Just Plain Harry

Chapter 22 Persistence of Vision

Harry never knew how he made it up the stairs to Ginny’s room. It seemed to him that he was just there, kneeling next to Ron beside her chair. She had placed her crystal ball on her desk, with candles in her usual places around it, and she sat perfectly still, eyes wide open as she gazed into the crystal.

"Harry, what should we do?" Hermione asked. She stood next to him, wringing her hands, her eyes fixed on Ginny. Winky was there, too, her large eyes almost trembling from the effort not to blink.

"There’s nothing to do until she comes out of it," Harry said. He didn’t take his own eyes off of Ginny, either; he remembered how difficult it was for her after her last vision, and he wanted to be there for her this time, at least. "You said that she was determined about something - I suppose this is it."

"Yes, but I had no idea, Harry, really! I wouldn’t have left her..."

"Hermione, Ginny is a Seer," Sirius said, from where he stood near the door. "When she’s in trouble, she’s going to try to have a vision. It’s what they do; I should know."

"And maybe it will be useful," Ron said. He reached out and put one hand on Hermione’s arm, and the other on Harry’s shoulder. "Especially now that we know what her last one meant. Maybe that will help her."

Harry felt more than heard Hermione give a gasp at that, but he thought that Ron had a point. It was unlikely, after all, that Ginny’s new vision wouldn’t have something to do with Voldemort - not many things didn’t nowadays.

Sure enough, after a few more moments Ginny began to murmur, "No, no, not..." like the last time. This time, though, tears started pouring down her cheeks, even as she continued gazing into the crystal ball. Suddenly, she jerked spasmodically, seemingly tearing her eyes away from the ball. She almost fell off her chair, but Harry and Ron caught her.

"Ginny, what -" eight voices said at once, but Harry overbore them all.

"Stop!" he yelled. "She has to tell it her own way, with no interference from anybody." He still hadn’t taken his eyes off of Ginny, and now her own eyes met his and widened in what looked to him like terror.

"No!" she said. "No, I can’t, I can’t tell anyone!" She tried to twist away, but Harry managed to catch her hands before she did.

"Ginny, you know you have to," he said. "We need to get it down right away, before you lose any of it."

"I can’t, I can’t," she repeated, and burst into tears. Harry tried to reach out to her, but she drew away from him, so he let Hermione comfort her. He looked around - everyone was either staring at Ginny, or at the floor - anywhere but at each other. They’re all thinking the same thing, Harry thought. There were only a few things that would upset Ginny that much - she must have seen one of them dead. Suddenly, he had a thought.

"Sirius, could you contact Miss Stuart? Maybe she could help Ginny."

"Remus already left to fetch her," Sirius said. "They should be - ah, yes, I think I hear them now."

Everyone moved out of the way of the door, and Miss Stuart, followed by Remus, came running in. Miss Stuart lost no time in shooing everyone except Harry out of the room, saying that Ginny needed quiet right now. Then she turned to Harry.

"What did she say? Where are your notes?"

"She won’t say anything," Harry said. "She just keeps saying that she can’t tell anyone."

"I’m right here, you know," Ginny said, but she didn’t raise her head.

"Good, then you can tell us about your vision," Miss Stuart said. She took a small notebook and quill from her pocket, and sat down on Ginny’s bed.

"No, I can’t," Ginny said. "I’m sorry, I just can’t."

"Ginny, remember your reaction to me when I told you of the vision I had of Sirius? You were angry with me, and you had every right to be. I withheld vital information, which could have been helpful to people I cared about. You’re doing the same thing, right now."

"I know, but...what’s the point of telling, if it’s just going to happen anyway? Can visions be changed, or can’t they? If I’m a true Seer, won’t everything I See come to pass, no matter what we do?"

Miss Stuart sat very still on the bed. "Ginny, we’ve talked about this before," she said. Harry stared at the two of them, surprised. He certainly hadn’t had any talk about this before, with either Miss Stuart or Ginny.

"I know," Ginny said. "But now..." She reached up and grabbed her pendant, but then dropped it as though it had burnt her.

To stop the pain he was feeling from showing in his eyes as he watched Ginny, Harry turned to Miss Stuart. "Can you explain it to me?"

She sighed. "This is the classic paradox question, and it’s something that every Seer must come to terms with at some point. It took me much longer than I hope it will take Ginny. If what we See is going to come true no matter what, what’s the point of Seeing? I don’t believe that the universe could work like that; that it would give someone the power of visions just to taunt them with things they cannot change. But if that’s true, is what we See really the future, or just one possible future? The solution, I believe, lies in how vague visions usually are, and how difficult it is to interpret them. They always come true - always - but not always in the ways you think they will. Think of my vision of Sirius - it did come true, but my interpretation was so far off that it was almost as if I didn’t have a vision at all."

