Chapter Two - Portraits and Possibilities.
It was past dawn when Harry woke up. In fact, judging by the strength of the sunlight, it was probably well into the morning. Harry didn't even remember falling asleep but he had to admit there was a certain freshness about the morning. He didn't really want to move, feeling that he'd be happy to stay there all day. Then he looked down.
He had almost completely forgotten that Hermione was there at all. She was sound asleep, head nestled in the crook of his shoulder, her bushy brown head bobbing up and down as she breathed. Harry noticed he was now resting against the side of his mother's headstone, a most bizarre place to sleep, he thought, and one that couldn't be healthy. He felt a little awkward having Hermione asleep upon him; how would he wake her? How would she react if he did? How long could he sit there until she woke of her own accord? Probably ages, he thought to himself; there was something comforting about the warmth of her next to him and he would have been quite content to close his eyes and get a little more rest. But he knew, by now, that he, that they both, would be missed.
Gently he tapped her shoulder. Nothing happened. He hadn't expected it to; he had tapped her so softly she probably wouldn't have felt it even if she was awake. He tried again, this time pushing her head a little and breathing her name into her hair. She slumbered a little at this, but instead of waking merely turned her body and slid her arms around Harry's waist, settling her head into his chest.
Strangely, he felt an involuntary beat escape from his chest and a little shiver tickle up his spine that had nothing to do with the light breeze dancing around the garden. He shrugged it off and tried to wake Hermione a little more forcefully.
`Hermione, wake up,' he said rubbing her shoulders slightly. `We have to go now.'
`What, Ron? What is it?' Hermione mumbled, half-asleep.
`It - er - isn't Ron, it's Harry,' he said.
`Wha?'
Hermione sat up quickly and looked around in surprise. Her hair was fuzzy and her eyes bright and confused.
`Morning,' said Harry with a smirk.
`Oh, Harry,' said Hermione, startled, smoothing down her hair. `Sorry - I can't believe we fell asleep. What time is it?'
`Dunno,' Harry replied. `I haven't got a watch.'
`Oh, well, never mind, we'd better be getting a move on anyway, people will be wondering where we are. Oh my, what are we going to tell them?'
Hermione was blushing furiously and Harry, watching this in avid confusion, didn't really have an answer for her.
`We'll just say you went out and I followed you,' said Hermione, thinking fast. `You went somewhere close, somewhere like Stoat's Hill. Yes! That's far enough away. You went out, I followed you, and we only just got back. That's what we'll say.'
`Ok,' said Harry still smirking. Then he said, a little quieter, `But is spending the night with me really that bad a secret to keep?'
`Oh, Harry, I didn't mean - well, what I meant to say was - oh, don't you know how that'll look?'
`It won't look like anything,' said Harry, still confused. `We're friends. Everyone knows that.'
`Not everyone knows that,' said Hermione darkly. `And besides, you of all people should know how innocent things get twisted. Rita Skeeter's left your memory already, has she? All those horrible things she printed about you, about us. People's minds work in funny ways, Harry.'
`Yeah, and yours funnier than most!' said Harry. `Look, I get what you're saying. I really do. But I can't see anyone thinking what you reckon they will. Unless there was something in Rita's articles, eh?'
Harry playfully nudged her arm.
`Don't tease, Harry, it isn't funny,' said Hermione.
`I'll believe that only when you stop smirking,' Harry replied.
`Come on, can you Apparate on an empty stomach?'
`Last one on Stoat's Hill's a rotten pumpkin,' said Harry and swirled around before Hermione had chance to respond.
Moments later he found himself on top of the familiar hill where he, Hermione and the Weasleys had once met up with the Diggorys to Portkey to the Quidditch World Cup. Ignoring a stabbing pang of guilt at the thought of Cedric, Harry flung himself to the ground and propped himself into a lounging position. And in good time, too, as no sooner was he set than Hermione materialised in front of him.
`Not very good at this, are you?' Harry teased. `I've been here ages. I'll gladly give you some pointers, if you like.'
`Get up, Harry,' said Hermione, `we're late already.'
`Whatever you say… Miss Pumpkin.'
`If you don't wipe that grin off your face the only pumpkin you'll be mentioning will be in pie form, mashed down because you wont be able to eat solids from where I cursed you to oblivion!'
`Aww, I didn't know you cared so much,' said Harry, cradling Hermione mockingly.
`Get off me,' she giggled, shrugging him off. `You're so annoying.'
`Thanks, I've been practising.'
`Why? You were so perfect at it already!'
