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The Opposing Movement | ||||||
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Category: Pre-OotP, Alternate Universe Characters:Harry/Ginny, Other, Sirius Black Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama Warnings: Death, Disturbing Imagery, Extreme Language, Intimate Sexual Situations, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations, Negative Alcohol Use, Sexual Situations, Violence, Violence/Physical Abuse Rating: R Reviews: 86 Summary: Christmas, 1993. Harry Potter is spotted in the company of wanted fugitive Sirius Black, and is forced on a dark, treacherous path. Pursued from all directions by a Ministry intent on capturing him, and the ever-persistent threat of a seemingly immortal Voldemort on the horizon, the road ahead will be dangerous, and the toll will be higher than ever before… Hitcount: Story Total: 30933; Chapter Total: 2649 |
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Harry should have expected the others to pick up on his distracted mood the next day. He did try to concentrate on Melchior's lesson, which included perfecting their disillusionment charm and learning a neat spell that showed every human presence in the nearby area, but his mind kept wandering back to Daphne. Sometimes he felt himself grinning stupidly when he thought back to their kiss, and other times he was unable to shake off the dreadful feeling when he thought of his broken promise to her. He tried convincing himself he couldn’t have foreseen getting caught while visiting Sirius, but it didn’t help. He didn't even know whether she still was his girlfriend after he’d done that to her. He didn't see her name mentioned once in the papers, so the Ministry probably didn't know about their relationship. "...Isn't that right, Harry?" Melchior's strong voice broke through his thoughts. "What?" He looked up at him. He saw Sirius smirking at him from the couch. Selene was outside again. "I was just telling you to not forget the right order of charms: first you cast your Homenium Revalo, then, and only if it’s safe, you cancel your disillusionment charm." "Why would you cancel your disillusionment charm in the first place?" He asked. "Sir?" Ginny snorted, and he poked her in the side. "Well Harry, if you'd listened, you would have known. Is there something you'd like to tell us, maybe?" "No." “No, sir.” “No, sir.” "Of course you don't. We've only known each other for three days after all. Well, your lessons for today are finished anyway, so I'll leave you two to it. Tomorrow you're going to practice more. I think we can have you do some hands-on practice as well. Class dismissed." He unceremoniously fished the dining table out of his pocket, put it at his feet and enlarged it again. He then turned around and walked into the kitchen. The door slammed shut behind him. "You know, I think he's got a secret basement underneath the kitchen," Ginny said. "He's in there all the time! Cooking doesn't nearly take that long!" Harry tried to laugh with her, but didn't quite manage it. "I'm going upstairs," he said to her. It didn't surprise him at all when he heard a knock on the door shortly after he'd thrown himself onto the bed. He felt irritated for having to be someone's company. Probably Ginny's. "Come in," he said. Ginny peeked around the corner. "Hi," she said. "Can I come in?" "I already said you could." She ignored his short reply and made her way over to his bed, nimbly dodging the many articles of clothing that lay about. Harry noted that he should clean the room up soon. He'd fished out a pair Sirius' socks from his own backpack yesterday, and he didn't know how they ended up there. "Budge over," Ginny commanded. Harry pulled in his legs and she sat down on the freed space. "Sorry for the mess," he said. "That's alright. You should see our room." She paused. "On second thought, maybe you shouldn't." "Why not?" "It's a girl's room, Harry." "What and you're allowed to be in our room? That's not fair!" Harry said, mock outraged. Ginny slapped his raised knee in jest. "So what's up?" She asked, leaning back against the footboard. "Nothing." "Right. Nothing. That's why you didn't notice when Melchior and I cracked jokes about you a couple of times and you didn't react, wasn't it?" "Really?" "Yeah, really!" "Oh." Harry looked at the clothes-covered floor and Ginny tapped a rhythm on her knees. Neither said anything for a moment. "Strange, isn't it?" Harry asked eventually. She cocked an eyebrow. "I mean, here we are. Didn't think we'd spend the holidays in a shack in Norway, did you?" "No, but I wasn't expecting to run away from the Ministry together with Harry Potter and Sirius Black, either." Harry snorted. "Yeah, it's wild, isn't it? You could make a book out of that, you know? "Kidnapped by the Boy Who Lived and his Mass-Murdering Godfather"." Ginny laughed out loud. "Oh no!" She wailed. "Won't someone rescue me from their evil clutches?" "Hey honey," Harry grunted with the dirtiest