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SIYE Time:10:34 on 29th March 2024
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The Veil
By Mutt N Feathers

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Category: Post-OotP, Holidays
Characters:Harry/Ginny
Genres: Drama
Warnings: Death
Story is Complete
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 113
Summary: In the fall of 1996 Harry finds a book about the ancient holidays just before Samhain, or what has become Hallowe'en. Tradition says communication with the dead is possible. Harry enlists Ginny to help him find out if its true.
Hitcount: Story Total: 59025; Chapter Total: 1435
Awards: View Trophy Room




Author's Notes:
This is the longest chapter to date, enjoy, it's a bumpy ride.




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Chapter 21:


Nothing in his life had prepared Harry Potter for the feeling of being surrounded by his family. They were warm, funny, real people who had flaws and strengths and things they excelled at and things they just couldn’t do. He would never ask his dad to do the cleansing spell on dishes and then eat off them. It was a simple spell his dad couldn’t get right. His mother was as warm and giving as he’d been told, but no one warned him of his Mum’s wickedly dry humor. Sirius and Remus were different people around Anwen and Eva. They were settled, breathing easier and free of the stress that weighed them down when they lived in Grimmauld Place last summer. He was ever so thankful for these remarkable people who he could call his. He had a family.


What Harry could not wrap his head around, however, was their willingness to face Tom Riddle by his side, or even in his place. His friends had done it, but none of them truly understood the danger he would face. Ginny came close, because of her dealings in the Chamber of Secrets; but even that was just a teen Tom. Full grown, full power and fully evil Voldemort — that was petrifying. His family wasn’t attempting to wrap him in wool and protect him, but they wouldn’t let him do this alone either.


Harry took another long swallow of his rapidly cooling morning cuppa — that’s what happened when you sat outside in fifty-something degree temperature and didn’t bother with a warming charm on your mug — contemplating what they would be doing today. Two of the seven Horcruxes were destroyed — that left him and four other things. Having been dead the longest, his grandmother had a good idea where the others were located — she watched Tom create and then hide them. What was more troubling was what they were going to need to do to destroy them. It was spellwork which his grandfather was challenged by.


Harry didn’t realize he had company until someone clearing their throat broke him from his deep thoughts.


“Oh, hi Ginny,” Harry said quickly. He leaned toward her and kissed her slow, soft and long. “That gets better every time we do it.”


“So, I’m better than Cho?” Ginny cheekily asked, inquiring after Harry’s fifth year girlfriend.


“You’re not crying, so that would automatically lift you. However, when I kiss you, I feel it to my feet, and I get warm inside. There is nothing quite like kissing you.”


“Good, because I feel the same way.” Harry’s mug was abandoned, and he wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, and they kissed deeply for an unknown amount of time. Then, they were rudely interrupted.


“Prongs, my friend, it would seem that Pup takes after me with the ladies,” Sirius said, stepping outside with his best friend and his own oversized and steaming mug.


“Well, Padfoot, I did my fair share of snogging as well. However, unlike you I did it in private, not all out in the open,” James replied. Harry had broken his lip lock at the first sounds of his godfather. It was Ginny who leered at the two men.


“Easy, Red, we were just joking,” Sirius answered her unspoken words.


“Unlike you two, who are chronologically older than dirt,” she teased back, “we are young and in love!” James raised one eyebrow at her words while Sirius smirked. It took Ginny a second to realize what she just admitted.


“You love me?” Harry asked softly, raising his head to look at her.


“Er, I,” Ginny stammered. “Yes,” she said boldly after taking a deep breath. “Yes, I think I do.”


“I think I love you, too.” Harry sealed his statement with another kiss.


“I’d give him and eight-and-a-half for technique, seven for style,” Sirius said dryly. James shifted his body into his best mates, gently shoving him enough to spill his tea on his jumper. Sirius yelped in surprise at the hot liquid hitting his skin.


“Not cool, Prongs.” The backdoor opened and Lily poked her head out.


“They’re back,” she said. Everyone shuffled inside, Harry and Ginny holding hands as they went. Julia had breakfast prepared and on the table. She’d made a full English which made the gents and Ginny voice their excitement. There were fresh muffins and fruit for those uninterested in a heavy meal. Andrew, Eva and Anwen came into the room, Anwen carrying the Sword of Gryffindor and placing it in the middle of the grand dining table.


“What do we need that for?” Harry asked as he’d not seen it in years.


“We can get to that later,” Andrew said. “Let’s eat first.”


“How bad was it?” Remus asked of his fiancée and best friend.


“I didn’t have to do much, just sing. Anwen and Andrew had to capture the dumb thing and then do the counter-curse on it. Andrew is quite the reservoir of knowledge. He and Anwen had to do so many spells before they found the right one.”


“I didn’t do much either,” Anwen said to Remus. “I just described what I was seeing.”


