Forest Scene

2. Interrupted by Fireworks

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It was a wonderful dinner. The food wasn't as great as that which the house-elves prepared every year at hogwarts, but it was still good. Harry wouldn't have minded even if there had been no food at all, since he was spending the evening with some of what he thought were the best people in the world. After midnight, they had spread about the room in smaller groups chatting about pointless stuff, such as wether or not the Chuddley Cannons would have an opportunity next year (they had had an expectacularly bad performance this one). George and Fred made everybody laugh showing off one of their new inventions on Percy (Ear Extenders, which far from the usefulness of their siblings, the Extendable Ears, were only good for a prank, as they made ears elongate two or three feet up in the air, giving the person the look of a fur-less bunny). That the twins kept making Percy the victim of most of their jokes was actually a sign that they had forgiven him. Ron had challenged Harry to a match of chess, and though he had tried hard, his pieces had received the usual beating.

As they were having way too much fun to care about the time, they hadn't realized just how late it was. It wasn't until Mrs. Weasley started yelling at them to go to bed that Harry looked at the clock on the wall to see it read "Time to Sleep". The Weasleys had booked rooms for the night at the Leaky Cauldron, and they were all going to stay there and have lunch un Christmas day, before Harry had to go back to the school.

Ron, who was sharing Harry's room, had already started changing into his too short pajamas when Mrs. Weasley, wearing a nightgown, walked in the room.

"Kids, do you know where Ginny is?" she asked.

"Oh, I think she went to the rooftop," said Ron, "but that was like an hour ago."

"Harry, do you mind going to look for her?" she said. Harry was the only one that was still dressed up.

"Sure, Mrs. Weasley. I'll be right back."

Harry quickly found the way to the rooftop. As he'd spent a lot of time here back at the beginning of his third year at Hogwarts, he knew the layout of the Leaky Cauldron rather well. However, he wasn't prepared for the sight that awaited him there.

The sky over Diagon Alley was ablaze with the most magnificent fireworks he'd ever seen, including the ones Fred and George had lighted on that memorable first day of Umbridge as Hogwarts' Headmistress. Much like those fireworks, the ones he was watching had amazing shapes and kept flying around instead of fading out like the muggle ones did. Catherine wheels were running amok, while dragon-shaped clouds of sparks flew over them. Shooting stars drifted slowly from the street level and up to what seemed miles into the night sky.

Distracted by this impressive manifestation of magic, it took Harry a moment to remember why he was there. He turned around looking for the youngest Weasley, and finally he saw her, sitting by the edge of the terrace. She was staring at the fireworks, but at the muggle ones. The streets occupied by the wizarding shops existed in a magically enlarged space surrounded by normal houses. It had been muggle-protected so no one would ever want to build something through it, and it was invisible to outside eyes. Only through the Leaky Cauldron could anyone get into it coming from muggle London, or even see it; and the rooftop of the bar was the only place where bot worlds, the wizarding and the muggle one, were visible at once.

"Hey!" called Harry. Ginny didn't answer right away and he noticed that she was rubbing her eyes, before she turned to face him. Had she been crying?

"Hi, Harry. What's up?" she asked.

"Er... your mum was looking for you." Harry hesitated for a moment. "Is everything alright?"

She just sighed, and Harry had a feeling he might know just what this was about. He walked towards her and sat on the edge of the terrace.

"You're thinking about him, aren't you?" he said. It took a moment for her to reply.

"Yeah... wonder what's he doing now. You know... I really thought we were going somewhere. I don't know what happened."

Ginny sounded on the verge of tears, and Harry didn't really know what to say. They had all thought that Dean and her were alright, and their breaking-up earlier that week had surprised them all. He hadn't talked to Ginny about it; he supposed she'd be more likely to discuss it with her girl friends. Dean hadn't said anything to him either, maybe because he was too close to the Weasleys, or perhaps simply because Seamus was much closer to him. And Harry had had other things in his mind, as Voldemort, though deep in hidding, hadn't remained still, and this kept him worried all the time.

"Did you love him?" he asked. The moment he said this, however, he wished he hadn't, because Ginny looked him in the eyes for the first time that night (he suddenly realized she hadn't talked to him all night, not even to say hello), and her tear-strained face was the most pitiful thing he'd ever seen, with the possible exception of that time they had run into Neville at St. Mungo's.