voice his throat would allow. "I'm Goyle and I'm here to save you!" "Goyle?" Ginny shrieked. "Harry, that's just…" "No, Goyle isn't really the saviour type, is he? How about Snape, though? "Thought you could skive off your Potions essay by being kidnapped, Weasley? Ten points from Gryffindor. Now, give me your hand. I will escort you to my…"" Ginny grabbed a stray sock and threw it at his head before he could finish that sentence, but Harry caught it and tossed it back. She ducked away in time. "That's rude, mister!" She said. "Throwing your stinky socks at a lady. What would Sirius say if he found out?" "He'd probably cheer for me, I guess," Harry mused. "Or sniff it. It's his sock, by the way, or at least I think it is." "I hope it is yours, for you. You really need to wash your feet otherwise," she said, wrinkling her nose. "No, mine are clean. You could smell them if you want to?" He said. He waggled his toes in her direction. "I'll pass, thanks," Ginny giggled. Again a pause. Harry scratched his neck. "You miss her, don't you?" she asked in a completely different, much tenderer tone. Harry looked back up at her. "You know, that's what Sirius asked me too," he said. "Oh, really? And what did you say then?" "I said I kissed her." "You…" Ginny stared at him. "... Kissed her, yeah." "When?" "That night we had that date, actually. I didn't really have time to tell you about that yet, you know, with that hearing about Buckbeak, and then this whole thing..." "Yeah, I understand, don't worry about it," she said. She paused, then leaned forward slightly. "How was it?" "Brilliant," Harry said with a sappy grin. "Just brilliant." "Oh." She was quiet for a moment and leaned back against the footrest again. "But that's not why you were miles away today." Harry sighed. "No." "Care to share?" Harry would have refused, but he felt a need for a confidant. And, being such a help in arranging Harry and Daphne's date, she probably deserved to know. "I miss her already," he said. Ginny nodded. "That's what I told Sirius. But there's more." He took a few breaths. It was incredibly hard to think about it, let alone say it out loud. "She's getting betrothed to Malfoy." "What?!" "Yeah, thanks. Shout the whole house together, why don't you?" "Oh, calm down, Harry, that doesn't matter. You told Sirius already, and it’s not like Selene and Melchior don’t know every little thing about you and me as well," Ginny reprimanded him. Harry furrowed his brow. So much for keeping things to himself. "I didn't tell Sirius," he muttered. "Why not?" She asked. Harry shrugged, but didn't reply. "Well, never mind that now. Are you serious?" "About what?" "About Daphne getting betrothed. Is she really?" Yeah… yeah, she is." Although the mere thought of it made him more furious than ever before. "She didn't just say that, then? She didn't make it up?" "No!" Harry cried. "Why would you even say that?! No, of course she didn't!" "Alright, steady," Ginny said, "I was just…" "Go on?" "Never mind. When did she tell you that?" "Right after she agreed to be my girlfriend," Harry grumbled. Ginny winced. "And now we're here and she's…" "Yeah, I know." He ran his hand through his hair and stared at a stray t-shirt for a moment. "She wanted to run away with me," he said. Ginny, who was fidgeting the bedsheets, paused and looked up at him. "But you didn't?" "Well, obviously, since I'm here and she's still at Hogwarts. What d'you think?" Harry replied, rolling his eyes. "Honestly, Ginny, sometimes you're just as thick as your brother, Ronald… Hey!" The very same sock hit him right in his face. "What was that for?" "What do you think? That was for being a prat!" Ginny shouted. She stood up from the bed. "Come talk to me when you’re not so rude anymore." She turned around very quickly, her hair whipping behind her, and she marched out of the room. "Ginny!" Harry came after her into the hallway, but she smashed the door to her room shut before he could reach her. Wheezing in annoyance, he turned around again, intent on brooding on his bed as long as he could. But instead he found himself face-to-face with Selene, who'd just returned from the bathroom. "Girl troubles, Harry?" She asked amusedly. Harry avoided her gaze. "Can I pass?" He asked. "No," she smirked. She closed the door to Harry and Sirius' room with a wave of her wand. "Let's go outside." "I don't want to." "And I don't care. Come on, get your shoes on. We're going for a walk." {}---{}---{} A few minutes later, Harry put his hands in the pockets of his coat. Snow crunched under their boots. The air was so fresh that it hurt his nose every time he breathed in, and a soft breeze was enough to chill his face and ears. He felt colder than ever before. Harry couldn't see the mountains surrounding them too well. In this cold, polar darkness they were threatening, looming forms, their black shapes towering above them silently. But the sound travelled, reverberated against the immensely high cliff-sides and reminded Harry time and time again that the house