Well of Shadows
A House of Cards
By Ruskbyte
Chapter Five
~ A House of Cards ~
Chaos reigned supreme throughout Gryffindor Tower on the second of September. It was the first day of the school term and, much to their horror, the Gryffindors had woken to discover that they had
lost two items of great importance.
Harry and Ginny.
It started innocently enough, early that same morning, when Hermione was roused from her sleep by the first rays of the morning sun. The bushy-haired sixth-year Prefect rolled out of her plush four-poster bed and pulled on her faded pink dressing-gown and fluffy slippers. Treading quietly, so that she would not disturb Lavender or Parvati, Hermione slipped out of the room.
Hermione was heading for the dormitory belonging to the fifth-year girls, her intention being to check on Ginny Weasley. Though they hadn't really discussed it, Hermione knew that Ginny and Harry had not managed to catch much sleep the night before leaving the Burrow. Naturally she was worried that her friend had experienced similar difficulties last night.
Normally Hermione would not have worried about either of the two doing anything inappropriate. Harry was a sensible young man and Ginny, despite her brothers' dubious influences, had her head properly screwed on. Of course, if you looked at it another way, Harry was dangerously impulsive and had a tendency to act, then think; and Ginny was easily a match for any of her brothers and that, unfortunately, included the twins.
Besides which, she thought as she slipped into the other girls’ dormitory, they're in love. Who knows what they could decide to get up to.
Ginny's bed was, luckily, close to the door. Hermione padded across the short distance from the door to the curtain-enshrouded bed. She felt about the velvety fabric for a few seconds until she found an edge and cautiously parted the curtains, just enough for a short glimpse inside.
Immediately following her short glimpse, Hermione grabbed hold of the curtains with both hands. She threw them wide open, exposing the bed hidden within, her expression becoming an odd mixture of worry, consternation and disapproval as she looked down on Ginny's bed.
It was empty.
Heck, it hadn't even been slept in.
"Oh boy," was all she could manage to say as she stared down at the undisturbed covers. It did not take a genius, which Hermione was (she had the O.W.L. certificate to prove it), to guess that if Ginny was not in her bed, then it was almost a certainty that she was to found in Harry's bed instead.
She wouldn't, Hermione tried to convince herself. Not while there were four other boys in the room with them.
Not that much later, less than a minute actually, Hermione was sneaking into the sixth-year boys' dormitory. She had been in the room on one or two occasions in the past, but never with such a purpose in mind.
With far more caution than she had displayed in the fifth-year girls' dormitory, Hermione sneaked across the room towards Harry's bed. As she approached the curtained bed, she wondered just what she would say if her suspicions were founded. After all, this was not a situation Hermione had ever thought she would find herself in.
Besides which, Harry and Ginny were her friends. Close friends. While she could not claim to fully understand the reasons why they needed to sleep together, Hermione knew that there was more to it than simple teenage hormones run amok. However Hermione was a Prefect, as was Harry for that matter, and she could not just ignore such a flagrant disregard for the school rules.
Well, not entirely anyway, she admitted as she reached up and took hold of the curtains. Carefully, so as not to disturb any of the other four occupants of the room, Hermione parted the curtains and found herself completely at a loss as she stared at Harry's bed.
It was empty.
Heck, it hadn't even been slept in.
Hermione took a deep breath. Let it out. She took another deep breath. Held it. Held it some more. After a beat she let it out in a protracted sigh.
"Don't panic," she told herself. Looking around the shadowy dormitory, Hermione again tried to convince herself: "Just because neither of them are here, doesn't mean anything's happened to them. They probably just went out for a walk around the lake."
At the crack of dawn? And without having even tried their beds?
The panic Hermione was trying so valiantly to resist began to set in at about this point. Without really thinking about it, she stumbled across the room, tripping over what looked like Neville's shoes, and pulled open the curtains surrounding Ron's bed.
"Ron! Wake up! Wake up, Ron!" she shouted, grabbing the softly snoring boy by the shoulder and giving him a rousing shake. When Ron proved a trifle too slow to wake for her liking, Hermione grabbed him by both shoulders and almost hauled him out of his bed, shouting, "WAKE UP! Harry's missing! Ginny's missing! They're both MISSING!!"
