Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, sadly, as if I did, HBP would have been different…
A/N: This is my response to a Challenge. It is named "HBP: The Redemption", by Talon Karrde, thus the story title. If some of you have read my other story "HP and the quest of the Horcruxes", you may find some similarities in some points. That's because being this one on seventh year too, I rearranged parts of my other story to fit the requirements of the challenge. As usual, if you read, please leave a comment, good, bad, the way you want, but leave it. It means a lot to me.
A Cursed Friend
Even if Ron and Hermione tried searching for him, Harry managed to avoid the confrontation. At late night, he slipped into the house again, and then into his bed.
He was still very angry at Ginny for talking that way about Neville.
"How could she?" he wept silently in his bed. Soon sleep engulfed him, but due to his agitated state, it was not a peaceful slumber.
He had nightmares of Cedric being killed, then Sirius, and then Dumbledore.
So, after a troubled night, in the morning he was up before anyone else. After all, the Silencing Charm on his bed prevented him from waking the others with his screams.
So, he dressed and went for a walk. He needed to calm down to face the last days of holiday, then he would have a difficult mission to accomplish.
He sat with his back to the house, under one tree, thinking.
So he never noticed someone slipping out of the building and walking toward him.
"Harry" the person said softly, touching him on the shoulder.
He turned.
"Hermione" he greeted her.
"I'm sorry for yesterday night, Harry"
"Why would you? It's not your fault" Harry replied, anger at Ginny's words rising again. "I can't believe I dated such a shallow person, Hermione"
"She's not shallow, Harry. You know that"
"Really? So why did she say such things on poor Neville? I could expect something like that from Parvati, or Lavender, after all they have never seen his parents, they would never understand. But Ginny! She saw them, Hermione! How could she forget?" he ranted, while she soothingly mussed his hair.
"Harry, everyone makes mistakes. I think you should talk to her. She was really sorry when we got to bed"
He smiled at her.
"You know, you're right again. Maybe I should simply ask you before I do something" he teased her.
"Prat" she said, laughing.
He stood up, and offered her an hand. She accepted it, so soon they were both walking back to the house.
"Ok, I'll talk to her today" he said.
When they entered, Ron and Ginny were already eating.
"Have I to feel endangered, Harry?" Ron teased.
"Would it be so strange?" the other said, smiling. Then he sat in front of Ginny.
They ate quietly, then Harry took the redhead girl apart, outside.
"Let's go for a walk" he said
She nodded, and followed him.
"Look, Gin, I'm sorry for acting that way last night" he started, but she cut him.
"Oh, no. I'm the one who has to apologise. I've been really bad saying those things about Neville. I should have known better"
He smiled at her. "Yes, you should have. But, I still feel my behaviour was maybe a bit exaggerated"
"So, are we ok now?" she asked, timidly.
He grinned at her. "Yes, we are. As friends, of course"
"Of course" she said dejectedly.
He then started tickling her, and so Ron and Hermione found them wrestling on the ground, in the middle of a tickling war.
"You two sure you belong to Hogwarts? Seems like you both are five years old" Hermione teased them.
The two stuck their tongues at her.
"Go snog your boyfriend, Granger, and leave us to our childish antics" Harry said.
"Is that so, Potter?" she said, grinning mischievously. One moment later, she joined the fight, of course teaming with Ginny.
"Ron, mate, don't you think you could help me?" Harry said.
The redhead grinned and so from the wood behind the house for long time laughs could be heard, as the four of them enjoyed the day like normal teenagers should.
As usual, after dinner the teens gathered in one room to have their nightly recalling moment.
"Tonight we're gonna talk about your fifth year, guys. An eventful one, I should say" Ginny announced proudly. She was happy her idea was having a good effect on all of them.
The redhead knew that she would not be allowed to follow them in their search, but still, if ideas like this could help raise their spirits, she was glad to help like she could.
"Harry, you should start, mate" Ron reminded him.
"Oh, ok. This memory involves the fight at the Ministry. No, I'm not gonna talk about Sirius's death, Hermione" he added seeing her concerned look. "This regards you, mostly"
" "Petrificus Totalus!" he shouted, while the second Death Eater raised his wand. His arms and legs snapped together, and he fell forwards, face down on to the rug at Harry's feet, stiff as a board and unable to move.
