Harry Potter and The Tomb of Hogwarts

Harry Potter and

The Tomb of Hogwarts

Chapter 27

Love and Hate

Soon after the Quidditch match Harry and Amanda went up to his office while Ron and Hermione went about their duties as Prefects to ensure that none of the students got out of hand following such a gruelling match.

As Harry lay on their blanket in his office with Amanda mindlessly twirling his hair, Harry began to think about all that had happened over the past weeks. Among all of the horrible things that had happened, he couldn't help notice that he ought to feel much worse than he did, and he knew why. Amanda had brought out in him a happiness that he didn't before think was possible.

He had to admit it. He loved her. He didn't know if that meant he was in love with her, but he definitely cared about her in a way he never felt about another person, including Cho.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Amanda whispered as she nibbled his ear.

"I was just thinking about something you asked me a few weeks ago," he replied softly.

"Oh? And what pray tell might that be?" she asked seductively.

Harry's nerves began buzzing all over his body. Never before had he felt the way he did about Amanda, nor had he ever felt the need to express those feelings. Now he'd found someone he could say it to but it seemed his entire body was against the idea. Still, he knew he had to say it. It was now or never.

He looked up at her, his eyes locked on her chin, avoiding any contact with her eyes as he finally said hoarsely, "I love you."

A moment passed in complete silence, then another, and still another. Finally, when it seemed a year had gone by without her replying he finally brought his eyes up to hers and saw the tears welling up, threatening to escape.

He cursed himself. It had been too soon. He should have waited until they were more ready. Why did he have to tell her now? He should have given it...

"Oh Harry," she cried suddenly.

Harry looked up, searching her eyes, and saw complete rapture boiling in her eyes just half an instant before she attacked.

Soon they were intertwined, grabbing and kissing and holding with a desperation that came with the release of all inhibitions, grasping at each other as though their very lives depended on it.

Then, just when Harry though he could not feel any more alive, Amanda began exploring places Harry only previously dreamt about.

His mind went racing as she disappeared below him, delving into him with a want that caused his mind to explode. All control was lost.

The next morning Harry awoke next to her, still on the floor in his office. He was quickly relieved when he looked at the wall clock to see it was still quite early, only just five o'clock. He looked over at the source of more happiness than he ever remembered knowing before and smiled.

There she lay there, a crooked half smile playing across her lips, her head rose and fell softly with each breath she took. Never before in his life could he remember seeing something so beautiful.

Though they still left the final step of their physical relationship untapped, Harry was sure they had come quite as close as was humanly possible. As they explored each other's bodies the previous night, it seemed he had come close on several different occasions to reaching that final step, but some unspoken bond between them told them not to take that last step. As he thought about it now he wondered what had stopped him, yet at the same moment he seemed somehow relieved. He knew that it would happen with her some day, but he knew in his heart that that previous night had not been that time.

A loud sigh escaped her lips and he looked up once again to see the clock had somehow moved another half hour and he knew that they needed to get back to their respective rooms before anyone realised they were gone.

Softly he gave her a soft shake, wrestling her gently from her dream-state.

"Hmmm," she cooed softly.

"Come no, sweetie," he called softly to her. "It's time to get up."

"Hmmm, not yet," she replied softly. "Let's just lay here a few more minutes."

"We can't," he replied against his body's every wish. "If we don't get going soon we'll find Ron or Hermione bursting in on us and I don't think any of us would like to catch the end of that show, if you know what I mean."

"Arrr," she growled playfully, then gave him a fleeting kiss on the cheek. "You're too well-behaved for your own good, you know that?"

He nodded while pulling himself back together and gathering his wits about him. A few moments later they found themselves stepping out from the portrait hole next to the Great Hall.

"You go grab a bite to eat and I'll meet you after classes. I'm sure we can find a few moments before dinner to relax under that tree by the lake."

"Why don't you come now and join me for a quick bite?" she asked invitingly.

"Because I've got to get up to the tower before Ron and Hermione go thinking Voldemort's gotten hold of me again like last time."

"Oh, alright. But you better..."

But what she wanted him to do he never heard as Argus Filch broke through the front doors, struggling against something his arm was holding onto that did not want to come inside. Catching Harry's notice he called, "Potter!"

