Harry Potter and the Shadows of the Watchgate

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-*~| CHAPTER 22 - Confrontations |~*-
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After spending another two days in the Hospital Wing, Harry finally coaxed Madam Pomfrey to let him leave. It was no use marinating in Potter-Ward, as there was nothing more magic could do for his injuries.

He was given a cane for balance as his right leg wasn't healed yet. He cautiously made his way to the Hogwarts Lake, towards his favorite beech tree. He had made some decisions while he was in the infirmary; he wanted to stick to them and carry them out the rest of the term. It was time that he dealt with all the matters at hand before they blew up in his face. He needed to get a grip--

"Ahoy, Potter!" a very familiar voice drawled from behind a tree.

Harry knew, who he was going to face. He didn't need the sight of the pointy face to tell whose voice it was.

"Having a lonesome stroll? Where are your two obedient side-kicks?" Draco Malfoy leered indulgently at him.

"They're my best friends not side-kicks, Malfoy," Harry answered coldly, leaning on his cane for an upright position.

"How touchy-feely," Draco said, his smirk sliding in place.

Harry was about to answer when he felt two pairs of hands grab him from behind. The cane slipped and he was shoved to the ground face-first by the two official Malfoy trolls: Crabbe and Goyle.

Harry spat out the grass and rolled over to see the smirking face of his nemesis. A sudden bolt of anger surged through his body; he wanted to crush this toe-rag into nothingness. He took out his wand but Goyle, with quite surprising reflexes, kicked it away from his grasp.

"You can't squirm away so easily every time, Potter. I'll finish you off like your worthless parents and godfather; then I'll kill that Mudblood Granger and that little wease-"

"AGH!!! I've had enough!" Harry bellowed in pure molten anger, drowning out the rest of words spoken by Malfoy.

Everything went red for a second as he lashed out at Malfoy in his mind. "You little slime ball!" Harry yelled angrily at Malfoy.

He felt a sudden surge of energy shooting from his body as the sounds around him dimmed, as if someone had pressed the mute button of the world surrounding him.

To his utter surprise, in a blink of an eye, there was no Malfoy to be seen. One second he was there and in the other, he wasn't.

In utter shock, Harry hoisted himself up from the ground gripping the cane to take a closer look, while Crabbe and Goyle wandered about where Malfoy had stood, making unintelligible noises.

Harry noticed someone call his name and he saw Ginny's figure rushing towards him, dragging along her bulky school bag.

"Harry! Are you all right?"

"Where did you come from?" Harry asked nonplussed. He didn't want to be rude but the words just blurted from his mouth.

"Our Herbology lesson just ended." She looked at Crabbe and Goyle suspiciously, and whispered to him, "Did they do something to you? Why were you lying on the ground?"

Harry had his own questions to ask. "Did you see Malfoy?"

Ginny shook her head no.

"You killed him! You killed him!" Goyle looked like he was choking, while Crabbe stupidly patted his back.

"What are you two buffoons talking about?" Ginny asked incredulously.

"Scarhead killed Malfoy!"

"Really, now!" Ginny rolled her eyes, while Harry felt panic take over him.

He didn't know what had happened; what he did know was that things went horribly wrong when Malfoy cussed at his loved-ones. He only remembered a sudden burst of energy surrounding him and then all was normal.

Something similar to confusion passed through Ginny's eyes. "Harry?" She gave him an inquiring look.

Before he could answer, Crabbe started screaming at the top of his voice while trying to keep away Goyle from a particular spot.

"Look, LOOK!!!"

"WHAT!" Harry and Ginny both bellowed at the same time.

Crabbe was pointing towards a slimy blob on the grass--it looked like a Flobberworm.

What's a Flobberworm doing loose in the middle of the grounds? Harry thought warily.

He looked closely and suddenly realized that it was the same spot, where Malfoy had stood seconds ago. Could he? Harry shook his head, but there was no question about it. The thing was a Flobberworm and it could easily be Malfoy.... But, how???

"Harry, what's the matter?" Ginny whispered, looking quite worried.

"I think I've accidentally turned Malfoy into a Flobberworm," he faintly whispered in her ear.

