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Harry Potter and the Ritual of Love's Memory | ||||||
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Category: Post-HBP Characters:All Genres: Action/Adventure, General, Romance Warnings: Death, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations, Violence Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 259 Summary: After the horcrux hunt implodes leaving most of those Harry loves dead, he starts a new life with a few fellow survivors far away from wizarding Britain. But the discovery of an ancient ritual that promises to send a single memory back in time sparks hope that maybe things can change. Dark ending to DH followed by a tweaked retelling of GoF through DH. Harry/Ginny. Friday updates. Original Timeline Voldemort's Victory - Chapter 1-5 (Feel free to skip if you don't like major character deaths) Tenochtitlán - Chapter 6-9 New Timeline Harry's 4th Year - Chapter 10-28 Harry's 5th Year - Chapter 29-68 Harry's 6th Year - Chapter 69-Current Hitcount: Story Total: 169435; Chapter Total: 2626 Awards: View Trophy Room |
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The stubborn piles of papers had nearly all been vanquished. Harry was down to his last dozen or so essays from his second years, but time seemed to have dragged to a standstill. The words he stared at seemed to lose their meaning. He forced his eyes to look down at the essay in front of him as his vision blurred slightly. Grindylow. Grin-dy-low. Grind. Y? Low! He blinked a few times and shook his head. These essays were going to be the death of him. He searched for the hanging clock and saw that he had two more hours before he had planned to head home. Plenty of time to have a quick break to check on Luna before finishing his pile. He pushed away from the desk, meandering around the Mediwitch students who were huddled, frantically studying for their next round of exams. The door to Luna's office and the rooms where the translation happened were uncharacteristically closed. Harry gave a couple of quick raps on the door. There was no answer for more than a minute, so he walked to the water fountains and drank deeply. When Luna got super into her work, she could be as stubborn as Hermione about riding the wave of productivity. When he went to try to knock at the door again on his way back to his table, the door was flung open and a wild-eyed Luna grasped him by the wrist and pulled him inside, locking the door behind her. Harry's confusion only grew as she dragged him into one of the Special Collections rooms, where a yellowed and ancient-looking scrap of paper was surrounded by the tools of Luna's trade: a magnifying glass, several pages of nearly unreadable, handwritten notes, and a few reference books. "I've translated this page and gone back over it four times. Read it and tell me what you think." Luna was rarely this energetic and animated, so he sat down at the desk and began reading. Ancient Aztec Ritual - Love's Memory For use when love's time is cut short. This ritual sends back a single memory to the person's past self, allowing for that person the chance to find their love sooner and enjoy more time together. Confirmed uses: 542? BC, Tamara invoked ritual to send a memory of her betrothed fighting to protect her. She had previously rejected his advances before agreeing to marry him later in life. He perished while defending her before they could wed. No record was found as to whether the ritual was successfully performed. 167? AD, Sarcha invoked ritual after her husband of two months, Aileo, was killed in a skirmish with a neighboring tribe. Sarcha was with child when her husband perished and sought to run away with Aileo at an earlier age. 1521 AD, Allamano invoked ritual after Tenochtitlán was conquered by Cortéz and his wife perished. He hoped to flee with Jama away from the city before the attack. Allamano later reported that he believed the ritual had worked and that the memory had been sent back, though this could not be confirmed. The manuscript continued with very detailed descriptions of the process of invoking the ritual, its limitations, and speculation about how it could be used. It seemed to require a memory that involved both the person who had loved someone and the person who loved them in return. A few examples of the ritual gone incredibly wrong made it clear that it was not to be used in the case of unrequited love, as the descriptions were quite graphic about the consequences that would be endured. "What do you think, Harry?" asked Luna as she positively bounced up and down in anticipation. "I dunno, I dunno…" he whispered back as he frantically tried to piece the possibilities together. With everything that had gone wrong in the last years, he wasn't quick to be optimistic. But as he stared at a way to change the past, Harry Potter felt a spark of hope light somewhere deep inside. Angelina sighed