Harry Potter and the Forest of Shadows

Harry Potter and

the Forest of Shadows

***Chapter 3***

Ginny watched silently as 'The Boy-Who-Lived' turned in his sleep. It was seven in the morning and she had been up all night, making sure he slept soundly. Only once had he cried out in his sleep. She had been quick to soothe him with words and running a calming hand over his brow.

"Morning, Gin."

She snapped her head up to look at Ron. "G'morning. Sleep well?"

"Fine. And you?"

"Didn't sleep."

Ron sat down on his bed; Harry only took up half the small bed. For a few seconds he just stared at his friend, hot moisture welling up in his eyes. He was saved by a knock on the door.

Rosemary walked into the room, wearing the same dress she had had on yesterday.

"Good morning, Ron, Ginny. Ginny, you look dead on your feet. Go get some rest. Ron, you should go get something to eat. I believe Remus said your mother's cooking up a spectacular breakfast for us. Tell everyone we'll be right down."

As soon as both teenagers left, Rosemary walked over to the bed and kneeled beside it.

"Harry," she coaxed quietly. "Harry, wake up."

Unwillingly, he opened his good eye and instinctively covered his face. She took both his cut up hands in hers and took them down before placing his glasses on his face. He blinked a few times before backing up at the sight of the stranger.

"Do you remember what happened last night?" He was silent and stiff, as if preparing to defend himself. "You can trust me."

Finally, he shook his head.

"That's fine. I took you from the Dursleys yesterday. We're at the Burrow right now. My name is Rosemary and I need you to trust me. Okay?"

"Okay."

His voice was still hoarse but not as bad as last night. She decided

she would allow him to talk.

"Lovely. Do you have much of an appetite?"

"Sort of."

"That's good enough. You can't eat a whole lot. You're sick, whether you know it or not, and your stomach couldn't handle a lot of food because your malnutritioned. Then, we're going to go outside for it's a beautiful day."

"Er...Miss Rosemary?"

"Rose, Rosy, or Rosemary will do just fine."

"Okay, Rosemary, I can't really feel my legs."

"Oh."

A frown came over her face as she sat on the bed and pulled the covers down. Harry visibly shivered as the sheets came off even though it was stifling hot in the room. Worry rose in Rosemary's mind, but she pushed it away.

Both of his legs were swollen, and the one she had tightly bandanged as a substitute for a cast had blood leaking from the bandange. Harry

started shaking at the sight of his own legs.

"No looking at your own injuries," she murmured distractedly, running a hand over one of his pale, lifeless legs.

Drawing his eyes from his legs, he stared at Rosemary's face. It was so youthful, yet creased with lines of worry and her eyes held so much pain, as if remembering horrors of her past. She was unconciously biting her bottom lip and her hair from was coming down from the plait she had had it up in yesterday.

"Where did you get that?" he asked.

Her hand rested and she looked up at him. "What? Oh, that scar? A few years back I got into a fight. Nothing that bad really."

"What about that?" This time he was pointing at the white amulet she always wore around her neck.

"Family heirloom. One of six in the world, actually." When she had finished checking up on his legs, she gave a heavy sigh. "Well, it's not as bad as I thought. They're not going to have any feeling for a few weeks to come. You'll not be able to walk unattended, so promise me you won't try. If you do, you'll probably fall and hurt yourself even more."

A deversive snort escaped from him and he immediately clapped his hands to his mouth, remembering what might have happened to him if he had been back at Privet Drive.

Once again, Rosemary removed his hands from his face and gave a reasurring smile. "Why did you do that?"

"Because, the Boy-Who-Lived can't walk."

With another reasssuring smile she said, "Harry, I'm going to speed up the process, not by magic, but by stretching everyday and a little practice."

"Why not by magic?"

"No injuries inflicted by muggles can be healed by magic, though they can be kept at bay with certain potions. And I intend to use all of the available ones.

"But at the moment I believe there are a few people downstairs waiting for you."

She easily picked him up; he was far too thin. Well, she thought to herself, he was living with Vernon. A wave of silence met them in the kitchen. Harry looked shamefully down as Rosemary helped him into a chair.

"Hey Harry," Hermione said breaking the silence.

"You look awful," Ron said, full of sympathy.

Rosemary slapped her forehead and Hermione gave him a full kick in the shins. "Shut up," she hissed.

Harry gave a weary smile at his two friends.

"'Morning, Harry," Fred said. Rosemary had been able to tell them apart even as babies; she hadn't seen them since then, though.

"We opened a joke shop..."

"You have to come see it..."

"After all, it's in your name..."

Seeing as though the ice between them was broken, she grabbed a mug of tea and turned the drink into coffee; living in America for three years made a person learn to like coffee.

Sitting in the common room of the house, was Remus, Bill, and Charlie, poring over books.

"I never thought I'd see the day, Charlie Weasley opened a book on free will."

"Rosy!" he cried, pulling her into his arms and hugging her tightly. "Where have you been?"

She hugged him back, laughing. "You'll never get older, will you?"