Harry ran over just as Filch pulled a hulking figure through the door. Harry's heart dropped into his stomach.

"Dudley. What happened now?" Harry asked, though he didn't really want to know.

"He's attacked again, and this time we've got witnesses," Filch drawled on.

"What did you do this time?" Harry accused.

"I didn't do it, I swear. I don't even know how I got out there."

"Out where? What happened?" Harry had begun shouting now, now fearful of what may have happened.

"You'll need to see it for yourself," Filch continued. "I'll be taking him to the headmaster."

"Dudley will come with me, Mr. Filch," Harry said in the softest tone he dared use. "Dumbledore had placed him in my authority and I need him to show me what happened. If Dumbledore needs to see us about it I'm sure he'll want to meet us out there."

"Very well, but don't you let him out of your sight. I expect he'll be on the first train to London before lunch."

Harry did not reply but instead grabbed Dudley by the arm and took him outside. He was half way to asking what it was he could have done that would warrant such a reaction from Filch when a series of high pitched screeching noises drew his attention to the lake.

Harry felt as though he'd been hit with a stunning spell.

Though dawn was still fighting the night's darkness, there was still enough light for Harry to quickly find the sources of the screaming. At the lake's bank stood what Harry guessed must have been the entire Mermaid population surrounding the Giant Squid, or what was left of it.

Even from such a far view Harry could see that several of its tentacles had been severed and it was hardly moving, though one of its tentacles was still flailing about in front of it. From what Harry could see, it was a complete mauling.

Harry was not going to wait for Dumbledore this time. Harry took Dudley's wand back out of his pocket and cast "Priori Incantatum." To Harry's shock, the first spell to come out of Dudley's wand was a spell he'd never seen before and wished he hadn't seen then either. A large Scimitar appeared and began slicing about in mid-air. A moment later it was gone and was replaced with a giant Hammer which swung up and down several times. Harry had seen enough.

Trying as hard as he could to keep his voice from exploding at Dudley, Harry asked him to tell him what happened.

"The last thing I remember was heading around the corner towards the portrait into the common room when I heard someone say something behind my back. The next thing I know, I'm standing in front of that," he pointed to the Giant Squid, "and had my wand pointing right at it."

"And?" Harry prompted, but Dudley seemed to go quiet. "What happened after that," Harry shouted, losing all composure. "Who are the witnesses and where are they?"

"We're right here," said a short girl who had come up from behind him.

Harry stared at her for several minutes before saying, "Miss Princeton, am I right?" She was a second year Hufflepuff if memory served him correctly. She nodded accordingly.

"What did you see?" Harry asked as gently as he could, fighting the impulse to hit Dudley square in the face.

"Indeed, I would like to hear this myself," came the soft voice of Professor Dumbledore. Harry turned around to see Filch and Dumbledore coming up from behind him with Professor McGonagall and Sprout catching up behind them.

"However, let us first tend to the wounded. Mr. Filch, if you would be so kind as to fetch Hagrid."

"But Headmaster," Filch baulked, "would it not be more appropriate to get Professor Grubbly-Plank. After all, she is the..."

"I am well aware of who our Care of Magical Creatures Professor is, Argus," interrupted Dumbledore. "However, I believe Hagrid might be a bit more capable of taking care for our large friend here."

Filch could not argue this. Not when Hagrid's previous pets included a giant three-headed dog named Fluffy, plus Norbert and Buckbeak. Instead, he simply gave a slight snarl, turned, and headed off for Hagrid's Hut.

As soon as Filch left Dumbledore turned and, with a very sorrowful look on his face, removed his wand from his robes and pointed it directly at the Squid. Dumbledore did not utter a word, but a moment later, the Giant squid, tentacles and all, froze in place as though paused in some kind of real life movie.

After a great sigh, Dumbledore turned back to the two young men standing before him and prompted Dudley, "Now, Mr. Dursley, if you would please tell me exactly what happened to the best of your memory, beginning with the moment you left the castle.

"But I don't remember leaving the castle, Sir. Like I told Harry, the last thing I remember is turning the corner for the portrait hole when I heard someone behind me. The next thing I knew I was standing out here with my wand pointed at the lake and Mr. Filch was yelling at me from behind. That's all I remember," Dudley finished, nearing what seemed to Harry like the first genuine tears of his life.

