Harry emerges, throwing back the band of death eaters before you stand and run over to him.

“Let’s Go!” You pull the dazed gryffindor from his trance and run towards the portkey as Harry yells spell after spell at the oncoming line of Voldemort’s followers. You quickly clutch onto the handle of the trophy and close your eyes as the world begins to spin again.

All spectators were frozen as Harry Potter and y/n l/n exit the maze screaming bloody murder. “He’s back! Voldemort’s back!” Harry cries, clutching onto Dumbledore and being grabbed by professor Moody. Your voice is quiet and pained as you wrap yourself in a blanket and explain in full detail what happened when that cup turned into a bloody portkey. Dumbledore sat stroking his beard and nodding before quickly walking off to find Harry. You sit and hang your head down, taking deep breaths to calm your racing heart. In and out, it was going to be okay.

“Y/n, are you alright?” The worried voice of the grey eyed hufflepuff comes crashing through your ear and in a second you had engulfed him in a hug and begun crying into his shoulder.

“H-He’s back. He’s back and I didn’t do anything.” You whimper into Cedric’s scarf.

“Hey, darling look at me.” He tilts your chin up and his voice turns serious.

“Voldemort is a mass murderer. He’s killed almost everyone he's come in contact with. It’s not your fault, love he would have killed you.” Cedric sighs, pulling you closer and wrapping his arms tightly around you.

“What matters is that you’re back, you’re safe and we’re together.” Cedric smiles, pressing a kiss to your hairline. “Congratulations on the win by the way.” Cedric smirks, looking down at you.

“Win? But Harry.”

“He told Dumbledore you were the rightful winner of the cup. It’s already been announced darling. You won.”

Cedric follows his congratulations by pressing an overdue kiss to your lips. Your mouth drops open and a smile widens on your face as you jump up into Cedric’s arms and he spins you around.

“I’m so proud of you, love.” He chuckles, placing you back down again and holding you close.

“Just don’t do that again, alright? You scared me.”

You laugh and begin peppering kisses on Cedric’s warm cheeks as you punch your fist into the air and cheer. You had done it. You survived and conquered the triwizard tournament. Though you had to talk to Harry about splitting the winnings. There was no way he was getting away with this.

#harry potter imagine #cedric diggory #cedric diggory imagine #cedric diggory x reader #harry potter #cedric diggory fluff #cedric x y/n #cedricsbrowncurls #cedric fluff

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rainydayhogwartsimagines · 4 years

Text

Falling in love with Draco (Draco x reader!Slytherin)

Warnings: Mental and Physical abuse, physical and magical fighting

Draco of course noticed you, first year

My God could you be anymore beautiful?

You were very very quiet though, anytime anyone would talk to you you'd just nod or ignore them.

The amount of joy that boy had when you turned out to be a Slytherin was amazing.

Still though even like a week into school you were still quiet.

You'd just sit there and read in the great hall or do your work in class

There'd be a few moments where you'd be called out for being good at your work but other than that you seemed to be attempting to just be silent the whole time.

Finally though Draco managed to get you to make some sort of noise when he told a stupid joke.

Like it was so stupid. But the kid thought it was genius.

Lucky for him you have a weird sense of humor and laughed at it.

It was like music to his ears to hear it.

So then he was determined to get you to talk.

He would say hello to you every morning

You'd just give a polite nod

He'd compliment you but you'd just look away.

Then came a day where Snape called on you randomly and you seemed extremely uncomfortable with that

So Draco raised his hand instead and took the question.

That's when you really began to notice Draco

You would sit a little closer to him or actually begin to respond to certain things.

The first morning when he said "Good morning" and you said it back he literally just froze in place

He immediately sat down in front of you and ate breakfast with you that morning.

You began to sit with him more and occasionally you'd actually make a comment and he'd just smile.

When he got detention you actually did something stupid to end up in detention with him.

He was confused by why you did it but truth be told you were worried he'd do something even worse with Potter present

You seemed a lot more courageous looking at the dark lord than Draco did let me tell you

Draco grabbed your hand and booked it though.

Eventually summer was rolling around and you and Draco agreed to write to each other.

Weirdly enough he found that your personality was very perky and outgoing on paper.

When you both ran into each other it was in Diagon Alley.

Draco was of course excited to see you.

You actually said the words "Hi Draco."

He introduced you to his father and immediately you had this odd switch go into your personality.

You curtsied and actually spoke

Draco was shocked and Lucius seemed to approve of your elegance before telling Draco he'd be elsewhere and he had a few minutes before they had to go

"What... Was that?" Draco asked.

You shifted uncomfortably.

"my father is the same way." You answered

And that was the first time he ever heard you mention home.

Draco rode with you on the train and you of course listened to his common complaint

Harry Potter

You were a bit more vocal as you listened which was pleasant to him.

"Y/n can I ask you something?" He asked.

"mmm hmm?" You nodded.

"Why are you so quiet?" He asked.

You seemed to be uncomfortable by that question before you sighed.

"My family tends to speak over me... And I guess I just stopped talking after a while because I was never listened to anyway." You answered.

So Draco made it his mission then and there to make sure you were comfortable talking around him

He assured you that he'd always listened if you needed to speak.

You gradually began to open up around him

You and him actually ended up being partners in all of his classes which made you two happy

Then came the chamber of secrets

And oh boy

That was bad. Because your mother was a muggle. And you were on that hitlist.

And then he called Hermione a "Mudblood" in front of you.

You actually got quite pissed off at him and he naturally did not know why.

"Y/n why are you so upset? It was just an insult--"

"My mother is a muggle Draco." You snapped.

And you didn't really mention a lot after that.

He actually apologized to Hermione and it got back to you that he did

You two made up, thank God.

You were there when the duel went down

But at one point it got very strange because of the fact that you actually ended up dueling someone too.

And you were REALLY good at it too

Draco experienced a backflip in his heart.

Christmas rolled around and you were still at hogwarts

But so was Draco

And Draco's father actually sent you a gift

Draco told him that you were a big reader so he sent you a book of stories.

You actually loved it too

Draco loved seeing your smile.

You actually got something for Draco which was a jacket

Which during the winter he kept it on all of the time.

The two of you were inseperable

Which is why when you got petrified Draco was freaking out.

There was not one day he didn't visit you in the hospital wing.

When he saw Hermione out and about he knew you were awake and he sprinted

For the first time you hugged him.

You told him what happened, finding a basilisk in the bathroom mirror and then basically blacking out.

The summer was a little bit more fun because you spent the first half of it with Malfoy's family.

You loved his mother, she was honestly very sweet.

But Lucius scared you at times

To be fair: he scared everyone at times

But then came a moment where your father visited and snapped at you for no reason and Lucius did not take well to that

He showed a protective nature to you and you didn't really fear him anymore.

When you went home you were a little less talkative but your mother did notice you speaking more to her.

Usually about Draco.

When you went back to school Draco had changed and so did you.

Your hair was longer, slightly curlier but overall something was attractive with you and Draco could not for the life of him figure it out.

But Draco... His hair was no longer slacked back and he was taller.

He always had you by his side too, even if you two didn't have a class together he'd walk you to and from it.

You asked him why he did that and he said "The last time I left you alone here you were attacked by a basilisk."

You ended up being the one who was attacked by Buckbeak btw

Which you wholeheartedly said openly was your fault because you got too close without bowing.

But it all happened so fast.

You knew to bow but you tripped and ended up in his personal space

Draco immediately intervened, pulling you behind him and he got bit.

You took him to the hospital wing yourself and thanked him for that.

His response was "Better me than you"

You smiled at that.

You two were so close by this point

Then came the lesson on boggarts

You actually loved professor Remus, he was so cool to you.

The class was fun... Until this lesson

Your boggart was your father.

You didn't even speak, it was like you were mute the entire time.

The boggart tried to inch forward but Remus then intervened.

You noticed what his fear was and knew what he was then and there but didn't say anything about it.

You were asked to stay after class and you did

Remus asked you if everything was okay at home and you didn't really answer, giving him all the information he needed.

Remus then began to almost look after you

Draco was really worried after that lesson though, asking you if everything was okay

You then told him about your father finding reasons to just scream at you

He hated hearing this but seeing you cry as you described it didn't exactly warm his heart either.

He just hugged you and assured you that you'd be spending your summers with him even if he had to use force

Hogsmeade was the funnest trip ever

You were now more talkative so a few more students were friendlier to you including Ron and Hermoine

Course Draco wasn't too thrilled with your friends but dealt with it because you were socializing and that was progress.

You two spent the entire trip goofing off with each other though with snowball fights and getting butterbeer.

You were slowly falling in love with each other and it was becoming so obvious.

You two were looking at the shrieking shack and you noticed footsteps leading to it.

"Draco..." You said.

He was again, rambling about Potter.

"Draco." You said louder.

"Hmm?" He finally noticed.

"Someone's in the shack." You pointed out.

He frowned. "...I don't think we should--" "I'm going to investigate--" "Y/n no." Draco halted.

"And why?" "Because it's dangerous Y/n and I don't want to see you hurt." Draco said.

You slowly began to realize just how protective Draco actually was over you.

Well you can't say the boy didn't try

You found out Buckbeak was going to be killed and you kept trying to reason with Draco's father.

He wouldn't listen and you finally just went to Harry and begged them for help.

Harry agreed to and you all got into an argument with Draco which resulted in you actually getting punched after you jumped in the way of hermione's hit.

Draco was naturally pissed and she felt guilty.

"Guys I'm fine. This isn't the first time I've been punched, it probably won't be the last." You sighed.

That's when your boggart began to make a bit more sense and then Draco's alarm bells in his head were practically screaming.

Differences aside even Harry had to admit that this was a noticable problem

You all still went on the rescue mission for Buckbeak though

The whole time turner thing weirded you out.

Draco was actually in on it this time, which was weird as hell.

So when all of you made the discovery of A) Remus hiding Sirius black and B) Remus also being a werewolf it was a bit of a shock

Well the second one you already knew.

But that first one still had you reeling.

It didn't help when Ron's rat turned out to be Pettigrew and you all learned the truth of when Harry's parents died

Even Draco felt bad by that point.

When you all went back to Hogwarts will the information you all agreed to not say ANYTHING to anyone.

The group was still suspicious of Draco but if you trusted him then he had to be at least somewhat of a good person.

Draco's promise was taken literally and you spent the whole summer with him

Draco's parents were happy to have you but something was just off about them at the moment.

That's when you heard the rumors that they supported the dark lord and it began to make sense

You didn't mention it though.

Strolls through the manor

Draco becoming even more attractive

You becoming even more attractive, especially in Draco's eyes

His parents beginning to notice the love in his eyes when he spoke to or about you.

The smiles you two have when you tease each other.

Then you find out you're going to the world quidditch game and you're excited.

You'd have moments where you'd lean over and tell Draco something in his ear and you'd both laugh

Narcissa and Lucius would be hiding smiles.

You two were so close even his parents thought it was cute.

You running into your father at the game and the whole Malfoy and Weasley family both stepping in to protect you.

Which led to this begrudging respect for the Weasley's from the Malfoys.

You ending up spending a few minutes with the Weasley's before the whole thing went to shit.

You almost being attacked until someone pulled you behind a tree and put their hand over your mouth.

You of course recognized the family ring and immediately felt safe knowing Draco was with you.

You both thought the whole events at the game was odd but didn't mention it.

You both going to school and you actually being even more talkative

The goblet of fire competition being announced and the schools coming in was so cool to you.

Draco loving to see you with a smile on your face.

However there was a new problem this year

It was the FACT THAT A DURMSTRANG BOY SEEMED TO LIKE YOU

You having fun moments with Draco where he'd steal your books and race you to class with them.

You running after him and jumping on his back to get them.

Ron and Hermione both knowing "Oh they are so going to date"

You getting worried about Harry when his name popped out of the goblet of fire

The trio getting closer to Draco which leads to him not hating Harry as much as he did before.

Harry and Hermione both noticing Draco getting jealous of the Durmstrang boy

Him getting pouty when you actually talk to the Durmstrang boy.

Harry almost dying of laughter when Draco's best insult at the time was to call him a member of the Russian mob.

Hermione coughed up her drink, Ron was dying and he was sinking into his seat when he found out you and the boy both heard him.

Draco planned on asking you to the Yule and actually asked Hermione for advice.

"Uhm.. Draco why ask me?" She asked.

"Because you're a girl and you understand. It's not like Weasley or Potter would understand." He sighed.

"She likes you Draco. Just ask her." She reassured.

"She... Does?" He asked.

" All of her free moments are spent with you. Everytime we've seen her, she's with you. Even this conversation is about her. Come on Malfoy it is obvious." She said.

So he geared up to ask you

But then this became a race of sorts because the Durmstrang boy had the same idea.

So Hermione, Ron and Harry took it upon themselves to be wingmen and bombard the poor guy with some really dumb questions.

So Draco asked you, and of course you said yes.

Draco giving the friend group the thumbs up

Them all silently cheering and then when you turn around all of them acting normal

Those God damn dance lessons.

"Love if you focus too much on your movements you're going to screw up more" Draco warned.

"I can't help-- what did you just call me-- WOAH!"

Both of you falling and laughing.

Draco falling even more in love as he looked at you.

"Wait I thought your family were nobles?"

" I hid during parties I don't dance." You laughed.

Him feeling even more special because you agreed to go to a dance with him

Both of you smiling the whole time

Even McGonagall is noticing the sparks flying between you two.

Narcissa being the one who sends you a dress

It being gorgeous on you

The guys all waiting at the bottom of the stairs for you and Hermione

Draco almost falling over because my God you're beautiful

Him smiling the whole time dancing with you

A slow song coming on and you resting your head on his chest with him resting his chin on your head.

When the last note of the song plays you looked up at him and you both just... Kissed

You both smiling at each other

Harry and Ron both being happy for you two

You and him both being so in love the entire time

Even after the ball you and him are just in love.

Then everything came to a screeching halt after Cedric

Harry comes back and Cedric is just lying there

You're cheering at first but then you notice Harry isn't getting up and you sprint down there.

Draco also runs down there and sees Cedric.

You just comforted Harry until Mad Eyed moody came over.

You spent the summer again at the Malfoy's after that.

And then Draco started acting very strange one day before dragging you to his room and telling you what was happening

Which was that Voldemort was moving in

And they needed you to join him so you'd be safe.

This wasn't just Draco voicing this, Lucius and Narcissa both told you this too

You and Draco made a pact though that you wouldn't actually be supporting the dark Lord

And you both stuck to that

But you bearing the mark wasn't enough for Voldemort.

So Lucius took you aside and asked for a favor

Of getting engaged to Draco

You were shocked but agreed to it

You were given a family ring and when you came back to school no one could believe it.

Both you and Draco still agreed though that if you survived to see the end of the war, you'd get married.

You joining the Order of the phoenix.

Both of you.

Sirius actually thinking "Damn. This kid is actually barrable." To Draco.

Tonks LOVING you

Both you and Draco being shocked to see Snape at the manor

You both not saying a word

That bitch Umbridge coming in

You and Draco being able to get away with shit because Draco is headboy

Draco always having you by his side, no exceptions.

Fred and George wreaking havoc

You and Draco both smiling the whole time

Umbridge getting PISSED

Then her getting taken by centaurs and you and the group celebrating

The wicked bitch was gonneeee

Halle damn lujah.

Pt 2 coming soon.

#draco imagine #draco x y/n #draco malfoy #draco x reader #slytherin

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exoxobsession · 3 years

Text

Chamber Of Tours || Suho

Pairing: Suho x You

Genre: Fluff, HogwartsAU!

Warnings: None!

Word Count: 1.2K

You entered the Great Hall, looking in awe at the hanging candles, enchanted roof, and the sorting hat on the stool in front of you. You were a pureblood, a family line full of Slytherins. They placed the sorting hat on you, but it didn’t talk to you like it did to others. No, it was quiet, dead quiet. After a lot of silent thinking, it shouted, “SLYTHERIN!”

The Slytherin table cheered, but you thought back as the Sorting Hat kept staring at you. Despite that, you were proud of yourself for securing the legacy.

You were now in sixth year, only one year left, and still no clue what to do with your life. Maybe an Auror, or work in the Ministry of Magic. One thing that was different from your parents is that you were a Parseltongue. But that was something special these days. You make a left turn and head to the bathroom.

Many of your friends suggested that you open the Chamber of Secrets, and you were going to do just that. Muttering the Disillusionment Charm, you disappear.

You come in contact with the exact sink Harry Potter had used to get in.

"Open," you say in Parseltongue. The sink makes a loud noise as it opens up. You go down quickly, hoping no one notices you. Again, you speak "Open," and the snakes move out of the way opening the circular door.

There lies the basilisk, dead and nothing but its bones. There was pretty much nothing to do in here. It was boring. That's when an idea pop into your mind, making you smirk.

You make your way out; sneaking out was easy. Or so you thought. You heard footsteps. They were way too close. "Homenum Revelio," someone points their wand at you. Taking away the incantation off you. "What are you doing here at this time?" He asks, and you look up to meet his eyes. It was Junmyeon, the Ravenclaw Prefect. "What?" you squeak, unable to talk in front of him, heart racing. You've had the longest crush on him, but he was the Prefect, and you the troublemaker.

"I said, what are you doing here, at this time?" he demanded, his voice full of authority. You wanted to die right there. "I was just looking for my mouse." you lied. "Your mouse?" he raised his eyebrows. He wasn't going to buy it. "Stop lying. You don't have a mouse. You have an owl," he stated; this made your eyes shot up. He noticed you. He cleared his throat. "Go back to your dorms quickly," he said, probably embarrassed.

Junmyeon was just on rounds when he saw something pass by. He had his wanted at nothing but thin air, but he knew better. He knew it was just an invisibility spell, a trick used by many adults. But he wasn't sure how a student knew this trick.

"Homenum Revelio," he pointed his wand as the figure started forming into the pretty Slytherin girl. You had your head low. Was she going to cause something? But you didn't look like someone who would. You were cute. No, Junmyeon, Stop. He shook his head.

"I said, what are you doing here at this time?" he asked. He wanted to ask you slowly, but it didn't come out that way. "I was just looking for my mouse," you replied. But he knew that was a lie. You didn't have a mouse.

You were slowly walking away. Why was his heart beating? You looked so scared that all he wanted to was wrap his arms around you. He walked to the Ravenclaw dorm, trying to collect his thought. She's a troublemaker Junmyeon. He said to himself. And a Slytherin. He needs to gather his thoughts. He changed out his robes to his PJs when he remembered your smile. How your eyes lit up when you take a bite of pumpkin pasties; or when your parents sent you the new Firebolt broomstick.

He found himself smiling at the memory, and that's when he realized he's been paying so much attention to you and he didn't even notice.

You told Ava about your midnight adventures, skipping the part about Junmyeon. "Okay, here's a deal, give me five? No, ten sickles for a tour in the Chamber. Hm?" you smirked. "No!" Ava pushes you. "I'm your friend! It should be free," she whines. You stick your tongue out. "Fine," you say, seeing that she's using that pout. She was one year younger and cuter than you.

Night falls quickly, and there were about ten people here waiting to see the Chamber. "Come on in," you say as they follow you. "As you can see, this is the remaining skeleton of the basilisk," you gesture to the white bony structure beside you. "And this is where Harry Potter saved Ginny," you say, pointing right in the center. A lot of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' were heard.

"Oh, please don't touch that. It could potentially kill you," you say to the boy who was tapping one of the basilisk's teeth. "Does this mean you're the new heir of Slytherin?" Someone asks from behind you. This question startles you. Are you? "I don't know," you smile. Ava elbows you softly and leans in to say, "You might be!" to which you giggle silently.

"Oh and one more thing, do not tell the teachers about this," you warned them.

This went on for more than a few weeks luckily, you weren't caught. Or so you thought. You were in the girls' bathroom when you heard, "So this is what everyone's been doing, huh?"

"Oh god, you scared me," you say as you turn around to Junmyeon's face right in yours. Noticing that, he straightens up. "Can I have a tour?" he rubs his nape. "Uh... yes, sure." you stutter. "Here," he says as he hands you ten sickles. "No!" you spoke a bit too loud as you push his hand back. "Think of this a favor, for not telling on me back then and now," you explain. "Okay," he smiles.

"Wow." he gapes, looking at the chamber. "Don't tell me that..." he trails off as he looks at you with unreadable eyes. This is what you hated. How people started looking at you. "That's so awesome!" he exclaimed. "The bones are still here!" he said as he made his way to them.

"Wait, what?" you were beyond confused. "I've always wanted to see these bones, and now, thank you." he smiled. He isn't talking about you. You sighed. "What?" he asked hearing you sigh. "I can't believe the boy I like cares about bones than me," you mutter, then your eyes widen at what you just said. Instantly cupping your hands over your mouth you look at Junmyeon. "What?" he asks as if he heard something wrong.

"Oh! Look at the time! I have to go!" you say a little too loudly as you escape from there as quickly as you can. You can hear him call out for you, but you choose to ignore him as you leave the washroom, cursing.

You avoided him for the next few days; You ate quickly, you went out of the class first, You didn't make eye contact. You didn't even look in his way.

As soon as Defense Against Dark Arts was over, you headed for the door.

But a hand caught your wrist, stopping you from moving any further. "Don't leave," he softly pleaded. And you stayed and kept staying.

#junmyeon #exosnet #exowritersnet #kim junmyeon #exo hogwarts au!#exo hogwarts #ravenclaw junmyeon #suho #exo #exosuho #suho fanfic #suho x reader #ravenclaw #ravenclaw x syltherin

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isimp4yts · 4 years

Text

Needing You

draco x hufflepuff!OC

A/N- hi! this is my first chapter of my Draco fanfic that’s on wattpad. It’s called Needing You by isimp4yts. hope you enjoy it! it’s pretty much slow burn and idk if i’m gonna make it spicy yet but it’s definitely gonna be a lot of angst.

Word Count: 1.7k

Talia was woken by her brother, Cedric, throwing a pillow at her while stifling a laugh knowing full well that the ‘attack’ would aggravate her as she wasn’t really a morning person. As she groaned into the pillow that was thrown at her she sat up a little bit, throwing the pillow to the side.

Glaring at Cedric she barely grumbled, “I was just about to get up you know” and dangled her legs off of her bed reaching for her slippers.

“Yeah, sure you were, either way you’re up now. Come on dad wants you to hurry up and get ready, he doesn’t want to be late”, he said with his voice echoing more as he walked out of Talia’s room.

So that’s what she did, she got dressed and brushed her long brunette hair trying to control the fly aways. Of course there was no need to make too much of an effort in her appearance as she could sort herself out at the Quidditch World Cup when she gets there. She went downstairs and saw her father holding two backpacks, knowing one was hers and Cedric with his own backpack already on.

