Harry Potter and the Crystalline Darkness

Chapter 6

Harry felt himself slowly rising towards consciousness and suppressed a moan. As he became more aware, his body was telling him that it hurt! He took in a deep shuddering breath.

"Harry?" he heard someone say softly and he slowly opened his eyes. He was very surprised to find that his Oversight had survived whatever had happened.

Sirius was sitting next to the bed, a look of worry and concern in his eyes. He smiled softly as he saw Harry's eyes open.

"How are you feeling?" he asked gently.

"Ter'ble," Harry mumbled. "Hurts."

Before Sirius could reply, Harry heard a low voice come from the other side of the room.

"Harry?" Remus said as rolled over and sat up on Ron's bed. He hadn't really been sleeping, just dozing lightly, and Sirius' voice had woken him. He stood up and leaned over Sirius' shoulder to smile at Harry. "It's good to see you awake."

Sirius reached over to the bedside table and picked up a couple of potion bottles. He handed them to Remus then sat on the edge of the bed and helped Harry to prop himself up.

"Drink these," Sirius said. "They'll help with the pain."

Harry nodded and Sirius gestured to Remus for the first one. After he had helped Harry drink both potions, he eased the young man back down into bed.

Harry grimaced as he lay back down. "Bleargh," he said blearily. "Tastes awful. Bet he does it on purpose."

Sirius and Remus chuckled.

"On the contrary, Mr Potter," came the dark, silky voice from the doorway, surprising them all. "Flavourings or sweetening of any kind simply render the potion ineffective."

"Mmph," Harry muttered in response as he succumbed to the demands of his body and the effects of the potions and slipped back into sleep.

When Harry woke again the room was dark but for the light of a small lamp on the bedside table. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around to see the energy colours of Snape sitting in the chair Sirius had been using the last time he woke. The Potions Master was reading a large, leather-bound book. As Harry watched he flicked his glance towards the bed and gave a start as he realized Harry was watching him.

"Good evening, Mr Potter," Severus said calmly. "How are you feeling?"

Harry drew in a deep breath and slowly pushed himself into a sitting position. "Okay, I think. My head still hurts a little and I feel pretty sore all over though."

Snape nodded and selected a potion vial from the number on the bedside table. "Drink this. It will help with the headache."

Harry nodded and accepted the vial, quickly drinking the potion down then screwing his face up at the taste. "Urgh, thanks, I think."

Snape's lips twitched. "The general soreness will go away fairly quickly I believe. It is a result of the convulsions you were having."

Harry stared at the Potions Master. "Convulsions?" he said in surprise.

Snape frowned. "How much do you..." He stopped and shook his head. "Never mind, the Headmaster does not want us asking you questions just yet and for once I agree with him."

Harry watched with growing surprise as Snape gave him a look that he could only interpret as compassion. He blinked a little to see such an expression from the Potions Master directed at him.

"I suggest you try to get back to sleep," Snape continued in a tone that was much closer to what Harry was used to hearing from the man.

Harry nodded and rolled onto his side and closed his eyes.

When he woke for the third time, he felt a lot better. He yawned and sat up, noticing that Professor Snape was correct. The soreness was mostly gone this morning and his head no longer hurt. He looked around and saw that he was alone in the room. He stretched and hauled himself out of bed, feeling a little guilty that Ron had been done out of his own bed because of him. He pulled some clothes out of his trunk and grabbed his towel. He hadn't really allowed himself to think about what had happened but he was aware that whatever it was it had left him smelling like he had just played a three hour Quidditch game and then gone on an extended romp with Fluffy. He padded down to hallway to the bathroom and stripped off the clothes he had been wearing the day before. He turned the shower on as hot as he could stand it and rather gratefully climbed in. He quickly washed himself down then stood for a few minutes under the stream of hot water before climbing out and drying himself off and getting dressed. He opened the bathroom door to find a smiling Sirius leaning against the opposite wall.

"Hey, Pronglet," the animagus said softly, using the pet name that he had used when Harry was a baby. Remus had let it slip during one of their mutual teasing sessions over chess and Harry had rather liked it. Sirius had taken to using it more and more often lately. "Good to see you up and about." His face fell a little. "You gave us a hell of a scare yesterday."

Harry swallowed and almost leapt into his godfather's open arms. He let himself be held for a while then pulled back a bit. Sirius let him go then seemed to see what Harry was wearing. He started grinning; the shirt was one Sirius had bought for him at a Muggle store at the start of the summer and had fiddled with until he found a charm that allowed Harry to see the writing on the front. It had a picture of a dragon on it and the writing said: "Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with tomato sauce."