"What if the vision isn’t vague at all?" Ginny asked, very low.

"If you tell me what it is, I can answer that question better," Miss Stuart said.

Ginny let out a long breath. "I suppose I have to...I can’t keep...but just to you," she said, fixing her eyes on Miss Stuart. "I don’t think I could bear it..."

Harry met Miss Stuart’s eyes and nodded. He left the room, but he patted Ginny’s shoulder before he left. He felt her flinch at his touch, and that hurt him, because he could almost feel her withdrawing from him and he didn’t know why, but he somehow still made it out the door.

He was met with a barrage of Weasleys as soon as he stepped outside.

"She’s going to tell Miss Stuart," he said, not meeting anybody’s eyes. "She wouldn’t tell with me in the room."

"Oh, Harry," Hermione said, and threw her arms around him. Harry couldn’t help but meet Ron’s eyes in shock, to see Ron almost grinning at him. Despite everything, despite the worry in his eyes, Hermione could still make Ron grin.

"Erm, Hermione, it’s Ginny you’ll need to comfort, not me," he said, patting her awkwardly on the back. When she showed no signs of moving any time soon, he turned to Mrs. Weasley. "Maybe we should all go downstairs," he said. "Ginny would hate it if we were all here waiting for her to come out."

"You’re quite right, dear," Mrs. Weasley said. "All right, everyone, let’s give Ginny some space."

They all trooped downstairs, but everyone’s thoughts were obviously still up in Ginny’s room. To distract them all, and to keep his own mind off of the thought of one of them possibly dying, Harry asked Mr. Weasley more about the attack, but he didn’t really have much more to say. None of Harry’s other Muggle-born friends had been attacked; in fact, no other attacks had happened at all.

"But is this the beginning, Dad?" Ron asked. "Professor Dumbledore told me that he thought that once things started happening, they would really happen. Is that what you think?"

Mr. Weasley sighed. "I agree with Dumbledore, and so do Remus and Sirius." The two of them nodded. "I think we’re in for a very bad time, and especially in the next few months. I’ve owled Dumbledore - I think you all should go back to Hogwarts as soon as possible."

"Just us, or all of the students?" George asked. He and Fred were in back in their old place on the hearth rug.

"The whole school, if they’ll go," Mr. Weasley said. "It’s the safest place right now."

"But Mr. Weasley, what about Colin and Dennis’ funeral?" Hermione asked. "I’m sure we’d all...want to go to that."

Mr. Weasley shook his head. "Even if you don’t go back to Hogwarts, attending the funeral would be out of the question. In the first place, it will be a Muggle funeral. We contacted Colin’s grandparents, and they’re making all of the arrangements. And it would be far too dangerous."

Hermione didn’t look convinced, but Ron, who was sitting next to her on the floor, put his hand on her arm. "Think what a target we would be," he said.

"We can have a memorial service for Colin and Dennis when we get back to Hogwarts," George said. "You should suggest it to McGonagall - we could have it in the Common Room."

Hermione looked thoughtful. "That’s a good idea, but I think we should open it up to all of the school, not just the Gryffindors."

"What about the Aurors, Mr. Weasley?" Harry asked. "I didn’t notice their names in the article."

"Jon and Samwell," Mrs. Weasley said, sighing. "That just made it worse, that it was those two."

"Why?" Harry asked. He wondered what could possibly make it worse.

"They were the two Aurors who watched over Ginny this summer while she was at Miriam’s. She became quite friendly with them. I’m sure she feels even more guilty because of that." Tears welled up in Mrs. Weasley’s eyes, and her husband put his arm around her. She leaned in gratefully.

Harry gulped. He positively ached for Ginny. He knew what it was like to blame himself, even when he knew he shouldn’t, and he knew that’s what she was doing right now, but he also knew that nothing anybody said to her could change a thing.

"What about their funerals?" he asked. Ginny would definitely want to go, and of course he would go with her.

"That would be too dangerous as well, Harry," Mr. Weasley began, but just then Ginny and Miss Stuart appeared in the doorway. Ginny looked so pale that Harry thought he could count every freckle, and she looked like she was swallowing convulsively. Mrs. Weasley gave a small cry, and ran to her daughter, hugging her tightly. Ginny let her for a moment, but then resolutely pulled away.

"I’m ready to tell everyone about my vision now," she said.