“Come on darlin’, we have to get there on time, we don’t want anyone to be waiting on us do we?” her father said while rushing her out the door, with Cedric, giving her her backpack.

~~~

Talia, Cedric and her father were waiting in a woodland area for some friends of her fathers to meet up with them, well Cedric was sitting in a tree. The boy couldn't sit still for the life of him. Talia kept switching the weight from each leg as they started to get tired, from waiting for so long. In the distance some voices could be heard and Amos stepped forward, greeting the voices.

“Arthur! It's about time son” Amos says to a ginger man with several people following, Talia recognised all the people behind the man but one, however she had never really spoken to any of them even though three were in her year. The ginger man whose name must be Arthur apologised for their lateness and introduced her father to the others. Talia smiled at the three who were in her year, giving them a small nod.

“This is Amos Diggory everyone, he works with me at the ministry”, Arthur explains then moves to gesture Talia just when Cedric jumps down from the tree making her flinch and slap his arm. Arthur reaches his hand out to Cedric for him to shake it, saying “And this strapping young lad must be Cedric, am I right?”.

Cedric lets out a small laugh at the compliment, as does Talia, just what he needs, more fuel to his growing ego. Although Cedric is seen as a sweetheart to most, he truly is a nuisance to his younger sister when he wants to be.

“And of course Talia, you must know the kids since you’re all in the same year” Arthur smiles at her, also reaching to shake her hand. Talia smiles sweetly at him taking his hand and simply nods at the older man.

“Merlin’s beard, you must be Harry Potter” Amos says while stepping towards the brunette boy with glasses. Talia knew him purely from the gossip that goes around Hogwarts, apparently the first year he was there he saw You-Know-Who and the second year he killed the Basilisk. All with the help from his friends Ron and Hermoine, to which the students gave them the name ‘The Golden Trio’. Talia stopped listening to their conversation, eager to get going, the group of wizards and witches walked up a hill looking for the portkey, which was a boot. They all held the boot, while Amos counted down. When he reached three Talia felt her head spinning then she let go and gracefully made her way to the ground along with Arthur, Amos and Cedric, while the others landed with more force. The young girl looked at her surroundings while taking a deep breath of air, using portkeys always made her lightheaded. She turns to see Cedric helping Harry up and the boy taking his arm with a smile and thanking him.

The group started making their way to a large field with several tents and Arthur exclaimed “Welcome to the Quidditch World Cup!”. Talia, Cedric and Amos separated from the rest of the group to get their tent ready. The three went inside the tent which was larger on the inside with a bunk bed for the siblings and a normal bed near it for their father. Talia sighed and threw herself on the top bunk bed while shouting “Dibs!” watching her brother shake his head as he headed towards the bed, taking off his jacket and throwing it onto his sister's face.

“Dad! Did you see that! Icky tried to suffocate me with that hideous jacket of his!” Talia shouted, trying to get her father’s attention but failing as he waved his hand at her while he was putting on the kettle, showing that he couldn't bother with the siblings bickering.

“I think you should stop calling me that childish name now Lia, since some people consider me to be rather strapping”, Cedric responded with a cheeky smile. Talia stuck her tongue out at him then climbed down the bunk bed with Cedric’s jacket and proceeded to shove him and his jacket into the bottom bunk and then run away. Cedric jumped back up almost immediately, chasing after his younger sibling but he wasn’t quick enough as she had shut herself into the bathroom catching her breath.

“I knew that comment would go to that big head of yours, do you really want that forehead to get bigger since it looks like that’s where your ego is?” Talia joked while looking at herself in the mirror and patting down her hair.

“Big talk for-”

“That’s enough from you two. Talia come out and have some tea, you too Cedric, I really can’t be dealing with the both of you pissing about” Amos says as he unlocks the bathroom door with his wand pushing Talia out.

The two siblings giggled at how quickly they managed to annoy their father and sat down to have a cuppa tea before they got ready for the Quidditch game. Both the Diggory children misplacing each other's belongings while doing so.

~~~

The Diggory’s went into the stadium, to find their seats when they saw Arthur and the others also looking for their seats. They could hear Ron asking how far up they were when an arrogant voice could be heard from below them. The Diggory’s went to catch up with the Weasley’s and Co. when they saw Lucius Malfoy making a comment to the lot.

“Father and I are in the minister’s box, by personal invitation of Cornelius Fudge himself” a voice next to Lucius said. Draco Malfoy, quite the peculiar child, found it incredibly entertaining to make others' lives miserable with snide comments on anything from their appearance to their upbringing. Harry, Ron and Hermoine gave him a cold look, while Talia just stared blankly at him. She didn’t really have a problem with Malfoy since they were partnered together in Potions in second year for a project. Of course at the start she wasn’t too fond of the boy but she didn’t want to judge him from the way he treated her and everyone else in first year, she knew people could change. A problem with Talia was how she was very optimistic and gave almost everyone too many chances to prove themselves to be a better person. Draco also wasn’t too fond of the hufflepuff at the start, as she was too happy all the time and it made no sense to him that someone could be so joyful. But the two warmed up to each other, well as much as Draco can warm up to someone, he didn’t pester her and was no longer mean to her. In fact he didn’t really say much to her unless it was related to schoolwork. What neither wanted to admit was they found each other rather interesting as they both lived such different lives and treated people so differently, they didn’t realise people like the other existed. They both had mutual respect for each other as they went on with their lives both being studious and having their separate friend groups and going on with their lives without bothering one another.

