The Necromancer's Deal

Chapter One

The Girl in Smoke

Winter had come early and with a vengeance, since last year no snow had come until after Christmas. As Harry awoke and put his glasses on, Ron watched the falling snow outside the window.

'Bloody hell,' Ron exclaimed. 'If this lot keeps up we'll be snowed in!'

'I wouldn't mind that much,' Harry said absently as he pulled on his pants and shirt.

It was Halloween and the castle had been decorated magnificently. Glowing Jack 'o' Lanterns floated above the staircases, black and orange confetti covered the tables in the Great Hall and sprinkled the floors. Festive streamers had also been hung and draped everywhere. Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way to the Gryffindor table for breakfast like they did every other day. Hermione received her copy of the Daily Prophet and opened it to read.

'Anything new today?' Harry asked interested.

'Unless you care about the wand market, nothing,' Hermione replied folding the paper and picking up her spoon.

'O, I dunno,' Ron said joking, 'the wand market might be a good read.'

'I seriously doubt that,' Seamus told him, sitting down next to Hermione.

The normal breakfast conversation followed. Ron had several complaints about double potions with the Slytherins. Harry wondered how they were going to get to herbology with all this snow. Hermione was just worried about getting all of her work done, as usual. But all three of them were looking forward to the Halloween feast that night.

Time came for them to venture into the wild morning for herbology. All of the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were frozen by the time they had piled in the warmth of the greenhouse. Unfortunately, Professor Sprout had decided that they could now move onto working with the Siveltoe, a snow dwelling plant that had to remain frozen to live. So they were all partnered up and sent outside to plant the Siveltoes and feed them and so forth. When the bell rang, they raced up to the castle, attempting to get warm on their way to Divination.

Today, Ron and Harry were temporarily glad that Professor Trelawney kept her room so stuffy and hot. Both warmed up quickly, feeling like they had melted. A crystal ball sat before Harry on the round, wooden table.

'Great,' he muttered to Ron, 'another in depth look into the fog. I'll be able to see when I'm going to die again for the five millionth time'

'At least you'll have a heads up,' Ron muttered back.

Harry pulled the crystal ball towards him and looked into it. Last time he had been instructed to do this, he and Ron had sat staring at the white mist the entire class time without seeing anything. But now, now something was actually happening. In the centre, the mist cleared, leaving a small oval of space. A figure stood there, it was a girl. A girl Harry's age stood with her back to him. Then she turned and Harry saw her face. It was sad and pale; her blue eyes shone brightly and were filled with tears. White-blond hair fell to her mid-neck and a few freckles dotted her nose. The girl wore a black, knee-length, wool skirt; a white button-down shirt; and long, black cloak whose hood was pulled up over her head. A black cat walked around her legs and the girl held something Harry couldn't make out.

She looked at him, her eyes piercing his. Her mouth formed the word 'Help' and then she vanished. Harry blinked and looked again, but the girl was gone.

'Well I found all the answers to the end of the year exams,' Ron said trying to keep a straight face. 'What'd you find?'

'Nothing,' Harry said. 'But I think these would be put to good use as weather predictors.'

At lunch, Harry didn't say anything about the strange girl in the crystal ball. Hermione asked how divination went. Ron said his usual about how it's a complete waste of time.

'How was Ancient Runes?' Harry asked her.

'O it was fine. Loads of homework though,' she informed him.

'Hah! We don't have any,' Ron said shoving a fork-full of potatoes in his mouth. 'Trelawney's class is easy, a waste of time, but easy.'

A burst of cold laughter came from the Slytherin table and Harry and Ron turned to see that it came from Draco Malfoy. Malfoy glanced in their direction and gave them a smirk then returned to laughing at whatever joke he had recently told.

'I swear I'm going to kill him someday,' Ron said under his breath.

'You know, Malfoy hasn't given us any trouble yet,' Hermione noticed. 'I think it's a record.'

'Weird,' Harry muttered.

It was odd, but when Harry had mad eye contact with Malfoy, the girl's face came into his memory again. And even though Harry didn't know this girl, he felt strangely connected to her.

The rest of his day passed uneventful. Snape gave them loads of homework, McGonagall had lectured them, and Binns had put them all to sleep again. But it was almost time for the Halloween feast. Harry was in the common room ten minutes before the feast, relaxing. He thought about the wonderful food he was about to eat. His thoughts were interrupted, however, by Ginny.

'Hi, Harry. I'm sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you could help me with a little of my Potions homework before dinner,' she said quietly.

'Sure,' Harry answered, sitting up and looking at her assignment.

Ginny sat down next to him, her heart racing. They were the only ones in the room and she felt a little strange sitting so close.

'Ah, I've found the problem here,' Harry smiled at her. 'You were adding crushed bat wings when you should have been adding crushed beetle eyes. Here let me see your quill.'

He reached out to take it and brushed her hand slightly. Ginny blinked. Don't say anything stupid she told herself. Harry scribbled down a few things for her then handed the parchment and quill back.

