The Music Box

Chapter Seven: Godric=s Hollow

 

 

Harry felt the pull behind his navel accompanied by the whirl of color and he knew instantly that had gone through the portkey. All he could do was hold on to Ginny as tightly as he could. But as soon as it began, Harry and Ginny fell to the ground with a thump.  

“Ugh!” he said, rubbing his elbow as he sat up, “And you call me crazy? Are you okay?”“Yes.” she replied. Harry gave her a piercing look.

“Well, you would have never let me go with you if I had asked!” she said, smiling weakly.           

“And for good reason,” Harry said angrily helping her up. “This could be dangerous!”

“Well, now you are less likely to put yourself in that sort of situation, now aren't you?”Ginny said, giving him an I-told-you-so kind of look he usually saw Hermione give to Ron.    Harry started to say something else, but decided to keep his mouth shut. He knew it was pointless to argue with her. She would have never agreed to go back without him. He thought it best to get adjusted to his surroundings before attempting another row with her. Harry scanned the area. It looked like they were outside a small village in the countryside. Harry could see a small sign with the name of the town up ahead. Although the moon was full, it was still dark now and difficult to see from where they were.  

“Wands out Ginny, just in case.” he said, pulling out his own wand. “Lumos!” 

Ginny followed close behind him as they walked over towards the sign.

“Where do you think we are anyways?” she asked quietly. Harry stopped in his tracks in front of the sign. He raised his lit wand up to the carvings in which read: WELCOME TO GODRIC'S HOLLOW  

“I'm . . . home.” 

“What?” Ginny said.  

“I'm home. This is where my parents lived, where I lived before they died.” Harry said in wonderment. 

“How do you know?”

“Hagrid told me once in first year.”  

 “I wonder why Sirius would bring us here,” Ginny thought aloud.  

“He must think that the vault is here. It must be at my house!” Harry said excitedly. He was going to see his home for the first time in fourteen years.  

“Welcome home, Harry,” a familiar voice echoed behind them.  

“Sirius!” Harry turned around, hugging his Godfather.  

“Hello Ginny,” Sirius gave her a curious look. Ginny gave him her most innocent smile.

“I didn't want him to go alone.” 

“ I see,” Sirius said, giving Harry a sideways look. Harry shook his head in warning.

“I wouldn't argue with her if I were you, believe me.” Sirius gave them a wry smile.

“I have no intention to. I fact, I’m glad you have joined us, my dear. We can use all the help we can get.” Ginny gave them a blinding grin.  

“Shall we get going? The cottage is some ways ahead,” Sirius said.  

“Is the portkey hidden well enough?”  

“Yes, the grass is pretty tall where we landed,” Harry said.

A question popped into Ginny's head.

“How did you manage to get a portkey anyways?”  

“Lets just say, I still have friends at the Ministry,” Sirius said with a wink.              Ginny gave him a small giggle. The moon was shining full by now, easily leading them down the road to the Potters’ cottage. They did not however, notice a rat scurry across the road far behind them.         Harry stood there with his mouth gaped open. There was nothing left of the cottage but some of the pieces of the wood frame and the foundation. Harry could see behind the house that the garden was large and overgrown, now partially into the cottage. But for the most part, it looked as though it had been burnt to the ground. Harry's legs shook hard. If Sirius and Ginny weren't there to hold him up, he would have surely fallen to the ground. Sirius checked his watch. Looking about the wreckage, he imagined his mother making dinner, with a baby Harry playing on the floor near her in the kitchen. His father was home now, and he came up behind her to kiss her. His dad picked up baby Harry; throwing him up into the air, baby Harry laughing at him as he did. But then Harry's thoughts became dark. Wormtail told them lies as their secret-keeper, all the while being a spy for Voldemort. He was the one who told him where they were. Voldemort coming to the house one night, killing his father instantly. Harry's mother running up the stairs with baby Harry in her arms, chanting something he couldn't understand under her breath. She was able to kiss baby Harry one last time before she ended up sacrificing herself to save him. She lay dead on the floor, Voldemort’s wand raised and now pointing at him . . .  

“AGGGHHHH!” Harry fell to his knees. The searing pain from his scar was intolerable.           The memories that were evoked were too powerful. He clutched his forehead in agony. “Harry!” Ginny screamed as he fell. The scream woke him from his trance.             Sirius knelt down next to him.