Lucius snapped at Draco telling him to stop boasting, and put his head down with a grim look on his face, brows furrowed. The elder Malfoy then told us to enjoy ourselves and went off to the minister’s box while Talia and the others made their way to their seats. Cedric nudged his sister while they continued up, and said “pleasant bloke that Malfoy is isn’t he” to which Talia replied “which one?” and snickered at her remark. After being blessed with the presence of Lucius Malfoy she understood why Draco was, well Draco. She decided to forget about the encounter and Draco’s interaction with his father and got herself riled up for the game.

~~~

After the game Talia decided to go to bed early since she was exhausted from all the travelling she had done that day, but the early night didn’t seem to happen since she was shaken by Cedric so she’d wake up.

“Icky, piss off would you-”

“Get up now, we need to get out of here” her brother interrupted her, his eyes wide. She sat up and saw her father worrying and telling them to hurry up. Cedric pulled her down and held onto her arm running as fast as he could into the woods, dragging his sister with him. Their father barely catching up to them, Talia kept looking back to make sure he was still behind them and that they didn’t lose him and saw black figures flying in the air. Cedric finally stopped, pulling his sister behind a tree and signalling his father to join them as they all crouched. Cedric noticed his sister shivering and he didn’t know if it was from fear or being cold. Either way he engulfed her in a hug making sure she was safe while looking at his father who looked back at the field trying to figure out who caused the attack.

“Dad, do you have any idea what that was?” Cedric questioned while trying to calm down his breathing.

“I have no idea son” Amos replied then placed a firm hand on his daughters shoulder to try and comfort her.

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edie-k · 3 years

Text

Cost Nothing (R/Hr, PG-13)

Title: Cost Nothing

Rating: PG-13 (mild sexual humor)

Pairing: Romione

Summary: "Compliments cost nothing, yet many pay dear for them." Thomas Fuller

When Harry and Ginny point out a shortcoming of Hermione's, she turns to Ron to set the record straight.

Notes: Thanks to accio-broom for the beta work and lovely feedback.

Happy birthday to Ron! To celebrate properly, I called upon the OG of the Ron Weasley Defense Squad, one Harry James Potter.

Link to AO3 or click below

“Hey,” said Ginny, flopping down on the blanket next to Hermione.

“Oh, are you finished playing?”

“Just a break. Get this - Percy sent an owl and said he, Charlie and George are coming back at 4 to play.”

“Wow, he’s really trying to make this up to you all,” said Hermione, impressed. She glanced up to see Ron and Harry walk towards her, brooms in hand. She used her bookmark to hold her place.

Harry dropped his broom to the ground and laid down between the two of them. “Hermione, your cooling charms are just as great as your warming ones.”

Ron stood in front of them. Hermione shielded her eyes from the sun as she looked up at him warmly. He smiled back and stuck his arm into the air above her blanket. “Bloody hell, that feels good.”

“Come lay down,” said Hermione, patting the blanket next to her.

“I won’t get up if I do. And I was thinking I should run up to the house and grab some drinks and snacks to bring back here?”

“Ah, great idea, mate,” said Harry.

“Cute and brilliant, what more could I ask for?” said Hermione with a smile

Ron flushed and gave her a grin. “I’ll be right back.” He walked up to the house.

Hermione pulled out her wand to expand the blanket and cooling charm to give them a bit more space. As she was putting her wand to the side, she caught Harry looking at her with a bemused expression. “What?”

“I am just not used to that yet,” said Harry. “Especially from you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’ve never heard you compliment him before. Certainly not on his looks,” said Harry.

“Harry Potter! You know that I think Ron’s wonderful and always have.”

“I’ve thought Ron was great for almost a decade now. I assumed that you did too. I’ve just never heard you say it.”

“You’re joking!”

“To be fair to you, you were quite complimentary of his basilisk fangs idea during the battle, but I otherwise stand by my statement.”

“Ginny!” Hermione appealed to her friend that had been observing silently. “You’ve heard me compliment Ron before, right?”

“To his face? Never. To others? Also never.”

“Well, the two of you aren’t around us all the time,” said Hermione.

“It’s true. There were dozens of minutes over the last year that I was away from you two,” said Harry.

Ginny laughed. “It’s fine, Hermione. You just don’t hand out compliments easily.”

“That’s not true,” said Harry, shaking his head. “You’ve said loads of nice things about me.”

“Did she?” asked Ginny, quirking an eyebrow.

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Harry, I’d recommend not triggering that Weasley jealousy. You’re my best friend, and who else was going to bolster and build you up? It certainly wasn’t based on any personal interest I had. I was just passing along the gossip and giggling I’d hear in the loo.”

“And Ron Weasley, bastion of self-assuredness, was in no need of compliments,” said Ginny drily. “Especially when you’re showering Harry in them.”

Hermione’s face darkened. “That’s quite rich coming from someone who compared Ron to his best friends just to embarrass him. I fancied him, and you expected me to tell him that Bridget Nichols wanted to quote, ‘climb him like a tree’? Besides, I seem to recall that he wasn’t lacking female attention at the time,” she sniffed.

Harry sat up, looking nervous. “Uh, look, there’s no need for you and Ron to rehash sixth year.”

“Ron and I have already come to an appropriate understanding on that. What there’s really no need for is the two of you butting into our relationship.”

“You’re right,” said Harry. “We should-”

“It all checks out,” said Ginny, voice dripping with sarcasm. “You complimented Ron constantly, which gave him the confidence to never make a move.”

“Oh, and what about him? It’s not like he was showering me in praise!”

“Well, he did -” Harry stopped his sentence short. “No. I’m sorry I brought any of this up; it was a careless joke.”

“Finish what you were going to say,” Ginny and Hermione demanded in unison. Hermione looked at Ginny, surprised by the synchronicity before glaring and looking back at Harry, who she could tell desperately regretted the whole conversation.

Harry looked between the two and sighed. “All I was going to say was that Ron has told you how brilliant you are loads of times over the years.”

“Well, so has Professor Flitwick, but I didn’t think that meant he was trying to get in my knickers.”

“It’s Ron, though. He hardly ever misses an opportunity to put his foot in his mouth, yet I can still think of dozens of times he fawned all over you.”

“Those aren’t exactly signals a boy gives you to say he’s attracted to you,” said Hermione.

“No, I suppose not,” said Harry, laying back down. He looked as if he wanted to say more but was holding his tongue.

“I think that what Harry said originally is true. Neither of you ever explicitly told us you liked the other, but we always knew Ron thought you were amazing. We had to assume that you thought Ron was too,” said Ginny, the edge now gone from her tone.

Hermione opened her mouth and then closed it. She knew they were wrong, but she just didn’t have the proof yet.

They lay contemplating for a few minutes before Harry broke the tense silence. “Ugh, I’m still trying to decide what’s more disturbing - Flitwick trying to get in your knickers or Ron.”

“Ron doesn’t have to try,” Hermione cheeked. Ginny laughed, and Harry’s face contorted.

“What don’t I have to try?” asked Ron. He had returned with a basket filled with cold butterbeers, crisps, biscuits, and a couple of apples, which he set next to Hermione as he eased himself down. While the others stretched around to grab snacks, Hermione cringed as she noticed he looked uncomfortable to have discovered them discussing him. She decided to be straightforward.

“To get into my knickers,” Hermione responded with a grin. His ears burned, but she saw a light in his eyes when he noticed Harry’s continued cringe.

“Oh,” he said as he sat down next to her. “Are you actually wearing knickers today? That’s disappointing.”

Harry broke a biscuit and threw half at each of them.

**********************************

“Hey Hermione?”

“Yes?” It was well after dinner now, and the two of them were taking a walk as dusk began to settle in. The decision to take a walk was met with teasing from all of his brothers that left Hermione rolling her eyes. It was truly only a walk. After years of seeing only the downsides to his status as the youngest brother, he was finally reaping a benefit - his parents were turning a blind eye to the fact they were sharing a bed in a silenced and locked room so an uncomfortable roll in the orchard was unnecessary.

“Yes?”

“Why were you talking about me getting in your knickers with Harry and Ginny?”

Hermione bit her lip while Ron continued on.

“Don’t get me wrong. I would be comfortable taking out an ad in The Daily Prophet bragging about shagging you, and I’m sure they knew well before today. But as fun as it was to make him squirm, I thought we’d been trying to not make Harry uncomfortable.”

“He sort of brought it up.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. After you walked away, he mentioned it was odd to hear me call you cute.”

“And brilliant,” he said with a rakish grin.

“Of course.”

“But how did that lead to your knickers?”

“Oh, it was infuriating. The reason he thought it strange was that he couldn’t remember me ever giving you any compliments.”

“Oh.”

“And I was telling him how silly that was.”

“Right.”

“Obviously, now that we’re together... I’ve been attracted to you for as long as I can remember, but it’s certainly easier to tell you now, don’t you think?”

“Uh, sure. I mean, previously I worried that telling you how gorgeous and sexy you are would get me slapped, and now I’m just curious which one of us ends up on our back.”

“Stop,” she giggled. “But before we were together, I always told you how highly I thought of you.”

“Well, I don’t think you hand out unearned praise.”

“Of course. But I’ve complimented you loads over the years. Right?”

Silence hung between them.

“I love you?” Ron finally responded.

“You agree with them?”

“I really love you?” said Ron.

“You truly don’t think I ever complimented you?”

“You… tried once. When I got the prefect badge in 5th year,” he said.

“The only reason I didn’t have anything was that I couldn’t think of a way to say it without hurting Harry’s feelings!”

“Really, love, don’t worry about it. You said things about my Quidditch performances as well. At least the good ones.”

“No! We.. we cleared the air on all this. Viktor, Lavender, the locket. Why didn’t you say anything then?”

“What would I say? You should have complimented me more? How self-involved would that sound? And now that we’re together, you do compliment me all the time. If I’d said something, maybe I’d question if you were being genuine or not now.”

Hermione was quiet. “I never realized that I wasn’t. It all ran through my head so much, but I guess I never… things would have been so different if I had.”

“We don’t know that.”

“Really?” she said with disbelief.

“Yes, really. I won’t lie - compliments couldn’t possibly have hurt. But you basically asked me on a date, and my mind still couldn’t process that you wanted to be with me. And at that point in my life, the praise to Harry would have still bothered me, so the locket would have glommed onto that.”

“I would never have said-“

“Hermione! Listen to yourself! You didn’t do anything wrong telling Harry those things. His life was shit, and he’s your best friend. It’s not your fault I was an immature prat.”

“I was really just passing along what the girls were saying about him in the loo.”

Ron looked amused. “Is that how girls talk in the loo about boys?”

Hermione laughed. “I’m not even sure what I told you.”

“At the risk of reinforcing what an insecure git I am, you mentioned how tall and fanciable he was and went into all of the Chosen One and Ministry persecution stuff,” Ron said. “I’m just saying that is not how we talked about girls in our dorm.”

“Ah, yes, I did clean it up a bit, but they did at least talk about Harry with a bit of reverence and respect as opposed to treating him like a piece of meat as they did with you. But I’m interested in how the boys discuss girls.”

Ron winced. “Sorry, I never even thought about what she might say that you’d have to hear.”

“No, that was a whole different set of issues. These were other girls.”

Ron stopped. “Other girls? What did - nevermind, it uh, doesn’t matter.”

Hermione was surprised to find that his aborted question hadn’t even bothered her. “I won’t tell you everything, but I did already tell Harry… Bridget Nichols said she wanted to climb you like a tree and -”

“What?!”

“Yes,” she laughed. “And you remember Tori Daylon?”

“She was that short little thing, right?”

“She thought she was the perfect height to make you very happy.”

“Merlin, you girls are just as bawdy as us,” Ron laughed.

“We have hormones too.”

“You never said anything about me, did you?” he asked. Hermione shook her head. “But what type of review am I going to get in the bathroom this year from you?”

“You’re incorrigible,” she laughed.

“Is that a compliment?”

“Absolutely.”

#Ron Weasley #RON WEASLEY DESERVED BETTER #ron weasley defense squad #ron x hermione #romione fanfic #romione #hp fanfic #hermione granger #harry potter

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coffeexetine · 3 years

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carry on x harry potter crossover? drarry and snowbaz? i am very obssessed with that idea right now and i cannot Stop Thinking about it.

(i'm gonna drop all my headcanons and scenarios i could think of here. it's very messy and i'm not a writer but i'd love to share anyway.)

Harry and Simon meeting at the train and immediately hitting it off because "hey, we're both orphans" and nothing's a better first meeting than knowing you share the same trauma of being parentless, right?

Penny and Hermione becoming friends. they both love books and knowledge and learning. Penny would defend Hermione from their classmates who says she's a 'know-it-all'

"it's not her fault you have thestral shit for brains!"

one time they joked how Simon was a long-lost Weasley. with his freckles, blue eyes, and light brown hair with a tinge of orange, he could pass off as Ron's cousin. and Draco seem to have caught on with this joke ("how the fuck?") and teased Simon relentlessly. Penny and Ron, of course, sprang into action, wands pointed to the blond, to which he smirked at. "Ravenclaw, Bunce? Pity, you could've been useful to us in Slytherin."

as expected, the Potter and Malfoy rivalry kept boiling. at the same time, Simon and Baz started a feud of their own.

speaking of Baz, you would've expected him to be buddy-buddy with Draco—they both came from Pureblood families, the Pitches and the Malfoys, who have business connections with each other—but he isn't. (i wonder why?)

months passed, years passed, they've gone through basilisks, dementors, dragons, vampires (so professor Quirrell wasn't lying), and Voldemort at the back of Quirrell's head (don't you think Simon and Harry had had already enough childhood trauma?). Because get this, they have not one, not three, but two Chosen One's! Or is it Chosen Two?

i think we should go with a lighter plot

the rivalries develop. Golden Boys vs. Slytherin's Princes. how epic is that?

except it's not. it's just four teenagers with daddy issues who found sanity in bullying each other (it's the trauma). the most trivial of things usually ignite their fights. pet names insults are thrown, someone would snarl, maybe the other smirks, someone would cross a line—("if you hate him so much, why don't you ignore him? you always rile each other up i'm starting to think you like it. is this some type of kink?." "PENNY.")

that time Draco caught Baz staring (glaring?) at the new Golden Couple, his face flashing different emotions—jealousy? sadness? Merlin, is that yearning?—and he was about to tease him when he notices he's looking at Salisbury.

"Pitch." Baz startles. "What is it, Malfoy?" "Nevermind. Not here."

On the other side of the hall: "I swear, Hermione, they're plotting again." "It's all in your head, Harry." "Hey, maybe we could use your map again later." "Yeah—" "NO."

Ten minutes later, Slytherin dorm room

"Seriously, Pitch, a Gryffindor?" "I can't read minds, Malfoy. Whatever do you mean?" "You are in love. With Salisbury. Am I correct?" "Of course, and you're in love with his equally idiotic best friend." "And what if I am?" Silence.

Neither of their fathers will hear about this.

#harry potter #draco malfoy #simon snow #baz pitch #drarry #snowbaz #carry on #basilton pitch #drarry au #snowbaz au #hogwarts #please share some of your thoughts #or recommend fics like this #or someone plz just make this a fic :(

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

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TLTNL- THE DEATH EATERS

Sirius had lived through a lot of crap in his life, some real life shattering moments, but the act of forcing himself to read about the return of Voldemort, when he technically hadn't even fallen yet so they'd never even been allowed to live in that lifespan of peace like Harry had, really was doing something to his psyche as he got started.

Voldemort looked away from Harry and began examining himself. His hands were like large, pale spiders.

Harry almost longed for Sirius or someone trying to crack a joke during all of this, it would make what he was hearing feel even slightly better, his first thought that someone could have made a mention of how Ron would hate Voldemort just for that fact alone, but humor was going to be hard to come by until Harry was out of this danger.

All his other features were as inhuman as well, pale and more serpent like than ever. He took no notice of Wormtail continuing to sob at his feet, still bleeding from his stump.

'As much as he deserves, he's got a fate worse than Quirrell's coming up,' Remus viciously thought to himself.

The large snake from Harry's dreams wasn't given much notice either as it continued slithering across the ground.

Voldemort put one of those unnatural hands into his pocket and came back with a wand, which he caressed with his new fingers.

Lily gathered from that act that this must indeed be Voldemort's own wand, the one with the phoenix core he shared with Harry's. It took a moment for Lily to even push past her disgust at all the cruel things that wand had done to her, James, and what felt like everyone she ever loved, to even try to guess where it had even come from, until she remembered who'd been tending to Voldemort this whole time. Lily couldn't help but wonder for the first time if that rat had possibly made an appearance at their house that fateful Halloween night as well, if he'd come across the body of Voldemort and taken possession of his wand for safe keeping, or perhaps even a level of power, and then hid it away before he went underground as Scabbers. It didn't even seem that far fetched, as he hadn't a wand on him that night he'd been confronted by Sirius and Remus, so he'd held this one as a backup all these years. At the same time as she realized that though, it also meant he would have had to cross James's body, and she hoped in the blackest way possible that had hurt him. To see what he'd cost in deceiving a man who still didn't want to believe the worst in him after everything.

The first act he performed was to point it at Wormtail, who sailed back into the headstone

James held a remarkable look on his face as he heard that, somewhere between demented humor that this was Peter's reward from Voldemort himself, and still some grains of wondering when he'd finally show regret for his decision.

and again crumpled in pain, begging his master to help him, to keep his promise.

Voldemort indeed asked for his arm, but when he held up the stump hopefully, Voldemort pushed that aside and instead tried to snatch the other one. Wormtail again whimpered and pleaded his Master to help him,

Sirius got through that exchange like an executioner reading out the final charges. It really was easier to think of this cretin as some corpse going through these motions rather than someone he'd once put such trust in, put his own life in those hands, one of which was now gone in a willingly given gesture for these actions to be occurring.

but Voldemort ignored this and pushed back the sleeves of his unbloodied sleeve. There Harry spotted something branded into the skin, the same image that had hovered in the sky the night of the World Cup, the Dark Mark.

Voldemort pressed one of his long white fingers into it, and Harry's scar imploded with pain again.

Remus' mind flashed back through all the mentions of Snape and Karkaroff talking about something on their arm, and then to find the same thing now on that foul little rat, it couldn't really be a coincidence. But what was it exactly?

Voldemort straitened with satisfaction, murmuring to himself that now he would know the brave to return,

Lily had not a clue what was going on, what Voldemort was doing, nor where on earth that tattoo had come from. What she did gather was the fact that it seemed to be some sort of calling symbol, and that meant even more bad news was about to arrive.

and those foolish enough to stay away.

Harry was rubbing at his forearm thoughtfully, some lingering thoughts floating just beyond his conscious mind of how he felt about those questions.

Voldemort began pacing across Harry's field of vision, his ruby eyes again falling on the gagged teenager as he informed him that Harry stood upon the bones of his late father. Much like Harry's mother

James had already grown up hating Voldemort through his life, but in that moment where he actually referred to Lily, James wanted to see him dead more than ever. No one got to talk about his wife like that!

both had died but held their uses.

"Uses?" Lily spat in disgust. "I lived trying to protect my son, that's more than he'll ever understand."

Lily Potter had died defending her son,

Sirius would forever hate himself for having to say that, and still having even the slightest bit been involved in that happening, but then he conjured back the image of telling his wasteful parents that their precious Voldemort was in fact a half-blood with parent issues, and it gave him enough breath back to keep going.

and Voldemort had killed his father,

"So it was Voldemort who killed Riddle and his own grandparents," Remus marveled, wondering why he was even shocked. There were some questions in there he was curious about, like why, but this was Voldemort he was thinking about, he'd never really needed much of a reason to kill anybody, especially Muggles, certainly ones he was related too would be eliminated at Voldemort's earliest convenience.

and look how useful he'd been in his death.

Harry rubbed at his forehead a bit at that, there was a significance to what Voldemort had said about a father being useful in death...his eyes flickered to his own and away, he didn't like to think of his dad as dead in any sense even if it might have been helpful to him in his past.

Voldemort gave a soft laugh again as he continued his pacing, that snake still circling in the grass below mimicking his movement.

"I want to know what's with that thing?" James muttered of no one, anything to keep the feeling alive that they were hearing of this in the room rather than having to think about Harry living it. "They were only using its weird venom to keep Voldemort alive, yet he named it didn't he. What's so special about this snake?"

"I'm not really that surprised," Remus shrugged, "Voldemort claims to be the descendant of the Great Salazar Slytherin, I can easily picture him with some snake for a pet now."

"I can't picture him with anything resembling a pet," Lily disagreed, "he doesn't have the capacity to take care of a goldfish."

"We should just be thankful it's whatever this is, and not a basilisk," Sirius muttered.

Harry wasn't that grateful for his dad's comment, that annoying feeling cropping up again of an answer that should have been there. There was indeed something very significant about Nagini he just wasn't remembering.

Voldemort began telling Harry his story, how his own father had lived just over on that hill. His mother had lived in the village and fell in love, but Riddle had abandoned her when he found out what she was, his father hadn't liked magic.

"Oh joy, just what I always wanted, more Voldemort backstory," Sirius groused.

Lily on the other hand couldn't help but picture someone else saying this, someone who was now in Voldemort's ranks himself. Snape had made many of the same comments about his own father from time to time. It never failed to sadden her just how much alike her old friend and Voldemort seemed to be, far more than Snape and her had ever had in common it seemed.

He'd abandoned her while pregnant and not looked back, and she'd died giving birth to him, leaving him in an orphanage with the foul name of Tom Riddle, of the very same man who he now vowed revenge on.

Remus shook his head in disgust the longer this dragged on. "While no one's arguing the guy's an arse for trying to abandon his kid, I'm still struggling to wrap my head around how this turned him into the greatest evil in our world. And now I'm even wondering why he was named after his father, did the orphanage find out about that name through the mother before she died and gave it to him, because it's not like that Riddle seemed to have a say in it."

"You are reading far too much into this," Sirius sighed. "Just hate him and start plotting ways to stop this from happening like the rest of us."

Voldemort seemed to catch himself as he realized he was becoming sentimental,

"There's one thing I don't think anyone in the world's ever called that megalomaniac," James rolled his eyes.

recounting his life story for Potter, but now his real family was arriving.

Sirius sneered at the word family, absolutely convinced that Voldemort had no clue what that meant any more than the pathetic rat he employed.

The air was filled with the swishing of cloaks in long black attire and all faces covered as they Apparated as one. For a moment none moved, frozen in shock, until one finally shuffled forward, and flung itself at Voldemort's feet, kissing the hem of his robes.

Remus was flickering through all the known Death Eaters he'd heard about, and any one of them were considered so full of themselves it really was laughable whichever one it was groveling like that, making it all the more unbelievable they bowed to anyone, even Voldemort.

Soon they were all doing it, until Voldemort waved his hands that was enough, and then they all backed away and formed a circle around them with some noticeable gaps. Leaving Voldemort and Harry in the center, and a sobbing Wormtail still curled on the ground.

James wanted to ask Harry exactly how many there were, but he was honestly already faint at the idea of just how outnumbered his son was. The question had only occurred to him because he was pissed of how many free Death Eaters were out there. They'd known of some numbers, but this felt ridiculous that the Ministry hadn't been able to get so many of Voldemort's inner circle.

Voldemort didn't seem to be expecting anymore, as he began addressing them all by reminding them of how long it had been. Thirteen years, and they came to his call as if nothing had changed, still united.

Then he inhaled deeply, those blood-red eyes taking in all those around him as he stated he smelt their guilt.

Sirius had the mad desire to laugh. The way Voldemort was speaking to them, it all felt as theatrical as possible. He'd had a sense back when he'd been dealing with that odd diary that Voldemort had a grandiose idea of himself, but to be speaking like this really did just put a spin on how ridiculous the man sounded.

Voldemort stood before these men, healthy and free, and Voldemort asked himself why none before him had aided their master before this night.

Remus made a thrumming noise in his throat of deep curiosity as well, while not in the same light as Voldemort he did wonder the same. Like Sirius, he did wonder what exactly drew these people to Voldemort, if it was all to gain a bit of power than they should have been actively looking for the man who could give that back to them. Yet it had been a rat to find him and make this possible. This either meant he wasn't hard to find by Death Eater standards, or more likely since Dumbledore hadn't been able to find this husk, the rat had simply been the dedicated one to figure it out. His thoughts went back to that Pensive, of that deranged woman screaming about how Voldemort would reward her for being so loyal, and he was starting to wonder if in her own twisted way she'd been right. Voldemort was surely ticked at all of these that had been free and not spent every waking hour before now to make this moment happen.

No one spoke. No one moved except Wormtail, who was upon the ground, still sobbing over his bleeding arm.

Every time that was mentioned Sirius somehow still managed to add an extra layer of menace into his voice, even listening to all this Voldemort crap he still managed to somehow hate this most of all.

Voldemort answered his own question, how his followers had believed him broken and gone. They'd slipped back to society pleading ignorance and bewitchment.

"I'd make a joke about how talking to himself has made him go as mad as Crouch has, but I guess we already knew that ship has sailed," James huffed.

"There's still a chance he's gone even more up the ladder," Lily reminded, "getting blasted out of your body most likely does something to your mental health as well."

"I'm so sure Voldemort cares deeply about this," Remus rolled his eyes at the pair even if he did manage a smile, they're comments really did seem to be helping Harry as a constant reminder that they were here for him.

He returned by asking himself why they would believe such a thing? When he'd shown them all the steps he'd taken to defeat mortality.

Sirius narrowed his eyes curiously at that, hoping that if this monologuing was going to continue, at least Voldemort could go into details about this part. Sirius wanted to know what exactly those steps were, they'd clearly been the thing to keep him alive against a rebounding Killing Curse.

They'd seen his proof of becoming mightier than any alive being.

"I can not get over how full of himself he is," Lily shook her head with a twist of her lips. "I'm now grateful that in the times where he's fought our side he's never tried to monologue during it."

"Though if he had, we'd have this problem nipped by now," James pointed out, "so maybe that's how we get rid of this guy, try to get him talking about himself."

"I'll make a list of conversation starters," Sirius rolled his eyes at the pair.

He again answered himself that his loyal followers could have perhaps traded allegiance to that of their enemy, Dumbledore.

His circle shivered as one, some even murmured this not to be true, but still they were ignored as Voldemort continued speaking to himself about how disappointed he was.

"First bit of good news I've heard all night," Remus grumbled.

"Wish he'd stay that way," Sirius agreed.

One man collapsed to his knees again, begging his Master to forgive them, forgive them all.

Voldemort's response was to use Crucio on him.

The Death Eater writhed on the ground, shreking in agony, while Harry was left silently begging for someone nearby to have heard.

Lily's arm kept tightening around her baby all the time, sure she'd never gripped anything so tight in her life to assure herself Harry was right here beside her now, not being forced to live through this again any more than he had to. Pity didn't quite define what she felt for her baby. She completely understood his desperate desire for help to arrive, but she had no doubts that not a soul actually knew where he was, and no Muggle could do a thing for him.

Voldemort lifted his curse, and commanded Avery to get back to his feet. Voldemort would not be forgiving anyone until they repaid their thirteen years of service owed.

"I'm hoping you won't live past the next thirteen minutes," Sirius snapped, "so Avery's not going to get his chance."

Another high pitched sob drew Voldemort's attention back to Wormtail, admitting to himself that at least this one had already started on that path. Reminding him that he deserved this pain-

James was trembling, whether in rage or despair no one was sure, for that being so irrevocably true and he still wanted more than anything for it to not be.

to which Wormtail moaned in agreement even while still begging his Master to help him.

Remus was starting to get concerned about letting Sirius continue like this, it just couldn't be good for his health, or throat, to keep reading about that in the most violent way possible, but as it was the only release Sirius could find instead of murdering that rat like he deserved, Remus wasn't going to be the one to stop him.

Voldemort nodded to himself, saying that while worthless, Wormtail had been of service, and Voldemort rewarded that.

Lily already realized that rat had broken her list of people who needed to be purged from her life, but now every time she was forced to see the reaction it gave James it was still somehow made worse every time.

