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If Harry Potter Had Game | ||||||
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Category: Pre-OotP Characters:Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley Genres: Fluff, Humor, Romance Warnings: None Story is Complete Rating: G Reviews: 13 Summary: What if Harry Potter fancied Ginny back in Chamber of Secrets? What if he actually did something about it? What if there is a sarcasm feedback loop? Canon compliant, but divergent from that point on. Hitcount: Story Total: 6166; Chapter Total: 917 |
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Harry arrived back home at Number 12, Grimmauld Place, after his customary fortnight at the Dursleys. Ginny was there waiting for him, and greeted him rather enthusiastically. "Come on Ginny, I have a lot to tell you, where are Ron and Hermione?" "They're here, but they knew I'd want to properly greet you first." "How about I tell you first what I know, and then when I tell Ron and Hermione you can just act like I'm telling all of you at the same time?" "What is it?" "Dumbledore told me the prophecy after all. He came to see me after he… well, he got hurt. Order business. It's made him realize that he can't keep me in the dark forever, because it turns out I'm the bloody Chosen One." "I knew it!" "Yeah, well, having it confirmed is kind of a blow. There's a ruddy prophecy that only I can kill Voldemort, or else he kills me." "Oh, Harry!" "Hang on, I'll recite the blasted thing for you." _______________________________ _________ "Happy Birthday, Harry." "Thanks, Gin." "I was wondering if, before I give you your present, I could… close the door to your room." "But I'm 16, Ginny, and you're only 14. The age difference is massive. It wouldn't be appropriate." "I'm going to be 15 in eleven days, you idiot!" "Well, maybe by then it'll be appropriate." "Are you serious?" "Actually--" "DON'T YOU DARE SAY IT!" ________________________________ ________ "Ginny, I have to go have my Occlumency lesson with Dumbledore. I'll come find you when it's over." "At some point you have to start teaching it to me too. You said." "I have to have a clue what I'm doing first." "I'd have thought anyone would be a better teacher than Snape." "Anyone is, but that doesn't stop me being thick in any case." "That's my job. I'm the one that stops you from being thick." "Well step up then, because you've been falling down on the job lately." "I should get a pay raise with the overtime I've been putting in." "You always manage to get a rise out of me." "Feeble. Go have your lesson." ____________________________ ____________ "Happy Birthday, Ginny." "Thank you, Harry." "Close your eyes," said Harry, as he pressed a small box into her hand. "Harry… before I think the wrong thing, what is the significance of this ring to you?" "Does it have to be significant? It can't just be because you'd look pretty wearing it?" "It doesn't have to be significant, but I can tell that it is. Talk. Please." "You're my best friend, Gin. And I know that we're already more than friends, but this ring is to show that I don't intend to be more than friends with anyone else, ever, and that I look forward to the day when we're more than more-than-friends." Harry's face was entirely red but he bravely looked Ginny in the face. "Ah." "Traditionally, you'd wear this ring on your left hand… but so as to avoid a row with your parents and a multi-pronged assault on me by your brothers, you could opt for the right hand, and we can just play dumb." "That would avoid a lot of trouble." "So --" "But since when do we avoid trouble? Harry, please place this ring on this finger," Ginny said, holding out the ring finger of her left hand. Harry gulped and slid it on. "With this ring, I do hereby make known my last will and testament--" "Don't be a baby. We haven't done anything wrong; there's a war on; if there's drama over this it'll almost be a nice change of pace." "I'm going to get to say 'I told you so,' I think." "You're not quite thick enough to actually say that to me." "I wonder." "We'll get through it. Then they'll know. Quit looking so anxious. It's my birthday. I'm happy. No one had better try and spoil it. Even you." Harry grinned. "You're right, Gin. It's your birthday, and I'll take the brunt of whatever they throw. It's my house, after all! Time I make that clear to your mum!" "Oh Merlin." ____________________________ ____________ "Ginny! What is that on your hand?" shouted Mrs. Weasely. "It's a ring, mum." "I can see that." "Harry gave it to me." "So I had surmised." "We don't think we're grown up yet." "You don't." "No. In fact, that's what this ring means -- that we're not grown up yet, but we're waiting for the day when we are." "And what do you plan on doing when you are grown up?" "Mum! We're going to live happily ever after, of course!" "Ginny, call your father in here, please." ____________________________ ____________ "Harry, if you were expecting me to yell at you or something, I have to disappoint you." "Who are you and what have you done with Ron?" "Har har. I don't know if you realize this, Harry, but I have had three years to get used to the idea of you and my sister, it'd actually be more upsetting if you weren't serious about her, but were just playing around. But I know you're not." "No, I'm not." "And I'm fine for Ginny to keep dragging you off because Hermione and I have our prefect things to