'Dinner time,' he said glancing at his watch. 'Shall we go?'

'Yes,' Ginny said standing up. 'And, thank you, Harry.'

'No problem.'

The Halloween feast seemed better than ever before. Harry loaded his plate and ate all the food so fast. He ate about seven plates full of food. Even the ghosts were in the Halloween spirit and flew around jumping out from behind the doors to scare someone who walked in late. Ron hardly spoke, and when he did it was with a mouthful of food. Everyone was happy and full.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were some of the last people to leave the Great Hall. Making their way up the grand staircase laughing and joking, something caught Harry's eye. There she was, the girl from his crystal ball. She was standing at the top of the stairs, for what reason, Harry didn't know. The two of them made eye contact and her eyes pierced his once again. He was suddenly struck with how pretty she really was.

Harry gasped, shocked.

'What is it, Harry?' Hermione asked.

But Harry couldn't answer, that girl was there, staring into his eyes. He knew it, he was connected to her, but how he didn't know. She broke her gaze finally and Harry could move.

'That girl,' he whispered.

'What gi...' Ron broke off having seen her. 'Never seen her before.'

Hermione went up to the girl. 'Hi, I'm Hermione Granger. We've never met before.'

She seemed slightly taken aback, as if no one had been nice to her before. 'Lana Black,' she responded.

'It's nice to meet you,' Hermione said. 'This is Ron Weasley and Harry Potter.'

Lana nodded at them each in turn. Harry noticed that she didn't look at his scar like everyone else did when meeting him. Somehow, this felt weird to him.

'It's nice to meet you all. I'm slightly new here,' she told them. 'I'm in Gryffindor, but I've forgotten where the common room is.'

'You're in Gryffindor?' Harry said. 'Well, we can show you where it is because we're in Gryffindor, too.'

Lana walked with them to the common room. She wasn't much for talking, but when she did speak, her conversations were full of knowledge and, it seemed to Harry, sadness. It felt like she had been around for a long time, though she was only sixteen. Hermione took Lana to the girls' dormitories and Harry and Ron didn't see them until morning.

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'So this is your new home, Lana,' Hermione said happily. 'Your trunk is already here.'

'Thank you, Hermione. Thanks for being kind to me, I've never really had friends,' Lana told her.

She took off her cloak and set it on her trunk. A black cat leaped up into her arms. Hermione smiled, finally a girl who can really be my friend she thought.

'So what you think, Harry?' Ron asked.

'Think about what?'

'About Lana, nice, eh?' Ron joked.

'Yea, she is,' Harry answered distantly.

Water, fire, heat, ice. How could Harry be feeling and seeing all these things at once? Where was he? A large stone room, with doors on the ceiling and one at the end. And a cliff, a huge drop was behind him. Water rushed in from both sides, fire burst before him from the stone flagged floor. He was freezing, yet boiling hot. Someone was with him, but he couldn't make out who it was. The figure of a tall man was ahead. A searing pain shot through his heart like a streak of lighting. Harry fell and the dream ended.

Pale sunlight fell through the windows and streamed across Harry's face. The light woke him and as he looked around the feeling of unease left him. Sitting up, he found that Ron wasn't there. Damnit he thought don't tell me I'm late for class. But just at that moment Ron came into the dormitory.

'Hey! You finally woke up,' he said.

'Yes. What day is it?' Harry asked as he put his glasses on and got out of bed.

'Saturday,' Ron replied absently while digging in his trunk for something.

Harry dressed and walked with Ron down to the Common Room. There, they found Hermione and Lana deep in conversation. She was dressed in Muggle clothing, jeans and a t-shirt. From what she had told them the night before, Harry figured she was a pure-blood witch.

'Sorry to interrupt your conversation, ladies,' Ron said. 'But I believe a game of Wizard Chess is in order here.'

He pulled out the chess board and he and Harry played a few games. Hermione watched while Lana read an oddly covered black book. Harry, Ron, and Hermione switched on and off playing.

'Come on, Lana,' Ron said after a while. 'Show us your skill on the Chess Board.'

She smiled, laughed, and sat down opposite Ron. 'Are you ready for this?' she asked.

'Hell, yea!' Ron exclaimed.

Twenty minutes later Ron sat back in his chair, shocked. 'I don't believe it!' he said over and over again. His hair was sticking straight up, having run his fingers through it in frustration. 'She beat me! Demolished me! Killed me!' he exclaimed.

'Ron, it's alright,' Hermione told him, trying not to laugh.

'Rematch?' Lana asked him innocently.

'Yea, but tomorrow, I'm tired.' Ron put his feet up on the table as an owl swooped in. It was black with flecks of the purest white. The owl came to rest on Lana's shoulder and stuck out its leg. She gently untied the letter from his leg and opened it. As she read, Lana's blue eyes grew so large, Harry was sure they would pop out of her head. Stifling a cry of horror, Lana dashed up the stairs to the girl's dormitories, the owl still on her shoulder. The door slammed in the distance and Harry turned to look at Ron and Hermione.