"Very well," Dumbledore said without any sign of whether he believed Dudley's story or not. "Miss Princeton, what did you see, and please be as precise as possible."

"Well, I was out here because, well, I had a bit of a fight with Andrew Corwick and I decided to come out for some fresh air, and Pete came out with me cause he didn't want me coming out this late alone. So we decided to walk around the castle for a bit and we were just getting ready to head back into the castle when we heard a huge splash over by the lake."

"So we both look and Pete was the first to see the Giant Squid splashing about near the bank there, but I was the first one to see him over there on the shore, waving his wand about. That's when I saw the giant sword swinging about and cutting off its arms. I cried out to Pete and that's when Mr. Filch came out from one of the greenhouses. He ran straight by us, grabbed Dudley by his robes, and took him back to the castle, calling back to us to stay where we were."

"Very well. Mr. Princeton, do you have anything to add?"

"No sir. It happened just like she said, only..."

"Yes?" Dumbledore prodded, looking at him as though he were searching straight through to his soul.

"Well, I saw something, but I don't know if it means anything. It's just that when Mr. Filch grabbed Dudley I thought I saw something move off near the edge of the forest, but it was gone before I could focus. I just figured it was one of those things from the forest."

"Indeed. Thank you, both of you. You may go back into the castle now, but I would ask that you not mention anything that has happened tonight until after I have a chance to address the school tomorrow morning."

They both nodded and ran back to the castle while Dumbledore turned and walked over to the edge of the water, speaking to the Merpeople in that screechy language Harry remembered from the Tri Wizard Tournament.

As Dumbledore spoke to the King of the Merpeople Hagrid arrived and went straight to the Giant Squid's aid. Now that he was able to do magic again he pulled out his giant wand and began mending the Squid's tentacles, one by one. It was really odd to see Hagrid doing such work as though it were an everyday thing, but then Harry suspected that he'd had similar problems with Aragog and his hundreds of children.

Harry's attention was distracted once again when Dumbledore left the Merpeople and suddenly pointed his wand straight up into the air and shot a small, glowing white ball into the air that danced around for a few moments before shooting off into the Forbidden forest. Less than thirty seconds later a large Centaur came running out at full gallop, coming to a perfect stop right in front of Dumbledore.

A minute passed as Harry watched the heated discussion. Then, after a quick nod the Centaur ran over to the edge of the lake and with his upper torso bent unusually low, he began trotting around the edge of the lake. A few moments later he seemed to have found something and ran full out towards the edge of the forest. He stopped for a moment, paced back and forth, then disappeared into the forest.

Harry took a few steps towards Dumbledore to ask him what was going on, but soon he saw Dumbledore's eyes lock on the forest once again and Harry turned to see the same centaur running back out and towards the castle. But as he approached the front steps Harry noticed that he was several feet left of the entrance and came to a stop next to one of the pillars of the castle. Three times he knocked on the pillar, then seemingly having come to some kind of conclusion he turned back around and galloped back to the spot where Dumbledore stood.

This time Harry had worked his way close enough to overhear what was being said.

"There was definitely someone there and there is definitely the air of magic being used. Whether or not he had anything to do with the attack, I do not know, but he could not have left more than half an hour ago and I would guess it was much less, possibly even after you arrived here."

"Thank you Ronan. You have been very helpful."

"A pleasure as always, Albus," Ronan replied.

Ronan left without another word, galloped right into the forest, and disappeared.

Dumbledore turned to Harry with a very concerned look on his face. "Harry, would you please escort Dudley to my office. I will be up as quickly as possible."

"Yes Sir," he replied, then turned to Dudley with a very unfriendly look and nodded towards the front door.

Harry said only two words on their way to Dumbledore's office, "Parrot Pasties," despite Dudley's continuous pleas of innocence. Pointing to one of the chairs in front of Dumbledore's desk, Harry growled "Sit!" before turning to look at the glass cases surrounding the office, though he was much to upset to really see what was in them.

After a few moments of staring at the same shelf, completely ignoring Dudley as he tried to calm himself, he jumped when he heard his name being shouted behind him.

He turned, a scowl on his face as he looked at his cousin, but he was still sitting quietly in his chair when Harry heard his name called once again, but this time he recognized the voice.