and surrounding woods were situated in a narrow ravine, tucked away in what truly felt like the edge of the world. "Did you know that spying on you was my first real mission?" Selene asked. The coat she was wearing was exactly the same as the one he'd been given by Melchior this morning (Melchior didn’t really explain where he’d gotten the coats from. Harry didn’t really want to ask). It was probably about the same size as well. Her blond hair stirred slightly in the breeze, and their breath came out in small clouds. "Mission?" "Yeah. Melchior hasn't come to that part of the story yet, but back in the day, he was the leader of quite a big underground society. Officially it disbanded when he came here, but I think he never gave up on it." "Why not?" He asked. To his surprise, Selene started laughing. It was a strange, loud, high-pitched laugh, and it echoed through the trees, along with the crunching sound of their footsteps. "Oh, Harry, you don’t even know how fucking good that question is," Selene finally said. Harry started to realize how much she liked swearing. It annoyed him a bit. "He can’t let things go. Let's keep it on that. Anyway, he trained me, much in the same way as he's doing with you and Ginny now. And now, y'know, with all that's been happening, it's finally coming to good use." "But why you?" "Well Melchior isn't really in any shape of shadowing you three for a couple of months straight, is he? Have you seen his back? It's a disaster!" "No, that's not what I meant," Harry said. "I mean why you? Why not someone else? What secret society are you talking about and where is it now? You're talking about it like someone died, you know?" He chuckled. Selene didn’t. She abruptly stopped walking. Harry did too. He saw that her gaze was distant, her eyes unreadable as opposed to twinkling with mirth just a few seconds ago. She took a pocket knife out of her jacket, clicked it open and started fiddling with it. "I'm sorry," Harry said hastily. "I didn't mean… it was just a joke…"Selene slowly seemed to return to the present. She took a deep breath, but didn't stop playing with the knife. "No, it's alright," she smiled wanly at him. "Just got caught in a memory, that's all. But to get back to your questions; you'll find out in good time. Or maybe not, who knows. Suffice to say, I'm perfectly capable of spying, shadowing and taking out Aurors, so that answers at least part of your questions, right?" "I guess," Harry said. He dug into the thick layer of snow with the nose of his boot. They stood there for a moment. Then Selene started walking again. Harry trailed behind her. "So you know everything about me, then?" He asked as he caught up with her. "Well, not everything, but, yes, I do know a lot," she said. They walked further into the forest. There were a lot footprints scattered around between the evergreens; not nearly all of them looked to have been made by humans. But Harry couldn't for the life of him tell what kind of animals had made the maze of tracks around them. "I assume you're asking whether I know about you and Daphne," Selene said. Harry nodded. "To answer your question, yes, I do. And also about the promise you were forced to break." Harry tore his gaze from the snow ahead of them and looked at her in shock. "You know about that too?" "Yes. I listened in on your conversations, remember?" she said. "Don't worry, I dispelled all the tracking and recording charms I had on you when you arrived here, I'm not spying on you anymore. Well?" "Well what?" "What are you going to do about it?" "About the tracking charms?" He asked, confused by the disjointed conversation he was having with her. Selene looked at him for a moment, then drew her wand with her free hand and conjured a simple wooden bench under one of the nearest trees. With a slight jerk of her head, she gestured them to sit down. He sat down to her right. The bench was rather small and, to Harry's embarrassment, they had to sit quite close to each other. Sitting so close to a girl felt not unlike in did with Daphne, that wonderful night. But he remembered, vividly, the sheer joy he felt when she accepted to be his girlfriend, and he was absolutely certain he shouldn't be feeling anything else even remotely like what he felt now in the company of anyone but his girlfriend. "So," Selene finally said. "What are you going to do about it?" Getting no answer from Harry, she continued. "I don't know every single thought you have, but if I was to guess, I'd say you aren't happy that your girlfriend is getting betrothed to anyone, let alone Draco Malfoy." "No, of course I'm bloody not!" Harry erupted. He sprang up from the bench and stamped on the snow in frustration. His foot sunk into it and got stuck, which only angered him further. "I don't want that filthy ponce anywhere near her! She doesn't belong to him!" He managed to free his foot and started pacing in front of the bench. "And to answer your question: I'm not going to do anything about it, since I'm stuck here in some bloody