Let the Darkness Take You

Let the Darkness Take You

Chapter Three

Harry watched Draco Malfoy walk down the deserted hallways back to his dormitory, with a mixture of wonderment and happiness in his eyes. Not only was there another person who didn't hate him... well, okay, so Malfoy hated Harry but he was being civil, at least. It couldn't be said about Harry's own housemates and teachers, for that matter. But this person was also the last that Harry had expected to be nice. Malfoy should be taking this chance to milk Harry's troubles for all that they were worth. But he wasn't; he was helping. Even in his own odd way, he was helping. And another odd thing... so was Snape. He had told Malfoy to find Harry. There was a wonder.

Harry turned around to walk back to Gryffindor tower with a broad smile on his face. The day hadn't been all that bad. Sure, the slug had been a bit of a setback but dinner more than made up for it. Now all Harry had to do was find Ginny and Colin. He quickened his footsteps and was at the portrait hole sooner than he expected to be. "Perseverance," he said impatiently. The Portrait swung open and he climbed in. A few people laughed when he entered.

"Have a nice dinner, Potter?" yelled Ron.

"It was very good. Thanks for asking, Ronniekins."

Harry smirked as Ron scowled and went back to whatever conversation he was having with Hermione. "Harry!" He turned and saw Ginny sitting in a darkened corner of the room. He smiled and ran to her.

"Hello! I've been looking for you and Colin since after class. What happened to you?"

"Sorry. I was actually looking for Colin. I still haven't seen him, as a matter of fact."

"Oh, well I'm sure he'll show up sooner or later. I hope I don't have to take away house points from him."

"Don't! Everybody will hate you more for taking points away from Gryffindor!"

"I was kidding, Gin."

Ginny smiled shyly, and then her face turned serious. "I heard what happened at dinner. Dumbledore actually kicked you out of the Great Hall?"

"Yes. I couldn't believe it either. I have such a bad feeling about this if he's been duped as well. Now there is really nobody to help me but you and Colin."

"I'm sure we'll find somebody who is on our side. So, did you eat at all?"

"Um... well, actually, not eating had been the original plan but somebody brought me food," he said evasively.

"Who, Harry? Maybe we can talk them into helping us."

"Hmm... The day Malfoy helps me is the day I start to like going to Potions."

"It was Malfoy?" she asked incredulously. "Malfoy brought you food? Has he gone insane?"

"Apparently. I guess Snape told him to go and find me. It was Draco's own doing that brought the food."

"Okay, stop. Now Snape is telling him to go and find you. Do you think they've been affected by this?"

"Probably not. Unless if something different is happening to them to make them like me. But I really can't really see any point in that."

"Well, I can't see any point in making people hate you."

"Neither can I, but I'm sure there's a good reason for it."

"Oh! Colin!" Ginny yelled suddenly. "Come here! Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you for hours now."

Harry looked up and saw Colin closing the Portrait of the Fat Lady. He had a strange, dazed expression on his face and he smiled at Ginny before walking over to them. His gaze then settled on Harry; and he stopped and the smile faded. "Ginny... why are you talking to him?"

"Because... he's my friend. And he's yours as well."

"Why would I ever want to be friends with the likes of him? All he wants is attention because his parents died. That's why he's in the paper so much. He's deceiving. I don't want him deceiving you too, Ginny."

"He's not deceiving me, Colin! You're the one who has been deceived! You liked Harry when we were in Defense today. You even stood up for him when Professor Black said something cutting about him!"

"I wasn't thinking clearly. I didn't feel good at the time."

Ginny opened her mouth to retort but Harry put a hand on her knee and shook his head. "There's no changing his mind, Gin. Just let it go."

"Ginny, I think you should come sit by Dennis and me. Ron won't like you sitting by him."

"I don't care what Ron thinks, Colin! If you don't want to be friends with Harry anymore, fine! Just leave us be. I'll talk to you again when you come to your senses."

Colin's eyes flashed angrily, and he turned and stalked away.

Ginny turned on Harry, her eyes flashing dangerously. "How can you just take this like a grain of sand? I don't understand!"

Harry sighed deeply and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm not saying that it isn't hard... it is hard to have everybody you care about suddenly hate you for no apparent reason, but for now, there isn't anything I can do about it. I just have to accept it like it is for the time being. I'm sure that we'll find something."

"You're right. I'm sorry I overreacted. This is just getting to me so badly. None of it makes any sense."

"I know. Let's just try not to think about it right now. I'm going to write to Dudley. You should do homework."

"So should you," Ginny replied smiling.

