Rating:
R
House:
Schnoogle
Characters:
Draco Malfoy
Genres:
General Romance
Era:
Multiple Eras
Spoilers:
Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets Prizoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire Order of the Phoenix
Stats:
Published: 12/31/2003
Updated: 04/18/2004
Words: 181,191
Chapters: 46
Hits: 99,765

Harry Potter and Unexpected Beginnings

dan's girl62

Story Summary:
The summer after OoTP, Harry discovers he has control of his connection with Voldemort, and uses it to his advantage. With the help of his friends, and an unexpected joining of their team, Harry and the gang return to school for their 6th year and go in search of a way to defeat Voldemort. However, when teenage hormones set in, can Harry find room in his heart to love, or will he reject her based on fear of a prophecy that dictates his future...or lack thereof. Rated R for future chapters.

Chapter 30

Posted:
02/29/2004
Hits:
1,637


Chapter thirty

St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries was filled with visitors for the holidays, injuries occurred during the holidays and accidents caused because of presents from the holidays. The welcoming witch who sat behind her desk frowned as Harry and Lupin stepped toward her. She looked ragged and tired and eager to a cup of tea and a headache tonic.

"I believe we are expected by Professor Gilderoy Lockhart," Lupin said, watching the woman flip through her page book.

"He's on the fourth floor," she snapped bitterly, handing them each a visitor pass. "Leave your wands with the guard and be sure to stay no longer than twenty minutes. Visitors on the fourth floor should not become overly excited." Harry and Lupin took their passes and headed toward the stairs, climbing them in silence. Ginny's fears were weighing heavy on Harry's mind, and he insisted the twinge of fear and warning that played out in his mind was a result of her concerns. They were in a hospital, nothing could happen to them here. There were too many guards and people around to risk causing a scene of some kind.

The guard that sat at the far end of the fourth floor passage, looked up as Lupin and Harry approached him. They smiled politely, stepping up to the man who raised an eyebrow at them.

"May I help you?" asked the man, his voice deep and gruff, his rugged jaw set at a stern angle.

"We have an appointment to see Professor Gilderoy Lockhart," Lupin said, watching as the man scanned the list of permitted visitors.

"I don't have you on the list. Who invited you?"

"The Professor did, just this morning," Harry said, watching as the man flipped page after page. He stopped on the back page, reading a note and looked up at Harry, scanning the boy's forehead obviously curious to see the scar hidden beneath the hair that needed cutting.

"I only have one visitor listed here," the guard said. "Who are you?" he asked, looking to Lupin.

"I am Remus Lupin, from the Ministry of Magic. I am Harry Potter's personal guard."

"Harry Potter needs a guard?"

"No, but those who confront him may," Lupin said with a warning smile. The man sneered at the comment, then held out a basket.

"Place your wands in this and sign in," ordered the gruff man, then stepped aside and pulled out his keys. Harry and Lupin did as ordered, following the man to the door and waited patiently as he unlocked it.

"You have twenty minutes," the man growled. "Do not make the patients upset, do not give them gifts and do not over excite them." Lupin looked up at the man, nearly a foot taller and two feet wider than he and nodded, edging Harry through the door. Harry looked around seeing the familiar setting from last year. Mr. Longbottom was lying in his bed, staring at the ceiling, and the bed next to him, once belonging to his wife, was vacant of occupant, bedding and warmth. A sad feeling suddenly struck Harry, making him feel nauseated, as he looked down the row of beds to find Lockhart staring out the window.

"Professor Lockhart?" Harry said, stepping to his side. The man turned around, his eyes focusing on Harry and for a few moments he merely blinked. Then as recognition began to filter through, he smiled and reached a hand out to the boy.

"Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, nice to meet you young man."

"Yes sir," Harry said, shaking his hand. "Do you remember me?"

"I do indeed," he said with a smile. "You're the reporter from the Praying Dolphin." Harry looked to Lupin with a frown. "You're here to interview me on my misadventures of the Dragon's Lair."

"Um, okay," Harry said, glancing around for a medi-witch to assist them. "Do you remember sending me an owl today, Professor?" he asked.

"An owl, filthy rodents, good thing we have rats to hunt them down, wouldn't you say?" Lockhart said, sitting down on his bed and crossing his legs. "Biscuits?" he asked, pouring tea into the saucer beneath his cup and slurping it up.

