Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Harry Potter universe, and only claim Kotone and a few other characters as my own. None of the lyric bits belong to me, either.
A/N: Again, I send apologies to you for the delay in getting this posted. We finally moved into our new, more permanent residence and finally got the Internet hooked up. Don't expect another update very soon, as we'll be busy setting up our stuff when it arrives in the next few days. I hope you like this chapter… I re-wrote the second portion THREE times, with three different outcomes. I chose the one that would expedite the conclusion of the story. I got some more treats for all of you 'Ginny Haters' out there, (I count myself among that group! ^_^;) and you find out what's going on inside of Grimmauld Place. R & R & Enjoy!
Chapter 27: The Madness Within
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I'm trying to tell you something about my life,
maybe give me insight between black and white,
and the best thing you've ever done for me
is to help me take my life less seriously…
Its only life, after all…
Yeah…
Well darkness has a hunger that's insatiable,
and lightness has a call that's hard to hear.
I wrap my fear around me like a blanket.
I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it.
I'm crawling on your shores.
Excerpt from the song, 'Closer to Fine' by The Indigo Girls.
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The sun had just set behind the mountains that overlooked Hogwarts castle and grounds when Ginny Weasley finally began to stir on her bed in Madam Pomfrey's office. She opened her eyes to find Madam Pomfrey hovering over her in the midst of performing some sort of diagnostic spell on her. She noticed her father near the doorway, leaning against the jamb, standing with his arms crossed over his chest and staring at her while wearing an uncharacteristically stern expression. She also saw her mother, lightly dozing in a chair behind the healer's desk.
Ginny looked curiously around the room, wondering how she came to be there. She tried to remember where she was last, but her mind was strangely foggy, making it difficult to put her thoughts in order. She glanced down at her hands that were resting on her stomach over the covers and was shocked to discover that they both were heavily bandaged from where her fingernails ripped open her palms. She tentatively tried to wiggle her fingers and felt a burning pain in the palms of her hands. When she tried to sit up, a strangled groan escaped her as a very pronounced aching in her ribcage forced her back into her pillow. She opened her mouth to ask what had happened to her, but all that came out was a hoarse, garbled croak as a searing pain tore through her throat.
Without pausing from what she was doing, Madam Pomfrey said in a chilly tone, "Don't try to speak. It will be at least another day before your throat is healed enough to speak comfortably."
The healer stopped working when she saw Ginny raise her bandaged hands with a pleading question in her eyes. Madam Pomfrey sighed, then spoke, "Do you know why you're here?"
When Ginny shook her head, Madam Pomfrey looked over to Arthur, who pushed himself away from the doorway and slowly walked up to his daughter's bed. As Arthur approached, the healer pulled the covers from over Ginny's naked body, causing the young girl to desperately grab at them, forgetting that her hands were currently unable to grasp anything.
Arthur just stood by the bed and watched as the healer spread his daughter's legs and began peeling a cloth soaked in some kind of green, foul-smelling ointment away from her pubic mound, causing Ginny to hiss in pain and embarrassment. Once it was removed, he saw that the cloth had streaks of yellow and red, and was told by the healer that the discoloration was from the blood and pus coming from Ginny's abused vagina.
When the healer finished placing a fresh ointment-covered cloth on the girl's crotch and pulled the covers back over her body, Arthur shook his head and asked, "What is the last thing you can remember?"
She closed her eyes in thought… what was the last thing she remembered? While her whole life seemed shrouded in a thick fog, certain memories came to the surface quicker than others, although in her mind, she could put them in no discernable order. Slowly she began to sort things in chronological order…
Hogwarts… Dumbledore's funeral… Her Harry had broken off their relationship 'to protect her' while he ran off to fight 'You Know Who…'
Harry missing for weeks…
Harry being found in a muggle hospital…
Harry speaking with her in St. Mungo's…
She had just used the last bit of the elixir…
The lust…
The desire…
Finding out about the attack at St. Mungo's and that Harry was missing again… That was the last thing she could recall.
"Harry!" she croaked out while struggling to sit up again, "The attack at St. Mungo's! Where's Harry? Did they find him? Is he alive?"
Arthur directed a brief, sideways glance at the healer as he laid a hand on his daughter's shoulder and eased her back into the pillow, saying, "Harry's just fine. He's with Ron and Hermione, and we have some people watching over them, so never mind about him. Our main concern right now is you."
