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Harry Potter and the Triptych by Vickles
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Harry Potter and the Triptych

Vickles

Harry Potter and the Triptych

By Vickles

Disclaimer: See Chapter One

Author's Note: See bottom.

~*~*~

(Ch. 6 ending, for those who have forgotten…)

Harry nodded. The three of them moved on to talk about other things, such as training, the Triptych, and Horcruxes. Eventually they moved into the living room, laying about on the floor, and had Dobby make some hot cocoa. As the hours went by, they slowly grew more tired, and rather than heading up to bed, simply fell asleep there on the floor.

~*~*~

Chapter 7: Friends

~*~*~

"Hermione, WAKE UP!" Harry shouted to his friend. Ron was already awake and panicking. The house was under attack. The Order had shown up and was battling with the numerous hooded figures. Hermione somehow managed to stay asleep through all of it.

One of the hooded figures approached them, and Ron and Harry raised their wands defensively. The hooded figure simply stood, no more than half a meter from them, and pulled down his hood, revealing the sickly smile of Draco Malfoy.

"You're rather dense, aren't you Potter? She won't wake." He laughed mockingly at Hermione's motionless form.

Harry couldn't breathe, "What do you mean, Malfoy?"

Draco laughed again, "She's DEAD, you daft git! They all are!"

Harry looked around the room, where so many of the Order members lay motionless on the floor. There was Moody, Kingsley, and Tonks, and, oh God, Remus, and McGonagall.

Harry looked back down at Hermione and let out a cry of frustration. He felt a pain that he had never felt before as it ripped through his body, shredding his soul. He felt Ron move closer, and thanked the heavens that at least someone had been spared. Ron patted him on the back and smiled with strength, though it did not reach his eyes, ignoring his own fallen tears over the countless deaths, "I'm still here, mate."

"Oh, that's right," Malfoy said, the rest of the hooded figures now gone. "I forgot one." He raised his wand at Ron, "Avada Kedavra!" Ron never stood a chance.

Harry gently laid Hermione back on the floor, cradling her head, before letting her go and rushing Malfoy, grabbing his collar and lifting him off the ground with new unfound strength.

Draco only grinned, "Going to use an Unforgivable, Potter?" he scoffed. "You don't have the strength."

Harry smiled, a sick smile that he had never known was in him. "Who said anything about spells?"

Harry began to strangle Malfoy, and watched with pleasure as the color drained from his face. Suddenly Ron was alive again, and shouting at Harry.

"Harry, STOP!" He tried to pull Harry off Malfoy.

"Why should I?" Harry asked, his eyes still on Malfoy.

"Harry, WAKE UP! You're hurting Hermione!!!"

Harry let go in an instant and his eyes blinked open, only to see Hermione crumpled on the floor below him, whimpering as she clutched her throat. "Oh God, Hermione!" Harry fell to the floor in front of her and wrapped his arms around her quivering body. She shook with quiet sobs against his chest as Ron sat next to them.

Harry tried to comfort her, running his fingers through her hair, "I'm so sorry, Hermione…I'm so sorry…" Harry kept repeating himself, keeping his arms wrapped around her. Eventually Hermione calmed down, hiccupping occasionally, and wrapped her arms around him as well, her head leaning on his shoulder.

"Bloody hell," Ron said next to them. "What happened?"

Hermione looked up at him and Harry felt a pain in his chest upon seeing a little bit of bruising in her neck. How could he have done that? "I…I thought you were Malfoy. He killed both of you, and I was so angry. I have never been that angry before. I hated him so much, and just wanted to see him dead."

Hermione's eyes opened wide. "Harry, that's not like you," she said quietly.

Harry let her go and scooted back a little, pulling his knees to his chest, "I know it's not. It is just… I could not control it. I was completely unhinged."

Just then Dobby popped in. "Breakfast is ready, Sirs and Miss. You may eat whenever you are ready." Hermione thanked him and he popped out, his normally happy expression not on his face.

"I'm going to go change and take a shower," Ron said, standing. "I'll meet you guys for breakfast in a bit."

Harry and Hermione sat in silence for a few moments. Harry turned to Hermione and gently touched her neck where it was beginning to change color. Hermione flinched and Harry wanted to curse himself.

Harry looked down at his hands, "I'm so sorry. I would never…if I had known that…"

Hermione gently reached out her hand and laid it on his own, holding it. "I know."

Harry looked up at her, "Even if I was angry at you I would never hurt you. You know that, right?"

Hermione nodded. Harry looked at her normally beautiful skin, now damaged, and frowned. "It still hurts, doesn't it?"

