Okay kids, here we go with Chapter 7. And fear not, all will be explained in this chapter. And to the one reviewer who was confused about no one asking Lily what had happened, with everyone so worried about Hermione and the rest of the injured people, no one got around to it yet. But don't worry, she'll explain it shortly. And the reason that Lily could use the Avada Kedavra curse is because she was not only raised magically, as her parents were not, but she is the daughter of two very powerful magicians, and is therefore an even more powerful witch. I hope that explains everything that you all had questions on. And also, one person said that she could see the whole Dumbledore thing happening in the books, I could too, but I used it because I think it's a twist that makes my story stand out from all the other ones. So far I have never seen a plot like mine, and I hope I never do. Anyway, on with the chapter!
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Harry found himself sitting in Dumbledore's office minutes after the Headmaster's startling announcement. He started at Dumbledore in shock, still unable to say much, as questions raced through his brain. Questions that didn't seem to be able to exit his mouth. Finally, Professor Dumbledore spoke.
"I know that this is quite a shock to you Harry, and now, I am going to try to answer some of the questions that I know you must have. I am a very old man, and I am over one hundred years old. Now, I am one hundred and seven. When I was fifty-five years old, I met a woman nearly a decade younger than myself, and we fell in love. She was a very talented witch from a small school in the United States who had recently moved to London. Her name was Annabelle Potter. During this time, Voldemort was on the rise. He had begun collecting Death Eaters, and was leading killing sprees across Muggle and Magic London. But Annabelle remained with me. We were never married. When I discovered that Annabelle was pregnant, we separated for the safety of the child. The one person Voldemort wanted to hurt was me and we both knew that our child would be killed if he knew about it. The only thing I ever knew was that she named him James. James Potter. After ten years, right before James was due to enter Hogwarts, Annabelle died of a Muggle disease called leukemia and James was sent to live with Annabelle's brother. We decided that it was best he not be told that I was his father until after the defeat of Lord Voldemort. Unfortunately that day never came."
Harry stared at Dumbledore for a long minute before he spoke for the first time since Dumbledore's announcement. "Why didn't you take me then? Instead of making me spend years with those horrible Dursleys? Or tell me while I was at school?"
"Because I knew that, even though Voldemort had been defeated for the time being, his followers would still look for you, and like I told you years ago, I didn't want the fame to go to your head, Harry. You're a wonderful wizard, and a wonderful person, and you are those two things because of the upbringing that you had. You're compassionate because they were not, you're humble because they were not, you're loving because they were not, and you worked so hard at your studies and at Quidditch so that you could stand on your own two feet with out relying on the questionable help of the Dursleys. And as for me not telling you while you were here, after you arrived, Voldemort began his rise back into power, and he was after you anyway, so I did not want to increase the danger that you were in by letting it out that I am your grandfather. The only reason I told you now is because your daughter has followed in your footsteps and defeated the Dark Lord. The only difference is that she somehow knew the right curse to use, and it is my belief that he is really destroyed for good this time."
"How did Lily know what curse to use?" Harry asked after he had had a chance to absorb and accept all that he had been told in the past minutes.
"That is what I intend to find out shortly." Dumbledore said, leaving the room. He returned quickly with Lily, Hermione, Ron, and Professor McGonagall. "All right, now that we're all present, we have a matter to investigate. Lily, how was it that you were able to leave the Room of Requirement?"
Lily looked up at Professor Dumbledore. "The ghosts told me to." She said, as if it were the natural explanation.
"Ghosts? What ghosts?"
"Well, they looked like you, Daddy. And they told me that they were your Mommy and Daddy."
Hermione spoke, "I've heard of that happening." She said, "Sometimes when relatives are in great danger, spirits are called back to assist in their rescues."
"Very good, Miss Granger." Professor McGonagall praised, "It would seem like the spirits of Lily and James were called back from the spirit world to show Lily how to defeat Lord Voldemort and save Mister Potter's life."
