The Final Reckoning

Chapter Five: An Unexpected Visitor

'Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!'

The red haired woman threw her body in front of the bassinet; tears ran down her face, but her brilliant green eyes were fiery with defiance.

'Stand aside, you silly girl...stand aside now...'

The dark wizard wore a hood, and it obscured his features; his right hand was outstretched, his wand pointing at the woman's throat.

'Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead...have mercy...'

The red haired woman closed her eyes, opened them...and they were bright brown, not green...

'Avada Kedavra!'

A flash of green light shot from the dark wizard's wand, striking the woman in the chest. She managed to scream as the spell struck her, flinging her backward...

Ron sat up sharply in bed, breathing heavily. He was in his room; it was a week into Harry's stay at the Burrow.

'Ron?'

Ron blinked and shook his head.

'Ron, are you okay?'

A light switched on in the bedroom, and Ron squinted, turning his head in the direction of Harry's voice. Slowly, the black haired boy came into focus; he had put on his glasses and was gazing at Harry with concerned eyes. Brilliant green eyes...

'I'm fine,' said Ron at once, blinking again. 'Just...a bad dream.'

A bad dream about a woman with eyes just like Harry. Harry's mother...

And Voldemort. Voldemort killing her. But just before she died, her eyes were brown, not green...

'Ron?'

'I'm fine,' Ron repeated. 'Sorry I woke you.'

'You sure you're okay?' said Harry. 'Look, I've got some Dreamless Sleep Draught if you need it--'

'No,' said Ron quickly. 'No thanks, that stuff leaves me groggy.' Without thinking he reached into his nightstand drawer and pulled out his quill and dream diary and opened it.

'What are you doing?'

Ron froze and looked at Harry. 'Uh...just...well...homework,' he said lamely.

'Homework?' said Harry.

'Yeah, you know, the dream diary,' said Ron quickly, his mind buzzing to come up with. 'For Divination--'

'Ron, we don't take Divination anymore,' said Harry pointedly.

'Right, we don't,' said Ron, wanting to kick himself.' But, well, I was sort of thinking...uh...you know, taking it again...maybe...'

'Ron,' said Harry.

'What?'

'You're a really shitty liar,' said Harry.

Ron's shoulders sagged.

'Tell me,' Harry demanded. 'What's going on with you? You think I haven't noticed you writing in that thing every time you wake up? You have weird dreams all the time, you talk in your sleep--'

'I do?' said Ron, horrified.

'Yeah, you do,' said Harry.

'Shit,' said Ron, burying his face in his hands. 'Sorry. Sorry. I've been keeping you awake, haven't I?'

'Not all the time,' said Harry. 'I'm a pretty heavy sleeper; it's generally only when you yell that I wake up.'

Ron groaned. 'Look, I'm sorry. I...I can't help it. My stupid dreams are really vivid and--'

'So take some Dreamless Sleep Draught,' said Harry. 'I know Madam Pomfrey gave you some.'

'I can't take that stuff,' said Ron. 'I can't.'

'Why not?' said Harry, bewildered. 'You need sleep, Ron--you don't need to have dreams all the time--'

'Yeah, I do,' said Ron sharply.

Harry stared at Ron. 'What are you talking about?' he asked.

'Shit,' said Ron again. 'I didn't want to tell you--'

'Tell me what?'

'You already have enough crap to deal with, you don't need my problems on top of it--'

'Just tell me, would you?'

'It's nothing--'

'Ron!' Harry yelled. 'Tell me or I'll hex you into next week.'

'You can't use magic outside of school yet,' Ron retorted.

'Watch me,' said Harry, and he yanked his wand from beneath his pillow and held it up.

Ron scowled. 'Fine,' he said. 'I didn't want to tell you because...because I didn't want to bother you with it--'

'Bugger that,' said Harry. 'We're mates, okay? Mates tell each other stuff. And maybe knowing about your problems will keep my mind off my own.'

Ron looked at Harry and swallowed.

'I hadn't thought about it that way,' said Ron.

'Of course you haven't,' said Harry, folding his arms across his chest. 'You and Ginny are too busy fussing over me--'

'We don't fuss,' said Ron defensively.

'No, you just make sure I don't have a moment to sit down,' said Harry. 'I know what you're doing. Trying to keep me busy so I don't have time to brood about...her, and about the trial and about Voldemort.'

'Well, excuse us for looking out for you--'

'I never said I didn't appreciate it,' said Harry. 'I do. And...yeah, okay, it stinks and I get depressed but...shit, Ron, if I didn't off myself over Sirius and my parents I'm not going to off myself over Susan.'