"Wouldn't put money on it. Sit down. When did you get here?"

"Last night. I suppose you heard about Harry, though?"

"Yes, mum was having kittens about him this morning while she made breakfast."

"Where is Molly?"

"Went down to the market for some groceries. She'll be back in about an hour."

Nodding, Rosemary sat down, sipping at her coffee. On the cover of the book Remus was engrossed in, she read the title Dark Arts: Forgotten.

"Thinking about going dark, Remi?" she teased.

"Yea, *right*. We're looking for ways to stop Voldemort's next course of action before he starts it. All that we know from various spies, though, is that it has something to do with necromancy."

Rosemary's mug fell to the ground and broke, spraying coffee everywhere. "Necromancy. That's it, that's the answer!" And with that she left behind three very confused men.

Against all the adults' wishes Harry went outside after breakfast. A light dew was settling in with the damp air, so Mrs. Weasley piled him with blankets.

Hermione and Ron came with him, hoping to cheer him up, or get something out of him.

"Harry," Hermione started out, taking his hand in her own, "you know, if you ever want to talk, we're right here. We'll always be here for you."

"Yea, mate," Ron continued, "there's no way your getting rid of us."

A small smile creeped over his face. "I know. I just don't want to talk about it right now." Usually he would just write to Sirius for problems but Hermione and Ron were the only ones he had left.

Hermione ran inside to get cards for a game of exploding snap, leaving Ron and Harry alone.

"Harry, Hermione and I thought that you should know- well, we wanted to tell you- actaully it started when we got back from school-

well, we're sort of a-a-"

Ron looked up and saw a smile was playing across the other boy's lips.

"You knew?"

"Of course. Everyone's known since fourth year. We were just waiting for one of ya'll to make the move."

When Hermione came back, she was accompanied by Ginny. Harry hadn't seen her since the end of last year- she looked different. Her hair was more of a dark auburn color; sort of red. It was put into two braided plaits on either side of her head. Freckles spotted her cheeks in a defined manner. Even though she was wearing a pair of old, patched flares and a too-big sweatshirt, she looked...beautiful.

"Hi Ginny," he said, smiling a bit. He figured he must have looked ridiculous buried in blankets.

"Hi," she smiled, plopping down between him and Ron. For once, she looked fully comfortable around the Boy-Who-Lived. "Hermione dragged me down here. Said I need 'fresh air'. It's much too cold for any fresh air. All I can feel are my lungs freezing over."

"You're just being sarcastic," said Hermione, pulling her back down as she attempted to stand. Ginny fell down with a huff.

"You shouldn't be out here," she said looking at Harry as she laid down beside him.

"She's exactly right."

The four teenagers jumped at the new voice. All heads turned to Rosemary who was standing with her arms crossed.

"You *knew* he wasn't supposed to be outside," Rosemary said to Remus. "He's sick, whether he admits it or not and that weather will just feed the sickness. I know what I'm talking about Remus."

She had immediately brought Harry back inside when she had found the four of them, and made him lay next to the fire; the boy was visibly shivering.

"Rosy, I know, I know. But he was about to drag himself out there. Besides, at least he got a few minutes alone with his friends."

"I understand. I just...I just don't want what happened to me to happen to him."

"What happened to you?"

Both adults' attentions snapped to the opening between the sitting room and kitchen. Harry was desperately holding onto the frame on the wall. Just as his legs gave out Rosemary caught him and settled him back on the couch.

"You're not supposed to be walking."

"What happened to you?"

Rosemary looked up at Remus who said, "He deserves to know."

Rubbing a tired hand over her face, she looked up at Harry. "When I tell most people this they regret hearing it. Are you *sure* you want to hear it?"

Seeing as though he nodded, she took a deep breath and began.

"When I was five, my father died. His building was taken by Death Eaters. We were muggles. I had three other sisters. My oldest was against magic, second oldest in her third year at Hogwarts, and third oldest in her first year.

"At the age of six and a half I sat by my mother's bed as she died. I was handed over to my oldest sister seeing as she was my oldest living relative. As I turned eight and a half magical powers started showing up in me.

"I was delighted. I would be going to the same school as my third oldest sister and the same school my second oldest sister was graduating from that spring. My happiness ended when my oldest sister's husband, or my brother-in-law, found out. He started to be me. And my sister watched.

"They didn't want me anymore, so at my second oldest sister's wedding, I went to live with her and adopted her new last name. Now, I bear the name Rosemary Elizabeth Evans Potter."

Harry's breath caught in his throat as he stared at her. "You-you're m-my aunt."

Rosemary wrapped him in a loose hug. "That's not all. When you were born, James insisted on me having your godmother."

"Wait," he said pulling from her embrace, "what about your other sister?"

"Daisy," Remus said distractedly with a smile.

"Daisy, like me, disappeared after her seventh year. But let me get back to where I was. James and Lily took care of me. That's how everyone knows me. They were like my foster parents.

