The Kemmynadow Betrayal
by Jardyn39
Chapter 13 - High Stakes
"Harry?"
Harry turned around and was surprised to see Neville crossing the grass towards him.
"Hi, Neville. Is anything wrong?"
"Oh, no. Well, not really. I just wanted a word. I guessed Ron would know how to contact you, but his Mum said you were here practising. I asked if I could Floo over to see you."
"Right," said Harry, walking over to extinguish the smouldering tree stump that he'd been firing at.
"What was that spell, Harry?" asked Neville interestedly.
"I haven't quite got it right yet," Harry admitted. "It is supposed to be a stunner that flies in a curve like a boomerang and bounces more than usual too. The idea is that you are supposed to be able to fire around shields with it."
"It still looks very powerful," said Neville, admiring the remains of the stump. "I really wish you were still teaching us defence, Harry."
"Well," Harry said awkwardly. "Um, what did you want to speak to me about?"
"What? Oh, that," Neville said nervously. "The thing is, Harry, I've had a bit of a row with Gran."
"What about?"
"She's mad, Harry. Ever since I got home for the holidays, she has insisted that I practise Duelling with her almost every hour of the day."
Harry tried not to laugh.
"It isn't funny, Harry. She's even got our old gardener to join in. Unfortunately, he's about a hundred years old and can't see too well now. Yesterday I was doing some re-potting when he blasted me without realising that only one of us was in the greenhouse. I swear he's put some of that glass into orbit.
"Mind you, he's nothing compared to Great Uncle Algie. He's taken to laying booby traps all over the house."
Harry grinned and said, "To be honest, Neville, it sounds like they have the right idea. You aren't going to ask me to help duel your Gran, are you?"
"That's a good idea," said Neville, smiling.
"So, how can I help then?"
"Well, I was sort of hoping you'd agree to help me again. If I could prove that I could defend myself, just once, then I might get some peace at home."
Harry considered this for a moment.
"The thing is, Neville, there are things I need to do. If I agreed, you'd have to understand that I might have to put you off without any prior notice. We'd also have to practice at odd hours."
"That'd be fine, Harry," Neville said enthusiastically. "If you can't make it I could always shoot at targets like you. I wish I'd thought of that, actually."
Harry nodded.
"You can leave messages for me here for the moment," he said, nodding towards the Burrow. "I'm not always here, but I can always be reached."
Neville nodded and said, "It's nice here, isn't it? I had no idea."
Harry smiled and nodded.
"So, how about we make a start now?"
A pained expression appeared on Neville's face and he said, "Sorry, Harry, I can't. I have to go to Diagon Alley."
"Oh, that's where Hermione and Ron are going this morning."
"Yeah, I know. I just met Hermione when I arrived. She mentioned where they were going and I volunteered to go with them."
"Neville, are you sure?"
"No, but there's no way I'm letting Hermione go down Knockturn Alley otherwise."
"It's okay, Neville. Hermione agreed she wouldn't go there."
"She has other ideas," said Neville in an undertone. "She was telling Ron that some books she needs will not be in Diagon Alley."
"I'd better go too, in that case."
"Harry, please listen," said Neville, holding out a hand to stop him. "You can't keep protecting us like this. We shouldn't need to rely on you to be there all the time. Trust us. Trust me. I want to help."
"If anything happened," began Harry.
"We'll handle it," said Neville seriously. "Now, I think you'd better get some more practise in before I get back. I expect to be taught how to do that thing properly, you know?"
It took a great deal of self control for Harry to stop himself marching into the house after Neville.
He should have known better. Of course Hermione was planning on going into Knockturn Alley. She had lied to stop him worrying and to stop him from risking himself.
He turned back to the old tree stump and raised his wand again, his mind not at all focussed on the spell he was trying to master.
The most peculiar feeling then came over him.
Before he realised what he had done, the remains of the stump exploded into splinters.
Harry knew at once what had happened. He had just used a curse from Dumbledore's dark book. It had flowed so naturally; so easily. He had failed to check his dark mood. Fortunately it was only a tree stump that took the brunt of his lapse.
But, he pondered at length, what if it had been someone standing there?
What if it had been Neville? Or Ron? Or Hermione?
*
Harry was on his way back to the lawn at the back of the Burrow, when the sound of a raised voice reached him.
