Rating:
PG-13
House:
Schnoogle
Genres:
Action Drama
Era:
Multiple Eras
Spoilers:
Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets Prizoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire Order of the Phoenix Quidditch Through the Ages Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Stats:
Published: 01/08/2005
Updated: 06/29/2005
Words: 244,306
Chapters: 66
Hits: 89,703

The War of Shades

quintaped

Story Summary:
Seventh year - The scar connection becomes wide open, giving both Harry and Voldemort ever more detailed views into each other's mind. Harry works on practicing the message he gained in Egypt (Harry Potter and the Goblin Rebellion), but Voldemort launches the Second War to fill Harry with hatred and anger and to strip him of all who are loyal to him. Ever more desperately Harry trains himself and others to fight, but something is making all of his friends fight each other. Harry must find a way to stop the internal warfare or Voldemort will be able to launch an attack on Hogwarts that will destroy all who are capable of resisting him, including Harry. Through all this, Harry must learn for himself how he will finally vanquish Voldemort.

Chapter 12

Chapter Summary:
Harry goes to the training camp at Longbottom Manor. The evening he arrives he seeks out Ginny Weasley for a heart-to-heart talk which does not go as he hoped.
Posted:
01/29/2005
Hits:
1,202


Chapter 12 - Longbottom Manor Transformed

The year before Longbottom Manor had been stale, stodgy, and placid. This year, with over a dozen young aurors, three dozen auxiliaries and four dozen Defense Association team leaders, the place was tense, confusing and vibrant. There was the wartime energy of preparing for action and the anxiety of not knowing when some danger might suddenly erupt. Not that anyone felt that an attack here was likely. For one thing, the premises were known to be covered by numerous protective charms. For another, the Death Eaters had stuck to sneak attacks so far, preferring to spread fear, anger and suspicion to erode wizard society rather than make a dangerous frontal assault.

Nonetheless, all the aurors and auxiliaries had already seen plenty of action responding to the hit squads. There were barely over a hundred aurors in all of Britain, more than enough for normal times, but these were not normal times. The auxiliaries numbered perhaps sixty and members of the Order of the Phoenix pitched in on occasion as well. They were stretched thin and many of them showed their lack of seasoning. Several had been hexed, but no permanent injuries had occurred. The entire auror corps and the auxiliaries had taken to regular applications of murtlap essence, which helped to protect against most hexes. Since murtlap essence in excess quantities causes purple hair to sprout around the ears, those younger sorcerers who overdid the protective murtlap were easily identified. Of course, as with any such group, a nickname quickly arose among them for the condition - "lavender-lulus" they were called by the more experienced aurors.

Quite a number of the auxiliaries and young aurors had had narrow scrapes because they were weak on their patronus charms. It had not been considered a critical auror skill when the dementors were allied with the Ministry, so tenuous patronuses were accepted. Now a truly corporeal patronus was a necessity. This was to be a major part of Harry's assignment.

Harry made sure that Luna and her father were off safely by the Floo Network. Then he stopped in at The Burrow for a brief visit with Winky so he could report to the Weasleys about the condition of their elf and home. Winky gave him a frayed stuffed dragon that Ginny had asked about. Neither Winky nor any of the Weasleys who were capable of traveling to and from The Burrow safely had the time to retrieve it, not just for a stuffed animal. In fact, Ginny had not even asked for it to be sent, but had only added a note in an owl to Winky about other things. However, with Harry available to carry it, Winky took it upon herself to send it along. She was not going to take any chances about displeasing her new family.

Harry thought he was being very clever apparating directly to the room he had stayed in the summer before. However, it turned out that this was one of the three rooms which had been turned into women's dorms. As he arrived just before dinnertime Sunday evening, most of the women were changing from travel clothes to get ready for dinner and the evening. As soon as they heard the pop, 10 heads turned. Harry heard various calls "Coach," "Potter," "Harry!" Despite the surprise, none of them sounded particularly perturbed.

Harry set his things down, covered his eyes and said "Sorry, this is where I stayed last year."

