The Battle for Peace

The Battle for Peace

Final Beginnings

I've got to do this, Harry thought. He was sitting in his room; his quill suspended one inch above a piece of parchment. He wanted to write a letter to Ashley about their relationship, but couldn't seem to work up the nerve.

It was now July 31^st, Harry's birthday and just two days after hers. They had seen each other twice that month. Since today was his birthday, Sirius had decided to throw Harry a big birthday bash, as it was his seventeenth.

He remembered when they had visited the Burrow; Sirius wanted to make the arrangements with Molly and Arthur's help, while Harry just hung around with the rest of the Weasley clan. After an hour of talking, 6 more people joined them: the Halliwells.

Mr. and Mrs. Halliwell had gone into the kitchen to discuss things with the adults. Their 3 sons, Jake (the eldest) and Robbie and Matt (twins) were walking around the living room, occasionally giving their opinion on whatever everyone was talking about. Ashley was sitting and talking to Ginny, laughing as Ginny did an impression of Umbridge. Fred and George had conveniently blurted out that Harry and Ashley were dating. Robbie and Matt were standing and staring with their mouths open, while Jake had this angry look in his eye. Clearly, he was not keen on his youngest sister dating anyone.

July 12^th, 1997

"What?" Jake asked, his voice low and his hands balled into fists. Harry sat there, trying to hide. Ashley was blushing furiously. She slowly got up, grabbed a pillow and proceeded to chase Fred and George around the living room, threatening to kill them without a curse.

"How long has this been going on?" Matt asked.

"Since December," Harry and Ron replied simultaneously. Robbie and Matt came over and patted Harry on the back.

"You've kept the Temper Child for so long. Good job, kid. Now you have to deal with Temper Man," Robbie advised, pointing at Jake, who was silently fuming.

"Why did no one tell me this?" he inquired, glaring at the people in the room. Matt smirked.

"Why does dad yell when we blow up the bathroom?" he replied.

"Why doesn't mom tell dad when she's bought some expensive new perfume?" Robbie interjected.

"Why are you called the Temper Man?" they asked at the same time. Ginny tried to hide a grin.

"You've got issues, man," Robbie said. "Besides, you're no saint; like she'd want to tell you one of her darkest secrets," he said sarcastically. As he said this, Fred and George came hopping back into the room, their hands and feet bound.

"Harry, you have managed to catch something very dangerous. We're lucky that our Gryffindor Seeker has caught the Chaser of half of Hogwarts's dreams," Fred remarked. Harry got up and threatened to knock them unconscious, then chased them outside. Jake was watching all of this with a deep scowl on his face.

~'~'~'~'~

Temper Child? Where had he heard that? Then Harry remembered that Adrian had called her that. Harry also wondered about her 3 brothers. He had never known about them until that day.

This caused Harry to really think about his whole relationship. There was a lot about her he didn't know; a lot he hadn't even tried to know about her. And let's not forget their near-misses the past year! Sometimes they had gotten so close to going all the way that it scared him. Was this a healthy relationship? He wasn't sure if they were doing the right thing.

Clearly in his mind was the death of Daniel. It was amazing how he would do anything to make her happy, which meant trading his life for Harry's. When he asked her how she would feel if he had taken a death curse for her, she said she would never allow him to do something like that. She claimed that she would see it coming, and would duck. Second, she had told him that the fate of the wizarding world rested on him, and that she would not want to be the cause for unending darkness. That meant that other people would risk their lives for his. He was a moving target and could die in this war.

She didn't need that.

Neither did he.

In London

As her seventeenth birthday had passed, Ashley's parents had decided that she was old enough to start on her own, though her mother had given this a lot of thought. (A/N: I soo wish my folks were like that! I'm giving this character a better life than mine; NOT FAIR!) They decided to let her rent a flat from Darrel, a close friend of her father. They told her that her sister would pay the rent until she got a job, and she would get 15 Galleons from them every month for essentials. They agreed it was a good thing the others were out of the house and well on their feet.

So, she had gathered her things and moved. She was about 5 miles away from her parents, which wasn't that bad. She enjoyed not having to be badgered by her mother about being neat and tidy, and her mother just not being there. Ashley wasn't a total slob, but she wasn't her mother, either. Thank God for that, she thought as she came out of the bathroom having just taken a nice, cool shower.