He was returning from the far side of the orchard, having been sent there earlier by Mrs Weasley. Harry had sheepishly apologised for what he had done to the tree stump, explaining that he had been quite unable to repair it.
Mrs Weasley had explained that she had wanted to be rid of it for ages, but that during a summer party several years ago someone had drunkenly placed an Imperturbable Charm on the stump. She immediately sent him off to clear the more stubborn weeds at the back of the orchard.
The weeds had actually proved to be far better targets than the tree stump had been, since they kept moving and dodging away from his spells. He could quite understand why Ron and Ginny had been barred from going into that area before attending Hogwarts.
Harry realised at once that it was Mrs Weasley doing the shouting from within the house.
"JUST WHAT WERE YOU THINKING OF?"
He quickened his pace until he heard, "BUT ONE OF YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN HURT!" Feeling relieved, he slowed.
Harry was just considering if it might be best to delay his arrival in case Mrs Weasley got even more upset, when Luna Lovegood stepped out of the back door.
"Hello, Harry," she said lightly, showing no sign at all that she had just been yelled at by Mrs Weasley.
"Hi, Luna."
"We've just got back from Diagon Alley."
"Oh, no," said Harry. "You didn't go as well as Neville?"
"Naturally, we did. You know how absorbed Hermione gets when she's looking through books. This way she had four people looking out for her and I had a good excuse not to pretend to be enthusiastic about the so-called factual books she was looking through."
"Has she brought back many books?"
"Well, she certainly bought plenty. Actually, I was expecting her and Ron to be here."
"No, they probably wanted to store the books properly," said Harry. "Hang on, if they went ahead, that would have left you three waiting on your own."
"No, Harry. Tom was there and so was George Weasley."
"Oh."
"Neville says you have agreed to give him defence lessons again."
"Well, I will when I can."
"Do you think you could teach me as well? I missed our DA meetings terribly, you know. Professor Snape didn't trouble himself to help me with the spells I struggled with. I was rather lucky with what came up in the practical exam."
"Well, you see the thing is," he began, but faltered being the wide expectant smile on Luna's face begin to fall. "Of course I'll help you, Luna. But as I said to Neville-"
"Oh, don't worry about that. He's agreed to let me share his time with you."
"Oh, right."
"Yes, and I should warn you, George was terribly keen on the idea of you teaching again. He said they were considering selling private defence tuition through the shop."
"Luna, there's no way I would agree to that. Let's just stick with you and Neville, okay?"
"What about me, then?" asked Ginny, grinning at him as she came outside.
"How's your mum?" he asked quietly.
Ginny shrugged and said, "The usual."
She looked around and frowned before making a tutting sound and marching back inside. Almost immediately she came back outside again, except this time she was dragging along a rather red faced Neville.
"Neville, she was telling me to peel the potatoes as punishment, not you!"
Harry smiled.
"So, can we do some practice now?" asked Luna.
"We're all out of tree stumps, I'm afraid," said Harry, raising up his wand and pointing it at a point over the horizon towards the back of the garden.
Three large timber stakes appeared hovering in the air, right at the edge of the lawn. Harry lowered his arm and the stakes shot down, the sharpened points burrowing down into the earth.
*
Harry Apparated back to the square in Grimmauld Place having just assigned homework to Ginny, Luna and Neville. This homework was to completely destroy what remained of their target stake.
He had been surprised at how good all three of them were. At the beginning, Harry had asked them to attack the targets using any spell they knew. Ginny was the best, but neither Luna nor Neville was that far behind. He was a little flattered that their best spells were still the ones he had taught them in the DA.
Harry realised that the last few hours were probably the longest he had been in Ginny's company since he had finished things with her.
She had been as friendly as ever and indeed he sensed that it was Neville who was the more uneasy. Harry knew Neville was working hard not to mention anything in case he inadvertently caused offence. Luna, of course, had no such qualms and, much to Neville's consternation, made several references to times when Harry and Ginny were together.
There was only one time when Ginny had reacted. That was while Harry was helping Neville with his aim. Ginny was firing away and Luna was chatting to her idly.
Harry hadn't caught exactly what Luna had said to make Ginny miss so badly, and with a particularly powerful spell at that. They had all immediately run over to extinguish the flaming roses, but he was sure he had heard Hermione's name being mentioned.