Remus jumped up and offered Miss Stuart his seat. She took it with a small smile up at him, and drew Ginny down to sit on the overstuffed arm. Ginny started speaking very rapidly, staring straight ahead and not looking at anyone, not even Charlie, who was in her line of vision.

"I saw the Dark Mark over a Muggle house. It was completely destroyed, and there were Muggles standing all around, looking and pointing. I don’t think anyone could have survived that kind of destruction." She stopped for a moment, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. "The house was number four, Privet Drive."

There was an uproar. Fred, George, Charlie, and Ron sounded incredulous, Sirius, Remus, and Bill tried to reassure Harry, from what he could hear, and Hermione and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley tried to comfort Ginny. Since everyone was making such a noise, none of that worked.

Harry just sat there, completely stunned. He didn’t take his eyes off of Ginny, but he could still see the way everyone else’s eyes kept being drawn to him. He just couldn’t believe that the reaction she had had to her vision was because she thought she saw him dead. Ron, or her parents, he could understand, but him? Don’t make this more than it is, Potter, he told himself. Obviously, she’s worried about the collapse of her world, if The Boy Who Lived died. And you’ve become friends, at least. That’s all you want her to feel, anyway, remember? It was becoming more and more difficult to convince himself of that. Suddenly, he realized that he couldn’t see Ginny’s pendant anymore. What does that mean? Is she too scared to wear it - scare even just to be my friend, now?

"Miss Stuart," Hermione asked, her voice sounding decidedly shaky. "How inevitable are visions? I mean, is this absolutely going to happen, full stop, no chance of avoiding it?"

Miss Stuart pointedly looked at Ginny, who sighed, obviously not wanting to rehash this subject right now.

"The vision itself is inevitable," she said, now looking down at the ground. "But the interpretation definitely isn’t. The Dark Mark will float above a ruined number four, Privet Drive. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that...that Harry will die. He might not be there, the Dursleys might not even be there, it might even be years in the future, and the Dursleys might not own the house anymore, and it’s just random Muggles that are killed. Though that would be horrible enough," she muttered.

"But," Miss Stuart prompted.

Ginny turned to her abruptly. Harry couldn’t see her face, but he could see Miss Stuart nod decisively.

"But," Ginny said after a moment, "One of the things we’ve been working on is interpreting time in visions, since that could be of the utmost importance. And I think this will happen soon. In the next year, at least." Suddenly, she broke down, hiding her face in her hands. "I’m so sorry, Harry, so sorry." Mrs. Weasley ran to her again and took her in her arms, rocking her back and forth.

"Don’t be sorry, Ginny, this isn’t your fault," Harry said, but he could tell that she didn’t really hear him. He turned to Ron and Hermione, but Hermione just shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, and Ron looked like he was thinking hard about something. Harry didn’t know what to say to Ginny, yet again. Instead, he turned to Mr. Weasley. "Someone will have to tell Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, though I doubt they’ll believe it," he said.

Mr. Weasley nodded. "Do you think you should be the one to tell them? We could go tomorrow."

Harry shook his head. "They’ll be even less likely to believe it if I tell them. Maybe Remus - he’s very believable."

Fred gave a snort that sounded like a laugh he tried to turn into a cough. "Good thing they don’t know he’s a werewolf, huh?" he said. Remus gave him a small smile.

Ron did chuckle. "Yeah, if they reacted the way they did to ton-tongue toffee, imagine how they’d react to a werewolf. You, know, Harry," he said, growing serious again. "There’s just one thing to do. You can’t go back to the Dursleys, ever. Now we have a good counter-argument for Dumbledore - it’s obviously not safe there."

"That’s true, Ron," Mr. Weasley said. He stared at his youngest son, a thoughtful look on his face. Ron looked like he was trying not to swell up with pride that his father agreed with him, and failing miserably.

"Of course, you know you’re always welcome here, Harry," Mrs. Weasley said.

Harry looked over at the Weasley family clock, where his hand still rested on ‘home’. "I know," he said, swallowing hard. "And I can’t ever thank you enough."

Dinner that night, Ron assured Harry much later, was not a usual Weasley Christmas feast. As Harry looked around at all the subdued faces, he felt a hatred for Voldemort that he had never experienced before, not even when Cedric Diggory had been killed next to him. The Weasleys, Hermione, Sirius and Remus were everything to him. They were family and friends. They had taken him into their lives, supporting him and laughing with him, teasing him and loving him. And these people, who had never done anything to hurt Voldemort or his Death Eaters, were in mortal danger, simply because they were that family to Harry. He knew he should walk away. He should distance himself from all of them, because if he didn’t, one day or another Voldemort would murder them. Just like in his dream, one by one they would die, and it would all be Harry’s fault. He thought that it would serve him right, the loneliness that would come then, because he knew he couldn’t do it.