Tonks grabbed him by the arm, "Yeah, sure, Potter - you were just grabbing the kind of look-see you can't get at Hogwarts. Now get out of here."

She shoved him out the door. A few seconds later his bags were shoved out the door by the Patil sisters, who had thrown on dressing gowns. Harry was almost sure that they had both winked at him as they went back in the room and shut the door.

Harry knocked on the door. "Hey, wait; you have my owl, too."

Susan Bones called through the door, "She's too cute for you. We're keeping her for awhile."

Then Harry heard giggling. "Oh, well," he thought, "Hedwig will be well-attended to for the time being. It'll be easier to get situated and then come back for her." He walked down to Neville's room and knocked. Neville opened the door.

"No need to knock, Harry, this'll be your room, too."

Harry walked in and was greeted by Ron, the Creeveys, Justin Finch-Flechley, Ted Nott, and three young aurors he did not know. As he was introduced to them, - Dawkins, Wimbush and Joad - he decided it was a reasonable precaution to use legilemency to try to determine if they were safe, especially after being betrayed by an auror the previous year. He found no problem and resumed suppressing the legilemency.

"Harry," said Ron, "it's good to see you again, mate. I was afraid maybe the muggles wouldn't let you go."

"Dumbledore gave them an excuse. The big problem was my Aunt Marge. She doesn't know about sorcery and the whole family's quite afraid of her."

"Why'ncha just change her into an ottoman or something, at least for the time being?" said Dawkins, one of the young aurors.

"Now that's a thought, changing her into something," said Harry, with a grin "and don't think I haven't thought of it before. However, for one thing, I'm still under age, and besides, they still love her even if she's a pain. Besides, I'm finding it useful to learn to deal with people who are a pain rather than just blast them."

:

"Hmm. We're going to be taught warfare by a pacifist. That sounds useful," mused Dawkins to the other two aurors.

Harry smiled broadly. "Oh, I'll mix it up if I have to, but I don't fancy picking on someone."

Then Wimbush spoke up. "It's good to meetcha in the flesh, Potter. We've been here for nearly a week and began to wonder if there really was a Harry Potter. A bloke can hear so many stories he can doubt a person's for real. Did you really fight - HIM?"

Harry nodded. "It wasn't very long, just until I could grab a portkey and escape."

"It's still more than I want to face him. If I had thought he was coming back, I might not have become an auror. Now, well, I've got the training, and I guess he usually sends others to do his dirty work, and I'll fight them."

Joad added, "I know I wouldn't fancy being the bloke what's got to face him."

"Same here," agreed Harry, then he turned to his friends. "So who's going to show me the set-up and fill me in?"

All the Hogwarts boys had finished changing into clean clothes, so they all went with Harry as a group around the house and grounds showing him all the additions and training areas. A lethiform arena like the one at Hogwarts, but with only a small observation area, had even been set up in the attic so that the trainees could test their patronuses under stress. Dueling was to be practiced between the greenhouses, where Harry and Neville had practiced the year before.

After dinner, Harry stopped by the room where Hedwig was being held hostage - as it seemed to him - and retrieved her. Tonks answered the door and brought Hedwig out in her cage.

"I'm surprised you're here, Tonks," said Harry, "I know you can fight. I've seen it."

"Yeah, well, you also saw me get waxed in the fight. And my patronus is indistinct."

"Really," said Harry, "Do you know what kind of animal it is even?"

She shook her head. "Four legs, smaller than a cow, larger than a squirrel."

Harry laughed, "Well, we'll try to fix you up. Maybe you just haven't found the right happy thought."

"Maybe." said Tonks. "Other trainers have said that I'm too emotional. It makes it hard to focus on just the happy thought."

Harry nodded. "That'll be critical when we throw you to the lethiform - you can't let the fear force you away from your focus."

Tonks shuddered. "Do I really have to face that thing?"

"You don't know if you can do it when you need it if you don't do it when you are scared stupid."

"I understand. It's just that I've seen what those things can do."