Ron pursed his lips. It was the first time Harry had said Susan's name since he'd arrived. It was, in fact, the first time Harry had even mentioned her, but not, Ron knew the first time he'd thought about her. One day while they were attempting to do one of their seven Potions essays, Ron had gotten up to make tea and saw Harry gazing at a photograph of himself and a familiar looking auburn-haired girl. Harry had felt Ron's eyes on him and had quickly shut the book, and neither of them had said a word about it. And it was true - he and Ginny had rather gone out of their way to fill Harry's days with as much activity as possible, whether it was degnoming the garden, flying on their brooms and practicing Quidditch moves, or heading down to the lake for a swim.

'Are we that obvious?' Ron asked sheepishly.

'Blatantly,' said Harry. 'Subtle isn't in your vocabulary, you know.'

Ron laughed. 'That's what Ginny said.'

'Ginny's a smart girl, then,' said Harry. 'But enough about me. Tell me what this is all about.'

Ron swallowed. 'Okay,' he said. 'But if I tell you, you have to promise not to laugh or freak out or get shirty, all right?'

'Why would I--'

'Just promise?'

'Okay.'

Ron took a deep breath. 'So, uh, when you were out of it in the hospital wing this last time, I had a talk with Dumbledore. About you, for a bit...you know, about your mental thing with Voldemort. He said that I got through to you when...when Voldemort got inside your head that time, and that's why he couldn't possess you.'

'I know all that,' said Harry.

'Yeah, well, we got to talk about...me, too,' said Ron. 'Remember, that room in the Riddle House where we found the book, and...and I acted all weird about it?'

'Yeah.'

'Well, I...I'd had a dream about that room, and the book being there and...I'd been having other dreams, too, about Eddie, and in the dreams Eddie changed into Bellatrix Lestrange, only I didn't know that's what was happening, I just thought they were bad dreams...and last summer I had these visions. You know, from the brain attack thing...and...well...Dumbledore thinks it's possible I could be...'

Ron's voice trailed off. Every time he said it out loud, it sounded ridiculous. Far more ridiculous than just thinking about it.

'What?' Harry urged.

'A Seer,' Ron mumbled.

For a long moment, neither of them spoke. Ron stared at his large hands for several seconds, then looked up at Harry, whose eyes were wide.

'You think it sounds crazy, don't you?' said Ron.

'I...I dunno,' said Harry. 'I mean...well...it's a bit...weird, isn't it?'

'It may not be true,' said Ron quickly. 'Dumbledore isn't really sure--he just asked me to explore the possibility. That's why I'm writing in this diary, see? Trying to figure out if my dreams mean anything.'

'Do they?'

Ron groaned. 'I don't know. I mean, I've written everything down as carefully as I can and I look over the damn thing a lot, you know, because Dumbledore wants me to look for patterns and recurring themes and what but...it just seems barmy, doesn't it? Me, a Seer?'

Harry eyed Ron as though he was considering. 'Not necessarily,' he said.

'Yeah, well,' said Ron, 'the only reason I'm exploring this at all is because it could be helpful for you. You know, with...with fighting Voldemort.'

Harry nodded. 'I'll need all the help I can get on that one.'

'Yeah, well, I'm not sure how having sex dreams about my girlfriend is helpful to you,' said Ron, without thinking.

'Oi, Ron, too much information,' said Harry, holding up his hands.

'Sorry.'

'Now that you mention it, though, you were yelling her name the other night,' said Harry. 'Bloody disturbing way for me to wake up.'

'Shut up.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day Harry and Ron revisited the topic of Ron's potential Seer gifts only long enough to both agree not to tell Ginny as of yet. It wasn't Harry's place to do so, and Ron wasn't ready for her to know.

But even as they both got dressed for another day of seemingly endless degnoming, Ron couldn't help but remember the woman in his dream from the night before. Harry's mother, with her green eyes. But then her eyes had been bright brown, the same brown as Ginny's...and Voldemort had hit her with a Killing Curse...

Ron shuddered as he followed Harry out of his room and down the stairs, and pushed the image of the dream from his mind. There were good things to think about today, and he'd think on those instead. They'd have a swim later - it was already gearing up to be a sweltering day - and play Quidditch in the early evening, before dinner. Then some chess or Gobstones later that night. They'd tried to devote some evenings to homework, but without Hermione there to nag them it was nearly impossible to stay focused.

And of course, there was Hermione to think about. She'd be coming to the Burrow soon - in just under a week.