"What's going on here?" asked the heavy set medi-witch who stepped up behind them.

"I'm Remus Lupin from the Ministry of Magic," the man said, turning to inspect the woman's gruff exterior, wondering briefly if she were related to the guard. "The Professor sent an owl this morning, requesting to speak with us."

"I'm not surprised. There are times when he seems nearly normal, and then there are times like now, when he couldn't tell you the difference between a slipper and a broom."

"What's happened to him?" Harry said. "We were here last year, and he seemed on the road to recovery."

"He was, until the Longbottom woman died. Strange, they were both making remarkable improvements too."

"Alice Longbottom was improving?" Lupin asked her, glancing back to Lockhart who was currently holding down a conversation with the teapot.

"Indeed, she was actually able to recall several events from before her attack," the medi-witch said, sounding much less the gruff nurse and more the motherly caregiver. "She had just recalled her son's birth, and was asking to see her baby. A few days later, she was dead."

"We heard that she died from results of her attack, is that right?" Harry asked.

"Heavens no. Her death is still a mystery. She and the professor there were talking about their time at Hogwart's, and the next thing we know she's dead and the professor can barely recall his own name."

"Was there anything odd that happened to either of them, that could have caused this?" Lupin asked. The medi-witch looked thoughtful for a moment, and then shrugged her shoulders.

"The only thing out of the ordinary was a visit from Mrs. Longbottom's brother the day before she died. He brought her a box of lemon tarts, her favorite."

"Her brother?" Lupin asked in surprise. "She didn't have a brother."

"Are you sure? I'm certain he said he was her brother, maybe it was her brother-in-law. He came with his wife, a rather rude woman if you ask me, foul tempered and nasty."

"Could you describe them for us?" Lupin asked.

"There was nothing out of the ordinary," the woman said, taking the book Lockhart was trying to comb his hair with away. "Rather distinguished looking man, sophisticated, well mannered, blond hair very polite and well refined. His wife left much to be desired though. She was dressed quite smutty with a tight skirt and barely half a blouse covering her. She was tall and slender, black hair and heavy eyelids. She was very arrogant and was anything but kind to Mrs. Longbottom. Strange, now that I think about it, Mrs. Longbottom seemed afraid of her for some reason. When she kissed her good-bye, Mrs. Longbottom was white as a sheet. Quite strange." Harry and Lupin exchanged glances, acknowledgement dawning on them both.

"Did Mrs. Longbottom eat any of the tarts they brought her?" Harry asked.

"Why yes she did. She offered one to Professor Lockhart, but I don't think he ate any. He was quite intrigued with the teas Mrs. Longbottom's brother brought her. There's one of them," the medi-witch said, retrieving a small can of tea and handing it to them. "Quite expensive selection, if you ask me."

"Did they sign in, like we had to?" Lupin asked, taking the tea and smelling it.

"Why of course. Everyone must sign in when they visit and when they leave. It's the rules."

"Can I see the logs for that day?" The medi-witch looked at the man for a moment, and then shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't see what good it will do, but you are welcome to look." Lupin glanced to Harry as the witch walked away.

"Stay with Lockhart," he instructed. "See if you can't get something out of him. I'll be right back." Harry nodded, looking back at his former professor.

"Professor, do you remember Mrs. Longbottom?" Harry asked, sitting down next to the man.

"Yes, nice lady. She liked lemon tarts," he answered.

"Yes, that's right. Do you remember the people who visited her before she died?" Lockhart looked up at Harry and frowned.

"Died?" he asked. "She died, I didn't even know she was seeing anyone. Who's the mother?" Harry frowned.

"What?"

"You must have a mother in order to have a baby, don't you? Maybe it's a bottle you need, or nuts, I can't recall when it rains." Harry's frown deepened. The man's mind had gone from a state of obliviation to a completely crossed wired circuit board. He stood and prepared to leave, when a hand reached out and caught him by the arm. Lockhart was looking at Harry with a frown of his own, his eyes trying to focus on the boy as if he was trying to recall where he had seen him before.

"Harry Weasley, right?" he asked in a soft tone.

"Harry Potter," Harry corrected.

"Yes, Harry Potter, yes that's right. I have something here," he said scavenging through his many books and papers sitting on his bedside table. "Very important. I remembered something, I must tell you. My mind you see, not what it once was, had to ride it down."

"Write it down," Harry corrected, watching as the Professor found a rolled up parchment and smiled.