"Nice shirt," Sirius said blandly.

Harry looked down and grinned. He copied his godfather's bland look. "Yeah, Charlie's going to love it."

Sirius snorted and gestured for Harry to put his things in his room. When he came back out Sirius threw an arm around his shoulders and they headed downstairs.

"Come on, Pronglet. You must be starving and Molly's been fussing around the kitchen since she got up this morning."

Harry laughed. "I think I could eat the whole house."

He said this as they walked into the kitchen where the whole family as well as Hermione, Neville, Luna, Remus and Professor Snape and Dumbledore were gathered. They all looked up as he walked into the room and Molly bustled over and fussed over him for a few minutes. When she finally let him sit down at the table, he deliberately sat down opposite Charlie. The elder Weasley was eyeing his t-shirt with amusement.

"Nice shirt, Harry," he said with a laugh. "Where can I get one like that?"

Harry laughed much to the relief of everyone else. "Ask Siri. He bought it for me."

There were chuckles from the other then Molly put a loaded plate in front of him and he attacked the food with relish. When he finished he looked up at the Headmaster.

"I...suppose you want to know what happened."

Dumbledore smiled gently. "Only if you are ready to tell us."

Harry thought for a moment. "Yeah, I guess so," he said with a sigh. "It's probably better to do it now so I don't forget anything."

Dumbledore nodded and gestured for him to begin. Sirius and Remus walked over and stood behind him, each placing a hand on one of his shoulders. He smiled weakly up at them then looked down at the table to marshal his thoughts.

"It was definitely Voldemort," he said bluntly, "but I'm not entirely sure what happened. At first all I got was pain and blackness then the blackness began to fade and became...something else. I could see a room. It...had a desk, so maybe a study or office of some kind. I think maybe Voldemort was in someone else's mind. Whoever it was tried to fight him." Harry paused and paled. "The next bit is really strange. It hurt so much that I'm not sure if I can accurately describe it. It kind of felt like Voldemort and the other person's mind became one then...I...I don't know. I heard Voldemort yell 'No! What have you done, foolish boy?' then it was like...something exploded inside my mind." Harry paused again. "I think that's when I passed out."

There was silence in the kitchen as everyone tried to process Harry description.

"Do you remember any more details of what the study looked like?' Snape asked in an odd tone.

Harry blinked and thought. He quickly described as much of the study that he could remember and Snape nodded.

"Lucius Malfoy's study," he said firmly. "I have been in there enough times to recognise it."

"So we're talking about Draco then," Remus mused.

"Yes," Snape replied. "Narcissa is travelling around Europe for the summer so it cannot be her."

"Without Draco?" Molly asked in surprise.

Snape froze for a moment. "Narcissa was...displeased with certain decisions that Draco made. While she has not precisely disowned him, she has been making her disgust quite plain."

Molly looked a little shocked then shook her head sadly.

"Do you think Malfoy managed to get rid of Voldemort?" Ron asked.

"No," Harry said firmly and everyone looked at him with surprise. He flushed then continued. "I...I don't even know how I know that but it's true. Voldemort isn't dead. I just don't know what happened to him. I don't think he died in there."

Dumbledore had been staring at the top of the table through all of this. Now he looked up at Harry. "You said it felt like the two minds, let's say they were Draco's and Voldemort's, become one. You heard Voldemort yell 'No! What have you done, foolish boy' and then there was some kind of explosion?"

Harry nodded, not quite sure where the Headmaster was going with this.

"And you are quite sure that Voldemort is not dead?"

Harry nodded again.

"Then I fear we must keep a very close eye on young Mr Malfoy," Dumbledore said sadly.

"Why? What's happened to him?" Remus asked.

"I can only speculate, Remus, and I am not willing to voice those speculations just yet." He shook his head sadly and stood up. "I must go. I need to start a few lines of inquiry." He stopped and looked kindly at Harry. "Get some rest. I do not believe this will happen again though I must ask you to keep your shielding up. You may still have some visions. If you do please let me know immediately."

Harry nodded and Dumbledore swiftly left the kitchen. A moment later they heard the sound of him apparating away. Professor Snape eyed Harry archly.

"I trust you do not need me to remind you how to shield," he said flatly.