Harry received a second visit from Lupin that day, informing him of the trial date for Lucius Malfoy: 24 July. The very day Hermione was to arrive. Harry was to visit with the Chief Prosecutor on the evenings of 28 and 29 July for witness preparation, in which the Chief Prosecutor would go over all the questions he planned to ask Harry on the stand.

Ron had planned to start Apparition training right after the Burrow wards had been completed, but Mr. and Mrs. Weasley agreed that it might be better for him to wait until after Harry testified; then, Ron and Harry could do the training together. Ron was fine with this; he was in no hurry to start training (he'd heard plenty of horror stories from his brothers about splinching) and he hadn't much relished the idea of leaving Harry by himself in the evenings, anyway.

The boys and Ginny received frequent postcards and letters from Hermione.

According to her, the holiday with her parents was going along swimmingly; the South of France was beautiful and the weather fine; the food was divine; her parents were healthy and still had no memory of being attacked by Death Eaters. She'd been reading The Daily Prophet and was horrified to learn that Harry was being called as a witness in the trial. Hermione didn't know that Harry had left the Dursleys, as that information was being kept quiet; thus her letters were also filled with indignation that Harry was stuck with those 'horrible people.' Of course there were the usual reminders to stay on top of their homework, and the usual declarations of how much she missed them, and how she couldn't wait to come to the Burrow and see him and everyone else.

Ron thought about her constantly, but thoughts of her were mixed up now with thoughts of Harry. It wouldn't be the same this time when Hermione came. Before, both Ron and Harry had girlfriends. Now, only Ron did. They'd somehow managed to deal with this at school, when Harry was surrounded by a lot of other supportive people, but now it would only be the four of them, and Ron couldn't really bear the idea of leaving Harry by himself just so Ron could go find some time for a shag with Hermione.

All told, it was bound to be an awkward situation.

Meanwhile, life went on. Mr. Weasley was spending inordinate amounts of time at work and going on raids. There had been two dozen of them, on various Malfoy properties and the homes of those who'd been known to associate with the Malfoy family. Thus far, physical evidence had been scarce to nothing. Mrs. Weasley would disappear for most of each day, presumably doing Order business; she returned at lunch time long enough to prepare stacks upon stacks of sandwiches, and then leave again, coming back at dinner time. Percy, too, was spending long hours at work, but it seemed to Ron to be more of a way for Percy to avoid their mother's constant fussing over him, rather than any kind of need or desire on Percy's part to be at work. As the days went on Percy spent less and less of his free time at the Burrow, and more and more time with his girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater. Ron couldn't blame him - at least when a girlfriend took care of you there was usually shagging involved.

The twins visited only once, to show Harry some new merchandise and give him an early birthday present of their best trick sweets, including a sweet called Hirsute Honeycombs, a sticky-sweet honey candy that caused one to sprout copious amounts of hair from the ears and nose and other body parts. Harry ate one and spent a good fifteen minutes looking like a skinny yeti before the effect wore off. Charlie wrote a few times from abroad -he was still in Romania, but making trips to various countries in Eastern Europe. Ron surmised the trips were Order business.

Bill, meanwhile, was back at his Gringott's desk job -- he'd been asked by Dumbledore to return as the Dark Arts teacher but had declined. He'd stopped by one night with his girlfriend, Fleur Delacour, to announce their engagement. Mrs. Weasley burst into tears and went into a frenzy of cooking, and the evening turned into an impromptu celebration.

All told, things were about as good as they could be, in the circumstances, and before Ron, Harry or Ginny realized it, the date of Lucius Malfoy's trial was almost upon them.

Two nights before the trial began, Mr. Weasley was working with a few of the officers in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, along with the Chief Prosecutor, in finalizing the details of the case against Malfoy. Percy, too, was stuck at work, helping Mr. Weasley.

Mrs. Weasley resigned herself to another night without her husband or her injured son at home; she made dinner, and she, Ron, Harry and Ginny ate slowly and quietly. It was some time later, past nine o'clock, when they had pudding. They were halfway into strawberry tart when there was a loud pop in the fireplace.

'Oh, for heaven's sake--' Mrs. Weasley began.

'Molly!' said an unfamiliar female voice. The four of them turned in their chairs to see themselves looking at the head of a black-haired, pink-faced witch.

'Hestia?' said Mrs. Weasley.

'Oh, dear, Molly, I'm so sorry for interrupting your dinner,' said Hestia. 'I'm afraid something of an emergency has come up and Dumbledore is asking for you to come to Headquarters right away.'

'Oh, goodness,' said Mrs. Weasley with a sigh. 'Are you sure it can't wait, Hestia?'

'I'm terribly sorry, but no,' said Hestia. 'Dumbledore asked for you specifically.'

