Well of Shadows
Journey to Hogwarts
By Ruskbyte
Chapter Three
~ Journey to Hogwarts ~
"We're going to die."
Harry, feeling too tired to answer, simply nodded.
"I can't survive like this."
Again, his exhaustion overwhelming his ability to speak, Harry nodded.
"Harry, what are we going to do?"
"I don't know, Gin," he replied hoarsely, "but if we have to sleep in separate beds at Hogwarts, I'm not going to survive the year."
The sun was just beginning to crest over the horizon, ending what had probably been the most restless night of Harry and Ginny's lives. For the first time since the start of summer, the two young adults were sitting outside, on what had long since become 'their' grassy knoll, waiting for the sunrise.
It was a magnificent sunrise, almost a recipe for splendour. A few scarce clouds hung high in the otherwise clear sky, which was that perfect deep blue the precedes the dawn. Light from the slow rising sun seemed to linger on the clouds so that they glowed scarlet and orange and gold against the lightening blue, as if lit from a hidden fire within.
It was the kind of moment, of transient beauty, that lovers were supposed to share in each others arms. They were supposed to be feeling warm and at peace, content to simply sit, or lie, side by side in companionable silence. It was supposed to be a perfectly opportune time for tender kisses and embraces, a romantic instant if there ever was one.
Naturally Harry and Ginny hated every second of it.
With the rising of the morning sun, their last night at the Burrow before returning to Hogwarts drew to an end. Ordinarily this would not have bothered either of the two. Unfortunately, however, their sleeping routine had been interrupted by Hermione's arrival the day before and Molly Weasley's insistence that she sleep in Ginny's room. A consequence of this decision was that Harry had been ousted from his cohabitation of said room and transferred to Ron's room for the duration of Hermione's stay.
To sum the situation up succinctly, it had been a long and restless night.
"It's funny," Harry said after a few minutes quiet, "but this is the first time I don't want to go back to Hogwarts."
"Maybe it'll get better if we give it some time," Ginny tried, not sounding very convinced, "got used to sleeping alone again."
Harry flopped back onto the grass, staring up at the sparse clouds. "Quite frankly I wasn't exactly sleeping all that well before we started sharing a bed. Somehow I don't think anything is going to change in that regard."
Ginny sighed and lay down beside to him. "Perhaps we should try and look on the bright side of things."
"And what might that be?"
"..."
"Well?"
"Er..."
*As soon as she thinks of something we'll let you know.*
"Gah!" Startled, Ginny jerked up into a sitting position. Even after nearly two months of having the various members of the Order communicating with her in this manner, Ginny was still unused to their voices suddenly popping into her mind.
*Relax,* soothed a soft feminine voice. *It's only us.*
"Something that does not exactly inspire peace and calm, Miko," noted Harry wryly, sitting up and slipping his hand around Ginny's waist.
You all right, Gin? he asked silently.
~Yeah, fine,~ his girlfriend replied, ~Just a little startled, that's all.~
"Do you lot have to sneak up on us like that?" asked Ginny, having quickly regained her composure.
*That would be difficult.*
*Aye, we don't exactly have bodies to make loud footsteps with now, do we?*
Harry rolled his eyes and pushed to his feet, casually brushing down his jeans before offering Ginny a hand to help her up. She grabbed hold and pulled herself up, brushing against him as she rose to stand within his embrace. He draped his arm around Ginny's shoulders while she slipped hers around his waist as they slowly descended from the low rise of their grassy knoll, back to the Burrow.
"Why is it," Ginny asked as they approached the kitchen door, "that just when things seem to finally be going right and everything is back on track, the universe decides to throw us off a high cliff and leave us hanging?"
"Just lucky I guess."
***
"Whoa! What happened to the two of you?"
"You look like you stayed up the entire night."
"They must have. Look - they're both rumpled."
"Harry, you didn't stay up all night with our sister did you?"
"You're supposed to say you didn't..."
"They haven't said it..."
"You didn't..."
"You did!"
"You cad!"
"You savage!"
"You beast!"
"You stud!"