Harry turned to the place where the portrait of Phineas Nigellus hung on the wall, instead of Phineas he found Sirius standing in his place.

"Harry, what is it?" he asked concernedly. "What's happened?"

"My cousin attacked the Giant Squid," Harry spat in reply. "This is the third time he's done something like this and this time he's been caught red-handed."

"I didn't do it," Dudley suddenly shouted from his chair, then spun back and crossed his arms.

"What exactly happened, Harry?" Sirius repeated.

Harry gave him a complete, if not abridged version of what he knew. When he was done, however, Sirius did not look so much angry as he did concerned.

"I don't like the look of things, not one bit. Someone's using your cousin for some fairly dark acts, but it doesn't make any sense."

"How do you know he's being used?" Harry asked, trying not to sound too insulted at the idea of being contradicted.

"Because from what you've just told me it sounds like, well, let's just find out. Bring your cousin over here, if you would."

"Dudley, get over here," Harry said bitterly.

Dudley rose slowly, walking over with a look of distaste which reminded Harry of the same Dudley he knew from his earlier years living with the Dursley's.

"Dudley," Sirius said softly, "I want you to do me a favour."

Dudley nodded.

"I want you to think back to when you first realized you were out at the lake. Tell me exactly what you felt like when you first woke up, so to speak."

"Well, it was like I was in a dream where everything was blurry. Then, suddenly it was like being woken up after sleepwalking by being splashed with a bucket of ice water. I just suddenly realized where I was, but before I could get my bearings on what was happening, Filch grabbed me by the back of my robes and started dragging me into the castle."

"Very good," interrupted Sirius with a smile. "I'm willing to bet that as soon as Dumbledore returns we will know exactly what happened tonight."

Harry wasn't too convinced that this would be a good thing, but he didn't have much time to brood it over before Dumbledore entered his office, followed by Professors McGonagall and Sprout."

"Well now," Dumbledore began as soon as the door closed behind him, "before we continue discussing what happened this evening I thought you would both be interested to know that the Giant Squid is being tended to and though his treatment will take upwards of six months, Hagrid is confident that he will have made a full recovery by the beginning of next term."

Harry gave a soft sigh of relief.

"Now then, regarding what happened..."

"Excuse me, Dumbledore," came Sirius's voice, "but I believe there is something you may not be aware of."

"You believe he may have been under the effects of a mind altering spell?" replied Dumbledore with a smile. "Yes, I am quite aware."

This was something Harry had not considered, but he wasn't going to give up on Dudley doing it of his own volition that easily.

"Wait a sec. If Dudley were put under the Imperious curse, he'd still remember what happened," Harry accused. "But he says he doesn't remember a thing."

"Indeed," replied Dumbledore. "However, as Sirius has likely already figured out, your cousin was not put under the Imperious Curse. As I am sure Professor Weasley has mentioned to you in your lessons, the Imperious Curse, while being an unforgivable curse, is not the only curse which can force you to do something against your will. In this case, for instance, the only spell I would guess had been used would have been a simple Constrictum or Impedimenta spell. Then his attacker would give him a Draught of Dreamless Sleep combined with one of your lesser commanding spells, such as Multimando or Iubeoquidam."

Harry had never heard of such spells and told Dumbledore as much.

"That is not surprising, as these spells are taught only during the final term of your seventh year, along with basic memory charms. Of course, these spells are most often used by wizarding parents to direct their children when they are being uncooperative. These spells themselves are legal so long as they are performed by a parent or guardian, and it may only be used on one of their own. Also, it is always illegal to use it once the child is eleven years of age or more. The only wizards or witches legally allowed to use such spells on adults are members of the Magical Law Enforcement Squad and, of course, Aurors."

This made sense as far as it went, but what did it have to do with what had happened to Dudley. Harry made to ask, but Dumbledore had already begun to answer before Harry had the chance to ask.

"Now, just as you would have issues with the victim remembering under the Imperious curse, so would you remember under these spells. However, one of the older but quite effective ways around this issue is to put them into a dreamless sleep. Here, their mind is essentially left blank while they are ordered to follow the commands given by the offending wizard or witch. Since their minds are whipped clean from the after-effect of the Dreamless Sleep, the victim wakes feeling quite refreshed and alert. And most useful for the offending wizard is that they can command the victim to wake while they are safe at a remote location, or more commonly, they are simply foretold to wake after the final task is performed. Since they victim is compelled to obey every command given, this last command will also force them to break free from the initial Command Spell."