“You also held the thing in some bubble to keep it from moving. It was almost as if it was alive,” Eva countered.


“Did HE talk to you?” Sirius asked his wife.


“I didn’t acknowledge his presence,” she said. “Andrew told him that we weren’t there to talk, just do what he’d asked. He has a lot to apologize for, and we didn’t have that time today. The sword was procured as renumeration.”


“Andrew had tried to take it, but it wouldn’t come to him. Then it materialized in Anwen’s hand without her saying anything,” Eva explained excitedly.


“Just because I didn’t say anything out loud doesn’t mean I didn’t ask for it,” the other woman explained. “Let’s tuck in, James is going to have a lot to explain to us before we head out today.”


The family ate with gusto, save Julia. She’d faced Tom Riddle before and was horribly wounded by him. It was a welcome surprise that she didn’t die from the wounds. It was ironic when less than a year later she and Andrew were felled by the Dragon Pox; a simple childhood disease that is deadly in adulthood. Lily noticed her mother-in-law’s far-away look.


“Mum, are you okay?” Lily inquired while touching her sleeve.


“Just worried about what we are to do,” the older woman said softly. “Thankfully we only have to go to Sirius’ house to find the first.”


“I hate that place,” Lily said, thinking about what she’d seen there while she was dead and observing from wherever they were; what they came to call limbo. “It’s like the walls seep evil.”


“Petal, you never had to live there,” Sirius said from the other side of the table. “Molly did a good job ridding the place of the dark stuff, but the memories couldn’t be expunged.”


“There are probably still some doxys in the curtains,” Remus piped up. “Feel free to blast those little critters while were there. You do not want them in your hair.” Everyone laughed, lifting the mood in the room. Lily, Eva and Anwen watched as the three Marauders finished off the last of whatever they were drinking and then stood, oblivious to the needs of the remainder of the group. They’d been doing this since their Hogwarts days. They sat back down when they realized no one else was finished. The gents were impatient in their waiting, although it was only about ten minutes. The party stood as the House Elves appeared to clean the mess.


Once everyone was settled in the lounge, Anwen holding the Sword of Gryffindor, James began explaining what they were looking for.


“While we were watching, we saw Sirius’ brother Regulus take Kreacher off to a very well-hidden cave. He took a necklace and replaced it with a fake. He went through something tortuous to leave that place, it was only Kreacher Disapparating him to your mother that saved his life.” Sirius nodded, confused about what his little brother was doing moving against Voldemort when he was supposed to be his follower.


“The real necklace is hidden somewhere within Grimmauld Place,” James continued. “Tom Riddle knew the original was taken, and he went after Regulus. While Tom couldn’t get into Grimmauld, he could kill your brother by summoning him with his Dark Mark. You can’t refuse the mark.”


“The mark has lost some it’s power, because there are people we know are Death Eaters — ones that weren’t imprisoned — who did not respond when he called them to the graveyard,” Harry added. “Now that he’s back, it might be at full strength again.”


“Thanks for that, Harry. If any of us see a Death Eater, get out because others and Tom could be on their way soon,” James iterated. “As for today, Mum, Dad and I have talked, and we think it’s probably something from Salazar Slytherin. Dumbledore stressed how obsessed Tom was with the founders. Do you know where he might have hidden it?”


“His room would be my first guess,” Sirius said, “but there are hiding places in that house that only we knew about. If it’s not in his room, it’s probably in one of those. Kreacher might know too, since he was with Regulus that night. Then again, he might not listen to me.”


“He has to,” Julia said. “With the rest of your family dead, you are his master.”


“Bloody hell,” Sirius said with a sneer. “He’s just so…awful. Maybe I’ll give him clothes and send him packing.”


“I wouldn’t do that, Padfoot,” Remus reminded him. “The Order still uses the house.”


“Shite. I am not bringing you home today,” he said to Anwen. “I don’t want that house for us.”


“We can just leave him to the house,” Anwen said. “It’s not like you’re ever going to get me to live in that monstrosity.”


James covered the final logistics, who would be doing what and how they would destroy the Horcrux. “Harry, I think you’ll need to wield the sword. Anwen, give it to him.” The woman attempted to pass it to him, but as Harry went to touch it, his hands began to shake and he cried out in pain, his scar glowing an eerie green. He fell to the floor in agony. Ginny immediately went to his side, and Anwen moved the sword as far away as she could, and Lily summoned her potions kit.


Once Harry’s breathing regulated and everyone had calmed, James knelt next to his son. “Has that ever happened before?”


“My scar causing me pain, yes. Glowing green, no,” Harry answered.


“Perhaps we should remove that Horcrux first,” Remus said. Andrew and Julia shared a look before he spoke.


“We need to know what will happen when we destroy one of those things before we attempt removing it from Harry.”


“You’re afraid it will kill him?” Lily said in indignant surprise.