"They told me that I had to leave the room, and that I would find a wand in the dining room, and what to say when I saw the mean old man trying to hurt you." Lily said, looking at Professor Dumbledore.
Harry looked at Hermione. "You don't seem surprised that Lily was able to do the Killing Curse at six years old."
"I'm not." Hermione answered nonchalantly. "I knew she was really powerful. And besides, you did nearly the same thing as a baby. She isn't a baby anymore."
"Now," Professor Dumbledore said, excitement twinkling in his eyes. "That we have discussed the past, let us discuss the future. You have made plans to be here for two weeks, until the graduation and the students return to their homes, so it is my opinion that all three weddings should occur next Saturday."
"Three?" Hermione asked, "I only know of one, and that's mine and Harry's."
Ron cleared his throat. "Well, actually, Lavender and I are kind of getting married too. She proposed."
Harry looked over at his best friend. "You let the girl propose to you?"
"Well I had no intention of proposing and she wants to get married, so she did it herself."
"Who is the third couple?"
"Ah," Dumbledore said secretively, "That you will find out soon."
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Ginny was sitting in the Common Room of Gryffindor House when the last person she expected walked in. Draco Malfoy, looking a little worse for wear, but all in all, better than he had looked when he had graduated seven years previously. He looked at Ginny in mild surprise, then calmly and silently sat down in one of the chairs to wait.
"Well," Ginny said impatiently.
"Well what?"
"What are you doing here? You weren't in Gryffindor?"
"No, I wasn't, thank Merlin. And I'm waiting."
"For whom?"
"Dumbledore. We're arranging the conditions of my new teaching position here."
"You're going to teach?" Ginny asked incredulously.
"Yeah. Potions. Since Snape died in the attack, they need a new Potions Master and Dumbledore offered me the job."
Ginny sighed and leaned back. "Well, I hate to admit it, but you may actually be a better Potions teacher than Snape."
"And why would you hate to admit that?"
"Because your head is big enough as it is. And I don't want to be the one responsible for making it pop."
Draco chuckled and leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. "My, my, my, haven't we grown up." He muttered. "Ten years ago you wouldn't have even thought about talking to me like that."
"Ten years ago I was thirteen and wouldn't have thought about talking to anybody like that." Ginny corrected.
"So, you still infatuated with that Laramie character?"
Ginny burst into tears at the mention of Braden's name. Draco looked taken aback and wondered what it was that he had done to make her cry like she currently was. "What?"
"He died in the attack yesterday." She explained through heaving sobs. In a movement completely uncharacteristic of him, Draco moved over to Ginny and gently put one arm around her shoulders.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know." He said, completely astounded when she buried her face in his neck and held onto him as if her life depended on it. Draco patted her pack off handedly, trying not to look too concerned by her show of tears. Inside, he was reeling. Ginny had really grown up. She had added at least two inches to her five- five frame from school, and had become a slender, beautiful red-head who looked nothing like any of her brothers, thank Merlin. What had been a clumsy, tomboyish, rough and tumble girl had turned into an elegant, graceful, and too entirely enticing woman who was currently wrapped around him. It was disconcerting. Very disconcerting, and very unexpected. And entirely too welcome for the tastes Draco had come to have. He was used to being cold, and distant, and one could hardly be that with a sobbing woman wrapped around their neck. That fact bothered him more than he would have liked to admit. That and the fact that he found that the slight stirrings that he had had for the girl, had become something that he couldn't name in the few moments that he had been holding and talking to her. That, more than anything, set him reeling.