Arthur paused as he gauged Ginny's reaction to his mentioning of Hermione's name, and predictably, a look of anger flashed in the young girl's eyes for the briefest moment. If he hadn't been specifically looking for that very reaction, he would have missed it. He didn't want to believe that his daughter was capable of doing what Ron had suggested, but her reaction drove the last bit of doubt he had left out of his mind.
He bowed his head and sighed before lifting his gaze again to Ginny's eyes. He motioned to her pubic area and asked rather coolly, "Do you remember how you came to be injured there?"
Ginny looked away, still flushed in embarrassment and just shook her head 'no.'
Arthur waited for her to look back to him again before he continued, "So, you don't remember modifying the Horton-Keitch braking charm on your brother's broom, or removing the cushioning spell from the handle?"
She wore a genuinely confused expression while she shook her head once again.
Arthur turned to Madam Pomfrey and gave her a solemn nod. The matron stepped beside the bed and addressed Ginny, "Mr. Potter's recent illness is a direct result of a ritualistic spell that was cast upon him approximately a year and a half ago. It seems that he was dosed repeatedly with a catalyst that was only supposed to be administered once, not to mention that the spell was designed for only a pureblood wizard. In addition, the same ritual involved Miss Granger… the effect on her hasn't been fully determined, but we will have to give her a complete examination at her earliest convenience."
As Madam Pomfrey spoke, the furious blush that coloured Ginny's face and neck drained away, leaving her skin with an ashen quality just as the healer finished speaking.
Arthur steeled himself for his next question. He was hoping that she would own up to what she did, but given her recent state of mind, and the fact that she would try something like a love potion or the like in the first place, he was fully expecting her to deny any involvement in the use of that dark elixir.
"Do you know anything about what happened to Harry and Hermione?"
She raised her chin, looked her father straight in the eye and hoarsely replied, "No"
Arthur reached into his pocket and pulled out a small crystal bottle and a copy of the page that Ron showed to him. With a disappointed frown, he held up the items so that Ginny could clearly see them and asked, "Do these look familiar to you?"
"Of course not!" She angrily replied, "Why would I use a love potion on him? He loves me already!"
"It's not a love potion!" yelled Arthur, whose own face was becoming flushed with anger, "It's the physical component to a bloodline preservation ritual! It's intended to be used by pureblood parents to keep their child from courting a non-pureblooded suitor!"
Arthur's outburst awakened his wife, who abruptly rose from the chair and walked around the healer's desk, making her way to her husband's side. Ginny opened her mouth to speak, but Arthur didn't give her the opportunity, "It's funny that you called this a 'love potion,' when nobody here even mentioned those words!"
Ginny didn't appear to be listening, as she was loudly repeating in a grating rasp, "He's mine! He loves me, not that mudblooded whore! He's always loved me! Harry's mine! Mine!"
Arthur was backing away from his daughter's bed as she ranted. Madam Pomfrey rushed to the bedside and tried to pour a sleeping draught down Ginny's throat, but ended up being covered with the potion as it sprayed from the girls mouth. With an apologetic glance to Arthur, Poppy drew her wand and stunned the raving witch.
With a heavy sigh, Arthur hung his head and began walking with Molly hand in hand towards the door as he quietly lamented, "Merlin, where did we go wrong?"
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Hermione had her eyes closed as she bent over with her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. Finishing the Fidelis had taken so much out of her that she seriously doubted that she could produce a simple Lumos. She had known before she even began that it was a very difficult and draining bit of ritualistic magic that usually required a full day of casting to prevent the wizard who was performing the spell from becoming exhausted. She also knew that if it weren't for Kotone's timely assistance, she would have never been able to complete the spell in time.
After a few moments, she lifted her head to see Kotone sitting in the middle of the room where the circle had been. Her bloodshot eyes were barely open, and she was swaying slightly, looking as though she were about to pass out. Hermione also noticed the smeared blood under her nose and around her mouth, making her appearance seem much more gruesome than usual.
"Kotone? Are you going to be alright?" asked Hermione as she stepped closer to the girl.