"You did what?" Ginny's eyes were as wide as a puffer fish's. She looked perplexed as she half grinned and grimaced at the slimy Flobberworm, lazily lying on the ground.

Even though the situation was serious, Harry couldn't help smiling wickedly at Ginny. She in turn looked like she was planning something in her mind, as she grinned back at him.

"Now boys," she said to the two trolls, flicking her wand at them.

"D'you want my Bat-Bogey or a clear way to the Hospital Wing?" she asked, staring at them meaningfully, while Crabbe and Goyle stupidly gawked at her.

"Your spell misfired, do you understand?" She sashayed nearer to them, while Harry gaped at Ginny in wonder.

"It was him," Crabbe pointed towards Harry with a shaky stubby finger.

"Who?" Ginny looked around, as if there was no Harry standing beside her.

"The Scarhead!" Goyle bellowed.

"I see no him or even a Scarhead around here. For all I know, you two might be attempting to kill Draco Malfoy!" Ginny's eyes flashed, as she tried hard not to laugh and maintained a straight dead-serious face.

"We never!" Crabbe squeaked.

"You lie!" Goyle cried.

"Do I?" Ginny smirked at them. "Who would believe you two? D'you think McGonagall will accept that?" Ginny rounded at them. "So, if this Flobberworm is Draco Malfoy, all I saw was you two trying to hex him." She cocked her eyebrows at them.

"But we didn't do anything!" Crabbe whined while Goyle glared at Ginny.

"That's what I was saying! A spell backfired... that's all." She flashed a smile at them, while they looked suspiciously at her and then at Harry.

Harry could almost see two different cog-wheels working in their brains as they stared from the Flobberworm to Ginny and him.

They jumped when two loud cracks filled the air. Both the trolls jumped on the spot, looking frighteningly at Ginny, who had issued two loud bangs from her wand. They started to edge away from them, when Ginny taunted, "I think you're forgetting a slimy friend of yours."

As soon as Goyle picked the disgusting thing off the ground, there were two more bangs.

"If I was you, I would hurry," Ginny goaded them, and as if on cue both the blundering trolls trotted towards the Entrance Hall in full speed.

Harry couldn't help but laugh at the two trolls bungling through the school grounds--his first genuine laugh since quite a while.

"You really didn't have to do that," Harry said, smiling at Ginny.

"Who said I did it for you? I couldn't miss bullying them a little, when they have done the same to so many others!" she exclaimed, smiling back at him.

"How's your leg, by the way?" Ginny inquired after a pause, sounding concerned.

"Ah, it'll be healed soon enough; getting used to it really." Harry waved his free hand, while trying to find a topic of interest, and noticed the dark circles around her eyes instead.

"You don't look so good either," he said, slightly puzzled.

"Is that how you start conversations with girls?" Ginny cocked her eyebrow good-humouredly, smiling at him. "I've just been getting the O.W.L. jitters, you know," Ginny confided while looking at the ground.

They started strolling towards the Entrance Hall, through the winding pathways of the courtyard. The snow had dissipated and a hint of spring was just round the corner. Looking at the happy and contended faces of his fellow students, nobody would ever guess that the base of this magical world was threatened by a dark wizard who didn't know when to stop, who in his power hunger had gone to such lengths as he had to achieve his precious immortality.

"But is he really immortal?" Harry suddenly blurted out, not realizing that he had wondered out loud.

"What?" Ginny furrowed her brows and then sighed deeply, understanding his question. Someone has to teach him a lesson on conversation! she thought, amused.

"He claims to be, doesn't he? And the kind of magic he does and what you told us about how he came back using the flesh, blood and bones of others, he could be. But there's always a loophole, as Dad says. Maybe you'd be able to vanquish him completely this time around..." Ginny faltered, looking into his eyes.

"I reckon it wouldn't be so easy and I might not even live to tell that tale," answered Harry, without breaking eye contact--quite amazed at himself, and at how easily he was pouring out his doubts in front of Ginny.