"Take it, but don't read it until you're gone. It's not very safe here, you know. The woman, she should have been at the Quiddich game with us, remember? When I repaired your broken arm. Yes, she would have seen her brother there. He was there, you know. Watching with Professor Snipes. Too bad she wasn't there; she could have had a nice visit with him. Didn't like him much though, and that cat he had with him. She wasn't very nice. Kept hissing at her." Harry frowned, taking the parchment and slipping into his muggle coat he wore. Lockhart seemed intent on him knowing something, but couldn't bring his thoughts together to form a full memory.

"Harry, let's go," Lupin said abruptly as he rejoined him from an inner office. "I have to get to the Ministry."

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"I'll tell you on the way out." They left the room, glancing back to Lockhart who was currently holding down a conversation with his pillow. They signed the log, retrieved their wands and left the fourth floor, Harry following close behind Lupin.

"Moony, what is it?" Harry demanded.

"I believe I know who it was that visited Mrs. Longbottom the day before she died."

"Who?"

"Think, Harry," Lupin said, stopping at the bottom of the stairs. "Distinguished blond male, well mannered, sophisticated." Harry frowned thinking, and then gasped as he looked at the man next to him.

"Lucius Malfoy," he whispered. Lupin nodded.

"And if I'm not mistaken, the woman who was with him was..."

"Bellatrix Lestrange," Harry finished with an angry look.

"We've got to get to Dumbledore. If Malfoy visited Alice Longbottom, then her death wasn't an accident."

"But why would he want her dead?" Harry asked. "She was of no use to him. She could barely remember to blink, much less be of any harm to Voldemort or his followers."

"Don't you remember what the medi-witch said? She was beginning to recall certain things about her past. The new therapy they were trying, was starting to work. She was getting her memory back. She must have remembered something they didn't want anyone else to know about."

"Like what?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure Dumbledore will. He would know what their last mission was, before Bellatrix tortured them into the state they have been in for the past sixteen years." Harry opened the door, walking into the now deserted waiting room. His thoughts were on the parchment that was rolled up in his coat, and as he was about to tell Lupin about it, the hair on the back of his neck stood up on end and he froze in mid step.

"Something's wrong," Harry told him, causing Lupin to retrieve his wand and look around quickly.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes. Someone is here, I can feel it."

"Dumbledore said your Occlumency lessons had advanced to levels he couldn't explain. Try using them, reach your mind out and see if you can locate them."

"How?" Harry was astonished that the man had asked him to do something so bizarre as to search with his mind for someone.

"Remember what you did to Severus at the house? You used your mind against him, you can do it again. Concentrate Harry, you can find out where they are." Harry closed his eyes, practicing his lessons and quickly cleared his mind. Visions of a cloaked figure came into view behind his closed lids.

"He's behind a statue, no a water fountain. He's waiting for us."

"There's a water fountain in the lobby," Lupin said, edging Harry back towards the stairs they had just left. "Can you still see him?"

"Yes, he's still there, waiting."

"Come on, we'll go down to the basement and leave that way."

"But we can't let him get away," Harry insisted.

"We won't. We can circle around and come up behind him. Come on, let's go. Keep your mind on him, Harry." Harry continued to concentrate, but stopped on the stairs.

"There are two more down here," he said in a hushed whisper. "It's a trap. They're trying to get us to go down to the basement." Lupin thought for a moment, trying to figure out which way was best.

"Can we go back up to the main lobby?" he asked Harry in a hushed tone.

"Yes, there's only one up there."

"That's our best bet." The two of them slowly and quietly returned the way they had come, as to not attract attention from those waiting below. They opened the door again, looking around the hallway. There were a number of rooms lining the passage, but nothing that would help them find their way out.

"Here, in here," Harry said, looking into the window of a room across from him. He picked up the Healer's cloak hanging on a hook and slipped it around his shoulders. "I can use this to distract him, while you circle around behind."

"No, Harry it's too dangerous."

"We don't have much of a choice," Harry insisted. "It's either this or we just walk out with our hands up. Either way, we're in for a fight."

"All right, but be careful. Dumbledore will kill me if I let anything happen to you."

