|
Harry Potter and the Ritual of Love's Memory | ||||||
|
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: 169577; Chapter Total: 1374 Awards: View Trophy Room |
Previous Next |
|
||||
|
McGonagall remained at Grimmauld Place for a few hours the next morning. When Harry wandered into the kitchen, he found her sitting at the kitchen table resolutely. She sipped a large cup of tea and nodded to him when he pulled up a chair. The heavy cloud of the previous night's events hung over them ominously as the silence was only broken by the noise of Kreacher bringing a light breakfast to the table. With eyes bloodshot and looking much worse than the night before, Sirius stumbled into the kitchen almost half an hour after Harry. He all but collapsed into his chair, grunted his thanks to Kreacher for the steaming cup of coffee in front of him, and raked his hand down his stubbled face before speaking. "Remus left." Harry's eyes darted from Sirius to McGonagall, who looked sad but not surprised. She closed her eyes and nodded. "As did Albus," she quietly replied. A long sigh escaped Sirius, and Harry could tell that his godfather's night had involved a bottle of firewhisky. Unsure of what to say, Harry remained quiet. "Any ideas about what to do next?" asked Sirius, his eyes downcast. McGonagall took a deep breath but didn't respond right away. She looked out a kitchen window as the morning sunlight poured in. "The hunt for horcruxes can wait," she finally concluded after nearly a minute of silence. "For the moment, we have exhausted our most promising leads and have more pressing matters to which we must attend." Without meaning to do so, Harry found himself nodding. Sirius' frown had more to do with the pain of the previous night than any desire to continue the search for Voldemort's tethers to immortality. "I fear that the deep wounds created last night will not be quick to heal, but that should not prevent us from lending our aid and our ear. Perhaps some lasting damage can be avoided." McGonagall's voice lacked hopefulness or conviction. "Do you think we can bring them all back?" asked Harry, feeling somehow smaller at the table with so many empty chairs. "You know, work on all this together again?" Sirius' weary look provided little reassurance. "I don't know, Harry. I just don't know." ~RLM~ The next few days were excruciating. Remus had all but disappeared. At first, Sirius and Harry had both assumed he'd been staying at Tonks' flat, but that hope dissolved when she came by to look for him. Sirius did his best to fill her in on the details he could share, which led to Tonks growing more and more concerned. They both resolved to check a few of his old haunts, but Harry hadn't gotten any word of them tracking down his former professor. Despite their interest, Tonks wouldn't say much about how Kingsley was doing, other than mentioning that he seemed distant and that he'd taken a few days off. She said that he wasn't the type to miss work often, which didn't surprise Harry. It wasn't until Tonks had already departed that Harry realized that her appearance was much different when she left. The bubblegum pink hair she had been sporting when she arrived, hoping to spring Remus for an impromptu date, had been dark brown, almost black by the time she exited through the floo. Even though it better matched the dismal mood all of them felt, Harry couldn't help feeling Tonks felt less like herself when not topped by violently-colored hair. Sirius mentioned the idea of stopping by to see Kingsley at some point soon, and Harry jumped at the chance. Even though he was glad to have another horcrux crossed off their list, there was a nagging feeling in the back of Harry's mind that the Auror had been right. Using the Imperius hadn't felt right to Harry, even though he had no idea of an alternative means of getting a goblin to aid in their plan. Even more than that, he was gutted by the way Dumbledore had lied to the man's face. It had taken Harry a while to better understand the reasons behind Kingsley's fury, but Sirius had patiently talked him through why that breach would be so critically important for the Auror. The long history of wizards and witches weaponizing magic for illegal searches shocked Harry, who had never heard Professor Binns mention any of the scandals and tragedies Sirius described. In the 1800s, wizards known as "Snatchers" used their magic to find people fleeing slavery, collecting handsome rewards for returning them to the plantations of the American South. Some German wizards utilized magic to discover where Jewish families were hiding during the muggles' Second World War. Even as recently as a few years prior, an illegal magical search had outed two gay men who were later executed by their fanatical government. Harry didn't know what to do with the roiling emotions that washed over him as Sirius quietly finished the impromptu history lesson, but he certainly better understood why Kingsley would care so deeply about not weaponizing magical surveillance. Given the brutal and bloody history tied to those kind of spells, Kingsley's sudden eruption of anger made more sense. Like Remus, Dumbledore had basically fallen off the map. McGonagall reported that he was not at Hogwarts, which Harry confirmed with the Marauder's Map. The headmaster had not returned to Grimmauld Place since the night of the Gringotts raid. The plan for Harry to spend a day at the Weasley's house served as an opportunity for Sirius