"Er, no, sir," Harry said. He closed his eyes for a minute and put his shields up once more. He grimaced; the shields responded very sluggishly, a sign that his magic had been knocked around a bit.

Snape watched Harry with narrowed eyes. "Good," he said then his lips quirked as he glanced down at the shirt Harry was wearing. "Perhaps it would be wise not to give Draco ideas."

Harry blinked and looked down at his shirt, seeing the glowing letters with his Oversight. He looked up at the Potions Master and grinned. "Oh no, sir, it's alright. I'm crunchy but I don't really taste too good with tomato sauce."

Snape stared at him for a moment, his lips twitching and a looked of veiled amusement in his eyes, then his expression calmed into one of neutrality and he rose from the table. "I must return to Hogwarts. I trust my summer will be undisturbed from now on?"

"I'll try," Harry said quietly.

Snape nodded and apparated out of the kitchen.

******************************************************

Half an hour later, Harry and the rest of the 'younger set' were once again outside sitting under the trees in the Weasleys' yard. Harry was lying with his head in Ginny's lap and was half asleep, listening to the conversations of the others.

"Is it just me or did Snape act really weird during that whole thing?" Ron said idly.

"It was weird," Neville agreed. "But then again, maybe this is normal for Snape when he doesn't have to hide the fact that he's a spy and doesn't have to be a fake Death Eater anymore."

"Good point," Ginny said. "I mean, he wasn't what I would call nice but he was pretty neutral. Well, for him dealing with us anyway. And I really thought he was going to laugh at Harry's comment towards the end there."

The others chuckled.

"Yeah, he came pretty close," Bill said lazily. "Probably stopped because he thought we'd all die of shock if he actually did." Bill looked over at Harry. "You seem to get along pretty well with him," he observed.

"Um, yeah, I guess," Harry said a little uncomfortably. "We kind of had to get to know each other a bit better with the Occlumency work we did. I guess we kind of realised that a lot of the stuff we had thought about each other wasn't exactly right."

"Yeah, okay," Ron said with a bit of confusion. "But he was still a Death Eater. How can you actually trust him?"

Harry hesitated. "He told me why he became a Death Eater once. It...it made sense. You know, why he did what he did."

"So why did he become a Death Eater?" Hermione asked with interest.

Harry was silent for a moment. "I...I can't tell you, Hermione. He told me for a specific reason. I needed to know at that point." He hesitated. "It's not my place to tell it," he finished quietly.

Hermione scowled for a minute then her face cleared. "I guess you're right."

"So he had a good reason then?" Ron asked sarcastically.

"It's not like that, Ron!" Harry said harshly. "He...was young and he made a mistake. He wasn't that much older than we are now. How do you know you wouldn't have made the same mistake he did if you were in the same position? He's paid for that mistake too, don't forget."

Ron stared at Harry for a moment then nodded. "Sorry, mate. I guess you're right." He shuddered. "And I know you're right about paying for it. Having to work for that snaky bastard Voldemort, brrr!"

"I trust him, alright?" Harry said with an air of finality.

There were murmurs from the others and silence settled for a while. Harry found himself falling halfway asleep again as Ginny ran her hand gently through his hair.

"Harry?" she asked softly. "Why does Sirius call you Pronglet?"

Harry opened his eyes and looked up at her with a shy grin. "Siri said he used to tease my Dad by calling me that when I was a baby. I...kind of like it, makes me feel like I'm a bit closer to my Dad." He blushed. "I guess that sounds a little silly?"

Charlie chuckled. "Nah, Harry, sounds pretty good to me."

Fred and George, who had been plucking blades of grass and trying to throw them up everyone's noses, suddenly froze.

"Pronglet did you say, ickle Harrykins?" Fred said in surprise.

"As in little Prongs, son of Prongs?" George continued in disbelief.

"As in Mr Prongs of Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs?" Fred finished.

"Okay, Harry, spill! If Mr Moony is Remus and Mr Padfoot is Sirius, does that mean Mr Prongs was your Dad? And who is Mr Wormtail?" George said excitedly.

Harry laughed. "Yeah, Prongs was my Dad." He paused and his face darkened. "Wormtail was Peter Pettigrew, also known as Scabbers."

Hermione and Ron scowled at the mention of Wormtail and Bill and Charlie watched the change of expression with surprise. Percy looked slightly dumbfounded.

"Scabbers?" he said frowning. "I know you came home after third year without him and with Pig instead, Ron. Mum and Dad said something about Scabbers dying but they wouldn't say anymore. What actually happened?"