'Very well,' said Mrs. Weasley. 'What's the problem, anyway?'

'I'm not at liberty to say right now,' said Hestia apologetically. 'And...it looks like it could take a while.'

'How long?' said Mrs. Weasley.

'Possibly all night,' said Hestia.

'All night?' Mrs. Weasley shrieked. 'Hestia, I'm happy to help out Dumbledore but there's no way I'm leaving these three--' she indicated Ron, Harry and Ginny '--alone in the house without an adult present.'

'Mum, I AM of age,' said Ron, rolling his eyes. 'Technically I'm an adult. And Harry's almost--'

'You're still in school,' Mrs. Weasley snapped. 'And after everything that happened at the end of last term--'

'Molly, wait,' said Hestia quickly. 'It's all right. Madam Bones has authorized Sturgis Podmore and Kenneth Towler to patrol the grounds of the Burrow for you. And Dumbledore promised he would fetch the kids himself at the first sign of a problem.'

Mrs. Weasley frowned, as though considering.

'Mum,' said Ron, 'come on. We'll be fine. Dumbledore wouldn't have asked for you if he didn't think we'd be safe here. Nobody can Apparate through those wards, remember?'

She looked at Ron sceptically for a moment, then nodded.

'All right, then,' she said, and she turned to the witch called Hestia. 'I'll be there shortly, Hestia.'

'Thanks again, Molly, so sorry about this,' said Hestia, and in the next moment there was a whoosh of smoke, and she was gone.

Mrs. Weasley didn't leave right away; instead she fussed for the next fifteen minutes over Ron, Harry and Ginny, ordering them to stay inside the house and to keep their wands with them at all times. Then she went rushing round the house sealing up all the windows and doors - Ron helped - and she ordered Ron to seal up the fireplace after she'd gone.

After several more minutes of fussing and worrying, Mrs. Weasley took a handful of Floo Powder, threw it into the fireplace, and shouted 'Number 12 Grimmauld Place' before stepping into the green flames and vanishing.

'I thought she'd never leave,' said Ginny. 'So, Ron, d'you know where Dad keeps his stash of firewhisky?'

'Ha ha,' said Ron sarcastically. 'I guess I'd better try and seal up this fireplace.'

He reached up inside the fireplace and shut the flue, then performed a Sealing Charm on it for good measure. It wouldn't be totally foolproof but anyone trying to get in would make a lot of noise and alert Ron and the others to any intrusions.

With little to do but study or play games, Ron, Harry and Ginny chose homework. Ron and Harry both were starting to panic a bit about the amount of homework they still had to do; Ron determined that it was almost physically impossible for him to get work done without Hermione there to urge him on. They settled down in the living room with their books, quills and parchment, and for two hours there was nothing but the sound of the scratching of quills. At one point there was a knock on the window outside the kitchen, and the three of them leapt up, wands drawn. The tapping on the window had come from Sturgis Podmore, however, and he waved at them and nodded, indicating that he was simply patrolling by the house for the moment.

'This isn't as fun as I thought it would be,' said Ginny glumly.

They went back to their homework, but after another hour, all three of them were struggling to stay awake. Near midnight, they all gave up.

'I'm knackered,' Ron announced. 'Can't take any more of this. I'm turning in.'

'Me, too,' said Harry.

'Sounds good to me,' said Ginny, and she yawned and stretched.

The three of them trooped wearily up the stairs; Ginny mumbled a good night to both of them before going into her room, and Ron and Harry continued up the stairs. They changed into pyjamas, brushed their teeth, and collapsed into bed. Ron fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow; his last thought before dropping off was that he hoped he didn't dream tonight. One night of uninterrupted sleep would be just grand, thank you.

At close to two in the morning, Ron sat up sharply in bed, but it was not a dream that woke him this time. It was a sound. A very loud clang, followed by the sound of something scraping against metal.

'Harry!' Ron hissed, as he reached beneath his pillow and pulled out his wand.

'What?' said Harry, half-asleep, as he, too, sat up in bed.

'Listen,' Ron whispered. And there it was. More scraping.

'What is that?' Harry hissed, and he had his wand in hand now, too.

'I dunno, but it sounds like it might be coming from downstairs,' Ron said softly.

'Should we go take a look?' said Harry, and Ron could hear the tightness in his voice.

'I reckon we should,' said Ron, and he felt a rush of fear for Ginny, whose room was a floor below and closer to whatever it was that was making noise downstairs.

'Lumos,' Ron whispered, and Harry followed suit; both their wand tips glowed faintly as they climbed out of their beds and started toward Ron's door. They were halfway there when it swung open.

