Disclamer: I don't own Harry Potter. Duh!
A/N: Well, so sorry for the delay but I seem to have a kind of post-HBP block but here it is now! I was planning on writing a really big chapter with everything that happens before they leave but that was taking too long so I'll be posting half of it now and the rest when the bloody block leaves me alone. Anyway, this chapter isn't one of my favorites because I had to explain a lot of things and sometimes that can get boring but there was nothing I could do about that, it had to be done. So, I hope you don't hate it and don't forget to review to let me know what you think.
Chapter 6 - Setting Things Straight (Part 1)
"We won't apologize for lying." Said Harry in a serious tone, looking at Remus. He liked the man, he really did, but this was not about him. He had to let them know how they felt about the Order, and right now, he wasn't speaking to his last link to his father, he was speaking to an Order member.
"Nobody here is asking for an apology, Harry. We just want to understand. Why did you feel like you had to lie? Don't you trust Tonks and I?" Remus asked, not trying to hide the hurt in his voice and that affected Harry somehow. This was going to be harder than he thought. The people they cared about were hurt, disappointed and downright mad at them right now but they couldn't let this affect them, they had a point to make and they would do it.
"It's not you that we don't trust. We don't trust the Order. It's nothing personal." Harry's cool statement was met by several outraged replies that he couldn't quite make out, as every order member seemed to be speaking at the same time, but he could hear a non-order member shouting at him very clearly.
"What about me, huh? I'm not a bloody member! When were you planning on telling me that you've been going at it with Hermione behind my back?" Harry had never seen Ron this mad, or this red, before. He was standing across the table from Harry and looking down at him with a look on his face that showed that he wanted nothing more than just beat him to a pulp.
"Ron, …" Harry started, standing up himself. He knew that Ron was going to flip over this but he was really not looking forward this conversation, especially in front of all these people.
"Why her, Harry?" Ron asked, pain now mixed with the anger on his face. "You could have any bloody girl you wanted. Damn, you even dated the most popular girl in school last term. Why this now?"
"That's the thing, Ron. Hermione isn't like Cho, or any other girl. She likes me for who I truly am, and not just because I'm famous. She is special and what we have is special. We didn't plan for this to happen and we didn't tell you sooner because we were still sorting out what all of this meant. Also, we wanted to tell you in person, because we knew how upset you would be and the reason you would fell this way." Harry said all of this looking intently into Ron's eyes, trying to convey to him that he really meant all those things he said but at Harry's last statement Ron avoided his eyes so he stopped speaking.
Harry was pleased to see that Ron didn't look angry anymore but at the same time he felt extremely guilty for causing the hurt he was seeing on his best friend's eyes. Ron now was staring with a pained look on his face at Hermione that had been staring and poking at her food since Ron's outburst.
"Does that mean… Harry said `w-we'… Does that mean you knew? All this time you knew how I felt?" Ron whispered incredulously to Hermione.
"I knew you fancied me… since the Yule Ball." Answered Hermione quietly, still playing with her food. "And the funny thing is that I liked you too. I had a major crush on you for the longest time, but as you never made a move or anything and we kept fighting all the time, I started thinking that maybe you didn't want to fancy me. I know it sounds weird but you were always making fun of me, never supported me on things like SPEW or even prefect duties, so I reached the conclusion that you were ashamed of me; one thing was to be friends but it was another thing completely to date the bossy, plain looking know-it-all. So, at the end of last term, after many nights of crying myself to sleep I decided that I had to get over you, and after everything that happened at the Department of Mysteries I finally did. I got over you." After saying this, she finally looked up at Ron, who had spent the whole time she was speaking frozen in place, with his mouth hanging open. She had tears in her eyes and looked like she was trying very hard to keep herself together. "I'm sorry, but when I woke up on the hospital wing after almost dying I realized that life it's too short to spend waiting for a guy that doesn't seem to want you."
People all around were gaping at her while Ron just kept opening and closing his mouth like a fish but no sound came out. Out of everybody in the room, Harry was the only one not surprised by this revelation. Hermione had told him this on a rainy afternoon last week, he had been extremely jealous at first but after she assured him that she was really over Ron and by no means their relationship was any kind of rebound and that she wasn't with him just because she couldn't be with Ron, he had calmed down.