"You-"
"You two are going to have your throats ripped open if you don't shut up," threatened Ginny, waving a fist in front of her brothers. She was tired, stiff from sitting outside all night, and definitely not in the mood to put up with Fred and George's antics.
"Don't get your knickers twisted, Gin-Gin," placated Fred, holding his hands up. "We know you two haven't done anything indecent."
George nodded in agreement. "Our room's right next to yours and we haven't heard so much as a peep the entire summer."
Thanks to judicious use of a Silencing Charm over the entire room, thought Ginny as she made her way to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair.
~Don't forget the door and windows,~ replied Harry, sitting opposite her.
Ginny, despite her tiredness, grinned impishly at him. Not to mention the bedsprings and the headboard, hmm?
Harry gave her a playful smirk and reached for the jug of apple juice, ~We were nothing if not thorough and discreet.~
*Of course you were. Look at who you had for teachers.*
~I hate to break this to you, Sun, but I was sneaking around Hogwarts for years before you lot came into my life.~
Quite successfully too, agreed Ginny, smiling.
"Of course…" Naturally the twins were not finished with their routine and had continued their chatter through Harry and Ginny's internal dialogue. "…There was that time when you decided to redecorate and put in that extra window."
"And remember that unfortunate incident with Percy?"
Molly Weasley, who until now had been bent over the stove cooking the sausages, bore down on her two wayward children. "Fred! George! Leave your poor sister and Harry alone. It's obvious that they've had a very rough night. There's no need for you two to make their morning as difficult."
George, who seemed to have the focus of their mother's attention, nodded his head sheepishly and tried to look appropriately ashamed. Fred on the other hand, turned towards Harry and Ginny in a way that prevented Molly from seeing, and cracked his one hand as if using a whip.
"Fred! Don't be rude!" snapped Molly as she set the large platter of sausages on the tabletop, turning to glare fiercely at her misbehaving son.
"I need coffee," grumbled Ginny as Harry took a long sip of his juice.
Across from her Harry shook his head. "I honestly don't know how you could even pretend to like that disgusting stuff."
Ginny looked up at him, shovelling a few sausages onto her plate. "What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing really," Harry admitted after a moment, helping himself to a couple slices of toast, "but how can you drink it without sugar or cream?"
~Uncle Vernon used to have it every morning.~
Ginny frowned slightly. Since their bond had formed, thanks in part to the Order of the Phoenix as well as several other occurrences, Harry and Ginny would often convey to each other thoughts that they preferred not to share with anyone else.
Does it bring back bad memories? she asked, wondering if perhaps she ought to switch her drink of choice to tea instead.
~Nothing too bad,~ he replied with an almost imperceptible shake of his head, ~It's just I'm still a little bit touchy when it comes to the Dursleys.~
"Harry, Harry, Harry," lectured Fred, sitting down next to him, "has anyone in our family ever told you about the infamous espresso incident?"
Ginny could only bite back a groan and try not to drop her head in her food as Harry cautiously shook his head. Fred and George immediately seized the opportunity and began their dramatic re-enactment of what had happened several years earlier. This was going to be almost as bad as that damn stupid love poem she had written.
George began the tale. "Picture it. The Burrow. The summer before Fred and mine's second year at Hogwarts. Our father, fine man that he is, succumbs to his curiosity..."
"One day he brings home a Muggle espresso machine, although he doesn't really know exactly what it is or does," continued Fred, gesturing with broad sweeps of his arms.
Do they remember every little embarrassing thing I've ever done? wondered Ginny,
~Probably.~
"Naturally it was our favourite sister-"
"Our only sister for that matter-"
"Who was able to deduce its inner workings." George gleefully rubbed his hands together, chuckling evilly. "And just as naturally, she decides to try the noxious brew herself before the rest of us could get our hands on it."
~I think I can see where this is leading,~ she heard from Harry.
Ginny narrowed her eyes dangerously and raised her knife in front of Fred's nose. Both twins became silent as she ground out through clenched teeth, "Do you want me to hurt you, you blistering idiots!?"
Harry nodded his support. "Honestly, chaps, we appreciate your attempts to... cheer us up, but after last night we're just too exhausted to handle it right now."