"And I will, Miss Weasley. I said I'd write to him when I got to school and I haven't done so yet." Harry smiled and reached down into his bag and pulled out a piece of parchment, quill and ink and began to write.

As Harry wrote, he found himself writing about his weeks at Hogwarts and how everybody hated him now. He smiled a little. So much for not thinking about it. After writing almost two pages of his problems, he decided to ask Dudley how he was doing and if he wanted more books to read. The letter was three pieces of parchment before he finally put it into an envelope and wrote his cousin's name on the front. "Need to go to the owlery now?" Ginny asked suddenly.

"Yeah. You want to come?"

"Yes. Homework is giving me a headache right now."

Harry held out his hand and Ginny took it as she stood up. They linked arms and walked out of the Common room, ignoring the hisses that followed them. Ginny squeezed his arm to her in a comforting gesture. Harry smiled and wrapped his arm around her and pulled her to him. Her head fit perfectly where his shoulder and neck met and he breathed in the sweet scent of her shampoo. They reluctantly let go of each other when they came to the owlery. Harry called Hedwig to him and tied the letter to her. "Take this to Dudley at his school. Wait there for him to write back. He knows to reply right away." The snowy owl hooted and took off out of the window.

Harry turned to Ginny and found her looking out the window, watching Hedwig fly away. The moonlight shone brightly on her face and gave her an angelic appearance. Harry's heart fluttered in his chest and before he knew what he was doing, he was walking towards her and wrapping her in an embrace from behind. He kissed her cheek and whispered into her ear. "I'm so grateful to you, Ginny. I don't know what I'd do without you here."

She giggled softly, almost a shy sort of laugh. "I'm glad I could be of service. You know I'd do anything for you."

Harry turned her around and gently tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "Yeah," he whispered,. "I know." They stood just staring at each other for a few moments.

"Do you know how beautiful you are?" he found himself saying. He blushed when he realised just what he had said. Harry thought that it was strange that he had said that, since he had never had the thought before in his life. Sure, he had noticed that she was a pretty girl, but never beautiful. There was just something pulling inside of him that had to tell her that. A part of him that wanted to stare into her big brown eyes all night;. And then another part that wanted to kiss her. But, he wasn't about to go about kissing his only remaining friend. That might complicate things a little.

But before he could step away from her, Ginny stepped up on her toes and made their lips meet in a soft lingering kiss. When they pulled away, the same thing was running through his head, over and over. Wow. That was my first kiss. Wow, it was... nice. Harry didn't know if it was only supposed to be nice, or if it was supposed to be fireworks, but all he knew was that he liked being kissed. He smiled at Ginny, who was now looking extremely nervous. After a moment's indecision, he leaned down and kissed her again before pulling her into a hug.

Ginny gave an almost imperceptible sigh and let her body be cradled in Harry's. They stood like that for a long time until they heard the sound of Mrs. Norris meowing outside the door.

"We better get back," Harry whispered. "It's late."

"It is."

They wrapped their arms around each other again and stuck their heads out of the door to see if the bothersome cat was gone. Luckily, her tail was just swishing around the corner and out of sight. They smiled in relief and started the long journey back to the Gryffindor Common room. The room was completely empty when they arrived back and the fire was already dying. Harry kissed Ginny's cheek and bid her goodnight.

***

Harry woke the next morning in an extremely good mood. At first, he couldn't remember why he should be... but then it hit him. Ginny. There was nobody else as wonderful as her in his eyes. As far as he was concerned, she was the most loyal friend that he had. It was a nice feeling to know that somebody cared. Harry practically skipped down the stairs and thankfully, was greeted by a smiling Ginny. "Well... you sure are chipper this morning," she said brightly.

"I slept well," he replied with a grin on his face that suggested that that wasn't the reason at all.

"Good. So did I, actually."

Harry smiled and took her hand. "Let's go to breakfast then. I'm starving." Ginny laughed and tried the best she could to keep up with Harry's long strides. While they were eating, they kept grinning stupidly at each other, not caring if anybody saw how they were behaving. Harry sighed contentedly into his goblet of orange juice as he looked at Ginny eating. Yes... Ginny certainly was a good friend to have at times like these. Harry's thoughts then took a darker turn.

Colin had been a good friend as well. A really good friend when Ginny hadn't been able to help. But now he had fallen to whatever evil was permeating the school. It was really only a matter of time until Ginny was gone from him as well. Harry sighed again, but this time for another reason. This one sigh, Ginny took notice of and looked at Harry in concern.

