Chapter 361
Harry wondered why Sirius was mentioning that as he confirmed he didwitha
nod.
"While they were there they took the bones of Thomas Riddle…"
"Tom's Dad?" checked Harry surprised.
"Tom's Dad." Sirius repeated. "Bertie and Albus suggested that it pointedat aspecific ritual to create a body for Voldemort, one that involves the bonesof
his father and two other ingredients." Harry felt a sinking sensation in his stomach. "Why do I think I don't want toknow what the other ingredients are?"
"One of them has to be taken from an enemy." Sirius said gravely.
"Me." Harry surmised immediately. Sirius expelled a harsh breath. "We think so." He sighed. "The ritual is very longand very involved. But the final part requires something froman enemy whohas been in fear of his life and tested for the majority of the nine months prior
to the eve of the Summer solstice which is when the end of the ritual has totake place."
Harry felt his heart beating faster. "Is that why with the death threats andthe…the kidnapping attempt…?" Sirius nodded. "We think that it was a pre-emptive attempt and that enteringyou into the Tri-Wizard Tournament is likely to be the actual goal. The
tournament holds all the right conditions to prepare you for the ritual without
them doing anything else." Harry wet his lips. "So everyone's working out a way to make sure I don't get
entered?"
"It's one of the reasons why there's going to be a lot of security around theartefact, the Goblet of Fire, which is used to determine the Champions for
each school competing." Sirius agreed. But security wasn't a guarantee of success, Harry thought worriedly.
"Albus assures me that it won't happen; that Hogwarts is safe especially withall the security that Moody's put in place." Sirius sighed wearily. "But, well, weall know how safe you've been here at Hogwarts in the last few years." Harry bit his lip at Sirius's scathing tone, knowing it wasn't really directedat
him but feeling guilty anyway. But then another thought intruded and he
frowned. "Wait, you said Peter and Voldemort picked up the bones whentheywent to Little Hangleton?"
Which meant that Sirius had known about the ritual and everything and not
told him! Hurt shot through Harry like a knife. Sirius met his eyes without hesitation. "Yes, I made the decision not to tell youabout the ritual back then." Harry surged to his feet, not sure what he was doing or wanted but not
content to sit anymore. Sirius slid off the desk to stand in front of him. "Are you willing to listen tomyreasons?" Harry folded his arms over his chest and nodded jerkily.
"We didn't know if the ritual was going to happen, whether Bertie's and Albus'ssuspicion of what the bones meant actually was true. There are a number of
rituals that use bones of forefathers not just this one. And yes, it was themost probable but it wasn't certain." Sirius began. "I didn't want to tell yousomething that wasn't certain especially as you'd received the death threat onyour birthday and had enough to worry about between that and the prophecy."
"And now?" Harry asked sharply.
"The bones need to seep in amniotic fluid – that's the fluid that's…"
"I know." Harry said blushing.
"Right," Sirius said hastily, "and so…Amelia had the DMLE put an alert out toHealers requesting they warn all pregnant women that there could be a threat
to them but…Amelia found out one pregnant woman was missing on
Thursday and at the tribunal we discovered a second pregnant woman hadgone missing." He paused. "The brother of one of the missing women wasdiscovered impersonating Dennis Travers at the tribunal. Travers is missing."
"Oh." Harry lowered his gaze as he absorbed what Sirius had told him. Heunderstood in some ways why Sirius hadn't told him and why he was nowbeing told since it was a certainty that the ritual was going to happen. But…"I could have handled it." He said out loud. "I'm not a kid."
"And you're not an adult either." Sirius shot back. He held up a hand whenHarry went to argue. "There is a reason why you're called a teenager, Harry." He shifted as he took a breath. "Admittedly you've been through a lot morethan most teenagers and you have a lot more responsibility than the vast
majority of your peers, all of which you handle brilliantly most of the time." Hecaught Harry's gaze again. "But I am not going to apologise for acting likeaparent and deciding that my fourteen year old son doesn't need to worry about
something that I know will do nothing but worry him, until it's absolutely
necessary to tell him."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 362
Harry shuffled a little under Sirius's understanding but unapologetic regard. "I
just…" he sighed, "I already have Professor Dumbledore keeping secrets andnow it feels like you're keeping secrets too and…" he shrugged unable toproperly put into words what he meant. Sirius took a step forward and tugged Harry into a hug. Harry went a littlestiffly but he wasn't immune to Sirius's caring and he slowly put his arms hisfather and sank into the comfort.
"I know it feels like people are keeping secrets from you and, well, Albus is, at
least until he and I have our little chat about the matter, but my intentionhere, and every time I make a similar decision, isn't to keep something secret somuch as to protect you as much as I can from the craziness." Sirius
murmured. "You have to know I debate everything a million times before I
decide to tell you or not. It drives Moony bonkers." Harry gave a muffled huff of laughter as he imagined Remus's face after
being subjected to Sirius's debating.