They spent the rest of the walk back arguing Harry's merits as an annoyance and Hermione's merits as an eternal pessimist. Harry lost so responded by pushing Hermione into a hay bail in a field just outside the Burrow. He never did take losing well. Hermione, after recovering herself, fired a few Jelly-Legs and Laughing curses at Harry as he entered the Burrow yard, but Harry was laughing so much it wouldn't have made much difference. He stopped by the garden gate to wait for Hermione, who marched in looking murderous.
`I'll get you back for that,' she said vehemently.
`You'll have to get up pretty early then.'
`I won't sleep!' she cried and pushed him towards the house, both of them laughing now.
They opened the door to the kitchen and entered. Immediately, a cacophony of noise erupted; screams and cries from all directions asking where they'd been and what they thought they'd been playing at. Mrs Weasley pulled Harry into a bone-shattering hug which knocked the wind out of him so that he had to sit down.
`Where have you been? What have you been doing?' she asked Harry rhetorically.
`What's that in you hair, Hermione?' asked Ron coming over. He pulled something out of Hermione's bushy locks. `It looks like hay? And look, a leaf! What were you doing?'
`Oh it was Harry, he -' Hermione stopped at the look on Ron's face. `He was being an idiot.'
Hermione rapped Harry on the arm and told her cover story. Harry, whose winding had rendered him incapable of speech was able only to nod in agreement. Hermione seemed convinced that her story had been accepted by the whole room but it was with a degree of astonishment that Harry looked from face to face and saw nothing but suspicion. Nobody seemed willing to press the issue though, leaving Mrs Weasley to chide them some more as she made breakfast for them.
Harry didn't stay in for long after breakfast. After seeing Ron and Hermione embark on a walk around the field behind the Burrow Harry felt he'd rather be somewhere else as the whole thing made him uneasy. Staying inside the house wasn't much better as Mrs Weasley kept muttering things about Harry's safety and Fleur and Bill kept shooting him oddly furtive glances. All in all this made him rather uncomfortable; he decided to go out and left with Mrs Weasley's warnings about being careful ringing in his ears. In the garden he passed Ginny. She was trying to get Crookshanks to play with her but the cat seemed thoroughly uninterested.
`Hi, Ginny,' said Harry in a would-be-breezy voice as he passed.
`Don't, "hi, Ginny," me,' she snapped before storming past him into the house.
`What did I do?' said Harry to a purring Crookshanks as the cat rubbed against his legs. The door to the house slammed hard and Harry turned away, vaulted over the garden wall and made his way along the winding path outside.
It wasn't long before Harry was bored. Ron and Hermione going out was all very well but it didn't half leave him feeling a bit isolated. Not that he felt that bitter about it. He was glad they had found something together. If he was honest, he even felt a little tinge of jealousy that they had something he desperately wanted.
Before despair gripped him too tightly Harry made up his mind to go to Hogwarts. Spinning like a top on the hayfield dirt track Harry felt the now familiar sensation of being squeezed through a bottle neck and emerged moments later outside the even more familiar gates flanked by winged boars. He pushed the gates open and entered the grounds, trotting along the slight incline of the sloping path. He forked right and made his way to Hagrid's cabin. The sounds of sizzling and Hagrid rattling around inside betrayed that the gamekeeper was awake.
`Be there `n a minute,' said Hagrid as Harry knocked the door. It opened soon after and Hagrid beamed at the sight of him. `Harry! Wha'cha doin' here? S'prised to see ya in the daylight.'
`Well, I was at the Burrow,' said Harry, `but got a bit bored, you know, so I thought I'd come and see you. You don't mind, do you? I don't want to disturb you.'
`Nah, you aint' disturbin' me, Harry, come on in,' said Hagrid. Fang, the boarhound, bounded up to Harry as soon as he'd crossed the threshold and promptly tried to lick his face off. `I was just makin' a bit o' brekky, do you want some?'
`No, thanks, I just had breakfast not long ago.'
`Ah, an' ya got Molly Weasley cookin' for ya, and I ain't a patch on `er, ain't no truer way about it.'
`Ah, you know your cooking's legendary, Hagrid,' said Harry smirking.
`Aye, legendary be the word,' said Hagrid with a booming laugh. `You can force a cuppa down tho, eh?'
`Yeah, that'd be nice,' said Harry.
Hagrid busied himself with the kettle. `So, how's things, Harry?'
`What things? Harry replied. `There are a few going on.'
`Well I know all `bout your magic things,' said Hagrid. `Sees you up here half the nights, don' I? I mean, at home. How're things with the family?'