Ginny stiffened, breaking the eye contact, pushing her hands into her robe pockets. "It's not so black and white, Harry. There's always a place for grey and that's where your answer lies. Life is not just taking a breath, surviving monotonous days and finally dying. There are so many things that come in between and are so easily ignored by all of us... little things that nobody notices. Take breakfast for example: everyday we eat delicious delicacies that some people could only dream of, we are getting the best education and living a magical life, which I can assure you many Muggles would die for."

She continued, not knowing that her eyes were flashing with deep-woven thoughtfulness, mesmerizing Harry.

"I know this whole Dark Side thing seems really bad, but it had never lasted long. Look at Grindelwald, did he survive? He was acting like Voldemort's now but he was defeated by Dumbledore, wasn't he? And somebody will do the same to Voldemort too, and it could just as well be you," she paused, looking at him meaningfully.

"I just wish that we could just stop and appreciate what we have now rather than what will be. Sometimes, I think we should just listen, feel and see!" Exasperation crept in her voice, making it a little high-pitched. She splayed her hands outwards in frustration as if willing him to do just that.

It was then she saw him looking at her with utter concentration and wilted under his gaze. She cast her eyes down while two patches of red appeared on her cheeks.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have been so..." she trailed off, looking at him searchingly, while he stared at her, enthralled.

Did she have so many emotions bottled up inside her all along, and never showed them to anybody? Harry wondered.

"No, you are right." Harry tried hard not to gawk and succeeded more or less as they neared the stairs leading to the Gryffindor common room.

"Hey, Ginny, I've been looking all over for you!" Michael Corner came bounding in view.

"Michael, what a surprise," Ginny looked ill at ease, as she looked at Corner.

"Oh." Michael stopped seeing Harry, catching his breath. "If you're busy, we can talk later," he said earnestly.

"Oh no, we were just--" Ginny was cut off by Harry.

"Ginny, you go on. At any rate, I have to catch up with Ron and Hermione," Harry said, making up an excuse.

Ginny looked at him imploringly and then made her way to the Great Hall with Michael, giving him a long backward glance.

Harry continued towards his destination, kicking himself in his own mind for always being such a good boy. He was in no the mood of climbing all the stairs, therefore, he made for the nearest secret passage to reach the Gryffindor common room.

Halfway through the journey while coming out of a tapestry, the air around him suddenly became brittle as he saw Cho coming his way. He wasn't really ready to talk to her, even when he had thought about it and would have eventually done so.

However, the face-off looked rather imminent and it was already late to look for a cover, so he continued his slow tread, averting his eyes from Cho.

"Harry?" Cho's said timidly.

Harry's head snapped towards her, his eyes showing a mixture of disdain and surprise. He never thought she would initiate a talk after what she had done to him. So, he didn't reply and stared at her hands, which were splayed downwards, as if in anxiety.

Cho followed his pointed gaze and blushed. "I- I went to the Hospital wing to look for you--"

"Oh really?" He wasn't buying a single word from her.

"Okay, fine. I didn't go to the Hospital Wing, but I was looking for you." Seeing the skeptical expression on Harry's face, she continued on, "I want to straighten some things out, Harry."

"Hmm," Harry mused loudly. "Things like: lying, spreading rumors, cheating and... I reckon I'm still missing something," he finished, staring at her darkly, remembering the way she had tried to seduce him in the Room of Requirement.

With that he remembered something else as well. "It was you who wrote that note, isn't it? Harry Potter you are mine – right?" Harry didn't know either to burst in gales of laughter or expletives, so he chose to stay silent instead.

Cho bowed her head as she started wringing her hands. "It wasn't all that, Harry... Yes, it was me,"--Her face turned crimson with embarrassment--"but let me continue. Please?" Cho pleaded, looking at his open mouth as he was about to interrupt her again.

"Sure." Harry shrugged his shoulders with the knowledge that whatever she would say would make no difference to him whatsoever. Gryffindor lost the final Quidditch match because of some petty obsession of hers, which he still wasn't quite clear on. Moreover, he became the laughing stock of the whole school and lost precious time off his Advanced Training due to his injury. No difference, none at all!

"I really didn't want to harm you, Harry--"

"You said this before. How do I know, you're not lying again? And why would I care? What's done is done."

"Will you please let me finish?"

"Okay. Go on," he said indifferently.