do--" "'Prefect things,' is that what you call it?" "Don't try to banter with me, Harry, it's like you're cheating on Ginny." "These are just old cliché jokes; she doesn't mind as long as it's you." "So, you were just wanting to have a row for old times' sake, is that it?" "Do you reckon Hermione will start expecting a ring from you now?" "You're dead, Harry! Get back here!" ______________________________ __________ "Hey, Ginny," "Hey, Chosen One." Ron looked disgusted, and Hermione placed her face in her palm and shook her head. _______________________________ _________ The Summer ended, and the new term began. There was no Umbridge. The Ministry had real things to fear, rather than their invented phantom rebellion in Hogwarts. At the welcoming feast, Dumbledore introduced the new Potions Master, Horace Slughorn. "I can't believe Snape finally got the Defence against the Dark Arts position," said Ginny. "With him teaching it'll just be 'Dark Arts.'" "The art of Intimidating first years by looking like a bat." "The art of… never… washing your hair." "That was truly pathetic. Are you feeling all right?" "They can't all be gold." "That wasn't even tin. You haven't been this off your game for a while. What's wrong?" "Private lessons with Dumbledore, this year. I'm going to be learning all about the history of Tom Riddle, the man I have to kill." "Ah." "Yeah." __________ ______________________________ "Why is Hermione so upset?" "I beat her in potions making." "You beat Hermione in schoolwork? Is she sick? Is she imperiused? Is she a polyjuiced Death Eater?" "I'm not completely hopeless at schoolwork, you know." "Ron takes it more seriously than you at this point." "He's just pretending to make Hermione like him." "It's been three years!" "He's just playing the long game." "You don't care that much about schoolwork, because you can't see anything after school except war." "Keep it light, Ginny--" "What if learning magic helps keep you alive? What if it helps keep me alive?" "Well, then you should be happy because I'm doing very well in potions, actually." "You're doing well while not taking it seriously? Something is missing here. And it doesn't explain why Hermione is that upset. If you'd been working hard, she'd be proud of you, not jealous." "She thinks using my textbook notes is cheating." "What notes?" "I have a used copy of the potions textbook. It's got handwritten notes from the previous owner." "That book isn't talking to you, is it?" "Ginny!" "So you're using the book that everyone is supposed to be using, and learning extra details about potion making from another student who left his notes, and it's working, but Hermione thinks that's cheating?" "That seems to be the case." "Well, that's stupid." "Thank you." "Did you offer to share the notes with her?" "She doesn't trust them because it's not the textbook way." "But you're getting better marks, so the notes are better than the textbook way." "That's Hermione." "It does sound like her." "Here, this is what I won. A bottle of liquid luck." "Felix Felicis! Harry this stuff is like gold. You should keep this on you at all times, it could be life and death when we fight the Death Eaters." "Merlin knows I might have forgotten the Death Eaters and just enjoyed a small victory in my mundane school life." "Oh, Harry, I'm sorry. I'm proud of you for doing well in potions, and don't let Hermione bother you, she's just got a few issues. But less than before, actually, Ron has been a surprisingly good influence. Between the two of them they're almost a single mentally healthy person." "And what are you and I?" "We're lucky. We've been lucky for ages, long before you got hold of Felix Felicis." "I do feel lucky, now that I think about it." "I couldn't hear you, Harry. Whisper it in my ear." Harry leaned in close. "I said I do feel very lucky, Ginevra." A sigh escaped Ginny's lips as she squeezed Harry tightly. ____________________________ ____________ "Ginny, please be really be amazing during Quidditch tryouts." "How dare you! I am always amazing when I fly." "I know that. I know you're a shoo-in for chaser, but you know some prat will say something about favoritism since I'm captain." "What do I care what some prat says?" "Well, it's just one more target on my back, that's all." "Harry, no one could say a bad word about Fred and George on the pitch, and Ron has been phenomenal as keeper. You think everyone in Gryffindor sees me as your accessory? No one will think it was favouritism because I'm bloody terrific." "Well, I know that--" "Then why do you seem to think everyone else doesn't know it as well?" "I'm just tired of the drama sometimes, remember 'Potter Stinks'?" "Let me ask you this: do you think I'm going to play better after this conversation?" "Well--" "So, what was the point of all this, then?" "Well, it all started with you mishearing me." "Oh?" "Yes, you heard say 'please be really amazing during Quidditch tryouts' but what I actually said was 'Ginny, I can't wait for the tryouts so everyone can see how amazing and talented you are at Quidditch. They're going to be so excited for our chances this year.' See, it was a show of support, because you're fantastic, as well as beautiful, loving, understanding, and forgiving of minor foibles here and there." "Forgiving, am I?" "If I can forgive the misunderstanding just now because you misheard me, then surely you can forgive me if I ever, someday, say the wrong thing." "The only issue is how will I ever tell the difference?" ________________________ ________________ "Slughorn's going to have a Christmas party, Harry," said Hermione. "And there's no way you'll be able to wriggle out of this one because he actually asked me to check your free evenings, so he could be sure to have it on a night you can come." Harry groaned. "Ginny, would you like to go to Slughorn's Christmas Party with me? Please say no. Please say you'd rather die than go. In fact, how about you get lost in the Forbidden Forest on that night, and I'll rescue you? It could be fun." "Let's save the Forest thing for a nice evening in Spring." "You don't actually want to go, do you?" "It could be fun, if we hang out with the right people." "It'll be full of Professors!" "I'll rescue you if you get cornered. 