as Freddie jumped up and down on her as she lay on the couch. She had made it through a brutal training in the increasing heat that afternoon and was hoping for a bit of a break once she arrived home. As she stepped into the front door of their apartment, a silvery stag was relaying a message to her husband. "What's up, babe? Is Harry okay?" She swept Freddie up into her arms as he ran to her and gave her husband a quick kiss on the lips. "Not sure what's up, but it looks like Luna and Harry are coming over for dinner tonight. I'll start some dinner if you can keep Freddie from setting everything on fire?" Her son took that as the signal to fully sneeze down her shirt. "Damn! I'd just showered, too." George laughed as he pointed his wand toward the stove to get things going. A smile tugged at Angelina's lips as she watched him bustle around the kitchen. He wasn't in the same league as his Mum had been, rest her soul, but he'd definitely inherited a few genes from her. Something was sizzling aromatically by the time she and Freddie collapsed onto the couch. While she was a spectacular mum most of the time, she occasionally would allow herself to play the role of a jungle gym instead of a parent. Freddie clamored across her legs and back, climbing up and down her as she let her tired muscles relax. He only slipped off of her once, grabbing her long braids as he tumbled. She had a wand trained on him the entire time, and his rear end was no worse for wear after landing on her cushioning charm. Freddie was undeterred by his fall and soon resumed his climb up Mount Mum. Ange woke a few minutes later when there was a knock on the door. She quickly tried to smooth out the lines from the couch that had been imprinted on her face as she followed a jubilant Freddie to the door. There were hugs all around as Harry and Luna stepped inside. "Come in, come in! George is just finishing up dinner. We're excited to have you over tonight!" "You'll be even more excited once you see what Luna picked up on the way over here," said Harry as he leaned down to embrace Freddie. Luna held aloft a large bottle of imported Fire Whiskey. "Now, Freddie, your Mum and Dad haven't been filling your head with nonsense about Quidditch, right? You're going to grow up to play Seeker like me!" "Nuh uh! I'll be a Beater, 'cause they get to have a bat!" Freddie seemed to think this settled the matter. "Soup's ready!" called George from the kitchen, "Grab a bowl and let's eat outside, yeah?" After a good meal and some catching up, Angelina and George took Freddie up to bed to sing with him and tell him stories. Harry and Luna busied themselves while they waited by cleaning up the dishes and refilling glasses. They'd already made a dent in the bottle Luna had brought, but Harry figured they would probably need a little more before the night was over. When the parents crept down the stairs twenty minutes later, they reconvened in the living room and each took a glass. "So, are you two going to fill us in on what's got you so excited? You both seemed like a great ball of nerves throughout dinner." Angelina was glancing at their two guests appraisingly. "I'm telling you, Ange, he's pregnant and is here to ask us to be Godparents!" George lovingly set his hand on Harry's stomach and began whispering sweet nothings. Harry simply reached past him to grab George's glass of Fire Whiskey and downed it before its owner could protest. "If I was pregnant, I wouldn't be drinking, now would I?" Harry smirked as Angelina and Luna laughed at George's distraught face. George made a move for Harry's glass, but his opponent was too quick. "Looks like you've lost a step in your old age." George flopped down onto the couch as he brandished an offensive finger at his guest. Harry refilled George's glass and handed it to him magnanimously. "We found something at the library today that we think you both should see." Luna pushed a copy of the manuscript across the coffee table as Ange and George leaned forward. George slipped a pair of reading glasses on as they both began to read through the document. Angelina's eyes were fluttering as she sat up. George's cheeks had lost a little bit of their color, too. "I've never heard of anything like this…" mused George. "Not even when Ron explained about Hermione's Time-Turner or when Ginny told us about the fight at the Department of Mysteries. How trustworthy do you think this is?" "I'm not sure yet," answered Luna. She was rummaging through a bag filled with notes. "We only discovered it a few hours ago, so we'll need to do a lot of research, but the premise seems reasonable enough. I don't know of any magical law that prevents this from being possible." "But the opportunity for the ritual to change things, big things, is really slim." Angelina had stood up and was pacing back and forth. "We'd need to find someone who can make a difference in the war and ensure they send back a 