|
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: 169631; Chapter Total: 1440 Awards: View Trophy Room |
Previous Next |
|
||||
|
The end of July and August raced past Harry at a frenetic pace. His birthday was held at Grimmauld Place and was well attended by members of the Order and the Weasley family, though Dumbledore was noticeably absent. He had, however, arranged for Neville to be given the secret location of the house so that he could join in the festivities. Harry was quite pleased to show his friend around in the time before the rest of the guests arrived. Hermione also made an appearance now that her parents had been officially added to the floo network. Her enthusiastic hugs for Harry, Ginny, and Ron indicated that their correspondence over the long holidays had been very much appreciated. The Weasley family had been relatively cagey whenever the subject of Dumbledore had been broached since Bill and Fleur's sacking. Arthur and Molly both seemed the most reticent to wash their hands of the headmaster, while their children were more likely to mutter angrily under their breath when he came up. Charlie's new job and Percy's promotion had buoyed the spirits of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, as had Fleur's promising interview for an open position in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Bill was still tracking down leads for a new job, but Harry thought his frustration looked to have diminished slightly since hearing that Fleur had an inside track at a job that would keep her in England. Despite the Weasleys not quite being their usual selves, Harry's birthday was a good deal of fun. He received several books on defensive magic and a few odds and ends to keep in his room at Grimmauld or to hang in his dormitory. Kingsley gifted him a wand holster for his arm, which he explained was the same kind the Aurors used in the field, which thrilled Harry. It went along brilliantly with Remus and Sirius' gift of a backup wand to carry with him, just in case. Ollivander had warned that the new wand would likely not perform as well as his holly and phoenix feather one, but that it would likely work in a pinch. Ginny produced an excellent treacle tart she'd made that her mother enthusiastically endorsed as the best she'd ever tasted. His girlfriend assured him that the dessert wasn't the only gift she planned to give him, but provided no further details. When Ginny's birthday came along a few days later, the celebration was held at the Burrow. Harry was thrilled to see the entire Weasley contingent present, including Percy, who had been working late the day of Harry's party. Hermione, Cho, and Cedric were in attendance, though the older two looked more than a bit uncomfortable around each other. The three Gryffindor Chasers from the previous year, Angelina, Alicia, and Katie showed up, too. Soon-to-be Gryffindor fourth year and aspiring quidditch player Demelza Robins and Luna rounded out the bunch. Mrs. Weasley had prepared a banquet of Ginny's favorite dishes which looked as if they might collapse the tables that had been set up outside. A bevy of gifts were unwrapped and animated conversation echoed into the evening sky. Fleur was thrilled to announce that she'd been officially hired for the position at the Ministry and thanked Percy for putting in a good word with a few of the people working there on her behalf. Bill also announced that he'd found a new job that would begin in about a month, though he wasn't yet allowed to discuss any details about it. Once the food was eaten and the gifts were stowed away, Harry unveiled his present for Ginny at the makeshift quidditch pitch. At his signal, all of the guests produced a broom. Even Mr. and Mrs. Weasley held aloft a pair of borrowed Cleansweeps that could have been in use back when they were in school. "First of all, thanks so much for agreeing to help with Ginny's birthday gift," called Harry to the crowd. "We all know how much she loves quidditch, so I thought we could give her the chance to show all of us a bit of what she's made of!" A chorus of cheers rose from the assembled group. "If we count everyone who agreed to play, including those who aren't big fans of flying," Harry's eyes fell on Hermione's determined yet slightly queasy face and Luna's faraway expression. "We've got twenty-two potential participants. I figure the best way to go about this is for Gin to choose the team she wants to fly alongside first, then let her pick the team she wants to take on. She's too competitive to choose a team that she'd just flatten, so making her pick should keep it more interesting. We can do the first team to seven goals or first to capture the snitch wins, then start again with new teams." Ginny's eyes were wide with glee as Harry finished his explanation. She hugged him around the midsection with gusto, though her eyes were already darting at her prospective teammates and opponents. "Weasley offspring! To meeeeeeee!" Ginny's call summoned her six older brothers, none of whom looked surprised to be chosen first. She gazed across the remaining options, smiling devilishly. "I've long thought that the seven of us could match up with the best of the best. Ready to put your family pride on the line?" Truth be told, Harry thought Percy looked rather nervous about the proposition, but the other five whooped and hollered raucously. "Then let's start out against some of the best Hogwarts has had to offer over the last few years, shall we? Ange, Alicia, Katie, Harry, Cedric, Cho, and Demelza, you're up!" From the corner of his eye, Harry saw Hermione heave a sigh of relief as he moved to the huddle of players Ginny had just called out. "Alright, let's start by dividing into positions," suggested Angelina, her eyes