to search for Remus again. He clapped Harry on the shoulder as the green flames of the floo roared, giving his godson his best attempt at an encouraging smile. It didn't reach all the way to the man's eyes, even when Harry tried to return the gesture. On the other side of the fireplace, Harry found chaos. He had expected Ginny to be waiting for him or to possibly see Mrs. Weasley since all the others should have been at work. Instead, he found Mr. and Mrs. Weasley hovering over a couch that held a seething Bill and a distraught Fleur. Ginny had her knees pulled up to her chest in a nearby chair while Fred stalked back and forth behind her. The surprising scene dumbfounded Harry, who came to a halt almost as soon as he'd stepped into the room. He looked at Ginny in confusion as she sprang up from her seat to wrap her arms around his midsection in a crushing hug. He tentatively pulled her in tighter, unsure of what was happening. His eyes locked with Fleur's as tears streaked down her cheeks. She gathered herself, hands both clasping Bill's, before speaking with a forced calm. "Bill and I 'ave been fired from Gringotts." Harry took a sharp breath as the room seemed to hum with frustration, like a hive of bees that had been struck by a stone. "And we've got Dumbledore to thank for it," snarled Bill. At the name, Harry saw the emotions on the faces of the other Weasleys intensify. Mrs. Weasley looked sorrowful while Mr. Weasley's face was stoney and hard. Fred glowered angrily, looking ready to fight at a moment's notice. A low groan escaped Harry as his eyes grew wide behind his glasses. In a quiet voice, he asked, "What happened?" even though he could already begin to put the pieces of the puzzle together in his mind. "He asked to meet with me twice in the last few weeks. Said he wanted to ask me some questions about Gringotts." Bill spat his words venomously, his face red with anger. "He kept bringing up protections within the vaults, what kinds of wards were down there and the like. "At first, I thought he might have been interested in copying some of the wards we've got down there for Hogwarts. Maybe he wanted to protect the students a little better, y'know? Seems like a responsible thing to do for a headmaster whose students keep being endangered or kidnapped. But he kept talking about whether the goblins would allow him to search vaults that belonged to Death Eaters for something Voldemort might use in the war. "Turns out, someone broke into those deep vaults a few nights ago. My boss," Bill scowled before correcting himself. "My former boss found evidence that one of the goblins had been placed under an Imperius curse. They couldn't find a shred of evidence of anything being stolen, but whoever broke in was powerful enough to cover their tracks almost entirely." Mr. Weasley's grip on the back of the couch had turned his knuckles white, while Mrs. Weasley had one hand covering her mouth as her eldest son spoke. Fleur sniffled loudly and drew herself up as she clenched Bill's hands tighter before speaking. "Imagine our surprise when we are called into ze office and questioned regarding if we 'ave betrayed Gringotts by aiding Dumbledore or Voldemort!" "When I told the goblins that Dumbledore had approached me regarding the wards, they were apoplectic. I offered to show them my memories to prove I hadn't divulged any secrets; nothing I said was covered under the secrecy and discretion part of my contract. They didn't care. They gave me the boot and sacked Fleur just for being connected to me." Fred swore vehemently from across the room. A sob escaped Mrs. Weasley. Bill pulled Fleur into his arms as Mr. Weasley looked down at them with pain glistening in his eyes as he spoke. "Losing her employment is a big blow to Fleur's ability to remain in the country. The complications make everything that much harder." Harry listened to various Weasleys express themselves or offer speculations, eventually moving with Ginny to the chair she'd been huddled in before he arrived. He perched on the armrest while Ginny leaned on him, offering his quiet support to the family that had done so for him many times. When Fred flooed back to the shop, the rest of the group began to disperse. Ginny and Harry walked hand in hand toward the shed where they kept the brooms, but she led him past it before slumping down against a tree near the pond. Harry followed her lead, sitting next to her despite the queasy feeling that had been building in the pit of his stomach. "I didn't want to ask you back there, in front of everyone. I knew it wouldn't be good to put you on the spot like that." Ginny's voice was calm as she stared out over the pond. With nervousness growing, Harry thought it was too calm. "What happened?" He shut his eyes tightly and bonked the back of his head into the trunk of the tree several times. A small flash of stars swam before his still-closed eyes as bits of bark slid down from his hair and into the back of his shirt. "I swear I want to tell you," Harry mumbled, refusing to look at her. "I want to tell you so bad." "Was it your group?" He paused for a long moment, his head colliding with the tree twice more before answering. "Yeah. Not the whole group, just some." "Why?!" she pleaded, her voice suddenly full of emotion she'd been holding in so expertly. "Why risk so much? Why put Bill at risk? What could be worth it all?" Harry raked his hand across his face in frustration, releasing a long sigh. "Gin, I can't