“Harry, are you alright?” 

“I saw them die,” Harry said, still a bit shaky and disoriented.  

“Are you sure you can handle this?” Sirius said. “You don't have to do this you know.”             “Yes I do,” Harry said wiping the stinging tears from his eyes. “I can handle it, I just let the pain get the best of me for a moment.”  

Ginny gave him a disapproving look.             Harry got up and dusted himself off.

“I swear that I’ll be okay. Now lets go look for the vault.” They had rummaged in the moonlight over the property for quite a while. Harry noticed that Sirius checked his watch again. Over and over they swept through the house and grounds, but nothing. Harry had nearly given up hope when . . .  

“Hey! I found something!” Ginny said excitedly from the garden. Harry and Sirius ran over to her. She showed them an overgrown rosebush, and beneath it was lay a door to an underground bunker.  

“This is it,” Sirius said undaunted, as he and Harry crouched down in front of it. “Do you have the key?”

“Yeah, I have it right here,” Harry said, pulling out the key from his pocket. Sirius took the key from Harry and tried the lock, but the door wouldn't open.  

“What's wrong? Isn't it the right key?” Ginny asked now standing behind them.  

“Yes, it is but…” he started with a puzzled look on his face. “It requires another key.”             “What do you mean another key?” Harry said.  

“There is another keyhole, just there further down on the door,” Sirius pointed at a larger hole unlike any keyhole Harry had ever seen.  

“That doesn't look like a keyhole,” said Harry. Sirius smiled at him.

“Not all keys are made like this one,” he held up the key to Harry, who was obviously irked.

“But we only have the one key!” Harry balked. Sirius sat back and laughed again to himself as he did a few weeks ago in the Shrieking Shack.

“Like I said before, she was a smart one, Lily was,” checking his watch again.  

“Sirius, why do you keep looking at your watch?” Ginny asked the question that Harry had forgotten to ask in all the confusion.        Sirius looked up at the moon.

“It's a full moon tonight. I can't leave Moony alone for too long.”  

“He's here?” Ginny said nervously.  

“Yes, but he is tied up so that he can't hurt anyone,” he handed the key back to a frowning Harry. “Well, it doesn't look like we are going to get the vault open tonight. We will have to try again once we have found the other key.”  

Harry was disappointed. He wanted so much to see inside the vault. He was so close to revealing more of his mother's past, only to be foiled like this. But it was then that he realized that he wasn't the only one who would be foiled.     A grin crept onto Harry's face as he turned to Ginny and Sirius.

“You know what this means?” Ginny thought a moment and grinned back at him.

             “You-know-who can't get to it either! They only think there is one key!”  

“How do you know that?” Sirius asked her.  

“I had another dream last night,” Ginny said excitedly.

“They are only looking for one key, not two!”  

“And who knows where it could be!” Harry added.  

“Very interesting,” Sirius said. “You know Harry, your mother was a seer. That is how she helped the Aurors track down the dark wizards. It's quite obvious to me that you have inherited some of your mother’s talent.” 

Harry thought about this. He couldn't imagine his mother as a seer. He laughed to himself. What would Professor Trelwaney think? Sirius turned to Ginny.

“As for you my dear, you can probably chalk up those dreams of yours to being another victim of Voldemort. But either way, I will admit that you both possess talents that can prove in the future to be quite useful to us all,” Sirius smiled at them both.  

“Then it is a shame that neither one could have seen this coming,” said a greasy voice behind them.     All three of them turned around to see Peter Pettigrew and two death eaters come out of the dark trees behind them.            Immediately, Pettigrew seized Ginny, while the Death Eaters, shaded by darkness, turned their wands on Harry and Sirius.

“And now Potter, you will give me the key.” 

“Don't do it Harry!” Ginny said struggling. Harry and Sirius winced as she managed to knee Wormtail hard in the groin and began running back towards them.  

“STUPIFY!” said one of the Death Eaters. Ginny fell instantly to the ground. Harry thought the voice sounded eerily familiar to him. The other Death Eater pulled a stunned Ginny from the ground and again held her hostage.            Pettigrew caught his breath again after a moment. He was still hunched over in pain.

Once he righted himself, he said again, “Now Potter, you will give me the key!”             Harry growled, “You will have to kill me first!”

