A/N: It's about bloody time I got this up! I've had this chapter and the next one (which will go up tomorrow) finished for quite some time now, but my computer's gay, so I haven't been able to post it. But here it is now!
*****
Chapter 37
Harry could only stare, unblinkingly, at the man who had twice attempted to take his life, but had just now saved it.
Giggs shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. Harry wasn't sure what to do, so he said, "Er, thanks." Then slapped himself on the forehead. How dumb had that sounded?
The man gave a small chuckle and nodded, then they fell again into an uneasy silence, only the crickets of night and ruffling of leaves making sound. Harry gazed at the man's sword and gasped. It was the Yun-Harla!
But that was impossible, how? Harry thought, and took a deeper glance at the sword. No, it wasn't the Yun-Harla, but very similar to it. It was alive, just like the Yun-Harla, but on closer inspection Harry noticed that the colors were different, as well as many of the grooves on the sword.
Giggs was scratching his left shoulder uncomfortably, having seen Harry's interest in the sword, seemingly waiting for an inevitable question.
"How, I mean…Katrina has a sword just like that, but…not the same…confused…" Harry stammered, looking at the man that he had five minutes ago considered his number one enemy next to Voldemort.
Giggs chuckled nervously, slicing the air a few times with the blade. "This is known as the Yun-Yammka, a real beauty, isn't she?" Harry could only nod. "It was carved from the coral reefs of Yuuzan'tar, a remote island filled with magical beings who love life, and cherish it, but ironically, being classified as magical creatures they exist outside of magic, and cannot use it, much like muggles. I'm sure you have seen this sword's brother, the Yun-Harla, with my…daughter. There are others that are similar, but these two seem to be the greatest, I left the Harla for my daughter when I was forced to abandon her."
Harry noticed the hurt in the man's eyes and asked sympathetically, "So, I mean, why did you leave her? Who was her mother? Why haven't you ever come back for her?"
Giggs gave him a grim smile. "It's…complicated, to put it lightly. I'm sure that one day I will be reunited with her, and hopefully I can live life to the fullest with her after that."
Harry was puzzled still, but didn't press, instead he nodded his head, pretending to understand.
The uneasy conversation was broken when three loud cracks echoed through the night. Harry hurriedly got to his feet and spun around to see Moody, Lupin, and Tonks surveying the scene, seemingly panting for breath. They must have been very rushed to get out here.
"Maximum blasting charm," Harry explained, motioning to the unconscious death eaters. He grimaced. "Bellatrix and Lucius got away, Malfoy almost took my head with him. If it weren't for Kris here," He jerked a finger at the black-haired blue-eyed man behind him. "I'd probably be dead."
The three nodded just as a few more people portkeyed in.
"HARRY!" He was nearly knocked to the ground when Hermione threw herself on him in a bone-crushing hug, wrapping her legs tightly around his waist and holding on for dear life.
After a few moments she let go of him and smiled over his shoulder. "Hello Snitch," She said with a wave.
Harry spun around and his jaw dropped at the sight of his golden-scaled dragon, looking completely unharmed.
Harry was unable to think further on this when he heard Ron's voice. "You!"
His red headed friend made a beeline for Giggs, but Harry held him back. "Relax Ron, it's okay. He saved my life."
Ron looked at him incredulously for a moment, but seeing the sincerity and truth in Harry's eyes, he nodded and backed off. Harry was slightly startled to see Serge, Cloud, Kongol, Tifa, and Professor Summers all standing on the driveway as well, next to the Hogwarts headmaster and Harry's head of house, Minerva McGonogall.
"It's been a long time Kris," Serge said, smiling from ear to ear.
"Has it?" Cloud said mysteriously, and everyone looked at him in confusion, whether it be from the simple fact that they all seemed to know Giggs or wondering what the hell he was talking about Harry didn't know.
Giggs shrugged and nodded to them all. "Too long, anyways. It's good to see you, everyone."
Harry and Hermione shared a silent look, and it was Hermione who spoke up. "Um yeah, well, now that that's over, would someone mind telling us how you all know one another?"
Kongol gave a booming chuckle. "Ahh, Kongol went to school with these men and woman. Friends of Kongol for long time, they have been."
Harry was only even more confused now. Giggs remedied that. "They're muggles Harry. Tifa, Cloud, Kongol, Serge, Sora, they're all graduated from the Seed Academy with me a few years ago. It's a place where the most elite hand-to-hand combatants are trained. As you can guess, Cloud graduated at the top of our class, with me right behind him."
