Harry Potter and the Brothers of the Wolves

Chapter VIII: Untimely Rifts

Over several days, Harry gained more and more details about what had happened in Diagon Alley. A group of hooded wizards or witches had arrived in the Alley, quickly capturing hostages and storming the street one shop at a time.

The group marched down until they reached Gringotts, where they had to fight through the whole night to capture. The goblins had resisted as long as they could, but they were eventually forced into the tunnels below. One of the goblins that were taken prisoner had been sent out of Diagon Alley to tell the wizarding world about the attack.

The goblin had been wiped of all memory, save the information that the attackers had expressly told it. He could only give accounts of what they looked like and what they had demanded. According to the goblin, the wizards were clad all in white, but their faces were covered by black masks.

Harry strongly suspected that this was Death Eater work, but nothing in the reports and accounts of the attack ever mentioned involvement of the Dark Lord.

During one of the times that Harry and Ginny were lounging around, Harry sat up and gasped.

Ginny rolled over to look up at him, asking casually, "What's the matter?"

"I knew about the attack before!" He explained about his vision that he had had before he had come to the Burrow. "Voldemort had said it would only have worked in the 'Alley.' This has to be his work," Harry concluded.

Ginny, who had been quiet the whole time, narrowed her eyes at him in an angered fashion. She jumped to her feet, pointing at him, and started yelling. "WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU?! You know your visions mean things, that they're real, but you never tell us! Do you know how many people will be killed if you don't start telling people about these things! Don't give me that bullshit that you can handle it by yourself!" She dropped to the ground, the frustration obviously making her weary from the pent up feelings just erupting out. "As mature as you are, Harry, you can certainly do with a little help."

Harry, mouth agape at this sudden and unexpected outburst, lay back and looked up at the clouds. That was the first time that they had anything possibly related to a fight. It felt strange, the whole fighting thing, especially since he didn't get a chance to express himself. He didn't feel in the wrong, and thought that Ginny was totally overreacting to a simple thing like a mistake, even if it did come at a cost like people's lives.

"Ginny, what was that?" he asked her, as though they were simply relaxing and discussing the weather.

"Sorry, I've just been feeling weird lately. As though I have a different personality. I even lashed out at Hermione for not passing me the butter at breakfast yesterday. Then I snapped out of it and ran away crying." She looked pained with trying to explain herself.

"Well, how long has this been going on?" Harry asked. This wasn't something normal that happened to normal people.

"By lately, I meant...the last six months?" she ended in a questioning note.

"Ginny! You reprimand me for not telling people about my visions but you've been hiding your split personality for the past six months?!" The anger that he had just suppressed came boiling back to the surface.

"Well, I told you just now, didn't I?"

"You did, but haven't you ever heard the phrase 'too little, too late?'" Harry was severely frustrated now.

"I don't need to take this!" she exclaimed, and, with that, she stormed off in a fit of rage.

Harry sat alone and dumbfounded. A fight. That's what he had just had. With Ginny. He had a fight with Ginny. The only people had ever fought with were the Dursleys, and Hermione that one time in third year... Weird.

The days flashed by with Harry feeling miserable and Ginny avoiding him more and more. The constant cold shoulder was getting to Harry, and all he wanted was for Ginny to want him once again. It seemed silly, really, that the only reason that they were at odds was because he had a vision and hadn't told anyone about it. Something that trivial, upsetting the perfect balance-that-was. It almost wasn't fair.

Harry went aimlessly about, constantly and unfortunately seeing Ginny over and over again, wherever he went. Every time he saw her, he was sadly reminded of the rift that had split between them. The rift was rather untimely, too, considering the chaos ensuing at Diagon Alley. The masked attackers had taken over all of Diagon Alley, and Knockturn Alley had been quickly taken without resistance.

It took no more than a few hours before everyone realized that, with the taking of Gringotts, one of the only wizard banks in Britain, these masked attackers had quickly and effectively frozen all financial transactions and withdrawals over the entire United Kingdom. Unless you had money with you or with a private banker, there was no chance of ever being in control of money again. Wizards and witches would soon have to resort to other sorts of dealings, such as bartering. As savage as that sounded, some were even more revolted with the idea of having to soon use Muggle money.

What with all the current events and drama happening around Harry, time went by quickly and the thirty-first of August was soon upon him...