"Oh?" said Harry with interest. "Did they have a demonstration with an injured animal like we did last year?"

"Well, yeah, but I was thinking of the pictures of you from last year."

"What!!?"

"Yeah, thought you knew. Pictures were made showing your wounds. They've been showing 'em in training to make sure we're plenty scared. It works."

"They must have been taken while I was asleep," said Harry, "What'd they get - my legs? They were the worst."

"Yeah, your legs ..." Tonks trailed off, but had a silly grin.

"Right, then, Tonks. Give me the whole story."

"Everything but your head. In fact they don't identify it as you, but all of us in the Order had heard about your little mishap, so it wasn't hard to figure out who it was."

"Is there anything left to the imagination?"

"Not really. I mean, I know you're not Jewish, if that's the kind of detail you were concerned about."

"Well, yeah! I'm not an exhibitionist, you know."

"Oh, but you really needn't be ashamed, and there's only a few of us who have seen the pictures who know who it is. We're told that the pictures are twenty years old, but a few of us know you're the only survivor of a lethifold."

"Well, fine, whatever I can do to help the cause," groused Harry, turning to go back to his dorm room.

Tonks caught his right arm with her right hand, and popped her chin over his shoulder. "And Harry?" she said.

"Yes, Tonks," he said resignedly.

She stroked his bottom with her left hand and said, "I'm so glad your tight little bum has healed up."

Harry blushed, but wasn't going to give Tonks the satisfaction of seeing him storm off. He stood there several minutes, held Hedwig's cage with both arms, and waited for her to become embarrassed at standing around stroking his bottom in the hallway of Longbottom Manor.

"Having fun, there, Tonks?"

She stopped and gave him a playful shove. "You're getting better at playing the games, Potter. Be ready for Round 2!"

Later that evening Harry was getting settled into his space in the dorm room. Instead of the four-posters of Hogwarts, there were five bunk beds in each room. Having been among the last to arrive, Harry had to take a top bunk, but he didn't mind. Neville had the bunk below him. When he opened his trunk, he found Ginny's stuffed dragon. He decided this was the perfect excuse to talk to her.

"Hey, Ron," he called, "which room's Ginny in?"

"You've got Scooter - she'll be glad to see him. Come on, I'll take you there."

Ron and Harry went down the hall to one of the several large bedrooms of the manor house. Ron stopped at one and knocked. Hermione came to the door.

"Hello, Ron, what brings you - oh, and Harry, - here?" she said at first mysteriously and then more matter-of-factly when she noticed Harry.

"Erm, Harry has something for Ginny," said Ron.

"Well, of course, he does - oh, you mean something to give to her. Give it to me, Harry," she said with a patronizing smile, "I'll give it to her."

"No, thanks, Hermione. If she can come for a walk, I'd like to talk with her."

"Well, I'll see." She came back in a minute with Ginny. "Here she is. Ron, how about you? Would you like to ... walk, too?"

"I reckon," he said with a twinkle in his eye, and the two of them set off.

"Yes, Harry, you needed something?" said Ginny.

"Well, I brought this," he said, holding up Scooter, "but if you wouldn't mind, I was hoping we could talk?"

"Well, alright. Let me put Scooter on the bed," she said.

When she returned they headed down the hall. At first Harry just talked about this-and-that, catching up on what each had been doing during the summer. When they got to one of the sitting rooms on the first floor, Harry steered her over to a large curtained bay window which had a curved seat all around the edge and curtains that could be pulled across the opening. He motioned for her to go ahead and he followed her, but did not shut the curtains. She sat down, and he stood, pulling at his lip, searching for what to say.

"Harry, if you have something to say, just say it. We've been friends long enough to just talk."

"I wish it were that easy," said Harry, "It's ... I wanted to apologize."

"For what?" said Ginny, "I can't think of anything."

Harry rubbed his hands together and flexed them. "Last year, at The Burrow, we were walking in the garden and we started to talk about, well, whether there could be an 'us.' I pulled away, literally ran away, because I had just started having visions of death of those I cared about."