"I thought about telling you when we got the second death threat but…" Siriussighed heavily, "everyone still thought getting you into the tournament wasthegoal, and I wanted you to enjoy the rest of your holiday and have some funwithout having something else to worry about. And truthfully would it havechanged anything you did at the World Cup?" Harry wanted to say that it would have done; that he would have stoppedand
thought about chasing after Ron to check on the Weasleys or that he
definitely wouldn't have charged after the guy who'd targeted them, but hisconscience wouldn't let him lie about it. Even if he'd known he would probablyhave still acted the way he'd acted.
"I'm not always going to get it right, Harry," Sirius admitted, "sometimes I'mgoing to decide something and get it wrong but…I just hope that I get enoughright that one day we both might not need to keep seeing a mind healer." Harry gave another huff of laughter at Sirius's dry tone. "That's why you movedmy appointment with Healer Allen?" He had disliked his early morning
appointment being changed to a later time when he might be spotted goingtothe infirmary. Sirius rubbed his back. "You've just been told that rather than a vague threat of
Voldemort trying to get you into the tournament, there is an actual real threat
with a whole nasty ritual involved that already has him kidnapping pregnant
women and digging up the bones of his father. So yes, I moved your
appointment so you can talk to Healer Allen if you want to about it."
"Do we know more about the ritual?" asked Harry, easing back finally tolookSirius.
"We do but…" Sirius sighed and put his hands on Harry's shoulders, "Bertieisstill researching to see what the effect would be of us screwing with it. If I tell
you any more of the details than I already have…it may screw with the ritual."
Harry frowned. "Don't we want to screw with it?"
"Say the ritual is like a potion that involves you stirring a cauldron five times," Sirius explained, "so you know you need to stir five times but you purposefullythink you can screw up Voldemort's plans by stirring three times or twotimes. Only three times means that the potion explodes and takes you with it andtwo times means that the potion not only works but gives the user
superpowers. Do you think it was wise to stir less times now?" Nope. Not at all. Harry sighed and decided to focus on something else. "What's happeningabout Travers?" Because it certainly hasn't been reported in the press. TheProphet had run a piece on the tribunals the day after stating all four hadgoneto Azkaban. Sirius dropped his hands and nudged Harry back into the chair. "The Rat
Squad's been given the task of chasing Travers down and we knowTraverswas switched the day before by someone pretending to be his solicitor. Identification checks haven't been performed on Ministry visitors to date onlyMinistry employees – that'll change as of tomorrow. We had everyone inthecourtroom swear a vow of secrecy and released a cover story to the pressbecause the guy who was switched said he'd been told they'd kill his sister if
he didn't pretend to be Travers. He's actually staying in a safe house now."
"They?" questioned Harry, concern beginning to creep along his spine again.
"Our mystery attacker, Pettigrew and Voldemort." Sirius listed. Harry nodded. He rubbed his upper arms, feeling suddenly chilled.
"We know the Polyjuice Man is clearly in and out of London – both pregnant
women were taken from the Market Place and…and he knows what's goingonin the Ministry so he's still getting in and out somehow, although the
identification checks on visitors will hopefully eliminate that. He picked
Travers who is the only one who didn't denounce Voldemort or say somethingto the Aurors. We think Voldemort and Pettigrew are hiding out in the
countryside somewhere remote where they can keep the women lockedup. Travers may have been sprung to help guard them." Sirius said. Harry shivered. It didn't sound very positive.
"Amelia is doing all she can." Sirius said. But was it going to be enough, mused Harry. It was a thought that stayedwithhim as he walked Sirius out, knowing his father was stealing more time withHarry by walking to the gates, rather than simply leaving through the floolikeLord Nott had done. By the time Sirius had hugged him near to the end of the path, it was almost
time for his rescheduled Healer appointment, and Harry made his way totheinfirmary as soon as he got inside the castle, managing to avoid being seenbytaking a short cut that he'd found on the Marauder's map the year before. Theroom set aside for mind healing was warm and cosy; a small office with
comfortable chairs at one end next to a hearth and a table set up with therapyactivities at the other. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 363
Harry greeted Healer Allen quietly as he entered and took a seat. He really
didn't want to talk; he'd barely had time to think about what Sirius had toldhim. The greying older wizard watched him with kind brown eyes. "Would youliketo draw this morning rather than talk?" He asked gently. Harry poked the floor with the toe of his shoe and nodded. He made his wayover to the table and picked up a sketch-pad and pencil. His drawings weren't
that good but the process of focusing on trying to get the lines on the paper
right let his head clear, his thoughts drifting over everything Sirius had toldhim. When he finally came back to himself, the paper was filled with a remarkableresemblance to a certain artefact in his past.