The next day found them back at Hogwarts. It was probably the quickest mobilization of that many students ever, and Harry wondered if Professor Dumbledore had anticipated something like this, and prepared plans in advance. Not all of the students returned - some parents insisted on keeping their children as long as they could, and some refused to send them back at all. None of the students were cheerful, except some of the Slytherins, and the atmosphere was the darkest in Gryffindor Tower. The first thing Hermione did - even before finishing her holiday work - was talk to Professor McGonagall about the memorial ceremony for Colin and Dennis. It was to be held after classes had started again to accommodate the students who wouldn’t return until then.

Harry wasn’t as involved in the planning as much as he would have liked to be, because Ginny was very involved, and she had been avoiding him ever since Christmas. She didn’t study with them in the evenings anymore, and she somehow always managed to walk alone to their sessions with Miss Stuart, which had started up again as soon as they got back to Hogwarts. She even managed this when they had both been eating in the Great Hall right before the session, but since she didn’t often eat with them anymore, that wasn’t so surprising. They hadn’t really talked about anything that had happened over Christmas, and Harry hadn’t seen her wear her pendant at all. He didn’t know what to do about all this. He certainly didn’t want to force her confidence, and he worried that if he said anything to her, he would say too much. But he missed their former camaraderie, and he didn’t know what to do to get it back.

After a few days of this, Harry grew so concerned that he actually asked Ron about it. The two of them were sitting with Hermione in the Common Room, studying. Only two weeks ago it would have been the two of them with Hermione and Ginny, but now Ginny was across the room sitting with Dean.

"That’s what Ginny always does," Ron said, paging through Intermediate Transfiguration, looking for anything to help him turn a shirt into a pair of pants. "Why are cross-clothes switches so difficult? And don’t look at me like that, Hermione, have I mentioned a word about copying?" He stopped flipping pages and looked up at Harry. "I tried to talk to her - George even tried to talk to her - and Bill’s been sending her owl after owl. It hasn’t helped. Whenever there’s something wrong, Ginny stops talking to the whole family. Remember her first year...if she thought that she was the one opening the Chamber of Secrets, whyever didn’t she talk to someone about it? There was Percy, Fred and George, and me, if she didn’t want to go to Mum and Dad. But that’s the way Ginny reacts. Trust me on this one, Harry."

Harry wasn’t sure he’d have wanted to go to either Percy or Fred and George if he’d been Ginny, but he didn’t mention that, and he certainly didn’t want to remind Ron that he was the one who had withdrawn from Ginny that year, not the other way around. "But, Ron," he said instead, "I’m not part of the family, and it’s really me she’s been avoiding."

"You’re the person she has to avoid," Hermione said, looking up from her Potions essay. "You’re the one who dies in her vision."

"I didn’t die in her vision - the Dursleys’ house was destroyed! That’s completely different."

"You know that, and I know that, but Ginny has to work through it herself," Hermione said. "I’m sure it’s much more difficult when it’s actually your vision. She actually saw it, and felt all of the emotions that went with it, so it’s harder for her to dismiss."

Harry admitted that she had a point, though he thought it interesting how sure she was that he wouldn’t die, but he hated just sitting around doing nothing when Ginny was unhappy. Another thing that annoyed him was that it seemed as though every time he looked around, Ginny was with Dean. Not that he had a problem with Dean - he liked him, and he knew that he wouldn’t take advantage of Ginny. But he also knew that Dean liked Ginny, enough to want to ask her to the Yule Ball, at the very least. Every time he saw the two of them together, even if they were just studying, it frustrated him. Ginny was supposed to turn to him in times of trouble - he had thought they were friends, and he was the one who had been there for her when they first found out about Colin. But apparently she now wanted to be with someone who was distanced from the situation, and safer.

This frustration led him into some embarrassing situations. One afternoon he and Hermione were working in the Common Room on the Cushioning Charm that was used on brooms. Ron was with Professor Dumbledore, and he’d actually perfected this charm on the first try, which had annoyed Hermione, so she insisted that Harry practice with her. When Harry rolled up his sleeves to get more comfortable, Hermione said, "What’s that bracelet you’re wearing, Harry? I haven’t seen you wear that before."

Harry was about to push his sleeve back down and say that it was nothing, when he noticed that Ginny and Dean, at the next table, had both looked up at Hermione’s words. So, instead, he even raised his voice a little. This should show Ginny that, even if she didn’t want to be close to him, some people did.