"Dad explained that to me, Harry. I was disappointed, sure. I thought that ... well, I understand it was too painful for you to have a relationship. It's very sweet of you to even remember that, but you don't need to apologize."

"There's more to it, Ginny," he said, looking into her eyes, "I pulled away, tried to distance myself emotionally from all the people I cared about. I wasn't angry like the year before, but I know I was distant."

"Okay, but again, I understand and there's nothing to apologize for."

"Let me finish." He turned and looked out the window. "I tried to pull away, but I needed emotional connection. I didn't seek it. It ... just happened. And when it did, I couldn't ... I didn't want to ... stop. I had been kind of giddy with it for quite some time, and for a while now sort of numb. Only just recently did I realize that it was quite unfair to you, to ... reject you because I didn't want a relationship, and then go and have one. I know you must be hurt and angry."

"Well, I wasn't. I didn't even know. Was it some sort of a secret?"

"Yes. Only a few people knew. I figured Hermione or Luna would have told you by now."

Ginny pursed her lips. "Well, if you hadn't told them the secret could be told, why would they?"

Harry removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "I sort of thought they would feel free to. Because it's over now. It's over forever."

"Did you break up with her? Or did she break up with you?"

Harry sniffed. "She broke up with me. She couldn't handle the danger. And now she's ... gone."

"Gone - you mean - Marietta!?"

Harry nodded, then began to cry outright. "I'm sorry," he said, "I thought I was over it by now. I still loved her."

"I'm so sorry, Harry. I remember seeing how you cried at the Battle of Gringotts, but I just figured that was just a release from the tensions of the battle. I thought you would have reacted the same for anyone."

"I might have. I had just come from holding Melony's lifeless body and finding out she wasn't quite dead and could be resuscitated, and then I came up to street level to find Marietta. But I would have gotten over it better if it had been, well, not the people I'm closest to, but someone else."

"Is that part of why you were so insistent on Ron and I accepting her?"

"Only in the Spring. In the autumn, I was just trying to keep a good team leader."

Ginny peered at him, "So why are you telling me all this?"

"I felt bad about having run from you, and then running right over to someone else."

"When did you strike up this relationship with Marietta?"

"I guess it became a relationship in January; before that really we were just getting to be friends."

"You and I had our little talk in July. Six months is a lot of water under the bridge, especially with all that we have going on in our lives. You didn't betray me or anything. So why would you feel guilty?"

Harry thought about that for a bit. "I guess you're right. There was kind of a gap. But I've been fretting over this all weekend. It was like waking up when Luna mentioned you."

She looked at him for a minute as he thought. "Harry, do you have feelings for me?"

Harry looked up to the ceiling, and then brought his eyes down toward her and met her gaze. He sat down on the bench opposite her. He took her hands in his and said, "Yes. I didn't want to be so blunt about it, but I began to realize it this summer. I began to regret running from you."

"You picked a fine time to realize something like that, Potter!" She didn't exactly snap at him, but annoyance was unmistakeable. "So what are you thinking - that we should now be a couple?"

"I hadn't really thought about that. My head only cleared enough this weekend to realize that there was this other issue between us. I knew that I felt awful about it and wanted to talk to you."

"Listen, Harry, thanks for bringing Scooter. And thanks for talking with me. It's more mature than most boys would do. But right now you don't know what you want. You're still grieving for Marietta. You're still in love with her. If she was around, you'd be with her, and I'd be just another one of your pals. I'm not saying never, but I'm not going to be the girl who fills in your time while you get over someone else. I don't want to try to have a romance with someone who's in love with someone else. When you've sorted out what it is you want, and if that includes me, then maybe we'll talk. For now, please consider me a friend, as I will consider you one - one of my dearest friends. But we can't be a couple."

Ginny stood up, and put her hand gently on his cheek. He looked up at her sadly, accepting what she had said. She walked silently away toward the stairs. Harry leaned against the sill, put his feet up on the bench, and stared out at the night, thinking.