"And you think this is what happened to Dudley," Harry asked sceptically.

"Well, there is a simple way to find out. As I said before, this was an old combination of potion and spell uses, and as old things tend to do, it has become outdated. You see, just before Voldemort rose to power a young wizard working at St. Mungo's stumbled onto a spell which recalled memories which were magically suppressed but not Obliterated."

Harry furrowed his brow, trying to put things together.

"As it turns out," Dumbledore continued, "a sleeping draught causes one not to dream, but it's the after-effect from the Dragon's Gallstones which cause the lack of memory during the sleeping process and allows the user to wake so well refreshed. So, if Mr. Dursley here will assist me, I will show you how to get access to these memories.

Dudley gave a short nod, his eyes never leaving the floor. Harry assumed this was a tell of guilt, but what Dumbledore was saying did seem to make sense as well.

So Dumbledore retrieved his Pensieve from the case and placed it in front of Dudley.

"Now what I am going to do, Mr. Dursley, May I call you Dudley?" Dudley nodded. "Good. Well, Dudley, what I am going to do here is place my wand lightly on your temple. As I do this I want you to think back to a few moment before you lost consciousness. Remember walking down that corridor towards your homeroom. Can you remember it clearly?"

Still silent, Dudley gave a soft nod.

Dumbledore placed the tip of his wand on Dudley's temple and he continued to speak. "Now, I want you to continue to remember as completely as possible everything that happened, up to and including the time when you were asleep. Run through it in your mind. Can you see it?"

Another slight nod from Dudley, and Dumbledore slowly began to remove his wand from Dudley's temple and Harry saw a silvery string-like substance emanating from Dudley's temple, hanging onto the end of Dumbledore's wand as he continued to walk him through his memory.

Dudley verbally replayed what had happened up to the part where he lost his memory, then went completely mute. Harry thought he was done, but then realized that Dumbledore was still pulling the white substance from Dudley's temple, now a bit more quickly, until suddenly Dudley cried, "Hey, what's going on? What am I doing here? What... Who... Hey! I didn't do it!"

After a few more moments Dumbledore gave a slight jerk and the silvery substance dropped from Dudley's temple.

"That will be enough, I think. You did very well, Dudley."

Dumbledore brought his wand over the pensive and began to lower the string. As soon as his wand tip broke the seal of the basin it severed itself from the memory. Harry watched as the single string of memory floated around in the Pensieve.

"Cerno Memoria." Dumbledore said softly as he tapped the edge of the Pensieve, and then Harry saw something he'd never seen before. The single string began to split off, and a new, neon green string unwound itself from the primary memory. As soon as it completely detached itself Dumbledore tapped the neon string and cast, "Finite Incantatum," and the neon string shrivelled up and disappeared.

"Now, with Dudley's permission, the three of us shall see what truly happened. Dudley, as it is your memory, perhaps you should go first. Simply place the tip of your wand into the basin, then touch the water with your other hand." A wry smile spread across Dumbledore's face as he turned to meet Harry's gaze with that knowing look.

Harry felt like a sodding idiot. All this time he'd bent his face into the basin because that was how he had first fallen into one of Dumbledore's memories. But upon further thought he realized that he had never seen anyone else do it this way, and he had never watched Dumbledore do it because he always dove in first.

Still feeling silly, he watched as Dudley placed first his wand, then the tip of his right middle finger into the Pensieve, and suddenly his head slumped down onto his chest.

Dumbledore nodded at Harry and he too placed his wand in the Pensieve, and then with a shake of his head dropped his index finger in and felt that familiar falling feeling as he dropped into a black abyss before finding himself standing in the east tower of the castle next to Dudley.

"What's this," Dudley asked quietly. "Is this how it's supposed to be?"

"Yes," answered Dumbledore simply as he landed softly next to them. "Any moment now you should come around that corner and begin to walk down towards your house Portrait Hole. If we are lucky, we might even see who it was that attacked you.

