The Heirs of Dreams

Chapter Five

"So, sorry, dear," she said gently, "I know you need your rest, but there's someone to see you."

Zora yawned and rose from her bed. She ran her fingers through her long hair and straightened the wrinkles in her clothing the best that she could. The door creaked open and her visitor entered. He smiled, although hit did not suit his face and crossed over to sit in the rocking chair.

"Severus, what are you doing here?" she asked with surprise as she watched him sit.

"Came by to wish you a happy birthday, of course," he smiled again. "I've missed far too many of them...I don't intend to miss any more."

"I'm surprised you remembered," she said as she sat on the foot of her bed, the mattress squeaking beneath her.

"Not exactly a day I could forget," he assured her. "It's quite a dump they've stashed you in isn't it?"

"It's not so bad," she commented as she remembered Draco saying the same thing just hours before. "Comfortable," she added with a smile.

"Mrs. Weasley said you weren't feeling well," Severus said with a hard face; Zora knew this was his concerned expression.

"Oh, I feel better now, just needed some rest," Zora assured him with a small smile.

"Not getting enough?" Severus inquired.

"No...I am, I just needed a little more is all," Zora replied, annoyed with his tone.

"And the potions?" he continued his inquisition.

"Taking everyday on time, and working their wonders," Zora replied. "Stop worrying so much...they're taking good care of me here."

"Any recent visits from Draco?" Severus asked with a blank face and cold tone.

Zora's heart jumped and she replied, "No...not recently."

"Then where did you get that charm around your neck?" he asked coldly as he leaned forward in the rocking chair.

Zora's hand went to her neck. She felt the cool metal beneath her touch, but the chain was well hidden beneath her neckline.

"I saw it when you were fixing your shirt when I walked in," he explained and continued his hard glare on her.

She could lie to him. Draco could have easily owled it to her over night. Or sent a house elf to deliver it. Anything other than the truth. But his eyes were fixed on hers, deep and cold. He would know her lie even before she spoke it. It was the truth or nothing at all.

"Last night," she sighed deeply, feeling the guilt of the truth weighted around her heart as she spoke "but nothing happened!"

"Zora, I don't need to tell you that you should stay away from him...you know all the reasons, but...you must stay away from him."

"I know...I know..." Zora replied quietly.

Severus rose from the rocking chair and crossed over to Zora.

"Maybe this will wake you up...that darling necklace you have around your neck has a tracking charm, a pulse charm, a visualizing spell, and an anti-removal charm all on it. Only he may remove it and he can all but read your thoughts. I'm sure he didn't have time for it in his rush."

Zora pulled the chain out of her robes and studied it. Draco could feel her rising heart beat, he could see her if he wished, he knew exactly where she was...and she couldn't stop it, only he could remove the spells.

"Zora," Severus began as he gently placed his hands on her shoulders, an odd gesture on his part. She suddenly couldn't bare to look at him. All she could do was stare at the gleaming stones encrusted in the form of a snake she held in her pale hands. "Zora...you have to understand that this is not a kind hearted spell put on him and he is not going to act like a schoolboy in love with this. This is dark...it's evil, and he will be too until we reverse it. If you really want to be...friends, then be friends, but do not get yourself alone with him at any time. There's no telling what he may do...what the spell will make him do."

"He wouldn't hurt me," Zora replied, sensing the meaning behind his words, as the stones glimmered up at her eyes.

"That's where you're wrong, Zora...he will," Snape replied.

At that moment, the door opened quickly and Harry fluttered in, looking a bit annoyed, or angry, or was he just tired? Zora couldn't tell.

**

Harry stood in the doorway, looking at Snape and Zora. They appeared to be having a serious conversation or perhaps it only looked that way. What on earth was he doing here anyway? Was he visiting her on her birthday perhaps? Surely Snape didn't have a mind enough for that.

"Sorry, I didn't know...you had company," Harry said awkwardly in the doorway, clutching the knob in his right hand.

"It's fine," Zora smiled, brushing a hand at her cheek. Her eyes were filled with tears, he could see that now. He got a sudden impulse that they were talking about Draco and he felt a pang of guilt at being suddenly angry at her because of him. "Severus just came to wish me a Happy Birthday. He was just on his way downstairs...weren't you?"

"I suppose I was," he said with a curl of his lip.

Harry waited until Snape had closed the door behind him before he started to speak.

"I ran into Draco at Diagon Alley," he said quickly as if pulling off a bandage from his arm, getting the worst over with as quickly as possible.