"I know this will be hard for you to accept, Ron" Hermione continued, realizing that Ron wouldn't be speaking any time soon. "But I think that if you are really honest with yourself you will see that the only reason you are feeling this hurt right now, is because you always considered me your possession even though we were never a couple. I was something that you had and Harry didn't, and now that he took that away from you, you are feeling angry and betrayed." She stood up and leaned over the table so that her face was closer to Ron's. "This isn't about you fancying me or wanting to be with me. Once again this is just about Harry and what Harry has that you don't. I just hope you realize that soon, because Harry and I have already lost too much to lose our best friend over some silly thing as your petty jealousy." When Hermione finished talking her voice was breaking and there were tears running down her face, Ron was looking at her stunned and apparently hadn't found his voice yet.
"Well, I have a lot to do today. Are you going to be escorting me to my house?" She said trying to compose herself while turning to look at Tonks.
"Yeah, sure." Said Tonks getting up fast and knocking down her chair, she seemed quite eager to leave the tension that had been created in the room.
"I'll see you later, Ok?" Said Hermione giving Harry a hug.
"Are you sure you'll be ok? I could go meet you after I finished at Gringotts." He said looking at her and pointedly ignoring the looks their were getting from the others in the room.
"No, I'll be fine. Actually, I was hoping you could buy our school things while you are at Diagonal Alley, we might not have time to do it later." She whispered the end giving him a pointed look that showed him that she hadn't changed her mind about their summer plans.
"Ok, I'll see you tonight then." He gave her a kiss on the cheek and she left the room with Tonks.
"Remus, I suppose you'll be the one taking me to Gringotts, right?" Asked Harry moving towards the door, hoping to leave as soon as possible. Remus just nodded; clearly still hurt that Harry lied to him. "Great. I'll just grab a couple of things upstairs and we can go." Said Harry already walking out of the room.
"Wait there, Potter. We are not finished here." Said Moody trying to get him to come back.
"No, as far as I'm concerned, we're finished." Harry said not even turning around before he closed the door behind him.
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As he was lying on his bed back at Grimmauld Place, Harry couldn't think of a word to describe how he was feeling right now better than exhausted, physically and emotionally. He had just come back from Diagonal Alley and from the reading of Sirius will; and, to be honest, it had not been as bad as he thought it would. In fact, he was pretty sure thinking about it had been more emotional draining than the reading itself. Apparently Sirius had wrote this will during the `First War' when Harry was just about one year-old and hadn't had an opportunity to change it with being in Azkaban and going into hiding, so there were no last goodbyes or advices for the future, - what would have he said to a baby anyway? - just a statement that everything that he owned would belong to Harry in the event of his death. So Harry just had to spend a couple of hours going through boring documents and signing papers.
After they had left the bank, Harry had dragged Remus - who still wasn't speaking more than the absolutely necessary - to almost every single shop in the Alley and had bought not only his and Hermione's school supplies but also everything that he thought could be of any use during their `extended' summer. Remus had obviously questioned this, seeing that he was buying a whole lot of stuff, but Harry just shrugged it off saying he was getting most of this things to try and cheer Hermione up, since she hadn't come with them he didn't know what she wanted specifically so he was trying to get everything she might have bought if given a choice to pick it up herself.
Now, all that he wanted was a couple hours of sleep before dinner so that he could recharge his batteries but as he was starting to drift off to sleep, the sound of the door opening and closing crashed all his hopes of getting any rest. Tiredly, he opened half an eye to see who the intruder was and then woke up completely after the sight of a disheveled Hermione looking lost around the room.
"Where have all this stuff come from?" Asked Hermione after finally spotting Harry half-sitting on the bed surrounded by several bags.
"Well, you asked me to get our school things, so I got those and a few other things too." Replied Harry yawning.
"A few? Harry, you bought the whole Alley." Said Hermione tiredly, moving toward the bed and gesturing around the room that was filled with bags, boxes and packages.