"What's wrong?"

"We need to go and at least try to figure out what's going on. Want to go to the library after we're done eating?"

"Yeah." She took a couple furtive glances around the Great Hall. "And I suggest we wrap our meal up right about now. We're not very popular right now."

And indeed, when Harry looked around, more Gryffindors were filing into the Great Hall and some were even whispering amongst each other that they should complain to Dumbledore. "Right," Harry said crisply and stood up. "Let's go. Good thing we were done." He took Ginny's hand again and led her away into the library. Madam Pince greeted Ginny warmly but merely glared at Harry, who sighed for what seemed like the millionth time in the past couple weeks. Ginny looked over at him as they began to peruse the Dark Arts section.

"You seem to be doing that a lot lately," she said, voicing Harry's thoughts.

"What? Sighing?"

"Yes. I'd much rather hear you laugh again. That's a rare occurrence nowadays."

"Can you blame me? I don't have much to laugh about anymore. Ron and I..." A lump formed in his throat and he found that he couldn't go on speaking.

Ever since the train ride, he found that it was easiest to just not think about Ron or Hermione. It was much too painful. This mention was the first he had made since their ‘falling out.'

"I'm sorry. I know you must miss him."

"I do," he admitted. "This is worse than fourth year when he got mad at me for the tournament. I knew what was bothering him then. This time... I don't think anything I did even made him stop liking me. It's just not easy to think about if everybody has hated me and it's now just coming out."

"Oh, really, Harry. All of these people don't hate you. I won't let you think that way. There is something strange going on. I can't say for certain that it is Dark magic but I'm willing to bet everything I own that it is. Now, come on. These books here look promising."

As she had been speaking, she had been handing book upon book to Harry and even had about five large tomes stacked in her arms. They headed over to the most private table that they would be able to find, and laid the books quietly on the table so as not to bother Madam Pince. By the time Harry had been through his second book, Ginny finally spoke up in a tone that suggested that she was an idiot.

"Harry..… have you ever thought about the Imperius?"

He thought about this for a couple moments before answering. "Imperius is used to make people do things. Not to make them feel something towards a person."

"But that's just it! Somebody could have cast the Imperius on everybody to make them act like they hate you! It makes perfect sense."

"It does... but somehow, it's just too easy. I can see it on a couple people, but if this were the work of Voldemort, he would have gone a way that was more cunning. He was a Slytherin after all. But... I suppose we can't rule it out. It just seems like a lot of work to cast the Imperius on a thousand students."

"Not quite a thousand. I doubt they would have to cast it on the Slytherins."

"Still. That's still about 750 students... plus the teachers. Let's keep looking."

The two stayed in the library all morning and all afternoon, skipping lunch. They both decided that facing the whole school in the Great Hall could wait until dinner. The search had come up with basically nothing. Harry was rubbing his eyes by the time dinner was nearing. They were blurry and felt all grainy. He closed the book he was reading with a large bang and immediately winced as Madam Pince sent him a glare.

"That's about all I can do today without passing out, Gin. Let's return these and find a couple more to check out just in case we feel insane enough to do some more research tonight."

The two went their separate ways and started returning the books. Harry decided to go into the potion section to read about different kinds of mind-altering potions. There was always the slim chance that a potion was being used. Apparently, Ginny had had the same idea as Harry; as she rushed around the corner that Harry had just turned, they collided into each other and both fell on the floor. They looked at one another, surprised for a moment before bursting into laughter. Before the angry librarian could come storming over, they covered their mouths so that the only sounds emitting from them were small snorts when they tried to breathe. Finally, Harry gained his composure, and got up and offered his hand to his female companion.

"Sorry about that, miss. I wasn't watching where I was going."

"It's quite alright, sir."

They both smiled shyly and turned to the shelf, with Harry's hand placed gently in the small of Ginny's back. Harry pretended to be looking at the titles of the books but he was really studying Ginny.

"If you keep staring at me like that, Mr. Potter, somebody may get the idea that you fancy me," Ginny said suddenly, still looking at the books.

"And what's so bad about that?" he asked slyly.

"Well, if you don't care that people know... then I guess it's okay."

Feeling very brave, indeed, Harry grinned and spun her around to face him so that their faces were only centimetres apart. "Does it say anywhere in here that it's against the rules to kiss beautiful girls while in the library?"

"I don't recall. I think you'll just have to risk it. That's if you can find a beautiful girl in here."