"I never thought you would get injured so badly. I just wanted to defeat you at Quidditch. I wanted to teach you a lesson. I wanted to humiliate you in front of your whole House."

Harry's eyes widened with her statement. "What did I ever do to you?!"

Cho matched his stare and said, "You never cared for me, when we dated. You were always busy doing things with your friends, but never with me.... What I'm trying to say, Harry, is that, you never came near my expectations. I wanted to know you more... I wanted to talk to you about Cedric but you never listened. It was as if, he was dead, so leave him dead--"

"It isn't like that!" Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing. Cho never understood him at all. "How would you feel, if you were dating the girlfriend of a bloke who got killed in front of your own eyes? I had lost sleep because of his death; it had been that upsetting for me. How could I have opened old wounds when they needed to heal? What exactly could I've talked about him, Cho? Did you want to know how he died?!"

Cho looked at him as if dumbfounded.

"I can assure you," Harry continued, "I liked you once, but there just wasn't much common between us except a death.... By the end of the last term, you started dating Corner and I was fine with that. I never thought you would come haunting me with a Love Potion!" Harry had to lower his voice as a few frightened first-years trotted past them in the corridor.

Cho looked stricken. "I- I never thought from your point of view. Believe me, Harry, I had reasons to do all this--"

"Are you finished? Have you humiliated me enough? Are you through or should I continue looking for some more weird devices of yours?" Harry spat distastefully.

Cho took a deep breath and said, "I just wanted to get back at you for dumping me so rudely. I was already distraught with Cedric's death and dating you wasn't easy. I couldn't even catch the Snitch even when you weren't present in the finals. I felt just awful! You just wouldn't understand!" Her voice became shrill as she continued, not meeting his eye.

"I just wanted to show you that I could win as well, even when the Boy-Who-Lived was playing against me.... I'm not sorry, but I just wanted to tell you that I never meant physical harm. And that we are even." With that she spun on her heels stiffly, and marched off in the opposite direction.

Harry simply stared after her, his mouth agape at her shallowness. And there was a time that he liked her. Ugh!

Harry shook his head to clear it and made for the Gryffindor common room, arranging his thoughts. On reaching the portrait hole, he remembered that he didn't know the current password. He literally wanted to kick himself now.

"Back from the Hospital Wing?" the Fat Lady asked, staring at him critically.

"Yes!" he said harshly--a thing that he hadn't intended.

"You don't have to raise your voice, you know," the Fat Lady replied, sounding more than miffed. "I'm not deaf!"

"Sorry," he whispered.

"Chipolatas."

"I would say you're two days late. The password has changed," the Fat Lady replied sternly, and glared at him pointedly.

He swore out loud while the Fat Lady flapped in indignation.

"Really, now! You need to get yourself checked again. Something is still inflating your head." She sounded quite offended.

"I'm sorry, just a bad day," Harry said sighing. He turned to go back down the stairs when the portrait hole swung open.

"Harry," Neville exclaimed seeing him, "you are back!"

"Hey, Neville," Harry said, more than pleased.

"Why were you going back?" Neville asked puzzled.

"Didn't know the password," Harry said sheepishly, while Neville gave him a sympathetic nod, as he did understand the consequences of not remembering or knowing the password quite well.

"Been there," he said, winking at him.

The moment Harry entered the common room, almost all the heads swiveled towards him--a few gasps of surprise and murmurs issued--and he was caught in between Katie and Hermione, who fussed over him not unlike Mrs. Weasley.

"You're feeling all right?" Katie inquired, shaking his arm.

"Why d'you have grass stuck in your hair?" Hermione eyed him suspiciously.

"Let him breathe!" Ron's voice sounded, as he cleared the two girls in question and guided him to the nearest couch, shooing the first-years sitting on it with a glare.

"We were just planning on throwing a welcome-back party for you, Harry," Colin Creevey piped up from the armrest of the couch, while others groaned.

"And I was trying to make him understand that the bouncing bells wouldn't be such a good idea for a welcome-back present!" Ron looked at Colin sternly.

"Er... what are they?" Harry asked incredulously.

"It's a plant, Harry. They resemble huge bells and smell good too. But, if you stay near them too long, you start feeling a kind of headiness and before you know, you're bouncing all over the place, non-stop," Neville said, making a face.