She stretched and looked out her living room window, which gave her a view of the busy street in front of the building. She smiled, then heard something moving about in the kitchen. She walked over to it and opened the door and saw an owl with today's issue of the Daily Prophet, pecking at the table

"Please, enough already! That table cost Nina a lot of money," she scolded. The owl ruffled its feathers and hooted. Ashley shook her head and relieved the owl of its burden, then paid it; it flew off. She scanned the paper quickly and sighed heavily.

Besides listing ways to protect yourself and your family, the prophet had been announcing the works of Voldemort. Muggles were disappearing, later found dead; Muggleborns, Halfbloods and even some Pureblooded families who dared to defy Voldemort had been reduced to a few descendants or erased from the world entirely. Even now, it held news of a married which and wizard, one of whom was a Muggleborn, were killed in a Death Eater attack at a local park. The Dark Mark glowed menacingly in the sky, glowering at those who dared to look up, as if warning others that they were not far from the deceased's fate. She noticed that the Daily Prophet still did not dare to say the Dark Lord's name.

She smiled slightly, remembering Ron's blatant fear of saying Voldemort's name, even after he had been defeated the first time. Not growing up in England, she never knew the terror or never felt associated with it. She had passed it off as some goof who thought he could take over the world, like Pinky and the Brain. Ron, not knowing about Muggle cartoons, ran to his mum, telling her there were two more Dark Wizards out to dominate them and the world: Pinky and the Brain. Ashley and her father had laughed particularly hard that time, eventually telling Molly and Arthur just what was so funny, allowing them to join in the laughter. Ron went up to his room and didn't come out for the whole day.

Just as she was about to make some breakfast, another tap drew her attention to the window. There she saw a snowy owl, waiting impatiently.

"Hedwig!" she exclaimed. She ran to the window and opened it, allowing Hedwig to enter and drink some water from Arwen's, Ashley's owl, bowl, dropping the letter on the table as she did so.

"Thanks, Hedwig," she said, bringing some owl treats to her. She looked at the letter in slight anxiety. She hadn't planned on hearing from Harry so soon. She hadn't even told him about her flat. Had Ron told him, and was Harry upset she hadn't gathered the courage to tell him? To be honest, the thought of letting him know she had that freedom made her squirm; seeing how close they had gotten to doing you-know-what last year, and they were in still in school! She thought that telling him about her moving into a flat away from her parents would give him the idea...

Leaving that thought hanging, she opened the letter. It said:

Dear Ashley,

Hi. I know that I'm writing to you very soon, as I saw you two days ago, but I just had to tell you this.

Her brow furrowed. Where was he getting at?

This is really hard. Er, all right, here goes. I need to know if you want to go through with this relationship. There's a lot of things going on, and I was thinking that maybe you didn't want to be with me. I know that we had some very close calls, but I know that there could be a lot more to us than that. I want to actually know you, know that we have something more in common besides the fact we want to snog each other senseless.

Please answer,

Harry

She exhaled deeply, not expecting anything like this to come out of Harry's mouth. She felt the exact same way about their... relationship. She was still a little uncomfortable with that word, the way it was so definite, so... final. She was also wondering what would happen when the war was over, or even when they left school. Would he want to settle down? Was he prepared to move to the next step? Was she willing to let her dreams go unfulfilled because she might be in love with someone? She didn't know the answer to these questions. All she knew was that she was going to make the best of everything at the moment.

Now that she was able to do magic outside of school, she summoned a quill and parchment and began to write her reply.

Harry,

I think that I understand what you're saying. We did move pretty fast, but I'm glad that you're trying to fix this.

I do not want to break up with you, Harry Potter! I know that we can deal with everything, and we can do that better if we're together. Also, I guess we should come clean about what we've been doing; Voldemort knows, anyway. And there is no doubt that at least one member of the DC has told someone who is guaranteed to tell everyone else.

I need to see you, soon I hope.

Love,

Ashley

After reading through the letter, she nodded in satisfaction. She was surprised at how good her writing looked, too; usually it wasn't so neat. She tied the letter to Hedwig's leg and sent her off. After five minutes, she smacked herself on the forehead.

"I didn't even tell him I have my own flat!"

Edinburgh

After reading her letter, Harry couldn't help but grin foolishly. It was a good thing she was willing to work everything out; he was lucky that she didn't suggest breaking up. As for their meeting, well, he'd just have to arrange a few things. He smiled and got up out bed. He looked around and saw the moving pictures on his desk.