`Oh, fine, you know,' said Harry, unsure what Hagrid was getting at. `Its all "wedding this," and, "wedding that," a bit manic at times. At least its about something good I suppose.'
`And Ron and Hermione? How're they doin'?'
`Fine,' said Harry again. `Why?'
`Well, you know, now that they're together an'all. Must be a little strange.'
`Why should it be strange?'
`Well strange for you,' said Hagrid. `No-one's to say its strange that Miss Hermione and Ron, well, you know. But for you, Harry, to be excluded from `em. Must be a little weird for ya, after so long together an'all.'
Harry hadn't really though about it like that before. He always saw it has Hermione and Ron getting a little alone time away from everyone. Hagrid phrasing it like this gave it a much for personal slant and Harry felt really uncomfortable at the thought.
`Well,' he said after a while. `It's a bit awkward I suppose.'
`I'll bet,' said Hagrid. `Your two best friends all over each other, must be an odd sight.'
`I haven't seen them all over each other,' said Harry. There was something in the very construction of those words that Harry, for a reason he couldn't fathom, didn't like one bit.
`I remember when me an' Olympe, you remember, Madam Maxine? Well, when we was, ya know, we had to do it in secret too. Had to hide it from people. Didn't wanna make `em uncomfortable, like.'
`You think they're hiding it from me?' said Harry, an odd, alien feeling rising in his chest. `Why should they hide it from me?'
`Well, I dunno, Harry,' said Hagrid. `Maybe they don' wanna make you feel awkward.'
`Why would I feel awkward?' said Harry. `Don't they think I'd be happy for them? Happy to see them together?'
`Well, are ya, Harry? Are ya happy for them?'
Harry's immediate instinct was to say yes. But he paused, only for second, but the brief thought that flitted through his mind in that second seemed to last a lifetime. He eventually regained himself to say,
`Of course I am. They're my two best friends.'
`Well then, there ya are,' said Hagrid. `Its them that's being silly. Being all coy if they don't need to.'
There was a feeling of finality in the conversation at that point. Harry sat quietly finishing his tea before asking Hagrid if he could open the doors to Hogwarts so that he could use the library. The castle was as subdued as ever; even the ghosts seemed to be absent. Harry plodded slowly along the corridor thinking hard to himself. The one overriding thought that kept intruding on other ponderings was giving him much concern.
He wasn't happy for Ron and Hermione. There was no two ways about it. He had thought it fleetingly in Hagrid's cabin but it was a thought now ingrained on the inside on his skull. He could even see the words scribbled down before his eyes. But why? What wasn't there to like about it? It had been obvious for years that it would happen but why, now that it had, did Harry not like it?
Thoughts and questions like this plagued him all the way to Hermione's Domain, the term he had fondly formed for the empty library. He sat down at the table usually frequented by him and his friends during their study times at Hogwarts. The pile of books he'd last used were skill scattered about and he thought how Madam Pince might spontaneously combust on the spot if she discovered her library in such a state. Harry scanned the covers of New Spells for Old Sorcerers and 101 Ways to Swish and Flick, volume II and wondered where to begin.
Soon he was immersed, knee-deep in discarded copies of DADA textbooks with notes and scribblings over a stack of parchment on the desk. He had discover a clever but complex little hex which caused masses of hair to grow over the eyes, thus impeding vision and on a related topic found the page on the Conjuctivitis Curse, which would come in handy to blind Death Eaters. He was writing down the incantation to this when his eyes stumbled across a counter-curse, The Gryffindor Shield.
Harry's heart seemed to stop for a moment. He picked up the book and read the passage on the curse. Ignoring the part about the incantation and the wand movement he went straight to the explanation of the name:
…it is believed that this counter-curse was first used by the legendary Godric Gryffindor. It is named after the trusty helmet and visor he wore to protect himself during battle, a piece of armour which has become synonymous with the great wizard…
Harry read the words, again and again and again. This had to be it, this had to be the Gryffindor related-Horcrux. Voldemort collected trophies, that's what Dumbledore had said. …synonymous with the great wizard… It all made sense. Harry shot up and tore from the library, heading for the Headmistress's office. He was amazed to find it open and vaulted the spiral staircase until he reached the top. He pulled open the door and ran inside to the hanging cabinet, suspended inside which was a shining silver sword. Harry took it out, feeling the familiar jewel-encrusted handle as if trying to glean some mystical guidance from it.
`Ahh, Harry,' said a voice from behind him, `How pleasant it is to see you.'
Harry froze in shock and dropped the sword with an almighty clang. He dared not even turn around, unable to believe it was true.
`Professor Dumbledore? Sir? Is that you, are you really here?' said Harry.