"Well, I didn't know what you wanted." Harry started as Hermione put down the bags that where on the bed and sat down next to him. He was about to continue his explanation when they heard a sound of something being dropped on the floor outside their room. So he took of his wand and put a silencing charm on the room while Hermione put her special locking charm on the door.
"Do you thing someone is trying to spy on us?" Asked Hermione walking to the door and placing more charms on it.
"Well, they can try but we're not going to let them." Said Harry as Hermione sat back on the bed and placed another charm on the room that made the warm red walls around them, the ceiling and the floor all flash briefly gray.
"What was that?" Asked Harry smiling for he knew that it had to be some extremely complex but handy spell that only his Hermione would have thought about.
"A coating spell. It blocks any magical device that enables people to see through things from seeing inside or through the place where the spell is cast, in other words, it prevents Mad-Eye from spying on us." Said Hermione in her usual `classroom' tone as if it was the most common spell in the word, which made Harry only smile wider. People normally thought that this know-it-all attitude of hers was annoying but Harry always thought it was endearing, well, most of the time anyway.
"Ok." Said Harry putting an arm around her and bringing her closer to him. "Now that we are protected against prying ears and eyes I can properly explain to you why I bought a `little' more than you expected." He said innocently and earning an eye-roll from Hermione. "Well, we are hoping to stay this summer, Merlin knows how long, on a small island in the middle of nowhere and I don't think they have any shops there so I had to buy a lot of supplies. I also had to buy things for you and I really didn't know what you wanted or the subjects you are taking so I had to buy everything on your list plus a whole lot of stuff Remus told me girls use and some stuff I thought you'd like. And then I got carried away and bought myself a lot of things too, I never had much living at the Dursleys and even after I found out my parents had left me money I was never able to buy anything that didn't fit in my trunk because I wouldn't have a place to store it since the Dursleys already complained enough about Hedwig… But now that I have a house of my own I just…" He trailed off and sighed. "So, putting all of those together, well, we have all of this." He said looking at the bags all over the room.
"It's Ok, Harry, you are allowed to have anything you want while you are here. You deserve it." She said kissing his cheek. "Now, did you just say you have a house? How was the reading?" She asked him quietly resting her head on his shoulder and running her hand up and down his side.
"Yes, this house is mine now, along with everything Sirius owned. And as for the reading, it wasn't that bad." Answered Harry also quietly and then proceeded telling her about his day, when he was done it was his turn to ask her about hers.
"What about you? How were things at your house?" Asked Harry lying on the bed and bringing her down with him so that he could hug her and comfort her properly when she told him about it.
"It was hard, going back there and walking into the half destroyed living room, memories of last night flashing in my mind…" As soon as she started talking Harry could feel her tears start soaking his shirt where she was resting her head, her voice was weak and pained and it broke Harry's heart to see her like this. But he knew that he had to let her talk, it would make her feel better to get it out of her chest. "But at least my aunt was there, she helped me set everything for the funeral tomorrow and we talked a lot, it really helped me talking to her. Not that talking to you doesn't help too, it's just that you never knew them and she did, so there are some things that you just wouldn't understand." She added quickly so not to hurt Harry's feelings.
Harry understood why she felt that way and he didn't mind that she felt better talking to her aunt, it had been easy for him to talk to her about Sirius because she knew him as much as he did, in fact she had spent more time with him than Harry himself last summer but he really never met her parents or remembered his own for that matter, so most of the things she probably talked about with her aunt were things he couldn't really relate.
"You know, she's my guardian now." She continued after a while. "It's a good thing my parents told her about me being a witch on the summer before 4th year, I wouldn't have the energy to tell her right now."
"Is she ok with you staying here with me?" Harry asked worried.
"I didn't ask her permission. I just told her I was going to stay at the Order's Headquarters because it was the safest thing to do. She doesn't have to know the details." She shrugged.
"So, do want to see the things I bought?" Asked Harry after a while, hoping that it would cheer her up.