'Shit!' Harry yelled.

'Stupefy!' Ron snapped, firing a spell at the intruder.

'Ron!' came a familiar voice, and Ginny ducked out of the way, just in time. Ron's charm bounced against the wall harmlessly.

'Ron!' Ginny hissed furiously. 'You idiot! What the bloody hell are you doing? You could have hurt me--'

'Ginny!' Ron hissed, at the same time. 'What the bloody hell are you doing? I could have hurt you--'

'Quiet, both of you!' Harry snapped, stepping between them.

Ron and Ginny glared at one another.

'Listen,' Harry whispered. More scraping. It was definitely coming from downstairs. It was definitely something scraping against metal. The three of them walked in a clump out Ron's door and headed halfway down the stairs, all of them straining their ears toward the sound.

'Sounds like...' Ginny began.

'Something's in the fireplace,' Ron said.

'A bird, or a squirrel, you think?' said Harry, in a doubtful voice.

'Maybe,' said Ron, but he didn't really believe that.

'Maybe we should just stay up here,' said Ginny nervously, 'and let Sturgis and that Auror deal with it.'

'Those two could be anywhere on the grounds right now,' said Ron, shaking his head. 'Why don't we--'

WHOOSH!

As one, the three of them flattened themselves against the wall and held out their wands.

'Shit,' said Ron. 'I think...someone just Flooed in.'

'Maybe it's Mum,' said Ginny.

'Shh,' said Harry. 'Listen...'

They heard it. Someone coughing, the sound of hands brushing soot from clothing, the light press of footsteps on the floor. And then a voice, a croaking, hoarse voice.

'H-hello?'

'Who is that?' Ginny whispered.

'How should I know?' Ron hissed.

'Whoever it is, if they were trying to kill us they wouldn't announce themselves,' Harry murmured.

'We don't know that,' said Ginny. 'They could be trying to trick us.'

'Look, let's just...go down there and take whoever it is out, okay?' said Ron. 'I'll go first. That way maybe you two don't have to use magic and you won't get in trouble.'

'Oh, right,' said Ginny, 'so you can miss again?'

'I'm sorry about that,' Ron snapped, 'but maybe you should have said who you were before you charged into my room--'

'Are the two of you going to keep arguing or are we going to go downstairs and deal with whatever's down there?' Harry growled in a low voice.

Ginny opened her mouth to start to speak, then shut it.

'Sorry,' she mumbled.

'Sorry,' said Ron.

'Fine,' said Harry. 'Let's go.' He started down the stairs.

'Hey,' said Ron, grabbing Harry's shirt collar. 'I go first. You and Ginny cover me. All right?'

'Whatever,' said Harry. They started down the stairs and reached the landing just past Ginny's room when the intruder spoke again.

'Hello?' came the voice from downstairs. It was a bit stronger but still very hoarse. And yet, strangely familiar...

'Wait a minute...' said Ron, holding out his arm to stop Harry and Ginny. The intruder spoke again.

'R-Ron?'

Ron nearly dropped his wand.

'Hermione?' he croaked, and without thinking he raced down the stairs.

'Ron!' Harry yelled, and he and Ginny hurried after him.

As he hurried into the living room, Ron considered, for a very fleeting second, that perhaps he ought not to have done this - just because the voice sounded like it belonged to Hermione didn't necessarily mean that it was Hermione.

And yet as he hurtled into the living room, she came racing round the fireplace, her bushy hair flying in every direction, and barreled into him, throwing her arms round his neck. He caught her lilac scent and felt the small muscles of her back as he wrapped his arms round her waist, and knew at once that it was her.

'Ron!' she cried again, and then he felt her shaking in his arms.

'Hermione?' Harry and Ginny said together, as they closed in on Ron and Hermione.

'What are you doing here?' Harry asked.

'What's going on?' said Ginny.

Hermione gave a great sniff and pulled back; her face was coated with soot and tears were streaking down her cheeks.

'Hermione,' Ron gasped, his emotions in a whirl; he was deliriously happy to see her, and confused, and afraid. Why was she here? Alone? In the middle of the night?

He fought to control himself - she was sobbing and shaking and a complete mess. By now, Harry and Ginny were both putting steadying hands on her arms as Ron gripped her shoulders.

'Hermione,' Ron said again, in a firmer voice. 'What's wrong, love?'

'They're g-going to t-take me out of H-Hogwarts!' Hermione stammered, her voice coming in gasps.

'What?' said Harry and Ginny together.

'Who's taking you out of Hogwarts?' said Ron.

'My p-parents!' Hermione wailed, and she threw herself at Ron again, burying her face in his chest.