Ron blinked. "Didn't we tell you?" he asked in surprise then comprehension dawned on his face. "Oh no, we wouldn't have. You didn't really know what was going on and we couldn't tell you about Sirius at that point anyway. And after that you were working at the Ministry and were always pretty busy." He settled himself more comfortably on the grass and proceeded to tell Percy who his rat had actually been and what Wormtail had done.

"You mean...he...the rat...betrayed..." Percy seemed almost inarticulate and Penelope was forced to lean over and whisper in his ear to get him to stop. Percy sat silent and white-faced for a moment then looked over at Harry. "I'm sorry," he blurted out.

Harry raised an eyebrow at Percy. "What for? You didn't know. How could you? Wormtail fooled a lot of people, including Dumbledore, so don't apologise. You have nothing to be sorry for."

Percy subsided into silence and leaned against his fiancée, still staring a little wild-eyed at the ground. Harry looked over at Ron.

"Speaking of apologies," he said a little sheepishly, "I'm sorry for doing you out of your bed last night, Ron."

Ron laughed. "Don't worry about it! We were more concerned about you. We all fell asleep in the living room anyway."

"After Remus had told us off," Neville said with a laugh.

"Remy told you off?" Harry said with surprise. "Why?"

Sheepish laughter came from the others.

"Er, we were sort of putting together a half-baked plan to go and belt the living daylights out of Malfoy and he heard us," Ron said.

Harry sputtered with laughter. "I'm not surprised he told you off then! What exactly were you planning on doing?"

"Well, we hadn't really gotten too far when Remus stopped us, so nothing much," Ron explained.

"We did find out Luna's animagus form though," Ginny said with a grin.

Harry looked over at the Ravenclaw girl with delight. "Really, what is it?"

Luna smiled dreamily and where she had been sitting the white mink suddenly appeared.

"She's a mink," Hermione said eyeing the furry creature.

As Harry watched the mink disappeared and Luna reappeared in its place.

"Well done," he said and Luna smiled at him and waved airily.

There was short silence then Neville spoke. "What do you think he's done? Draco, that is."

Harry sighed. "I think he tangled with Voldemort somehow. I'm just not sure if he won or lost."

"You could always ask him," Bill said with a grin.

"Yes, that would go down well," Ron said with amused sarcasm. "Let me see, you could send him a letter. Dear Draco, Has Voldemort come knocking on your brain? Did you win or lose? Love and kisses, Harry. I can see him answering that one!"

Everyone burst out laughing and agreed that the idea wasn't a very practical one.

"What about Millicent?" Ginny asked.

"What about her?" Harry said, slightly baffled.

"Didn't she say she had a mutual friend with Pansy Parkinson?" Ginny replied with exasperation. "Pansy was always pretty friendly with Draco. Maybe we could do something there?"

Harry thought about that for a while. "Hmm, it's a good idea," he said finally. "But how do we do it without tipping Pansy off? If it were Millicent and Pansy, I could see Millicent managing it but her friend might not be so obliging."

"Millicent couldn't do it herself?" Bill asked.

"Probably not," Harry replied. "She and Pansy kind of came down on different sides last year. Millicent sided with us, Pansy with Draco. I don't think Pansy's the forgiving type."

Ginny grimaced. "Hmm, good point. Well, I think I agree with Professor Dumbledore then. I don't see how we can find out what's happened."

Harry grumbled to himself for a moment. "Yeah, I know. It's just really annoying knowing that Voldemort's out there and we don't know what the hell he's doing." He paused and continued in a cranky tone. "And I'm really tired of being the one to find out the hard way. This was supposed to be a good summer."

"Isn't it?" Hermione said with surprise.

Harry paused. "Well, yeah, I suppose it is in comparison to my last few summers."

"Well, anything would better than last summer," Ron said with a shudder.

"True," Harry replied. "And at least I've got Siri and Remy this summer to help out when things get bad."

"That's right," Hermione said soothingly then she frowned slightly. "How's Sirius doing with his preparation for his Astronomy classes?"

"Pretty good, I think," Harry said then laughed. "He ran around in a complete panic at first but then Professor McGonagall sent over Professor Sinistra's lesson plans and syllabus and he calmed down a bit. I think he's planning on sticking pretty closely to what she taught, with the exception of making sure everyone knows where the Dog Star is."

Everyone laughed and Ron shook his head. "It's hard to think of Sirius being a teacher."