'Excuse me Professor -- Oh Harry, you have to come say hello to so-and-so.'" "Can you at least fake a tummy ache so we can leave early?" _____________________________ ___________ "Ginny, just a fair warning, I got you two Christmas presents, so if the one you open in front of your family is underwhelming it's because the other is for you to open in private." "You got me a decoy gift? Why, what's the real one? What did you do that other people can't see? Will I be scandalized?" "Don't get too excited--" "Oh, no, I am now fully excited." ___________________________ _____________ Harry and Ginny sat snuggled up by the fire in the Common Room, late on Christmas night. "Remember three years ago, when you planned that mistletoe encounter?" asked Harry. "Me? I thought you charmed that mistletoe to appear!" "What?!" "Just kidding, Harry. You should have seen your face. 'Oh no, our whole relationship is a lie.' I have never seen a funnier existential crisis." "You know, most people just see the gorgeous, funny, happy, bubbly person you pretend to be. I'm so flattered that I'm the only one permitted to see the real Evil that Lurks Within." "Oh, my brothers know about it also. Some of them." "Will I ever find out what really happened with Percy?" "Harry, Harry. I don't lie to you." "…Well? "That was all. I don't lie to you. So don't ask. You don't plan on actually betraying me, I assume, so you should not be scared at all." "And yet…" "Shush. Let's be quiet for a bit, and we'll see if we're lucky enough to find some more mistletoe on the way to the stairs." ____________________________ ____________ "Ginny, how do you fancy attending the next Slug Club meeting?" "Pull the other one." "As delightful as that sounds, I'm actually serious." "I thought your godfather was Sirius?" "You hate that joke!" "I hate you making that joke. When you do it it's tiresome and obvious. But you weren't expecting me to do it, so it was fresh and original." "I'm going to tell your big brother on you." "As if he'd cross me for your sake." "He likes me more than you." "He fears me more than you." "We're getting off track. I want to go to the Slug Club meeting because I have a mission from Dumbledore. There's information in Slughorn's head we need to fight Voldemort." "So, we remove his head, and--" "It's a memory. Slughorn was Tom Riddle's teacher when he attended Hogwarts. He told him something, something important, something he's ashamed about now. We need that memory." "So, we have to butter him up?" "I was leaving cold blooded torture for plan B." "Maybe I should get some new robes to look my best." "Yeah, okay." "That means you come along and pay." "What happened to the proud Weasely family tradition of spurning charity or even gifts?" "Harry, Harry. Everything that is yours will be mine someday anyway, will it not? Why should I live in poverty until then when I have a wealthy young suitor in desperate need of a hug, which his money can never do for him?" "I would genuinely like a hug." _______________________________ _________ "Well, that didn't go well," said Harry. "I guess he wasn't sufficiently buttered," Ginny replied. "He had been in such a good mood." "Turns out being reminded of helping a psychotic mass murderer kills one's mood rather handily." "What do you suggest?" "Tell me everything you know about Slughorn. Everything he's said about your mother." ____________________________ ____________ "Bloody hell, that was exhausting!" groaned Ginny as she flopped down. "What happened?" asked Harry. "It's good I had those rows with Dumbledore under my belt; never would have been up to playing the part otherwise." "What happened?" repeated Harry. "Well, voices were raised, I'll tell you that." "Okay, so what happened?" "Wands were drawn, in fact." "What?!" "Well, a wand, but no spells fired." "Ginny, what did you do?" "He sure did not want to give me that memory, he made that quite clear." "Ginny!" "We should probably give him a wide berth after this." "Ginny! What. Happened?" "Well to begin with, I got the memory." Ginny tossed the vial at Harry, trusting in Gryffindor's greatest seeker to catch it. "YOU COULD HAVE LED WITH THAT!" roared Harry. "Harry, Harry. Do you realize that you are yelling at me? Me, the love of your life? The one who succeeded in Dumbledore's ultra-important reconnaissance mission? The one vital to the war effort? Vital to your future as the Chosen One?" "Ginny." "Are not congratulations in order? A hug? A kiss? Being told how proud you are of me? Do you genuinely begrudge a tiny bit of wind-up after everything I have gone through?" Harry took several deep breaths. "Ginny. It's