Harry smiled. "I found her." He tilted her chin up and brought their lips together in a soft kiss. Within moments, their mouths had fallen open and the kiss deepened. Harry's hands found a spot in Ginny's long red hair and lodged themselves there, all the while, he wondered if he was even doing this correctly. Just as Ginny was really getting into it and bringing her arms around Harry's neck, he pulled away and looked around.

"What are you doing?" Ginny asked breathlessly.

"Did you hear that?"

"No. There wasn't anything. Maybe another student?"

"Okay..." he said slowly but then smiled apologetically. Her eyes showed him that it was okay. They started kissing again, but this time, it was more deliberate. Not gentle, or searching, exploring, like the other had been. Both were really getting into it when not so gentle hands pulled Harry from Ginny by his collar, almost strangling him.

"Merlin, Potter. Are you really that dense? If you're going to snog, go somewhere private. Forty points from Gryffindor and you'll be serving a detention with me."

"But Professor Black! It was my fault. I'm the one who kissed him!" exclaimed Ginny.

Sirius gave her a withering glare that under which she faltered. "Do not second guess me, Miss Weasley. I know what I saw. I was there the whole time."

"Oh, so now you're a voyeur?" Harry asked angrily.

"I don't think anybody else would call me that, Potter. We are in a public place, after all."

"Why were you even watching me in the first place? Why don't you just stay out of my business? I don't need you, just as much as you don't want me!" Sirius approached his godson menacingly.

"I was not watching you out of duty as your godfather. I was watching you because I am your professor and it is my duty to keep you out of trouble."

"Funny. I thought a professor's job was teach students."

"That's not all of being a teacher. Especially when you teach at a boarding school. Somebody needs to keep invalids like you from snogging girls wherever you please. As much as you'd like to think it so, people do not like seeing you all the time. And people most especially do not like seeing you snog your girlfriends."

"I've never thought that. You know that."

"I beg to differ. All you want is attention. Look at you with this story with ‘everybody hates me Remus!' God, could you be anymore of a child?"

"That's the thing, Sirius. I am a child."

"It's Professor Black to you, Potter."

"I'll call you whatever I damn well please, Black." Harry turned and snatched up the first book he saw and started walking past Sirius, but he grabbed Harry's arm.

"You might want to watch how you speak to your professors. You might just find that I have the power to bring about your expulsion from this school."

"Well, I'm not speaking to you as a professor. I'm speaking to you strictly godson to godfather. And you know what? I hate you. Mum and dad should have known better than to trust you. You were probably in on it with Wormtail. You were just lying to me when you said you were innocent; waiting for me to free you; gaining my trust. Then once you're free, you turned against me again. When are you going to announce what you are?"

"And what would I announce?"

"That you're a Death Eater. I'll be waiting for it." Sirius' grip tightened on Harry's arm and a look as cold as steel crossed his eyes.

"That shows how much you know me."

Harry's eyes watered as his godfather's grip steadily tightened. "Give me a reason to think otherwise, then."

"I don't have to prove myself to you."

"Then nothing changes. I still don't need you and I still hate you, Sirius. Let go of my arm." Sirius complied and Harry immediately took Ginny's hand. "See you later, Professor," he said, as if nothing had happened at all.

Harry checked out his book, and left the library. Ginny followed as he walked slowly and quietly to the Great Hall for dinner, where they ate quickly so as not to ‘upset' anybody. Harry was quite aware of the looks that Sirius sent him while they ate, but he did his best to ignore them. Ginny kept sending worried looks to him but didn't say anything until they got reached to the common room. "Harry... do you really think it was fair to accuse him of being a Death Eater?"

"Do you really think it's fair for him to treat me this way?"

"Well, no. But Harry, do you really think he is? After all he's been through. I really can't see it."

Harry flopped unceremoniously onto the couch and looked at Ginny. "Actually, I don't know what to think anymore. I know that it doesn't seem like him to be one... but you never know. For the time being, I'll just keep telling myself that he's not one."

"I think you're reading into it too much. Whatever is getting to everybody else, has got to Sirius as well. I think he really does love you. Did you see his face when you told him that you still hated him? He looked devastated."

"No, he didn't."

"That's because you were blinded by your anger towards him. Granted, the look only flashed for a few moments but... he does love you."

"I hope you're right about him."

"I am," she replied confidently and then sat down next to him. "Up for a game of chess? I haven't played since the summer."

"Sure. It'll be good to have something else to do. I'll go get my board."

Harry stood up to go to his dormitory, secretly wondering if this would be the last night he would be able to spend with Ginny. It was only a matter of time before it got to her as well, and he planned to enjoy every moment with her while he could.