"Well done, Ha…"
But the Death Eater Hermione had just struck dumb made a sudden slashing movement with his wand; a streak of what looked like purple flame passed right across Hermione's chest. She gave a tiny "oh" and crumpled on to the floor, where she stayed, motionless.
"Hermione!"
He fell to his knees beside her, as Neville crawled quickly toward her under the table, his wand raised in front of him. The Death Eater kicked him strongly, breaking his wand and hitting him square on his nose. With an howl of pain, Neville backed away, one hand on his face.
He turned quickly, and saw the Death Eater, that had took his hood away and was pointing his wand at him. Harry recognized the long, pale, twisted face from the "Daily Prophet": Antonin Dolohov, the wizard who killed the Prewett.
Sneering, Dolohov pointed his free hand at the glass sphere Harry had in his hand, and then Hermione. The meaning was clear, even without words. "Give me the prophecy, or you'll end the same way"
"You'll kill us all the same the moment I do" he said.
A painful lament in his head stopped him from thinking clearly. He still had an hand on Hermione's shoulder, which was still warm, yet he did not dare to look at her properly.
"Don't let her be dead, don't let her be dead, it's my fault if she's dead…"
"Whaddever you do, Harry" said Neville fiercely from under the desk, lowering his hands to show a clearly broken nose and blood pouring down his mouth and chin, "don't gib it to him!"
Then there was a crash outside the door, and Dolohov looked over his shoulder. The baby-headed Death Eater had appeared in the doorway, his head bawling, his great fists still flailing uncontrollably at everything around him. He seized his chance.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
The spell hit Dolohov before he could stop it, and he toppled forwards across his comrade, both of them rigid as boards and unable to move an inch.
"Hermione" He said at once, shaking her as the baby-headed Death Eater blundered out of sight again. "Hermione, wake up…"
"Whaddid he do to her?" said Neville, crawling out from under the desk to kneel at her other side, blood streaming from his rapidly swelling nose.
"I dunno…"
Neville groped Hermione's wrist.
"Dat's a pulse, Harry, I'b sure id is"
Such a powerful wave of relief swept trough him that for a moment he felt light-headed.
"She's alive?"
"Yeah, I dink so"
Then they planned how to escape from there, and going to search for the others"
Hearing how much Harry had been panic-stricken when she got hit made Hermione feel all warm inside, and almost giddy.
"So this is how you got hurt that night" Ron mused. "Well, it's good we all made it out of there quite well"
"Quite well?" Ginny said, disbelieving.
"Well, yes, most of us got hurt somehow, but nothing too serious" her brother explained.
Harry said nothing. Reliving that moments in which he thought he had lost her was an hard blow on him. He grasped once again that his foolishness had cost him not only Sirius's death, but almost Hermione's too.
He put his face in his hands, shaking his head.
"Harry, it's ok. I'm fine now" Hermione said, comforting him.
"But you could have been dead too, and it would have been all my fault" he sobbed, tears streaming down his cheeks.
After some time, he calmed, thanks to Hermione's soothing.
"Sorry guys" he said sheepishly then. "Now, if I'm not mistaken it is Hermione's turn"
"Well, I guess this is the night of the scares we gave each other, Harry" she smiled, before starting to tell her memory.
"Before he could utter a single curse or insult, Harry felt great pain at the top of his head. He inhaled ash, choking, found himself being dragged backwards through the flames, until with an horrible abruptness he was staring up into the wide, pallid face of Professor Umbridge who had dragged him backwards out of the fire by the hair and was now bending his neck back as far as it would go, as though she were going to slit his throat.
"You think" she whispered, bending Harry's neck back even further, so that he was looking up at the ceiling, "that after two Nifflers I was going to let one more foul, scavenging little creature enter my office without my knowledge? I had Stealth Sensoring Spells placed all around doorway after the last one got in, you foolish boy. Take his wand" she barked to someone he could not see, and he felt an hand grope inside the chest pocket of his robes and remove the wand. "Hers too"
Harry heard a scuffle over by the door and knew that Hermione had also just had her wand wrested from her.
"I want to know why you're in my office" said Umbridge, shaking the fist clutching his air so that he staggered.
"I was…trying to get my Firebolt" Harry croaked.