fantastic that you got the memory. You're brilliant. You're fantastic. I love you. I'm so happy. I'm so proud of you. This whole conversation is just so fun. Of course, you should get to have a little fun, when the mission was such a rousing success. It was so silly of me to be frustrated. Ha. Ha ha." "Was that so hard?" Harry said nothing for a moment, then snapped his fingers as if suddenly remembering something. "Say, Ginny, what all exactly happened with Slughorn?" "Now that you ask, it's actually an interesting story. It turns out that Horace Slughorn is a good man. A coward I suppose, but he's got a real heart under all that ambition. He feels guilty about you, because he like your mum so much, and he blames himself for helping Voldemort. He's also terrified of Voldemort, and doesn't want to do anything that would look like helping the Order." "So, what did you say to him?" "Well, I kind of tried to channel your mum. Your mum was the one he knew, the one he felt guilty about. I told him that you were the Chosen One, that I was your soul mate, and that we were going to fight Voldemort together. I told him that without that memory I would probably die, like Lily died, leaving you alone again. There was shouting, there were tears, there was a drawn wand, and I may have even had Dobby doing some flickering of the lights, for effect, to make it look like I was emanating accidental magic. Possibly even some inexplicable wind. When the red hair gets flowing, it can get pretty dramatic." "I… But… Ah. Please continue." "Well like I said, I was trying to channel Lily. I played it up so that by sort of taking her place in the narrative, it would give Slughorn a chance to undo his mistake. By giving me that memory, he's helping you, and thus helping Lily." "If this isn't another joke, this is the most underhanded, manipulative thing I have ever heard of." "Harry! How can you say that? Nothing I told him was even a lie!" _______________________________ _________ "It would save time if I just started going to your private lessons with Dumbledore," said Ginny. "That would make them semi-private lessons then." "Semantics. You just tell me everything he told you anyway. I should just be there to begin with." "I tell Ron and Hermione too. We can't have the whole crew in there." "Why not?" "It's hard enough getting information out of Dumbledore when he wants to divulge it. Look, not to have a swelled head, but there was a prophecy about me. Merlin knows I don't think that makes me better than anyone else. But Dumbledore obviously considers me important. One on one, I've got a chance of getting the info I need. With other people there? He'll be all, what do you call it, inhibited? He'll clam up." "Do you appreciate the irony of telling me, the retriever of information from Slughorn, about how best to get information out of Dumbledore?" "I did start to realize that while I was speaking, yes. But I'm still right. Dumbledore isn't Slughorn. It's just different." _________________________ _______________ "All right, spill." "That memory you got from Slughorn, that was it all right." "Of course it was. What was in it?" "I found out what a Horcrux is. You murder someone, it literally tears your soul apart, you grab one bit of soul and you put it into an object. Then if your body dies, your soul stays on earth because part of it is anchored in the physical world in the Horcrux." "That's horrid. So that's why Voldemort didn't die when he marked you? He had a Horcrux?" "That's the really horrid part. He's got six." "Six? There are six objects with pieces of Voldemort soul in them?" "Well, five, now." Harry paused, and gave her a look. "Ohhh. That explains a lot. That explains a bloody lot." There was silence for a while. After a while, Ginny spoke again. "I'm guessing there's no tracking spell for Horcruxes." "No. Don't so much as say that word out loud anywhere not fully private. Our only hope is for no one to ever suspect we know about them. It's dark, forbidden magic that no one should know about anyway. We shouldn't even know the word." "Hadn't planned on asking Luna to publish it in the Quibbler, Harry." "I know, I know, but I'll say the same thing to Ron and Hermione when I tell them." "And Slughorn told Voldemort how to make Horcruxes?" "Not as such. He didn't encourage it, he didn't tell him the spell, but he talked about them enough to give Voldemort ideas. As a teacher, he should have known better. But Tom Riddle was charming…" "Ugh. So, Voldemort can't die unless we somehow locate five more Horcruxes and destroy them like you destroyed the diary?" "Four actually, I already forgot. Dumbledore found another one. It was a ring belonging to Voldemort's uncle." Ginny started laughing. "What -- what's so funny?" "Riddle! He's hiding his soul pieces in relics directly connected to himself! His diary! A piece of family jewelry! If it was me, I'd have put a Horcrux in a stone and tossed it in the North Sea." "Maybe he did, for one of the other four." "No! Not 'I Am Lord Voldemort'! He's putting them in objects that are meaningful. That means they are findable." Ginny laughed until tears came to her eyes. "Tom! A fifteen-year-old girl is laughing at your foolishness. Oh, Tom! We're going to bloody tear you apart!" _________________________ _______________ "Ginny, Dumbledore had already come to the same conclusion as you about the Horcruxes. That they're in meaningful items." "Well, he's