darting back and forth at her new squad. "We're at a disadvantage because they've got most of the positions covered already, and I don't think any of us have much experience at Beater or Keeper." "I had to fill in for Talley once back in my second year," noted Cedric sheepishly. "I wasn't all that great at it, but I've also trained a lot with my sister, who was Keeper for Ravenclaw in her day. I don't mind trying to defend the hoop if you all promise to help out on defense a bit more than usual." "As much fun as it would be to fly with the three of them," Demelza indicated the longtime starting Chasers from her house. "I'm pretty decent with a beater's bat. I doubt I can match the twins, but maybe I can at least help keep the bludgers off us." "I'll join you, Robins," said Cho, grabbing a bat and pounding it into her hand. "I wouldn't mind smacking some bludgers around. It'd let me work out a bit of frustration…" Harry furtively glanced at Cedric, who did his best to hide the look of discomfort he was feeling. "Well, I guess that leaves you three as Chasers and Harry at Seeker," added Cedric. "There's not enough time to go over much strategy, but is there anything we should be looking for?" "Even with Ginny, their Chasers are their weakest link," replied Ange as she eyed the Weasley contingent. "Percy shouldn't be much of a threat at all and I bet Bill mostly looks to distribute to Ginny. Be on the lookout for long passes forward from Ron to get her back into the attack quickly. If our Beaters can focus on disrupting Bill and Percy, Katie and Alicia can hound Ginny while I hang back a bit to provide extra cover for Cedric." Each extended a hand into the center of their circle and let out a yell before mounting their brooms and climbing into the sky. Though the pitch was considerably smaller than the one at Hogwarts, Sirius had come by the day before to help Bill enchant real hoops for them to use for matches. Ron was already swooping back and forth with his Keeper's gear and looked quite excited. Ginny was huddled with Bill and Percy, the latter of whom appeared to be slightly green. The exhibition match was a good deal closer than Harry expected. The strength and cohesion of Ange, Alicia, and Katie proved daunting to keep up with for the Weasleys, even though the twins were flying laps around their counterparts. Harry and Charlie only saw the snitch once, and both came up empty after chasing it through the branches of a nearby tree. In the end, Angelina slotted a shot past Ron to reach seventy points to the Weasleys' fifty, all of which had been scored by Ginny. Though her competitive spirit was flaring as Remus blew the whistle from below, she smiled as they all descended back to the ground. "Damn, woman!" cried George as he threw an arm over Angelina's shoulder. "You should play professionally!" Harry made his way to where Ginny landed to tell her how well he thought she'd performed, but she was already deep in thought about which teams would play next. "Alright, that was a fantastic warm-up," she called to the group. "But I'm excited to switch teams around! How about Mum and Dad and Fleur on my side and Tonks, Remus, and Sirius with Harry? Luna and Cedric with me and Hermione and Cho with Harry. And I'll take Charlie and let Bill go up against his fiance!" The match was absolute chaos. Harry did his best to assign positions to his team as the de facto team captain, but it was a mess from the very start. Hermione was the worst flyer of the bunch, so she was given the Keeper duties, despite being unwilling to remove her hand from her broom for more than a second at a time. Remus served admirably as a Beater alongside Bill. Cho was tasked with seeking, but the snitch stayed well hidden for most of the match. Tonks, Sirius, and Harry were left as the Chasers but had no chance against their opponents. Ginny marshaled her team well, building a formidable attacking group between herself, Fleur, and Charlie. Harry wasn't sure if Bill was joking or not when he said his Mum had been a reserve keeper for Gryffindor, but the chasers opposing her barely gave her anything to defend against. Cedric and Mr. Weasley pelted bludgers away from Ginny and the chasers while Luna slotted into the seeker position. Harry considered it an odd choice, but the younger girl had spent untold hours scouring the world for creatures that may or may not exist. She hadn't much hope of beating Cho to a snitch, but Luna was able to distract her housemate from the search on a few occasions, nullifying one of Harry's team's strengths. The outcome was rather lopsided, as neither Harry nor Tonks were especially adept at catching a quaffle and Sirius lost possession twice while attempting to show off. They only managed a single goal before Ginny's deft pass allowed Fleur to score the winning shot. The afternoon faded into evening as three more matches came and went. Harry enjoyed playing seeker in a match that pitted Fred and George against each other and cheered loudly for his girlfriend as she led a Holyhead-esque crew of Ange, Alicia, Katie, Cho, Demelza, and Fleur to victory against a team of the boys. His proudest moment was capturing the only snitch caught that night, despite an incredible chase from Charlie. By the time everyone returned for drinks and desserts laid out by Mrs. Weasley, Harry thought that Ginny's gift had worked out about as well as he could have hoped. ~RLM~ With Ron and Hermione patrolling other train cars, Harry felt that he didn't mind not being chosen as a prefect as he felt the rhythmic drone of the Hogwarts Express lulling his girlfriend to sleep on his lap. He smiled at Neville, who was speaking quietly to Luna so that they wouldn't disturb Ginny as Harry's fingers danced about in her red hair. A steady