Harry Potter Book 7

~Chapter Seven~

Forget Me Not

Harry slipped out of the castle and returned to the wedding to find everyone in confusion and mayhem.

He darted through the guests to where Ron and Hermione were anxiously waiting next to a spectacularly huge wedding cake that was nearly as tall as Hagrid and was coated in a white frosty icing that looked realistically like snow. The cake was also magnificently decorated with generous amounts of cream, large, beautiful red and black roses and ten exploding sparklers were set on the topmost layer of the cake for the finishing touch didn't seem to stop burning and giving off showers of sparks that shot five feet in every direction.

"Patrick!" Hermione squealed when Harry prodded her and Ron in the back. "My goodness, where have you been? Ron and I have been so worried..."

"I-I had to go check something out," Harry invented wildly. "What's going on?"

The two lead Harry over to Fleur and Bill nearby. It seemed like Fleur was crying and a great number of the guests were gathered around the couple shaking their heads and looking grave.

"Oh-oh-oh," Fleur gulped while Mrs. Weasley patted her soothingly on the back, saying, "There, there, dear..."

"Fleur's family left the wedding," Hermione explained in a hollow voice. "Everything's in chaos now and the wedding has to be cancelled."

"What?" Harry exclaimed, startled. "But the wedding doesn't need the families of both couples to proceed."

"We know," Ron said. "But the Delacours organized half the wedding, and now that they've left, it's all falling apart; it can't go on without them..."

"...so it has to be cancelled," concluded Harry, horror-struck.

"There you three are," said a voice behind them and the trio turned around to see Mr. Weasley standing there.

"Would you mind helping to pack away the refreshments, please?" he asked in a heavy voice.

"Are we really cancelling the wedding?" Ron said to his dad.

"It looks like it," Mr. Weasley sighed. "Best not to talk about it just now...I'll deal with the wedding cake, you three can help clear that table..."

He pointed to the nearest table where people were conjuring glad wraps onto the plates and stacking the dishes neatly in tall columns. The three approached the table in a gloomy state.

"So, Harry," Hermione said conversationally, a little while later, as she waved her wand at a plate of sugared cheese omelette which was magically glad-wrapped and soared away, landing neatly on a tall pile of other dishes nearby. "Where were you just then?"

Harry did not answer at once, but he shot some gold sparks at a few flies. They immediately scattered away from a bow of sweet and stick liquid they had been attacking.

Snape had forbidden him from mentioning what had happened to anyone. But hadn't Dumbledore once said that Ron and Hermione could be trusted? If Dumbledore believed that Ron and Hermione could be trusted, then that should be good enough for Snape to trust them too; therefore, he could tell them.

Harry looked surreptitiously around to check if anyone was eavesdropping. He noticed Umbridge not far from them, watching them closely, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"I'll tell you both later," he muttered.

* * *

That evening, back at Grimmauld Place, the three of them hid themselves from the others in their bedroom once again. Harry paced while Ron and Hermione sat on their beds, watching him.

The wedding had been postponed until further notice. Fleur had gone back to France to try and plead with her family to reconsider.

"Well? Tell us, Harry. Where were you today when you disappeared?" Ron said impatiently.

Harry took a deep breath. "I was inside the castle."

"What?" Ron and Hermione said together.

"But why?" Hermione cried.

Slowly, Harry recounted his encounter with Snape to his friends. He repeated everything he had seen in the Pensieve and what Snape had told him up to the part where Snape had shown him his private memory. He faltered and looked at the both of them.

Hermione was looking shocked and Ron's mouth was agape in awe.

"You met Snape?" Hermione gasped and Harry nodded.

"And he's saying he's on our side? That Dumbledore asked to be killed?" Ron added disbelievingly.

"Of course," Hermione breathed. "It all makes sense!"

Harry and Ron turned their heads to stare at her.

"Think about it!" Hermione said excitedly. "Snape isn't the type to kill Dumbledore just like that with the Avada Kedavra. Snape would plan it carefully. He'd poison Dumbledore or something and cover it up by burying the evidence. Dumbledore's murder wasn't Snape's style at all!"

"But still," Ron argued. "If Dumbledore wanted to die, he'd make sure his death would do something useful like weaken You-Know-Who or something. He would not throw his life away for nothing just like that! Besides, Snape could be tricking Harry. We can't tell for sure if he's telling the truth or not."

"Ron," Hermione snapped. "You're taking a prejudiced view of this because you don't like Snape!"

"No I'm not!"

"Remember our first year? You were so sure that Snape was trying to kill Harry, but it turned out that Snape was trying to save Harry's life!"

"You thought that Snape was trying to kill Harry too back then!" Ron snapped back hotly. "As far as I know, we can't trust him, he's a Death Eater and he killed Dumbledore! Isn't that enough proof he's evil?"