got some good ideas, it's true, credit where credit is due and all that." "In fact, I'm pretty sure I know where one is right now." "What? Where?" "It was a locked owned by Salazar Slytherin. I saw it in Dumbledore's pensieve. I've seen it before. It's in with all the dark objects we locked up in the attic at Grimmauld Place." "What?!" "Yeah, you know Sirius' mum was a pureblood supremacist, and his brother was a Death Eater. There were tons of dark objects in that house when Sirius got out of Azkaban. That's why it took so long to invite you over that first Summer I spent there." "But there was a Horcrux there the whole time?" "If I'm right. I reckon Voldemort--" "Riddle. I don't say 'you know who' any more, but you know what? I'm not going to say 'Voldemort' any more either. That's a name he made up to sound scary or important. I'm done giving him the respect of using it." "Fair enough. Riddle must have given it to Sirius' brother like he gave the diary to Malfoy. Dumbledore's on his way to get it right now." "So that's three down, three to go?" "Well, Dumbledore reckons the next one might be a Cup belonging to Helga Hufflepuff. Vol-- Riddle pinched it at some point." "Any ideas about the last two?" "Dumbledore thinks that when, uh, Riddle tried to kill me, he was going to make his sixth Horcrux with my death." "That's horrible! So that means he's one short?" "Unfortunately, no. Dumbledore can't be certain, of course, but he reckons his snake, Nagini, that almost killed your dad? The snake is a Horcrux." "Ugh, he can make a living creature house a piece of his filthy old soul? Disgusting." "That leaves one unaccounted for. One meaningful object. Slytherin's locket, Hufflepuff's cup, but the sword of Gryffindor is safe. That potentially leaves some relic of Ravenclaw." "I've had enough great ideas lately. Let's give Hermione a chance on this one." _______________________________ _________ "The most notable relic of Ravenclaw was the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw, but that's been lost for centuries," said Hermione. "That doesn't sound like the sort of thing that would stop Riddle. He found Hufflepuff's cup. He found Slytherin's locket. He found the Chamber of Secrets while he was a student at Hogwarts. What if he found the diadem as well?" said Ginny. "How? There are no clues that I can find in any books." "Books aren't the only source of knowledge. There's people. We could start by asking Professor Flitwick. Tell him you're doing a report for History of Magic." _____________________________ ___________ "Well, that was a bust." "Who could have told Riddle where to look, when nobody has seen the diadem in living memory?" "Living memory… I know who to talk to next." ______________________________ __________ "You know, I'm starting to wonder how much anti-ghost prejudice is holding back the magical world," said Harry. "What are you on about now?" asked Ginny. "Ron and I found the Chamber of Secrets because we asked Myrtle, who died when the Chamber was first opened. Apparently, no one had ever bothered to ask her that before. Riddle found the lost diadem because no one, before or since, ever thought to ask the resident Ravenclaw ghost, who happens to be the daughter of the founder of their house and the one who stole the blasted thing." "Loads of people asked her. She just refused to tell them." "No, loads of people badgered her, she said." "So they were Hufflepuffs?" "Hah. My point is that people just demanded information out of her, like she was a talking relic, instead of a person. They just wanted the diadem because they wanted it, and no one tried to really talk to her or understand her." "Until Riddle. It's amazing how good he was at pretending to care about people despite not actually even knowing how to do so," remarked Ginny. "Makes me wonder who else is pretending that I just haven't caught on to, yet." Harry reflected for a moment. "Look, you know I don't have anything against magical people per se, some of my favourite people are magical--" "Careful, Potter--" "But I'm starting to get a little bit discouraged at how often I end up getting thanked for behaving with what I consider common human decency. Dobby treats me like I'm some sort of god just for treating him like a person, even Lupin is sometimes pathetically grateful to simply not be treated like a monster. I generally find not acting like a stuck up supremacist to be supremely simple--" "Ooh, that's some fancy alliteration--" "Silence, I was on a roll-- my point is that it's awkward to get credit for passing such a low bar of decent behavior." "Oh, Harry, you kind of get me all hot and bothered when you're noble like this." "It's not noble, that's my whole point--" "That is just so charming." "Can we postpone the flirting for just a bit? We've genuinely connected with the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw, and learned the location of where the lost diadem was, but how does that help us find it now?" "We don't know where Hufflepuff's cup is either, but knowing what the object is has got to make things easier. There's no way that he heard that story and didn't track down that diadem and make it into a Horcrux. Just getting this far is actually rather phenomenal. You can take this information to Dumbledore. He tracked down the hiding place of the ring. Maybe he will have an idea for the cup and the diadem." "I suppose you're right--" "Don't sound so