"It’s a Christmas present from Cho," he said, holding out his arm so Hermione could look at the bracelet, which was made of red, blue, gold and bronze threads braided in an intricate pattern. He’d been surprised to open it on Christmas - after all, he had just taken Cho to the Yule Ball, they weren’t particularly friendly. "Wasn’t that nice of her?"

Hermione nodded, but she was studying the bracelet. Suddenly, she started to laugh. "Wizards are really so far out of fashion, aren’t they?" she said. "Friendship bracelets went out years ago among Muggles!"

Harry’s face burned, and he quickly pushed his sleeve back down his arm. He carefully didn’t look at Ginny, and he used all his will-power to make himself not reach for his pendant. As soon afterwards as he could convince Hermione that she had mastered the charm, he grabbed his broomstick and headed out to the Quidditch pitch. He found himself out there a lot, as the days passed. Ron and Hermione spent every available moment together, and he no longer had Ginny to take his mind off of things. Instead, he used flying, doing enough dives and dangerous moves to force himself to concentrate on what he was doing, and to tire himself out enough that he could sleep at night. Otherwise, whenever he closed his eyes, he saw the Dark Mark over the Burrow, or Remus’ house, which he’d only seen in pictures, or even Hogwarts. The night he couldn’t force that picture out of his head, he crept out of the school, using his Invisibility Cloak, and flew all night. The only person who knew what he was doing was Dobby, who just watched him with his large, sorrowful eyes whenever he left with his broomstick. He supposed that since Dobby knew, Dumbledore did, too, and he assuaged his conscience with that.

One of the first things Harry had done when he got back to Hogwarts was to pay a visit on Hagrid, who had come back for the holidays, and he repeated the visit as often as he could. Hagrid was going back on his mission in the New Year, and, besides, their talks together gave Ron and Hermione time alone. Harry might still be adjusting to his two best friends being involved with each other, but he tried to be as considerate as he could.

Hagrid was the same as ever, and happy to see Harry and Hogwarts again, but Harry could tell that he was really enjoying his mission. He let slip all the things that he shouldn’t have - that his mission was to the giants, and that Madam Maxime was still with him, and that he’d seen his mother. Harry couldn’t help but grin every time Hagrid said, "I shouldna ‘ave told you tha’," but he was happy that Hagrid’s mission didn’t depend on secrecy, or it would have been doomed from the start.

The day before classes began again, Harry left Hagrid’s hut, in an even worse mood than usual. Hagrid would be leaving the next day, Dumbledore had told him that the Dursleys hadn’t believed Remus about their danger and refused to move, and he still hadn’t been able to talk to Ginny. So when he saw her walking along the edge of the forest, he followed her, determined to have at least some sort of conversation. He was surprised when she actually entered the forest, and even more surprised when he finally caught up with her, and saw that she was talking to a centaur. The centaur galloped away as soon as it saw Harry, and Ginny turned towards him, her hands on her hips.

"What is it, Harry?"

"Was that Firenze? Why are you talking to him, and how did you meet him?"

"What is this, an inquisition? What I do is my business, not yours, and why do you care, anyway?" She kept her eyes on the ground, but she sounded furious.

"Ginny what do you mean? Of course I..." Harry trailed off. Why he couldn’t just say "of course I care, we’re friends" he didn’t know, but the words stuck in his throat. And he was afraid that he’d say too much if he got started. "Why are you avoiding me, Ginny?" he asked instead. "You know I don’t blame you for that vision - how could I? Is it something I said? Or did? If it is, I’m really sorry." He realized that he was babbling, and shut his mouth with a snap. She seemed to have that effect on him.

For the first time in days, Ginny looked him in the eye. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she looked extremely tired. Her anger faded as he watched.

"It’s nothing you did, Harry, I just have some things I need to work out for myself. Toby told me that this type of reaction is common with the first vision that affects a Seer deeply. I need to learn to accept that I can’t change things, and somehow come to terms with knowing at least part of the future."

Harry thought she sounded like she was just parroting Miss Stuart, but he didn’t say so. And since when had she called Miss Stuart by her first name? "I understand that this is a lot for you to handle," he said instead, "but can’t I help you work through it? Why do you have to do it all by yourself? I thought we were friends, Ginny." He reached out and put a hand on her arm.

She jerked away. "Of course we’re friends, Harry," she said, though she had never sounded less friendly towards him that he could remember. "This is just something I need to do myself. I’m sorry, Harry." She whirled around and started running back to the castle.

Harry just watched her go. He had no idea what else to do.