One was the picture Sirius had given him, one of Lily, Remus, Sirius, and James on his parents' wedding day. The second was the one they had sent him, the one where they were fooling around by the pool. Another frame held the next picture, one of a younger trio. Another was a photo of him with his arm around Ashley's waist and around Hermione's shoulder outside the Burrow. The last photo was taken a week ago. Ashley was laughing hard at something Ron had said, and because Harry was tickling her. Always managing a look at her before he went to bed, she often ended up in his dreams.

A knock on the door brought him out of his reverie. Sirius entered the room, sleepy.

"Morning," he mumbled, rubbing his eyes. Harry chuckled.

"It's almost 12:30, Sirius," he pointed out, quickly trying to hide the letter. He knew that if Sirius got a hold of it, he'd never hear the end of his teasing. Sirius spotted the letter and his eyes widened.

"Is that from your girlfriend, Harry?" Sirius asked. Harry shook his head, attempting to throw the letter in the garbage, but Sirius managed to grab it. He read through it quickly, all the while sporting a cheeky grin.

"So serious. Are you trying to shag her Harry? I think your parents would punish you, and Ron would probably kick your arse. I'll have to help him," he said solemnly. Harry threw a pillow at him. He ducked.

"Nothing like that," he said, not wanting to reveal how they had almost shagged each other.

"When are you going to meet her?" he asked, going parental on him. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Today at 1:30," he replied. Sirius nodded and proceeded to leave. Before he left he turned to Harry with a look of innocence on his face.

"Don't rent any rooms. She's too old for you, anyway," he advised, quickly leaving seeing Harry give him a piercing glare, all in good nature of course. Only by a few days, he thought. He rubbed his eyes before getting up to take a shower. The last thing he needed was to see her and smell like he'd just come from digging in the garbage.

A Troublesome Time

"Just like that?" Hermione asked, her brow furrowed. She and Ashley had decided to go that day to take their Apparition Tests. They were inside the Ministry of Magic, headed for the Department of Magical Transport.

"What do you mean, 'just like that?' We didn't break up," said Ashley, walking up to the counter.

"I mean, you're going to try and slow down the urges, just like that? You two can barely keep your hands off of each other. Jake was really upset that day, remember?" Hermione reminded her. Ashley smiled, remembering when Fred and George had spilled the beans about her and Harry. Jake never thought that his baby sister would attract boys' attention like Lexy, their other sister, had.

"That was embarrassing, yet fun. I didn't even tell Harry about my flat."

"You didn't?" Hermione asked, shocked. "When do you plan on letting him find out you do?" she inquired, eyes wide.

"Maybe today, maybe tomorrow. Might be when I'm too drunk to go home alone; he'll have to carry me home, only to find out it's ten miles further than where he thought it was," she stated, nonchalant. Hermione grinned, wondering how diabolical her friend could really be.

Miss Granger, you first," an elderly wizard with glasses informed them. Hermione nervously walked over to him. She was about to enter the room when she turned back towards Ashley.

"Wish me luck, will you?" she asked, her voice shaking slightly. Ashley smiled encouragingly.

"Good luck, Mione. Show them who's the boss, girl," she remarked, giving Hermione the thumbs up. She laughed and proceeded with her next challenge. Meanwhile, Ashley sat down in one of the chairs and started to think.

§§§

"Piece of cake," Ashley confirmed, having finished her test. They both received their licenses and were able to Apparate, though Hermione had to wait until she was 17 for her license to be in effect.

They were about to leave when an owl came gliding through the grille; it was Hedwig. She dropped a letter in Ashley's hands and flew off. Ashley opened it eagerly and saw one sentence.

Meet me at the Leaky Cauldron today at 1:30.

She smiled slightly and pocketed the letter. Hermione was looking at her with an inquiring face. Ashley said nothing. Hermione smirked.

"That was Harry, wasn't it? What did he say?" she asked eagerly. Still, Ashley said nothing. She looked at her watch and saw that she only had ten minutes to get to the Leaky Cauldron, which was a few blocks down. She quickly told Hermione to meet her at Diagon Alley in a few hours. Hermione nodded before she left, secretly thinking about asking Ron to accompany her. Ashley ran as fast as she could, out of the building and towards the Leaky Cauldron.