surprised--" "But I feel like I'm missing something." "Even if you had a clue where to look, you couldn't do anything about it until Summer. We're stuck at Hogwarts until that." "Hogwarts… the place Riddle came back to. He came back, and he tried to get the Defence Against the Dark Arts position. But he didn't expect it." "And?" "Dumbledore thought he came back to search the castle for a relic of the founders." "But never got the chance." "But the diadem was never here. It belonged here, it should have been here, but it wasn't. It was in Albania. He already had it." "He didn't come here to find a relic… he came to hide one!" "And I think I know where…" Harry trailed off and looked Ginny in the eyes, and she came to the same conclusion. "The Chamber of Secrets!" they said together. ___________________________ _____________ "Go back into the Chamber of Secrets? Are you barking?" said Ron. "I thought you'd be excited, you never even got to see the whole thing!" said Harry. "Oh, what a trip down memory lane it will be, sight-seeing the place my sister almost died! And what about Ginny? What if she's all, whatsit, traumatized being down there again?" "Actually, I'm kind of looking forward to it," said Ginny. "What, why?!" demanded Ron. "Well, it was a traumatic experience, obviously, but it was nearly 4 years ago, I'm not a little girl any more. I want to see the place the memory of Riddle died. I want to see the decaying remains of the snake that Harry killed to save me. I want to be there when we find the diadem and bring Riddle one step closer to his permanent demise." "All right. I can see you're determined. And scary. But first. For once, no one is actively trying to kill us right this second. If it's down there, it's been there for decades. We can afford to wait a bit and go in with a plan." "What do we need to plan?" asked Harry. "What's the cup look like? What's the diadem look like? For that matter, what is a diadem?" "It's a crown," said Hermione and Ginny at the same time. "Okay, and there was a basilisk guarding it, which Harry killed, but what if it had babies?" "Basilisks are magical creatures, they don't reproduce like regular snakes," said Hermione. "Okay, but what if there are other creatures down there? Or other traps?" "It's a fair point," said Harry. "I would tend to think that putting other traps in a Chamber with a basilisk that size would be just gilding the lily, but we should gear up and be prepared for anything." "If the diadem or the cup is there, and it's a Horcrux, what if it tries to possess somebody?" "I… I think that it would need more time and contact to really do that," said Ginny. "The diary didn't just… subsume me immediately. It was a process. I… lowered my Defences." "It's possible Occlumency would help with that," said Harry. "And possible it wouldn't," said Ron, "and since I'm the worst of us at Occlumency--" "Ironic, since 'clear your mind of thoughts' is your default state--" "That'd be funnier if I wasn't the main one here trying to think about strategy, Ginny." "Okay, so we should be aware of all these possibilities, but none of them seem grave enough to not go," said Harry. "One last question, how do we destroy a Horcrux?" "Hermione?" "Well, the one way we know for sure is the way Harry did it, basilisk venom. How did Dumbledore destroy the ring and the locket?" "You know, I have no idea. He didn't tell me," said Harry. "And it didn't occur to you to ask?" "It has been rather a lot of new information in a pretty short amount of time. I may seem calm and collected but inside I've actually been reeling for months." "Anyway," continued Hermione, "There's also Fiendfyre, not that we'd ever try that." "Oh, I don't know, I could just ask Snape to teach it to me, he probably knows that one--" "Whether we knew it or not we'd never try it, it's too dangerous. We don't need it anyway, as far as I know no one has ever been back down in the Chamber. The basilisk fangs will still be there. In fact, we should grab a bunch of them and all have one with us at all times. It'd be a nightmare to find a Horcrux and not be able to destroy it." ________________________________ ________ "Bloody hell, Harry, you fought this thing?" Ron was in shock at the sight of the basilisk's body. "Is it weird that it seems scarier to see this now than it did when I was twelve? Maybe I didn't know enough then to be properly terrified." "You were properly terrified, Harry," said Ginny. "It's just your courage was even greater than your terror. Your heart has always been larger than your fear." "Come on, Hermione. Let's check down this way. Let these two have their moment." When they were gone, Harry looked Ginny in the eyes. "Was that to get rid of Ron or you were being genuine?" "I can genuinely love and admire you and also simultaneously genuinely want my brother to leave us alone." "You're okay being down here?" "I was asleep when I almost died. I never had to be scared of that. When I woke up, you'd already saved me. My hero. This isn't a place of terror for me, not any more. This is the site of my first kiss with the boy I'm going to spend the rest of my life with." "I can't believe I asked you to kiss me." "I couldn't believe it either." "I can't believe you did it." "Oh, I'd wanted to do that for a long time." "I thought I was being so suave." "Only because you had Fawkes as your wing man." "He saved my life and gave me a reason to live on the same day." "Come over