'What was that all about?' he asked perplexed.

'No idea,' came Hermione's answer.

'That was odd,' Ron said, still stretched out.

That night found Harry sitting in front of the fire trying to get done his monstrous homework assignment from McGonagall. He felt the edge of the couch move and looked up to find Lana sitting next to him. Her face seemed even paler and the freckles on her nose stood out. She was staring into the fire and didn't seem to notice that he was looking at her. Harry saw that she had a unique beauty about her. But another strange thing was Lana looked like she had been through some terrible event, like a survivor of a tragic battle. He fell in love with her at this moment as the fire reflected in her blue eyes. For some reason, he didn't want Lana to turn and face him; she was beautiful just as she was right then.

'Harry,' she said startling him.

'Y-yes?' he stammered.

'You have good friends. They're loyal to you, are they not?'

'Yes, they are. Ron and Hermione have seen me through a lot of hard times,' Harry told her, not really sure where this conversation was going. 'Don't you have friends?'

'I have one, but he's really my cousin,' Lana turned to face him now. 'Perhaps you know him. His name is...'

'Malfoy?! She's Malfoy's cousin!?' Ron exclaimed. 'How?'

'Their mothers were sisters,' explained to him. 'But it's not that bad is it?'

'Not bad?! He'll kill us for being friends with her. We'll never be able to date her...'

'Date her?!' Harry laughed. 'Ron, is there something you'd like to tell me?'

Ron blushed, 'No! Ok maybe I have a thing for her. But I'm just saying that if either of us did get involved with her, Malfoy would have us scalped!'

'Ron, relax. He probably doesn't even know that we're friends with her.'

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Lana hadn't expected the reaction she got from Harry when she told him who her cousin was. Then again, she didn't know about Harry and Ron's rivalry with Draco. She listened to Harry explain everything that had happened since he had arrived at Hogwarts six years before. So Lana now knew almost everything there was to know about him.

Harry found himself staring into Lana's eyes as he told her every detail of the events he had been through. She stared back, deeply engaged in his story. And as he finished telling of the past year's events, it seemed as though the two of them came to certain understanding of each other. Except, Lana had told Harry next to nothing about her; at least nothing of great importance.

'So what happened to your parents?' Harry asked her.

Lana fingered the glass charm that hung on a fine, silver chain around her neck. 'They were killed,' she said shortly.

'I'm sorry, you must miss them,' Harry said leaning closer to her.

'Never knew them,' she shook her head and turned to face the fire again. 'Strange, but I don't even have memories of them.'

Another thing we have in common Harry thought. Lana smiled at him and he smiled back. 'Why do you wear that necklace all the time, Lana?' Harry finally asked.

'O,' she said, the light in her eyes seemed to fade. 'I dunno, I think it was my mum's and now I have it. Just a sort of mother-daughter thing that you pass on, you know?'

Harry nodded, but something told him that this wasn't the truth, there was something more in that necklace; he could tell by the way she held it. However, he knew that it was none of his business and he would probably find out some time later. But for now, Harry occupied himself by twirling his quill in his fingers and watching Lana who had opened her strange black book again and was reading.

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It was an hour later when Harry was telling Ron about Lana and Malfoy. He would have told Ron more, but felt that was a conversation was of no importance to Ron.

'I just don't understand how something so sweet and innocent could be related to a self-centered, cold-hearted fiend,' Ron said sitting down on his bed.

'Is that how you see him, Ron?' Harry joked. 'Because I always he was such a nice young boy.'

'O shut it!' Ron threw a book at him.

Harry caught it and threw it back at Ron. 'I think you need this more than I do.'

Meanwhile, Hermione and Lana were both preparing for bed. While Hermione pulled her night gown on, Lana was wearing pyjama pants and a tank top.

'Aren't you freezing?' Hermione said incredulously.

'I don't get cold easily,' Lana shrugged. 'Harry's a good friend of yours right?'

'Yea, he, Ron and I have been good friends since first year,' Hermione said taking her hair down. 'Why do you...' Hermione smiled. 'You have a thing for him?'

'Of course not,' Lana said seriously. 'I was just wondering.'

They turned the lights off and each got into her separate bed. Lana drew the hangings shut around her four poster and lay there for a few hours, her eyes wide open. Then, slipping into one of her dreamless half sleeps, she found him.

So, Lanalin, you have new friends.

Yes, I do. And what is it to you?

Because you are myne. I own you, don't you remember?

You don't own me, Lunis. Andine owns me.

O I don't own you, yet. Now, my fair Lanalin, tell me, do you love your new friend?

What?

Harry Potter, your new friend. Do you love him?

Why do you care?

Because I love you, Lanalin, and I care about what you feel.

Well I don't love you. And leave Harry out of this.

Tell me! Do you love him?

Leave me alone!

I will never leave you alone. You are my Lanalin, you are my love.

Creep! Go away and stop talking to me! Let go of me!

Do you love him!?

Yes.