He had no idea how much Hermione had told Ginny. They were close, Ginny being Hermione's best female friend that he knew of. But were they close enough for Hermione to confide in her, particularly as Harry and Ginny had so recently parted.
Harry realised that he had been stood there reminiscing when he should have been looking around for unusual signs outside Grimmauld Place. As there were none, he quickly crossed the road and climbed the steps.
As he approached the door, it opened inwards.
At once Harry grabbed his wand and ran, barging the door open with his shoulder. Anyone on the other side would be knocked flying.
Harry's momentum carried him through. He landed on a rug and both slid a few feet on the polished marble flooring inside the lobby.
Wand raised, he froze. Standing above him, umbrella raised and about to attack him, was Aunt Petunia.
Hearing the door close, they both looked across the room to see Kreacher. Harry looked back and lowered his wand. Aunt Petunia looked utterly distraught.
"What's going on?" asked Harry. "Why was the door open again?"
As the umbrella began to shake, Aunt Petunia managed to say, "Dudley. Dudley's gone out."
Harry groaned and got to his feet.
"Where did this come from?" he asked, pointing to the back and white chequer pattern floor.
"Kreacher and Dobby found it under the carpets," replied the elf. "Dobby is cleaning the carpets but Master's Aunt thought it looked nice and wanted to polish it up."
"Dudley," stressed Aunt Petunia.
"Oh, right, Sorry," said Harry, turning to her again. "Where has he gone?"
"He did speak about wanting to go to the arcades. I think he misses the electronic games."
"Are there any around here?"
"No, not that I know of, but he knew there is supposed to be a large one close to Piccadilly Circus. That's only a short tube trip from here."
"What time did he plan to be back?"
"He didn't really say."
"Is Uncle Vernon still here?"
"Yes, I haven't told him. I didn't want him to go off as well."
"That was sensible," said Harry. "Okay, I'll try to find him but I'll have to lock this door. If Dudley gets back before me, he mustn't be allowed in. We need to be sure he isn't under someone's influence. Do you have any money I could borrow for the tube? I've no idea where it would be safe to Apparate to around there."
Aunt Petunia fumbled for her purse and opened it, tipping the entire contents into Harry's hands.
"Thanks, this should be plenty. I'll be as quick as I can," he promised before leaving and locking the door behind him.
Harry hesitated before adding a further locking charm. He had been reluctant to do this before, and had allowed Dobby and Kreacher to open the door in case there was an emergency inside. If there was a fire now, they would all be trapped inside.
*
Harry searched all of the arcades he could find with no success. The biggest occupied three storeys and had been packed with tourists all eager to lose their money.
Becoming increasingly concerned, Harry tried to think where Dudley would want to go. There were large theatre signs, but Harry thought in unlikely that Dudley would want to catch a musical.
He had been known to try and sneak into pubs and get a drink but he was still too young looking to fool most Landlords. There were an awful lot of pubs around where Harry was right then, and he didn't at all fancy looking through them. He just hoped Dudley didn't have enough money.
As Harry was just deciding his next course, he spied a bright neon sign in the shape of a character that he was sure had been on one of Dudley's many video games. He walked further along the street and realised it was a superstore that sold electronic games, music records and videos.
He entered the store past the group of ever watchful security guards. Ignoring the deafening music blaring out at him, he began his search. A full half hour later he was about to give up when he realised there was also a basement level. Resisting the temptation to head for the quiet of the street outside, he stepped onto the downward escalator.
The basement sold videos, for the most part. There were several rows of displays rising above head height, so Harry had to look down each aisle separately. Fortunately, there were less people down there. He also thought the music had been turned down a little down there; either that or he was going deaf.
Whilst in the second aisle from the back, Harry heard, "What do you want?"
He recognised Dudley at once and ran right to the end. He turned the corner just in time to hear, "Imperio!"
Harry pulled out his wand.
Before him, a figure in the shadows was pointing a wand directly at Dudley who was looking back vacantly.
Then Dudley frowned, stepped three paces forward and punched the wizard in the face. The wizard fell at Harry's feet, quite unconscious.
Harry reached down and took the wand from the man's hand.
"Your Mum is worried about you," said Harry, firing a stunner at the prone man for good measure. "Ready to go home?"
"What was he doing?" asked Dudley aggressively.
"Let's get out of here first?"
Dudley nodded. Harry walked forward and grabbed his arm firmly before Disapparating them both away.