Sure enough, a few moments later they watched Dudley come around the corner holding one of his schoolbooks and looking quite dejected. Of course, with many of the students mad at him there weren't exactly a lot of reasons for his cousin to be the happiest student at Hogwarts.

They watched as he approached them, instinctually moving out of his way as he passed by, and had only a few seconds before they saw a tall man step out from behind a suit of armour and quickly tap Dudley on the side of his head as he turned to look at his assailant. Harry took a couple of steps forward to see who it was when suddenly the world turned pitch black.

"I thought we'd be able to see what really happened to me," cried Dudley loudly.

"We will indeed. However, since you have just lost consciousness you have visual or auditory memory of what has happened, nothing exists, at least so far as your mind is concerned. Of course your sub-conscious is still able to recognize the basic passing of time, and that is why, if events progressed as I suspect they did, you should be re-opening your eyes here in just a few more moments."

Sure enough, a few moments later they heard a whisper in the darkness and suddenly the lights turned back on and Harry saw 0.

Dudley standing in front of them while the mystery man stood behind them with a smoking goblet in his left hand and his wand pointed at Dudley's back.

"Now, I want you to walk out of the front door of the castle and start for the lake."

Harry tried to think back to see if he could recognize the man's voice but it was slurred and overly deep.

"It appears our friend here was well prepared. He has altered Dudley's perspective on his voice in case he later remembered something."

"But if he knew I could remember something, why wouldn't he have used a different spell?"

It was a good question, though Harry didn't want to admit it. He still wasn't completely convinced Dudley was innocent, though his conviction was beginning to waver a bit.

"Well," replied Dumbledore, "some of your more intelligent wizards are very precautious, especially when they are aware that they are surrounded by wizards with more experience then they themselves have. Whoever this student is, and at this point there can be little doubt that it is a student, it is likely a someone who is either a very gifted student or a severely misguided one who is receiving orders from someone else. Either way, you may want to keep an eye out for them because Dudley here is not our master planner and it is very likely that he will show himself again before too long. However, it looks like Mr. Dursley here is leading us out towards the lake and we do not want to fall too far behind."

With that, Harry, Dudley, and Dumbledore quickly ran off to follow Dudley and his assailant as they headed down the staircase and down to the main hall. Just before they reached the front doors Harry took the opportunity to run ahead and see if he could get a good look at the mystery man, but where his face should have been there was nothing but a blur.

"I'm afraid that unless young Dudley here sees our friend's face, none of his features will be revealed to us. In fact, we have little reason to believe that this person even has such a physique aside from his approximate height as Dudley is creating most of his body from a generic idea of what he knows of the man who is giving him the orders. In fact, with the alteration in the voice, we cannot even be sure this person is a man, though it is historically more likely, but I'm distracting us. Come, let us see if there is anything we can..."

"There!" Harry cried out suddenly.

Pointing out around the edge of the forest, a figure stood with his arms crossed, and unlike the mystery person following behind Dudley, it seemed this person was at least partially seen as Dudley walked to the lake because the robes were unmistakeable, and Harry was quite shocked as he heard Dudley say what he was thinking.

"That can't be right. He's wearing a Ravenclaw Robe."

"Unfortunately, I do not think our big orchestrator felt it likely that Dudley would have seen him, so it is very likely that he is in fact in Ravenclaw. However, that does not mean our friend here is in the same house."

"But I thought all the Dark Wizards came from Slytherin," Dudley replied.

"Unfortunately, that is not quite true. Yes, more Dark Wizards have come from Slytherin House than any other, but everyone has the ability to make that choice, and it seems at least one person from Ravenclaw has made such a choice. The question we must ask is, who?"

Unfortunately, they did not find out. Their remaining time in Dudley's memory revealed nothing about the assailants except that the person controlling Dudley was likely either a sixth or seventh year student as he had instructed Dudley to use spells that were only taught post O.W.L.s.

To watch the Giant Squid attacked was one of the most horrific scenes Harry had ever witnessed, and when it was over Harry was shocked to see that his cousin, the one re-living the events, was down on his knees, the tears flowing freely from his eyes and all over his hands.

When it was over, Dumbledore put his hands on their shoulders and Harry felt himself once again being lifted back into the real world.

When he found himself back in his body, he found that he too had shed many tears watching the attack on the Giant Squid, but it was nothing compared to what he saw when he looked over at Dudley.