"I'm sorry, I don't even know why I said that." It was true, though he suspected the confussion in his thoughts had something to do with his earlier little chat with Luna.

"I do," she said, ignoring his last words, "or at least, I guess I do. I don't know. This - " she stopped for a moment, seemingly fighting back the tears " - this is nasty business, Harry. You think you care about someone and they - they care about you too, and everything seems great until it all falls apart. And it's just too hard - " this time, she couldn't hold it anymore, and begun sobbing quietly, shaking under the bright light of the fireworks from two different worlds.

Awkwardly, Harry patted her softly on the back, and all of the sudden, she threw herself on his arms, bawling openly now. He put his arms around her shoulders and they stayed like that for several minutes. All around them, people were still cellebrating, but up in the rooftop of the Leaky Cauldron time seemed to have stopped, as Harry held a completely broken down Ginny, her tears running down his bottle green dress robes.

After a while she calmed down somewhat, and he gave her a handkerchief with which to clean her face.

"I'm sorry, Harry... please, don't tell Ron about this, okay? I've told him I was fine, I don't want him to go and do anything to Dean..."

"It's alright, Ginny. Sorry I'm not much help... don't have too much experience with these things myself, you know? But yeah, better not expose him to Ron's temper," he said.

With a sad smile, she finished cleaning up her face, though her swollen red eyes betrayed the fact that she'd been crying. "Having experience on this isn't something desirable, Harry. Maybe someday you will, but I hope for your sake that you skip this part and go right to the good stuff."

Not knowing how to answer to this, Harry remained silent until Ginny was ready to go downstairs, and then he walked her to the room she was sharing with her mother, where they said goodnight to each other awkwardly.

Back in his room, Ron was already snoring, so Harry changed into some pajamas with the Leaky Cauldron logo on them (he hadn't brought his) and slipped quietly into his bed. Usually, he would be thinking of the gifts he would be getting the next morning, but he couldn't really care about that right now. Maybe that was a sign of him growing up, he thought idly. Tonight his mind was occupied with strange thoughts of things he hadn't really stop to consider before. The things Luna had told him so out of the blue... his old feelings for Cho - what had those been? What had happened to them? And then, having seen Ginny torn apart over the loss of someone - Dean, of all people, someone who had sleep in the same bedroom with Harry for the past five and a half years. Was Dean crying by himself, wherever he was now? Had Ginny also cried like this, with no one noticing, when Michael Cormer had left her? Had Cho cried too, after having dumped that same guy? She certainly used to cry a lot back when they'd been dating...

He thought of the first time he had noticed Cho, back before that match against Ravenclaw, how beautiful she had looked. Even now, she was the most beautiful girl he had ever known. He thought of Luna, reading The Quibbler on the train, back when they had never seen each other - how that person had risked her life to follow him on his chase of a wild dream. Ginny had done that too, and he thought back of the day when he was trying to find Platform nine and three-quarters; she had cried then too, the first time all of her brothers would be gone from home.

Women cried a lot, he thought, as he closed his eyes. But they flew well, too. Ginny was great on a broomstick, she had scored a bunch of times on their last match against Slytherin, Luna could ride a Thestral better than anyone, and Cho was as good a Seeker as he was. But she could never catch up to him now that he was riding his Firebolt, and when he looked over his shoulder, he saw she was quickly falling behind, except that now she was pointing her wand at him and firing, and the spell hit his broom and threw him off it, and Harry was falling, falling to the ground, and everyone around him was screaming his name.

"Harry! Harry!"

It took him a few seconds to realize that someone was actually calling out his name. He opened his eyes with effort, to see Lupin standing over him, his face bathed in the sunlight coming in through the window. Apparently they had slept into mid-morning.

"What's it? Did something - " he started to say, but the look in Lupin's face told him something bad had indeed happened. He bolted up, and grabbed Lupin's arm tightly. "What is it?" he asked, urgency in his voice. In the bed opposite him, Ron yawned, the noise having awakened him.

"There's been an attack at the Ministry, Harry. We don't know exactly what happened yet, but Dumbledore's sent word that you are to go back to the castle as soon as possible."

"The Ministry?" interrupted Ron, looking very pale all of the sudden.