*Aw... but I want to hear how much noxious brew our fair Gin-Gin imbibed in...*
*Loki, shut up.*
"Disaster! Alas, murder most foul!" Fred immediately proclaimed, clasping his hands theatrically over his heart. "Tragedy and assassination! Mayhem and slaughter! Complete bedlam and utter ruination!"
Ginny suspected that Fred was trying to say that, for the time being, he sympathised completely with their plight. It was always a matter of guesswork, deciphering what either of the twins meant. Their command of the English language had never been anything less than perfect, however they occasional saw fit make everyone else doubt that.
"Discovered how to open the dictionary, did you?" asked Harry lightly, spearing one of the sausages on his plate with his fork.
"The dictionary, the thesaurus and the encyclopaedia, old bean!" confirmed George, holding his head high while at the same time puffing his chest out with pride.
Great, Ginny thought.
Harry laughed and started munching on some toast. "Spiffing."
The playful banter continued even after Percy came downstairs for his breakfast, expressing mild surprise to see Ginny and Harry up and about so early. The lenses of his horn-rimmed glasses glinted in the rich morning sunlight that shone through the kitchen windows as he sat down.
"I'm surprised to see you out of bed so early, Ginny," Percy stated, helping himself to the food spread out on the table. "Did you decide to get a head start for your journey to Hogwarts?"
"You're assuming that at some point or another I was actually in bed," replied Ginny dryly, sipping at her coffee.
Molly, now bringing a platter of bacon to the table, looked at Ginny with mild concern and asked, "Ginny, dear, are you sure you're not just excited about going back to Hogwarts?"
She returned her mother's look with one of bleary eyed disbelief. "Yes, of course, that must be it. Why, I'm positively buoyant with the anticipation of being separated from Harry for the next ten months."
"What the blue blazes are you talking about?" asked Percy in bewilderment. "You and Harry are in the same house - you'll see each other every day!"
"I don't want to see Harry," explained Ginny, swiftly reaching the limits of her patience after such a long and tiring night. "What I want is to sleep with Harry."
Naturally --she should have known it would happen-- Fred and George immediately latched onto her words like a pair of ravenous Lethifolds. "Ha! You admit it!" cried Fred, pointing an authoritive finger at her. "You only want Harry for his body! You're a scarlet woman, Ginny, scarlet I say!"
*I zink it's time you transfeegured ze cutlery again,* noted Joan.
I'm in total agreement with you.
George had risen to his feet in order to do something that he probably should not have. With a polished clearing of his throat he began to recite, apparently from memory, the one thing Ginny knew she would never be able to escape.
Ginny would have quite happily given up all the gold in Gringotts, whether it were hers of not, if she could simply evaporate on the spot. Of course, thanks to the power of the Order and Harry's tutoring, she could always Apparate out of the Burrow...
"His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,
His hair is as dark as a blackboard.
I wish he was mine, he's really divine,
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord!"
In the abrupt silence that followed the lyrics, heads turned. Toward George. The silence began to stretch until Harry lowered his forehead to the tabletop, banging down with a soft thud. Percy, sitting beside him, lifted up his glasses and rubbed his fingers over his brow. On Harry's other side, Fred put his chin on his hands and looked across the table at George with a marvelling expression.
"George, my dear twin," he said, "it was nice knowing you. Can I have your styrofoam?"
"You mean 'stereo'," corrected Harry, voice muffled as his head was still down on the table.
Slowly, oh so slowly, Ginny set her knife and fork down on her plate. Scooting her chair back a bit she stood up and turned to face a suddenly pale and trembling George. "I'm going upstairs to unpack," she told him calmly. "I expect you to still be down here when I return."
Molly frowned and asked, "What do you need to unpack for, dear?"
"The short sword Harry gave me for my birthday," she replied with a wicked grin, noticing how George managed to grow even paler.
~Gin, I don't remember giving you that sword so you could use it to kill your brother,~ observed Harry, lifting his head up from the table.
Ginny smiled. "Don't worry, Harry. I'm not going to kill him. Just... remove his tongue."
This was more than George could take and a moment later he was fleeing the kitchen post haste, his legs carrying him away as quickly as they could. Ginny and Harry burst into laughter as he sprinted out the door and into the relative safety of the backyard.