Hermione tilted his head up with her other hand, looking him in the eyes, "I'm okay, Harry."

Harry nodded. "Maybe you should see if Dobby could do something about the bruising."

"Okay. I'll go find him." Hermione stood and Harry did as well. She gave him one last look before turning to leave, "Don't beat yourself up over this, Harry. It was an accident."

"Yeah," Harry replied as she walked off. It did not matter though. Even if she did not blame him, he could not help but blame himself. He went upstairs, dressed, and showered before coming back down to the kitchen, where Hermione and Ron were already eating and discussing the day's plans.

"Okay, so we can go get Hermione's new mattress after breakfast, and then stop back and get some lunch or eat out. Then, you can go see Remus if you want to and I'll help Hermione set up the new mattress on her bed and get rid of the old one," Ron said as Harry sat down and began eating a pancake.

Harry nodded. "I just sent Remus an owl, so hopefully he'll have sent a reply by the time we get back." He turned to Hermione, whose neck seemed to have been healed. "You got Dobby to heal it?"

"Yes." She paused for a moment before speaking again, "I think the three of us should definitely talk about it later, if you do not mind. There's something a bit off about this whole thing," Hermione answered, slightly avoiding Harry's gaze.

"No kidding," Ron replied, finishing off his second waffle.

"Yeah, I think you're right," Harry responded. "We can talk later if that's what you want. I…I don't want something like that to happen again." Hermione nodded, just glancing at him. They finished their breakfast and cleaned up their dishes.

"So where are we going to get this mattress?" Ron asked, thankfully changing the subject.

"Actually, I looked it up and found a place in Muggle London, and thought we could go there. It is owned by a wizard and sells to wizards and muggles, so I won't need to exchange my money. We still can't Apparate, though, so I figured we could take the Knight Bus," Hermione answered and Ron winced.

"If we won't be Apparating everywhere we should definitely find another way to get places besides the Knight Bus." Ron sent them each a pointed look.

Harry held up his hands with innocence, "Okay, fine. When we get a chance we can look into it."

Ron nodded, pleased. "Good. Well then, let's get this over with." They grabbed their things and headed outside. Harry held out his wand and soon enough the big purple bus came from around the corner, screeching to a halt on front of them.

"'Ey, Ernie! It's Harry and his friends, again! So where are ye goin' dis time, folks?" Stan asked, ushering them in. Hermione pulled a slip of paper out of her purse, Harry guessed it had the address on it, and handed it to Ernie, who nodded.

Hermione walked over where Harry and Ron were sitting and motioned with her hands, smiling sweetly. Ron sighed and scooted over so she could sit between them. "If you weren't a girl, Hermione, I swear…" Ron began muttering under his breath.

Hermione simply smiled again, grabbing each of their arms tightly. "Hold on," she told them and Harry grabbed the pole to his right and Ron did the same on his left. After a moment, the bus took off, this time providing a much less eventful ride, Ron mumbling the whole time. They reached the store quickly and got off, thanking Stan.

They entered the building and were greeted with various mattresses of many sizes and colors. Hermione looked around and nodded to herself, "Yes, this will do. Come on, let's start looking."

After following Hermione around for over an hour and listening to many various reasons why each mattress wasn't quite right, Ron yawned loudly, "You know, being in a room full of beds that I can not sleep on is making me tired. I am going to go home and take a kip. Maybe I can Apparate out of a back room or something. I'll see you two when you get back." They bid each other good-bye, Ron whispering to Harry that if he wanted he could help Harry escape as well, but Harry turned it down, figuring that it would be rather rude to leave Hermione alone. He also was still holding onto some guilt from the morning's events, and was feeling a bit protective of Hermione.

The shopping went on for another one or two hours (at some point Harry just stopped looking at his watch). Hermione insisted on laying on each mattress for at least five minutes, before coming up with yet another flaw for each and every one. Harry found it hard to believe that she had not run out of new things to say yet. Just went Harry had begun considering how much time he could make pass by attempting to hit his forehead into the nearby wall, Hermione called out to him, with a happier tone this time.

"Harry! Come here!" Harry yawned and walked over to the bed that she was laying down. "Lay down for a second."

"Why?" Harry asked, confused. "You're the one who's going to be sleeping on it."

"I want your opinion, so lay down, please." Hermione repeated.

Figuring that questioning it would take even longer, and his stomach was beginning to rumble, Harry laid down. He was immediately greeted with a very nice feeling. Hermione turned on her side and leaned over, "Comfortable, isn't it?" She asked happily, though there also appeared to be some kind of other emotion in her eyes.

