Disclaimer: Not mine. I wish it were so we would have had HHr, but alas it's JK Rowling's.
A/N: My reply to the challenge issued by PJ, you can find it here: http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopic=26635 . This story will start right after fifth year, and it will involve sex, some blood, and such, so this is why it is rated NC17. I hope you'll enjoy it, I think this is the most complex challenge I've ever dared to reply to, so I sincerely hope I'll be able to pull it off well.
Thanks to my beta Gingercat!
Harry Potter and His True Sixth Year
Chapter Eleven: Finding Some Information
As the attack on the Dursleys was discussed that night, Dumbledore, Harry and Hermione all agreed that Voldemort had wanted to stop Harry from renewing his blood protections the next summer. If the attack managed to lure Harry out of the school and be captured, all the better.
This is why Dumbledore had waited till the situation was mostly under control to alert Harry of the attack, and while the raven haired boy could see the logic in that, he didn't necessarily like it.
Hermione managed to calm him, though, as they were walking back to the Gryffindor common room.
"You know that Dumbledore only has your well being at heart" the brunette told her boyfriend, squeezing his hand.
"Hermione, you and I, as well as Dumbledore know that in the end it has to be me against Voldemort, no one else. He can't keep me safe and out f the battle forever. I have the right to fight my battles" Harry protested.
"And you have to be ready to fight Voldemort when the moment of the final confrontation comes. Can you honestly say you're ready to duel the Dark Lord to the death and come out victorious?" Hermione looked sceptically at him.
Harry remained silent.
"Thought so" Hermione said. Then, stopping in her tracks, she pulled Harry to her, cupping his face in her hands.
"I know you will defeat him, Harry. I have faith in you. But the time is not right yet" she said, and he could see she was sincere.
"Thanks" he croaked, wondering what had he done to deserve her love. He claimed her lips in a passionate kiss, and she yelped as he lifted her from the floor and pinned her against the nearest wall, snogging her silly.
"You had already stooped so low, Scarhead, but snogging a Mudblood…" a cold voice drawled. The pair sprang apart, and in a flash Harry had Malfoy slammed against the wall.
"Never. Call. Hermione. A. Mudblood" he hissed, his green eyes flaring with anger. Then he left the other boy, who slid to the floor, massaging his throat, as the pair walked away hand in hand.
--
When Malfoy made it to the Room of Requirements, where he had a meeting planned with Ginny, he found her already there, the room reflecting the cosy atmosphere needed for an amorous encounter.
The Slytherin had to admit, the redhead was really pretty, and shagging her was fun. He knew she, as every Gryffindor, thought feelings were involved, and he knew they were, on her part.
Draco had always been good with the ladies, although his house didn't offer much material to practice with, so the fact that Ginny Weasley, Weaslette as he liked to call her, was falling for him wasn't so surprising.
As for his own feelings, his policy had always been to never get attached, but he was starting to think that maybe this time it wouldn't be so easy.
The Weaslette was passionate, funny, had a smart tongue, all qualities he liked in a woman. The fact she had an hot body was a well accepted plus, thank you.
So, that night, after they had made love to each other for hours, Draco found himself staying, for the first time, pulling her lose and snuggling before sleep took them both. Ginny smiled contentedly at his gesture, as her eyes closed for the tiredness.
--
It was by now a couple months since school had started, and Ron found that apart for the Hogsmeade weekends when they would be with their girlfriend, hanging out with Dean and Seamus was fun. Of course he missed Harry and Hermione, and now and then he would cast a longing glance at them, but he knew he wasn't ready yet to see them snogging and such. And he wondered if he would ever be.
"Hey, Ron, car to join us in a tournament of Wizard Chess?" Seamus called, and Ron grinned.
"Ready to lose again, Finnegan?" Ron asked, walking to that side of the common room with a grin.
"Aye, mate. You are the toughest player I ever tried myself against, but after this comes Exploding Snap, and there it's you who should be afraid of losing" the Irish called back, clapping him on the shoulder.
This was how the three of them spent most of the evening playing against each other, Ron obviously beating both of them at chess, but just as obviously losing badly at Exploding Snap.
When they finally decided to call it a night, they were the only ones left in the common room. Seamus and Dean bid Ron good night, but the redhead remained there, sitting on the couch. He had seen Ginny sneak out of the portrait hole earlier that evening, and she still wasn't back.
"I hope she's not doing what I think she's doing with the ferret" Ron thought, almost angrily. That was the moment the hole slid open, and Neville barged in, a stupid grin on his face.
"Night, Ron" he called as he walked up the stairs.
The redhead cracked a smile, and wished him good night too.
"Even Neville has got himself a girlfriend" he thought ruefully once he was again alone. "And what a girlfriend! Loony, I mean, Luna Lovegood has grown to be a really pretty girl" he mused,.