"May I see what you've drawn, Harry?" Healer Allen asked. Harry walked over and gave him the sketch. He sat and burrowed into thecosy chair opposite the healer.
"Would you tell me about the drawing?" Healer Allen invited softly.
Harry rested his head back on the cushions of the chair and stared at theceiling. "It's the Mirror of Erised."
"What do you think prompted you to draw it?" Harry sighed. "What do you think prompted me to draw it?" Healer Allen hummed in agreement ignoring Harry's surliness because it wasfairly obvious that Voldemort threatening his life was the easy connectionbetween what Sirius had told him and the Mirror.
"All my first year here Voldemort tried to kill me." Harry said out loud. "Andnow…"
"And now he's doing it again." Healer Allen stated gently. "What did you seeinthe Mirror when you looked the first time?"
"My parents." Harry said with a lump in his throat. It always hurt to think about
the nights he'd spent in front of the Mirror just looking.
"What do you think you'd see now?"
It was a good question, though Harry taken aback a bit. He'd wanted sodesperately to have a family back then and his parents had been mythical
creatures that he wished would ride to the rescue and save himfromthe
Dursleys. But he hadn't known about Padfoot then or Moony; hadn't realisedhis stern Head of House had once changed his nappy and babysat himwhenhe'd been a few months old. Harry didn't yearn for his parents anymore and, while he was sad about that, he knew it was because Padfoot loved himandPadfoot was who his parents had wanted to take care of him; he had a family. He might wish occasionally that his parents were alive to be part of it but…heloved Padfoot. But despite the fact that he had a family now, one thing hadn't changed…"I want to be able to have a life without thinking about Voldemort, without himtrying to kill me." Harry said out loud. He shifted position to look at Healer
Allen. "Every time something good happens to me, he's there screwing it all upagain." Neither can live while the other survives.
"It feels inevitable." Harry said slowly.
"The prophecy?" prompted Healer Allen.
"Like I can't stop it and I can't get what I want until…" Until he vanquishedVoldemort for good with some power that Harry didn't even knowabout but
which might or might not be the Hallows, or might or might not be the family
magic. And everything had a price, Harry thought again tiredly. The prophecydidn't actually say he would live in the aftermath. Wasn't that part of the reason why he'd drawn the Mirror? Because in theendthe Mirror had been destroyed.
"And what you want is to live without Voldemort constantly threatening you." And the people he loved because his parents had died to protect himfromVoldemort and he didn't want that to happen to Padfoot. And Padfoot woulddo it; he'd step in front of Harry to protect him and… Harry couldn't bear the thought of losing Padfoot. The session ended and Harry made his way back to Gryffindor tower withhisthoughts still churning. He walked through the portrait and into the CommonRoom and paused when the conversation stopped dead at his arrival. He felt his cheeks heat a touch but there was nobody who he knewto explainwhat he had supposedly done to become the centre of gossip so he quicklystrode across to the staircase and went up to the dorm, trying to convincehimself he wasn't really running away from the strangeness in the CommonRoom. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 364
He came to a halt just inside the dorm room at the sight of Hermione and
Neville in front of Harry's trunk, carefully repacking it, Dean and Seamus
hovering beside them and occasionally handing them something.
"I can't believe Ron did that!" Hermione complained. "He had no right tojust…"
"What's going on?" Harry asked bluntly. All four of them froze.
It was almost comical. Dean looked at Seamus who looked at Neville who looked at Hermione whosighed and closed her eyes. Dean pushed Seamus towards the door. "We should…we have that…"
"Yes, yes. That thing." Seamus said emphatically. He pushed the bundle hewas holding – Harry's spare robes – into Hermione's arms and draggedDeanthe rest of the way, past Harry, out of the room and down the stairs. Harry folded his arms and stared at Hermione and Neville.
"OK," Hermione began, "but you have to promise me you won't freak out?"
"You know you saying that kind of makes me want to freak out." Harry said. Hermione glared at him. Harry waved a hand at her.
"So, Ron thought you'd come straight back to the tower after the loyalty vowwith Nott," Hermione started to explain, "and when you didn't, he startedtothink maybe Lord Nott had done something, or Theo had done somethingor…" she gestured weakly in Harry's direction, "someone had done something." Harry walked over to them and sat down on the bed. Ron getting worriedwasn't unusual. "I guess he took my trunk apart trying to find the map then?" He pointed at the parchment by Hermione's knee. "So he could find me?" Hermione and Neville nodded.
"And he realised I was in the infirmary." Harry continued and sighed, fallingback on his bed with a groan. This was bad, Harry thought frantically; this was very bad.
"He, uh, thought you'd been injured?" offered Neville.