Still chuckling, Ginny turned to Harry and said, "I'm going to see if Hermione's awake yet, then I'm going to have a shower."
Harry nodded and resumed devouring his breakfast as Ginny picked up her half-finished coffee and made her way from the kitchen. Sipping happily on the dark, and still hot, liquid she began to climb the stairs, listening as conversation in the kitchen resumed.
"Sometimes," she could hear Fred saying, "it’s hard to tell the difference between her bite and her bark."
"No, it's not," Harry immediately replied.
"Oh? How d'you tell the difference?"
Ginny, halfway up the stairs by now, threw an answer over her shoulder. "If he told you, you'd have to hurt him!"
***
Harry had come to the conclusion that it was something of a miracle that any of Arthur and Molly Weasley's children had ever managed to get to Hogwarts. Somehow, he had yet to determine how or why, but the Weasley's had honed arriving at King's Cross with only minutes to spare to a fine art.
At least this year their departure was less hurried as there were only four of them rushing for the Hogwarts Express, instead of the six it had been the previous year. For a moment there was darkness and then Harry emerged from the barrier leading to the Muggle portions of the station.
He had to swerve his trolley at the last instant to avoid colliding with a stoic young girl, dressed in morbid clothes that seemed more at home in a funeral parlour and a very energetic young boy, dressed what seemed like a striped Muggle tee-shirt. The pair were watched over by a looming manservant which Harry thought looked rather like a relation to Frankenstein's monster, only without any bolts in his neck.
*I feel an urge to snap my metaphysical fingers.*
Ginny quickly joined him, followed by Ron and Hermione, and together they pushed their trolleys to the rear carriage of the train. Along their way they were met and greeted by their housemates and classmates, all of which seemed very pleased to see them again. None of them were overly surprised to find Neville running around in a frantic state, searching for his toad, Trevor.
Stowing their trunks they hurried to their customary compartment just as the train began to pull out of the station. Leaning out the window, something of a crowd for all four of them, they waved their goodbyes to Mrs Weasley who had accompanied them to platform nine and three-quarters.
"Hey, Potter."
Harry and the others turned at the door to their compartment slid open, revealing Blaise Zabini. The lithe Slytherin girl had let her customary short blonde hair grow out a little over the summer, ending in a short bob just below her ears. She grinned at them, her large blue eyes sparkling with mischief. "What the devil did you do to Parkinson? The stupid ditz is trying to stick her head through the compartment floor!"
"Ostriches do that," observed Hermione, giving Ginny a disapproving look.
"I thought you said it would wear off in an hour," mentioned Harry, turning to his girlfriend, who was looking inappropriately smug.
Ron, through a fit of giggles, managed to give a reasonable accurate description of events leading to Parkinson's transfiguration. He also, once the laughter and his own guffaws had died down, supplied Blaise with a slightly edited version of the rest of the summer.
Blaise, who remained leaning in the doorway, listened closely. By the end of the tale, her eyes were wide and she was shaking her head in astonishment.
"I see," she turned to Harry. "So... your uncle shot you, then stuffed you in a cupboard. You were then revived by a freak accident, completely destroying the house in the process and your girlfriend here turned Pansy into an ostrich."
Harry nodded his confirmation of her assessment and settle down to watch as Blaise considered it all for a moment. Finally, seeming to simply give up any attempts at proper understanding the blonde girl asked, "Apart from that, it's been a quiet summer?"
*Oh very quiet,* commented Beowulf, *Quiet such as only the dead know.*
*Unless you're a ghost.*
The quartet's journey continued along a similar vein for most to the way to Hogwarts. After Blaise had bid them farewell, they had been visited by Cho Chang, the pretty Ravenclaw Seeker, now going into her seventh and final year, whom Harry had once had a crush on. As of the Yule Ball the previous year she had, though nobody knew how it came about, begun dating Neville.
As she stuck her head into the compartment, Harry grinned. "Let me guess. You're looking for Trevor."
"How'd you know that?" she asked, puzzled that the four knew what she was doing without her having to tell them.
"Neville loses his toad every other day," explained Hermione.