"And like I said before, if we can't trust Dumbledore's judgement, we can't trust anyone else's!"

"And look where Dumbledore's got himself now for trusting Snape! He's dead!"

"Harry!" Hermione said loudly. "What do you think?"

His friends turned to look at him and Harry cleared his throat.

"Well...to be honest...I don't think Snape's tricking us. He showed me a memory that...that showed his true self." He did not want to revise Snape's memory of Voldemort killing his parents to Ron and Hermione. The memory was after all, very personal and Snape would skin him alive if he ever found out Harry had told someone about it.

Ron looked stunned for a moment. Then he shook his head in disbelief and backed away from them.

"Ron?" Hermione said anxiously.

"You're both mad! Both of you!" Ron said in a tone that suggested he was insane himself. "I-I don't believe this! You can't really believe Snape's story, can you Harry? Can't you see? He's tricking you! Like he tricked Dumbledore! It's all going to end like it did when Dumbledore died. Snape's going to backstab you too!"

"Ron, are you okay?" Harry asked, alarmed.

"He's brainwashed you!" Ron shouted, his voice wavering out of control. "He-he hoodwinked you with a spell! Don't believe it Harry!"

Harry and Hermione exchanged startled looks. Ron turned around.

"Ron, where are you going?" Hermione cried.

"I'm going to tell Lupin! Lupin will know that Snape's lying!"

"Ron, you can't!" Harry said, running forwards and grabbing Ron's arm. "You can't tell anyone about this!"

Ron jerked his arm out of Harry's grasp, a glint of madness in his eye.

"That's because he doesn't want anyone else to know!" Ron yelled. "He knows he can fool you Harry! He doesn't want you to tell anyone about this, because other people will see through him!"

Hermione mouthed soundlessly, at a complete loss at Ron's sudden change in behaviour.

Ron backed towards the door, his hand on the doorknob.

"I'm telling Lupin," he whispered. "It's for your own good, Harry. Lupin knows that Snape is lying. He'll put a stop to this."

Harry turned to Hermione.

"Do something!"

With no argument that would persuade Ron not to tell Lupin in mind, Hermione did the only thing she could think off. She whipped her wand out and aimed it at Ron's back as he opened the door and began to leave the room.

"Obliviate!"

Ron buckled as the spell hit him in the back and he fell to the floor.

"Ron!"

Harry ran across the room and dropped onto his knees beside the unconscious figure of his friend.

Hermione let her wand fall to the floor with a clatter from her limp hand and she fell to her knees, her expression completely horrified at what she had just done.

"Ron!"

Harry shook Ron but he did not wake. His eyes were closed and his face was a pale white.

"Hermione, what did you do?"

"Oh, Harry. I'm so sorry," Hermione said desperately, tears sliding down her face. "I didn't know what to do, but I had to do something, so I just...oh!" And she burst into sobs.

Harry glanced down at Ron and drew out his wand. He pointed it at Ron's chest.

"Rennervate."

There was a flash of red light and Ron's eyes flickered open.

Hermione drew in a sharp intake of breath.

"Ron?" Harry asked concernedly. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes," Ron muttered thickly.

He sat up and rubbed his head painfully.

"Ooooh, it hurts," he moaned. "What happened to me?"

Harry and Hermione exchanged fleeting looks.

"Er...you had an accident, Ron," Harry said. "Do you remember anything?"

He and Hermione held their breaths and Ron shook his head.

"How do you feel now?" Hermione asked.

"A little better," Ron replied in a slurred voice. He got unsteadily to his feet supported by Harry. "But my head still feels funny. I think I'll have a lie down for a while."

Harry helped Ron to his bed. A little while later, when he was snoring loudly, he and Hermione tiptoed out of the room and closed the door softly.

"Now what?" she whispered.

"Well," Harry said uncomfortably. "At least he doesn't remember anything. That's a good thing. He forgot about what I told him about Snape and that we modified his memory."

"But I feel so guilty, Harry."

"You're going to have to get used to it then," Harry said grimly. "Because we can't reverse the Memory Charm or he'll go straight to Lupin again. And worse, he'll remember we did a Memory Charm on him..."

The last days of August slipped by without major incident with the three of them spending their remaining holidays safely at Grimmauld Place. Everyday, the papers brought news of the escalating war; everyone knew that it would only be a matter of time before it broke out into a full throttle open warfare, but the question was, how long until it happened?

Harry and Hermione kept the secret of what Snape had told Harry to themselves only. They did not mention it to Ron again for fear of re-triggering his memory. They did not seek help from Lupin or any of the adults either because they would nearly certainly never believe Snape was on their side. Harry and Hermione were the only ones who trusted him.