The trio was stunned. They all knew each other? From school? How did this fit into everything?
Giggs looked to the stars and sighed. "All in good time Harry, all in good time." With a soft pop he dissapparated, leaving everyone else unsure of what to do or say.
The silence was broken by a light cough from the Granger's porch. "Good evening all," Mr. Granger, Hermione's father, said nervously. "It's great to see you Hermione, and you as well, Harry, but may I ask, what are you all doing here?"
*****
After a long night of explaining exactly what happened and obliviating all the muggles that had witnessed the duel (excluding the Granger's, of course), the trio finally found themselves back in the Gryffindor Common Room.
"What a night huh?" Ron said to no one in particular. "Kris Giggs shows up and lo and behold - he's decided that he wants to save us, not kill us."
"Did I just hear something about my dad?" Came an interested voice from the girl's staircase. The three of them all turned their heads to see Katrina walking towards them, one hand covering her mouth in a yawn while the other one held a book.
"Yeah," Harry answered her, rubbing his eyes and patting the place on the couch next to him. Normally a girlfriend would be very jealous of this gesture, but Hermione knew full well that Harry had eyes only for her, and there was the fact that she was snuggled up close to him, her head on his shoulder, as well.
Katrina took the invite and sat next to Harry, giving him a prying look. "So you say my father didn't try to kill you this time?" She spoke with no emotion, just like her father. Harry was stricken by how similar she was to her father, excluding the whole evilness part. But even that wasn't for sure right now.
Harry sighed. Why couldn't anything be taken at face value in his life? "Yeah, I saw the Granger's house being attacked, so immediately I got Snitch and he did his weird-apparation thing and we were at the Granger's. I took most of the death eater's by surprise, but Voldemort was already gone at that point. The only ones I didn't get were Malfoy and Lestrange. I fought Malfoy with swords, and I eventually he got the better of me, but before he could take a finishing swipe at my head your dad jumped in and blocked him."
Harry rubbed his hands together over his face in a mixture of emotions. "But why would he do that? He's tried to kill me twice already, and come damn near close to being successful. Anyways, after that your dad fought Lucius for about thirty seconds before he got the best of him, and Lucius took off."
Next Harry gave a shrill laugh. "It seems that your dad went to school with those guys that are tutoring us in Weapons class. Something like SeeD, I think."
Katrina nodded. "Yeah, I know. Cloud pulled me aside the other day and told me all about it."
Harry and the others were startled by this. Ron blurted out what was on all their minds, "But Cloud hates you!"
The young Giggs laughed. "Not as much as you'd think. But anyways, I've got to get to bed, I dunno why I couldn't sleep earlier." She yawned, then smiled. "But it looks like I can now. Goodnight all."
With a parting wave she left for the girls dormitories, leaving a slightly shaken Harry, Ron, and Hermione behind her. Harry shared a glance with Hermione, wondering exactly what Katrina was referring to. Hermione scrunched her face up in response, and Harry knew that she was thinking the same thing. He gave her a small shrug, and by the look on her face he knew that she didn't think it as minor an occurrence as he did.
"I really wish you two wouldn't do that," Ron said, breaking Harry and Hermione from their silent conversation, each giving him a quizzical look. Ron rolled his eyes. "The way that you two talk without words and such, it gets really annoying when I'm sitting her watching your conversation and have no idea what you're talking about. But whatever, you obviously don't care. I'm tired, I'm going to sleep. I'll see you both in the morning."
With that he spun on his heel and stormed off to the boys dormitories, leaving Harry and Hermione shell-shocked behind him. "Er, well…maybe when he has what we have, he'll stop being jealous?" Harry offered.
Hermione sighed and shook her head. "I don't get it, I mean, I thought he was past this? I thought he said that he was fine with us being together? And he's got a girlfriend now doesn't he? Why would he be jealous?"
Harry could only shrug. "No idea, and well, technically Luna's not really his girlfriend, they're just going to Hogsmeade together. But whatever, he's gone now, so here we, all alone, in the common room, late at night, with no distractions…" He let his sentence trail off with a suggestive wink, and Hermione grinned at him.
She pulled Harry on top of her as they smashed their lips together in a passionate kiss, and they stayed that way for a long time into the night, all thoughts of Ron and Voldemort no longer on their mind.
*****
It was a few days later when they finally got to their first Hogsmeade weekend of the year. Harry was very excited, and it showed as he waited at the base of the girls stairs with Ron, both anxious about their dates.
"Oi! Luna! What's taking you so bloody long up there? We're gonna miss the carriages at this rate! And they've got free turkey legs in there today!" Harry shook his head and laughed at his friend's remark.