"Wha? Who? Whe? Huh? Wassit?" Ron looked up at Hermione with bleary eyes, clearly not fully comprehending what she was saying.
Hermione resisted the urge to slap him a few times, settling for wrenching him back and forth to the point where he became a red-haired blur. As he struggled against her grasp, finally jolted awake from his slumber, she continued to yell, "HARRY AND GINNY ARE MISSING!!"
"What? Hermione? Are you sure?" he asked, looking at her in bewilderment.
"They're not in their beds! Harry's not in Ginny's bed and Ginny isn't in Harry's bed!"
The details of the situation began to seep into Ron's befuddled brain, not to mention the minds of Dean, Seamus and Neville, who had also been roused by Hermione's shouting. Being the mature and sensible young men that they were, naturally they perceived Hermione's aura of full-blown panic and immediately began to enter a comparable state.
The search for Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley began.
Had anyone paused to take a proper look around, they might have noticed two heads, one topped with red, the other topped with black, peering over the back of a couch in the common room. The young man and woman whose heads these were, watched the disorganised hunt for Harry and Ginny with wry, bemused smiles.
***
"Think we should let them know we're here?" asked Harry, stifling a laugh as a blushing Neville scurried down the staircase leading to the girls' dormitories. Obviously he had caught an earful from some of the girls, or perhaps even an eyeful.
"Not yet," replied Ginny with a rascally smile. She looked at Harry with a twinkle in her deep brown eyes, feeling playful in spite of her lack of sleep that night.
They listened for a time to the sound of people yelling and calling their names, accompanied by doors swinging open or being slammed shut. All in all, the search was something of a commotion, especially since it was completely unnecessary.
All this fuss when we're right in front of them, she thought. I guess it's true what they say about hiding in plain sight.
Sudden awareness of pressure against her one leg drew Ginny's attention away from the activities behind them and down in front of where she was sitting. Harry, for a similar reason, also looked at the foot of the couch, where Carmen's pet Kneazle, Quagga, was rubbing his sleek black and silver striped body against Ginny's calf. Likewise, Harry was receiving attention from the mass of fluffy orange fur that was Crookshanks, Hermione's cat.
"Oh, joy," groaned Harry as Crookshanks sprang up onto his lap, "I've got to talk Hermione into putting this cat of hers on a diet."
"He's just a cat, Harry," replied Ginny, leaning over to lift Quagga up. "How heavy could he be?"
"Want to swap and find out?"
Ginny's retort was quashed by an inopportune yawn. As Quagga settled himself down, twisting about until he was comfortable, she decided to change the topic and state the obvious. "We need to find a way to sleep together."
*You had better pray nobody passing by hears you talking like that.*
*Yes, what a scandal. The two most powerful magicians on the planet engaged in an illicit affair? It would be a feeding frenzy for the media.*
Harry nodded in agreement to Ginny's statement, ignoring the ramblings of the Order. His head drooped a bit as he stroked a hand up and down Crookshanks' back. "Either that or spend the rest of the year in the common room like this."
"Maybe we should talk to Dumbledore..." she suggested, "see if he can't arrange a special dispensation."
"I don't want to go through a discussion like the one we had with your mother again," resisted Harry, clearly remembering the grilling Ginny's mum had subjected them to. It had almost been as bad as having to try and explain how they had ended up in bed together completely starkers.
She mulled it over for a time. "Maybe we can get Mum to write him a letter explaining it all..."
"D'you remember the trouble we had convincing her to let us sleep together at the Burrow?" asked Harry, arching his eyebrows at her. He shifted where he sat, wincing as Crookshanks' needle sharp claws dug into his legs. "What makes you think we can convince her to let us do the same here?"
"Then what can we do?" Ginny was aware of the desperation that was beginning to seep into her voice. She could remember in perfect detail how fatigued she had felt those first few days of the summer when she and Harry had not been sharing a bed. She didn't think she would be able to endure such an arduous experience again, not when the alternative was spending the nights in Harry’s loving embrace.
Harry took a deep breath and slowly let it out, absentmindedly stroking Crookshanks behind his ears, resulting in a deep and resonating purr from the large feline. After several long moments of reflection he seemed to almost perk up. He half-turned to Ginny and said, "How about we Apparate to the Burrow every night? We could even ask Dumbledore for a refund on our school fees, since we won't be needing room and board here anymore."