shack in the snow in another country! Where everyone seems to think it's their business to know every single thing about me! And Daphne is now in Malfoy’s clutches because I was too cowardly to tell her about Sirius!" Selene hadn't moved during his outburst and kept quiet while he raged. "Well, technically speaking, it is my business knowing everything about you. Or at least it was, until you three arrived here. Melchior's too. And Sirius and Ginny simply care a lot about you." She hesitated. "So do I, actually." Harry stopped pacing and looked at her in confusion. "But we've only met a couple of days ago… oh." He walked back to the bench and dropped down beside her. "Yeah." For a long moment, both stared ahead of them without saying a word, and Harry was once again reminded of how dark it really was out here. That dark blue light was still everywhere he looked, and the moon was, as always, hidden behind the clouds. A sound to his right startled him, but he only saw a large chunk of snow falling off a branch. The dull thud echoed among the trees. The longer they sat there, the more sounds became clear to Harry: the wind rushing through the forest. The creaking of the taller trees, swaying in the cold breeze. The flowing of a brook trapped under the ice somewhere behind them. The call of what Harry thought was a bird of prey in the distance. The occasional loud crack that echoed between the mountains surrounding them. Selene told him it was the glacier at the far end of the ravine. It always moved, and that caused the occasional loud noise. "Ginny didn't believe it," Harry said, breaking the silence. "The betrothal. I think she doesn't really like Daphne that much. Still thinks she's like the other Slytherins, you know? Racist, elitist, and a stuck-up bitch in general." "My, my, Harry, such language! What would Sirius say?" Selene chuckled. "What? Oh, I probably learnt that from him, so he'd probably slap me on the back and congratulate me," Harry grinned. "Probably throw in a couple swearwords himself as well." "Yeah, he's like that, isn't he?" "He is," Harry said, smiling. He then remembered something he'd meant to ask her a while back. "Has there been a notification in the newspaper already about Daphne’s betrothal? She told me there would be one once it was officially arranged." "I can't say that I've seen it," Selene said. "I have to admit that once I heard of that betrothal, I kept my eye out for a notification about it in the papers, but I've seen nothing." Harry was once again reminded that she and Melchior knew everything about him. He still felt unnerved at the whole situation, and his expression must have betrayed his thoughts. "I'm sorry," Selene said tentatively, "I don't really know how it must feel, but I guess you aren't really happy with me and Melchior prying into your life like this." Harry found it difficult to answer that. Was he angry at her? She did spy on him for half a year without his permission, and she knew all of his most private details. But did he resent her and Melchior for it? "I… it's okay," he said eventually. "I mean, it did save us from the Ministry, right? And we're safe now. Aren't we?" "Yeah, we are," Selene said confidently. "Melchior made the protections around the house himself. He'll probably teach you about that later, it's quite interesting." She looked around. "It's getting late, let's go back. You don't want to be out here too long, the cold and the darkness tire you out a lot quicker than you think." Harry, who was thoroughly fed up with being outside, readily agreed with her. They walked back in silence, the repetitive sound of snow crunching under their boots slowly drifting to the back of his mind. "Do you know what Ginny has against me?" Selene asked after a while. "What?" If he was expecting any question from her, it wasn't that. "I mean," she fished out her pocket knife again. "We never really talk when we're together in my room, and she's never really that friendly towards me. So I thought that maybe she doesn't like me?" For some reason, she glanced at him with an expression that was different from the normal, carefree look she usually had. "I, erm…" Harry began, "I dunno. She never said anything about that, not to me, anyway. So, um, I dunno?" Selene felt the tip of the knife with her fingertip. "Oh, well, never mind then," she said, not taking her eyes off the knife. "Forget I asked." Neither said anything anymore after that, and Harry was quite glad when they arrived at the house again. {}---{}---{} Ginny wasn't overly warm towards him during dinner that evening, but she didn't mention their fight at all, and he didn't feel a need to so either. "I hope you don't mind the fact that we eat the same every day," Melchior said. Indeed, this was the third time in a row they were eating mashed potatoes with ground beef. At least there were some beans to mix it up a bit now. "You'll have to understand that with living such an isolated life, food is sometimes tricky to come by." "Where does this come