"But wouldn't that be fun? All Harry needs is a little lift-up," said Colin, with a huge grin on his face.

"No, Colin, I don't need that kind of a lift up," Harry said smiling, while shaking his head.

"You do have to catch up on your studies, Harry," said Hermione--trying not to bristle at the retreating figure of Colin towards the portrait hole, looking dejected--changing the topic.

"And that's why I've you as my friend," Harry said cheekily, while Ron nodded along with him.

"Funny!" Hermione rolled her eyes.

"No really, Hermione. Where would we be without your guidance?" Ron winked at Harry while half curtseying to Hermione, who in turn looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"Why are you all disheveled?" Hermione asked, switching from her squint to a glare on Harry.

"That is a long story," said Harry, sighing audibly, motioning them towards a more private corner of the common room. He started off with how he was taken by surprise by the Malfoy clan, and finished with, "Somehow I turned Malfoy into a Flobberworm," taking out the Ginny part for some unknown reason.

A deathly silence followed, as the news sank into the group. Hermione's eyes were popping, while Ron was grinning at him manically.

"Blimey, Harry! How did you do it?" Ron asked, almost jumping from his seat.

"Are you sure you weren't imagining things?" Hermione asked, trying not to be flippant.

"How can you even say that? Malfoy deserved it and it was real!" Ron puffed glaring at her, as if daring her to say otherwise.

Harry quickly answered a "No," to Hermione, digging his elbow on Ron's lap and shutting him up before a completely different kind of war ensued. "It could've been, if Malfoy had gotten an invisibility cloak from his father, which is not the case," Harry elaborated, thinking about the sudden surge of energy that he had felt when he was helplessly lying on the ground.

He told them exactly what had happened and Hermione's eyes lit up as he mentioned about the energy that had coursed through his body.

"In a way we all do it ... but it's when we don't know what we're doing." Looking at the vacant expressions on everyone's face, she continued in her explanatory voice, "For example, when I was four, I accidentally summoned the cookie jar from top of the fridge and my mum had a fit over it thinking that there were spirits lurking about in the house. It was my first sign of magic, but nothing such happened after getting inducted into Hogwarts." Hermione pondered on, "Though, I do remember reading about it somewhere--"

"I've heard a story about it," Ron chimed in, cutting Hermione.

"What kind of story?" Harry asked quizzically.

"It's one of those bed-time stories that Mum used to read to us," Ron said in embarrassed manner, his ears turning red.

"Go on," said Hermione, egging him on.

"It was about this wizard, who lived up on a mountain--kind of a loner. He knew a special kind of magic and didn't need a wand to perform it. Children used to visit him on Halloween, when he used to give them thousand kinds of candies. But only good kids got it, not the naughty ones..." Ron stared off, as if reliving a distant memory. "I never believed in it though," he finished with a shrug.

"It's like a Wizard Father Christmas," said Harry pondering over the similarities.

"Exactly," said Hermione. "However, one thing is for sure. Almost all the ancient magic was wand-less. And maybe, you're in the process of acquiring it?" she said, looking at him closely.

"Maybe," Harry said with a distant voice, drowning in another series of thoughts. He continued on by unfolding the Cho saga, finishing with, "So, she wanted some kind of revenge and after ridiculing me, she says we are even."

"Nutters!" said Ron.

"This is just too much!" Hermione waved her hands about. "So, it was simply a complex? How superficially petty of her," she admonished.

"And there was a time, when you liked her," Ron said, shaking his head disapprovingly, while Harry glared at him.

"Ron, it's not Harry's fault."

"I'm not saying that. He should've been more careful--"

"Would you hear yourself--"

At this point Harry tuned his two best friends out. Something that he was getting used to, because interrupting them was like interrupting a waterfall which would fall over you even if you shouted at the top of your voice.

Now that the whole Cho episode was over, he felt almost light and at ease. In the least, one problem was solved. Now, he only had to solve the gateway puzzle, guess what Voldemort was up to, and find out the student who wanted to kill him....

Really, how hard all this can be? he thought derisively, making his way to his room.

~*~