'memory of love' that would have a big ripple effect." Her eyes darted to Luna, then to Harry. A smile began to spread across her face. Harry put a finger to his lips and gave her a wink. George was sipping his drink while reading back through the manuscript a second time, not paying attention to the unfolding conversation. "It's a bloody fascinating ritual. I'm with Ange: I think we can use this somehow…" He looked up at his wife, who was positively beaming. Luna and Harry both seemed awfully pleased with themselves, too. "What'd I miss?" "Well, husband of mine, I seem to remember you mentioning what a fool Harry had been for not noticing your sister sooner…" Harry cut in. "And you surely recall when Bill blew up about Dumbledore allowing others to help me on the search for horcruxes…" Luna moved to continue. "And if anyone was bold enough to fight for Harry, even against Dumbledore, that person would be…" "Ginevra Molly Weasley!" George rocketed out of his chair as if his cushion had been swapped with a cactus. He summoned a tall blackboard that had various product ideas sketched on it. It banged into several pieces of furniture as it flew into the living room. Ange swatted him and said, "Don't wake Freddie!" George cleared the board with a wave of the wand and began scribbling notes, making lines with small tick marks every so many inches and connecting everything with arrows. "Brainstorming session! Everyone grab your drinks and start tossing ideas on the wall! Create your own categories or fill in underneath someone else's. We're doing this just like Fred and I did back in the day, and not a one of those plans ever failed!" "I thought you two did one of these brainstorms before you tried to sneak into the dorm to visit me back in our sixth year?" queried Angelina sweetly as she grabbed a piece of chalk. "Don't besmirch the process, love! We were playing the long game. I may not have found my way into your bed that night, but seeing as the sleeping terror-spawn upstairs has your eyes and hair with my nose and charm, I think it's fair to call the plan a success." The scritching and scratching of chalk on a blackboard was interspersed with exclamations at a particularly good point or frustrated erasing leading to chalk dust-caused sneezes. Occasionally someone would ask a question that would elicit responses from others, or an overzealous writer would nudge someone out of the way to complete a thought. After twenty minutes of furious work, the brainstorming session devolved into a chalk fight. They each had to wash their hands before heading back to the living room to survey their work. Luna was affixing the remaining colored chalk pieces in her hair like a tiara when George finally finished removing the last of the chalk dust from his left nostril. With a hint of reverence he said, "You fight dirty, Ange…" "You know you love it!" "Too right. Okay, let's see what we've got to go on. Looks like our main categories are Pros, Cons, Allies, Requirements, and Potential Memories. Where do we want to start?" "I think that it would be wise to begin with the end in mind," mused Luna dreamily. "If we are clear about the possible benefits, that can help us properly weigh the rest of the factors." "Fair enough. Any objections?" Fred surveyed the room before plowing ahead. "Alright, number one pro is underlined, circled, and has a little heart drawn next to it: save our people. Well, can't argue with that. We don't know how possible it is to achieve, but if that's a possibility on the table, it's our greatest possible goal. "Next up is that we could possibly win the war before it escalates. That goes along with point one, but it's still valid. Messing with time is super tricky, but there seems to be a legitimate chance of making a significant difference in how the horcrux hunt goes." Angelina cut in. "Harry, Hermione, and Ron did a remarkably good job hunting down the horcruxes, all things considered. If they had more help and got started earlier, I think there's a better chance of them succeeding." "We know that Voldemort didn't realize they were being destroyed as it happened," reasoned Luna, who had a strand of her blonde hair in her mouth. "Perhaps his rise could be prevented entirely." "Agreed," said Harry as he looked at the board. "This connects with a con, but I consider it a pro, too. From what we read, it seems like this world," he gestured around them, "won't necessarily change because of the ritual. It seems more likely that it would create some sort of different world from ours. But even if it doesn't change things here for us, I think a pro is that we know we're doing anything we can to change a world for the better. Even if it doesn't change our past, I'd like to know there is a universe out there where Voldemort doesn't win." "Another one that goes along with that is that if it doesn't change our world, we don't have to worry about losing what we've