from, then?" Sirius asked. He ate more at every meal, and Harry was happy to see him beginning to look healthier already. He somewhat regained the colour in his face, and he didn't have that haunted look in his eyes anymore that he had last summer when he first approached Harry in the park near the Dursley’s. "The potatoes I bought a long while back. I just store them here in bulks, that's not the problem. I've got loads of tin cans, too, that's where the beans came from. The meat's the really tricky part, though. There aren't a lot of cows here, and I don't want to come into the small store in the village nearby every single week." "Why not?" Harry asked. "Because they don't know we live here. Or at least, they think we moved away about eight years ago." "And why's that?" Sirius asked. Seeing Melchior's reluctance to answer, he pressed on. "If you want us to trust you, you'll have to tell us a bit more about yourselves. Why would you want everyone to think you moved away? What happened, did you kill someone?" "Kill someone?" Melchior's face crinkled into a rare smile. "No, no, nothing of that. No, what happened was Selene was done with primary school at the time. Sending her there was hard enough, with her frequent bouts of accidental magic for example, but I couldn't send her to high school would have been tricky, because, well…" "I don't exist," Selene said. She chuckled at the looks Harry, Ginny and Sirius were giving her. "No, it's true! Officially, I don’t exist. Never did, either. Not in Britain, not here. No official records, no birth certificates, no name in the book of Hogwarts attendees, nothing!" "It's safer that way," Melchior took over again. "And it was no problem with primary school. It's all local, you see. I kept her attendance a secret from the Ministry, both muggle and magical, but I couldn't do the same trick with high schools again. She also needed a proper magical education, and I wasn't about to make her existence known to everyone by sending her to Durmstrang or any other magical school, so I trained her here." “Couldn’t you just have used a false name, then?” Harry asked. “Oh, of course,” Melchior said. Selene snorted. “And good luck explaining to a little girl that although everyone had always called her Selene she actually needs to pretend her name is ‘Heidi’.” "But why? Why keep her hidden like that?" Sirius asked. Well…" Melchior exchanged a long look with Selene. "Well, suffice to say we've got our reasons. Maybe you'll know them one day, maybe you won't. Let's keep it to that, shall we?" "But-" Sirius began. "Ah, but Harry, what did I hear about Daphne Greengrass?" Melchior said loudly, glancing at Sirius, then at Harry. "Something about her being-" "She's my girlfriend, yes," Harry said quickly, before Melchior could continue. He could feel Sirius' appraising look from beside him. "A Greengrass, eh?" Melchior said, winking at him. "I knew Marcus Greengrass during the war. He did everything to remain neutral at the time. It wouldn't surprise me if he'd pull the same tactics now as he did then, with everything that's been going on. Think of the odd bribe here, a promise there, some money towards the right people, that sort of thing. He's a smart man, if anything, and a true Slytherin. He'll definitely have noticed all the signs that Voldemort isn't dead at all." Harry stared at the man. Was he trying to imply something with that? "And he wasn't the only one at that," Melchior continued, unperturbed. "Right, Sirius? The Robards family is a famous example. And I think the Blacks never aligned themselves with Voldemort either?" "No, they didn't," Sirius replied slowly, still glancing around the table suspiciously. "But I wouldn't exactly call their behaviour 'neutral.' It's no big secret that they funded his campaign indirectly. And dear Bellatrix and Narcissa were firmly in Voldemort’s league." As conversation drifted further away from any dangerous subjects, Harry still felt uneasy. Was that what's been going on? Was Daphne a tool for the Greengrasses to remain neutral? {}---{}---{} After Harry's walk and talk with Selene that day, she promised him she would discretely search the newspapers for an announcement of the betrothal of Daphne and Malfoy. It was the morning of the second of January when he noticed Selene's eyes grow wide for a moment while reading the paper, and the terrible feeling in his stomach only worsened when she looked up at him and nodded solemnly. Harry would read the announcement himself later that day ("Mr Marcus Greengrass and Mrs Dyrope Greengrass are pleased to announce the betrothal of their daughter, Daphne Apolline Greengrass, to Draco Lucius Malfoy", written in an elaborate font), but he already knew. Ginny didn't bother him anymore about not telling Sirius, but some of the looks she threw him when Daphne came up in conversations were bad enough in their own way. Truth be told, Harry didn't even know why he kept Daphne's betrothal a secret from his godfather. In the first place it was because