Wormtail smiled heinously at him, “I wouldn't dream of it. After all, you have saved my life. But alas, I feel I must prove my point to make you understand the seriousness of this situation.”  

Harry only caught a glimpse of the knife before it was driven into Ginny's back.  

“NO!”

Ginny screamed in agony.  

“Harry!” Harry saw the light go out of her eyes instantly. The Death Eater let go of her. “Ginny,” Harry said softly. He looked at Pettigrew, who was still half-coughing and half-cackling from the pain.  

“You killed her!” Harry screamed angrily, blinking back the tears that would refuse to stop

coming.  

“Not yet, Potter. You see, it all really depends on you. The blade was poisoned, running through her veins as we speak. You have less than 15 minutes before it will completely kill her. So, the longer you wait, the less chance you have to save her.”  

“You deceitful little slime ball!” Sirius snarled.  

“Careful Padfoot, your wasting time. Pray you don't waste anymore,” he turned back to

Harry.

“Again, the key please.” Harry clutched the key in his hand.

“No,” he said. “I know that even if I give you the key, you can't possibly let us go. I'm a bigger prize to you than any key.”         Something caught Harry's eye in the trees outside the

garden behind Pettigrew. Pettigrew gave them another fiendish smile.

“You’re right, my boy,” he turned to the Death Eaters. “Leave the girl to die. We will take them both to the Dark Lord. He will decide their fate.” At that moment, the Death Eater that had stabbed Ginny was plowed down from the backside by an enormous grey wolf. Pettigrew and the other death eater were taken aback for a moment. Sirius grabbed Harry by the arm.

“Run Harry,” he whispered. “Take Ginny and run. Moony and I will handle this.”             Before Harry could even argue, Sirius transformed into a huge black dog and bounded for Pettigrew.           Harry scrambled over to Ginny's crumpled body in the chaos of the moment. The Death Eater with the familiar voice began to come at them.  

“Expellimarmus!” Harry shouted. The man flew back about five meters near the edge of the trees. Harry heard a well-known shout coming from the struggling Pettigrew, as Sirius attacked him. “Morsmordre!” 

The green smoke rose into the air creating the Dark Mark that Harry was all too familiar with. He was calling on the other Death Eaters for help. Harry jumped up, threw Ginny’s lifeless body over his shoulder and ran. Harry felt the branches and bushes whipping him in the face, but he didn't care. He had to get her back to the portkey, back to Hogwarts. He heard someone following closely behind them, closing in. The dead weight of her body was beginning to slow him down, making him even more determined than ever to reach the portkey. Harry could see the Godric's Hollow sign up ahead. He was almost there. Adrenaline pumping hard, Harry raced to the grass where the portkey was hidden. He was only a meter or two away when he caught his foot on a small boulder and fell face first into the ground. Harry got up quickly but it was too late. The Death Eater was pointing a wand at his face.  

“Hold it right there, Potter,” said the Death Eater in the cold familiar voice. Harry realized who it was even before he pulled down his hood. It was Professor Snape.  

“It's you!” Harry gasped. “You're still a Death Eater?”  

“There is no time to explain,” Snape said, quickly kneeling down to them.  Snape pulled out a vial from his robes. “Give this to her. It will stop the poison from going further into her bloodstream.”

Harry wasted no time. He tilted Ginny's head back and forced the liquid down her throat. Harry didn't know what to say to him. There was no one in the world aside from Malfoy that loathed him more than Professor Snape, yet why is he helping them?  

“I can't thank you enough, but I must ask why are you doing this?”

“Don't ask questions, Potter,” Snape snapped at him, his dark eyes wincing with hatred. “I'm not doing this for you!”   Snape pulled out something else from his robes. It was a letter. “Take this with you. Give it only to Dumbledore. Now go,” he said pointing at the portkey.             “But what about Sirius and Lupin?”  

“Now Potter,” Snape said pointing his wand again at them. “Before I change my mind!”Harry started for the portkey, dragging Ginny the rest of the way. When Harry looked back up at Snape, he had disappeared. Ginny was coming to.

“Harry?” she whispered. Harry touched her still pale face.

“You’re going to be okay. Now hold on.”      Harry held Ginny to him fast and grabbed the portkey.