"Liar" she shook his head again. "Your Firebolt is under strict guard in the dungeons, as you very well know, Potter. You ahd your head in my fire. With whom have you been communicating?"
"No one" Said Harry, trying to pull away from her.
"Liar!" shouted Umbridge. She threw him from her and he slammed into the desk. Now he could see Hermione pinioned against the wall by Millicent Bulstrode. Malfoy was leaning on the windowsill, smirking as he threw Harry's wand in the air and caught it again.
There was commotion outside, and some large Slytherins entered, carrying Ron, Ginny, Luna, and, to Harry's bewilderment, Neville, who was trapped in a stranglehold by Crabbe.
"Got `em all" said Warrington, shoving Ron roughly forwards into the room. "That one" he said pointing toward Neville, "tried to stop me taking her" he pointed Ginny, who was trying to kick the shins of the large Slytherin girl holding her, "so I brought him along too"
"Good, good" Umbridge said, watching Ginny's struggles. "Well, it looks as Hogwarts will shortly be a Weasley-free zone, doesn't it?"
Malfoy laughed loudly. Umbridge gave her wide, complacent smile and settled herself into a chintz-covered armchair.
"So, Potter" she said. "You stationed lookouts around my office and you sent this buffoon" she nodded at Ron, Malfoy laughed, "to tell me the poltergeist was wreaking havoc in the Transfiguration department when I knew perfectly that he was busy smearing ink on the eyepieces of all the school telescopes, Mr. Filch having just informed me so. Clearly, it was really important for you to talk to somebody. Was it Albus Dumbledore? Or the half-breed, Hagrid? I doubt it was Minerva McGonagall, I hear she's still too ill to talk to anyone"
Malfoy and some other members of the Inquisitorial Squad laughed some more. Harry was so full of hatred and rage he was shaking.
"It's none of your business who I talk to" he snarled.
Umbridge's face seemed to tighten.
"Very well" she said in her most dangerous and falsely sweet tone. "Very well, Mr. Potter. I offered you the chance to tell me freely. You refused. I have no alternative but to force you. Draco, fetch Professor Snape"
Harry realised his foolishness. He had thought every member of the Order at Hogwarts was gone, but there was still one. Snape.
"You wanted to see me, Headmistress?" said Snape, looking around at all the pairs of struggling students with complete indifference.
"Ah, Professor Snape" Umbridge said, smiling widely. "Yes, I would like another bottle of Veritaserum, as quick as you can please"
"You took my last bottle to interrogate Potter" he said, surveying her coolly through his greasy curtains of black hair. "Surely you did not use it all? I told you Three drops would be enough"
Umbridge flushed.
"Well, surely you can make me some more, can't you?" she said, her voice as sweet as when she was furious.
"Certainly" Snape said. "It takes a full moon cycle to mature, so I should have it ready for you in a month"
"A month?" Squawked Umbridge. "A month? But I need it this evening, Snape. I have just found Potter using my fire to communicate with persons unknown"
"Really? Well, it does not surprise me. Potter never showed inclination to respect school rules"
"I wish to interrogate him. I wish you to provide me a potion that will force him to tell the truth"
"I've already told you, I've no further stocks of Veritaserum. Unless you wish to poison him, and I would be more that sympathetic with that, I cannot help you. Fact is, poisons act so quickly you would not get his truth-telling.
"You're on probation! I expected better of you, you're being unhelpful. Lucius Malfoy always spoke well of you. Now get out of my office"
Harry did the last thing he could hope to work.
"He's got Padfoot. He's got Padfoot where it is hidden" he shouted to the Potion Master.
"What does it mean, Snape?" Umbridge asked.
"I've no idea. Potter, when I want you to tell me nonsense I'll give you a Babbling Potion. Crabbe, loosen your grip, if Longbottom chokes it will mean lots of paperwork, and I'll have to mention it when you apply for a job" and with that he was gone.
After some time, Umbridge spoke.
"Very well. There's no other way. This is not just a matter of school discipline, this is more a Ministry security matter" and she took her wand.
"You're forcing me, Potter. I don't want to, but at times circumstances justify the use. I'm sure the Minister will understand that I had no choice…"
Malfoy was eager to see what she was going to do.
"The Cruciatus Curse should loosen your tongue"
"No!" she shrieked. "It's illegal!"