Harry nodded. "Does this mean you're buying it?" He could not hide the impatience in his voice.

Hermione frowned, "Why didn't you tell me that you were bored? I could have sped up the process a bit."

He sat up and looked at her in disbelief, "You could not tell?"

Hermione leaned back; pulling her legs under her and sitting on her knees. "Well, maybe a little. I just assumed that you were tired from not having slept well." They paused awkwardly, remembering what had taken place earlier.

"I'll go get a store clerk, hold on," Harry said, getting up and finding the nearest employee, telling them that they were ready.

"So I see that she finally made a decision." A small plump woman smiled warmly as she came over to Hermione and stood by the bed.

Hermione looked slightly offended and her lip pouted slightly. "I didn't want to get something I didn't like."

The woman smiled again. "It's quite alright, dear. I have just been watching you out of the corner of my eye since you came in. I could not believe that this one stayed after the other one left." She pointed at Harry. "Rather nice of a man, if you ask me. Makes you wonder if there's ulterior motives." She said to Hermione, who gasped.

The store clerk chuckled after a moment. "I'm only joking. May I ask what bank you use?" she asked, returning to business.

"Gringotts," Harry and Hermione replied and the woman nodded with understanding. Then she looked at Harry closely, and then turning to Hermione, gasping as Hermione had before, only for a different reason.

"I knew you looked familiar!" She said before composing herself and going back to work (Harry noticed that she got distracted rather easily), "Follow me to the back so you can purchase your mattress Mr. Potter and Miss Granger."

Hermione blushed and she and Harry followed the woman into a back office, taking two seats on one side of the desk.

"Now," she pulled a few forms along with a quill out, "What size will you be needing?"

"Queen," Hermione answered. The witch nodded and scribbled on one of the pieces of parchment.

"Do you want it delivered?" She asked and Harry and Hermione exchanged a glance.

Hermione shook her head, "I'll just shrink it and take it home myself."

"Okay, then!" She looked through a few more papers, mumbling to herself before looking back up and smiling. "Your total will be three hundred and five galleons."

Both teenagers nodded and reached for their money bags. "What are you doing?" Hermione asked Harry.

Harry looked up in confusion, "Er…getting out money to pay for your mattress?"

Hermione tilted her head and spoke slowly as if Harry was a small child, "But I am paying for it."

"Why would you do that?" Harry asked.

"Because it is my mattress." Hermione answered. Her tone was beginning to annoy Harry.

Harry sat his bag down. "I'm not letting you pay for this. It's going in my house so it makes sense for me to pay for it."

Hermione sat bag down as well, sighing. Harry noted that the store clerk had scooted, carefully avoiding looking at either of them. "I am paying for it, Harry. I live there, too, and it's going in my room."

They argued for a few more minutes, eventually coming to a compromise. Hermione would pay for the mattress and Harry would pay for lunch. Harry thought this was rather unfair, but Hermione insisted that she would pick some place expensive so that it would balance out.

Hermione shrunk and pocketed the mattress and they walked to Diagon Alley, which was nearby. Harry asked Hermione where they we planning on eating, but she only led him around the alley, past the familiar stores and just beyond Gringotts.

"I didn't know that Diagon Alley went back this far." Harry commented.

Hermione nodded, taking his hands and leading him on. "Most people don't come back this far because they simply come to Gringotts to do their business and be done with it. Here we are." She stopped in front of a small restaurant before pulling Harry inside.

It turned out to be an Italian restaurant, and Hermione was not lying when she said it was expensive. Harry had never had Italian food, so Hermione ordered everything, speaking fluent Italian to the waiter. Harry questioned where she learned it and she explained that she had taught herself a bit of Italian a few years ago. They ordered take-out for Ron and Apparated back to Grimmauld Place.

They found Ron flopped on the couch, sleeping with a line of unattractive drool running from his mouth. Hermione cleared her throat and Ron immediately woke up, taking the bag of food from her hands and stuffing half of a breadstick in his mouth before even saying hello.

"Lovely, Ron," Hermione said, standing next to Harry, "Just lovely."

Ron swallowed with great effort and smiled. "You know you think it's endearing."

"Sure," Hermione replied with a look of disgust on her face. "Did Remus' reply for Harry come yet?"

Ron nodded and replied with a mouth full of food. "If om du tabbow," he said, pointing to the table.

Harry laughed and took the letter, "I just realized that I speak fluent Ron." Hermione giggled in response and Ron smiled with pride.

Harry opened the envelope and found a letter and a pin inside. He was about to take the pin out when Hermione stopped him. Harry looked at her questioningly.