“I don’t know,” Andrew replied honestly. “That thing we removed from Albus —"


“Must we use his name,” Sirius interrupted.


“ -- this morning was more powerful than I had ever imagined. Some of that curse had lived in…the man, and even with Anwen’s help it was a struggle to destroy it. There is no possibility of risking my grandson without as much knowledge as I could possibly acquire.”


“That could change things,” James said. “Should we even bring Harry along?” There was no need to identify which one they were speaking about, as the toddler was staying here with his mother and grandmother.


“This is my fight!” Harry said loudly, even as he was still regaining his equilibrium on the floor. “You can go with me, but Tom has been after me since I was born. I realize that he is the one who started this fight, but I plan on finishing it. He’s taken so much from me, from Ginny, how could I do anything but fight him.”


“Fine,” James said. “But you listen to what your grandfather and I tell you.”


“Yes, Dad,” Harry said with a slightly irritated tone. He held himself before he rolled his eyes too. James relished the minor backtalk from his son. He looked to Lily with an upturned lip and she returned the smile with one of her own. With a few last words James, Remus, Eva, Sirius, Anwen, Harry, Ginny and Andrew left for Grimmauld Place.


There were vestiges of the Order still using the house — a copy of the Daily Prophet haphazardly folded in the parlor, a cup with a bit of tea molding on the end of the dining table, muddy shoes on the boot mat by the back door — but without anyone living there full-time, the place was quiet.


“I’ll go check Reg’s room. I still don’t think it’s what you think it is. My little brother was evil to the core,” Sirius said, James and Remus Disapperating with him. Anwen and Eva began looking around. The place was a demented mausoleum to a foregone and horrible time in Wizarding History. As Anwen stared at the elf heads lining the wall, she mistakenly stepped in front of her mother-in-law’s portrait.


“Who are you?” Walburga screamed.


“If you’re Sirius’ mother, then I’m your daughter-in-law, Anwen Black.”


“What family line are you from? I can’t place you.” The screaming had gone, replaced with a tone that wasn’t respectful, but it wasn’t quite rude either.


“My last name was Hodgson, but my grandmother was Violet Parker.”


“Parker, the lost Parkers? Are you really?”


“So my adoptive in-laws tell me.”


“My son is still spending time with those Muggle-loving Potters? What a waste of a fine bloodline.” Harry wanted to say something, but Ginny held him back. Andrew was beyond caring what a painting had to say about him. Walburga had turned hard and cold when she was forced into marrying Orion and now all he felt for her was pity.


“I’m here to find something Regulus might have hidden, not too long before he died. The night Kreacher brought him back, he needed your care to save his life. He would have had a necklace, and he would have been worried about it. Its hiding place would have been very secretive, and he would have been worried about its safety.” Walburga Black’s portrait face took on a contemplative pose before she spoke.


“Yes, he hid it in my bedroom, under a floorboard where the bed used to be.”


“Thank you so much,” Anwen said, genuinely smiling. “I’m going to close this curtain now. Have a nice sleep.” Anwen did as she said, and the remaining four Apparated upstairs, Anwen and Andrew taking the under-agers.


“This is your bedroom?” Harry said as he entered the boldly red and gold room that was plastered with Muggle posters of motorbikes and girls wearing very little with Enhancing Charms on their breasts.


“Yeah, used my super-sticking charm so they couldn’t ever redecorate after I left,” Sirius said proudly.


“I feel under-developed,” Eva whispered to Anwen.


“Me too,” she replied. Shaking her head free of those thoughts, she told Sirius the necklace was in his mother’s room.


“Uh, how do you know that?”


“I spoke with her, well her portrait downstairs.”


“She didn’t bellow at you?”


“At first, but then I told her who my grandmother was and spoke with her kindly, and she gave up the information. Do you remember the first thing I ever said to you?” Sirius shook his head no. “You catch more flies with honey rather than vinegar.”


“You’re brilliant,” he replied before gently kissing her. “Come on, her room is a floor down.”


Once in the room, the gents ripped up several boards before they found the jewelry. It was a hideously ugly necklace with a giant S on it and a locket that would not open. Eva began to sing, and the same dark, slimy curl which was witnessed early that day began to appear. Andrew, James, Sirius, Remus and Harry all covered the necklace in a stasis charm, hoping that the five of them would be enough while Anwen struck at the Horcrux with the Sword.


Upon the sword meeting the necklace, a howl was hear and a reverberation climbed the blade, causing Anwen to scream and fall backwards, knocking her head hard on the floor. The bit of Tom’s soul, however, wasn’t quite dead and it lunged toward Ginny before it evaporated into nothing with the destruction of the necklace. The next moments were chaos. Andrew implored the men to hold their charm for a minute longer to ensure the Horcrux was indeed dead, but for Harry and Sirius the minute felt like a year, as both of their girls were affected by what the spell which was done.

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