The young witch gazed in Hermione's general direction wearing a dazed expression, seemingly unaware of Hermione's presence. After a moment, she absently nodded and then unsuccessfully tried to stand, sitting back heavily on the floor. She tried to smile at Hermione and said, "I will be fine… I…"
Kotone's white brows knitted together as her ears swiveled towards the door to the entrance hall. A low growl escaped her throat before she whispered to Hermione, "There is strangers in house, I am not to recognize feet…"
Hermione crept to the door and looked out into the hall just in time to see the hem of a black cloak disappear around the upper landing of the main staircase. Her heart lodged in her throat as her thoughts screamed, 'Harry!' Whoever it was, they must have been within the boundaries of the property before the Fidelis was finished.
With her wand in hand, she dashed across the hall towards the stairs, all thought of Kotone, Ron, and her fatigue forgotten. She took the stairs two and three at a time until she neared the landing. She peeked over the top of the stairs, but saw nobody in the second floor hallway. The doors to the study, conservatory, library and the main bedrooms were all solidly closed. She heard the creak of a stair higher up in the house, up where the spare bedrooms in which Harry, Draco and presumably Luna were. She tightened her grip on her wand as she hurried along the banister towards the ascending staircase.
She was halfway up the staircase when she heard a woman's haughty voice say, "You! You lied to me! You told me he was captured! You told me that the Order took him! I believed you… I trusted you!"
Hermione carefully climbed a few more stairs until she could just see into the third floor hallway. The tall woman in a dark cloak had her back turned to Hermione. She saw the woman pointing her wand at someone further down the hall. She then heard a very familiar, oily voice answer angrily, "And you should have left it at that, you foolish woman! If you didn't know where he was, then the Dark Lord would have no reason to 'question' you more… intensely. You know he can always tell if you're keeping something from him," then he cracked a silky smirk and added, "and you know how badly he wants to see your son."
Hermione looked beyond the woman, who she now knew was Narcissa Malfoy, and saw Snape standing next to Draco, one hand had his wand trained on the woman, and the other was restraining the squirming Draco from rushing towards his mother. She heard Draco pleading as he struggled, "Mummy! That's my mummy! Let me go!"
"He will come with me!" Narcissa said icily, "I can keep him safe!"
"Don't be stupid," said Snape, clearly getting angry, "You must realize what will happen to him if the Dark Lord finds him, and if that happens my own fate is sealed, thanks to your oh-so-eloquent wording of the Unbreakable Vow."
"Well, what do you propose to do?" she hotly asked, "Where will you take him?"
"You mean to say, 'where will we take him,'" he replied smoothly, "You cannot return, now that you know that Draco is still free. A memory charm powerful enough to fool the Dark Lord would, unfortunately, leave you quite incapable of even feeding yourself."
"We?" she asked incredulously while shaking her head, "I can't leave… What of Lucius?"
"He mustn't know. If he has any idea what is happening, we would all end up dead."
Narcissa was still standing stiffly, but she slightly relaxed the grip on her wand. After a tense minute, she lowered her wand and said, "Alright, what are we to do?"
"First, we have to get Potter to open the Floo for us. He's the only person who can do it, and it's the only way out of here, seeing that this place is surrounded by aurors."
"That's going to be a problem," Hermione carefully said from her concealed position on the staircase, causing both Snape and Narcissa to train their wands in her direction.
Narcissa narrowed her eyes at Hermione, and then slowly said as she sniffed and looked severely down her nose at the girl, "Ah, I remember you from the World Cup. You're Potter's girlfriend."
"What are you on about, Granger?" asked Snape shortly, "What has happened to Potter?"
Hermione didn't bother to correct the woman, nor did she immediately answer Snape. She just kept her wand trained at the two adults, trying desperately to keep it from shaking. She knew that in her present condition she couldn't even magically out-duel a squib, but she counted on them not knowing exactly how drained she was at the moment.
She opened her mouth to speak, intending to warn them to lower their wands when she saw Luna step out of a room, unnoticed by the two adults and the distressed Draco. A smile crept across her lips, but faltered when she noticed that Luna's expression was more distant and unfocused than was usual for her. Hermione's smile disappeared completely when she noticed that the Ravenclaw wasn't holding her wand, nor was it wedged in its usual place behind her ear.
Snape immediately picked up on Hermione's concerned glance directed further down the hall and spun around, pointing his wand at the blonde teen. He kept his wand trained as Luna walked through the hall towards the stairs where Hermione was, totally ignoring both him and the skittish Narcissa.