Few minutes later, as he had finally decided to give up waiting for Ginny and was climbing the stairs to his dorm, Harry and Hermione stepped in, both whispering to each other, grinning madly.
Hermione blushed at something Harry had told her, and the raven haired boy chuckled, before kissing her long and deep, and finally parting ways with his girlfriend.
Ron, who had witnessed the whole scene thinking maybe it was Ginny who was coming in, quickly scurried up to the dorm, and slid into his bed to avoid Harry knowing he was there.
That night, the redhead cried himself to sleep once more, as for the umpteenth time he had proof he would never get Hermione to like him.
--
It was by now a few days after the Little Whinging attack, and Hermione was working with Harry on his Occlumency shields.
The fact he hadn't been able to feel Voldemort's mood when the attack had been done was good, of course, but they knew to fully master Occlumency Harry needed to work constantly on it.
It was time for Hermione, who had in the meantime learned Legilimency very well, to start being more forceful in her probing. Voldemort wouldn't use silk gloves if he were to try and break into Harry's mind, after all.
The raven haired boy responded very well, but he also felt he was getting more and more tired. As Hermione did her last attempt for the night, Harry was too weak to resist her, and she managed to get a good glimpse at his memories, in particular to the memories of his first ten years with the Dursleys, before he pushed her out.
"Oh, Harry!" Hermione cried, flinging herself at him, and holding him tight as tears escaped her eyes. "I had no idea it was this bad!"
He held her close, too, inhaling the vanilla scent of her hair, and sighed. "I never openly talked about it, did I?" he said then, trying to lighten the mood.
She chuckled shakily, pulling back slightly, and kissing him briefly.
"I'm even more amazed that you turned out to be such a gentle, caring young man, Harry" she admitted.
He blushed at her praise, but looked down. "Well, it is mostly thanks to you, you know" he said, then, pulling her to him again. "You're the most amazing young woman I could have had the luck to know" he said, and from his eyes she knew he meant every word , and that they came from the depth of his heart.
They kissed for a little while, hands roaming in an escalading passion, but sadly their playtime was cut short.
"As much as I'd like to continue this," Harry said with ragged breath, his eyes twinkling in mirth, "we need to get going. Neville and Luna may already be waiting for us in the library" he said, and Hermione scoffed.
Harry laughed heartily.
"Ok, so maybe they won't be already waiting for us, still we need to get going" he said, taking her hand. They walked down to what Harry had come to call "Hermione's sanctuary", which earned him a slap on the arm every time he said it, and made their way to their usual table.
Surprisingly, Neville and Luna were already there.
"I'm shocked" Harry said, deadpanned. "I would have never expected you guys to be here on time" he continued, smirking, and Neville blushed madly.
"That's because we did it right here" Luna said, airily, making Neville blush even more and both Harry and Hermione look at her with wide eyes.
"Merlin's beard!" Harry muttered under his breath.
When they had all calmed after Luna's revelation, Harry covered himself and Hermione with his Invisibility Cloak, and the two of them slipped inside the Restricted Section. Then, he made two more trips to accompany Neville and Luna there too.
All Harry's hopes to find a way to bring Sirius back, if he really wasn't dead, lay in the forbidden part of the library, and so it was with an heavy heart that he joined his friends in the research.
As they were almost about to call it a night, Hermione gasped loudly, and Harry had to put an hand over her mouth to avoid her making more noise and risk giving away their position.
"What's so interesting?" Harry asked, looking over her shoulder to the book she was holding. It was called Death and similar though the ages.
"Listen to what it says here" the brunette replied, and started reading.
"While many think that there are only two worlds, the world of the living and the one of the dead, many legends have arose through the ages about a world in the middle, where those who weren't dead, but not alive either, remained stuck for all of eternity.
While knowledge of this possible other world is not widely known, and it is mostly regarded as legend in present times, at the origins of magic it wasn't so. Many believed in a midway step, let's call it so, between our world and death, Merlin himself being one of those who helped in developing rituals to access this other world"
"So it exists then!" Harry excitedly said, and Hermione nodded, then continued reading.
"Merlin has left diaries in which he detailed the journeys he made to this other world and back, thanks to rituals that allowed him to go through the barrier between the worlds and then return to this one, the Veil currently held in the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic being the way to access the Undead Limbo. However, the proceedings to complete the two ways trip are dark, as to call back a person from that Limbo, one must sacrifice another human being, his blood being the mean to balance the equilibrium between the worlds"
"What?" Harry gasped. "To try and get Sirius back we must sacrifice a person?" he said, horrified.
"It says so here" Hermione confirmed, looking at him apologetically. "I'm sorry, Harry" she said then, pulling him close and comforting him as possibly the last hope to bring Sirius back was gone. Harry would never kill someone just to get his godfather back, and all of his three friends knew that very well.
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