Dudley was already back on his knees in front of the desk, his shirt and cloak soaked in his own tears, his head shaking violently back and forth as he repeated to himself, "I didn't do it. I didn't do it," over and over again.

No matter what he felt of his cousin for his continuous betrayal since he returned to school, Harry could not help but feel sorry for Dudley as he continued to cry. After a brief pause Harry walked over and placed his hand on Dudley's shoulder and tried to convey his confidence in his cousin through his hand. Dumbledore had done this as well, and after a few moments Dudley raised his eyes looking completely vulnerable and nothing like his usual self.

Later, Harry would wonder what exactly possessed him to do so, but when Dudley looked into his eyes, Harry bent down, grabbed his cousin under each arm, and pulled him up into what he could only imagine was a brotherly hug, as he had no previous point of reference from which to compare.

Dudley seemed to have been taken by surprise, but his heart gave in where his brain would usually have protested. Soon Harry felt Dudley pull tight into the hug and Harry held his cousin as he unloaded on his one time rival.

Harry wasn't sure how long they stood there before Dudley finally let go of him, but when they finally broke apart he found the office empty, with the single exception of Dumbledore who sat behind his desk watching in grave appreciation as the boys broke apart and looked back at their headmaster.

"Sit," Dumbledore said. It was a simple request, but both Dudley and Harry accepted it as though it were an order.

"We now know that you are innocent of these crimes, but I fear we have no evidence we can use to prove it. In fact, as evidence is concerned, Dudley is more likely to be found guilty than innocent."

"But what about the memory we just saw," Harry interrupted. "Surely that's enough proof right there."

"Unfortunately, it is not. As far as the wizarding world is concerned, memories by themselves are never evidence enough to acquit or convict because they are too easily tampered with, added with the basic inaccuracies that come from one's own perspective of what they've seen. Remember, truth only exists in the minds of those deciding the truth. And in addition to all of this, in this case the memory has been tampered with both our mysterious assailant as well by myself when I reconstructed it."

"But if you fixed it..." Dudley began.

"Whether it was to fix your memory or not, wizarding law says that once it has been tampered with at all, a memory is deemed changed and thus inadmissible as any type of evidence. Of course, we are not in a court of law so my decision is final. I am, of course, not going to punish you for what seems to be no fault of your own, but neither can I tell the school who did or did not commit the attack on the Squid, so I think it best if I simply announce that the attacker has not been identified at this time and leave it at that."

"But that means that everyone's going to blame Dudley for what happened since most of the school is already convinced he's guilty in the previous attacks. Not to mention our two witnesses and at least two others who were involved. I doubt Dudley's going to come out of this without being labelled as the attacker again."

"Unfortunately, I believe you are correct. Of course, I will instruct the students at tomorrow's breakfast that Dudley is not to be held responsible for what happened to the Giant Squid, but I would not hold out for any miracles coming from this. My best suggestion is that we find whoever is truly behind these attacks as quickly as possible. The heads of house have already called for an emergency meeting of the prefects who will be informed of what we know. We can only hope that with their assistance we can track down our Mystery men."

"Well, at least we know one of them is in Ravenclaw," Harry added.

"Well, I have been thinking about that too. While it is likely that he is in Ravenclaw, do not rule out the possibility that this was also a ruse to sidetrack us from the truth. Of course, this is fairly unlikely, but it is still a possibility."

"But what about the students picking on Dudley. They're not likely to believe he didn't do it after the past instances, even if you say so. No offence."

"None taken, Harry. I am not beyond believing that there are some things the students of this school would ignore from me, which is why any help you would be willing to give your cousin would be greatly appreciated. I know I've said this in the past, but your support for your cousin will go a long way in this school, much further in fact than anything I could say to them."

Harry nodded, not willing to look Dumbledore in the eye. If Dumbledore knew how little he'd supported Dudley in the past... Harry didn't even want to think about it.

"Well, I dare say it is getting late and we still have classes in the morning. Harry, since we were unable to meet today, shall I assume we can meet next week instead?"

Harry nodded in reply, suddenly feeling the stress of the past two days catch up with him.

"Very well. Good evening gentlemen. And please remember that while I do carry a busy schedule I will always make time for my students when they have need of me."

