Chapter 2: and now, everyone knows
"You're crazy!" Ron laughed, "We'd never hurt Harry, he's our best mate!"
"Ron's right, Harry means too much to the both of us!" Hermione chimed in glaring hatefully at the dark lord.
"Is that a fact, my young friends?" Voldemort chuckled, "You may have been with him, but I have seen inside him. I have seen the hurt. The hurt you caused. I have seen the pain. The pain that you caused."
"You're just trying to trick us, turn us against him," Hermione piped in, "Nothing you can say will ever change our minds on Harry."
"Ms. Granger, You're the smartest witch to possibly grace Hogwarts," Voldemort grinned, holding up an object. "Can you tell me what this is?"
"That's a pensieve …" Hermione narrowed her eyes, a feeling a dread and curiosity at what he was up to.
"CORRECT!" Voldemort cheered insanely, "They are making Mudbloods smarter these days."
"Hermione," Ron whispered, leaning over next to his girlfriend. "I think all those defeats Harry's sent him has sent him around the bend …"
"If you only knew, Weasley," Voldemort said holding up the pensieve, "But first, let me explain this. You see, as I have told you, I have seen in Harry Potter's mind, heard his thoughts, felt his feelings. And here, I've saved some of my favorites to brighten a rainy day, and now I'd like to share with you a few."
Voldemort then sat down beside the two chained up teens, and pulled his wand, "Displaydius memorioso!" he cast on the pensieve, and a large screen appeared before them. He turning to the two, "would you like some popcorn? Chocolate frogs? Every-flavor beans?" they just stared at him and his shrugged, "your loss."
"Now watch this one," Voldemort said as the first memory appeared on the screen.
---
"I can't wait to see Ron and Hermione again," Harry said excitedly, even though his summer with the Dursleys. Now he was back at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. He missed Sirius, but he had been keeping in touch with Hermione and Ron over the summer and for once they left little to nothing out. Hard to hid anything when you don't really want to talk about what you can't anyway.
"Hello, Harry dear!" Mrs. Weasley said, grabbing the boy in a surprise hug. She let him go quickly, "I'm sorry, I know how you big men don't like to be hugged and cared for, but I can't help myself."
"It's ok, Mrs. Weasley," Harry smiled shyly, "I don't mind it much. Where are Ron and Hermione?"
"Oh I think they're up in the first spare bedroom on the left," Mrs. Weasley smiled, "Tell them dinner will be ready shortly on your way!"
"Ok, Mrs. Weasley," Harry nodded, before running up the stairs.
He reached the room and started to open the door when he heard unusual sounds and giggling but thought nothing of it. He then smiled deviously and tip toed back down the stairs to his trunk, and pulled out his invisible cloak. He pulled on the cloak and quietly snuck up the stares, and as slowly as possible he opened the door, and eased inside. The sight he saw made him suck in a breath roughly.
Ron sat on the bed, and Hermione straddled his lap, with her legs wrapped around his waste. That could have been forgiven, but the fact they were kissing felt worse then the Crucio spell he received in forth year.
The Hermione in his mind that usually helped him made note they were both fully clothed. Well, she can't be helpful all the time.
Harry wanted to run, hide, strangle Ron, cry, anything, but all he could do was stand there hidden by his cloak and watch his two best friends make out. Hermione finally broke the kiss and looked serious, "Ron, what about Harry?"
"What about him?" Ron asked, blinking in confusion, adding to Harry's urge to turn him to a field mouse and feed him to Crookshanks.
"What are we going to tell him about … you know us?" Hermione asked bashfully. "He's our best friend, Ron, and after everything he's been though, I don't want him to feel like we're abandoning him like he might feel Sirius or his parents have."
"Hermione, love, Harry's our best friend, your right," Ron said kissing her again, "If he's our best friend he'll be happy, no ecstatic about us becoming more then friends! Blood hell, first thing he'll probably ask me is how you are in the sack." He said with a wink.
"Now if Harry was in your position, you would ask that," Hermione teased, kissing his nose, "he knows how to treat a lady's dignity."