"Neville worked out why you were in the infirmary since the map showedyouwith Healer Allen," Hermione said gently, "and tried to stop Ron fromleavingthe dorm but…"
"He wouldn't listen." Neville finished with a sigh.
"So I tried talking to him too but I think I made everything worse?" Hermionesaid in a small voice that made Harry sit back up and look at her. She looked chagrined, her bushy hair falling all around her face to hide her
embarrassment.
"Basically, Ron then thought you'd told us about seeing your, um, healer but
not him and…" Hermione continued.
"And he stormed out." Neville completed.
"After hitting Neville and accusing him of trying to steal his best friend." Hermione added, outrage stealing back across her face.
Neville flushed. "He just kind of pushed me. I'm fine." Harry frowned at him but he did seem fine.
"I fell on my bed." Neville said pointing across to his bed.
"The thing is, Harry," Hermione began nervously, "well, the thing is…"
"Ron was kind of yelling." Neville said with a visible wince and pointed at theopen door. Harry quickly added up the strange looks he'd gotten in the Common Roomand the fight and the yelling and groaned, slumping back again. "Everyonethinks I'm crazy?"
"Yes."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 365
"No, of course not!" Harry peeked at his two friends as Neville and Hermione glared at each other. Hermione turned back to Harry with a chagrined look.
"It's not that people think you're crazy," Hermione cast another stern look at
Neville, "but just…"
"I'm nuttier than a fruitcake?" Harry said dryly. Neville snorted.
"There's nothing wrong with seeing a mind healer." She offered in a small
voice, brushing her hair back out of her face. "Some people can't appreciatethat it doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you. They just don't
understand why." There was a hint of curiosity in her voice which meant Hermione wantedtoknow why Harry was seeing the mind healer. He felt irritation skate across his nerves. "You'd think the fact that I've
received death threats would be some clue as to why, Hermione." She grimaced and lowered her gaze.
"Bugger." Harry sat up again and rubbed a hand over his face. What was he supposed to do?
What he wanted to do was close the curtains on his bed, hide and hope thewhole thing went away. But he knew that was not going to happen. He neededto deal with Ron too. Ron was stubborn as a mule when he got somethingintohis head and Harry was very tempted just to let his friend stew since he wasprimarily responsible for everyone now knowing he saw the mind healer. Ronprobably wasn't talking to him anyway. But…they did have an alliance of friendship and Ron's initial motivations hadbeen good. He should probably go and sort it out with him. And then he
should probably call Sirius on the mirror and warn him that the Prophet wasprobably going to run 'Boy Who Lives is Nuts!' as its headline the next day. He gestured at the Marauder's map and it flew into his hand. He didn't seeHermione's and Neville's awe at the display of wandless magic as he
unthinkingly released his wand to tap the parchment and give the password. He quickly spotted Ron down by the Quidditch pitch. Harry sighed and shut the parchment down, tossing it back into his trunk. "You guys don't need to keep repacking my trunk. I'll do it when I get back
from talking with Ron." Hermione and Neville exchanged a look and shook their heads.
"We'll do it." Hermione said firmly. "I mean, we are partially responsible for thewhole…" her hand made a circular gesture which Harry took to mean 'lettingthe world know Harry Potter is crazy' debacle.
Harry shuffled off the bed and out of the door. He flushed brightly as everyonestopped talking again as he walked through the Common Room. He hurriedout and down the stairs. He was half-way to the Quidditch pitch when he ran into Draco, Crabbe andGoyle. He gave a nod and went to move past them but Draco moved to blockhis path. He glared at the Slytherin; he had thought they were past that. "Malfoy…"
"I'd thought you'd like to know that Weasley told everyone that you were
crazy." Draco's sharp features seemed more pointed than usual. "If this hadbeen last year I would no doubt have revelled in the easy material of Potty isDotty but as this isn't last year…"
"Thank you for your restraint, Draco, and I was aware of the latest news tohit
the Hogwarts gossip network but thank you for making sure I was fully
informed." Harry said dryly.
"No problem." Draco smiled sunnily and moved off. Harry adjusted his glasses and continued onto the Quidditch pitch. Ron sat inthe Gryffindor stand. His demeanour wasn't inviting; he was hunched over, folded arms, and his lips were set in a thin unhappy line. Harry sat down beside him and put a privacy bubble.
"I'm not talking to you!" Ron said loudly.
"You just did," Harry pointed out tersely, "and if anybody should be not talkingto somebody, it should be me! You managed to tell the whole world that I'mseeing a mind healer!"
"Well, maybe if you'd told me rather than everyone else…" Ron started backheatedly.
"I didn't tell anyone!" Harry yelled.
"You told Neville! And Hermione!" Ron waved a hand back towards the school. "They both knew!"
"I didn't tell them!" Harry insisted, anger stirring at Ron's dismissal of his
words; did he really think Harry was a liar?