"Read the letter first," she said, "It might be a Portkey."

Harry nodded and read the letter.

Dear Harry,

I will be free for the rest of the day. Just pop in whenever you get a chance.

Remus

P.S. The pin enclosed it is a Portkey.

Ron stared at Hermione for a second before sighing and shaking his head, "It doesn't even surprise me anymore. How sad." He dug into his spaghetti.

"I think I'm just going to go right now," Harry said. They nodded and he took the Portkey inside. No sooner had he touched it than he felt this sickening feeling that always came with this way of travel.

Harry landed in the middle of a living room of what appeared to be a rather spacious flat. Remus and Tonks were sitting on the couch, reading the paper. Tonks saw Harry first and got up, speaking to Remus, "I'm going to go work on that report that I have to finish." She gave him a kiss on the cheek, waved to Harry, and left the room.

Remus scooted over on the couch, and Harry sat at the opposite end, turning and facing Remus. "Hi," Harry said, unsure what to say now that he was here.

Remus, however, dived right in, "I assume that you want to talk about what happened yesterday."

Harry nodded. "Did you have any idea? You know, that she was…"

Remus shook his head. "No."

"Why wouldn't they have told you? Or Sirius?" Harry wondered if his godfather had possibly known and not told him.

Remus shrugged just barely, "I'm pretty sure Sirius didn't know. He was horrible at keeping secrets like those. Something like that… in such dark times… he would not have been able to hold it in."

"But why…" Harry began to ask again.

"I don't know. You have to understand something Harry. Towards the end there, such as the last week or so, things were getting dark. We all knew that James, Lily, and you were in trouble, but we were powerless to stop it. They took every precaution they could, and that meant minimal outside contact. Part of me isn't surprised that they kept the news to themselves." Remus sighed.

Harry bit his lip, pondering this. "What was it like?" he asked after a time. "I mean, before things got bad. What were they like?" What was my life like, Harry longed to ask.

Remus smiled, his eyes twinkling a bit and reminding Harry of Dumbledore. "Couldn't you tell from seeing the house?"

"Kind of. I just… I suppose I want to hear about it from someone how was there. Tell me about us, how we were." Harry answered.

"Oh, well, let me think…" Remus twiddled his thumbs for a moment. "To most people, your family was the portrait of perfection. Those of us close to you know that you were not perfect, but I think the three of you got pretty damn close.

"Whenever Lily had to go out and James was at work Sirius and I would baby sit you. Man, you were a handful." They both laughed a little before Remus spoke again, "But we loved it. Lily often joked that we were so good that she was going to trade James in for one of us. Of course, no one ever believed her for a second. It was James that she loved." Harry noticed a bit of sadness in Remus' voice.

"Your favorite pastime, outside of Quidditch, which James continued to teach you when Lily wasn't looking even after you hurt yourself falling off a toy broom, was hiding things. You always hid things. Usually it was valuable. One time your mother took off her wedding and engagement rings to wash dishes, she liked to do it the Muggle way, and you hid them in a pair of Sirius' shoes. Everyone kept asking you where you put the rings and all you would do is giggle."

Harry laughed and Remus continued, "By the time James got home Lily was in hysterics. I remember he took you into the living room and sat you on the couch. He explained to you that it was bad to hide things because it `made Mommy feel bad.' After he was done talking, you went and got the rings and gave them back to Lily, apologizing. Sirius teased James for weeks about his `fatherly behavior' but I know it is only because he was jealous. Sirius always wanted kids."

"Couldn't she have simply Accio'd them?" Harry asked.

"She tried," Remus replied, "but it never worked. I suppose that we should have figured it out then that you were no ordinary child."

Harry waited a moment before asking a question, "How did they react when… towards the end when things got dangerous?"

"Well, it was more gradual, so there was nothing to really react to. In addition, Lily was the head of that part of the Order at the time. Anything that the Order of the Phoenix knew about Voldemort and his plans, Lily knew that and more. She kept Dumbledore updated, but a lot of us suspect that there were things that she did not even tell him. There's no way of knowing just how much she knew, really."

"Did she tell my father?" Harry asked.

Remus shook his head. "No. They fought constantly over it. Lily thought it made sense to keep the burden of her knowledge to herself, while James felt that if she did so he wasn't succeeding at his job of protecting his family."

"Do you think that maybe…" Harry stopped himself; unsure about whether he wanted to continue.

"What?" questioned Remus, urging him on.

Harry sighed, "Do you think that maybe there was something that my mom knew, and that is why they never told anyone about… about the baby?"