Voldemort gave another flick of his wand, and something silver materialized in the air, which sunk down to Wormtail's level and developed into a fist over his stump. His sobbing finally ceasing, Wormtail sat up and inspected the now gleaming metal, flexing his fingers in surprise.*

The fact that he was actually being rewarded really did somehow feel like the worst part. Like their friendship, this family, all the times they'd shared over the past years of their life hadn't been enough for him, and he'd gone crawling to everything they'd ever stood against, and somehow he actually still hadn't shown an ounce of remorse for his choice.

He remained on the ground for a moment longer as he began kissing the hem of his Master's robes, thanking him for such a thing.

Sirius didn't care how long he lived, that image would forever be branded into his brain and he couldn't ever peel it away no matter how much it hurt, how much he still didn't want it to be true and still wanted to end his life before any of this could begin.

Voldemort told Wormtail that this was a sign Wormtail would never again question his loyalties, to which was instantly agreed.

For some reason something of what Dumbledore had once said tried to come floating back to the surface of Harry's mind, something about how Harry actually would one day be thankful that Wormtail was so heavily involved in all of this. Harry believed that now more than ever as he heard about this hand.

Wormtail finally got to his feet and entered the circle, while Voldemort began addressing more individuals, starting with Lucius.

"Wow, so we were right, Malfoy is part of the inner circle," Lily huffed, her own mind still distracted, caught on the never ending realization they'd all been suffering through that one of their own was now a part of the same thing.

Voldemort began with reproach, asking how someone who had made it so high in the Ministry's rankings had never come to his Lord's aid.

Malfoy swore he'd always kept a watchful ear out, if ever he'd heard the slightest sound of his Master's return he would have been there-

"Is it wrong to say I'm actually enjoying listening to him beg like this," Sirius got out through gritted teeth, the opposite of looking like he was enjoying any part of this.

Nobody responded, they weren't entirely sure how much of a joke that was supposed to be, as well as Sirius could find his own pleasure in whatever he needed right now anyways so they wouldn't tell him off for it regardless.

Voldemort cut him off by reminding he'd fled when the Mark had been cast in the sky.

Mr. Malfoy instantly stopped his speech.

"I can not get over the fact that Harry's referring to him as Mr. Malfoy," Remus directed at Lily, hoping the friendly reminder of when Harry had first met Hagrid would make even one slight worry line disappear from her face.

Voldemort told how disappointed he was in this, and expected more faithful service in the future.

Harry wondered why he thought he should have a feeling about that, some sense of something telling him the Malfoy line and Voldemort's service could hold something to him...

Voldemort moved on from him then, where a double space could have housed two people. Voldemort stared as if he still saw them there, murmuring to himself about the Lestranges.

Sirius' hard face managed to give an extra spasm of hatred at the reminder of his family. He already knew what had become of one of his cousins, Narcissa had married a Malfoy and he was honestly surprised she hadn't been mentioned right along with Lucius, and he'd heard rumors of what Bellatrix had become, if he wasn't mistaken this was in fact her new last name. Only Andromeda had made anything good of herself, at least he hoped she'd stayed that way in all these years.

He knew of their life in Azkaban, how they were there because they had not renounced their ways, and Voldemort swore when Azkaban was broken they would be honored for this.

Remus shook his head in disgust, thinking back to that Pensive and that woman who had believed this same thing. Guess she had been right, though with any luck she was long dead, it would certainly serve her right. They had no confirmation if Crouch's son had been involved in what happened to the Longbottoms, but she certainly hadn't done a thing to make it seem she hadn't otherwise, so Azkaban was a rightful resting place for a wretched being like that.

Then he mentioned how easy this would be with the dementors joining their side,

"I believe that," James shivered, "Dumbledore's always said it's a miracle they haven't deserted us already, the majority of them have. I keep hearing fewer numbers are keeping their prison in check all the time."

"Well we need a new prison anyways," Lily snapped, "so good riddance to them."

as well as the giants and all manner of dark creatures.

Remus gave a particularly vicious shiver at that, it really wasn't his favorite job he now had to be helping keeping tabs on a select group of those fearsome monsters, he among them.

Voldemort moved on to face Macnair, speaking of his job in the Ministry as a beast executioner.

Sirius had an individual hatred for that loon, the one who'd tried to kill Buckbeak, the same creep who'd walked around with an axe the whole time around children. It really didn't surprise him in the slightest he was among these high ranking, he was the kind you had probably found burning live kittens in his youth.

Next he addressed Crabbe and Goyle, only sparing enough words to gain their promises of further loyalty.

"Wow, and here I thought their kids were just meat suites without brains," James said nastily. "Turns out they're as trollish as their own dad's."

Lily hummed without comment that time, etching all of these into her own mental list, some of the worry for her son finally lessening just slightly enough she was realizing how useful all this information could be to the Order, they were getting a handpicked list of the elite after all, many of which were indeed still active in the Ministry now. She'd worry about details on how to nail them all after Harry was out of there, she'd still rather have the ignorance of not knowing than how she was learning this.

They bowed clumsily, muttering dully.

"That about describes everything they do," Sirius snarked.

After Nott was next named, Voldemort stopped in front of the largest gap, where he claimed six should stand. Three had died, one was clearly too cowardly to return, and another had long since left his service and would pay with his life. The last of which Voldemort already knew of and still remained his faithful servant.

"That was mentioned once before too wasn't it?" Lily muttered to herself. "Someone faithful who'd been helping him out along with- the first one we heard about." Her throat wasn't quite able to swallow all of a sudden it was so dry, and she trailed off from there with nothing more to add on. The one name Voldemort hadn't given, the one they really wanted to know.

Remus was keeping his own running list in his head, and realized that at least two of those most likely referred to Karkaroff and Snape, though he had no clue who was who. He didn't really think that was giving them too much credit anymore, not the way they'd been speaking all year about something like this happening. All he was left wondering who the third was. Could it be one of those two who were his most faithful and had been helping him out as well, or someone else altogether they hadn't even heard about yet.

Voldemort informed those around him his faithful servant was at Hogwarts, and was the reason they were all here tonight.

James made a demented noise. He somehow had found a new level for hate on either Karkaroff or Snape. His money was on Snape, but since it really had been either of them to put his son in there, they were going to suffer for it in the worst way he could conceive.

All attention was turned back on Harry now, some would even call him their guest of honor.

"Well I'm certainly not that some, and you need to not ever say that again," Lily snapped to no one, knowing she couldn't stand Voldemort taunting Harry being there much longer without blasting down a wall of her house in anger.

Voldemort let the silence continue until Malfoy spoke up again, craving his Lord to tell how this miracle had become.

Voldemort agreed he'd share the tale, which all began, and ended, with Harry Potter.

Aside from the abundance of information regarding names they were being force fed from his meeting, James wondered if he'd get something even more important to him. Would Voldemort finally divulge the very reason he'd started with his boy in the first place?

He began by recounting this boy as his downfall, all the while Harry was only just managing to follow along every word with his scar in agony.

Lily was mouthing her anger that on top of all this Harry was in fact in pain this whole time, if being in close contact to the essence of Voldemort had hurt Harry, then she could only imagine how that had increased with his own body. Her only saving grace for now was that it wasn't happening to him now, he still kept himself still as possible, one hand curled securely around her, the other hooked into James. James had been randomly patting it this whole time as a reminder to himself as well, thankful beyond words their infant had never been brought back down to be any part of this.

Stating the fabled tale of how his mother had died to save him,

Lily's touch seemed to warm Harry all the more. Not that he'd ever forget that for a moment in his life, nor ever be able to find happiness in the act of her life being cost, but there was still something he could never put into words of the magic of the act that went beyond any spell.

and how she'd unwittingly given him life that night, something that had not been foreseen. Voldemort could not touch him.

Remus was starting to get a bad feeling about this, his fingers already tightening around his wand as he remembered the last time Voldemort had tried to act on that and had nearly choked Harry to death. Why was Voldemort even keeping Harry alive now? He'd played his part in the resurrection potion, was it all really for gloating now?

Voldemort raised one of his long white fingers and put it very close to Harry's cheek.

Harry had to beat back the impulse to lean away from those touching him now, that horrible ingrained pain still trying to remind him it had once existed in his scar, soon to be even worse though he wouldn't have believed that possible.

Voldemort whispered and still all heard that the sacrifice of old magic had been overlooked,

"You make that mistake a lot," Sirius snapped cheerfully, "and it's put a hole in your boat so many times I hope it never stops."

"Sirius, I don't think that's actually a saying," James sighed more than joked back.

"Well it is now," Sirius replied like that was obvious, and for a moment as the two best friends met eyes something felt normal even for just that second before Sirius forced himself to resume.

but in the end, all in vain. Harry Potter could now be touched.

He placed the tip of his finger against Harry's scar, who screamed harder than he had in his life, now convinced his head was being cleaved in two.

Voldemort hissed a laugh in his ear, but pulled away to continue.

"Wha-How!?" Lily screeched, her arm starting to shake across Harry's shoulders. The thing she'd been able to leave him with, a sliver of protection she'd lost her life for, and now even that was gone. She felt like a failure as a mother, nothing she'd ever done had been enough for him.

Lily looked as likely to burst into tears of frustration as murder someone in that moment, so Remus felt like he was poking his own death as he reminded, "the potion that resurrected him Lily. He used Harry's blood, that makes them as connected as their wands now." He'd thought the others had realized this, it made sense when you went back and realized why Voldemort had wanted to use only Harry for this when that rat had been right, it would have been easier to get a hold of another other than Harry for this.

Apparently not as the others lost an extra shade of color, all false bravado of pretending this was okay falling out the window. Stupidly, Harry had felt a teensy bit safer with at least the knowledge Voldemort couldn't lay a hand on Harry, now even that was taken from them!

Sirius was looking from the book, to each of them in turn, like he was waiting for someone to actually offer some good news, something that would make this bearable for him to keep going. No one was, that ship had long sailed, and instead Sirius just wanted this chapter to end with Harry getting out of this place already.

His fault had been his downfall, and he was stripped from his body with pain he could not begin to describe. Still he did not despair, as some of the measures he'd taken for immortality had seemed to take effect, but not in the way he'd hoped. He had no body, and no way to use a wand,

James could feel the powder he was grinding his teeth to in frustration. In all this talking and posturing and making his life a living hell, Voldemort was still holding back on the important details, like an example of those bleeding experiments so they could make sure this didn't happen when James removed this snake's head!

so he'd been forced to exist in that state of being as he snuck away to a safe forest he knew of, waiting in vain for the help he should have expected from one of his loyal followers.

Those around him all shivered again in fear, and Voldemort let the silence linger for emphasis before continuing.

"If only he'd kill them all and save us the job," Sirius snarled.

The only temporary solace he'd found was when a young, foolish wizard had found him, and in luck's favor, had even been employed in Dumbledore's very school.

"What do I have to pay this guy to make him stop already," James moaned. He was sick with worry every passing moment Harry was there a second longer, and now they were having to hear about all of this stuff again they'd already had to live through. Harry didn't need this in his life repeated a third time, it had already nearly killed him the first two!

His goal had been the Philosopher's Stone, but again he'd been thwarted by Harry Potter.

"Did we ever congratulate you for doing that?" Remus sighed as he tried to usher back to a time where Voldemort popping out of Quirrell's head was the worst part of their day.

He didn't know what kind of answer he was expecting, but Harry not answering wasn't an encouraging one. He was still acting distant to the world around him. This night in the graveyard, what he'd already witnessed happening to Cedric, it was enough to drive anyone mad the first time around, now he was being forced to hear it all again. The one and only thing that seemed to be keeping him here was whatever response he got from his parents.

That struggle had ended with the death of Quirrell, and he was left as weak as ever.

"Please don't tell me he's going to start recounting your second year as well," Sirius groaned.

"That's actually an interesting question of if he even knows," Remus reminded. "We never even understood how a bit of his soul got into that diary, and Harry killed it with the basilisk fang. I can't imagine why Voldemort would know anything about it, considering it was aged so many years before the body he's in now, so the most he'd say was a passing comment about Harry doing that when he felt a bit of his soul die." Remus kind of wanted to keep going, that old intriguing question of what exactly would be happening if that Voldemort soul part had succeeded and come back to life. Would it have merged with the rest of this body, or stayed two separate entities? He was clearly the only one thinking on this, and knew the others were long since done with this whole night and wanted it to be over. Remus didn't even really care for finding answers to this, it was just easier to postulate ridiculous ideas like this than have to keep thinking of Harry tied to a headstone.

Voldemort had returned to his hiding, giving up hope.

James released a torrent of sounds as he begged this to end there no matter how much he knew otherwise. The next part, the bit where he had indeed gotten exactly what he wanted, was still the worst part of all.

Even he hadn't expected the change to come, when Wormtail had been driven out of hiding by once friends and forced to seek out his old Master.

Harry again felt the burn of Trelawney's prophecy tormenting his life, now complete and in the flesh. What he would give to go and take back his part in this coming true.

This had been accomplished through his curious affinity with rats.

"One that he thankfully can't retain in death, so look for some silver lining," Lily hissed under her breath.

The rodents had whispered of the forests of Albania where their kind sensed evil, and Wormtail had made his way there. All had almost been lost before it even begun, as Wormtail stumbled into Bertha Jorkins. Showing a spot of intelligence none would have guessed from him, Wormtail had continued to work this in his favor and a wealth of information was born from that woman.

Sirius hated himself for somehow still finding new ways to despise that miserable bit of existence. He just wanted to have him dead already and be done with that part of his life, this continuing to be dragged out always managed to find new ways of torturing him along.

Through persuasion, she'd told of the Triwizard Tournament, and even after a Memory Charm had been broken, divulged of a faithful Death Eater willing to go to Voldemort's service. Once she'd shared all she knew, her mind and body were damaged beyond repair.

Harry couldn't even imagine what Bertha's last few moments of life had been like, but he could understand a small bit of her pain. He felt it every time a powerful memory was returned to his own mind after some kind of Memory blocking had been put on him. He was going slow, relearning this bit by bit, and he still felt like it was slowly driving him mad. He couldn't imagine someone being forced to have it all come back at once, that really would drive a person out of their own skull.

Remus shook his head in disgust at himself, this was all so clear in hindsight. Bertha had worked in the Department of Magical Cooperation, and would have known about the Tournament before hand like every other employee there. When Voldemort had previously mentioned how useful her information had been, that had been what helped put this whole plan into action. The reason her memory had gone from so good in the way they remembered to this way was because she'd had a Memory Charm placed on her, and then broken in the worst way. Now the only thing he was left wondering was who was the servant that had executed that plan, and who'd placed it on her in the first place, what had been hidden that revolved that secret?

Voldemort shown his scarlet eyes on Wormtail, admitting his own shock at such an ill adapted wizard accomplishing all that.

A distant part of James absently noted how even Voldemort kept downplaying Peter's skills when they'd been the very things to get Voldemort where he was now. It seemed everyone constantly mocked and laughed at him, and yet the Marauders never had, but instead encouraged and helped along what he was good at. What had they done so wrong that had forced their friend away?

A plan had been formed from Bertha's information, and while Voldemort had been nursed back to health using Nagini's venom, the potion was being prepared that gave Voldemort the body he now possessed. They had the first ingredient of unicorns blood, but still needed the rest. The flesh had been provided, the bone would detail the setup of where this would happen.

Lily hadn't believed she could be any more shocked tonight, but still she managed to utter in surprise, "so, his Death Eaters know he's not a pureblood?"

"I, um, guess they do," James wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel about that, but he knew at some point in the future when he sadly would go back thinking to this he'd be disappointed. They'd been planning to spread this information around, hopefully discredit Voldemort's top people in hopes they'd desert him, and now that plan seemed as useless as anything else they'd ever tried to do.

The blood of the foe had been the tricky part. Wormtail had been happy to use anyone, but Voldemort knew the one he must have. To share Harry Potter's blood, so that the lingering magical protection would now be in his own veins.

Lily looked beyond disgusted at the idea. She'd thought it repulsive to share anything with Petunia, but this was just as bad! How dare the very thing that kept trying to hurt her son somehow manage to house his very protection!

The boys were suddenly aware of a way to kill Voldemort, release Lily on him. She looked so fearsome in that moment if she'd actually had her target present, not even a puddle would be left of him.

The question of how to reach Harry Potter was the issue, as the boy was so well protected in ways Dumbledore had planned from the moment this started.

That question made something occur to Remus for the first time, but it was such a small thing making a blip in his mind as compared to the other more pressing matters he knew he couldn't be bothered to question that until he had the much better knowledge of hearing Harry be free of this nightmare.

Ancient magic was invoked to ensure the boy's protection as long as he was in his relations' care.

James' brain felt like a broken record, all he'd been managing to due for ages now was utter, "wait, what?" Always feeling one step behind now.

Lily's face squinched up in pain as she processed this, muttering, "I've never heard of that."

"I can believe it though," Remus said sourly. "It doesn't excuse what Dumbledore did in even the slightest bit in not checking in on Harry with those abusive excuse for people, but it still always blew my mind of why he'd been put there in the first place when neither of you ever even mentioned Petunia's existence."

Sirius wished that at any time Harry had ever demanded of Dumbledore why he had to keep going back there, if Dumbledore would really use the excuse Harry was safer there than out because of some protective magic. No magic was infallible, and safe was the last thing Harry was at the hands of those Dursleys.

Harry watched them all with fascination, surprised he'd finally been dragged out the recesses of his mind to focus in on them muttering about the Dursleys again. He supposed if there was someone to rival their hatred of Voldemort and Wormtail, it was Vernon and Petunia, not that this was at all comforting. Harry at once wanted to sink back into not having to listen to anymore words, if he kept trying to understand past that to those around him he was going to suffer even more pain for the realization he was living through all of this because the scene around him would never happen in his own time. Sadly, now that he'd been snapped out, he couldn't find the distance to go back.

Then there had been the Quidditch Cup, where his body had still been too weak to attempt a kidnap around so many, but then more of Bertha's information had been of use. Voldemort had placed his faithful Death Eater at Hogwarts, who'd ensured Harry's name would be placed in the Goblet of Fire.

"Holy Godric Gryffindor!" Sirius yelped.

"We are complete morons," James gasped as that was slapped into his face.

"This whole bleeding time, we were thinking they were actually two unrelated- Merlin's pants are we something stupid," Remus snarled as he nearly ripped the sleeve of his robe off he was pulling on it so hard in agitation.

That one really should have clicked together when Harry had appeared here, but in between Cedric dying and the appearance of that rat, it had been hard to think past anything else. Now they realized that in fact, this whole year had been one big set up to this end, and they all felt like fools for not grasping this sooner.

Harry wasn't going to let them wallow in their misery for long, failing to come up with an encouraging smile in his search for something to say, but still getting out, "if it makes you all feel any better, no one else figured this out either. Really, how could anyone have known that Voldemort's ultimate plan was for me to win some competition."

Lily supposed when he put it that way it did sound ridiculous, but it still didn't erase how bleeding frustrating it always was to find themselves lost amongst all these plans around Harry until it was too late. Still she forced some chipper into her voice as she agreed with him, if anything just because it was the first time he'd spoken in ages and she wanted to encourage that as much as possible.

Sirius forced himself to keep going at this point just because he saw an end in sight of this chapter.

His faithful Death Eater had ensured Potter's first place, and transformed the Triwizard Cup into a Portkey so that they could all be here now, far from Dumbledore's protection.

None of that was helping narrow out their two suspects, both had access to all of that.

Now here he was at their mercy, the one who everyone believed to be Voldemort's downfall.

"And will be again, and again, and again, until you learn to stay the hell away from him," James snarled, his own arm tightening around his wife and son possessively which would stay that way until Voldemort was gone.

Voldemort moved slowly forward and turned to face Harry. He raised his wand,

Harry recognized what was coming a moment before he watched Sirius utter that spell.

and used Crucio.

When the memory of that pain surged in his mind, but didn't actually make a comeback on him, Harry forced himself to slowly relax back into his parents grip, trying to insist upon his brain that wasn't happening to him now, but it helped nothing when he couldn't convince himself this still wasn't the most painful part of his night.

This was pain beyond anything imaginable, his eyes were rolling in his head, he knew the only relief he'd ever feel again was the blackness of death.

Sirius felt tears stinging at the edge of his vision as he forced himself to read of that happening to his pup. He could hardly imagine the idea without wanting to throw himself in front of Harry now. The infant in the crib, the fourteen year old suffering through this for the first time alone and helpless, or even the adult now cushioned between his parents. Absolutely none of it could ever be comprehended in any way other than the worst torture in the world to imagine that happening to Harry.

It stopped as suddenly as it started, and if Harry hadn't been bound in place, there was no way he'd be upright.

Voldemort looked pleased as the night rang with laughter from his followers.

Whatever the opposite of laughter was, Remus could hear himself making that, but forcing himself to do it as privately as he could, he didn't want Sirius to stop now, he was to desperate to hear of the something else, anything else happening than Harry torture until he got out of there which wasn't happening soon enough.

Still, Voldemort swore that while it would be easy to dispose of this child, he wanted no one in doubt of his own true power. Harry Potter would be killed now, with no Dumbledore protection, and no mother to die for him.

There was not a shadow of a doubt in anyone's mind that Lily would make that call over and over again, but it didn't explain why something came over Harry's expression when he heard that. In fact Harry had looked the same way every time one of his parents had come up for a while now, what was it about this night that had him feeling so much for the two. Was it possible Voldemort would start taunting their last moments again, Harry had looked much like he was now when that had happened before.

Instead, Harry Potter was to be released, and handed back his wand.

"That was the stupidest thing he could have done," Remus sneered, "as I finally figured out the way you're going to get out of there, putting Voldemort in his place."

"I think you lot have far too much faith in me," Harry whispered, still keeping a tight hand on each of his parents. "No, whatever did save me from that place, it wasn't my doing, it was Voldemort's own fault, again."

"Well whatever the case, let's be done with it," Sirius pleaded, of whom even he wasn't sure.

HPHPHPHP

*Did anyone else first read this moment and think, 'oh my god he's going to kill Remus!' I mean, I'm happy I was wrong, but come on, the silver hand, he'd already been a hand in killing one Marauder and trying to kill another, (yes I consider leaving Sirius when he did was as good as a death sentence.) Remus was the only one he hadn't personally had a chance at yet...

#The Life that Never Lived #Harry Potter #HP #fanfiction #reading the books #GoF #Marauders #James Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Lily Potter

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Ridikulus Pt 36

“Among word of an incoming engagement to both Elven King and Lord on the heels of a soon to be named premier of Jaqi Black’s latest cinematic appearance comes with another new tidbit to clarify a long since pondered puzzle. Not a few months past the win of the Kenmare Kestrals, the team which won the Quidditch League Cup with Miss Black at the helm of Thief, an unmistakable pregnancy was announced by Rita Skeeter. Such conditions are protected and some fans have questioned if the Kestrals should have relinquished the trophy as their Thief has possibly broken that rule against harm of any possible child conceived at any duration of a pregnancy.

From none other than Newt Scamander we have our answer, Boa Red Panda Cubs. Known upon further research to have used Morphers as surrogates in the past while Miss Black and then fiancé David Tennant had been guarding their surrogate for their little girl on a protected island question of survival through the oncoming battles brought on a wish to leave some good behind should the worst come to pass. An old offer from Newt, known to be good friends and mentor to Miss Black since discovery of her Basilisk on Hogwarts grounds, was taken up and together have forged a new brighter future for a once marked to near endangered status with populations soon to be thriving with hoard of daughters in the fifteen cubs born, fourteen of which are female.”

Process of impregnating was next along with statistics that even before the war they were marked for extinction if they had not been regimes to your islands anyways through the destruction of their home territories in the war. With a stunning two month gestation period to calm any nay sayers on you being so heavily pregnant for such a short time out of nowhere. Some more it carried on filling in details on the rare breed and then branches into how this was a much needed good bit of news on the heels of a chunk on the yearly pox push that was marked as successful branching into news on the fostered youth in the Elven and Dwarf territories.

Letters plopped onto the end of the table and Regulus said, “Jaqi, from Newt.” Waving the letter he lifted them opened at your approving nod reading, “Apparently Newt has been hearing whispers on an inquiry into the validity of your win on terms of pregnancy. He submitted memories of conception and birth to go with his official statement on the event along with documented notes on the Panda populations. Apologizes for not warning you sooner.”

You shook your head, “Had to come out soon enough with the new season.” Continuing to finish feeding Em so you could eat before your first class.

The second page however was turned to and Lindir said, “Oh,”

You looked at him as Regulus asked, “Oh?”

Lindir said, “It’s a death notice. It reads, speculation and rumor has spread around the absence of a driving force of our allied forces these near on two decades past. Harry Potter, upon the discovery of Auror Nymphadora Tonks, wife of freshly elected Minister of Magic Remus Lupin, has been revealed to have sacrificed himself to push Auror Tonks and another to safety in the call to flee. While hope was held out in the search of the final missing duo and searches of the new lands were approved by the leaders of said lands coming up moot with the exception of the discovery of another kingdom named Rohan.

Aged just out of his teens brave young Harry is survived by numerous aunts, uncles and cousins along with his newborn son now in the custody of his godfather Sirius Black.

For now this is just a notice of death with another issue to follow enlisting all of those lost to the flight and battles prior destroying our old world. While talks of a memorial are still in discussion within the Ministry walls to be forged and no doubt unveiled in the summer breaks of our magical schools to ensure all will be available to attend.

Again the Ministry is continuing its plea to not use the flue system until all grids have been inspected. Out of a yet to be explained fluke formerly assumed deceased Leta Lestrange was discovered by her distant relation along with that of her oddly still toddler aged baby brother Corvus Lestrange. Their arrival came on the heels of the feather and spider barrage from the flue system making it all the more puzzling as no other long since deceased figures have been discovered as of yet.”

Sirius said in shifting the bottle in Fin’s mouth, “We had to say something. People kept asking on Harry and no doubt would when Leta was spotted.”

Em swallowed her last spoonful and Regulus smiled taking her on his knee as you said, “Not a bad explanation.”

Neville said, “Well Hermi and I are off to check on Lockhart today, see what he remembers.”

You asked, “Luna not going?”

Luna answered, “Oh they have me helping Draco with possible ideas for the memorials. I was thinking of involving Thestral charms somehow, or Nifflers if the former is too morbid for some.”