`Yes, I am here. Like you've so admirably said on numerous occasions, "I shall never be truly gone from this school until there are none here who are loyal to me".'
`Then how did you - ' said Harry spinning around. `Professor, where have you gone?'
`I am here, Harry.'
Harry followed the sound of the voice, the balloon in his chest already deflating like a punctured beach ball. Eventually, Harry's eyes met the portrait of Dumbledore on the wall.
`Why so morose, Harry?' asked Dumbledore pleasantly. `You know that magic cannot awaken the dead. It can however, do so much more. I'm delighted with how they've drawn me, I'm so much younger that I felt. Don't you think? And what about this background? I have everything a portrait could want.'
`Its good to, er, see you, Sir,' said Harry sorrowfully.
`Now, Harry, I think we can drop the formality due to the change in my circumstance,' said Dumbledore. `I am no longer your Headmaster so there is no need to call me "Sir" any more.'
`Then what should I call you?'
`I believe one's name provides a tangible clue to such a question.'
`I don't think I could get used to that,' said Harry.
`Well, perhaps it is a little early for that,' smiled Dumbledore. `Perhaps when all this is over and you've grieved me properly. So, what brings you to the office? I've been watching you coming to the school, you know? All those hours in the Room of Requirement. I do like your new spell, very powerful stuff, Harry. And I don't think I've ever known you so much in the library without Miss Granger in tow, or forcing you there.'
`Yeah, well,' said Harry. `Its about time I got my act together on the learning front. Expellirmus worked against Voldemort once and I think he'd be expecting it a second time, don't you?'
`Quite, quite,' chuckled Dumbledore.
`Sir, about those Horcruxes. Did you have-'
`Harry, Harry, before you begin,' said Dumbledore, `along this path of questioning, remember one thing: I am a portrait. I am a memory of the great man I was. I possess neither the complete knowledge nor experiences of my earthly life. I am a record, a copy, a ghost in colour. I retain only what was most dear and important to me.'
`And this wasn't important?' said Harry, his voice rising in spite of the realisation that he was talking to a picture. `This wasn't worthy of remembering?'
`Not in the long run, no,' said Dumbledore plainly. `I remember my life, things I did, those I was close to. But I can neither guide nor teach you in my form, Harry. I hope I did enough in life on that score. And judging by that sword you just dropped I think I did.'
`What do you mean?' asked Harry.
`The sword of Gryffindor will be needed to destroy the Horcrux related to him. I remember that much.'
He finished the sentence and gave Harry a fleeting wink. Harry nodded, understanding Dumbledore's point.
`Thank you, Sir,' he said. `You taught me all I need to know.'
`Good luck, Harry and remember - what most wizards lack is basic logic. If you can find one with this in excessive amounts, you'd do well to hold onto her.'
`Her?' said Harry. `Her- '
And it dawned on him.
* * * *
`Hermione!'
`Harry! Where on earth have you been?' she replied after clobbering him with a bear-hug that Mrs Weasley would have appreciated.
`Well, you and Ron were, um, busy so I went out for a bit,' said Harry.
`On your own? Hermione squealed.
`Well, in fairness, who would I have taken with me?'
There was a most un-Hermione-ish look on her face following this statement that Harry didn't know how to respond to at all.
`Oh Harry,' she said softly. `I didn't think, I didn't realise-'
`Oh, it doesn't matter, don't worry about that,' said Harry quickly, cottoning on. `Its, you know, what you want and everything. I like seeing you happy. Besides, I'm not that useless on my own.'
`That's debatable,' said Hermione smirking. `I really am sorry, Harry. I suppose I didn't think how, well, certain things would affect you.'
`That's surprising,' said Harry lightly. `You should know by now how badly I need you.'
`What do you-' Hermione began. But at that point, Ron entered.
`Harry, there you are. Getting lost a lot lately, aren't you? Its like you've lost all sense of time and direction.'
`Its all this Apparating, mate,' said Harry. `Messes with the mind.'
Harry glanced at Hermione and was unnerved; he'd known her for six years but in all that time she'd never looked at him like she was now. He didn't know what it was all about so tried to ignore it when he spoke again.
`Right, I'm glad your both here, I've got some important news,' he said. They both leaned a little closer to listen. `I've made a breakthrough.'
`Really?' said Hermione. `What kind of breakthrough?'
`Well, don't get excited,' said Harry. `I'm not even sure I'm right. But it's a theory-'
`Spill it, Harry,' said Ron.
`I think I know what one of the Horcruxes is,' said Harry. `What I need to know is, where in the world do we find it?'
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