"Speaking of that question, Hermione …" Ron said sliding his hand between then and up the front of Hermione's skirt. "When am I going to find out the answer to that? How about right now? Harry shouldn't be here for a while yet, and shame to waste this nice comfy bed…"
Hermione jumped, but made no motion to push Ron's hand away, "Ron, no … I'm not ready … yet." Hermione said, adding a seductive smirk with the 'yet'. "I promise you won't have to wait too long, love."
The door slammed causing the couple to jump, and they both looked at the door in shock. "Just the breeze in the old mansion love, we're too jumpy these days …"
---
"Oh God …" Hermione was as pale as a ghost, "Oh God, oh God …"
"He … wanted to feed me to a that stupid CAT?!?" Ron was outraged by the thought.
"Enjoy that kiddies? Bet you didn't know he found out a whole WEEK before you had the guts to tell him, did you?" Voldemort questioned, sitting back and crossing his legs, "He spent a whole week pretending he didn't know anything. Oh that hurt him a lot, and you guys were all smiles, weren't you?"
"Want more?" Voldemort asked somewhat excitedly, "I know you'll enjoy this one. Especially you, Ms. Granger."
---
Ron and Harry sat in their four-poster beds, the other boys were already asleep, but Ron was keeping Harry awake.
At first they were talking about Quidditch, but quickly the conversation was turned to Hermione, and unlike the previous years, this time it was Ron who made the subject change.
"You know Harry, if I had known Hermione was such a good kisser, I would have told her I like her a long time ago," Ron said proudly, not noticing Harry's suddenly tense jaw.
"We haven't gone all the way yet," Ron confessed shyly, "But … she has let me touch her, and I gotta tell you, she's got the nicest feeling breasts, I mean, ten times better then Padma's and also … did you know she shaves, Harry? I mean … just like they say, it's always the quiet ones!"
'Shut up you bloody fool, before I cast the killing curse on you,' Harry thought as his 'best friend' rambled on and on.
"Harry, seriously, I need to ask your advice," Ron said seriously, causing Harry to foolishly look his way, "If you were loved Hermione, as more then a friend, how would you tell her that?"
'Oh … damn it.' Harry thought, rolling to where his back was to Ron, to hide the tears that were forming.
"Just … tell her, Ron," Harry said, Ron not noticing the trembling in his voice, "Tell her what a wonderful person she is, how beautiful she is, how she makes you feel. That's all … you really need … to do."
"Thanks, Harry, you're a great friend!" Ron beamed, before rolling over to go to sleep.
"Yeah … great …"
---
"Stop it …" Hermione whimpered, shaking her head, "I don't want to see anymore …"
"That jerk!" Ron cursed. He was having a totally different reaction then his girlfriend. "Friends don't like the girls their friends like!"
"What's the matter?" Voldemort asked, the two, "Don't like seeing the side of Harry that everybody but the two of you knew?" he then flicked his wand at the pensieve again. "Here, check out this one, it's good too."
---
Harry walked alone through the halls of Hogwarts when Draco, Crabb, and Goyle stepped in his path.
"I'm not in the mood, Draco," Harry said weakly.
"You remember when we first met, Potter?" Draco spat. "I gave you a choice, and I warned you. But you didn't listen, I bet you regret that now, don't you, Potter?"
"…"
"Where're your friends, Potter?" Draco chuckled, "Bet they've gone and left you to snog in some closet, or maybe retired early to their dorm room to shag like the filthy Mudblood and blood traitor they are!"
"…"
Draco's eyes widened, "Aren't you going to defend them, Potter?"
"Maybe you were right …" Harry sighed, avoiding eye contact, then in a flash Draco was on the ground with a nose gushing blood, "BUT THEY'RE MY FRIENDS, YOU BLOODY PRAT!"
"Some friends!" Draco said through his nose, "Do they ever think about you anymore? Do they really care?"
"I don't know …" Harry answered honestly, "but that won't stop me from caring about them."
---
"No more … please, no more!" Hermione cried, shaking her head in sobs.
"Even when you put a divide, he still stood up for you both, even when he doubted you." Voldemort stated with a sigh. "Loyal to the very bitter end …"
Why are you doing this?" Ron asked, his anger tested to the limit.