say. I just can't…" "What you're doing affects me, too!" she nearly gasped. "It affects my family! All of us!" "I promise, I know it does," he said quickly. "Trust me, I know that it affects you!" Ginny laughed mirthlessly. "Promises and a 'Trust me' instead of answers. Why am I not surprised?" "You know I can't say anything about what we're doing," implored Harry, forcing himself to glance sideways at Ginny despite the weight he felt seemingly pressing in on him from every angle. "We're trying to end the war; I'm trying to help!" "And Bill's career is just collateral damage, then?" She angrily swiped at a large tear streaking down her freckled cheek. "Fleur having to move back to France isn't a big deal, 'cause you're doing the things that really matter." Her words cut like a knife driven into Harry's gut. His hurt was transfigured into anger in an instant. "Don't act like you're the only one who gives a damn about them! And you knew that I was part of the group with Dumbledore before we even started dating, so don't pretend like I tricked you into something by not being able to tell you everything!" "I didn't know your little group was going to go around hurting the people I love and casting Unforgivables!" shot Ginny. Harry faltered for a moment, stymied by the truth of what she'd said, before clambering up off the ground. "That wasn't my idea and I had no idea anything would happen to Bill or Fleur! We just had to do something, and Dumbledore's idea was the only way any of us could think to get it done!" "Do you even hear yourself?" thundered Ginny, who'd risen to her feet right after Harry. "You're justifying what happened to my brother because you 'just had to' and went along with using an Unforgivable curse! How's what Dumbledore did to that goblin different from what Tom did to me? Make it make sense to me, Harry!" The comparison between Dumbledore and Voldemort crashed in on Harry as he grasped at arguments that could sway his girlfriend. He turned away from her small, heaving frame, yelling out toward the pond. "The war isn't going to end! Not unless we finish what we're trying to do!" "So you're fine with whatever you have to do? Whatever the cost is, you'll pay it?" Harry wheeled around to face her, his face screwed up in a failed attempt to prevent his own tears of anger and hurt from falling. "You already know the prophecy! Does it really matter what happens to me if I can help take down Voldemort in the process?!" He flinched involuntarily when she threw her hands into the air, a response he hadn't felt in many years, but no strike accompanied her rage as she stomped a few paces away before storming back until she was almost chest-to-chest with him. He was significantly taller than Ginny, but her fury somehow made her seem larger as he shrank before her advance. "I don't give a damn what any prophecy says!" She captured his gaze with her blazing brown eyes, so intense that Harry didn't dare look away. "I don't care what Dumbledore says! It doesn't matter if everyone in the whole bloody world says you have to die to beat Voldemort, I don't believe it and neither can you! "It's out of our control that we're fighting in this damn war, but we get to choose HOW we fight!" Ginny stared into his eyes for long moments as Harry felt her trying to will him to believe with half the conviction she possessed. With a deep shudder, he nodded slowly before nearly collapsing into her embrace. They stood there holding each other until Harry was certain both could stand no longer. With stiff legs, they sat back down beneath their tree. Haltingly, cautiously, they spoke in hushed tones about the kind of bright lines they refused to step over. Neither knew exactly how to go about the conversation, but they muddled through it together. By the time they started the walk back to the Burrow, their interlaced fingers felt as natural as they'd been before. With the roof of the house just visible over the hill, Harry slowed down until he and Ginny were both standing still. "You don't need to tell them," whispered Ginny, trying to sound reassuring. "You know I wouldn't say anything, even if I was still as mad at you as before." "No, that's not it," Harry replied, running his other hand through his hair self-consciously. "But you're right. The idea of you saying something to them, even something true, actually hadn't even occurred to me. It's something else." Her eyebrows shot up dangerously. "I swear, if you try to pull some sort of 'I need to protect you' speech-" "I love you, Ginny." Ginevra Molly Weasley was not one who often found herself at a loss for words, but as she looked up into Harry's green eyes swimming with earnestness, her ability to speak momentarily eluded her. The small smile on her lips grew into a grin before blooming into what could only be described as beaming. Without a word, her hands snaked around his neck and into his hair, pulling his lips to hers. She kissed him with reckless abandon, channeling her long-held feelings into every touch. He responded with enthusiasm, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her up off the ground. When they broke apart, lips swollen and grinning like fools, she held fast around his midsection and nestled her head against his shoulder. With a deep and contented sigh, she whispered, "I love you, too, Harry." With a small laugh that shook Ginny slightly against his chest, Harry replied with a single word. "Finally." |
| Reviews 259 |
Previous Next
|