"Oh God!" she burst out. Harry stepped back and eyed her cautiously; they had been talking about Draco. "Will I never get rid of him?! Fine! I'll tell you everything, although I'm sure you've figured it out by now."

Zora thrust the necklace she was wearing into her night shirt. Harry wondered for a moment where she had gotten it from...Snape perhaps? Zora wasn't one for jewelry usually, but he supposed all girls were attracted to jewelry at some point. She adjusted herself roughly on the bed, making herself comfortable although Harry saw she didn't look very comfortable at all. Her cheeks were red with annoyance and she was taking in several calming breathes.

"Narcissa was infected with the spell...Draco's the boy who was born like I was. He was raised as I was supposed to be. From his first birthday he was trained to fight, to do dark magic, to...to...to just do everything! His personality is cold because it's how we were supposed to be, we weren't supposed to come in contact with kindness and compassion so that we could not know we were doing wrong. If my mother had kept with Voldemort, I would be the same as he. Pranks...silly fights...the taunting...are him behaving considering what he is capable of."

"So...that's what you couldn't tell me? He's your...your brother?" Harry asked as he stepped a little closer to her bed.

"He is not my brother," Zora said absently, her eyes filling with tears again. Harry realized he preferred her annoyance and anger to tears. "The prophecy...you would kill Draco and I, and as revenge, our son would kill you."

"Your...son?"

"Don't tell me you didn't think of that before?" she chuckled slightly as a tear escaped from her eyes. She quickly wiped at it. "Why else would he want a boy and girl? Why not two boys? He wanted a pure blood line for himself, one without defects and kinks. Draco is the physical ability...I'm more mental...or at least I was. Together we'd create a perfect killing machine, one with superior intelligence and strength and void of emotion other than anger and vengeance and obedience. Of course, he could've made Draco to be that, but a spell that powerful would kill the mother. I think he actually found that out the hard way. So he needed us first, to endure the spell so that he could have what he wanted."

"And...well...ah...err," was all Harry could muster out as he attempted to speak. "Wow," he said finally as he sat on the bed, the loud squeaking sounding beneath him.

"The thing is...I never wanted that to happen, you know? If I would have that baby...we'd all die...in a nutshell," she said with an uncomfortable chuckle. "The night I died," Zora said with a slight shudder. She knew she had passed over, that's what she had meant in the Infirmary when she said she wished he would have just left her, she was talking about Snape. "The night I died...the spell broke, all the spells binding me to anything broke. That's why I'm so weak; it was a spell. If it broke entirely then I might never get it back, or it could be resting and waiting to come back, I don't really know. But Draco's still bound by it, he still thinks that he loves me or whatever it is that we had...and part of him...wants...to have that baby...so it's not really good for us to be together."

"That's why it was a big deal when you were studying with him on Halloween?"

"Yes," she smiled slightly, tears running down her cheeks, "that's why. I'm sorry I've lied to you about this...but it's not exactly something I want the whole world to know about."

"Then why are you still hanging out with him if you shouldn't... he said he knows you're here, that he saw you last night."

"Because...he's my best friend. He understands me because he's part of who I am, and no spell will change that. No matter what, I will always care about him and I will always want to be with him. A horrible reason, but it's true."

"So, what are you going to do? How are you going to pull that off?"

"I won't," Zora smiled. "I'm just going to be stubborn and give it a try, maybe it'll work...maybe it won't."

**

A weight was released from Zora as she spoke. She could not longer recall why she had kept this from Harry, perhaps she was afraid he would not be as accepting of her once she had told? She had changed so much from before the spells broke. She had befriended Harry as a way of keeping herself away from Draco as much as possible, but now it seemed that she truly wanted to be his friend. He didn't know what to say of course, but that was expected. She really didn't know what to say when Dumbledore told her everything at the orphanage a year earlier.

"I'm sorry, I dumped a lot on you," Zora laughed and brushed at her cheeks. They were wet from her tears and she tried to control those that were still waiting to come out.

"No...it's very...informative," Harry said with some thought. He looked as though he had a bad headache now. "So...he's the son of Voldemort? And you're the daughter? And you two are supposed to have a baby, who will kill me. And you're both bound to each other to think you're in love, but you broke from it when you died along with your powers. Did I get it right?"

"And he's still bound by it, don't forget that," Zora added with a nod.

"And he knows you're here, won't he come get you?"