Umbridge ignored her.
"The Minister wouldn't want you to break the law, Professor" she shouted again.
"What Cornelius doesn't know, won't hurt him" she replied, looking at Harry's body as wondering where to torture him. "He never knew I sent Dementors after Potter last summer, but he was happy to have the chance to expel him all the same"
"It was you?" Harry exclaimed.
"Someone should act. All were babbling about silencing you, but no one did a thing. But you wriggled out of that one, didn't you, Potter? Not today, tough. Not now. Cruc.."
"No!" she shouted. "No! Harry, we've got to tell her!"
"No way!" Harry replied, staring at what little of her he could see.
"We'll have to, she'll force it out of you anyway, what's the point?" she said. Then she started weeping softly in Millicent's grip.
"Well, well, well. Little Ms. Question-all is going to give us some answers. Come on then, girl, come on"
All her friends stared at her like at a stranger. They could not believe she was going to betray all of them that way.
But Harry noticed there were no tears, although she was sobbing in her hands.
"I'm sorry, everyone, but I can't stand it"
"That's right, that's right girl" Umbridge told her. "Now, then, who was Potter communicating to just now?"
"Well, he was trying to speak with Dumbledore"
All froze.
"Dumbledore? You know were he is then?"
"Well, no. We've tried the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley and the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade and even the Hog's Head…"
"Idiot girl! Dumbledore wouldn't sit in a pub when Ministry is looking for him!" Umbridge said, disappointed.
"But we needed to tell him something important!" she wailed, her hands tighter on her face, to disguise the absence of tears.
"Yes? What did you want to tell him?"
"We wanted to tell him it is ready" the girl said.
"What is ready? What's ready girl?" Umbridge asked, now grabbing Hermione's shoulders and shaking her slightly.
"The…the weapon" she said
"Weapon? Weapon?" Umbridge said, and her eyes seemed to pop with excitement. "You've been developing some method of resistance? A weapon you could use against the Ministry? On Professor Dumbledore's orders, of course?"
"Y…y…yes" gasped Hermione, "but he had to leave before it was ready, and now we've finished it for him, and we can't find him to tell him!"
"What kind of weapon is it?" said Umbridge harshly, her stubby hands still tight on Hermione's shoulders.
"We don't really understand it" she said, sniffing loudly. "We just did what Professor Dumbledore told us to do"
Umbridge straightened up, exultant.
"Lead me to the weapon"
And so after she, with a imagine of students using it on her convinced Umbridge to go alone with them to see it, they moved to go into the forest."
"Wow! I remember it! It was close, Harry. I mean, the Cruciatus!" Ron said.
"Well, Voldemort had already used it on me in the graveyard, it would not have been a first, you know" he said, darkly. "What an asshole that woman was" he muttered them. "Wouldn't be surprised if in the last battle we find her against us"
"Now, Harry, she was horrible, but implying she is a Death Eater…" Ginny told him.
"Well, she was really close to the Slytherins, wasn't she? And she did mention talking with Lucius Malfoy, that we know to be a Death Eater, so I would not be surprised"
"Well, guys, now for a more cheerful matter, here is my memory" Ron announced.
"The final match of the Quidditch season, Gryffindor against Ravenclaw, was to take place on the last weekend of May. Although Slytherin ahd been narrowly defeated by Hufflepuff, Gryffindor were not daring to hope to win, mainly due to Ron's abysmal goalkeeping record.
"I mean, I can't get worse, can I?" he said to Harry and Hermione grimly over breakfast that morning. "Nothing to lose now, is there?"
"And they're off!" said Lee. "And Davies takes the Quaffle immediately, Ravenclaw Captain Davies with the Quaffle, he dodges Johnson, he dodges Bell, he dodges Spinnet as well…he's going straight for goal! He's going to shoot…and…and…" Lee swore loudly. "And he's scored"
The Slytherins started their song against Ron.
"Weasley cannot save a thing,
He cannot block a single ring…"
…
"Weasley is our King,
Weasley is our King,
He didn't let the Quaffle in,
Weasley is our King"
Harry and Hermione heard in the distance.
"And I wish they would stop this stupid song, haven't they gloated enough?" Hermione said.
"Weasley can save anything,
He never leaves a single Ring,
That's why Gryffindors all sing,
Weasley is our King"
"Hermione" Harry said slowly.