here, Harry. I think this is where we were." "I can't tell; when I think of that moment, I just see a red-haired blurry angel." "Blurry? Had your glasses fallen off?" "I had my glasses; the blurred vision was a side effect of the fact that I was genuinely dying at the time." "I'm sorry you had to do that for me. I'm so glad you did." "Me too." "I have a request, Harry." "Now you're the one asking for a do over? Only fair." Harry granted Ginny's request. ____________________________ ____________ "I was so sure it would be in the Chamber." "We looked everywhere. You must have hissed 'open' over every square inch of that place. I think I became a parselmouth listening to that so many times." "That doesn't mean it's not still in the castle. Where else would he hide it?" "It'd be weird to have your very own Chamber of Secrets and not use it to hide your secret stuff." "Well, we have our own Chamber of Secrets and it's not like we've even been in it a second time until now." "Should we have made it our secret clubhouse or had tea parties down there on Sunday afternoons?" "It's the Chamber of Secrets, not the Chamber of Convenience. Can you imagine if we'd tried to use it to host the DA meetings when Umbridge was around? That'd have been a nightmare." "Harry! That's it!" ________________________________ ________ "I need a place to hide my treasure," thought Harry. The room was the size of a cathedral, and filled with all manner of books, clothing, jewelry, and assorted other items. "This is going to take forever to search!" moaned Ron. "Let's split up, we can cover more ground that way," said Hermione. "Are you mental?" asked Ron, Harry, and Ginny simultaneously. "We stick together," said Ron. "If the cup or diadem is here and has a piece of you-know-who's soul--" "Riddle's soul," said Ginny. "-then it's supremely dangerous, but that doesn't mean there couldn't be loads of other dangerous things here too. It looks like people have been hiding things here for a thousand years." To Ron's surprise, they found the diadem within the hour. "This is it," said Hermione, opening up a folded page with a depiction of the diadem on it. "No one touch it," said Ron. "Ginny," said Harry. "I got to do the diary. I think it's fair you get this one. Just be careful." Ginny swallowed and moved towards the diadem with a basilisk fang at the ready. "Ginny Weasely," said a voice from the diadem. "I have seen into your heart. I know--" There was a scream as Ginny drove the fang into the diadem, withdrew, plunged it in again, and again. "Sorry Tom," said Ginny to the smoking wreck. "I didn't quite catch that. What did you say? Could you repeat that? It sounded important. No? Oh. You're dead." Ginny put away the basilisk fang before throwing her arms around Harry. "Should we look for the cup too right now, or have a rest first?" _____________________________ ___________ "All right, let's go see Dumbledore," said Harry. "We don't all need to go for that," said Ron. "We've got prefect stuff to do anyway," said Hermione. "After everything you did, you don't want to be there to hand a dead Horcrux to Dumbledore?" "It's not private lessons with all of us, Harry. It's you. It's always been you. I used to be jealous of it, but you know what? I'm happy with what I have. Dumbledore isn't going to want to see all of us. Just you. Maybe Ginny too. Isn't the 'power he knows not' supposed to be love? You two go on up. Tell us how it went." "Tell Dumbledore we each want two hundred house points," added Hermione. ___________________________ _____________ "Miss Weasley, Mr. Potter, please come in. To what do I owe the pleasure? Would you care for a sherbet lemon?" "No, thank you, Professor. We're here with some rather good news, actually," said Harry. "Tom Riddle only has 2 Horcruxes left." Ginny produced the remains of Ravenclaw's diadem and laid it on Dumbledore's desk. _______________________________ _________ "I've never seen him at such a loss before, Ginny." "I thought he'd be more pleased." "He was pleased, but something about the whole thing has, I don't know, thrown him off." "I can't imagine any good plan that would involve not finding a destroying a Horcrux as soon as possible." "I don't think we messed up his plans. I think he just wasn't anticipating our… level of success." "That's why you're going to kill Riddle, Harry. No matter how many amazing things you do, they keep on underestimating you." _______________________________ _________ "Harry, look, I believe you, Malfoy is behind it all, but unless we go murder him, there's nothing we can do. You've told Dumbledore. He's not a fool, which means he knows things he's not telling you. He has some plan to let Draco do whatever because it's going to end up helping him fight Riddle. Somehow." "How, Ginny?" "I don't have a clue! But it's Riddle you've got to fight, and we're not ready for that, so let Dumbledore have this!" "If I'd done that in my first year, Riddle would have gotten the stone." "No, he wouldn't have. He'd never have figured out the secret of the mirror." "Well Dumbledore didn't fight a basilisk and save your life. I did that. Because I rushed in to do the right thing when I saw evil being done." "And I sent you a fruit basket as a thank you, didn't I? But that was when Dumbledore didn't know what to do. You've told him everything you know about Malfoy and he says he's got it handled. That's different." "I can't just let--" "Well, what do