At the Cauldron

Ashley was sitting at the bar, waiting impatiently. Yes, she had gotten there early, but for some reason she expected him there early too. She was impatiently drumming her fingers on the counter when she heard someone's presence behind her. She turned, expecting to see Harry, but instead saw a stranger, a smiling stranger with golden eyes and a black jacket.

"Hello, Miss. May I sit?" he asked, bowing slightly. She nodded slowly. When he sat, she looked away. He cleared his throat and she turned to him.

"What are your thoughts on He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" he inquired, taking out a pen and some paper. She noticed his wrist had a tattoo of a skull on it. She furrowed her brow and told him she had no comment, and was not someone who answered silly questions that were quite obvious

"Come on. I write for the Prophet, and we're questioning people on their thoughts about this little war. Everyone has a varying opinion," he coaxed, laying a hand on her arm. As he did so, a vivid picture flashed in her mind. It was herself, on the ground, under the Cruciatus Curse. She had her eyes closed; she didn't know how much longer she could endure the pain. She felt a sharp pain in her arm, as if someone was stabbing her.

She looked at the man quickly, who had let go of her arm. His eyes showed something strange. She wondered what kind of emotion they held. Then she saw that it was no emotion; it was red. She looked down at his hands and saw that his fingers were pale and spider-like. She screamed.

"AAHHH! It's him! It's--it's You-Know-Who! Somebody! Help me, please! He's going to kill me!" she screamed. Voldemort smirked, still in disguise, and grabbed her, slowly raising his wand to her throat.

"Miss."

"Dammit, someone listen to me!" she pleaded, almost crying.

"Miss?"

"Please, won't anyone even try to do something?" she wailed. Voldemort was saying an incantation, and she felt the blood start to drain from her body.

"HELP ME!" she cried.

"Miss, you must wake!"

~

"Huh?" she muttered, waking up with a start. She was at the counter in the Leaky Cauldron. Tom, the bartender, was peering at her.

"Someone is waiting for you at that table by the window," he informed, pointing at it. She didn't dare look. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

"He doesn't have golden eyes and a jacket on, does he?" she asked, fearing the answer. Tom smiled.

"No. And he'd be rather crazy to wear a jacket in this weather," he remarked, taking his position at the other side of the bar. She turned around, willing herself to walk to the table, when she bumped into someone.

"Oh, no," she muttered, closing her eyes. Someone touched her arm.

"What a greeting," the voice said. She opened her eyes and grinned.

"Harry!" she exclaimed, giving him a hug. "Thank God you're here." He frowned and looked at her, concerned.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" he asked, grabbing her hand. She touched her forehead and absentmindedly turned toward the door. There she saw at least ten people wearing jackets, gold and silver jackets, and hats. Her eyes widened and she tugged at Harry's sleeve. "What's the matter?"

"We have to get these people out of here. I think those people are Death Eaters," she said, pointing toward the door. Harry looked at the people and saw them conversing with each other. He called Tom over to them.

"Yes, Mr. Potter?" he asked politely. Harry had no time to waste.

"Please, Tom, get everyone out of here. Trouble's here," he warned. Tom nodded and told each and every one of his customers to leave the pub quickly because they were airing it out and the magic could kill them. Inconspicuously, as though they knew something bad was there, people started to leave. The jacketed people stared at each person as they left. Ashley noticed that only a few people refused to leave their seats. She looked at Harry.

"They're not moving," she pointed out. He turned to her.

"They're members of the Order. They stake out different areas, and this is one of them," he whispered. This still did not calm her fears. She gripped his arm tightly.

"Can we please go. I'm not ready for this again," she told him. He kissed her forehead and nodded in understanding, leading her out the door. They left the Leaky Cauldron but she stopped as they were nearing the next block.

"What about the people that were in their rooms?" she asked. Before Harry could answer, a loud explosion sounded from behind them. The Leaky Cauldron was issuing smoke and Muggle passerby were staring at it, wondering where the source was, as they could not see the building. Ashley didn't care if she was ready or not; she needed to help those people and the Order.

The two needed no more encouragement; they ran back to the Leaky Cauldron.

When they got there, the door was shut tight. Harry advised her to stand back, then kicked the door open. They ducked immediately, and good thing they did. Curses began to fly out the door faster than you could say 'Merlin's beard'. They crawled inside, careful not to be seen. They quickly scrambled behind the counter. Then, they looked up to see what had ensued.

It was not pretty.