The song was growing louder, but it was not from a crowd of green-and-silver clad Slytherins, but from a mass of red and gold moving slowly up toward the castle, bearing a solitary figure upon its many shoulders.
"Weasley is our King,
Weasley is our King,
He didn't let the Quaffle in,
Weasley is our King…"
"No?" Hermione said in an hushed tone.
"Yes!" Harry shouted.
"Harry! Hermione!" he yelled, waving the silver Quidditch Cup in the air, and looking quite beside himself. "WE DID IT! WE WON!"
They beamed up at him as they passed. There was a scrum at the door of the castle and Ron's head got rather badly bumped on the lintel, but nobody seemed to want to put him down. Still singing, the crowd squeezed itself into the Entrance Hall and out of sight."
Ron finished telling his memory with a dreamy look.
"Seems like you got at least part of what you saw in the Mirror of Erised, mate" Harry said, chuckling at his friend's expression.
"Oh, yeah. Right you are" Ron said, grinning back.
The two girls shook their heads in amusement.
"Ok, Ginny. Now the scene is all yours" Harry said.
She blushed. "Well, my fondest memory of the year is about me and Harry"
"Some snogging we did not know about, mate?" Ron teased him.
"No way. Come on, Ginny. I think I know what you're talking about"
So she started.
" "Harry, I'm talking to you, can you hear me?"
"Huh?"
He looked around. Ginny Weasley, looking very windswept, had joined him at the library table where he had been sitting alone. It was late on Sunday evening.
"Oh, hi" said Harry, pulling his books toward him. "How come you're not at practice?"
"It's over" she said. "Ron had to take Jack Sloper up to the Hospital Wing"
"Why?"
"Well, we're not sure, but we think he knocked himself out with his own bat." She sighed heavily. "Anyway…a package just arrived, it's only just got through Umbridge's new screening process"
She hoisted a box wrapped in brown paper on to the table; it had clearly been unwrapped and carelessly re-wrapped. There was a scribbled note across it in red ink, reading: Inspected and passed by the Hogwarts High Inquisitor.
"It's Easter Eggs from Mum" she said. "There's one for you…there you go"
She handed him a handsome chocolate egg decorated with small, iced Snitches and, according to the packaging, containing a bag of Fizzing Whizzbees.
"Are you ok, Harry?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah, I'm fine" Harry said gruffly.
"You seem really down lately" she persisted. "You know, I'm sure if you just talked to Cho…"
"It's not Cho I want to talk to" said Harry brusquely.
"Who is it, then?" she asked, watching him closely.
"I…"
He glanced around to make sure nobody was listening. Madame Pince was several shelves away, stamping out a pile of books for a frantic-looking Hannah Abbott.
"I wish I could talk to Sirius" he muttered. "But I know I can't"
She continued to watch him thoughtfully. More to give himself something to do than because he really wanted any, Harry unwrapped his Easter egg, broke off a large bit and put it into his mouth.
"Well" she said slowly, helping herself to a bit of egg, too, "if you really want to talk to Sirius, I expect we could think of a way to do it".
"Come on" said Harry dully, "With Umbridge policing the fires and reading all our mail?"
"The thing about growing up with Fred and George" she said, thoughtfully, "is that you sort of start thinking anything is possible if you've got enough nerve".
Harry looked at her a bit more hopeful.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"
"Oh, damn" she whispered, jumping to her feet. "I forgot…"
Madame Pince was swooping down on them, her shrivelled face contorted with rage.
"Chocolate in the library!" she screamed. "Out-out-out!"
And whipping her wand, she caused Harry's books bag and ink bottle to chase him and her from the library, whacking them repeatedly over the head as they ran."
"This is it" Ginny concluded, smiling at Harry.
"Oh, that was sweet. A secret meeting in the library" Hermione teased them in her best Lavenderish tone.
They all started laughing, and Ginny hit her with a pillow. Soon a full pillow fight ensued.
When they calmed, Ron and Harry walked to their room.
As they prepared for bed, the raven haired wizard kept mulling over the memory he shared with his friends.
He could not grasp it yet, but the feelings behind the fear of losing Hermione he had felt that night, and relived telling the memory, were something he knew he should sort out as soon as possible.
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