"When I was twelve, they were twenty and it was 1981. You were a year old." She was now biting her bottom lip, a haunted look in her eyes. "I left school for the night to spend it with Sirius, but Daisy stayed. Sirius wanted her to come, because they were getting married when she got out of school. But the sense of foreboding overcame her. Something was going to happen that night.

"Sirius and I went to see Peter." Tears now streamed down her pale cheeks. "He wasn't there and I immediately told him to go with me to see if Lily and James were okay. They weren't.

"Sirius told me to go into the woods, while he checked to see if any of them were alive. That was the last thing I remembered before I woke up in the dungeons of Malfoy Manor."

"How did you get out?" Harry asked breathlessly. He was amazed to be sitting in front of this sweet person that had encountered so much.

"I was there for four years. And, I know you won't believe me, but Draco Malfoy has some good in his heart and helped me out. That's how I got out."

"Malfoy?! Draco Malfoy?! You must be confused."

"No, Harry, I'm not. He did help me escape. You should talk to him. At least he was a really sweet kid, if somewhat spoiled. When I got back to Hogwarts, after healing physically, I started training to defend myself. But, that's pretty much the gist of it."

"Dinner's ready."

Charlie had his head sticking into the sitting room. "Thanks Charlie. Remus, we'll be right there."

When just she and Harry were sitting there, Harry adopted a confused expression. "Why didn't you take me from the Dursleys when you were old enough?"

She took one of her hands and placed it on his cheek. "When I said I had healed physically, I meant only physically. For the next few years I had nightmares, backflashes everytime I closed my eyes, a few breakdowns- I couldn't raise a child like that."

He nodded, understanding.

"So," she said standing up, "with that out of the way, why don't we go and get something to eat. I'm starving."

Dinner was a hearty afair. The kitchen wasn't big enough for all of them, so they ate lounged in the den.

As everyone helped wash the dishes, Rosemary took Harry upstairs to change his bandages. When she relieved him of the ones around his torso he made to take a deep breath, but stopped as his ribcage was jarred. Instead, he looked at the same scar he had asked Rosemary about that morning.

"What really did happen there," he asked, brushing his fingers across it.

"Falling on bricks doesn't feel too good. Hurts even worse when you cut your forehead open." Harry flinched, wishing he hadn't asked. "There you are. Think you can manage?" she asked, tossing a pair of long pajamas at him. He nodded, taking them from the spot where they had landed as she turned around.

Another bed had been set up in Ron's room, for Harry, so Ron could sleep in his bed. Every sheet or blanket that could be spared was for it.

"What's that amulet for?"

Rosemary sighed and peeled back the sheets on the bed. "You are awfully full of questions today, you know that?"

"Sorry," he murmured as the sheets were pulled up to his chin.

"No reason to be sorry," she said with another sigh. "Here, drink up."

He was handed a cup of tea. "What's in it?" he asked skeptically.

"Nothing, really. Just an old recipe. Drink."

Seeing no way out, he took it and drained all of the contents. Almost immediately his back hit the mattress.

"Sleep well," Rosemary whispered, kissing his forehead lightly and settling in a chair.

An hour later, Ron walked in, totally oblivious to Rosemary with a goofy grin on his face. As he laid down, she shook her head in bemusement.

"Teenagers."

Harry's feet fell hard on the ground before giving out on him. He flinched at the pain as his ribcage hit the floor. From his position, he looked at his surroundings; trees loomed behind him, their shadows dancing on the just feet away from him while he lay in the shadow of the remains of a house.

From the rubble and ash, a skeletal figure rose and, on cue, Harry's scar exploded with pain. Voldemort seemed stronger than the last time they had met. Someone stood beside him but the hood shadowed their face.

He levered himself backwards with his arms until he bumped into something. Looking behind himself, he saw Cedric blood running down his face.

"Help," Harry croaked.

"Why? You killed me."

"No, no, I didn't me to," he said, tears streaming down down his face. "I'm sorry. So sorry. Please, forgive me. Please."

"You killed us all."

Harry shook with coldness and fear as the two familiar yet vague voices met his ears. Lily and James Potter had appeared to his side.

"I'm sorry. Please, help me." The three of them started to fade away as Voldemort and the cloaked figure advanced. "Mum, dad," he sobbed, "don't leave. Don't leave me!"

As he viciously wiped away tears from his face, something stronger forced his arms away from his face. Both looming figures reached Harry, the unknown one's wand drawn.

"Harry, wake up," urged a faraway voice. Try as he might, he was stuck in the nightmare.

"Crucio!"

Screams rang through the crisp air for a minute before the Death Eater pulled back his hood and Harry stared into the face of-

"NO!" he screamed. Cold water hit his face and he was pulled back into reality.

Rosemary let out a few deep breaths after she had thrown the cold water on Harry's face. For the past few minutes, she had been restraining his hands from scratching his face, obviously trying to wipe something away in the dream.

Harry felt himself off the bed and cradled in someone's arms. He didn't care who it was, but sobbed into their chest, pain engulfing him. Finally he looked up at the person who was holding him. He gasped, starting to sob again, wondering if it was just a trick. Because it couldn't be. It just couldn't.

"Sirius?"