Ginny was trying to recover her wits when she felt Draco begin to soften to her embrace. She breathed in his spicy cologne and was surprised to note that it was the same that he had worn in school. She continued to hold onto him however, as she cried for the loss of Braden, one of the two men that she had ever loved in school. The other was, at the moment, trying unsuccessfully to calm her down. She knew, in her heart, that she had never truly been in love with Braden, but that she had loved him more in the way that she loved Harry. Not nearly the way she loved her brother, but not to the point that she couldn't ever see herself spending the rest of her life with him. It had been the idea, she knew, of loving someone, and being loved back, that had made her so infatuated with Braden. He had been such a kind, giving, loving person that she had wished that she had loved him. Draco, however, was another story entirely. He had been purely rude to her for her first four years in school and then had basically ignored her for the other two that he had been there for. And still, she had loved him as whole-heartedly as she was able to, considering the circumstances at the time. Said circumstances had been his on going relationship with Pansy Parkinson and her off and on dating of different boys in order to keep herself from thinking about the guys that she liked, who didn't like her in return.
Suddenly, Draco felt Ginny move, and grit his teeth in a silent prayer that she would be unaware of the sudden hard on that he had gotten in response to the close proximity he was in to a very beautiful woman. But she looked up at him with crystal clear eyes, stood, took his hand, and pulled him to his feet. Placing one finger over his lips to keep him from talking, she led him up the stairs and into the room that she had been using.
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Harry and Hermione left Lily in the care of Ron and returned to the common room just in time to see Ginny lead Draco up the stairs to her room. "Well," Hermione said, "I am going to forget that I ever saw that, considering the fact that I always thought that she was in love with Braden."
Harry took Hermione's hand. "Honey, you know about Braden, don't you?" he asked softly.
"What about him?" Hermione asked, "Where is he anyway? I haven't seen him all day."
Harry pushed Hermione down onto the couch, then sat down beside her. "Hermione, I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but Braden didn't make it out of the battle last night."
Hermione shook her head in disbelief. "No. That's impossible. He's too good a wizard to be killed."
Harry gently took Hermione into his arms, where she promptly dissolved into tears, harsh sobs wracking her thin frame. She clung to Harry with all her strength, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in his chest as he slowly rocked her back and forth. She held onto him tightly as she grieved for the friend who had helped her survive the last years without Harry. She knew that she never would have made it as far as she had without him. The loss she felt for her very best friend was keen and violent, ripping her apart as she cried. And through it all, Harry, the love she had rediscovered, the man who had held her heart for years, and her rock, held her through every bout of tears until she had cried herself out of tears. Then she laid in his arms for a very long time, the Common Room unusually deserted while the students were at class.
"I'm sorry." Harry whispered.
"Not your fault." Hermione answered, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "He was such a good man, Harry. He was so good with Lily and she loved him so much. I did too. He was like my older brother or something. He was always there for me when I needed him, and he taught me so much. He taught me how to trust people again, how to stand on my own two feet without being a part of the Dream Team, how to live my own life without all the people that I wanted in it. He became like my family. He was always there, steady and strong, and he never let me down, not once. I loved him so much Harry. It was amazing the things he did for Lily and me when she was a baby and when I was pregnant. He rubbed my back, and fixed my dinner, and held my hand in the delivery room, and got up for the late night feedings, and changed her diapers, and gave her baths, and baby-sat when I couldn't get off work. I'll miss him." She finished, standing up, "But there is one lesson that Braden tried to teach me that I think that I'm just starting to learn."
"What?"
Hermione took Harry's hand and pulled him to his feet. "To live for the moment. To forget the past, to not plan for the future and to live for the moment. I am so glad we are getting married Harry, and I want to do it here next weekend, like Professor Dumbledore wants." She continued, leading him up the stairs to their rooms, and then into the Head Boy dormitory. "This is where we made love for the first time seven years ago, and this is where we are going to make love for the first time now." She said, closing and locking the door with the most powerful locking spell that she knew. Harry gathered her in his arms and kissed her gently. Slowly, they removed their clothes and fell together on the bed. After a long time, Harry reverently made love to her, and for the both of them, it was as if they had come home.
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Oh yeah, and I know I was a little skimpy on the details, but this is rated PG-13, and I'm saving all my descriptive skills for the wedding night. Stay tuned for a triple wedding, a triple pregnancy, and all sorts of fun surprises. Anyone with any suggestions should also E-mail me. And please,please,please, keep the reviews coming! I live off of them.
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