Hermione felt her blood run cold as Luna drew nearer. She saw the girl's blank expression and vacant eyes and said, "Luna? What are you doing?"
With a quiet, monotone voice she answered, "I'm distracting everyone, although I don't know why I should be doing something like this…"
Hermione tore her gaze away from Luna's face and looked towards Snape, who was, along with both Malfoys, staring warily at the odd, blonde witch. Before she could utter a warning, a cruel, high-pitched voice screamed out from the shadows at the far end of the hall. An impossibly quick stream of curses lit the walls as they raced towards the group.
"Expelliarmus! Expelliarmus! Accio! Accio! Stupefy!" Both Narcissa's and Snape's wands were wrenched from their hands and knocking the two adults to the floor. Before the wands even hit the floor, they flew down to the far end of the hallway. Narcissa fell heavily backwards onto the dirty runner carpet as Draco broke free from Snape's hold and ran to her while bawling piteously. Snape spun on his heel to face the new threat, but before his turn was complete, the voice screamed out again, "Crucio!"
The sickly yellow beam lit the face of the caster even before he stepped out from the shadows. Hermione's breath hitched as she saw Harry, with Luna's wand in hand and holding the foul curse on his former Potions Professor. She had only seen the curse cast once before, and that was on a spider in the fake Moody's classroom, but nothing could have prepared her for the sight of Snape writhing on the dirty floor, screaming unholy Hell, appearing as though his body was being ripped apart.
Hermione closed her tearing eyes and covered her ears with her hands. She had no idea that a human could produce sounds like that. The thought that Harry had been placed under that dark curse himself horrified her enough, but seeing him torture someone with that same curse made her physically ill. The idea that he even had the ability to cast it was shocking to her.
Suddenly, Snape's screaming ceased, being replaced by a strangled moan. A moment later, Draco's cries to his mother were silenced with a screeched stunning spell. Hermione uncovered her face and looked up to see Harry standing at the top of the staircase just a few feet away, looking menacingly down at her with Luna's wand pointed at her chest. She gasped when she looked into his glaring, hate-filled eyes that seemed to be boring holes through her... studying her.
What terrified her the most about his eyes was the faint crimson glow behind his pupils, much like the 'red eye' effect in some muggle photographs. They held her transfixed, emerald wrestling with ruby in a desperate struggle within the boy standing before her.
"Oh, Harry…" she whispered sadly.
Harry just smirked as he stared into her eyes. What happened next was something she was totally unprepared for, but knew what was happening the moment it began. Random memories began flashing through her mind, and she was powerless to stop it.
She was sitting in a fourth grade class with the students around her glaring in annoyance as she answered yet another question correctly…
She was sitting in her schoolyard during lunch, ignored by all of the other children around her as she silently read while she ate alone…
She was nine years old, kneeling beside a Christmas tree in the sitting room of her house amongst the wrapping paper and boxes of all her fabulous, expensive presents while looking longingly at the closed door of her parents' study…
She was standing in the conservatory in Grimmauld Place, pressed against the wall with leaking eyes that were furiously glaring at Ron, whom she had just roughly pushed away from her after he clumsily groped her breast as he tried to sloppily snog her…
Standing in the corridor with Harry, his hands gently resting on her waist, his soft lips moving ever closer to hers…
She was snapped out of her daze when he spoke, seemingly to himself, "Ah, so the ugly little dung-vein is 'involved' with this 'Harry'… How interesting…"
Hermione did the only thing she could think of. She pointed her wand at Harry intending to stun him, but immediately remembered that she probably couldn't stun a housefly in her state. He seemed to know what she was going to do before she even moved.
"Expelliarmus!" he icily cried, knocking her several steps down the staircase and sending her wand skittering down the hallway, "Is that any way to treat your boyfriend?" then added with an amused smile, "This may come as a shock to you, mudblood, but he doesn't love you!"
Without lifting her head, Hermione wiped the trickle of blood from her split lip as she softly said, "I already knew that."
She paused, waiting for him to come back with some sort of snide remark, racial slur, or even a curse. When she didn't hear anything from him, she looked up and saw that he was staring past her towards the bottom of the stairs. She turned her head and saw Kotone standing on the lower landing with what Hermione guessed was a terrified expression, looking up at Harry with her eyes narrowed in concentration.