you propose? If you have a good idea of something to actually do, let's hear it!" "I can't think of everything all by myself. That's one of the things I have friends for." "All right, how's this? If Malfoy is using the Room of Requirement for his Evil Plan, instead of trying to get in and find out what it is, how about we take it in shifts to keep him out of that room?" "What, just start hanging out there all the time so he can't use it?" "Precisely. We ask the Room for what we desperately need -- a place for a romantic evening away from war and ruin. And we just take a break. We've earned it. We've more than earned it. And we'll be thwarting Malfoy at the same time." "We can't stay in there forever." "Well first that attitude is massively disappointing, because I can think of several things that would make the time flash past, but we can also get Ron and Hermione to take a shift, and maybe Neville and Luna." "Neville and Luna?" "They might not use the room the same way, but they're strong in the DA, they'll help." "I wonder what Ron and Hermione's perfect date room will look like." "Miles of books about Quidditch. I caught Hermione extolling the virtues of the Chudley Cannons the other day while Ron was studying." "Relationships can sure twist people up." "Oh, Harry. They really can." _______________________________ _________ "Miss Weasley, Mr. Potter, do come in." "Thank you, Professor." Dumbledore was silent for a moment. "Harry, my boy, I have known for a long time that you were a better man than I. The power that Voldemort knows not is the love you have in your heart, and seeing it manifest itself in your relationship with Miss Weasely has made you wise beyond your years." "Er, thanks?" "I have decided to trust you with information that I myself could not be trusted with, in my younger days. But you are worthy in a way I never was." He paused again. "Miss Weasely, I presume you are familiar with the tales of Beedle the Bard?" ______________________________ __________ "You're going to be the 'Master of Death'?" "Apparently so." "Did I bet on the right horse! The Boy Who Lived and the Master of Death. Will that make 'Mistress of Death' by association?" "You'd need a spell to turn your hair black to look the part. That could actually be really--" ___________________________ _____________ "Any luck on the penultimate Horcrux?" asked Ginny. "We obviously haven't found it in the castle, Dumbledore hasn't found it in Albania. He found the place that held the locket, but we already destroyed that thanks to Kreacher." "I wonder if he gave it to one of his Death Eaters for safe keeping. He gave the diary to Malfoy." "Hermione is trying to find all the places that might have some important connection to Hufflepuff." "I don't think he cares about Hufflepuff, he cared about Hogwarts. If it's not here, it could be in an old shoebox in the attic of any of his Death Eaters." "Not any, it'd have to be someone really trusted, like Malfoy, Barty Crouch Jr, Bellatrix… or Snape." "You think Snape could have a Horcrux this whole time?" "Dumbledore hasn't told Snape about the Horcruxes. He trusts him, Merlin knows why, but not with everything. If he's really on our side, he could have the thing and not even know what it really was!" "Well, if Dumbledore doesn't figure it out soon, it's going to be up to you. Maybe the Master of Death will need to gear up and start taking out he Death Eaters one by one, searching their homes…" "That sort of thing is the very reason Dumbledore almost didn't tell me about the Hallows in the first place!" _____________________________ ___________ "Harry! The Dark Mark is above the Astronomy Tower!" cried Neville, rushing into the Gryffindor common room. Harry and Ginny leaped to their feet and rushed out, wands in hand, with Ron and Hermione close behind. "Harry, wait!" ______________________________ __________ "It was Snape," Harry said, with gritted teeth. "I saw him." _______________________________ _________ "I can't believe he's gone." "Harry… did you… do it?" "Yeah. I swapped out Dumbledore's wand with the decoy, when I went to check the body. I've got all three of them now. For all the good it's going to do. For a Master of Death, I couldn't stop Dumbledore from dying." "Listen -- Fawkes has stopped singing." "That's really it, then. What's the Order of the Phoenix without Dumbledore, and now without a phoenix?" There was a flash of fire, and Fawkes dropped down onto Harry's shoulder. "Fawkes! I was sure you'd gone. Are… are you staying?" Fawkes looked Harry in the eye, looked at Ginny, then back at Harry. ______________________________ __________ Author's notes: Harry tries harder to get the memory from Slughorn, and getting it sooner means Dumbledore's schedule is moved up, but Harry also doesn't just wait around for Dumbledore to do everything, he is much more proactive with Ginny by his side. In canon Fawkes left after Dumbledore died. But part of the idea in this story is that Fawkes has a closer personal connection with Harry and Ginny and is kind of shipping them, so he stays to help out. This isn't a story about defeating Voldemort, but he still does need to be defeated. There were so many coincidences leading to victory in canon book seven, most of which have already been butterflied away. So I need a few things that allow Harry to win but still remain broadly plausible. |
| Reviews 13 |
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