gained." Angelina looked a little hesitant as she spoke. "It's not that I don't wish things here had been different, because of course I do. It's just that, with Freddie…" She looked to George imploringly. "Absolutely. The calculus on this would look a lot different if we thought doing this ritual would possibly erase our son. I want my family and friends back, but I don't think I could go through with this if it cost us Freddie." Luna smiled as she replied. "I agree. I wouldn't wish our tragedy on anyone, but I rather like the life we've built here. Were it not for all the heartache, I doubt the four of us would have become so close. And I doubt we would have ended up in this wonderful place." "I'm sure meeting the beautiful young Ms. Xóchitl hasn't got anything to do with it, either," said Harry as he sported a wry smile. He nudged her with his elbow. "I am quite happy to have found her. Missing out on this chance to get to know her would be unfortunate." "So, we've got a pretty compelling list of why using the ritual could be a good idea. What about the other side of the coin?" George scooted to the side so that the scribbled words were visible. Harry piped up. "That first one is mine. Even though things in this timeline went terribly, there's always a chance that meddling with things could make it worse for everyone." "Ever the optimist!" chuckled George. "You're not wrong, but I think that point is mitigated by just how bad things are here. It'd take a lot to make things worse than they already are." "Fair, but I figured it was worth considering," replied Harry. He looked at the next con on the list. "Who wrote 'When does the memory go?' and what did you mean?" "That was me," said Angelina. "I think it's pretty clear that we don't have tons of options of people for whom we could make this ritual work, much less folks who might change the timeline using only the addition of a single memory. I'm guessing we're all more or less agreed that Harry's connection with Ginny is our best bet, right?" George and Luna nodded emphatically. Harry grimaced a bit, shrugged his shoulders, and gave a half nod. "Okay, Harry, do you know of anyone else who might fit the bill?" Angelina didn't betray any negative emotions as she questioned him, but she did seem very skeptical. "Well, that's the thing. One of my first thoughts was you and George, but I admit that it seems unlikely to affect the horcrux hunt unless you can find a way to relay information about what Voldemort is doing back to younger me or Dumbledore. I also considered that Bill and Fleur could be a possibility since they've got curse-breaking experience and better knowledge of Gringotts." "Not that I'd mind getting to spend more time snogging Ange senseless while we were in school, but I think both of those options would run afoul of the basic premise of the ritual. Sure, we've lost a lot, as have my brother and sister-in-law, but we didn't miss out on time with the person we fell in love with." Luna piped up. "From how I understand the spell, it would only work for someone who lost the one they love. I don't think either couple would qualify. I briefly considered that I might send back a memory about Parvati, but I don't think a few months of exploring broom closets really counts as love. We were young and infatuated, but I doubt it was really much more than that. Plus, despite how good Harry has become at listening to me, in our school days he thought many of my ideas were a bit fanciful. I believe the most effective course of action would be to send back one of Harry's memories." "Ginny and I were only together for a little while, too," argued Harry. "I mean, sure I think I was in love with her, but we're not sure she felt the same way…" George blew a rather wet raspberry as Angelina snorted. Luna rolled her eyes before shoving Harry off the arm of the chair he'd perched on. "Seriously, mate, we've been over this before," George's exasperated look was rather reminiscent of Mrs. Weasley as he began to scold Harry. "She was over the moon for you basically since birth. You were too stupid to notice how she looked at you in her first year and even after the Chamber. She came to Fred and me crying in our sixth year when Ron suggested you two go to the Yule Ball together and she turned you down because she'd already agreed to go with Neville. Just cause she was honorable enough to stick with the date who asked her first doesn't mean she wasn't crushed to miss out on that chance." "When you two were together during our fifth year, I can't explain this difference in her demeanor. It was like she radiated sunshine. She never told me this directly, but I think she was doing her best to wait until you mentioned love first, since she was a bit worried about scaring you away with too much, too fast." Harry felt a little warmth in his chest growing. "Okay, okay. I admit, the ritual seems to fit my situation better, and I'd have