Neville, “Besides, we figure since we know him a bit more than others he might be more open to sharing with us.”

Ginny said in your glance her way accepting the crescent roll bin she passed your way, “I get to go with Regulus to gather notes from Star Speakers from the Elven Kingdoms to pass onto our Astrology classes. I get the impression it will take a while.”

Again Lindir turned the page taking in each odd article until he said, “Three headed puppies for sale... Is that accurate?”

He asked looking to Regulus who leaned in, “They’re not meant to sell those in papers. Strictly protected creatures requiring licenses.” Reading over the ad he said, “Cerberus do have three heads, however these are memorabilia on the mascots for a pro Quidditch team. Selling homemade goods to honor their favorite teams prepping for the future season and no doubt stashing up funds for tickets.”

Lindir looked your way asking, “Does your team have a mascot?”

Ginny answered as oh were eating, “Kenmare Kestrals have golden harps on a green background. Other than that they are known for using Leprechauns on occasion.”

Lindir looked to the paper in search of an ad for that and Regulus chuckled, “True Kestral fans buy from the source. Their own shops in Ireland. Badge of pride for them getting goods with the official seals and details around signatures from their favorites.”

Lindir nodded, “Yes, Lord Glorfindel informed us of the tradition of autographs. Quite interesting gifts from those you admire.” Again he looked to his paper and you held back your giggles at his tries to blend in on his second morning he had slept over the night prior. Figuring out himself how he fit into the incoming future of dwelling with his One. Before long however you were off to school claiming a kiss from Em on her cheek as well as one for Fin then hurried off through your door to make it to your desk in time for your students to enter. All seeing your hands smoothing around the waistband of your jeans ensuring your blouse was tucked in properly still. Questions still lingering in their eyes with a few papers spotted in between making you say, “Alright. Before the lesson, anyone have any questions about today’s paper?” All the hands shot up and with a smirk you went a desk at a time answering each to calm any confusion or concern from those stunned by some of what was in the papers.

Tucked in a private suite in the bustling floor for energy maladies Lockhart laid back in his assigned bed still under watch of the doctors there ensuring nothing else had befallen the popular Wizard. Upon seeing the familiar young Ministry Members he inched up in his seat grinning at the pair collecting a silver framed compact and another small trinket now rested on his lap. “Miss Granger and young Longbottom, I was curious which of my old students would be sent my way to question me.”

Pulling a duo of stools from the wall over the teens sat and Neville asked, “Feeling better? Remus said you were rather queasy last time he saw you.”

Lockhart nodded and said, “Yes, and I am pleased to have been so prompt in checking on me. While it appears mainly my captors were only able to drain my energy I was able to ascertain much more. And while some may not believe me to be of much use sans powers my plan worked out brilliantly.”

Hermione’s brows arched up, “Your plan? You planned to be captured?”

Lockhart nodded with a spreading smile, “You see, we arrived here and there were whispers of a Wizard hiding horcrux and deeming to endanger us all. How better to draw out such a fool than with a chance to take a hostage. I make quite the damsel, and I knew you all would find me soon enough. The Elf Lords did share which lands were known and which might be more likely for said baddy to be hiding in. Starting off, I have this for you,” passing over the silver framed compact to Neville closest to him. “Mirror glass charm contains my travels and especially the castle they kept me in, which is where I found this,” into Hermione’s palm a golden ring with runes of Khuzdul around a large rectangular sapphire narrowing her eyes recognizing Durin’s marker inside the band. “There were two more I couldn’t reach. But that one I managed to get close to. I know they said that Wizard had an affinity for using rings for his misdeeds so I assumed that might be the most useful.”

Neville asked, “Where did they take you, any idea?”

“Just past Gondor within a ring of mountains, not Mordor, I know Mordor has a volcano, there was one in the distance, perhaps one of the Elves might know where I was. Upon our flight back however there was a destroyed little village we flew over similar to where the Dwarves were met heard those houses were in hills. Caught sight of Mordor and a set of islands in the distance all coated with white glowing trees.”

Journals were brought over from his night table as well copied to ensure he had full record of all this adventure the pair flipped through listening to his sharing exact details around symbols they knew to be where he would embellish later. And when they went to leave he grinned saying, “Some might find it a bit mad however this will make a perfect plot for my next best seller.”

His next round of tests had the duo leaving trading nods and handshakes with the former Professor on their way to head to your house first to go through the memories and journals more thoroughly. Leaving the possible basilisk venom dip of the ring to you later so any memories from it might be tapped by you for more help in the search for the remaining Dwarf Rings from Sauron. A report was drafted up to share with the Ministry to be edited later for full disclosure once you had consulted the memories and Elves for information on the unknown lands and any more cursed items securing all threats to peace had been quashed.

To their evenings off the duo relaxed while Fred and George at the shop caught their first glimpses of a few Dwarves eyeing the shop known to be yours. The brothers stealing glances at one another from across the sales floor making note to share with you more clients for the gender swap potion clearly successful by Thorin’s demonstration.

Ginny’s evening however seemed to drag on while Regulus gleefully delved into learning about the stars and constellations of this world. For his hope to possibly use a name for a child of his own with Lindir the rule limiting that sank his mood a tinge at least until the next tale was shared. Copies of each record was made by Regulus who would compile them later to fit better way for sharing with the schools for one of a set of encyclopedia’s of sorts on this new world and lands to be sold and used in schools to inform the masses to study.

Post feeding at lunch you did get a glimpse of Regulus’ notes brightening your mood on having to keep delving into the painful subjects covered in the paper. Though after school a wish to have some time to yourself brought you to the open pastures beyond the stables in the middle of the trees you walked eyeing the branches above. Soft hoof beats behind you and a warm breath to follow shifting your raven ended silver ponytail across your back turned you around to find Turo there, “Hello Queenie, care to run?”

Grinning up at him in a stroke of his cheek he lowered his head to receive more, “Only if you’re up for it. Just needed some time to myself before heading home finding others.”

“Sometimes silence and solitude can be cleansing to a wounded heart. Our youngest require supervised runs, come and run with us, allow the forest to speak to your pain.”

“Thank you,” you said stroking his neck in a turn for the stables to dress the Great Elk hoping this run may help to lighten your spirits.

Scattered between the hoof beats stray tears flew off your cheeks in tiny gems nestling into the grass sprouting wild flowers for the opening steps of the run until the smaller elk came into view and surrounded you. The response to your letter to the Pear clan about the papers was thankfully supportive with actual glee that Em was never in risk for being harmed. Each of them so proud to hear of your special task of aiding an endangered species supporting the affection you have for magical creatures they treasured highly since first meeting you. They had put up with so much, the whole David mystery and dissolution of whatever that was just as suddenly as it had popped up, Em out of nowhere before the nonexistent wedding, and now hearing you carried cubs for a giant cuddly creature. You just hoped Em, if she learned the truth, she wouldn’t hate you for what some could be seen as a bold faced lie.

The boys were well aware that they were adopted, had memories of their families you knew they were holding back on to spare your feelings. So much like their wish to be older than they are, even to the point of barring playtime in fear of harming their clothes. There was so much you had to unlock for them and somehow in balancing the weight of all your godchildren with help of the new Ministry this generation would be a safer and happier one. Stolen strokes of your hand down Tuo’s shoulder in slowed breaks allowing another young one to pass him up had him glancing back to you in subtle checks on if your mood was lightening. A break for water however for the young ones had his head turn again to spot your downward gaze at the grass and he asked, “Are you in pain, Queenie?”

Your eyes met his and shaking your head you replied, “Do you get orphans in your herds?”

“On occasion. We have heard of the young ones you have gotten charge of. Is one of them unwell?”

“No, I just, another woman carried my daughter. I don’t want her to hate me when she finds out. Everyone knows about it now.”

Underneath you on his hooves his body weight settled and facing you as fully as possible he replied, “No greater gift to claim a young one who requires a clan. The sons you have accepted in your heart are beyond content to have been welcomed they will always bear a fondness and love for their adopted mother. Your daughter will be proud to have such a mother to guide her.”

That had a tear drop down your cheek causing him to inhale deeply, “A lot of people are dead because of me, and there was no shortage of people who wanted me dead. So many cruel people that never hesitated when I was a child to sentence me to be beaten and imprisoned. Only thing I can think of when I remember the names of people I’m responsible for their deaths is if I killed enough. If my little girl is ever going to have to be afraid to tell people her name like my dad was.” Another tear fell and you wiped your cheek on your shoulder saying after a sniffle, “It hurts so much, how easy it could have been for me to have killed them all, anyone who tried to hurt or insult me. I could have put even Melkor to shame I bet, all the chances they gave me to turn dark. Em shouldn’t have to be afraid, least of all of me, what I had to do to get us here where she could be safe.”

His mate had come up beside you turning your head with a comforting nuzzle of her head into your belly, “All our fathers face painful seasons we may not weather to build our herds stronger. Your pain will not be lost to your daughter.”

Tuo spoke again, “There is honor in kindness little Queenie. In mercy. A strength some will never face. Hard lessons must be given to our young and we must stay the path we cannot shield them from all suffering and trials.”

“Thank you,” you said stroking her face and his neck again. “I don’t mean to sour the mood of your run.”

Another of the Elk stated, “You have soured nothing. Runs are great times for clan discussions.”

One of the other females added, “We have seen the birth and growth of many a young one, the troubles are welcomed among our herd. Your daughter is your first child, always the most worrying along with your final child.”

The bounding steps of her youngest from his full belly of water had you giggle at the circle around her he made joined by his cousins around the legs of their own parents starting the second round of the run. It was nothing new you had heard but somehow with the hoofed creatures you felt more support in hearing it from them. Back to the stables you got swinging your leg over the front of the saddle to drop down and begin undressing Tuo who pressed his head into your belly glad for the gentle hug to his head and peck to his forehead as a goodbye freeing him back to his family. “Pleasant run, Darling?”

Turned around your eyes fell on Glorfindel in his moment to wet his lips looking you over in this stolen time alone, “The baby elk are adorable.”

However you hoped to sound closing the distance he asked with hands smoothing from your shoulders downwards, “Something is troubling you.”

“Just over thinking the reaction Em might have to hearing I didn’t carry her when she’s older. The Pears are relieved, like others have been that she wasn’t in danger at all.” Inching his head closer to silently urge more from you he sighed to your stating, “I’m fine.”

The distance between you was closed and what was meant to be a brief kiss found him again pressed into that moment of that evening he had to leave you from such a warm chance at entangled matrimony to finally be all yours. Firmly his hands pressed into the small of your back melting more into the kiss that lured your hands from his middle upwards. Clearly he had hoped for a place more secluded, yet in the stroke of your fingertips along his jaw in a path towards his ear the stall he felt you step back to would have to be accepted for now. Two blind steps and he readied to lift a hand to open the gate to at least be inside for some semblance of privacy only the back of his hand met silk. In the blind fumble a decision of your own called your enchanted doorway that brought you straight inside the King’s apartment, unknowingly into the back of the King.

From the papers in hand his eyes rose turning at the body that pressed into his back. Pink lipped in a break for air Glorfindel straightened up a bit as you turned your head to catch the turning King’s gaze that warmed in seeing it was you. “Hello, Dew Drop,” you managed to squeak out with a hint of a blush that made the corner of his mouth tick upwards.

“Hello, My Darling Starlight,” his eyes scanned over your face.

Glorfindel said, “Apparently our Love is fine.”

“Hmm,” Thranduil hummed and shifted a hand to stroke though your hair behind your ear, fingers finding their own strands of curls to tangle in at the warm demanding kiss, through which Glorfindel’s hands stroked along your back and side. The moment his lips left yours however to press to your cheek below your ear Glorfindel moved with a hand raised to your neck, thumb extended to angle your head in a slow tilt granting the King a straight path to trail his lips meeting your shoulder when you turned your head again. Hungrily now claiming your neck Glorfindel moved in what would be the tipping point to a blind tugging path to get the three of you on the lounge in the bedroom now locked to prevent the children coming in.

Against the back of the lounge you rested still on a knee stretching to give Thranduil more neck to claim. His hand you found only partially certain of its owner to ease up under the end of your disheveled shirt for the snapping of the tether or restraint. Your shirt went first and down your chest to your back he moved guiding you to melt more into Glorfindel’s kiss so he might selfishly steal the first taste of your skin and claim as many strokes and caresses as possible until Glorfindel gained the courage to be more bold. Their shirts were next and again in a tangle of lips that same hand was smoothed along your thigh in a silent path to the waistband you had magically undone.

Permission was given and while your hands worked the pair into a frenzy around you his to make you come undone first while his moan parted lips savored the bare skin revealed between those obstinate loose curls failing to bar him from that tempting silky skin on his newly made wife. Easily they crumbled first and in an experienced albeit rusty endurance Thranduil made easy the task of turning you to lay you against Glorfindel’s chest to wiggle your lower layers off and see to your release next.

Slow and tender his lips found yours upon your recovery and with a chuckle blending into your soft giggle to Glorfindel’s question of, “How do I touch you?” Thranduil simply kissed you while you did the instructing, until he had the chance to lay you against his chest to hold you through the finale of your lesson, hands loose and wandering to the helpful nibble on your ear.

Just breathing in the silence you sat between the pair, like kittens nuzzling their heads affectionately to yours with stolen kisses in between, both allowing you the first word in joint adoration of this blissful union. “I take it this means we’re married now.”

Those were the magic words and with a thumb used to turn your chin in a blissful hum Thranduil replied, “We are married,” claiming the lingering kiss to seal those words into being contractual. All it took, the offer of matrimony after the physical union and with agreement and kiss the marriage is born.

Of course you didn’t get the depth of that offer for them and how long they had waited to have this one particular moment they had dreamed of come true. Glorfindel was next not missing his chance to reply, “We are married,” beginning a kiss for which reason why you couldn’t help but struggle against the moment ending smile fighting to spread across your face.

The next silent moment however came with your hand smoothing over the droplet of milk now leaking out down your belly. “I should probably take a bath and pump.”

“Of course, a bath sounds wonderful.” Glorfindel said in his pop up with smile down at your bringing out yours at the Elf with haphazardly loose pants still open and threatening to fall that matched his lopsided curls your hands had eased one side slightly out from the ribbon wrapped down the length of his ponytail. Into his offered hand yours settled and you found your feet with crownless King smoothing his fingers through his out of place hair ignoring the open pants shifting down his hips in each step.

Thranduil, “Give us a chance to give you a massage as well if you wish.”

The pair while you dipped a foot into the hot spring in the open bath tugged off their boots and pushed the last of their coverings down to step into the water to help you down into the seemingly bottomless pool of a tub. “How deep does this go?”

Thranduil, “Not far, the bottom is lined with abyss crystals however that deepen the appearance of it. There is a bench inside here.”

They both helped you to sit down and while he worked the ribbon wrap from his hair Glorfindel said, “You most certainly were not fine when I found you. Would you care to discuss it? We are your husbands and here to aid in your burdens.”

Softly you sighed watching Thranduil’s long arm bring the floating soap bowl over in case you wanted to use some of his. “I was doubting if I killed enough of the despicable people from my world so Em would never have to be afraid they would do to her what they did to me.” They shifted closer to your sides in the lift of your feet onto the bench in front of you. “I’m never going to be perfect, I have moments or days even where I get so helplessly lost in the pain of all those wrongs. Seventeen years I didn’t have a life that was mine, I didn’t matter except as a shield, and,” you inhaled looking between them with tears bubbling into your eyes mirrored by theirs at the darkening or your roots.

“75 adults on the Wizengamot sentenced me to Azkaban when I was eleven years old, ‘by any means necessary’ they were told to get me to surrender Tulip. That’s what the records said along with notes of the names of seven ‘suspect’ Wizards who could have argued against the decision they kept from knowledge on the vote. They had me for a month before I was found. People have no idea how many chances I had to go dark, how easy they made it, and people would have still supported me. I could have put Melkor to shame. I spent so long with people that made my skin crawl, with a mark from the man who tortured my mother to death and tried to kill me and Harry. I can’t say how many times I wanted to snap and just blow up entire buildings with thousands for my death count.”

A tear dropped down your cheek furrowing their brows in focus to not cry themselves sensing the pain you were expressing. “I lost it once, I thought my aunt Bellatrix had killed my dad, I had her head in my hand and, I slammed it into the ground. And I kept punching her until she stabbed me in the side to get me off her. I lost it,” you whispered out to another two tears falling and you shook your head lifting a hand to wipe your cheeks. “Remus managed to snap me out of it, and I managed to get back, to the plan. I haven’t been able to breathe for seventeen years, and it hurts to breathe a bit right now. But, I’m trying, to see who I can be now.” Your eyes shifted to Thranduil saying, “I wouldn’t trust me to be in power right now. I’ll try to help you both if you need it, but-,”

They moved closer and smoothed their hands over your arms and Glorfindel said, “Take your time. There is no rush. No one is going to force you into anything you don’t want to take charge of. We have charge here.”

Thranduil drew your gaze adding, “No one is harming our little ones. There is an army to guarantee that now, all of the Elf Lords would send armies should anyone dare to be foolish and harm a child in these lands. A promise the Dwarf councils will surely back as well.”

“I’m sorry,”

You said and he again shook his head saying, “You owe us no apology.”

“There always was a goal, a job to do, no mission.”

Glorfindel said, “You will find peace, that was very much my same pain upon my return. The restlessness. I know you will handle the pain better than I had.”

Thranduil chuckled saying, “Made it his mission to collect every uncut quartz stone in our river beds. Took him months and upset countless beavers and bears in the process. Five hundred years of watching him drenching wet being chased by some creature roaring after him. You make mistakes, you learn and heal.”

You nodded and said to the ripple of your hair to silvery blue again calming them a bit at your pain retracting its claws, “Well whoever cleans that couch will be furious, I’ll charm it when we get out.”

Glorfindel began to smooth his hand down to your leg he claimed, “Pay no mind to the couch,” massaging it while Thranduil claimed the other.

Couch charmed and wrapped in a towel you dried your hair with your wand using a jet of warm air you shifted to help the others with theirs afterwards giving both a time to smile in your fingers again traveling through their long locks. Again in fresh pants the pair found you now in shorts and a tank top, lip tucked between your teeth in thought widening their curious smiles on the path to your sides for another cheek cupped kiss for the both of them from their loving wife once you had finished pumping your milk. Both speaking to you sweetly all the while and helping in the transition between bottles when the two were filled and capped the third when you had tapped out halfway.

Behind his back however Thranduil kept the hand holding the box with gift meant for just this occasion to Glorfindel’s hand being offered that snapped you from your thoughts. “Might we discuss something with you a moment?”

You nodded and joined them back on the couch, wetting your lips in the cross of your legs to look at the pair on the foot stools in front of you. Glorfindel anxiously bumped Thranduil’s arm with his and you looked between them and then to the expanded then retracted smile on his face that preceded his throat being cleared. “Our Love, now, with this new deepening of our union comes certain tokens to bestow and so after much deliberation and sleepless nights put to use between us we wished to present this to you. Like a small metal book the box now resting in your palm waiting to be opened in the retraction of the King’s hands from leaving it there. His fingers hovering a moment then reaching out to open the lid that caused your heart to skip.

Inside on 4 overlapping bands, 2 black, 2 silver with white glowing stones lining these. In the center a yellow heart also surrounded by more of the white glowing stones with two black antlers extending above it. “Oh wow,” you whispered to yourself.

Glorfindel said, “The black metal is Galvorn, a black form of mithril, among some of my properties returned to me upon my awakening from Gondolin and the lemon quartz stone is also from my gatherings that we chose together.”

Thranduil, “The rest of the ring is silver mithril with the remaining white stones that are from my collection of Lasgalen stones from Doriath carved out of the heart of a fallen star gifted to my line from Valar Queen Varda.”

Carefully you lifted the ring from its box that felt impossibly light for how heavy it should be. “Is this the, do you have separate engagement and wedding bands or is it all in one? We haven’t discussed this before.”

Thranduil, “Upon meeting your father we have chosen to adapt to your customs of using engagement rings, now, we are bound by marriage for our kin though a ceremony of sorts could be planned according to your customs. Also we are aware these rings sit on separate fingers to ours that sit upon our index finger and this has been fitted to your chosen ring finger.”

“You measured my finger?” You asked with a hint of a grin.

“Estel was bribed to help us with that.” Glorfindel answered, smiling as you watched as he eased the ring onto your finger that fit perfectly, “When you are ready to discuss a ceremony we could possibly discuss designs of what a wedding band might be.”

A moment you bit your lip and said, “I need some dirt.” Parting his lips at your pull back to ease over the back of the lounge you swung your legs over to head for the window revealed in the magical ease of the curtains back in its opening to let you pass through it. The pair of them stretched to see what you were doing, watching your stroll across the patch of grass looking between each of the bushes in the marked off garden plots, beside a patch of orange flowers they saw you charm two handfuls of dirt out of the ground, careful to leave the few small worms back in the garden. A bit confused a pair of guards tilted to watch your path back through the window that closed and covered itself again leaving you just in the sight of the duo.

Glorfindel, “You need dirt, for, what exactly?” He asked watching you ease back over the back of the lounge you sat cross legged on top of again.

“Not exactly fair if you both don’t have something shiny of your own.” Their brows inched up only to see your skin begin to shimmer in the multicolored hue of your eyes that grew lighter in spectrums of color to the deeper the breath you took in. Out of your lips around the dirt clump above your left palm a white flame escaped your lips while you mentally recited the Draconic spell splitting and contorting the clump in half. More and more they compressed making the shapes of rings, in the center an oval mystic quartz stone sat between two wide flat black metal edges of the ring that dipped for a platform for the stone, down the band the ring grew thinner and held white opal shapes between strips of the black metal.

A second breath drew their focus back to you on the lift of the second clump that you blew out over the clump that split into three, this time for two more black metal sat around five round green opals, the one in the middle the largest that around the top and bottom had five emeralds closing it off. The third had the same metal and shape, merely with blue opals and sapphires around the top and bottom of the center opal.

At the dim of your glow they watched your hands to shift and offer the both of them the larger of the two styles of rings then locked their eyes with yours as you said, “These should morph to fit whatever finger you slip it on and won’t break, for your engagement rings if you like them.” Timidly the pair accepted the rings, lost for words on the skill of the gift you had made for them, looking next to the pair of green rings that they stared at taking in every detail of these as you slid them over the ends of their index fingers to the last knuckle. “We’re married,” that had their eyes shoot up to yours again missing the ripple of the stones’ colors turn to yellow, “Ceremonies for my culture can wait, we can have a family dinner or something. You’re a King and a Lord, you deserve to have your status marked. If anything I can always just put in the paper I eloped.”

Thranduil, “These,” he said clearing his throat to steal a second glance down at his hand that had him exclaiming, “It’s yellow now!”

“They change colors, I can make them stop-,”

“No,” they both said and after a shared glance eased their engagement rings on above their wedding bands. Tenderly with free hands Thranduil took the wedding band from your hand he eased onto your left index finger locking his eyes on yours. “I have never seen rings of this skill before.”

“I rarely make rings, yours must have taken months-,”

Glorfindel eased his hands around your free hand, “Thank you falls utterly short. Elleths rarely forge in our culture, merely hire a master craftsman. We will be the envy of all with your unmatchable gifts.”

Thranduil said, “Yes, truly. These five opals alone would have taken weeks to shape and I do not doubt several months to find the proper shade. I am flattered as well that they change hues. Five, we did not cover significant numbers for importance in our cultures, seven is sacred to our kin, five is sacred to yours?”

“No,” you said looking between them to say, “I thought, we have, five kids, between us.”

If they thought it was impossible to breathe upon seeing the ring that was nothing to now at realizing this was not just a wedding back but a sort of birth celebration as well that Legolas especially would be honored to have been included in. Glorfindel said, “Birth celebration as well, then truly this is beyond precious to us and will be to our children when we share it with them.”

“Well, um, my mother had one from my dad for theirs. Used to spark up around the stone when I got hurt. Um, Leg’s is in the middle, since he’s, well, fully grown, bad luck to put his anywhere else, and they’ll grow as the kids do and get their little crowns of emeralds.” Quickly you looked down and then up again in time for Thranduil’s lean in to steal a loving kiss trailed by a moment of foreheads tapped together. “I’m guessing you’re behind the antlers on mine?”

Lowly he chuckled and replied inching back to allow Glorfindel to claim his own warm kiss and pause with joined foreheads to Thranduil’s reply of, “It was a joint decision, as was the choice of yellow, your favorite color.”

“Thank you,” you said in their inch back and tangling of their hands in yours on your lap again. “Never really thought about engagement rings before, I mean, Barty gave me the rose gold pink teardrop ring, and it was beautiful, I was really grateful for it, I just…I guess you just don’t think of what you might want until you meet the person who you’d be needing it for.” You inhaled at their spreading smiles and said, “I’m rambling.” The narrowing of your eyes a moment had their brows twitch up tick only to hear you say, “There’s someone in my study.”

Glorfindel, “Is, that forbidden?”

“No,” you said uncrossing your legs in their rise to stand and help you up, “There’s just, someone there.”

Thranduil released your hand hurrying to the closet, “Grant us a moment and we shall inspect this together for any danger.”

“It’s not a danger,” Glorfindel turned in the doorway of the closet accepting the shirt tossed his way he found the bottom to that parted for his arms to slide through to the sleeves, “How is this so weird to say, you don’t ever just, know, something. Like you randomly pull the toast off a bit early or it will burn or you go to check on your chicken coop even though it’s not laying day to find that there’s now a huge gnawing blackberry bush taking over the back of the enclosure that has to be moved or it’ll ruin the fence? Places to go aren’t really unreasonable to explain but sometimes I just feel I have to say something and usually it goes terribly wrong but I just have to say it because I guess no one else will.”

Glorfindel, “Such as?”

You sighed, “Such as I had to tell a girl Margerie in the year of the Triwizard Tournament, she came from Beauxbatons, the school Fleur studied at.” The pair nodded in securing their shirts and robes after having tugged on their boots to their knees, “Never met her a day in my life, never spoke a word to her, walk right up to her and have to say ‘How did you like the Trout in Their Pajamas?’ She slapped me across the face and storms off! Two days later, I have this other girl Ophelia coming up to me hugging me. Saying that there’s this whole convoluted plot that had been buried with Margerie’s family that goes all the way back to a Unicorn thief who had stolen this useless children’s book from Margerie’s ancestor and then used it to break into the conservatory where Ophelia’s family had been keeping their Unicorn herd. Nearly got the ancestor locked up from his name written inside the book cover.”

Their brows narrowed in confusion as you mimed and explosion on either side of your head, “I didn’t get it either, but apparently I pissed off Margerie and she went steaming mad and ranting back to their tower and Ophelia overheard it. Apparently they both had been compiling their own internal investigations over the years and they sent what they came up with back home and they caught the guy 87 years later.” Your hands popped up at your sides and fell again, “I don’t get it, just had to say it.”