Ginny blinked in surprise and mulled over the idea. After a while she nodded her head in half-committal approval, "Brilliant idea, but there are a few problems that I can see."
"Yeah," agreed Harry, smiling half-heartedly, "namely what happens if Voldemort attacks in the middle of the night and we're not here?"
Further suggestions as to a solution to their problem were put on hold when the, until then, relative quiet of the common room was shattered by a cacophony of voices descending the staircases. Apparently, having finished their search of the various dormitories, the students were now mobilizing for a search of the castle and its grounds.
It appeared, from what Ginny could discern through the noise, that the earlier pandemonium had only been a forerunner. Ginny and Harry's fellow Gryffindors were working themselves into a state of mild to extreme panic. A fact that both of the 'missing' teenagers found quite amusing.
Hermione was pacing back and forth, her head ducked down in concentration and her bushy hair all over the place, and trying to deduce likely spots to search for the ‘missing’ couple. Ron, seldom one to keep his head in a crisis, was rambling about having to write to his and Ginny's mum and dad, letting them know that he had somehow managed to lose his baby sister.
Neville was apologising copiously to Moira and Seamus, confirming that he had indeed caught an eyeful. Moira was grumbling loudly in what sounded like Gaelic, while Seamus' Irish twang had deepened to the point where he was almost as unintelligible as his Beater girlfriend.
I think maybe we should let them know we're here now, Ginny silently told Harry as the noise level in the common room approached that of a post-Quidditch-match victory celebration.
~Y'know,~ he replied, checking the watch Ginny had given him for Christmas, ~Even if I had Quidditch practice I wouldn't be getting up for another eight or nine minutes.~
Perhaps... Ginny felt a devious scheme beginning to form in the back of her mind. A grin that most people would normally associate with Fred and George lit up her face, That would be perfect actually.
~How’s that?~
We can Apparate down to the Quidditch pitch and pretend we got up for an early morning fly around.
~Without our brooms?~ asked Harry, pointing out what he saw as a hole in her plan.
Have you forgotten how you got around that dragon during the Triwizard Tournament? She asked, cocking an eyebrow at him. We can summon them. Nobody will be any the wiser.
"What's going on here?"
Professor McGonagall, wearing her tartan dressing-gown, had arrived to investigate the noise, thus succeeding in bringing silence to the room. Only for a moment though as, after that moment passed, everyone present began trying to explain all at once. Naturally the resulting flood of worried voices was a completely incomprehensible babble that McGonagall, not surprisingly, seemed unable to make heads or tails of.
"Quiet!" McGonagall held up a hand, signalling the students to shut up.
After a hush finally settled over the anxious Gryffindors, the deputy headmistress surveyed her charges with a sharp eye. Finally she turned to the until-now-unnoticed couch in front of the fire. Folding her arms across her chest she looked on with an impatient expression and asked, "Mr Potter, Ms Weasley, since the two of you seem the calmest, perhaps you would be so kind as to explain what this racket is about?"
Ginny and Harry popped their heads up from behind the couch, much to the total amazement and disbelief of those searching for them. The two teenagers looked from their gawking housemates to their stern-looking head of house then each other. With a shrug they turned back to McGonagall and chimed in unison, "Don't have a clue, Professor."
***
Ron was watching with a mixture of amusement and concern as Harry's head drooped lower and lower as the lesson wore on. From what Harry and Ginny had told Hermione and him, during breakfast, his best friend and sister had now gone nearly two days without sleep. As a result Harry had been dozing on and off throughout all their classes that day, slowly falling forward until he would jerk up again in an attempt to remain awake. Ron was willing to bet that Ginny was in much the same condition.
If anyone had told me this time last year, he thought, that Harry and Ginny wouldn’t be able to sleep unless they were in the same bed; I’ve told them to check into St. Mungos.
Normally falling asleep in class would not have been that bad a thing. Most of the teachers would probably have understood what Harry was going through. Or, in the case of the ghostly Professor Binns, not have even noticed Harry's lack of attention in their class. Fortunately they were currently in the last class of the day, so Harry wouldn't have to worry about it much longer, not that he appeared to be anyway.
Unfortunately their last class of the day was Potions.