"What are you asking?" Remus inquired, apparently confused.

Harry shook his head, ridding himself of the thought. He began to feel the need to end this conversation. "Nothing. I think I am going to go. Ron and Hermione will be wondering where I am."

Remus nodded. "Okay. I'll see you Monday." Harry waved and popped back on home.

He had just landed in the foyer when a shriek came from upstairs, sounding like Hermione. Harry immediately dashed up the stairs, hearing the sound again a moment later, clearly coming from Hermione's room. Harry ran as fast as he could the rest of the way, imagining all sort of horrible things happening to his friend. He arrived at the door panting, only to find that Hermione was not in any sort of peril at all.

Hermione and Ron were standing frozen on the bed, holding pillows in their hands and breathing heavily, glistening with sweat. Harry looked at the scene in front of them for a few moments, trying to make sense of the smiles on their faces. "What on Earth are you two doing?" he asked incredulously.

"It's a pillow fight, Harry!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly. "Get up here!"

"A pillow fight?" Harry tilted his head in confusion.

Ron nodded. "It's really simple. All you do is hit the other person with a pillow as many times as you can until they surrender." Ron promptly hit Hermione in the back with a pillow he was holding, causing her to shriek again before hitting him back.

Hermione reached down and tossed Harry a pillow. "Come on!" Immediately his two friends went back to their fight, leaving Harry to watch for a moment before joining in. He jumped on the bed, taking his pillow and hitting Ron, knocking his friend over and causing Hermione to laugh so hard that she collapsed onto the bed in a fit of giggles.

"That was easy," Harry commented with a grin, "So do you surrender now?"

Ron mumbled something under his breath and stood back up, "No, you just caught me off guard, that's all."

Harry nodded and Hermione, still lying on the bed, snorted. She gasped and covered her mouth, looked up at the two of them with wide open eyes before bursting into another fit of laughter.

Harry stared at Hermione in disbelief as Ron merely shook his head and clucked his tongue, "To think that I wanted her for a soulmate. I must be about as mental as she is."

Harry was not really paying attention to Ron, however. A smile played at his lips as he watched Hermione attempt to compose herself, only to begin laughing even harder. He crouched down and grinned at her. "Are you alright, Hermione?"

Hermione smiled at Harry, keeping her mouth firmly shut so that she would laugh, causing her face to turn rather red. After a moment she spoke, "What? Oh yes, I'm quite alright." She looked at something over Harry shoulder and smiled. "Harry, do I have anything in my hair?"

Harry looked at Hermione bouncy curls. "I don't see anything."

"Are you sure? Look closer." Harry was about to do just that when Ron hit him with two pillows at once, toppling him over on Hermione. The two of them sprang up at once, the three of them beating each other simultaneously for several minutes. After awhile, they all collapsed on to the bed at various angles, exhausted.

Harry sighed happily, "So that's what a pillow fight is."

Ron and Hermione chuckled weakly, as if they lacked the proper energy. "We should definitely do this more often," Ron commented.

Harry and Hermione nodded in agreement. In the back of Harry's mind, he knew that soon they would have to get up and discuss the previous day's events as well as what had taken place that morning, but for the time being her was perfectly content to just lay there, quietly enjoying their presence.

~*~*~

A/N: This is rather lengthy (sorry), but I didn't want to make a separate chapter simply for an author's note. Feel free to skim, but please don't skip:

*As always, thank you to my wonderful betas, who are largely responsible for this story not being a wad of crap. You both rock, seriously. I have no idea what I would do without you.

*I also want to say thank you to everyone who gave me good ratings in the Felix Felices Competition, even though I didn't win (I wasn't expecting to). Congrats to the three talented writers who did win.

*For anyone unhappy with this chapter, my apoligies. It's actually about half of what I intended when I outlined it. Life got in the way this week, and I wanted to give all of you something because you are so great. (Especially when you leave reviews *nudge nudge wink wink*)

*There was a semi-major error in Chapter 6 (it is now corrected, but a little too late). The tombstone read the names "James Evans" and "Lily Evans." That was not intentional. It was supposed to read "James Potter" and "Lily Evans-Potter," which it does now. I am sincerely sorry for any of you that were confused.

*As always, I stuck in some little things (not nearly as many as Chapter 6) for some of you more intent and careful readers. (Some of you really surprise me with your great and insightful reviews, and I try to reply when I can)

*Lastly, I know this is off topic, but I just want to extend my sympathies/prayers towards anyone who has been affected by Hurricane Katrina (I know that at least some of you are from the US).

*And, of course, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! ~Vickles


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