he was tired, angry, and somehow disappointed at Sirius when Harry told him about kissing Daphne. "Be happy about that," he'd said. But how could he possibly be happy about this whole situation? His girlfriend, if she even was his after he'd broken such an important promise on her, was going to be married off to Draco Malfoy of all people. The boy who repeatedly hexed Harry and foulmouthed him to the other Slytherins and the Daily Prophet. Her father-in-law would be the man that gave Ginny the diary, and, if what Sirius said was true, he was also a ruthless Death Eater before Voldemort disappeared twelve years ago. The longer he thought about it, the angrier it made him. A vision of Daphne living in Malfoy Manor as a prisoner sprang up much too often, and it always left him feeling like an iron fist had gripped his insides and squeezed them tightly. Then he would see a vision of Malfoy kissing her and at that point he was just about ready to cry. Not that he would ever mention that to anyone else. He knew it was unfair of him to hold this against Sirius, but he could already see Ginny's annoyingly smug look in his mind when he would tell her she was right and he was wrong about not telling him. He wasn’t about to give her that satisfaction. Besides, Daphne only sparsely came up in conversations as the days progressed anyway. He still didn't know how he should feel about that. Ginny did try her best to keep him from brooding too much about it, but Harry felt like she was fighting a losing battle. There just simply wasn't anything interesting to do other than to sit in their rooms together and talk. It was a time of year that Melchior called the Polar Night. The sun hadn't risen in the time that they've been here and it would remain dark until next week. The “days” felt very strange because of that, and it made Harry even more tired. There were frequent snowstorms, and that, in combination with the almost continuous wind, was enough to make going outside a gruelling experience. Yet Selene still occasionally took him and Ginny, and sometimes Sirius too, for a short walk. "You'll go mad if you stay inside all winter. Especially with us five cooped up in there," was her explanation. If the sights she showed them weren't so fascinating and strangely beautiful despite the subtly ominous mood that seemed to reign this place, Harry would have been much more irritated with her. The lessons with Melchior progressed steadily, and those were the only times when Harry could stop thinking and brooding so much. He and Ginny proved to be talented enough at sneaking around, Melchior was pleased to notice. Harry had already had much practice at Hogwarts. He'd often wandered the halls at night, sometimes for a midnight snack in the kitchens, sometimes because he wanted to read a book in the library, and during last term also because Fred and George Weasley sometimes needed his help with one of their pranks. The twins wanted to cause chaos, and Harry wanted that to be aimed at the less friendly Slytherins. Because the only thing they did together was break rules in various creative ways, they decided to be safe and not to let anyone know of their silent partnership. Only Ginny was aware of it, but only after she'd caught them in the act one night. The partnership started one night when Harry ran into them on his way to the kitchens, while they were clearly busy doing something to the entrance to the Great Hall. Harry, who only saw the back of them whilst they were squatting near the doorway and waving their wand at it in strange patterns, was curious and walked closer to see what they were up to. But then they turned around, pinned him against the wall and pulled his Invisibility Cloak from him. Fred and George were not above pranking him, so Harry was quite worried what they would do to him. But his fears were allayed when they told him they'd heard of how Harry charmed his bed and his trunk to prevent his dorm mates from stealing from him or hexing him. It had worked wonders, and the other Slytherins quickly learnt not to mess with Harry anymore after Goyle and Crabbe repeatedly had to be sent to the Hospital Wing with painful, crusty burns on their hands. The twins were impressed, and offered him a partnership. The deal was struck there and then: they would cover for each other whenever they could and Fred and George would stop pranking Harry. In return, Harry would sometimes help them set traps in and near the dungeons. Harry wondered how they thought about him now, now that it seemed that the whole of Wizarding Britain was convinced that he'd kidnapped Ginny. That led him to another chilling thought. What would happen if, by any chance, Harry and Sirius were exonerated? Would everyone forget about it and leave him in peace? He didn't hold out much hope for that. Not after having been slandered for two and a half years by just about everyone. Perhaps, he thought, it was better to stay here. Far away from it all. |
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