"Just keep me covered. I'm not all that anxious to prove Ginny right." Harry stepped out of the office, pulling the hood of the Healer's cloak over his head and walking forward, his wand held tightly in his hand beneath the cloak. He could still see the figure in his mind, crouching behind the water fountain and as he neared the front desk, Harry paused, taking up a chart that was left lying on the counter. He pretended to be reading it, keeping the image in his mind. He stood there for several seconds, seeing Lupin sneak around the side of the room, but he was blocked. All that lay ahead of him was open space. There was no way for him to get around, without being seen. Harry knew he had to do something. Without thinking, Harry began banging on the counter top.

"Where is everyone?" he shouted, causing the cloaked figure to edge a little way out of his hiding place, allowing Lupin a chance to duck behind a row of seats. "Come on, where is everyone?" Harry shouted louder, seeing the legs of the greeting witch from behind the wall of the office behind the desk. "Isn't anyone working here?" Harry continued to shout, as the cloaked figure grew bolder, sneaking a few steps further out from behind the fountain. Instantly Harry turned, wand in hand, and without a second thought, a stream of rope escaped the end of his wand, wrapping securely around the cloaked figure. Lupin jumped out from his hiding place, walking up to the side of the struggling figure.

"Stupefy," Lupin said, silencing the man's noise. "Have the others been tipped off?" Harry concentrated for a moment, and then shouted. "Duck," as a stream of light flew out and struck the plant near where they stood.

"I take that as a yes?" Lupin said. Harry frowned, edging around the back of a row of seats.

"Now what?" Harry asked. Lupin looked at the boy, locking eyes with him. Without words, they knew what they had to do. "Go left, I've got the right," Harry said. Instantly the two rolled out from their hiding place, wands raised and curses issued. Sparks flew around the room, as one shouted a spell over the other. They were in the heat of battle, when Harry saw something flash in his mind. "Moony, head toward me," he shouted, hearing the sound of a body falling nearby. He tried to reach out his mind, but had to fire a counter spell in order to protect himself. A moment later, a hand landed on his shoulder, as Tonks pushed him aside in time to prevent having his head blown off by another spell.

"Where did you come from?" He asked her, seeing the smile cross her face.

"Don't think I'd let my two favorite men walk into danger without me, do you?" she asked, ducking a spray of green light.

"Where's Moony?" Harry asked, rising up from behind his hiding place and firing his own spell.

"I'm all right," he heard Lupin shout from across the room.

"We could really use some help," Harry said, ducking a rather nasty red flame.

"That's what you have Potter," Mad-Eye Moody said, shouting from behind a support pillar to his left. The battle continued for several minutes, until the scream of a man echoed through the room, and a door slammed shut.

"He's getting away," Dedalus Diggle shouted, jumping over the figure lying on the floor, his purple hat falling from his head as he ran toward the stairs. Mundungus Fletcher and Kingsley Shacklebolt leaned over Harry and Tonks checking on their welfare, before looking up, following Diggle into the stairwell.

Harry stood up and brushed off the dust and upholstry that had covered him from the many attacks. Moody was at his side in a flat second, his magical eye scanning the area as he placed a reassuring hand on Harry's shoulder.

"You all right Potter?" he asked, his good eye inspecting Harry.

"Yeah, but how's Moony?" Harry turned and saw Lupin slide back towards the wall, his hand supporting his leg.

"It's just a break," Lupin assured him as he and Tonks rushed to his side. "What a better place to get hurt, than in the waiting room of a hospital?" Tonks looked frightened, but quickly recovered, slapping the man's arm.

"What a mess," Emmeline Vance said walking through the rubble of the once sterile hospital lobby. "Anyone check on the staff?" Harry looked at the woman, then to Tonks. "Don't worry, I'll check on them," Emmeline said, turning and ordering two other men to follow her.

"Lets see if we can get you looked at," Tonks said, as she and Harry helped Lupin stand on his leg. She used her wand to bind his leg, giving him the support he needed to walk to a chair.

"Looks like you owe Ginny an apology," Lupin told Harry with a wicked smile. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Do you have any idea what this is going to do to her? I yelled bloody murder at her just yesterday for walking into danger, and here I ignore what she tells me and I do the very same thing."

"So, how you going to make it up to her?" Tonks said with a twinkle in her eyes.

"The same way she made it up to me I guess. I'll let her yell at me, and then I'll let her make love to me," he finished his comment with a smile and a blush, as the two with him chuckled happily.

"Just tell me one thing?" Harry said after a moment. "How much longer before school starts again?"


Author notes: How's that for a little extra twist? Please keep R/R.