Glorfindel, “That, must be tiring, does it happen often? Was it a voice you heard?”

“Not a voice, no, I’ve been down that road, no, that time it was the cover of the book popped up in my head. Which reminds me I have to settle a flight time for the Pegasus foals, could we fly over your forest, they don’t like flying over towns they aren’t fond of seeing people.”

Thranduil, “Our forest, and yes, absolutely, these, Pegasus, are they another Quidditch team?”

“No, they’re winged horses,” parting their lips, “They also mostly have fangs, and tend to not like people, well, most people. But they have a new bunch of foals and they have a traditional first flight that has to be a long one and usually we would take them to Sherwood forest for that but the Muggles aren’t situated enough right now for us to get the Prime Minister involved for the approval of memory charms. Still a work in progress on the tolerance of us for them at the moment.”

Glorfindel, “You have flying horses and yet you do not ride them,”

“They attack people. Viciously. Their nests are normally high in cliffs out of reach from people. We just have the tolerating herd at Hogwarts in the Forbidden Forest now quadrupled from those we saved in the move here otherwise Hagrid would have handled it, the new ones think he’s going to eat them.”

Thranduil, “Why do I imagine that day Thengel will drop by unannounced?”

“Well it has to be tomorrow you can have him for tea I guess. I can show the boys, even bribe a Unicorn to drop by possibly. Buckbeak could use a nice long flight I can take him instead of the bike this time still have to get myself a new broom. He’s been anxious waiting for his baby sibling to hatch.” The confused pair followed you out of the bedroom and through to your door linked to your house where you heard voices inside of your study.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Draco said only to be answered by Neville’s sigh.

Neville, “I know that, but he told us, he did it on purpose.”

Draco, “And they let him teach us?!”

Papers were shifted and once in the doorway you caught Neville’s eye and he smiled in relief, “Here’s Jaqi, Lockhart says he went there on purpose to play Damsel. Gave us his journal and this mirror glass charm of his travels and that place they locked him inside of. And, found this.” In his palm was the glass jar holding the ring Lockhart had found that lured the Lords in around you to see it.

Thranduil, “That is Durin the Deathless’ crest. King Thror bore that ring.”

Neville, “Said there were more rings but he only could manage that one.”

“Hmm,” you said setting the ring down the accept the journal you lifted to sniff, “This is a copy, it smells like guava.”

Draco, “Kept the original for his next book.”

“Ah, naturally.”

Neville, “Says he was kept in the mountain but wasn’t Mordor. No volcano but it was in sight of an island with glowing white trees,” that had the Lords’ heads tilt to look at him directly, “And there was a city like the Shire that was destroyed on the way back.”

Glorfindel, “That is not possible, the only island with that description was taken by the seas ages past.”

Looking back at him you asked, “Which Lord would have ruled that one?”

Glorfindel, “Lord Elros. That would be Numenor, if they are correct.”

“Hmm,” you accepted the Mirror Glass Charm saying, “I’ll tend to the screaming ring later, for now, I’ll see if the Lords can help us find out where he went.”

Draco said, “We’ll keep the twins posted if you need a sub tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” you said turning back for your room leaving the pair to share their mutual notice of the ring on that particular finger, and into your closet where you confused your husbands in the tug of your shorts off to hop into a pair of jeans and long socks you added tall boots to your knees.

Thranduil asked, “How you were dressed was acceptable.”

“Not for a Mirror Glass Charm. Last time I went in one of those took me three days to get out and it was nonstop gales and moors.” Over the top of your tank top you pulled your silver low cut sweater that hung over your thighs that once the neck was tied over top you added a black rib covering vest and the holster for your wand from the pile of clothes you had sent back earlier during your bath to the vest pocket.

Glorfindel, “Three days?”

“Surely this time we can just skip to the end and miss any weather but I had to go day by day last time to figure out where they hid one of our Aurors a few years back in a Muggle Born raid.”

Pt 37

#Thranduil x OC #Glorfindel x OC #The Wedding #Trading Rings #Gifts #Bad Day #Big News #Calming the Storm #Lockhart's Damsel Display #Neville #Hermione #Draco #HP Crossover #Ride With Tuo #Talk With the Elk #Mirror Glass Charm #Off to Rivendell

10 notes · View notes

im-a-meteorite · 4 years

Text

i’ve been marathoning the harry potter movies since im in quarantine and i’ve been taking some notes. i’ll post them all bc why not

sorcerer’s stone

harry knowing that there’s no post on sunday,, a genius

hedwig’s theme playing when harry looks out of the window and sees an owl flying by, very nice

hagrid doing magic at the house on the rock thing,, wouldnt the ministry be able to track that?? since there’s no wizard that lives there, they should be alerted?? or did they remove the trace from hagrid once he got expelled?? like does it work by the trace only or? bc if it doesn’t work by location then how would they know that a muggle witnessed the magic?? idk anymore

the kids staring at the nimbus 2000 and saying its the fastest model yet,, then the camera zooming on the handle w/ the background blurred -> the most straight forward foreshadowing

hagrid is actually the worst person to take harry on his tour situation,, like bro literally left him in the middle of a train station

the weasleys and harry going to the platform while theres a shit ton of ppl walking around,,, statute of secrecy where??

the great hall is on the first floor?? i thought it was on the ground floor

ew the hats

i wish the movies had dumbledore’s weird few words speeches

“theres not one witch or wizard that went bad that wasnt in slytherin” broooo

mcgonagall is so savage i love her

snape is an asshole

a crap ton of chessboards in the great hall study hall scene,, foreshadowing the challenges?

madam hooch really yeeted herself out of neville’s way

✨🥰 oliver wood 🥰✨✨

harry really wiped the troll buggers on his robe,, disgusting

snapes hair is lowkey on fleek tho,,

making most of the slytherins ugly bc they’re the “evil” house is just a disservice to all the inbreeding

hermione setting snape on fire is truly iconic and very extra tbh like sis why tf would u know a spell like that

seasonal transition wasnt that great tbh

overall the directing style is kinda basic

“not in the restricted section,,” rule breaking hermione is the best hermione

dumbledore’s handwriting is so extra and loopy like tf?? but it fits his character

the hedwig flying season transition was good

“immortal?” “it means you’ll never die.” “i know what it means!”

50 points each for being out of bed??? wtf is this point system

filtch saying there’s werewolves in the forbidden forest,,, thats illegal sir

hagrid calling the trio by their first names but draco by his last,, we love favoritism

harry’s thoughts r so ridiculous,, “snape doesnt want the stone for himself, he wants it for voldemort!” lmaoo wtf,, evidence pls sir,, u don’t even know he was a death eater. was it the bad vibes?? bc same

harry figuring out that the person who gave hagrid the dragon egg is voldy,, a genius

“kill us faster?? now i can relax!!” ron is so iconic i love him

“lucky we didnt panic!” “lucky hermione pays attention in herbology”

how is it that harry’s hand burned quirrel but not the skin on harry’s neck?? that shit makes no sense

yeah i really cant imagine this dumbledore fighting voldy in movie 5

hermione’s headband in the reunion scene is so cute i love it

chamber of secrets:

how is dobby even allowed to just jump on the bed?? like is it bc harry isnt his master that he can do smth like that

“dobby has heard about harry potter’s kindness” or whatever,, bro u work for the malfoys either the elves gossip or draco is waxing poetry about harry

aunt petunia saying “we have ice-cream” after that whole affair is just ridiculous

DIAGONALLY

this seems like the extended version bc i dont remember the borgin and bruks scene to be that long

the close ups with lucius and ginny’s books r insane lmao like chris columbus made it so obvious

also mr weasley’s acting is so funny like its so exaggerated

lucius malfoy is so dramatic and extra we love it

also lucius knowing hermione’s name and “draco’s told me all about you”??? bro whats with draco?? lmaoo

snape really got mad with the whole car business

mandrakes r fucking weird bro how did jkr come up with that

PERCY WALKING WITH PENELOPE CLEARWATER??? HOW DID I MISS THAT??

omg colin had so many lines?? wow

omg erol with the fucking howler,, iconic

ron’s facial expressions?? pure comedy, rupret is so good

LOCKHEART REALLY SAID “GOOD GIRL” THEN WINKED AT HERMIONE

“pesky piksy pescinomy” this bitch dumb

“why is it always me?” poor neville

omfg ✨🥰 oliver wood 🥰✨

ahh using the seeker position for fighting

ew draco used the m-word

the shit the basilisk is saying is so lame lmaoo

how does harry not recognize that he’s hearing a different language?? or does parsaltongue act weird

HOW IS THE WHOLE SCHOOL IN THE SAME CORRIDOR???

“i know the counter-curse that could’ve spared her” bitch the dirty looks he got?? omfg

the movies would’ve been 500% better if they had lee jordan’s iconic quidditch commentary

“scarhead” “TRAINING FOR THE BALLET, POTTER?”

“what did you expect?? pumpkin juice??” madam pomfery is a queen

dobby is dumb dumb

“who am i, hedwig? what am i?”

“reading? i didnt know you could read?”

“look at my face” “look at your tail!”

“you can’t cancel quidditch!”

“oh harry, if you die down there, you’re welcome to share my toilet”

lockheart: do you live here? ron: no *smacks him in the head with a rock*

“voldemort is my past, present and future” are all slytherins this dramatic??

the tension between hermione and ron in the last feast was insane

justin filtch fletchy is so ugly im so sorry i cant

prisoner of azkaban:

im sorry but harry doing underage illegal magic pisses me off every time

aunt marge 🤢

“do they use a cane boy?” “oh yeah, i’ve been beaten loads of times”

that whole scene is so chaotic

“you cant do magic outside of school!” “oh yeah? try me”

sirius really dumb for barking at harry like it makes no sense

the knight bus is probably one of the best things in this movie

“whatcha doing down there??” “i fell over” “whacha fell over for?” “i didnt do it on purpose!” “well come on then, lets not wait for the grass to grow”

harry leans over and looks for the grim, stan: “whatcha looking at?”

“yeah take it away ernie,, its gonna be a bumpy ride”

this whole thing is written and directed so perfectly

i hate how they replaced tom bc it really made no sense

all the bits of magic in the leaky caldron is so genius

fudge reminds me of trump but like dumber

the blue lighting and coloring is just great, it fits the colder vibe of the story (not like HBP with the hazy/blurry effect)

ugh the glass and mirror transitions are one of my favorite things,, alfonso curon really did that

i love the weasleys,, also everyone looks great in this movie

omg the scene with arthur talking to harry about sirius with the sirius poster always being in sight?? amazing

contrast of light and darkness just echos the whole dementor vs patronus situation

i dont even understand why remus took the train other than for the nostalgia

the lights slowly turning off in the different carriages?? amazing

the visual representation of the dementors’ effect is great

REMUS!!!

i wish there was more emotion from remus when he’s talking about sirius,, like that was one of his only friends

snape clapping literally twice for remus,, ajhshsh

ahh the placement of the slytherin and gryffindor tables right beside each other to increase the tension and further the plot

oh yea the new dumbledore, also cool hat he has

omg the new fat lady painting

omg the candy scene?? so cute i love lads being lads. that scene just echo’s dumbledore’s light in the dark quote bc its storming outside at night and they’re creating a happy environment within the dark especially with the dementors

ah yes the clock references + following the bird to show us important parts of hogwarts and putting the whomping willow in the forefront

ron’s reading of harry’s tea leaves,, still on point tho. ron really has a knack for divination

buckbeak! omg drapple

draco is so hot especially with that ring also the slytherin pins??

“oh yeah, terribly funny, really witty. god, this place has gone to the dogs”

the kids look so messy i love it + harry’s uneven tie

HERMIONE CLINGING TO RONS ARM!!

“its killed me! your gonna regret this, you and your bloody chicken”

omg the boggart lesson

“riddikulus!” “this class is ridiculous”

fuck snape!

draco really pushed someone with his bandaged arm

remus is such an amazing professor i love him and i just miss him so much

ugh harry in this hoodie?? amazing

remus and harry’s conversation with the music :(( lily :((

wtf is that eye painting??

percy screaming about being head boy,, bro stfu

sirius is such a dramatic little bitch i love it

seasonal changes marked by the wimping willow

“turn to page 394”

what a fucking rude ass bitch,, i hate snape

harry really be seeing the grim everywhere

i wish they had “wheres wood?” “trying to drown himself in the shower”

winter transition with hedwig! + clock tower

“come and join the big boys”

i just adore this scene of the twins giving harry the map (bro i really want a series about the marauders)

whos that skinny bitch with draco???

harry’s way too rash tbh

also mcgonagall being also too nonchalant about the whole marauder’s situation?? like those werent your students

remus is a soft boy dark academia icon

if only dumbledore wasnt a dumbass,, remus could have been uncle moony raising harry with sirius

ron’s nightmare scene?? iconic

“my dad didnt strut. nor do i” umm james potter was also a drama queen sooo probably strutting

“you, YOU FOUL LOATHSOME EVIL LITTLE COCKROACH” “hermione no, he’s not worth it”

sirius’ dog form really looks like a rabid dog omfg

the part where hermione grabs harry while she’s on the wimping willow omfg

“only one will die tonight” YOU DRAMATIC BITCH UR NOT MAKING THIS BETTER

“finally the flesh reflects the madness within” “well you’d know all about the madness within, wouldn’t you remus?”

why the fuck is the shreaking shack is swaying in the wind??

QUARRELING LIKE AN OLD MARRIED COUPLE

why the fuck didnt they knock peter out?? like tf?? they’re actually dumb dumb there were so many ways for this to go right

this man really sent 2 13-year-olds on this dumbass mission

buckbeak really beat up remus,, “professor lupin’s having a really tough night”

harry’s a fucking psycho with this patronus bullshit,, i cant

can they stop screaming while flying on buckbeak?? someone might hear them

im still mad sirius didnt get his name cleared,, so much would’ve changed

“we did it” “did what? goodnight” i fucking hate dumbledore and his mindlessness omfg sometimes i wanna punch him in the face

fuck snape for outing remus as a werewolf,,, but also he really didnt have to resign. like istg wheres the marauder energy when it comes to defying everyone??

i wish the movies had went into the marauders’ history :(( its one of my favorite aspects of the series

#harry potter #harry potter movies #philosopher's stone #chamber of secrets #prisoner of azkaban #hermione granger #ronald weasley #remus lupin #sirius black #severus snape #albus dumbledore #minerva mcgonagall #movie marathon #notes #harry potter notes

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hegemoneapple · 3 years

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Basilisk Eyes: Chapter 50: A little hike

Crossposted: Basilisk Eyes by Hegemone | Completed: Chapter 50 out of 157 | T | AO3 | FFN | WATT |

When Harry awoke the next morning, he couldn’t believe that he’d slept through the entire night. His protesting stomach woke him up. He’d missed dinner and now felt a bit trembly as he dressed for the day. He pulled on his trainers, grimacing as their clammy dampness encased his feet. He left the toilet quietly as he was up way before his roommates… it would be at least an hour before breakfast was ready. He made his way down the corridor wondering if the sandwiches in his staff were safe to eat.

Harry used his staff to locate a bench outside of the library and summoned the sandwiches and his water out of his staff. He sniffed at the sandwiches and decided that they’d be okay and woofed one of them down followed by some gulps of water.

He decided to write notes about the letters that were lost at sea. Harry summoned his writing materials from his staff along with his anagnóstis. He wrote out three versions of the same message, “You sent a note to me, Harry Potter, that arrived on Monday, June 28th that was accidentally destroyed. Could you please resend it? Thanks. HP.”

He used the anagnóstis to make sure the notes were legible—it was weird to hear his own voice through the aftí—then rolled them up. He’d ask Hedwig to take them to the people who’d sent the messages. He knew she’d understand what to do.

She’s a brilliant bird.

He cast the Navigation charm and headed to the owlery looking forward to spending some time with Hedwig.

He walked through the threshold and felt the very slight tug on his navel. The sounds of Charing Cross Road drifted in through the open windows along with the morning air, which seemed a bit warm for the time of day. He guessed it was going to be a hot one and was thankful that he wasn't stuck at the Dursley's tarring the driveway or some other heinous task that they were likely to invent for him to do on an outrageously hot day. Remembering the garden, though, reminded him of Nio hus cherio kisa and he thought of his cool scales against his neck.

Little Friend.

Hedwig hooted from her perch high in the rafters and Harry lifted his face to her and smiled, "Hiya, Hedwig. It's good to see you, too."

She flew down to him in an explosion of feathers against his face as she dug her talons into his shoulder. He had time to brace himself, his staff had warned him she was coming right at him, so he adjusted his stance as her weight settled on his shoulder. He reached for her and pressed his face into her feathery belly, breathing in her pine-musty scent, which was a bit of a relief from the stench of the owlery.

"It's no wonder you sit high up in the rafters, Hedwig. It stinks down here," Harry whispered into her feathers.

"You could take her out to the courtyard, if you want to escape the fetor of the owlery," an ancient voice spoke from the wall near the door.

Harry started, "Oh, I didn't know anyone else was in here!" He turned toward the voice, balancing Hedwig on his shoulder.

"Well, I'm always here, aren't I," said the voice.

"Oh?" Harry questioned. Then he remembered his staff and held it off the floor and squeezed it to get a description of the room and, he hoped, of the person standing by the door.

But there was no person.

"Are you a portrait?" Harry asked slowly.

"Yes, what are you? Blind?"

"Er, yes."

"Oh, right, then," the portrait had the good sense to sound embarrassed.

"You said there is a courtyard?"

"Yes, just over there."

Harry shook his head a bit in disbelief.

"Navigant courtyard," Harry said to his staff and it led him to a narrow doorway, down a few stairs (not nearly enough to reach the ground below the tower), and then out onto a cobbled pathway. The morning air was heavy with moisture and warmth, but also fragrant with the aroma of lavender. He could hear the breeze rustling leaves on a nearby tree. He squeezed his staff in the air to get a description of the courtyard and then navigated to the bench that it described under the tree.

Hedwig's talons on his shoulder were painful, so he encouraged her to hop down onto the bench and he fed her some of the biscuits he’d saved from tea. She growled contentedly while Harry took deep breaths—the garden in the courtyard was full of fragrant plants; herbs, Harry discovered as he ran his hands over some of the spiky plants that bordered the bench. He liked the coolness of the stone bench beneath his legs.

Finally, after a long while of just enjoying the quiet morning in the courtyard, Harry attached the notes to Hedwig's leg and asked her to return to the people who'd sent them. He knew one was headed to Hermione, but he wasn't sure who'd sent the other ones. I should have looked at them right when I got them, he admonished himself.

He took her back up to the owlery figuring it would be easier for her to leave from the tower than down in the courtyard and said goodbye to her before she hooted and took off.

"Did you enjoy the courtyard?" the portrait asked him as he was leaving.

"Yes, very much. Thank you for suggesting it."

oO0OooO0OooO0OooO0Oo

Harry met up with Gemma and Tony at breakfast and then they headed to the Mont Blanc room for the hike.

Gemma paused at the threshold of Mont Blanc and Harry wondered if there was something about it that looked different. It smelled the same. He could smell and feel the cool mountain air wafting into the corridor from the room as they approached and even hear some birds trilling in the distance. At first, he mistook the sound for someone whistling and then he realized it must be birds. It sounded like they were talking to each other almost—calling and answering over a distance. He was a bit entranced as he realized it helped give dimension to the space inside the room. He could tell from the bird songs that the landscape sloped down in front of them and rose up behind them.

He realized that they had been standing there for a while, Gemma couldn’t be listening to the birds.

Maybe she’s watching them?

He squeezed her arm so that she’d know that he wanted to say something and asked, “What is it?”

Tony answered: “The benches are gone and there’s just a path leading down to the lake.”

“Do you think Mei will be okay on the path?” Harry wondered, conceding that he was thinking about himself as much as her.

“I dunno. She’ll probably pitch a fit,” Tony deadpanned.

“Yeah,” Harry agreed silently. “Where do we go?”

Gemma was moving her arms, likely signing to Tony. Harry dropped her arm so that she could sign more freely.

“What’s she saying?” Harry asked Tony.

He heard Gemma moving away from him, through the door, and onto the crunching pathway. The birds got quieter with her noises.

“I don’t know—I think she’s asking Healer Jordan something,” Tony said.

“Is Healer Jordan nearby?”

“She’s way down the path, but I guess they can understand each other,” Tony said, “Hey, let’s get out of the door. There are more people coming.”

Harry could hear the man he had noticed the day before, the one who had sat behind him when the bench fell over and tried to help Harry up, his tenor animated as he was recounting traveling on the underground to someone. It sounded like it was the first time he’d traveled on it.

He was talking to someone Harry hadn’t noticed before, or at least he didn’t recognize anything about the person.

Then Healer Jordan’s voice surprised him as it came from a space just to the right in front of him, “Please make your way down to the lake by following one of the paths. We will meet on board the deck of the HMS Eden.”

“Oh, hi, Healer Jordan,” Harry said.

She didn’t answer.

He waited a bit more, rocking back and forth, listening to the water squishing in his shoes; he could hear the bells of the ship clanging in the distance. He then registered that Tony was walking ahead and leaving Harry standing in the doorway by himself. He quickly pulled out his staff, extended it and swung it back and forth, listening for the voice. He remembered to hold it with his index finger pointing down the length, and the aftí started telling him about the doorway and the path in front of him. He heard footsteps crunching on the gravel behind him and moved to the side of the path.

“Pardon us,” one of the men said as they passed and Harry nodded and waited until their footsteps receded down the hill.

“Healer Jordan, am I on the right path?” he asked, turning back to the doorway and taking a step closer, but she didn’t answer, but instead repeated the same message.

“Please make your way down to the lake by following one of the paths. We will meet on board the deck of the HMS Eden.”

It must be a recorded message, Harry thought, flushing with the awareness that he’d been speaking to air again. He could hear someone walking down the path slowly and guessed it was Tony and he started down the path.

“Navigant HMS Eden.”

The birds had quieted down since more people entered the space, but he could still hear the more distant trills. There was also the scent of wood burning, but light as though it were distant—a campfire.

Harry could hear other people walking on the path behind him, but they were quiet except for their feet crunching over the sandy surface of the walkway. Harry was pretty sure he was still on a path—he was following the sounds of Tony’s steps ahead of him and listening to the directions from his Navigant spell. He could hear the conversations of others drifting up the hill (or down the hill) occasionally, but he couldn’t always tell how far away they were.

He thought about calling Tony to wait for him, to help guide him, but then he remembered that Tony really couldn’t guide him easily. His memory brushed over the feeling of Tony’s remaining arms in his hands when Harry had been trying to help him right himself during council.

That would be awkward.

He stumbled a few times as he tread on larger rocks and he brushed against bushes and other plants that grabbed at his trousers.

His staff warned him of a tree branch that almost hit him in his face—and he reached out his hand in front until he found it and held it away as he moved around it. It was laden with small leaves that whispered through his fingers.

He felt as though his progress was slow going and that Tony was getting farther and farther away from him. It was harder to tell if he was still on the path. The people behind him seemed to be moving even slower than he was and he was becoming conscious of an apprehension in his gut as he felt the gulf of distance between him and the other people grow. His breath quickened.

And then he heard footsteps crunching on the path, coming up it, toward him, running, and getting louder as they approached. He stopped afraid they’d run into him. And then they stopped, not far in front of him. Their breathing was heavy from running up the mountain path.

“Hello?” Harry asked; the Scribunt loqui flapped noticeably in the breeze.

A few light footsteps, and then Gemma’s hand was on his arm.

“Oh, hi, Gemma. Where’d you go?” Harry was relieved she was back.

She moved to his left side and lifted his palm to write in his hand, “S-O-R-R-Y” space “I” “L-E-F-T-.” space “H-.-J-.”… Harry interrupted her work, “H?J? Is that Healer Jordan?” She tapped his hand twice, “yes.”

She continued, “W-A-S-LA-T-E-N-E-E-D-E-D-H-E-L-P-F-O-R-M-E-I”. Harry furrowed his brow at this, Gemma had run it all together in her hurry and it took him a bit to figure out what she was saying. He repeated what he understood, “Healer Jordan was late and needed your help so that she could help Mei?”

Behind them, Harry could hear distantly the repeated message from Healer Jordan, “Please make your way down to the lake by following the path. We will meet on board the deck of the HMS Eden” as Gemma wrote in his hand.

She tapped “yes,” impatiently on his hand, and then wrote “IGOHELPMEINOWYOUGOTOSHIP” Harry said the letters as she wrote them and pieced them together until he understood them.

Before he could answer, she was off. He imagined that she could see Mei at the doorway. He felt a bit useless, standing there in the pathway as Gemma ran up the mountain path to help Mei and Aminah.

The people who had been following him had passed them by while they were talking and he felt alone again. He pointed his staff down the mountain path and continued on, stumbling over stones occasionally and straining for cues that he was staying on the path and nearing the ship. The path got steeper and started zig-zagging across the side of the mountain. Dust from the path seemed thicker on this part of the trail—he could feel it coating his lungs and depositing a layer on his sweating skin and caking his damp trainers.

He slipped on some loose gravel at the bend of one zig-zags and sat down rather suddenly on the hillside, sliding down on his feet awkwardly as he tried to regain his balance. A rock had jabbed uncomfortably into his backside, and his wrist felt a bit tweaked from the sudden jolt as he landed. He managed to stand up again and brush off the dirt. Though he was a little shaky, he kept going.

He could hear the bells on the ship more easily now; he knew he was getting closer.

He wished he hadn’t been squeamish about asking Tony to lead him. Better than tumbling down a mountainside. He thought about Nio hus cherio kisa and wished he’d been able to bring the little snake with him.

#blind harry potter #harry potter #fanfiction hegemone

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aidanchaser · 3 years

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Everyone Lives

Table of Contents beta’d by @ageofzero, @magic713m, @ccboomer, @aubsenroute, @somebodyswatson

Chapter Twelve The Wandless Witch

Lily gingerly turned the page of the charred book in her lap. Regulus had salvaged the book from the library, and had suggested that it might be intriguing to her. Judging by the tight, old-fashioned script, the book must have been as old as Hogwarts. Deciphering it in the early morning light was a challenge, but the content was well worth the effort.

The title, no longer legible on the blackened cover but neatly scripted above the table of contents, read, The Sigilic and Somatic Secrets of Sorcery. Lily had never heard the word somatic before, but after a few days decoding the book, she understood that it meant something to do with hand movements for spell casting. It had been strangely thoughtful of Regulus to give the book to her, damaged and ancient as it was.

Ever since the duel at the Diggorys’ had cost her her wand, she had been working hard to use magic without one. Her memory of the Chamber of Secrets was ever-present these days. She had failed to protect Harry then, had been helpless against the diary and the basilisk without her wand. She would never let herself be that helpless again.

Lily set the book down on the tea table and focused on the pocket watch resting beside it. Locomotion Charms had always come easily to her, so it was what she had decided to start with. She bit down on her lip and focused, stretching out her hand and her mind to the watch, willing with all her might for the watch to fly into her hand.

But focus was so hard to come by, especially here in the parlour. Her mind was stretched across too many fears and too many worries. There was Harry and James, Remus and Sirius, Tonks and Picksie, Regulus and Petunia, and the Weasleys and the Prewetts and the Longbottoms and, and, and…

With a long, tired sigh, Lily picked up the pocketwatch.

The face of James’ watch was almost entirely red, with only the tiniest golden crescent on its edge, representing the last vestiges of the waning moon. The golden numerals illuminated against the bloodred backdrop showed that it was hardly past noon, and James had told her she was not allowed to panic until three.

She hated waiting. She had hated it in the first war, both waiting to be grown up enough to fight and then having to hide away from it all. Now here she was, waiting again, for James to come home and for Harry to confide in her.

At least Harry had not left Grimmauld Place yet. There was some small comfort in that.

Sirius had been by a few times, but he spent most of his time with the Tonks. In the last month, the Order had settled into something fairly stable, at least when compared to any point since Dumbledore’s death. Moody and the Diggorys were tucked away with Arabella Figg, who had a lot more room in her home since the Ministry had seized her Kneazles and revoked her breeding permit. Lily, James, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Regulus were more or less stuck in Grimmauld Place, though James and Regulus slipped out for information, using their Animagus forms when they could. Harry had offered James the Cloak, but James had refused. He had said that Apparating onto the top step was challenging enough and he didn’t want to worry about keeping the Cloak over him each time he did it.

Lily had left exactly twice, both times to check on her sister. Hestia Jones was employed as Vernon’s new secretary, so that he could still go to work and have someone watching him. Picksie and Emmeline stayed at the safehouse with Petunia and Dudley, and discussions about how to get Dudley back to school safely were growing more tense by the day.

“I thought you’d have this wrapped in a week,” Petunia had sniffed last time she was there.

“James and I spent nearly two years on the run last time.” Lily tried so hard to be patient, but she had lost patience for her sister many years ago. “It’s not like I can just wave a wand and make it all go away.”

“I still don’t understand why you can’t just do magic.”

“That’s not how magic works —”