Dean Thomas, partnered with Seamus Finnigan, was sitting on Harry's other side. After Harry made another jerky attempt to remain cognisant during the class, the dark-skinned boy leaned over and Ron heard him whisper, "You should try exercising Harry. A healthy lifestyle will help you no end."
Harry gave Dean a groggy look and replied, "I'm so tired already exercise hardly seems necessary..."
Smiling at his friend's lacklustre response, Ron turned his attention back to Snape, who was writing out a long list of potion ingredients and instructions on the blackboard. The Potions Master had his back to the class, luckily for Harry, and had missed the brief exchange as well as Harry’s close call.
Good thing too, he thought, copying down the instruction in his messy scrawl, slimy git would probably leap at the chance to give Harry grief. He certainly gave Ginny enough before lunch.
This was a fairly accurate observation on Ron's part. Everyone who had been ill-fated enough to have Potions that day had remarked on Snape's black mood. Apparently he had recovered from his encounter with Gregory and Hilary Proteus and had settled into a vindictive state that rivalled anything he had produced previously.
Nobody had been able to garner any details, but from what was being discussed on the student grapevine, the married couple were relentlessly teasing the Potions Master. For some reason the Defence Against the Dark Arts professors found endless amusement in causing Snape grief of one sort or another.
Everyone he had spoken to that had already attended Defence Against the Dark Arts were verbose in their praise of the two professors, comparing them favourably with Remus Lupin. Even though he would not be having a class with them until the following day, Ron had decided that he liked the Professors Proteus. After all, he reasoned, anyone who makes Snape's life as miserable as he makes ours has to be good.
"I want you all to take special note of this, you in particular Longbottom," Snape motioned at one line of his instructions. "You must add precisely two and a quarter fluid ounces of dragon blood to the sifted blackmoor. Any more than that and the results will be dire for the fool that fails to follow my directions."
THUD!
Snape had just opened his mouth to speak again when he was interrupted by the sound. He closed his mouth and narrowed his eyes, scanning the class for the source. Considering his mood, it was likely that whoever, or whatever, it was would regret having disturbed Snape’s lecture.
Ron, who was sitting next to the source, glanced nervously at Harry. Exhaustion had apparently won out and Harry's head had dropped to the bench, connecting with a solid thump. Despite the force of the impact Harry somehow remained completely out of it. Ron gave his friend a sharp nudge with his elbow in an attempt to wake him up before Snape spotted him, but Harry's only response was a muffled grunt of discomfort.
Come on, you git! Wake up!
"What was that?" Snape ground out in a dangerous tone. His black eyes swivelled to where Pansy Parkinson, hand raised into the air, was sitting. "Parkinson?"
"Potter, sir," explained Pansy, indicating where Harry was sitting.
That bitch. Ginny should've turned her into dog instead of an ostrich.
Snape's eyes narrowed to thin slits and a dangerous smile creased his lips. Slowly he began to stalk towards Ron and the unconscious Harry. "Thank you, Ms Parkinson. Three points to Slytherin."
Ron swallowed nervously as Snape came to a stop beside him, his robes billowing around him and seeming to make the pallid man even larger. Licking his lips in preparation Ron looked up at the looming professor and tried to explain, "Er... Harry hasn't been sleeping well, Professor."
"He seems to be sleeping perfectly well right now, Weasley," snapped the professor, arching an eyebrow with satisfaction as he look at Harry's slumped form. His eyes were sparkling with the anticipation of reprimanding his most despised student. "I think it's time we woke Mr Potter up so that he can face the consequences of not paying attention in my class."
"That's a bad idea," Ron blurted out, not really thinking about it. His memories of what happened back home at the Burrow when anyone barged in on a sleeping Harry or Ginny had surfaced full force and prompted him to speak. He could feel his palms sweating as he tried not to wilt under Snape's glare and explained, "Harry gets startled easily when he's asleep."
Snape smiled nastily. "Then he should wake up all the more readily."
Without giving Ron any more time to try and warn him off, Snape reached past Ron with his wand and cracked it firmly against the back of Harry's head.
"GAAAAH!" Harry woke with a jerk and a surprised yelp. He pushed up and away from the desk, teetering unsteadily on his stool for a second, his eyes wide and unfocused.