stream of friends, mostly students who had been in the Defense Club, popped in and out of the compartment to catch up for a few minutes here and there, which meant Ginny never quite fell asleep. Still, the ride was quite pleasant for Harry, who didn't mind that his leg started tingling from lack of blood flow after a while. When they were finally rejoined by Hermione and Ron, Ginny and Harry left the gaggle of fifth years with Neville and Luna as the four club leaders made for the front compartment. Cho looked a bit flustered, as her new role as Head Girl seemed to be stressing her out already. Blaise, on the other hand, lounged across a seat with a confident smirk on his face and a shining prefect badge affixed to his shirt. Even though Harry was confident that the Slytherin was the best option to help lead the club, he got the feeling things would be much different this time around. "Potter, Weasley. Good to see you both." He stood as they entered and grasped Harry's hand firmly. "I hope your summer holidays went well." "Yeah, I'd say so," replied Harry. He glanced at Ginny, who nodded while giving Blaise an appraising look. "What about you? Weren't you spending some time in Italy?" "Good memory. My mother and I stayed at a villa not too far from the coast. The weather was a lot better than what we get here in England." There was a bit of amicable small talk about their summers as the six got settled. Without Cedric stepping in as the oldest of the group and a natural leader, the conversation lulled while it seemed like everyone waited for someone else to take charge. It took a stealthy kick from Ginny to prod Harry to get things started in earnest. "So, err… I'm excited about doing Defense Club again this year. It'll look different without Cedric and adding in Blaise, but I think it'll still be really helpful. Hopefully, it won't be the only place we're learning Defense, though. With Umbridge sacked and an Advanced Defense course being offered, I hope our group will be more about building on strong defense foundations and less starting from the ground up." "Any ideas about who might be taking over the Defense Against the Dark Arts post?" asked Blaise. "Not sure if you all being close to Dumbledore extended to getting insider information on stuff like that." "I asked when I met with the headmaster about being Head Girl, just out of curiosity. He didn't really give anything away, other than saying he expected this year's professor to be much better than last year." Ron let out a scoff of a laugh. "That's not a hard bar to clear. Pretty certain any of us could've done a better job than Umbridge." "I haven't heard anything from Dumbledore on that front, either," added Harry as Ginny squeezed his hand in hers. "But Gin has an idea that at least seems plausible…" She looked around the group with mischief dancing in her eyes. "So, my oldest brother told us that he had gotten a new job that didn't start until around the end of August. The catch was that he wasn't allowed to tell anybody what kind of job or where he'd be for it. My guess is that he's going to be our new Defense professor!" Even though Ginny had already shared her thoughts with Harry and Ron back at the Burrow, the brilliance of the plan still struck Harry. Dumbledore had done considerable harm to members of the Order by accidentally getting Bill and Fleur sacked. But by offering Bill the Defense position, he could shore up support from the Weasleys and maybe start working toward Bill eventually learning about the horcruxes. Harry doubted anyone would argue against Bill's qualifications to teach Defense as a former curse breaker. It seemed to Harry like a savvy move. "He has my vote, for what that's worth," offered Harry. "But whether it's Bill or not, we'll probably have more faculty support. Hermione, do you have notes about what we went over last year?" His question was meant more as a signal to Hermione than a genuine query; she had taken copious notes and had assured the others that she was using part of her holiday break to organize them for ease of use. She quickly produced six identical pages covered on both sides with her neat print. "The front page covers the fall term from last year and the back is the spring term. The highlighted sections correspond to meetings in which a faculty member joined us and a star next to a date indicates that it was one of the most well-received." Harry smiled as she quickly ran through more details about the pages. She had certainly outdone herself on this one. "Professor Flitwick's gauntlet was far and away the meeting that people enjoyed most. We don't have to decide anything right now, but I thought it might be worth considering asking him to set up two or three of them this year. Maybe one at the beginning of this term and another right before the holidays, then the last right before the spring term ends. That could get more students excited about what we're doing in the fall and then have a benchmark to compete against in the spring." "That's really clever, Granger," said Blaise through a smile. "Lure folks in with something really fun and promise them a chance to try to improve on their performance the next term." Hermione looked pleased at the compliment, and the others were quick to jump on board. The group spent nearly an hour talking through various logistics of running the club and recruiting new members. They all agreed to continue meeting for lunch on Fridays to do more planning and pledged to sort out the best way to divvy up the leaders between the four breakout sessions at a later date. By the time the screech of train wheels braking alerted them that it was almost time to disembark, he felt relatively optimistic about another year of Defense Club. |
| Reviews 259 |
Previous Next
|