more opportunity to change how the horcrux hunt goes." He looked over at Angelina. "So what exactly does 'When does the memory go?' mean?" Ange hopped up and pointed to a long line at the top of the blackboard. "Well, we know that the ritual would send your memory back far enough so that you and Ginny would have more time together." She grabbed the chalk that George was offering and made a mark on the line and labeled it HG and enclosed it with a heart. "That was at the end of your seventh year, right?" "No, love, his last year was his sixth. He followed in the footsteps of his illustrious mentors by leaving early for his little camping trip." "That's right. And at what point did you begin to have feelings for the lovely Miss Weasley?" Color rushed to Harry's cheeks as he thought back to that era. "Err… I'm not exactly sure. Probably the summer before that? I'd been really impressed with her at the Ministry and was well past Cho at that point." Angelina made another mark and drew an eye with a green, heart-shaped iris. Harry covered his face with his hand. She continued, "So it seems reasonable to assume that if the ritual works, his memory will go back to before the summer between Harry's fifth and sixth year. But that still leaves a lot of options. I figure we should consider what the likeliest entry points are." Her chalk made a few more marks further up the line. "There isn't much in the manuscript about timing, but it seemed reasonable to infer that it would be a time that is either meaningful to both of those involved or that grants the memory gainer the best odds of changing their future." Luna scrunched her brow. "The most obvious option would be after Harry rescued Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets. They were both involved in the experience, it provided a chance for him to see Ginny in a new light, and it also featured a horcrux." "That makes sense, but I wasn't even thinking about girls back then. I don't know what a twelve-year-old me would do if I suddenly had future memories of dating Ginny." "With that in mind, my suggestion is probably out, since it'd be earlier in the timeline and it was less impactful, but I'd been thinking about when you first met Ginny on Platform 9 ¾," proffered George. "It was meaningful for you as one of your first tastes of the magical world, and Ginny wouldn't shut up about you for months afterward. But yeah, if little Harrikins suddenly had an obsession with Ginny after one meeting, that could cause more problems than it solves." Angelina marked both on the timeline with a picture of a train and a messy-haired stick figure holding a sword. "George mentioned the Yule Ball earlier. There's some real potential there because that's before Voldemort revives, you're noticing girls, and it gives plenty of time before the horcrux hunt falls apart." Luna was nodding along as Ange explained. "That's a strong possibility. Another option, although I'm not sure if this would count as 'giving them more time' or not, is the summer when Harry started to notice Ginny. She was dating Dean at the time, but maybe the memory would get Harry to simply snog her right away and end up with a full year together instead of just part of the spring term." "Ugh, I hope not…" muttered Harry. "As much as I hated seeing them together when they were dating, that seems like a low blow. I don't want any version of myself to do that." Luna considered his objection. "Well, if the version of you who gets the memory has the same morals as you do now, it seems unlikely that the memory would plant itself in a time in which you'd have to break up a relationship." "I guess my original question doesn't matter too much since we don't have any way to control when the memory arrives. Maybe we should add another heading for Potential Timeline Issues?" Angelina offered the chalk in her hand back to her husband. "Excellent idea!" George took the chalk back from Ange as she sat down. Once he'd added the new category, he returned to the con list. "'Ritual goes wrong' is the other major thing to look out for. I think that we can pull this off without it backfiring, but might as well go over the potential downsides." "From what I read, I want to avoid the consequences of it going wrong at just about any cost." Harry shuddered at the thought of some of the physical complications that had been described. "Besides the risk to my younger self's body, the boundary hex seems absolutely terrible. It'd affect both Ginny and me in ways that are hard to predict. If I understood it correctly, I'd be warded from ever coming within fifty yards of Ginny again. That'd screw up an awful lot of the hopes for that timeline in the fight against Voldemort. It could severely impact my friendship with Ron, I wouldn't be able to spend summers or holidays with your family. There's a chance I'd end up needing to attend another school entirely. I might not even be able to help Ginny in the Chamber. There are so many variables…" Harry's voice was strained as he tallied multiple ways the ritual could malfunction. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like too great of a risk. "Those are legitimate dangers." George was scribbling down shorthand notes under the con list. "Shockingly, you left off the dangers that your current self would incur if things went wrong." "Those don't matter as much. If I explode or something from trying to send back a message to save a bunch of the people I love, at least I tried, right?" Luna rolled her eyes. "Has anyone ever told you that you've got a bit of a 'saving people thing'?" Harry shot a rude gesture in her direction. "In any case, I think we can mitigate some of our fear of this con by studying the ritual as best we can to understand it and by reassuring Harry that Ginny's feelings for him were just as strong as his were for her." Again, Harry felt his cheeks flush at George's words but didn't argue. "Next up are our Allies. Bill and Fleur make the most sense to me. I bet they could help a lot with researching the ritual." Angelina nodded fervently. "It would be great to see them again. Aurelia is a little older than Freddie, but I'm sure they'd have a lot of fun playing together. And the last owl from them said that Genevieve has just started walking." "It would help us to have a native Spanish speaker help us review the necessary preparations and instructions. That's why I wrote Señora de Olmos as my first pick. She's trustworthy and incredibly intelligent, plus she already knows a great deal of our reasoning for considering the ritual." "I don't really know her at all. Do you, Ange?" She shook her head. He looked to Harry. "I've met her on several occasions. She's been really kind, has helped me some with my Spanish, and has treated Luna well. I don't know her well enough to know if she'd be the best fit, but I trust Luna's judgment and don't have any reason to object." "Well put, Harry. If Luna gives her the thumbs up, that's good enough for me. George?" "I agree, and not just because we've got a fairly meager list of potential allies. I'm interested in who put Ginny and Dumbledore on the list, though." "That was me on both counts," Harry replied. "Here's my thinking: the horcrux hunt was obviously super dangerous. I tried to convince Ron and Hermione to let me go on my own, but they refused. They could be really stubborn sometimes." At this, George shouted "Hear, hear!" and downed what was left of his drink. "Well, the only reason I got away with leaving Ginny behind was that we'd only been dating a little while by the time we started the hunt. If we'd been together for longer, like a couple of terms or even a year, I doubt I could have convinced her to stay behind. She'd probably be just as involved in plotting how to get the horcruxes as Ron or Hermione. I'm getting queasy even considering her coming with, but she was a powerful witch who could handle herself. I'm not foolish enough to underestimate her." "Spoken like a man in love," said Angelina thoughtfully as she gave Harry a wink. "As for Dumbledore, the man did the war effort a huge disservice by holding his cards so close to his chest. But if a younger me came to him and brought up horcruxes, that might be enough to change his mindset. Or at least maybe he'd start looking for the damn things sooner. The task seemed impossible at times, especially knowing that Dumbledore had only managed to find the ring and where the locket had been." "Having Dumbledore on the case earlier and being more open with folks could have some really big benefits," mused George. "As long as we're thinking of allies on the other end of this thing, let's add Sirius. If the memory goes back far enough, there's a chance that the whole ministry thing doesn't happen in the same way, or maybe doesn't happen at all. Never hurts to have a Marauder on your side!" Harry hadn't thought of that. There were a million ways things could go wrong again, but the corners of his mouth began to rise as Harry imagined hugging Sirius again, Sirius learning the truth about Regulus, and the look on his godfather's face as he teased Harry about his relationship with a certain redhead. "Any others worth mentioning?" Harry shook his head. "There'd still be our same friends and allies from the first time around, but I don't think sending a memory back would affect them too much. Maybe if the younger me confides in Luna, we'd be better friends more quickly. You seem like one of the only friends of mine who'd believe a story about a memory from the future." "True, though you weren't exactly known for confiding about all the extraordinary things that happened to you." George had turned his attention back to the board. "Most of the ingredients for the potion aren't too tough to find, though a couple are pretty expensive." "I'd offer to bankroll the operation, but I'm fairly