With a soft pop, Harry disappeared.
Snape blinked in surprise.
With a soft pop, Harry reappeared.
"HEEYAH!" Harry was immediately behind Snape, as well as several feet straight up. He dropped upon the startled Potions Master much like a bird of prey would swoop down on a rabbit. The outcome was much the same as well and resulted in Snape spending the night in the Hospital Wing.
***
"I can't believe it," groaned Hermione. "Our first day back and you've already attacked one of the teachers."
"He startled me!" Harry tried to explain for the umpteenth time. He had just come from a meeting in Dumbledore's office and had met up with Ron and Hermione outside the Great Hall. They were walking towards the Gryffindor table, Hermione running a rampant commentary concerning Harry's earlier actions in Potions class.
"You broke his collarbone!"
Ron leaped to his friend's defence. "He deserved it!"
Harry was immensely relieved when they reached the table, hoping the presence of so much food would distract his friends from arguing. He sat down in the seat opposite Ginny, who was talking with Genevieve, a generously endowed fellow fifth-year with dark brown hair and liquid russet-coloured eyes. As they chatted away Harry spotted that the Ravenclaw girl had for some reason dyed her fringe and several locks of her hair raven black.
"What was the verdict, mate?" asked Seamus, who as sitting nearby with Moira, as Harry started filling his plate with food.
"Thirty points from Gryffindor," he replied with a sigh. Thirty points on the first day back was certainly a record, even for Harry. He sighed again as he considered the second part of his punishment. "And detention with Snape for the rest of the month."
Ginny, who had finished talking with Genevieve, looked at him in dismay. "That's terrible. They can't be serious! How can they give you detention with Snape after you put him in the Hospital Wing?"
Harry shrugged and sipped some pumpkin juice. "Dumbledore seems to think it will calm him down a bit. Apparently Madam Pomfrey had to put a Silencing Charm around his bed - they could hear him yelling for my expulsion from the Library."
~And what about the other thing?~ Ginny asked quietly, biting into a Yorkshire pudding.
Nothing firm yet, he replied, setting down his drink and looking across the table at her.
His mind immediately began to replay the short discussion about his and Ginny's sleeping habits that he and the teachers had had. Dumbledore had assembled the three other heads of the houses, since Snape was still in the infirmary. McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout had been sitting in the chairs arrayed in front of the headmaster's desk as Harry tried to explain.
"Very well, Potter," McGonagall had insisted, "we understand that you assaulted Professor Snape because you were tired. We understand that you were tired because you were unable to sleep last night. However we do not understand, since you still haven't explained it to us, why you were unable to get to sleep."
Harry clearly remembered the embarrassment he'd felt and the scalding blush that had tainted his cheeks when he had answered, "I couldn't get to sleep... because Ginny Weasley wasn't in the bed with me."
Looking back on it, the various reactions had been quite amusing. Dumbledore, who had probably had an inkling of the truth already, merely smiled in that benevolent and grandfatherly way he had. McGonagall had openly gaped at Harry, her square glasses slipping off her nose and clattering to the floor. Flitwick, who had been sitting right on the edge of his seat, had fallen out of his chair and landed next to McGonagall's glasses. Sprout had promptly begun to choke on her tea, which she'd spilt over her lap in the process.
Dumbledore said he'd take it under consideration, Harry judiciously summed up, until he makes a decision, we're to stay in our own beds. He's also arranged for Madam Pomfrey to supply us with dreamless sleep potion for the time being. Hopefully he will have an answer for us, or a solution, by the end of the week.
Ginny nodded her understanding and smiled at him in commiseration. They continued their meal audibly for the most part, for the benefit of their friends, and soon that entire section of the table was roaring with laughter over Snape's 'accident' in Potions. Neville in particular seemed to enjoy recounting what had happened to his least favourite teacher. Everyone agreed with Dean that the only way could have been better was if Colin had been there to take a photograph.
Finally dinner drew to an end as everyone got up and made their way to the third floor corridor which led down to the Practical Fighting Techniques auditorium. There were a good many more students than had been attending the previous year. This was in part because of Voldemort's attack on the school, which had convinced anyone who had doubted his return. Then there was the fact that Dumbledore had approved the addition of third-year students to the class roster, much to young Moira Mackay's delight.