"No...he won't...but it seems there's more than I thought there was," she said as she ran a finger down the chain around her neck. "I'll think about that later," she sighed and rubbed her forehead, she was coming down with a head ache.

"Oh," he said as he shook his head and began to dig through his pockets. He fished out the slightly melted bar of chocolate wrapped in shiny yellow paper and handed it to her. "Happy Birthday," he smiled with a shrug of his shoulders.

She took the bar with a smile and placed it on her nightstand.

"Don't tell anyone," she said after a pause. "It's not really something I want everyone knowing unless they have to, you know?"

"I won't tell," Harry smiled and shook his head slightly.

Zora smiled too because she knew not with dreams or instincts, but with sure understanding of how Harry worked that he really wouldn't tell anyone her secret. A knock erupted from the door, breaking the silence and forcing the two to jump suddenly from the surprise.

"Zora," Mrs. Weasley called from behind the door, "Fred's here to see you."

"Thank you, I'll be right down," Zora called back.

She jumped from the bed and raced to her closet. She swiped quickly through the shirts hanging in the small space. She suddenly ripped a light color shirt from its hanger and threw it on the bed.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked, ducking the flying shirt as it flew past his head.

"I haven't seen him since the end of school," she replied as she carried a crumpled pair of jeans from the bottom of the closet and moved to the bed. "I'm wearing a nightgown for God's sake!"

"I'll never understand girls," Harry replied, shaking his head and walking towards the door.

**

Harry quietly closed the door behind him and continued up the staircase to the very top, Ron's room. His eyes adjusted quickly to the brilliant color as he opened the door and sat at the foot of the bed. He dug into his pocket and retrieved the stack of pictures he had developed in Diagon Alley. He began to gently flip through the smiling faces of Hermione, Ron, Ginny, the twins, and all the other Gryffindors who had been located in the common room at the time of the picture taking. There were of course the occasional few shots of torches, rugs, and ceilings from his first time taking the pictures himself. Harry chuckled occasionally and kept a smile continuously as he flipped through the many pictures.

Then the very last picture came into Harry's hands. For a moment Harry just stared and racked his brain, trying to remember when he had taken it. It was lopsided he realized, perhaps it was accidental along with the ceilings and stone floors he had captured. But there were those familiar blue eyes staring back at him, the same eyes that appeared they were moments from tears. Harry wished more than ever that he had never laid eyes on that haunting portrait of Zora's mother. It had followed him throughout the halls and now it would remain in his private collection always. Of course if Harry had the will the dispose of the picture, it could be done easily. But the weight at his gut told him to keep it, it was worth more than the common waste of a trash bin. He could not explain his sudden instincts and placed the picture at the bottom of the stack and put the pictures in his schoolbag.

Then Harry thought of Zora's request to see the portrait herself. Perhaps that was the feeling in his gut? He would give the picture to her of course; she would certainly have more use for it than he. But then the weight became heavier at the thought of giving it away and he suddenly thought it would be irrational and foolish to do so. Why did he want to keep it so badly?

Harry shook his head as if trying to shake out all his thoughts at once. He took the stack from his bag and removed the final one. He looked at those eyes one last time before he placed it into a separate compartment, away from being confused with the other common pictures he now owned. The thought of no one being able to find the picture eased Harry's gut and a feeling of relaxation washed over him.

"Harry, are you in here?" a voice called from the hallway.

The red haired girl stuck her head in the door and gave Harry a smile.

"Thought you'd be in here," she smiled as she entered the room.

"Hallo, Ginny," Harry smiled nervously, his mind flickering momentarily to the picture. He quickly forced his mind to stop being so paranoid.

"Did I interrupt something?" Ginny asked, looking questionably at Harry's expressive face.

"No, I was just looking at the pictures I got developed," Harry replied.

"May I see?" she asked as she sat next to him on Ron's bed.

"Sure," he said as the smell of her perfume hit his nose. He couldn't remember sitting this close to her in such a long time, the very scent of her was now foreign to him.

Harry leaned over and grabbed at his schoolbag which he had placed under the bed and retrieved the stack of pictures. He handed them to her and tried to remember if there had been any picture specifically he hadn't wished her to see. By the time she had taken the stack, nearly three he wished he had edited out entered his mind.

"These aren't so bad," she laughed as she flipped through the pictures.