Suddenly, Kotone's eyes opened wide and she let out a horrible wail before collapsing to the floor. Hermione whipped her head around to see Harry blinking dazedly.
He shook his head slightly then smiled evilly, saying, "Very well done, but your tricks won't work on me. It seems a shame to have to kill one so skilled, but alas…"
In one quick, fluid motion, he pointed his wand at Kotone. Hermione saw Harry's eyes open wide in unbridled glee as he grinned and hissed, "Avada…"
Harry paused.
Hermione saw the red in Harry's eyes fade slightly as he let out a hissing groan while dropping to his knees. She heard Harry's voice speaking in a choked whisper, "Run! Take her and run! Now!"
Again, Harry shook his head as if to clear it, and then began laughing in that cruel, high-pitched voice. He raised his wand towards Kotone again, but never got the chance to utter the curse as a red bolt struck him squarely in the back. As he fell to the floor, Hermione saw Snape, looking as though he was just run over by a herd of hippogriffs, standing behind him holding her wand.
Snape looked down at Harry with an unreadable expression, then glanced at Hermione and mockingly asked, "It appears that your boyfriend has found the real locket, then?"
Snape stepped over Harry's still form and approached Luna, who was just standing motionless against the wall. He uttered a counter-curse and Luna's eyes fluttered, then gazed around the hallway in surprise, wondering how she came to be there. When he turned back to Hermione and saw her questioning stare, he simply said, "One cannot be placed under the Cruciatus as many times as the average Death Eater does and not build up a certain… shall we say, resilience... to its aftereffects." He then retrieved his own wand from Harry's hand, and then held out Hermione's, saying, "I believe this belongs to you."
Hermione stood and took her wand, all the while keeping her eyes on Harry. It was now obvious what she feared might happen, in fact did. The fragments of Voldemort's soul were controlling Harry. Although it appeared that he was trying to fight them, she couldn't take the chance of letting him awaken until something could be done to prevent a repeat performance of what had just occurred.
Snape bound Harry tightly and levitated him into a bedroom. After ensuring that Harry was secure, he made his way to tend to Narcissa and Draco Malfoy leaving Hermione in the room as she stared worriedly at the boy on the bed.
Kotone seemed as drained as Hermione was, but was otherwise unhurt. Ron, while out of immediate danger, was still grievously injured. After levitating him to the sofa in the sitting room, Snape retrieved a bowl of water and a clean cloth and began cleansing the wound in his abdomen. He spent a few hours tending to Ron, and had just finished pulling the last few fragments of the shattered door from the wound when began tracing his wand around the wound while softly speaking the same song-like incantation that he had used on Draco earlier in the year to repair the damage from the Sectumsempra curse Harry had used.
At that point, Hermione entered the room and watched as if mesmerized as the wound slowly closed, leaving a roughly circular patch of angry red and raw skin.
After he finished, Snape stood and said, "That will leave a scar, but there is nothing more I can do for him here. It's half-eleven, and we must leave this place very soon, and since Potter is in no condition to open the floo…"
"You're leaving now?" asked Hermione in alarm, "Isn't there anything you can do for Harry?"
He glanced at the large grandfather clock and said, "I'm afraid not, and even if I could help him, I haven't the time, we have somewhere to be before midnight. We will have to take our chances getting far enough away from the house to be able to apparate. Our best chance is to go behind the house and over the wall."
"You're just going to leave him like this? You know that he's our only chance!"
"Miss Granger, read my lips. There is nothing that I can do for him. The only possible solution I can think of is for him to create his own horcrux, seeing how the soul fragment inside of him is already torn, but I do not possess the knowledge to make that happen. Even if I did know the spell to create a horcrux, Potter would have to cast it himself, and I would like to see you convince him to do that while he is in his current condition."
At that point, Narcissa and Draco Malfoy appeared in the doorway and Snape led them out into the back yard. After disillusioning themselves, they scaled the wall at the northeast corner of the yard and a few moments later, the telltale cracks heralded their departure.
Hermione stood at the back door for a few moments, just staring into the cloudy night sky. She was finally feeling the exhaustion from getting only seven hours of sleep over the past seventy-two hours. After looking in on Kotone, Ron and Luna, and making sure Harry's bindings were still secure, she climbed into the other bed in his room and immediately fell asleep.