"Yeah, but don't worry Ron - your dad wasn't even there, he's alright. But you must get ready too, Molly is already up and gathering all of your stuff so that you can go back to the Burrow. I'm afraid things are going to be really busy here, specially for Ministry employees like your dad and your brother Percy, so she'll want to have you all back in a safe place."

When Lupin left, Harry and Ron stared at each other.

"What do you reckon happened?" asked Ron. "You think You-know-who did it?"

"I reckon so," replied Harry, who had started getting dressed, "I just wonder if anyone's injured... hope Dumbledore'll tell me."

"Well... if you find out about anything, will you let me know? I doubt mum's gonna tell us much, in any case."

"Sure," said Harry, though he doubted he could say much more in a letter than what Ron could learn from reading the Daily Prophet, since he'd already been warned by Professor McGonagall not to send any sensitive information through owl post, and this looked just like the kind of things he wouldn't be able to talk about in a letter.

Lupin was waiting for him when he made it downstairs, wearing his dress robes (the only clothes he had brought). After hurriedly saying goodbye to the Weasleys ("Sorry about last night," said a blushing Ginny on Harry's ear), they walked to the fireplace, and soon enough, after another twirling and dazzling trip, they were back at the Headmaster's office, back in Hogwarts.

...

"Hello, Harry, Lupin," said Professor Dumbledore, not a trace of his usual cheerfulness. "Please take a seat, I'll be with you in a minute."

So Harry sat on a chair next to Fawkes the Phoenix, and distractedly caressed the feathers on the back of his head while Dumbledore talked to the people on the pictures. Lupin chosed a seat next to the fireplace, which was now alight with the usual, non-magical fire again. Harry listened carefully, trying to catch anything of relevance, but the old Headmaster was just issueing instructions to the different picture people to go and check what was going on in the places they had access to.

After a while of this, Dumbledore turned around, sat on the chair behind his desk, leaned back and clossed his eyes, sighing. Harry waited for a few seconds before clearing his throat and speaking.

"Er... sir?"

Dumbledore straigthened up slowly and looked at him with those deep blue eyes whose piercing gaze Harry knew so well.

"Of course, Harry... you'll want to know what's been going on. Well, we aren't certain on all the details, but about an hour and a half ago, half a dozen Death Eaters apparated into the Ministry of Magic and attacked one of the offices there. They killed three or four people - I don't know exactly how many yet - and injured several more. It was lucky that enough Aurors were close by, as they put up a terrible fight."

"Did they catch them, sir?" asked Lupin, who ignored as much of this as Harry did.

"No, Remus. The Aurors killed two of the attackers, but the rest of them managed to escape, and we believe they took something with them. And we don't know what that could be, since the offices they attacked are pretty much ruined. That will be one of our priorities, trying to figure out what was so important to risk an open attack to the Ministry - even today, the less busy day of the year."

Harry had other worries in mind, though. "Professor, did they harm... who did they get, Professor?" he asked, fearing the answer he might get. He knew plenty of good people that worked at the Ministry; Tonks, Kingsley, Madam Bonnes to name a few. The Weasleys too, but he already knew they were alright.

"I've sent Everard and Dilys, as well as some others, to find out what they can. They should be back soon enough. I should also be getting an official report from St. Mungo's, too, though that might take a while - "

Dumbledore stopped talking when one the witch named Dilys reappeared on her picture. Harry knew her, as she was the one that had let them know Mr. Weasley had been taken to St. Mungo's.

"Ah, Dilys, what have you find out?" said Dumbledore.

"I just heard the names of the ones they brought to St. Mungo's - not all of the people in the attack where sent there, mind you. I don't know which ones are dead and which are just injured, though."

"Aberdeen, Elias;" the witch started to read from a list she was holding, "Verbisky, Kane; Diggory, Amos - "

Amos Diggory worked on the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, so this probably meant that it had been his office the one the Death Eaters had attacked. Harry felt the blood thumping on his veins, drowning all the sounds in the Headmaster's office, including the voice of the witch on the picture. It wasn't necessary though, as he could still see her lips moving, forming the next name:

"Granger, Hermione."

...

To be concluded soon! Coming next: House elves and something scarier than He-who-must-not-be-named. And of course, the Forest Scene. Stay tuned! Hope you liked the little cliffhanger ;)

Text from the Wayback Machine's capture of the site, 22 September 2015.

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