Harry watched with growing embarrassment as the two of the three he wished to disappear from her eyes flashed by in her hands. One Hermione had taken of him and Ron sleeping in the common room, complete with drool and the spasms of arms and legs. The second one was of him clumsily learning to dance with Hermione, who had insisted he learn in order to cheer him up after the eventful night with Zora. All that could be seen in the picture was Harry and Hermione casually turning once, then her wincing and reaching to her feet and Harry slapping his forehead. Surely Ron was due for a beating for snapping the shot.

"Aww," Ginny smiled as she gazed at the pain in Hermione's face. "This one's rather sweet."

"Yeah, well," Harry began as he tried to think of something witty to say, "I never was very good at dancing...she did it at her own risk if you ask me."

She gave him a smile and continued flipping and she stopped at the third picture Harry wished he had removed from the stack. He tried to look without being too obvious at her face to see if she were smiling or not. The effort proved worthless. She looked down and did not move, her long red hair covering any hint of expression. It was a picture of her and Neville in the common room talking intently to each other. She was smiling and nodding her head as he was speaking, saying something Harry could not remember. He only remembered thinking Ginny looked wonderful in the firelight and had snapped it on a whim.

"When did you take this?" she asked in a small voice from behind the mass of hair/

"Oh...ah," Harry said as he thought of the night, "that was probably just after the break...January I'd say."

Ginny's red hair bounced slightly on her shoulders as she nodded her head. He was waiting for some reaction other than a blank stare to judge her. Was she over him yet? It had been nearly four months since the break up; surely she was feeling neutral towards him now. Or had she truly been in love with Neville and was still completely heartbroken?

She let out a long sigh which ruffled the red strands of hair covering her face. She tossed the mane back from her face and behind her shoulder. She slipped the picture to the back of the stack and continued to smile at the remaining shots. No tears. No whimpering. Just smiling. Perhaps she was over Neville after all.

"Not bad, Harry, but I'd say you still need a bit of practice," she chuckled as she handed the stack back to him. "Mum wanted me to tell you the party's starting soon."

"Thanks," he replied as he slid the pictures into his bag. "I'll be down in a minute."

Harry followed Ginny down the stairs to enter the living room. There were different colored balloons and streamers hanging from the ceiling while the walls were enchanted to have the words "Happy Birthday Zora" in changing colors appear. Harry smiled as he watched the words flash "Happy Birthday Zora"..."Happy Birthday Zora"..."Happy Birthday Harry"..."Happy Birthday Harry"...

"Why does it say-," Harry began to ask with a laugh when Mrs. Weasley brought out a white iced cake followed by Mr. Weasley carrying another cake. Zora walked across the room with a big bright smile embedded on her face.

"They told me it was for you," she laughed.

"And they told me it was for you," Harry replied.

Mrs. Weasley stood before Harry. He looked down and saw his name written in red icing on top of the cake. It was his second birthday cake ever if you counted the one Hagrid brought him but Dudley ate.

"Happy Birthday, you two," Mrs. Weasley smiled. She took her wand from her pocket and with a swish and flick, both cakes were inflamed.

"Make it a good wish," Mr. Weasley nodded as he stood before Zora.

Harry's eyes trailed over to the other side of the room where Ginny was standing next to Hermione and watching he and Zora with a bright smile. He turned back to the cake and blew at the fire as hard as he could. He saw Zora out of the corner of his eye as she blew out her own flames at the same time. The room fell dark from the absence of the fire. Once the light was restored, the party continued with dinner and idle chatter in the living room.

**

For once it seemed there was nothing to worry about. Harry and Zora were simply two everyday teenagers celebrating a birthday surrounded by friends. Joking and laughing and not caring about tomorrow. A release. A happy moment that would live in their memories forever.

It wasn't until Zora looked out of the living room window that reality returned to her.

"I think I need some air," she smiled to everyone around her.

"I'll walk you out," Fred smiled, "I need to head back to the store anyway."

Without the heart to turn him down, Zora nodded her head with a smile and walked out the door. She would just have to keep his view away from the trees in the garden and away from the fair haired boy who was staring through the window.

"Thank you for the bracelet," Zora smiled once the door had closed behind them. She quickly glanced over to the garden and watched as Draco disappeared behind a tree. He wasn't completely stupid after all.

"I thought you would like it," Fred said as he returned her smile.

Zora played with the silver clasp of the bracelet on her wrist as she tried to think of the next thing to say. She always got so nervous when she was alone with Fred nowadays. She racked her brain and reminded herself not to say anything stupid...when he kissed her. It was over immediately, but it made Zora dizzy all the same.