“I mean why you can’t do magic at all. I see that — what did you say she is? An elf? — She does magic all the time. She certainly doesn’t use a wand. Must be nice to wave your hand and have the dishes clean and the beds made.”

“Elf-magic is different,” Lily had protested, but with far less energy than her earlier arguments.

Lily had bought that wand at eleven years old. Petunia had come along for that trip to Diagon Alley — her first and last trip. The Evans family had walked into Ollivander’s shop, eyes wide at the stacks of boxes lining the walls from floor to ceiling.

“I suppose we just pick one out?” her father had asked and reached for one of the boxes.

“Don’t, dear, you’ll knock them all over,” her mother had warned.

A cough had startled them, and when they had turned around, a wizened old man had limped out from the back of the shop.

“Welcome, welcome!” he had said, and surveyed each of them. “Now, which of you lovely ladies will be chosen by a wand today?”

Lily dabbed at the corner of her eye as tears welled up alongside the memory and reached for the old, damaged book. She remembered how dismissive they had all been with Remus when he had lost his wand a few years ago, and she regretted that attitude now.

Of course, were Ollivander’s shop still an option, she would have replaced her wand without hesitation. It hurt to lose the wand she had carried since childhood, but it was more painful to be utterly useless in a war that her husband and son continued to fight in. Still, she could have had more patience with Remus. It seemed that Lily was always having to learn patience, from the time she had fallen down the stairs before she could quite walk, just to keep up with Petunia, to nearly forty years later, sitting in this ancient house, waiting for James to come home.

The light in the parlour continued to shift east as Lily pored over the ancient text, read theories on how blood might channel magic as easily as a wand. It was full of pureblood drivel, which she supposed should not surprise her from a text in the Black family library, but if she could read past that, she might find what she needed to hone her wandless casting.

Despite her intense focus, the sound of a chain rattling in the doorway broke Lily’s concentration. She abandoned the book and watch and hurried down the stairs. She reached the entryway just in time to hear James murmur, “I didn’t kill you,” and the ghostly figure of Dumbledore dissolved into nothingness.

She threw her arms around him and kissed him.

“Morning, Lils,” he murmured into her cheek and kissed her back. His unshaven face was scratchy, but she didn’t complain. She was just glad to have him.

“You made it past the crowd outside.”

He grunted. “There’s about six or seven out there. Surprised they didn’t bring You-Know-Who himself. I mean, what do they expect? We’re just going to take Harry down to King’s Cross like everything’s normal? Like they aren’t out for our blood?”

“Maybe they think we don’t read the paper.”

“I wish we didn’t have to.”

Lily looked down at the rolled up paper in his hands. These days, the Daily Prophet told them at least as much as they learned from the Order, even if they had to read between the lines to understand it.

“I’m afraid to ask how things can get worse than suggesting that Harry is a murderer and rounding up Muggle-borns for questioning.”

“I don’t know if it’s worse, but…”

James waited until they were settled in the parlour to show her the front page. Lily had hardly sat down when she shot to her feet.

“Snape?” she spluttered. “How? Where’s McGonagall —”

“It certainly puts the mandatory Hogwarts attendance policy in a new light,” James said. “And the Carrows have been named as professors for Muggle Studies and Defense.”

Lily paced the parlour, unsure what to do with the rage burning in her. A Death Eater, in charge of Muggle Studies? What were the students going to learn? And what would happen to the Muggle-born students? She wondered if they would simply be separated from the others, or sent off to Azkaban.

Lightning danced between Lily’s fingertips and she itched for something to do with her hands, something to hold onto. She itched for her wand.

James leaned back into the sofa and watched her pace. His steady gaze only added to her anger.

“How can you be so calm about this?” she spluttered.

“I’m not calm,” he said evenly, “I’m absolutely furious. I keep picturing Snape sitting in the Headmaster’s office, with Dumbledore’s portrait behind him.” James paused, and she watched his fingers tap against the arm of the sofa before following the familiar path through his hair. “There’s nothing we can do, Lily. We can’t take over Hogwarts anymore than we can take over the Ministry.”

“Why not?” she snapped, fully aware of how foolish a question it was. “Why can’t we just take the Ministry back? I’ll depose Thicknesse the way I did Lockhart and Umbridge.”

She wasn’t exactly joking, but James smiled.

“Sirius asked me the same thing.”

Lily paused, her anger momentarily tempered by concern for their friends. James took advantage of her hesitation and gestured for her to sit down beside him.

She went, both willingly and reluctantly. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her against him. She could hear his heartbeat, pounding as quickly as hers.

“How is Sirius?” she asked, though saying anything that did not address her anger felt reaching down her throat to pull rocks from her stomach.

James ran a hand through his hair again and glanced out the parlour window. “Alive.” His adam’s apple bobbed and she imagined he was reining in his anger as much as she was trying to rein in hers.

“Has he done something to upset you?”

“No, not Sirius.” He bit down on his thumb. “I think you and I should visit Remus this week.”

Lily frowned. “We’ve talked about this. It isn’t safe. The Ministry is watching them, hoping Ted will come home. If they catch sight of me or Harry —”

“Remus isn’t with Tonks and Andromeda.”

“Where is he?”

“Sirius thinks he’s back with Frank and Alice, which would make sense. They have the largest space, probably are under the least suspicion, and there’s no reason for the Muggle-born Registration Commission to stop by.”

“Certainly an easier place for us to drop by,” Lily said. “But if Remus didn’t feel safe with Andromeda and Tonks, why not come here? Why not stay with us?”

James hesitated, and the way he would not look at Lily made her nervous.

“Tonks is pregnant.”

As it so often was, Lily’s first response was anger. It flared in her chest, hot and heavy. She struggled to douse it, struggled to remind herself how just an hour ago she had tasked herself with being more patient, especially with Remus. She decided that, for the moment, the best thing to do was to focus on Tonks.

“How far along?”

“In Sirius’ unprofessional, self-taught opinion? About ten weeks.”

She evaluated her anger and attempted to at least keep it out of her voice, even if she couldn’t banish it entirely. “How long has Remus known?

“He found out after the wedding. I think that the day Ted left was the day Tonks told everyone, more or less. But I’m getting all of this second hand through Sirius, and you know how dramatic he can be.”

“And we’re only just finding this out because…?”

James shrugged. “Because Sirius didn’t want us to worry? Because he hoped Remus would come to us? I didn’t ask.”

Lily was unable to hold her anger in any longer. “What is Remus thinking? Surely he remembers what it was like for us with Harry! How could he think that Tonks —”

“I don’t think he does remember,” James said, so softly that she almost missed it. “He wasn’t really there for most of it. It was Sirius and Peter who saw us most. We saw him for the New Year and… that was it.”

“So you’re defending him?”

James looked at her, and she could read quite plainly that he didn’t appreciate the jab. And in his defence, it wasn’t a fair one. Of course he understood her anger. He always did.

“He’s scared,” he said, “and I want him to know he isn’t alone. That we’ve been through this before. I think we can help.”

Lily bit down on her lip and looked down at her hands. She tried, desperately, to set aside her anger. She had never understood how James could appear so calm, even in his anger. He said it came from his mother’s etiquette lessons and from hours spent with old ladies at garden parties. Sirius had once said it was because James’ temper was a glacier, cold and smooth on its surface, but hard and unforgiving underneath.

Lily tightened her fingers in his and squeezed, as if she might take some of his coldness to abate her own fires. She needed a bit of his patience.

Last summer, she had lost her temper on Remus, and had accused him of avoiding Tonks because he was a werewolf. She had claimed to understand his fears because she was Muggle-born. And it was true that there were times she and Remus understood one another, times they both knew what it was to be an outcast. But there were also times that she had no idea what he was going through. She might brew a potion for him monthly, and she might help with his burden, but she could never bear it for him, and would never truly know what he went through.

“I know you care about him, James,” she said, “so please trust that I say this with love, not anger, but I think Remus is alone in this.”

He pulled his hand away and got to his feet. It was perhaps a harsher rejection than shouting might have been. “How can you say that? We know what it’s like —”

“We don’t, James. We’ll never know what it’s like to be Remus. We will never live with fear the way he does. I don’t know that we can help him with this.”

James shook his head. “Remus is family, Lily. He doesn’t get to do this alone.”

“When Remus is ready to talk to us, he will.”

“He’s too stubborn for that.” He ran his hands through his hair and let out a slow, deep breath. “Do you remember why we only saw Remus a few times during the first war?”

“He was doing missions for Dumbledore. We were on the run. He and Sirius weren’t speaking. It was an unfortunate constellation, but there was nothing we could do about it.”

“But this time we could do something about it.”

Lily picked at the hem of her skirt, rearranging it and flattening it unnecessarily. But it was easier to look at her skirt than to look at James. “Do you remember what I said to you last time, when you asked why we couldn’t spend more time with Remus?”

James was quiet. She wondered if it was stubborn anger or reluctant acceptance. She risked a glance at him, but his hard face didn’t give her any clues.

The door creaked, startling Lily. She searched her pocket instinctively for her wand before remembering she no longer carried one.

Though James, too, reached for his wand, neither of them needed it. It was only Harry who pushed the door open.

His dark hair was tousled and his eyes tired, but he smiled at them. “Dad, I thought you were out for the Order today.”

“Just for the morning,” James said. “You have me for the rest of the day.”

“Oh — that’s perfect then.” Harry glanced between them. “Er — is everything alright?”

There was only the briefest hesitation. “Of course,” James smiled, “well, except for what’s in The Prophet but that’s never good news.”

Harry eyed the paper on the tea table. “Is that Snape on the front page? I expect he hasn’t been arrested, or the two of you wouldn’t look so murderous.”

James looked to Lily, as if he were asking her permission to share their conversation, or perhaps he was asking her to do it for him.

“Why don’t we all take lunch together,” Lily suggested. “Bad news goes down better with food.”

“Yeah,” Harry said, eyes still on the paper. “Ron, Hermione, and I have something to share with you, too.”

Lily’s eyebrows shot up and her heart leapt, too. She was afraid to hope, but hope came anyway.

“Food sounds excellent,” James said. “I’ve been out since before the sun and would love a bite to eat.”

“I’ll find Regulus,” said Lily. “I’m sure he’ll want to hear our news, too.”

The current residents of Grimmauld Place reconvened in the kitchen beneath the house. It was cooler down here, which made it the most popular room in the house — or it had been, before Hermione’s library had taken over the table.

She had stacked up several of her rune dictionaries to make space for food. Rolls of parchment were piled on one side, along with a quill and ink. Lily cast a cursory glance over the notes, but she didn’t glean anything unusual in them, nor any clues about what Harry wanted to share with her and James.

While James helped Kreacher in the kitchen, Lily gave everyone the good news of Tonks’ pregnancy and the bad news of Snape’s promotion.

As Ron and Harry protested, Hermione snatched the paper from Lily. Her lips trembled as she read.

“They won’t stand for this,” Ron said. “McGonagall and Flitwick and Sprout — they were all there with us. There’s no way they’ll accept Snape as —”

Hermione shot to her feet. “I’ll be right back.” And she disappeared upstairs. Ron watched her go with raised eyebrows.

Harry pulled the article towards him. “The Carrows?” Their name dripped from his mouth like poison.

“Who’re they?” Ron asked.

“They were there when Snape killed Dumbledore,” Harry said through gritted teeth. “They’re teaching Defense and Muggle Studies? How could anyone let this happen?”

“No one let it happen, Harry.” Lily hoped her words were comforting.

“No,” Regulus said, “someone certainly did. Every time someone let a comment about Muggle-borns go unchecked, even the harmless ones, they let this happen. Every time someone was allowed to separate and divide, to ignore truth, they let this happen.”

His words hung in the air as thickly as the smell of cooking sausage, and Lily didn’t quite know what to say. All of them, even her, must have let a comment slide once or twice. Ignored for pride, or to keep peace. Regulus, with his background, was likely the worst offender of them all.

Hermione broke the uncomfortable silence by running in, out of breath, and lugging a portrait half her size.

Regulus got to his feet. “What are you doing?”

Hermione pulled her beaded bag off the table and put it on the floor. With some difficulty, she placed the corner of the empty painting inside the bag and began to push. “I had only just remembered,” she said. And though it took some doing, the painting disappeared into her bag.

“Phineas Nigellus,” she explained. “He was a Headmaster at Hogwarts, and Snape could use him to spy on us. But let him try it now and all he’ll get is the inside of my handbag.” She sat back down at the table with a rather smug smile on her face.

Regulus stared at her with an open mouth. Finally, he said, “Surely a curtain would have sufficed.”

“He’d still be able to hear us.”

“But — you can’t just take the portrait —”

“I’ll return it when Snape’s no longer Headmaster.”

Regulus glanced around the table, and perhaps sensed he had no support in this fight. He sank back into his seat and looked down at his lap. Lily thought he looked rather like a sulking toddler.

“What did you want to tell us, Harry?” James asked, as he and Kreacher set out plates.

Lily was glad that he asked. She had been restraining her curiosity, afraid her eagerness might make Harry change his mind.

Harry and Hermione exchanged a look.

“I still think it’s a bad idea,” Hermione said. “He’ll be expecting us to go there!”

“That’s why we’re inviting them,” said Ron.

“Inviting us where?” Lily asked.

“We think —” Harry started, and Hermione coughed. Harry rolled his eyes. “I think it would be a good idea to visit Godric’s Hollow.”

Lily frowned. “Whatever for?”

“Dumbledore grew up there. And it’s the place I first defeated — well, Peter did, I mean, but he thinks it was me — and I think there might be something important there.”

James raised an eyebrow. “You think You-Know-Who left something in Godric’s Hollow.”

“Maybe. Or Dumbledore did.”

Lily pursed her lips. “But you won’t tell us what you’re looking for.”

“I don’t even want to tell you that we’re going,” Harry said, “but Hermione thinks it would be better if we had the Order with us.”

“I think it would be best not to go at all,” Hermione corrected. “I think You-Know-Who is waiting for us to show up there and it’s dangerous, but I’ve been outvoted.”

“You’ve agreed to a compromise,” Ron said. “The compromise is we bring backup.”

Lily looked over the three of them in search of any clues about the quest they had been handed. It hurt that it had not been Harry’s idea to involve her and James, but she was grateful for the chance to protect him.

“When did you want to go?” James asked.

“Tomorrow,” said Harry. “The sooner we go, the less time the Death Eaters have to prepare, if it is somewhere that they expect us to explore.”

James stared down at his breakfast, and Lily knew that he was thinking of Remus. She reached over and squeezed his hand.

Years ago, when Harry was only days old, James had asked why they couldn’t make the brief outing to see Remus.

“I’m worried about him,” James had whispered, afraid to wake the baby in his arms.

“Remus is an adult,” Lily had whispered back. “He can take care of himself. Harry’s the one who needs us. Harry comes first.”

Now, Harry was an adult, but he still needed them. And as long as Harry needed them, for however much longer that might be, Harry would come first.

“Of course we’ll go with you, Harry,” said James. “I wish you’d tell us a bit more about what we’re expecting to find.”

“I wish we knew a bit more about what we’re supposed to find,” Ron snorted.

“I still think this plan is foolish and unnecessary,” Regulus said. “But I have given you my opinion on where you should be looking, and I will not repeat it.”

“But you’ll come with us,” Harry said.

Regulus looked down at the Daily Prophet and avoided Harry’s gaze. “I think I would be better served pursuing other avenues,” Regulus said. “You are not the only one who was given a task to do.”

“We would appreciate the backup,” Lily said, as James, simultaneously said, “We can take Remus instead.”

Lily took a moment to weigh her anger against her compassion. She had vowed to be more patient, after all. “If Remus will come,” she said, “I know I’d be glad to have him.”

“Remus would be good back up,” Harry said, and turned to Regulus, “but that doesn’t mean you can’t come, too.”

Regulus folded up the newspaper and got to his feet. “I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to join you. Thank you for the news.”

As soon as Regulus had gone, Ron shook his head. “Why does he do that?”

“He’s always been like this,” James said. “I suppose when you grow up with Sirius, you learn very quickly to choose your battles carefully, and that the easiest thing is to walk away before an argument even starts.”

Lily did not understand why Harry leaned so heavily on Regulus, who seemed no more supportive than a two-legged stool, yet refused to lean on her and James. But she held her tongue. Lashing out at Harry would not work — had not worked. She drummed her fingers against the table. “If the five of us are going to —”

“Six,” James corrected.

She sighed. “— Six if Remus comes — are going to leave here tomorrow, we’ll need to be very well prepared.”

“Harry should be under the Cloak,” James said. “If we’re discovered, you’ll be protected.”

Harry shook his head. “I won’t run —”

“You’re no good to us or the Order dead.” James’ voice was firm and unflinching, though Lily’s stomach twisted at his words. “If we’re caught, you run. You can always arrange an Azkaban breakout later.”

Harry glared at James, but Lily did not think that Harry could win this fight. She remembered being seventeen, facing down a war and swearing to die beside her friends. She had not been much older than Harry was now when she had stood between Voldemort and Harry’s cradle. She had nearly died to protect Harry. And then what would have happened? Voldemort would have killed her, only to kill Harry?

A wave of sorrow crashed over her for a brief moment, as she realised how unfair it was for Harry to live the very life she and James had fought to protect him from. She took in a deep breath to steel herself.

“It’s a hard lesson to learn, Harry,” she said, “but sometimes you need to run.”

“You should be under the Cloak,” he said. “You don’t even have a wand.”

It was so tempting to rise to Harry’s temper. She swallowed down her frustration, reminded herself of the many, many times she had admonished Sirius for meeting Harry’s anger with anger.

“I’ll be fine without one,” she said, in as even a tone as she could manage. “You’re the one they want, and we’ll all be safer if they don’t know you’re with us.”

Harry’s fierce glare shifted between her and James.

“Fine,” Harry snapped. “I’ll wear the Cloak.”

It was a small concession. It wasn’t everything Lily wanted. It wasn’t secrets and answers, but it was something. It was a promise that Harry would do his best to stay safe. It was a promise that Harry would live.

“We’ll leave at dawn, then,” said James. “I’ll get word to Frank and Alice to expect us shortly before that. You can all be ready to leave as soon as I get back with Remus?”

Hermione, Ron, and Harry all nodded.

“I’m coming with you,” Lily said.

She could see in his eyes that he wanted to protest, but she returned his stubborn gaze. She was not going to sit here and hide. She was tired of waiting. Besides, he was the one who had said they should both talk with Remus.

James’ shoulders slumped. “Fine.”

Hermione packed her books and parchment back into her bag while Harry and Ron did the dishes. The house was quiet, a sort of quiet Lily remembered from the first war, a familiar calm before the storm.

Despite the quiet, she did not feel especially well-rested when she and James stepped out of Grimmauld Place in the dark hours of the morning. She surveyed the park across the street and the few streetlamps illuminating the walkways.

“How many do you think are out there?” she whispered as he took her hand.

James followed her gaze and grimaced. “Hopefully less than half of what there was this morning. And hopefully less where we’re going.” He squeezed her hand. “We’ll have to be quick when we arrive. Are you ready?”

She nodded and together, they Disapparated.

The magic pulled on her body, collapsing her into James and unfolding her in a single breath. Her feet hit the ground and she had hardly gotten her bearings when James hurriedly pushed her inside a large iron gate then down near the attached wall. She crouched low against the stone as footsteps pounded up the path behind them.

“I heard someone Apparate!” a voice shouted.

Lily held her breath and wished her heart would stop pounding. She was afraid it would give her away.

“There’s nothing here,” someone else said.

A light swept over the pathway, inches from James’ feet. She couldn’t exactly fault him for being unable to draw his ungainly legs up against the brick as tightly as she had drawn hers, but if his tall form was going to be the thing that got them into a duel tonight, she might have some words for her younger self and her fixation on lanky men.

“The gate’s still shut,” the second one said. The light swept away from the house and their hiding place. “Maybe they ran off that way.”

James and Lily listened as the footsteps faded away. They waited until the night was silent once more to even breathe.

James stood and pulled Lily to her feet.

“How did we get in without opening the gate?” she whispered.

“Alice Transfigured a couple of the bars to be flexible,” James replied, voice barely audible.

James Muffled their footsteps as they walked the rest of the way up to the house. Instead of approaching the large red doors, however, James led Lily along the side of the house to a back entrance. He knocked twice, paused and knocked a third time.

Lily did not even have time to register who opened the door when she was yanked inside and drawn into a hug.

“Oh!” Alice squealed, high-pitched but restrained, as she squeezed Lily. “I’m so glad you’re alright.”

Lily smiled and hugged her back. “It’s good to see you, too.” Though she couldn’t see much; it was as dark inside as it was outside.

“Is Frank here?” James asked.

“He should be home soon. He took a late shift so he could see Neville off to Hogwarts yesterday.”

Lily may not have been able to see the worry on Alice’s face, but she could hear it plainly. “You let him go?” she asked.

“Neville was rather insistent, especially when he saw the paper.” Alice took Lily’s hand and pulled her through the dark room and down a corridor where there was at least light coming from a sitting room, though Alice did not take them into the room. “He said he wouldn’t let us risk our positions at the Ministry. Said we were too valuable to the Order. He’s a good one. I don’t think Frank and I deserve him.”

“Neville will be alright,” James assured her.

“Of course he will,” Alice said. “He’s my son, after all.”

Even in the dim light, the pride etched into Alice’s sadness was clear. Lily wondered if Neville knew just how much his parents adored him.

“Remus is upstairs,” Alice said. “I’d keep your wands dim as you go up, though. The last thing we need is to give the Ministry an excuse to search us.”

Lily imagined an unexplained light sweeping over a curtain was the exact sort of excuse the Ministry could use to barge into the Longbottoms’ home. At least the Longbottoms had some pretext of protection.

She clung to James’ hand, trusting him to guide her through the dark, and trailed her other hand along the wall until they reached the entryway to the Longbottoms’ home and the grand staircase that led up.

“I assume you know where we’re going?” she whispered.

James didn’t answer, or he nodded and she didn’t see it in the darkness, but he did lead her upstairs, to the right, and down another corridor. James knocked softly on the door.

It creaked open and Remus’ voice, full of bitter and melancholy, greeted them. “Alice mentioned you were coming by.”

Lily swallowed down a sarcastic, “Good to see you, too,” and followed James inside without comment. She heard the rustle of curtains, then a small light, no brighter than a match, appeared in the center of the room. It was dim, but after so long in pure darkness, Lily had to blink to adjust to it.

In the low light, Lily could make out the scant furniture of Remus’ room: the shadow of a bed and a bedside table, a heavy curtain pulled closed over the window, and the tall dark shape of a wardrobe. Next to the wardrobe, Remus’ trunk sat open, its contents spilling out of it in messy piles.

James took a seat on the floor by the wardrobe and Lily slipped into the space between him and the trunk. There was something about the darkness, the small room, and the secrecy that reminded her of being teenagers again, sneaking around behind professors and prefects, but this time the fear of being caught did not provide excitement like it had then. This time the fear was overwhelming.

As Remus joined them on the floor, the light lowered until it, too, rested on the rug.

After a moment where no one spoke, Remus said, “I know what you’re here to say, so say it and go.”

Lily bit down on her tongue. She wanted nothing more than to tell Remus how of course she wanted to be with Harry, how she had tried to talk James out of this visit because Harry came first, and that Remus ought to take a page out of their book and show the same devotion to his own child, but she didn’t. She took in a deep breath and decided to let James do most of the talking.

But James hesitated, almost as if he had been relying on Lily’s temper to start the conversation. When she didn’t start, he said, “I guess if you know what we’re going to say, we don’t need to say it. So why don’t you tell us why you’re here.”

Remus kept his eyes on the closed curtains, almost like he was watching for light or movement. But the moon was dark tonight. The low light in the room cast harsh shadows across his face, and his scars stood out in sharp relief, shimmering silver lines across his nose.

When Remus finally spoke, his voice was faint and raw. “You were there, at the World Cup. You were there in Azkaban. You’ve witnessed hundreds of transformations. You’ve had at least a glimpse of what it’s like. You tell me what I deserve, for giving that life to someone else.”

Lily’s temper flared, hot and bright. She bit down on her tongue and steeled herself against it. She turned her words over in her head, tumbled the rocks of her anger in the waves of her compassion until their edges were smooth, until she was certain that she could speak without sharpness.

Finally, she said, “No one deserves to be a parent. No one deserves the power to give life so freely, to have such control over another human being. None of us are perfect, and we will inevitably pass our flaws on no matter how hard we try to instill our graces. I also know that it isn’t an easy job to do alone. When you proposed to Tonks —”

“I didn’t.” Remus ran a hand over his face. “She asked me because she knew she was pregnant. She didn’t even want to get married, she never wanted any of this…”

“You know that isn’t true.” Though James’ words were soft, his tone was firm. “We’ve all agreed that Tonks is pack now. She’s family.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out two small gold rings. He slid them across the floor and to Remus.

“Before your dad arrived and ruined our plan, Sirius had me make these. The inscription was his idea, though I did the Charm work myself. I never was as good as you at getting the Call-And-Response Charm to work, so it’s a bit simpler than your handiwork on the map.”

Remus looked down at the golden rings. They were nothing but plain bands, with no indication of magic or intrigue.

“What’s the incantation?” Remus asked.

“You’ll figure it out,” James said.

Lily took in a deep breath and tried to mimic James’ gentleness. “You said that James has had a glimpse at what things are like for you. If your child is like you, don’t you want them raised by someone who knows what they’re going through? Don’t you want to make sure that they don’t have to feel alone?”

“She has a point,” said James. “You can’t expect your kid will get lucky enough to find school mates willing to break Wizarding law just to turn themselves into Animagi out of sheer arrogance.”

If it was supposed to make Remus laugh, it didn’t work. If it was supposed to make him cry, James came very close. His lips trembled and he pressed them into a firm line. He blinked a few times and managed to compose himself before the tears could quite fall. Lily couldn’t help feeling a little jealous of how even his voice sounded when he spoke again.

“You don’t think I made the wrong choice, choosing Tonks?”

Lily did not know how to answer. She looked at James, who kept a steady gaze on his hands as he twisted his wedding band around his finger.

“You know I can’t answer that for you,” he finally said. “No one can. But if you’re that worried about it, talk to her. Talk to both of them. Don’t shut yourself away like this. We’re family, Remus, all of us.”

The silence in the wake of James’ words was heavy, but Lily hoped it was a good sort of heavy. She was proud of herself for not losing her temper, and proud of James for listening to Remus, rather than pushing for solutions — a flaw she and James both struggled with, especially when dealing with Remus and Sirius, who more often than not just needed to be heard.

When it was clear that Remus had nothing more to say, Lily decided it was appropriate to change the subject, and she recounted Harry’s request to Remus.

The melancholy on Remus’ face faded slowly as she spoke, giving way to worry and confusion. “Why Godric’s Hollow?” he asked.

“He said Dumbledore’s left something there,” James said, “or You-Know-Who has. They aren’t entirely sure, and wouldn’t say more, but they’re involving us, so that’s progress.”

Remus rubbed his jaw and stared down at the small light between them. “You haven’t any idea what they’re looking for?”

“None.” James ran a hand through his hair. “I still don’t know why Dumbledore would keep anything from us… or Harry, either.”

There was pain in his voice, so disparate from the bitterness that Lily felt towards Dumbledore. She took his hand and squeezed it. She was angry with Dumbledore for this secret, and angry with Harry for choosing to keep it. James, however, was hurt, more than she truly understood.

“I suppose it’s possible there’s some clue left behind in the wreckage,” Remus murmured. “Didn’t the Ministry scour it pretty thoroughly?”

“I couldn’t care less what the Ministry has or hasn’t done,” Lily snapped, grateful to have an appropriate outlet for her anger. “Besides, I’m sure Harry, Ron and Hermione know to look for something the Ministry doesn’t.”

“You’ll come with us, won’t you?” James asked.

Remus nodded, though his gaze was still distant, still puzzling over the plan. Perhaps James was right to invite Remus, to give him something to do other than wallow in misery and self-loathing. Maybe this was the best way to nudge Remus back to his friends. Certainly it would be more effective than a sanctimonious outburst from her.

Lily stood. “We’ll let you get together what you need, then.”

She and James left Remus to gather what little he had, but before the door closed, blocking out all light, Lily caught sight of James’ small smile. It was the same fond smile he had given her during an Herbology class in their sixth year, when she had excitedly announced that her Flitterby bush was blooming. It was the smile that had finally convinced her that she was officially in love, though it would take her a few more months to admit it to anyone else. It was full of pride and love, the sort of smile Lily wanted nothing more than to kiss.

So she did.

He laughed softly as her mouth touched his, and he broke the kiss but pressed his forehead against hers. “Thank you,” he whispered, “not just for being patient with Remus but for understanding why I needed to bring him with us.”