certain the goblins have seized all the contents of my vaults to pay for our intrusion. And I'm not sure I could waltz in the front doors and ask to talk things out." "Not to worry, oh investor of ours," intoned Angelina. She cut a quick look at George, who was already nodding. "George and I had been putting aside some of the earnings from the mail-order business for years now. We can dip into our savings to fund the potion, and I'd bet Bill and Fleur could pitch in, too. The cost shouldn't be an impediment." "You don't have to do that, Ange! I know you were looking to buy a home soon." "Good luck stopping us, mate!" George had a dangerously devious look as he looked at Harry. "You helped get our enterprise started, and I'll be a Prefect before I let you wriggle out of this one." The image of a horrified George sporting a Prefect badge being ridiculed by his twin who was rolling on the ground flashed into his head. Harry cracked a smile. "The wandwork and incantations are very complex," noted Luna. "If I went over the pronunciations with Señora de Olmos, I believe I could handle the incantations, but we'd need someone else to help with all the wand movements. It's well beyond a swish and a flick." "With all the times he's had to finesse a product or a prank just right, I think George would do nicely for that." Angelina raised an eyebrow as if daring her husband to contradict her. "What can I say? I'm a specialist. Not to mention that, by Weasley rules, this counts as a massive prank on old Voldemort, which only increases my effectiveness." "Which leaves us with one major question mark left…" Angelina turned to Harry. "Do you have a memory of the two of you that could change things?" All eyes rested on him as he thought through the options. "So, I've been thinking about this… It's been on my mind ever since Luna showed me the manuscript." Harry closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift back to what was probably the happiest day of his life before he began narrating. "So, I just finished detention with Snape when I entered the common room. They were all in the middle of a massive party after Gryffindor had won the Quidditch Cup, thanks in large part to Ginny's incredible seeking. I walked in and suddenly she was running towards me. I didn't exactly plan it, but I just kissed her, right there in front of everybody." "Yeah, yeah, Potter. We all know the story! We only heard Ginny retell it a few dozen times. I don't need details about you snogging the living daylights out of my sister." By this point, George was pelting Harry with pieces of chalk. "That was just setting the scene!" yelped Harry before banishing several pillows directly at George's head. "That's not the memory I'd sent back!" "Then get to the important part, preferably without describing any unneeded details, if you please." Harry considered revealing that Ginny had given him a rather cheeky squeeze of his bum while walking back to the common room that evening, but thought that detail might be better to keep quiet. "Well, we went for a stroll by the lake afterward. I'd want to check the memory in a Pensieve to be sure, but I think I said something along the lines of 'I wish we'd supported you more after the Chamber.' I dunno, there was more to it. But the basic idea was that I wished I'd been closer to her before." "Not bad, Harry. It's subtle, but it could certainly give you a nudge towards Ginny to see the two of you together and you saying that. Do you remember if you were kissing her right before or afterward?" George faked vomiting behind the blackboard, but Angelina ignored him. "It seems like we won't be able to send a very long memory back, so brevity is important." "No, we were just sorta leaned against a tree with her head on my shoulder. We were holding hands though." "That may not seem like much for us, having been raised by affectionate families, but from what you've told me about the muggles you grew up with, I imagine the image would be quite powerful." Harry didn't doubt Luna's analysis at all. "True, but that's not the only reason that I favor that memory. Dumbledore had already been walking me through Voldemort's horcrux plans and I knew that the diary had been a piece of his soul. I distinctly remember saying that I wish we'd been there for her out loud, but I was internally thinking about how much I hated that she had fought with one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Horcruxes, as in plural." "Bloody hell, Harry…" George's face had gone very pale, with his freckles standing out all the more as his jaw went slack. Angelina began furiously rereading the manuscript. A smile broke out on Luna's face as the beginnings of tears formed in her eyes. As his friends started chattering with excitement about the implications, Harry thought to himself that this plan might have some merit to it, after all. |
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