"Yeah, I know," Harry replied, smiling. "But I think he'll enjoy it. I don't think he'll be there for a long time though."

"He'll get too restless after a while," Ginny said calmly. "I think he only took the job because of you, Harry."

"Yeah, I know," Harry said softly. "And it's probably selfish but I'm glad. I want Siri to be there."

"It's not selfish," Ginny said firmly. "You deserve it. He deserves it." She grinned. "Besides I think it'll be fun having Sirius as a teacher. I know I'm going to enjoy Astronomy classes."

"You're going to take Astronomy at NEWT level then?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah," Ginny replied. "I've always liked it and I'm sure I got good marks in my OWL."

"Shouldn't you have gotten your results by now?" Harry asked.

Ginny scowled slightly. "They're delayed. There's been a bit of upheaval in the Ministry with the combination of Fudge disappearing and the battle with Voldemort and it's taking them longer than they thought to get all of the results processed. We should get them in the next couple of days."

"I wonder what happened to Fudge," Harry mused. "And if he really was a Death Eater."

"He wasn't," Percy said abruptly and everyone looked at him.

"Really?" Harry asked.

"He wasn't a Death Eater," Percy replied firmly. "He wasn't very bright and he was easily intimidated by Lucius Malfoy but he definitely wasn't a Death Eater."

"Well, I suppose that's one thing in his favour," Neville said dryly.

Harry rolled over onto his side. "Percy? Can I ask you a question?"

Percy looked at him with surprise. "Of course, Harry."

"Why didn't you believe me? Why did you side with Fudge?"

A thick silence descended and a few nervous looks were exchanged among the others. This was one question that hadn't yet been asked of Percy. No one among the Weasleys had wanted to rock the boat that much. Percy sighed and Penelope placed a hand on his knee and whispered in his ear. He turned and smiled at his fiancée then looked back at Harry.

"I...did believe you," he said heavily.

"What?" Ron exclaimed, appalled. "You believed him and then you and Fudge spend an entire year making his life miserable! What the hell did you think you were doing?"

Percy looked decidedly shame-faced. "I...I..." He broke off and sighed. "I know, it was stupid." He looked at Harry earnestly, as though trying to make Harry understand. "I did believe you, Harry; I just didn't want to believe you. I...I like my world neat and orderly and a neat and orderly world doesn't include Voldemort. And I...I wanted to succeed." He ran a hand through his hair. "I said some terrible things to Dad that year but the thing is at least some of them were true. Dad's obsession with Muggles has held him back; at least it did in Fudge's Ministry. It was the reason we were always so poor." He gave a small laugh. "Ron's always had it the worst but all of us wore hand-me-downs except for Bill."

Harry snorted. "You know the funny thing about that? I would have traded every galleon in my vault for what you have, Percy. I wore hand-me-downs all my life, at least until Hagrid came and got me. My school uniforms were the first new clothes I'd ever had. But I was always envious of Ron."

"You were?" Ron said in a baffled tone. "Why? You're the one with all the money."

"Yeah, but Ron, you're the one with the family," Harry said patiently. "Which is something I never had."

"Past tense," Hermione observed quietly as Ron looked startled.

Harry looked over at her and smiled. "Yeah, past tense. I have a family now. Siri and Remy." He laughed. "And the Weasleys. I know Mr and Mrs Weasley gave up my guardianship in favour of Siri but that was only officially. Unofficially they still consider me one of theirs."

"Do you ever wish you had your parents back?" Neville asked hesitantly.

Harry was silent for a while. "Yeah, of course, but it's not going to happen." An odd expression crossed his face. "You know Voldemort offered me that in First Year."

"What? When?" came the exclamations from the others.

"When we went after the Philosopher's Stone. Voldemort offered to bring my parents back if I joined him and gave him the Philosopher's Stone."

"Were you tempted?" Percy asked.

"A little," Harry admitted. "But then I realised that he couldn't do that. He couldn't bring them back." He shook his head. "Anyway, that's beside the point. Perce, will you do something for me?"

"Of course," Percy said, a little thrown by the sudden change in conversational tack.

"Next time I tell you something, will you believe me and say that you believe me until you can actually prove that I'm lying?" Harry asked dryly.

Percy hung his head, his expression a mix of shame and growing humour. "Yes, Harry. I think I can do that. And I am sorry. Sorry that I didn't stand up for you and sorry that we made everything so difficult for you that year."

"Thanks, Perce," Harry said. "And your apology is accepted."