Descending the winding staircase that led from what Harry had come to think of as Fluffy's room, the students filed into the auditorium. As they found their seats, Harry noticed the two Defence Against the Dark Arts professors standing off in one shadowy corner. From the look of things they had decided to come and see Harry’s somewhat controversial class firsthand.
~What do you make of that?~ Ginny asked him.
What d'you mean? he asked, looking away from the Proteuses.
Ginny, walking alongside him as they made their way down the aisle, nodded her head in the general direction of the two adults, ~Look at their auras. Very bright.~
Harry drew a short breath, closed his eyes and began to concentrate on the magic surrounding him. He focused on bring his perceptions of it to the forefront of his being and then released his breath and opened his eyes. Next to him he could see Ginny's aura glowing a brilliant white, red and gold - identical to his own, the aura of someone joined to the Order of the Phoenix.
It wasn't difficult to see why the new professors had garnered Ginny's attention. Both husband and wife had auras that glowed and swirled brightly, almost equal to Harry and Ginny's auras. Gregory Proteus' aura was a blazing gold that shone around him like a small sun, flecked with traces of red and white. His wife, Hilary, was surrounded by fiery scarlet and crimson, which in a complement to Gregory, was spotted with flecks of gold and white.
A very powerful couple, noted Harry, leading Ginny onto the stage and to his desk, which was set to one side.
~I think they're even brighter than Dumbledore,~ thought Ginny, her attention alternating between the two professors.
Harry placed a hand on her shoulder, gently chiding her for staring so much, and then stepped out to the centre of the stage. A lecturing podium rose from the floor in front of him as quiet settled over the waiting students.
"First off," Harry began, "I'd like to welcome all those who are joining us for the first time. Mostly last year's second and third years. I know most of you are a little nervous about being here, although some of you are a bit eager." He shot a glance at Moira, who grinned broadly at him and gave him a thumbs up. He shook his head and continued, "Rest assured though, this class is not as bad as the older students have made out."
"Aye," called a voice from the back of the room, "it's worse!"
His light-hearted welcome address continued for several minutes, with Harry touching on a few points here and there as well as giving his students a basic idea of what he was planning to cover over the course of the year. His final announcement, that Ginny would be joining him as an assistant in the class, was met with loud applause from the Gryffindors.
"So," Harry clapped his hands and rubbed them together with anticipation, "any suggestions on how to start the year off?"
"How about a duel, Potter?"
All eyes turned to the source of the voice that had called out the challenge. Malfoy's drawl was as cocksure and confident as it had ever been. A faint smile twisted his thin lips and his cold grey eyes seemed to shine brightly in the auditorium's subdued lighting.
"How about it, Potter?" he asked, standing up and striding down to the edge of the stage, "Another demonstrations, just like last year." His walk was more of a sauntering swagger that almost instantly put Harry's senses on alert. There was something different about Malfoy now, something very different from when they had encountered each other on the Hogwarts Express the previous day.
Malfoy seemed... taller, somehow. It was impossible, Harry knew, but he seemed to be holding himself... taller. That posture, the dangerous glimmer in his slitted grey eyes and his almost feral smile, was enough to let Harry know that the other boy had something up his sleeves. Something highly dangerous no doubt.
Harry nodded in agreement.
"All right, Malfoy," he said, waving for him to take a position on the stage, "let's see if we can provide a good show."
The thing about Shield Charms is that they can block pretty much anything. All that is required are reasonable amounts of focus, concentration and power. This naturally meant that Harry's Shield Charm was nigh impenetrable, for he had focus, concentration and nobody could dispute the raw power he was practically swimming in.
Something as simple and generally inoffensive as a Banishing Charm should never have been able to penetrate his shield. Thus it was quite understandable that Harry was more than a little surprised when he was unexpectedly knocked off his feet and sent flying through the air, a loud crack accompanying his short flight.
Gin, I think we have a problem, he noted while rolling to his feet, a good twenty or thirty feet back from where he had been standing.
~What is it?~ asked Ginny in an alarmed tone.
Harry grit his teeth as he rose up, pressing his one arm against the throbbing in his chest, I think Malfoy just broke my ribs...
Ginny's response was a loud and disbelieving, ~What?! That's impossible!~
I know. He did it anyway.
TBC...