"Always thinking with your stomach aren't you Piggy?"
"Shut up Drake."
Harry rolled his eyes, and returned his focus to the stairs, not commenting on his nickname. In all truthfulness, Harry didn't care much for the name. It reminded him far to much of Draco Malfoy, the person who Harry hated probably third or fourth most in the world, right behind Voldemort and Wormtail, as well as Snape and Bellatrix Lestrange. He didn't like Draco's father to much either.
Harry smirked to himself. 'Draco thinks he's my arch-nemesis. Ha! I've got so many more important people to worry about, but he's got all his sights and hatred on me. It's kind of sad, really.'
That thought had him smiling when Luna, Ginny (her and Dean were going to Hogsmeade just as friends, and nothing more, along with Neville - Harry wondered what may happen there), Parvati, Lavender, and Hermione all came down the stairs, looking cute all bundled up in their winter cloaks and Gryffindor scarves.
Parvati and Lavender (who had each broken up with their boyfriends of a few months ago, then gotten new ones, and broken up with them as well) were going with Seamus, all as friends. Though Harry noted that he had seen Lavender taking one or two longing glances at the sandy-haired Irishman over the last few weeks.
Katrina had opted to go stag, despite the protests of all the girls. They all wanted to make her a part of the Victors, bringing their number to an even ten (though that wasn't the reason) but she for some reason stubbornly refused to join the group, saying that she didn't deserve to be in it. This baffled everyone, but after a few weeks they finally gave up on it. Katrina just seemed to be the kind of girl that liked to be on her own. Parvati and Lavender were insistent that she had a secret boyfriend though, as she was always disappearing late at night, and no one knew where to.
"Hey there beautiful," Harry said with a smile as Hermione ascended the stairs and walked over to him. She blushed slightly and gave him a chaste kiss on the mouth.
"You know, you already have me Potter, you don't need to resort to flattery," She told him, grinning, knowing full well that she loved the flattery just as much as Harry loved to give it to her.
Harry grinned back and said, "I know, but flattery is what gets me the things that all of our friends don't get to see," He finished the sentence with a smirk, and that quickly turned into a grin as Hermione's face went as red as a stunner spell, and the rest of his friends gave him sickening looks.
"Not an image I wanted in my head before I go on my first date Drake," Ron replied, and a few people giggled.
Then Lavender, giggling, piped up, "What's that about head Ron?"
Now the room went into an all-out uproar in laughter, even Hermione joining in. At least she did know that innuendo.
Everyone left the school in a much lighter mood, laughing and making jokes at one another's expense. When all nine of them crammed into one carriage to go to Hogsmeade, Seamus was dismayed, as the last one to get in, that there was no where left to sit. He spun around in angry circles until Parvati said, laughing, "Why don't you sit on your rumpy?"
Seamus scowled at her while everyone else exploded in laughter. He eventually just smirked at them all and sat himself right in Lavender's lap, who immediately flushed a deep shade a magenta. Harry noticed that a slight twinge of jealousy flashed through Parvati's eyes before she too, joined in all the laughter.
Everyone said their good-bye's after they departed the carriage, all shaking their heads at Luna's parting comment. "Everyone remember not to drink more than four butterbeers today, because it's the first Saturday of November and if you do it will mean bad luck for the rest of the month. My father told me that a groppledunk scaper came to him in a dream once and told him that. Have a good day then."
Harry took Hermione's hand and lead her through all of Hogsmeade, making sure to stop at every store that he could find. He felt a sort of sick pleasure when he saw Cho Chang walking with her group of friends with a brace over her nose.
What he wasn't expecting was for her to come up and talk to him. "Harry," She said nervously, obviously scared of what she was about to say.
"Yes?" Harry answered impatiently, wondering what in Merlin's beard he was doing listening to this girl after what she said about Hermione.
Cho took a deep breath, then let it out before talking. "Look Harry, you have to know that I didn't mean those things I said about Hermione at the quidditch game," Harry snorted and looked away, not believing her.
But Cho didn't back down so easily. "Please, you have to understand, I - I know that you're a much better seeker than I am," 'Well there's one thing you've got right' Harry thought to himself angrily. "So I thought that the only way I could beat you was by distracting you, and the best way to do that would be to insult your fiancee."
Hermione stiffened next to him, and Harry felt her hand squeeze his a little tighter. Cho continued. "Look, I'm sorry, I really am, but I honestly didn't mean those things I said about Hermione," Cho looked to be near tears at this point, and Harry, getting a sudden inspiration, narrowed his eyes slightly and reached out, probing her mind with the Legilmency skills that he had been learning from Professor Dumbledore.