"Sure, I brought my trunk and some other things from home too." She said pointing to a pile near the door Harry hadn't noticed before. There were a couple of boxes, her guitar, a pet-carrier with a sleeping Crookshank's inside, two trunks and a bird cage. As he moved closer to take a better look at what he was sure to be his possessions, she explained it to him.
"As you've probably noticed I asked Tonks if we could stop by the Dursleys to get your things since I was sure you'd forgotten all about it. They were quite pleased to know that you had left earlier this year and didn't opposed to us getting your things. I've told Hedwig to fly here so she should be arriving any minute now, maybe we could send our course lists to Professor McGonagall later."
"Sure, we'll send them as soon as Hedwig is up for the trip. Now let's open these packages so I can show you what I bought." Said Harry grabbing a few packages and jumping on the bed like an over excited kid on Christmas morning. When he looked up at Hermione he saw that she was smiling at him so he pulled her onto the bed with him and trusted a broom-shaped package in her hands with just one thought going through his mind. `Mission accomplished.'
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Harry lay awake in bed the next afternoon thinking about the stressful day they just been through and about how it wasn't over yet. They had come back from the Grangers' funeral a couple of hours ago and looked themselves up in Harry's room since Hermione didn't want to talk with anyone. It was so ridiculous how everybody seemed to want to say some cheap line to her as "At least they didn't suffer" or "They are at a better place now" as if any of this crap would make her feel any better about it all. Harry knew, of course, that they all meant well but it was just not what she need right now, she needed silent support, a shoulder to cry on and that's what Harry was going to be to her. Harry had been impressed at how she had managed to keep it together during the whole service, only shedding a tear every now and then, but as soon as they got into the room and put all the proper privacy spells in place she had completely broken down and had cried herself to sleep in Harry's arms.
Now, as he looked at her peaceful expression, it was hard to believe it was all true, if fact, if weren't for the tear tracks on her face he would be compelled to believe that the last couple of days had just been a bad dream; but they weren't that lucky. It was all very real and tonight they would still have to endure another excruciating interrogation, with the added bonus that this one was going to be commanded by their beloved headmaster. Harry was a bit surprised that the old man hadn't shown up before but according to Remus he was busy at the Wizengamot now that he was reinstated as Chief Warlock and the ministry had finally sacked Fudge and was going through the motions of finding a decent replacement.
Apparently there weren't too many people willing to take the job since the wizarding world was in a state of total disarray right now. In the fortnight Harry spent at his relatives' house he had cut himself completely from the outside world, with the exception of the few letters from his friends, he didn't know anything that was happening in the war. When he started going to Hermione's house she got him updated with the wizarding news and they would also read the Daily Prophet together in the mornings, so from what he knew it was not a simple matter to choose a new leader to the wizarding world right now. There were attacks happening every day, all Death Eaters had broken out of Azkaban and the common wizard everywhere was in complete panic.
Also he and Dumbledore had changed status again from complete lunatics to the hope of wizarding kind and Harry was quite curious to see how Dumbledore was going to play this to his advantage and also quite eager to see the Headmaster's reaction when he refused to be his number one puppet anymore. He laughed out loud as the image of the always collected headmaster having his jaw hit the floor in surprise came swimming into his mind.
"What's so funny?" Asked a sleepy voice from his chest.
"Just thinking about Dumbledore's reaction when I put him in his place." Said Harry kissing Hermione on the top of her head. "Go back to sleep, we still have a few hours before dinner."
"I've slept enough. I think we should go talk to Ron, we'll leave in a couple of days and I don't want him to stay mad at us the whole summer." Said Hermione looking up at him.
"Are you sure, Mya? As you said we still have a couple of days left, we don't need to do this today. We have enough on our plates already without going and picking up a fight with Ron." Asked Harry concerned. They've already been through a lot today and still had the meeting with Dumbledore and the others later, fighting with Ron now could make things a little too much to handle.
"No, I need to do this as soon as possible. I have to know if I still have a best friend or if I should mourn for another loved one." Said Hermione forcefully.
At seeing how important it was to her Harry agreed and it was with a heavy heart and an intense sense of dread that he made his way out of the room with Hermione to try and find their best friend.
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A/N: Review! Please!
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