Half an hour later two fifth-years, Carmen Ryder and Jefferson Hope, come by to say hello. Harry and Hermione had already spoken to them during their brief visit to the Prefect's compartment up front. Carmen and Jefferson were Gryffindor's newest prefects, replacing Angelina Johnson and Maximillian McCoy.
At one point or another during the trip to Hogwarts they were visited by all of the Gryffindor fifth and sixth years, as well as good number of other students. The sky was beginning to darken and the countryside speeding past the window was now familiar. They would soon be arriving at the Hogsmeade station and from there, Hogwarts.
Harry was starting to think that perhaps they would manage to survive the entire journey without being forced into a confrontation with Draco Malfoy. Unfortunately, as often happens, just when he thought this, the door to their compartment was pulled open and a familiar drawl greeted them.
"Ah, Potter. I've been looking for you." Malfoy stood in the doorway, his silvery blonde hair neatly trimmed and his cold grey eyes gleaming with unknown intent. Surprisingly enough he did not look all that different from the last time Harry and the others had seen him.
*Oh no. It's the arsehole again.*
*Can't we ever be free of him?*
My luck's good, but not that good, replied Harry.
Malfoy smirked and inclined his head. "I thought you might perhaps be worried about me. So I decided let you know that I'm alive and well."
Harry, making sure that his wand was close at hand, replied, "I'm so sorry to hear that!"
"Where're your bodyguards, Malfoy?" asked Ron, bringing to everyone's attention that the pale faced Slytherin was indeed unattended by his normal companions. Harry reached out with his magic, thinking that perhaps Crabbe and Goyle were merely waiting outside, and was surprised to find that he could not sense either of them anywhere nearby. Ron suddenly smirked and asked in a haughty voice, "Can't you afford them now that daddy's a fugitive?"
"Hardly, Weasel," retorted Malfoy, narrowing his eyes and letting the charming tone in his voice slip away, replaced by a harsh bluntness.
~Harry, are you seeing this?~
He spared Ginny a quick glance and a nod, not wanting to let his attention stray from Malfoy for too long. Something was definitely up. Harry was closely, and as surreptitiously as possible, scrutinising Malfoy's magical aura.
I'm seeing it. Damned if I understand it though, he sent to Ginny, watching as Malfoy's steely grey and sepia hued aura shimmered and flickered like a coat of low flames.
~If he's a Death Eater,~ Ginny remarked, ~he's certainly hiding it very well.~
According to the Order it's impossible to change or hide your aura.
*It is,* confirmed Merlin. *A person or thing's magical signature is a fixed part of them. If you changed the aura you would be changing the object surrounded by it.*
*It might be possible to mask it for a time,* suggested Osiris, *but only for a few minutes and even short a time would be a great strain on anyone trying it.*
Harry returned his attention to Malfoy, who was engaged in a silent staring contest with Ron. Deciding to try and rattle his nemesis he said, "So, Malfoy, kill anyone over the summer?"
Malfoy turned his cool gaze away from Ron and towards Harry, his grey eyes glittering, and replied with surprising nonchalance, "Nobody important."
~If he wants somebody important to kill, we can introduce him to Fudge.~
Ginny...
With a short, mocking bow, Malfoy waved a hand and stepped out of their compartment. "I'd best be off. We're nearly at Hogwarts and I still have to change into my robes. Ta ta."
After Malfoy slid the door closed and they listened to his footsteps receding, it was Ginny that spoke up first. "He's got something planned. I can see it in his eyes."
"Yes, well, Malfoy is a cunning sod if nothing else," agreed Hermione, looking at the closed door with a slight frown marring her brow.
"Truth be told, I'm a bit worried," admitted Ron. "The little git didn't even try to properly insult us. Not once! Like Ginny said, something's up with him."
Harry, who was looking out the compartment window, shook his head slightly and said, "It doesn't really matter. Not right now."
With a soft smile tugging at his lips he drew his friends' attention to outside, where they could see that the Hogwarts Express was slowly pulling up to the Hogsmeade station. If they craned their necks and pressed right up against the glass, they could just make out the tall spires and towers of Hogwarts.
"We're back."
TBC...