He didn't hear the rest of Cho's pleas, for he was too astonished to think anything for a moment after he realized that she was completely sincere. After deducting this, he smiled at her and put up a hand to stop her rant. "It's okay Cho, I believe you,"
Hermione shot him a quick look, and she read his face quickly, instantly understanding what he had done. She smiled warmly and turned back to Cho.
"It's okay Cho, I forgive you also. Oh - and please tell your friend Marrieta that I'm sorry about the pimples, if she needs me too I can take the curse off."
Cho dropped her jaw in disbelief for a moment before nodding with an ear to ear smile. "Thank you, you have no idea how much that means to me. I'll tell Marietta what you said, but she did get those pimples hexed off, it just took the strongest medi-witch in all of England to do it for her."
Hermione blushed at the compliment, then smiled at Cho, elbowing Harry in the ribs.
"What? Oh - yeah. Er, Cho, I'm sorry about hitting that bludger at you, I was just really mad and-"
Now it was Cho's turn to put up her hand. "No, don't apologize, it was quite alright. The move was completely legal, not to mention it gives me something new to work on when I go to professional quidditch tryouts next year."
Harry breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at her. "Any team would be lucky to have you Cho. Well, if you'll excuse us, we need to be buying some Christmas presents. So we'll see you later then!"
After a friendly wave, they departed, and Harry and Hermione began their Christmas shopping. They had decided to buy everything together and give things out as being from the both of them, rather than buy things separate.
For Parvati and Lavender, Hermione had owled her mother and ordered a year-long subscription to a muggle girl gossip magazine, something called Cosmo. For Dean Harry had snuck out one night and in a muggle video store, bought a muggle video called '100 greatest football goals of all time', and he used his 'celebrity status' to get a signed photograph of the Irish National Quidditch Team, signed by all the players.
For Neville he and Hermione had gotten him a gag-gift of a popular muggle book series that a wizard had gotten hold of, and wrote one for wizards, entitled, How to Improve Your Spell Aim for Dummies.
He and Hermione had bought an adorable baby kitten for Ginny, (much better looking than Crookshanks in Harry's opinion, but he didn't say that), and for Ron - well they were still working on Ron.
Harry laughed aloud as they passed a bookstore towards the end of the town. "Look Hermione - 101 Reasons to be Afraid of Werewolves. Do you think Remus would like that?"
Hermione grinned and they walked into the store together. Hermione immediately pulled Harry into an aisle and fiercely pressed her lips to his. Harry was confused but satisfied at first until he saw what Hermione had obviously seen.
Kris Giggs was at the counter, purchasing a book entitled. The Most Horrible Dark Curses that are not Considered Unforgivables. Harry watched him closely as Giggs paid for the purchase and dissapparated on the spot, apparently not wanting to be seen.
Harry then put forth all his passion into the kiss, which lasted a few more minutes until Hermione pulled away, breathless. "Has he gone yet?" She whispered in his ear, so as not to be overheard.
Harry smirked at her. "Oh he left ages ago,"
Hermione tried to glare at him but couldn't so instead she gave him one last quick kiss before they went and purchased the book for Lupin. Then Harry thought of something. If Giggs had bought that book…
"Hermione," He said suddenly, letting go of her hand. "You go ahead without me to the Three Broomsticks, there's something I need to do." Harry felt very, very guilty about it, but he used his legilmency to push her mind into agreeing with him, and he breathed a small sigh of relief when she nodded.
"Okay," She said, standing on her toes and giving him a soft kiss on the cheek. "I'll meet you there in say, half an hour?"
Harry nodded and watched as she left and was lost in the crowded street, then he turned back to the bookstore and, feeling guilty again, swiped the same book that Giggs had purchased, knowing that he was underage to buy such a book, and he didn't want it known that Harry Potter was studying the dark arts.
Knowing that he had some free time before he was going to meet Hermione and the others at the three broomsticks, Harry charmed the front and back covers of the book to resemble a quidditch book temporarily, and he sat down on a bench and read, horrified, of some of the worst curses ever known to wizard kind.
*****
A/N: Okay, now for the bad news. I really don't like where my story is going. I'm way to far from cannon for my liking, so there'll only be about fifteen-twenty more chapters before I wrap this all up. The final battle will be in one HUGE epilogue, with plenty of character deaths, both victors and death eaters alike. R/R!!!