"Oh! Oh! Oh! I LOVE this one!" Voldemort all but bounced in his seat ignoring Ron's question. "This one is from a night you both have to remember. I'm sure you remember the night. You snuck away and stayed the night at Hogsmeade one Saturday night? The night you both lost your virginity? Well Harry lost something that night too. If only temporarily … he lost his sanity."
"What?" Hermione and Ron both asked, growing very concerned and frightened.
"Oh you remember, don't you?" Voldemort asked leaning back with a fangy grin, "You had him cover for you, LIE for you. McGonagall and Dumbledore both read him like a bloody book, but said nothing BECAUSE of what happened that night …"
"It began in the dorm room, frightening Seamus and Neville, who ran for McGonagall for help," Voldemort said, as he readied the Pensieve, "Harry went on a full blown mad rampage that if on a higher scale would have made me proud!"
---
Ginny and Lavender barely made it out of the way of the night table that tumbled in pieces down the stairs from the Dorms to the Commons Room. This only herald what the Gryffindors would come to call the night of Hurricane Harry.
Harry came stomping down the stairs, punching the wall occasionally; his eyes were wild, mad with grief. Months of pent up frustration exploded in a maddening rage.
He grabbed the first thing he could find, a tall lamp, and swung it like a bat, just barely missing Lavender, who was trying to get out of the way, shattering it against the stone wall.
He then grabbed a corner of a couch and lifted it up, tipping it over roughly out of his way, then he kicked one of the chairs into the fire, and grabbed a small table and slammed it against the floor roughly till it exploded in splinters.
"Mr. Potter what is the meaning of this?" Professor McGonagall asked pushing through the gathered crowd.
Harry glanced around at the aged professor and burst into tears, dropping to his knees. McGonagall quickly ran to him and wrapped him in an embrace, letting him cry in her arms as if he was a small child. She rubbed his back soothingly, and said meaningless words to try to calm him down.
"Why?" Harry choked out, "Why, Ron?" he cried, not caring who heard him and who didn't. "Why did she have to love him, why couldn't she love me? Why won't anyone ever love me?"
"Shhh," McGonagall cooed, holding him that much tighter, "A lot of people love you, just because they're together doesn't mean they don't love you, and Professor Dumbledore and myself love you as we would a grandson, and that's the Merlin honest truth, and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise, and who can forget Hagrid, he positively adores you!"
"Why can't Her… Hermione love me … l-like I love her?" Harry sobbed, feeling foolish for letting his feelings poor out, but unable to stop them anyway.
"Life's like that, Harry, Life's just like that …" McGonagall said softly, slipping Harry a sedative charm, "Now lets get you back to bed so you can sleep this off, while Professor Dumbledore and myself clean this up, ok, child?"
---
Ron had a look of complete betrayal while Hermione was now a withering sobbing mess.
"And that's all we have time for," Voldemort said standing up, "Believe you me, while that last one was my favorite, there were others like that, oh how you both have cut him so deep so … so far that when the time comes, you've made my job so much easier. I just wanted to share with you both some of my favorite parts of your best friend, and say thank you so much for all your help! Would you like a copy of the pensieve? I can see how you've both enjoyed this."
"Voldemort! Where are my friends?" Harry's voice called from the hallway.
"Speak of the devil!" Voldemort grinned, "I'm sure you're both anxious to see your Best Mate again, aren't you?"
The door to the room blasted open, and in walked Harry along with Dumbledore, Tonks, and various other Order members.
"Right on time, as always, Potter," Voldemort turned to the intruders, "Oh, put away those wands, I don't wish to fight you … yet, boy."
"Hermione, Ron are you ok?" Harry asked the two chained to the couch, but Ron just glared at him and Hermione avoided all eye contact.
"Hermione? Ron?" Harry asked in concern.
"They're fine, Harry, I just told them what you've selfishly avoided telling them yourself," Voldemort said as he began to apparate.
"What?" Harry asked, his blood turning cold.
"Guess what, Potter," Voldemort's voice sounded in the room, "Now everybody knows."
To Be Continued …