Neither having anything to add, Harry and Dudley rose and walked quietly out of the headmaster's office and down to the staircase.

The walk itself took just a little over a minute, yet to Harry it felt more like an hour. With all that had happened in the past forty-eight hours, added to all that had happened with him and Dudley over the past six months, he couldn't help but dissect his rivalry-friendship with his passive-aggressive relationship with his cousin.

Six months ago he hated his loud, obnoxious cousin, before Dudley became a Slyder, and then over the next three months they became the best of friends. But less than a month after they were at school, everything fell back into the world of hate-hate. Now they were back to square one. What had changed?

What had changed? As he thought about it, he realized that this had been one question he'd never bothered asking before now. Why was that, he asked himself.

"Harry?" came Dudley's voice from what seemed like a mile away.

"Wha?"

"Are you okay?" Dudley asked sincerely.

"Yeah, I guess," he replied numbly, and then before he could stop himself he asked, "Dudley, why have you been acting like a complete git since we came to school?"

Dudley opened his mouth to argue, stopped, then stopped and stood there for half a minute before he replied. Harry barely recognized the next voice to come from his cousin's mouth.

"You know, when I started doing magic, the first thing I though of was you had cast some kind of spell on me and turned me into a freak as some kind of revenge for all the things I'd done to you through the years. But by the time I got out of school I kinda realized, and I didn't really know why or how, but I just knew that it wasn't your fault I'd become a Wizard, or Slyder, or whatever."

Harry nodded softly, trying not to interrupt.

"Then when you helped me out back when we were back home, well, I really did appreciate it. But when I got to school and everyone started treating me like a celebrity, well, I admit it went to my head and, well, I reverted to what I knew."

"In other words, you started picking on me because it's what worked when we were in primary school."

"Yeah. But of course I didn't realize this would piss off more people than it would amuse and before long I just became the sorry excuse for a second hand Harry Potter. Worse, some stories started to get around about how I treated you when we were young and all of the sudden I was public enemy number one. Then all these weird things started happening around me, you know, like the owls and the squid."

"Of course not everyone hated me, like Ginny for instance, but she wasn't exactly rushing to become my friend either. And of course, after the owls she didn't want anything to do with me. The only person now who'll even talk to me is that Ravenclaw girl, Loony Lovegood, and she's not exactly my first pick for a friend."

"Well, maybe you should loosen your restrictions on who you want to be friends with. Luna's actually a pretty nice person once you get to know her."

"Yeah, she said you knew her. Said something about a fieldtrip you went on last year with her and a couple others, but she wouldn't elaborate. Said it was up to you to tell me, if you wanted."

"Yeah, maybe some other time. So look, what I want to know is, now that we're where we are now, are you going to continue acting like a git or do you think you can start acting like a real person again."

Dudley didn't respond, at least not verbally, but Harry got the impression from the silence that he wanted to answer but didn't know how without sounding stupid.

"Look, I'll make it easy on yah. Ron, Hermione, and I are all going to go down to Hagrid's tomorrow afternoon for tea, some time around three. If you want, you can join us and we'll see how things go from there."

It was Dudley's turn to nod, and following a few seconds of silence, he turned and started down the staircase.

"Dudley," Harry called as his cousin reached the midway point of the staircase.

Dudley turned and looked up at Harry, the stress of recent weeks weighing hard on his face.

"I should've believed you about the owls and the squid," Harry said softly. "I... I'm sorry."

He could immediately see a change in Dudley's attitude. He gave a weak smile and replied a brief "Thanks" before turning back around and continuing down the stairs, though Harry noticed his steps were a bit quicker, a little more fluid, and as he turned the corner for the next flight of stairs Harry saw soft smile on his cousin's face, the kind you see when someone's genuinely happy for themselves.

Harry turned and began climbing the staircase for Gryffindor Tower, smiling to himself.

Dudley was now ostracized from the rest of the school. Maybe that's what he needed. The past summer had shown Harry that his cousin could be a decent person when he wanted to. Perhaps he could be one again, if not out of desire then perhaps out of necessity.

"Well, it's the best I'm going to get for now," Harry said quietly to himself as he ascended the staircase.

But how long will it last this time? Harry asked himself, not willing to say it aloud.

How long can it last?

COMING SOON

Chapter 28

Winter Romances