“I imagine Sirius already did most of the scolding,” she said. “I was happy to just listen.”

This time he kissed her, and laughed too.

When Remus was ready — he did not have much in the way of things to pack — they whispered good-byes to Alice.

They left by the door they had come through and crept around the house with muffled footsteps. It was difficult to see with no moon to light their way; they had only the faintest grey on the eastern horizon and the occasional light of a fairy drifting from one bush to another to mark the path.

They stopped as they reached the gate. James easily found the pliant iron bars, and once he had, he helped Lily through.

They moved more slowly this time, choosing caution over speed, and trusting silence and the darkness to protect them. Lily would regret that choice for the rest of her life.

Remus was halfway through the gate when Lily heard footsteps coming up the path again. She turned, unsure if she should shove Remus back or yank him through. There was no time for a decision as a light landed on the three of them and someone shouted, “There!”

A red spark would have struck Lily in the chest if she hadn’t stepped to the side.

Remus cursed as he reached for his wand and stumbled out of the gate. He drew just in time to put up a Shield Charm, providing cover for James. Two charms crashed into it, the sound loud against the otherwise silent night.

Their attackers were running towards them now, and it was not a question of whether Remus’ Shield could withstand their blows, but a question of if they could Disapparate in time.

Lily grabbed James’ hands and pulled him through the gate.

“Remus!” She clung to James with one hand and reached for Remus with the other.

The shield dropped and Remus grabbed her hand. She felt herself fold into James as he Disapparated the three of them, her body compressing with the familiar pressure — and then an unfamiliar pressure struck her.

She didn’t have time to realise what was happening until they reappeared on the top step of Grimmauld Place and she saw that one of their assailants had grabbed her leg at the last minute.

She kicked the man in the face, dislodging him and sending him backwards down the stairs.

“Oh no,” she gasped, as a pair of cloaked Death Eaters emerged from the park across the street.

“They’re there!” the man shouted and pointed. “They’re —”

“Silencio,” Remus whispered, and the man’s words died in his throat.

“That won’t buy us enough time,” James hissed, wand already pressed to the door, undoing the locks.

“I’ll buy you time,” Remus said.

Lily grabbed his arm. “No — if you’re caught —”

The door swung open and James pushed Remus and Lily inside. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Finite!” one of the Death Eaters shouted.

“No!” Lily shouted, reaching for James’ hand to pull him inside.

“There!” the man shouted. “Can’t you see them? They’re still standing on the steps of number twelve!”

“It can’t be you or Remus.” James pulled his hand away and Lily choked down a sob. “Take Harry and go.”

The thick black door closed, and Lily hardly felt the Tongue-Tying Curse wash over her. She was already choking, already fighting down every piece of rage and sorrow that surged within her.

If someone had asked her an hour ago what James had said to her on that Halloween night sixteen years ago, she might have been able to guess, but hearing it again in his voice, in the same anxious pitch, triggered the memory of that night as clearly as if she had fallen into a Pensieve. Her chest was tight and her breath came in short spasms, but his words also spurred her into action.

She ignored the distorted, ghostly image of Dumbledore rushing towards her, and left for Remus to deal with. She passed right through it and mounted the stairs two at a time. She threw open the door to Ron, Harry, and Hermione’s room.

“We’re going, now!” she shouted.

“What’s happened?” Ron asked. He was only half-dressed and hastily pulled a shirt over his head. “I thought we had said dawn —”

“Death Eaters are here.”

That got them moving.

She leaned over the bannister and shouted down to Remus, “Have you seen Regulus?”

“He was in the study,” Remus said. “He’s taking Kreacher.”

Lily cursed. Of course the house-elf would have been the easiest way out and of course Regulus would take Kreacher for himself, rather than offering all of them the quick Apparition trip. Then again, maybe it was for the best. Kreacher might intentionally Splinch any one of them.

“Kitchen window?” Remus suggested.

Lily’s lips trembled and she looked back over her shoulder. Harry had his glasses on and was pulling the Cloak over his shoulders as Hermione fumbled with her beaded bag.

“Follow Remus to the kitchen,” she told them.

“Mum —”

But Lily was already running down the stairs. She crashed into the wall, knocking over a portrait and waking up Walburga. Lily ignored the screams and hurried for the door.

She didn’t know what she was going to do. She didn’t have a wand. She couldn’t do as much as lift a pocket watch.

As Lily wrenched the door open, she recalled the author’s words on intention and focus being the keys to casting, which she also remembered from her studies in Charms. When casting, she had always envisioned what she wanted to happen. The book had suggested there was a need greater than the effect of magic. She needed to picture the cause.

James had not gone far; he defended the bottom of the steps valiantly. Though he had never been able to produce a sizeable Shield Charm the way she and Remus could, he was quicker than either of them, able to deflect and return fire with an admirable accuracy. A red spark shot towards his left, and he stepped aside while returning fire with a matching curse. His target crumpled into the pavement.

Lily was not going to be helpless. She focused on her magic, on the spark inside of her, on the things she felt when she cast — anger, love, fear, and joy, the things that filled her and fueled her. She imagined her magic sparking in her fingertips, like flint igniting tinder. She focused on that power, on that fire, and stretched her hand out to the nearest Death Eater.

There was a loud bang and he stumbled backwards, robes ignited. The flames were easily doused by the Death Eater’s partner, but it gave James the time to Stun them both.

He turned back to her with his eyes full of wonder and a stupid grin on his face.

“Have I ever told you how amazing you are?”

“Maybe once or twice,” she smiled.

“Where’s Harry?”

“I’m right here.” Harry pulled the Cloak down, and Lily jumped.

“Merlin, Harry, I told you to go with Remus —”

“You ran off without a wand, Mum. I wasn’t going to let you fight alone!”

James sighed. “Harry, you promised us you’d run if —”

“Incarcerous!”

Lily had not seen the Death Eater recover from James’ Stunner, but she saw the ropes spring from his wand and yank James down into the pavement. He hit the ground with a crack and she stretched her hand out to —

To what?

She did not have the accuracy needed to free James. She could perhaps Conjure an explosion, blast the Death Eater away —

The Death Eater rolled up his sleeve revealing a bright red brand on the inside of his forearm. He grinned at her — no, not at her, at Harry — as he pressed his wand tip to it and the brand turned black.

What was it she had said to James all those years ago?

Harry comes first.

She did not know if it would work without a wand, but she did not know what choice she had. She wrapped her arms around Harry, closed her eyes, and focused on her destination: Godric’s Hollow.

#lily evans #lily potter #harry potter and the deathly hallows #harry potter everyone lives #hp everyone lives #everyone lives au #hp fic #dh

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twoidiotwriters1 · 4 years

Text

Written In The Stars XLI (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: Last chapter, time flies when you’re having fun :’) Part one of book three coming this thursday uwu

Words: 4,548

Warnings: None!

Series’ Masterlist

Previous Chapter // Book III

Chapter Twenty-Three: New Discoveries.

She was definitely not expecting to see so many people inside the office.

Mrs and Mr Weasley got up and trapped Ginny in a tight hug, both of them crying happily at the sight of the daughter they thought was lost forever.

Dumbledore's eyes were fixed on her and Harry, and he was smiling brightly at them. Fawkes flew away from her shoulder only to sit on Dumbledore's.

She was suddenly in the middle of a bear hug with Ron and Harry, Mrs Weasley leaving the tiniest space for them to breathe.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"

"I think we'd all like to know that," said Professor McGonagall with a shaky voice.

Mrs. Weasley let go of Harry, who hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the desk and laid upon it the Sorting Hat, the rub-encrusted sword, and what remained of Riddle's diary.

Then he started telling them everything. For nearly a quarter of an hour he spoke into the rapt silence: He told them about hearing the disembodied voice, how Hermione had finally realized that he was hearing a basilisk in the pipes; how he, Mel, and Ron had followed the spiders into the forest, that Aragog had told them where the last victim of the basilisk had died; how he had guessed that Moaning Myrtle had been the victim, and that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might be in her bathroom...

All sounded way more impressive than how it really was, most of what they knew was by pure luck and guessings, but altogether, they sounded better than any of Lockhart's books.

"Very well," Professor McGonagall breathed heavily, "so you found out where the entrance was- breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way, I might add- but how on earth did you all get out of there alive, Potter?"

Harry continued though his voice was growing tired, by the time he reached the part where the diary had somehow something to do with the whole thing, he stopped, giving a nervous glance to Ginny and then going back to Dumbledore, who only smiled as a reply.

Harry was hiding something, the thing that connected Ginny and the diary with the rest of the story, she just couldn't tell exactly what it was.

"What interests me most," Dumbledore said, "is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania."

"What?" Mel turned to look at her uncle in disbelief, "Voldemort?"

"W- what's that?" said Mr. Weasley. "YouKnow-Who? En-enchant Ginny? But Ginny's not... Ginny hasn't been... has she?"

"It was this diary," said Harry, giving the book to Dumbledore. "Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen..."

The man took the book and examined it, Mel saw the same strange glint in his eyes she'd seen a year back when she mentioned her bursts of magic to him.

"Brilliant," he said. "Of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen. Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts. He disappeared after leaving the school, traveled far and wide... sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognizable. Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here."

"But Ginny," said Mrs. Weasley. "What's our Ginny got to do with -with... him?"

"His diary," Ginny cried. "I've b-been writing in it, and he's been w-writing back all year..."

"Ginny!" said Mr. Weasley. "Haven't I taught you anything. What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain? Why didn't you show the diary to me or your mother? A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic"

"I d-didn't know," sobbed Ginny. "I found it inside one of the books Mum got me. I t-thought someone had just left it in there and forgotten about it..."

"Miss Weasley should go up to the hospital wing right away," Dumbledore interrupted. "This has been a terrible ordeal for her. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort. Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up... You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice- I daresay the basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment."

"Hermione!" Mel blurted out in excitement.

Dumbledore walked up to the door and opened it so the Weasleys could go.

"She's okay!" said Ron brightly, his mind on their friend.

"There has been no lasting harm done, Ginny," nodded Dumbledore.

The girl and her parents disappeared through the door, then the man looked back at McGonagall.

"You know, Minerva, I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?"

"Right," said McGonagall, already going out. "I'll leave you to deal with Potter, Dumbledore, and Weasley, shall I?"

"Certainly," said Dumbledore.

They glanced at each other nervously, not knowing what that meant.

"I seem to remember telling you both that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules," said Dumbledore. "Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words. You will receive Special Awards for Services to the School and- let me see- yes, I think two hundred points apiece for Gryffindor."

She sat heavily on the nearest chair, shaking from weariness and relief.

"But one of us seems to be keeping mightily quiet about his part in this dangerous adventure," Dumbledore added, she looked up to see he was talking about Lockhart. "Why so modest, Gilderoy?"

"Professor Dumbledore," Ron piped up, "there was an accident down in the Chamber of Secrets. Professor Lockhart-"

"Am I a professor?" said Lockhart. "Goodness. I expect I was hopeless, was I?"

Mel laughed, catching the man's attention.

"You were," She smiled, "but you know, we worked with what we had, I like to think that we were smart enough"

"You certainly look clever," The man agreed innocently.

Ron snorted, trying to hide his amusement with a cough.

"He tried to do a Memory Charm and the wand backfired," The boy explained quietly to Dumbledore.

"Dear me," said Dumbledore, shaking his head. "Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy!"

"Sword?" Lockhart tilted his head. "Haven't got a sword. That boy has, though. He'll lend you one."

"Would you mind taking Professor Lockhart up to the infirmary, too?" Dumbledore said to Ron. "Id like a few more words with Harry and Mel..."

Ron obeyed, but not before throwing a curious glance over his shoulder as he walked out of the room.

"Sit down, Harry," He pointed to the chair next to Mel. The boy obliged. "First of all, Harry, I want to thank you. You must have shown me real loyalty down in the Chamber. Nothing but that could have called Fawkes to you."

Mel glance at Fawkes, the bird was sitting on Dumbledore's knee, comfortably leaning his tiny head against her uncle's hand.

"And so you met Tom Riddle," said Dumbledore. "I imagine he was most interested in you..."

She felt her heart race, she remembered what'd happened during her time in the chamber, the... vision she'd had, should she mention it?

"Professor Dumbledore... Riddle said I'm like him. Strange likenesses, he said..."

"Did he, now?" said Dumbledore. "And what do you think, Harry?"

"I don't think I'm like him!" Harry said, so abruptly that manage to bring her back from her thoughts. "I mean, I'm- I'm in Gryffindor, I'm..."

He glanced at Mel, and she understood he was anxious about telling his worries in front of her. She offered a hand for him to hold, Harry took it with uncertainty.

"Professor," He looked back at the old wizard. "The Sorting Hat told me I'd- I'd have done well in Slytherin. Everyone thought I was Slytherin's heir for a while... because I can speak Parseltongue..."

"You can speak Parseltongue, Harry," explained Dumbledore, "because Lord Voldemort- who is the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin- can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar. Not something he intended to do, I'm sure..."

"Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?" Harry said, his hand closed tighter around hers, but she didn't mind.

"It certainly seems so."

"So I should be in Slytherin," He lamented. "The Sorting Hat could see Slytherin's power in me, and it --"

"Put you in Gryffindor," said Dumbledore. "Listen to me, Harry. You happen to have many qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students. His own very rare gift, Parseltongue -resourcefulness - determination- a certain disregard for rules... Yet the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor. You know why that was. Think."

"It only put me in Gryffindor," said Harry in a defeated voice, "because I asked not to go in Slytherin..."

"Exactly. Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. If you want proof, Harry, that you belong in Gryffindor, I suggest you look more closely at this."

He handed the shiny sword back to Harry, he let go of her hand in order to take the sword and examine it carefully, she peered over his shouder to see it better. There was a name engraved below the hilt.

'Godric Gryffindor'

"Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the hat, Harry," said Dumbledore simply.

Mel looked up from the sword and into Dumbledore's eyes. She had her brows knit together and wanted so badly to express her thoughts, yet she couldn't. It was about things that neither harry or he knew, and she didn't know how to express them. Still, Dumbledore was a great wizard for a reason, he knew Mel wanted to speak privately.

"What you need, Harry, is some food and sleep. I suggest you go down to the feast, while I write to Azkaban- we need our gamekeeper back. And I must draft an advertisement for the Daily Prophet, too," He said, deep in thought. "We'll be needing a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher... Dear me, we do seem to run through them, don't we?"

Harry stood up and waited for Mel.

"Oh, I'm staying- I need... I need to talk about- some things" She stammered.

"Okay," Harry eyed her carefully, but he started to leave without asking more questions.

Lucius Malfoy burst into the room looking furious.

Mel stood up immediately.

"Good evening, Lucius," said Dumbledore.

Mel noticed the man wasn't alone, a small figured walked in behind him, something that looked exactly like Harry had said Dobby looked like. The elf bent down and kept polishing the man's shoes, Mel'd never seen such a sorrowful creature.

"So!" Malfoy said "You've come back. The governors suspended you, but you still saw fit to return to Hogwarts."

"Well, you see, Lucius," said Dumbledore, smiling serenely, "the other eleven governors contacted me today. It was something like being caught in a hailstorm of owls, to tell the truth. They'd heard that Arthur Weasley's daughter had been killed and wanted me back here at once. They seemed to think I was the best man for the job after all. Very strange tales they told me, too... Several of them seemed to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they didn't agree to suspend me in the first place."

Mr. Malfoy went even paler than usual, but his eyes were still slits of fury.

"So -- have you stopped the attacks yet?" he sneered. "Have you caught the culprit?"

"We have," said Dumbledore, with a smile.

"Well?" said Mr. Malfoy sharply. "Who is it?"

"The same person as last time, Lucius," said Dumbledore. "But this time, Lord Voldemort was acting through somebody else. By means of this diary."

Mel moved over to Harry's side, watching the scene attentively.

Dumbledore held up the small black book with the large hole through the center, watching Mr. Malfoy closely. Harry, however, was watching Dobby, so she did as well.

The elf was doing something very odd. His great eyes fixed meaningfully on Harry, he kept pointing at the diary, then at Mr. Malfoy, and then hitting himself hard on the head with his fist.

Dobby was confessing. She remembered what Ginny had said, that she'd found the book with the rest of her books- the same day she'd gotten her school books Lucius Malfoy and Mr Weasley had fought inside the library, Malfoy had even examined Ginny's book.

This was Malfoy's fault.

"I see..." said Mr. Malfoy slowly to Dumbledore.

"A clever plan," said Dumbledore in a level voice, still staring Mr. Malfoy straight in the eye. "Because if Harry here," Mr. Malfoy shot Harry a swift, sharp look, "and my niece, along with Ron- hadn't discovered this book- Ginny Weasley might have taken all the blame. No one would ever have been able to prove she hadn't acted of her own free will..."

Mr. Malfoy said nothing. His face was suddenly masklike.

"And imagine," Dumbledore went on, "what might have happened then... The Weasleys are one of our most prominent pureblood families. Imagine the effect on Arthur Weasley and his Muggle Protection Act, if his own daughter was discovered attacking and- killing Muggleborns... Very fortunate the diary was discovered, and Riddle's memories wiped from it. Who knows what the consequences might have been otherwise..."

Mr. Malfoy forced himself to speak. "Very fortunate," he said stiffly.

"Don't you want to know how Ginny got hold of that diary, Mr. Malfoy?" said Harry suddenly.

"How should I know how the stupid little girl got hold of it?" he said.

"Because you gave it to her," Harry said sternly. "In Flourish and Blotts. You picked up her old Transfiguration book and slipped the diary inside it, didn't you?"

Mel looked at her friend with wide eyes, not believing that Harry was daring enough to say it aloud.

"Prove it," Malfoy hissed.

"Oh, no one will be able to do that," said Dumbledore, smiling at Harry. "Not now that Riddle has vanished from the book. On the other hand, I would advise you, Lucius, not to go giving out any more of Lord Voldemort's old school things. If any more of them find their way into innocent hands, I think Arthur Weasley, for one, will make sure they are traced back to you..."

Lucius only turned to his house-elf, utterly offended.

"We're going, Dobby!"

The way he treated poor Dobby, it broke her heart.

"Wish we could save him from Malfoy," Mel commented under her breath.

Harry perked up at her words.

"Professor Dumbledore," he said. "Can I give that diary back to Mr. Malfoy, please?"

"Certainly, Harry," said Dumbledore. "But hurry. The feast, remember... And Mel, please stay so we can have a few words"

"Yes," She nodded, going back to her chair.

Harry grabbed the book and rushed out of the office, not looking back at all. There was a moment of silence while Dumbledore finished his letter, then he looked up, expectantly.

"I suppose you have a lot in mind," He stated.

"A lot, Sir," She agreed, not knowing where to start.

"Most of them are doubts, I imagine," He continued, "you must be confused about how the houses really work..."

"Everyone says Slytherin is meant to be all bad, or at least, that is meant for people that don't care about what's fair and good," She explained, "but I... I've started to think that maybe we're seeing it wrong"

Dumbledore's smile grew.

"Erick Flint is a person of interest, isn't he?"

She didn't even bother to ask how he knew, of course he knew about her friendship with Erick.

"He's helped me before- and he doesn't care about blood- he's nice and wants to learn about muggles," She shook her head, "I don't understand... I'm sure he didn't choose to be in Slytherin, he always says that's where his whole family's been, that he belongs there, but I-I'm not saying he shouldn't be in Slytherin, cause I don't know... if he is a Slytherin, and he's a good person, then what does that mean?"

"It means that he's a remarkable boy," Dumbledore said, "I know his family, they're not the loving kind, and this boy took me by surprise during his first year, he's well-mannered and intelligent, with an interest in the muggle world... I guess there's always a black sheep in every family, I remember during your father's year, there was a boy that was a lot like Erick," He said with a sad smile, "he could've done so much good to our world, yet the war changed him, it poisoned his soul... if this boy is reaching out to you, asking for your help, by all means help him. You never know when you could be saving someone's life by showing kindness"

She nodded, Erick was a good boy, she wasn't planning on breaking their friendship just because others thought differently, which reminded her of another thing she wanted to talk about.

"Professor?" She asked. Dumbledore remained silent, "People... my friends- my teachers- they're always saying they're expecting great things from me, but I don't think I have it in me. They think I'll be like you, Sir- which isn't bad if it turns out to be true, but it certainly does put a ton of pressure on me... it's hard to make a decision when they've already planned my future without knowing who I really am."

"And who are you, Mel?"

"I'm a little girl," She replied worriedly, "I don't know what I want to be as an adult, not yet. I don't even know the extent of my own abilities... something happened again, while we were waiting for Harry and Ginny to return"

Mel was aware that it sounded crazier now that she was saying it out loud but she kept going, determined to clarify her doubts. Maybe she was imagining things, but she thought she'd seen a triumphant expression on her uncle's face.

"And it stopped after a moment?"

"Like it never happened"

"I see," He examined her features carefully.

Mel felt too self-conscious, she lowered her look and stared at Fawkes, her mind somewhere else, uneasy.

"Fawkes is a marvelous creature," She said after a while, "he brought us back"

"He's a Phoenix," Dumbledore stroke the bird's head, "a magical creature, loyal and with infinite qualities... your father loved them very much as well"

"My father?" She looked up in amazement.

"He seemed to understand Fawkes, there was a bond between your father and him, I never dared to ask what it was... Dear girl, I think I've postponed this talk long enough, it's clear that you've inherited abilities that only the women in our family can get, and I shouldn't keep asking you to try and push them back without help. Would you agree, if I offered you help with that?"

Mel frowned, not fully understanding.

"Like... extra lessons?" She wondered, "To help me handle my temper?"

"It would help you with more than just your temper, dear. The lessons could help you in case of emergencies, you'd be able to control your magic, to gain control"

No more powerless moments. No more sitting and waiting for things to just happen.

"Yes," She said without a second thought, "I want to learn, I... I want to help"

"Perfect," The man said, "I'll give you some books that you can take home so you can start studying during summer, get acquainted with the subjects we'll see. We can start next year when you're a bit older and well rested"

"Okay," She said, trying to hold back her excitement, "can I talk about this with my mother and uncle? I think they'd love to hear the news- oh! Can I tell Harry?"

"I don't see why not," Dumbledore smiled, then he added, "your uncle... I haven't heard of him for a long time."

"Well, he lives a bit far from us as well, I don't see him often," Mel said, thoughtfully, "he got ill during my first year, he often gets sick... but I believe he's alright now"

"I should send a letter his way soon," Dumbledore mentioned casually as they walked out of the room, "I would like to hear what he's been doing for the past eleven years..."

"I can't believe you freed Malfoy's elf!" Mel laughed wholeheartedly, "I wish I had seen his face! That was brilliant, Harry!"

"Dobby deserves a better life, that's all," Harry shrugged, blushing lightly.

"You solved it! You solved it!" Their heads snapped to the sound of the voice.

Hermione was running towards them, the biggest smile on her face.

"MIONE!" Mel yelled, standing up in a hurry and meeting her friend half-way, hugging her and crying, "You're back! I'm so happy- I've missed you terribly!"

"Hermione!" The boys also hugged her, though their hugs were shorter than hers.

The feast continued its course, and several people approached Harry to apologize and thank him for all he'd done and did the same with Mel and Ron- Hagrid appeared as well and hugged them tightly, almost breaking several bones in the process.

The exams got canceled and Gryffindor won the house cup again- things were going just fine.

Erick managed to pass beside her table and deliver a tiny note saying he was happy they'd found the heir and saved everyone, and he couldn't wait for the next year so she could join him in Hogsmeade at least once. Mel read the note quickly and looked up to see Erick already sitting back on his table, the tiniest smile threatening to light up his face.

"He's a Slytherin," Someone said beside her.

Mel jumped, hurriedly hiding the note in her pocket.

"What?"

"Erick Andrews is not a Ravenclaw," Hermione said seriously, "you thought I wouldn't notice? I knew about a week after he introduced himself... when I saw him enter the great hall and sit next to Daphne Greengrass"

"In my defense, he wasn't supposed to talk to me in public, I don't know what got into him that day when he talked to you..."

Hermione just stared at her.

"Are you mad?" Mel asked shyly, "I know how all of you feel about Slytherin, but I promise- I swear he's not like that at all"

Hermione wasn't happy, but she didn't give her a lecture either.

"I just hope you know what you're doing, I don't want you to get hurt"

"I won't," Mel assured her, "our friendship it's odd, but it's based on trust- I know things about him... He won't hurt me."

The girl just nodded, it was obvious she didn't feel comfortable with the subject.

When Dumbledore announced Lockhart wasn't going to be back for next year though, she forgot about all her problems.

"Ah, perhaps we'll get a better teacher this time," She sighed in bliss.

"Shame," said Ron. "He was starting to grow on me."

Fred and George found their way to sit next to Mel, one on each side so she couldn't ignore them.

"I think we owe you an apology," George started.

"To me?" She frowned.

"What we did on Valentine's was wrong, I guess," Fred sighed, "it was a masterpiece, but you didn't do anything to deserve it, you were only watching after of our sister-"

"We came to the realization that we might not be doing a good job as older brothers at all-"

"On the other hand, you did it perfectly- you saved our sister, brought her back-"

"Harry did that, I just-"

"Yeah, but we don't like Harry as much as we like you," Fred shrugged, "I mean, is it true that you threatened Lockhart by telling him you were going to feed him to the monster?"

"I... yes." The twins laughed.

"You're something else," George stood up and ruffled her hair.

Mel huffed, trying -and failing- to brush her hair back to how it was before George's attack. Fred stood up as well, pulling her in and kissing her temple in a very exaggerated manner, handing her the piece of paper where they'd originally written her poem.

"Bugger off!" She giggled, putting the poem inside her pocket.

"You know," Ron said, watching as his brothers went back to sit with Lee Jordan, "you may not have a crush on them, but now I'm starting to believe they fancy you"

Mel almost choked on her drink.

"Ron!" Harry and Mel yelled at the same time.

She stared at her friend in surprise.

"I know you hate it when he says that, I don't think it's funny anymore," Harry explained casually.

"'Course you don't," Ron said with a grin.

Harry made sure to kick him in the shin while Mel wasn't paying attention.

"Ginny - what did you see Percy doing, that he didn't want you to tell anyone?" Harry asked as they approached King's Cross, they were almost back home, and Mel couldn't wait to see her mother again.

"Oh, that," said Ginny, giggling. "Well - Percy's got a girlfriend."

"What?" Fred and George asked at the same time.

"It's that Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater," said Ginny. "That's who he was writing to all last summer. He's been meeting her all over the school in secret. I walked in on them kissing in an empty classroom one day. He was so upset when she was- you know- attacked. You won't tease him, will you?"

"Wouldn't dream of it," said Fred, and it didn't sound convincing at all.

"Definitely not," George smirked.

When the train stopped, Harry hurriedly pulled out ink and parchment, along with a quill.

"This is called a telephone number," he said, giving the paper to Ron and Hermione. "I told your dad how to use a telephone last summer- he'll know. Call me at the Dursleys', okay? I can't stand another two months with only Dudley to talk to..."

"What about me?" She teased.

"What if you go with your uncle for the rest of the summer?"

"Fair enough," Mel sighed.

"Your aunt and uncle will be proud, though, won't they, Harry?" asked Hermione once outside of the train. "When they hear what you did this year?"

"Proud?" Harry snorted. "Are you crazy? All those times I could've died, and I didn't manage it? They'll be furious..."

"I'm proud!" Mel put an arm around his shoulders, "I'm sure my mum's too, bet she'll give us tons of cake and cookies once we get home, as a reward for our bravery, you know?"

Harry tilted his head.

"Don't you think she'll be furious you almost got yourself killed again?"

"Oh, absolutely- she'll kill me. I'm just trying to imagine a happier story so I can survive her scolding."

"Good luck with that..."

Next Part —>

Taglist.

@tiphareth2018 @vampiregirl1797 @siriuslysirius1107 @celestialhayi @mikariell95 @omiwashere @thesuitelifeofafangirl @tomshollandz @steve-thotgers @kylosleftbuttcheek @reverse-hxlland

#twoidiots writing #Harry Potter #harry potter fanfiction #harry potter xoc #harry potter x y/n #harry potter x reader #hp fanfic #ron weasley #hermione granger #albus dumbledore #minerva mcgonagall #ginny weasley #fred weasley #george weasley #WITT fic

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