Harry Potter and the Book of Ages

Chapter 7: Invitation

Harry felt a strange tingling sensation as he passed through the ward guarding the magical entrance to the castle. At the same instant, Harry suddenly realised that in his haste to evade the Muggle police he might be handing himself straight to the Magical Law Enforcement Squad. For all he knew this could be the base for Aurors or whoever else was after him. When Harry looked around, however, he was confused to see that the ruins were still just that - ruins. The only difference seemed to be that he was now inside the castle perimeter instead of outside the fence.

A wave of tiredness swept over Harry and he gave a huge yawn. Sleep! I need to sleep! he thought to himself. Following the ruins he found a cosy corner in which to curl up and, after sweeping away some small rocks and pebbles with his feet and laying down some long dry grass as a makeshift mattress, Harry curled up to sleep.

----zzzzzz----

He was standing on a grassy knoll atop a towering granite cliff. Angry waves broke on the rocks below him. Gulls screeched and flew up and down in seemingly random movements like feathers in a pillow fight. Above him the sky was a clear opalescent blue and, Harry thought wistfully, perfect Quidditch conditions with barely a breeze blowing.

He was alone.

Quite alone.

Harry idly wondered if he were to just step forward off the cliff-edge, how long would it take until his body was smashed on the jagged rocks below him? He also wondered in this remote landscape how long it would be until anyone found his body and would it be recognisable when - if - they did? Perhaps it would just end up as food for the fish and the gulls.

Harry was lost in these deep dark thoughts when he became suddenly aware of someone standing at his shoulder.

Immediately Harry panicked that this person was going to push him off the cliff's edge!

The figure spoke.

"It's funny isn't it?" the very recognisable voice said. "It's one thing to seriously consider jumping off a cliff, but quite another to let someone else do it for you."

Harry turned to look into his godfather's face.

Sirius spoke again. Harry, stunned, just stood and listened.

"Dumbledore once said to me that those we have truly loved never leave us, but reside forever within our hearts and minds. That is where I am now, Harry. I'm not a ghost - well not in the sense that Sir Nick is anyway."

"But you look so solid. And where are we anyway?" questioned Harry.

"Your desperation, loneliness and need have created this place in your mind, Harry. Here we can converse, but we can never touch. I can relay to you all my hopes and desires and can therefore guide you, hopefully to ease your troubles."

"TROUBLES!" exclaimed Harry. "Yeah! Those I'm very familiar with!" He turned back to stare at the distant horizon. The two stood side-by-side until finally Harry sat cross-legged on the warm grass. Sirius lay down full length beside him. Harry idly tore off a long blade of grass and played with it between his fingers as he recounted the events of the past ten days.

"...and the Muggle police are searching for me, too! Sirius, you were on the run for years - how did you do it? How did you cope? It's not even been a fortnight and I feel as though I've aged about five years! And what about the Weasleys? They will probably turn their backs on me! And Hermione! What would she say?"

At the mention of the Weasleys, Sirius sat up. "Are you thinking of the Weasleys in general or one in particular?"

"Well, Ron is my best mate, so what he thinks matters to me," said Harry, but Sirius raised his eyebrows in question.

"Are you sure his is the only opinion that you care about?"

"Well, I know Mr. and Mrs. Weasley almost think of me as one of their own." Harry remembered, a sudden chill going up his spine, Mrs. Weasley turning the boggart into a dead Harry last year in Grimmauld Place.

"I was thinking of the other female Weasley," said Sirius. Harry turned his head and looked back out to sea, unwilling to meet his godfather's eyes.

"Harry, I told you that I reside in your heart... but I am not alone. How else do you think I know to whom your thoughts and heart belong?"

"I don't deserve her though, Sirius. She should forget me. I'll only put her at risk as I did you. I killed you and I'll probably only hurt or get her killed, too."

Harry was speaking into his hands as he had covered his face, his palms rubbing across his aching scar. He was startled to feel a hand placed gently on his shoulder. Turning his head towards the hand, he was surprised that it was small and delicate with neatly manicured nails and a dainty ring on its middle finger.

A female hand.

Wearing a familiar ring.

A ring he had bought and given to...

"GINNY!" Harry exclaimed as he jumped up to see before him the one person he had longed to see without even realising it. Ginny gave him a small, sad smile as she reached out to gently cup Harry's cheek in her hand.

Harry was surprised and pleased by that simple gesture, but was too terrified of her rejection to openly accept it as the sign of a true and loving friendship that it was. He took a step away from her and her expression became sadder still.

"Harry? What's wrong?" the figure of Ginny asked.

"Oh God! No!" Harry cried as he sank sobbing to his knees on the grass. The sky overhead had become dull grey and the temperature had dropped as Harry's mood had plummeted.

"If I can see you, too, then I must have caused your death, too! What happened? Did the Death Eaters kill you while they were trying to find me?"

"No, Harry! No! I'm not dead. I'm fine, honestly I am. Well, I was feeling a bit drained as Dad came home from work and said that he still had no news as to what had happened to you. Last I remember I'd run upstairs and had lain on my bed and now I'm here, talking to you! I don't know how. Oh, Harry. Tell me you're not dead and that I'm just dreaming all this?"

The two teenagers were now standing facing each other, both with tears trickling down their faces; they had forgotten about, or in Ginny's case not recognised, Sirius' continued presence and both jumped when he spoke.

"I think I know what's going on here. Have either of you ever heard of Somnilomency?"

They both shook their heads. "Sit down and I'll try to explain. It's a pity Remus or Dumbledore aren't here, they could explain far better than I. Anyway here goes.

"Two witches or wizards may very occasionally - I would go so far as say rarely - form a very special kind of bond. A bond so deep it exists also on a subconscious level. With this type of bond, communication can become instinctual - feeling what the other feels. Harry, you have a bond of this sort with Voldemort with the link through your scar. Your link with Ginny though was formed in the Chamber of Secrets when you saved Ginny's life."

Harry's face had the first glimmer of hope and understanding showing clearly upon it as he recalled, "Dumbledore told me that I had a bond with Wormtail because I had saved his life. He said that this type of magic was the deepest and most impenetrable. Is that the type of bond you mean?"

"That's it exactly! I'd forgotten about that. Anyway, because of your," Sirius pointed at the two of them, "connection then you can communicate even though you are far apart. The distance can be physical, like the two of you, or spiritual or astral like us. You've always been very receptive mentally, Harry, when asleep, but Ginny's worry and concern for you has now awoken her link to you.

"The one drawback is you can only communicate when the two of you are sound asleep. Unfortunately I don't know how much, if any, of this conversation you will recall when you awaken. And you can't bring anything physical into this meeting-place. It's not real you see, just as I am not real - not anymore that is! Do you understand? The pair of you have kept awfully quiet."

"I don't know!" Harry answered truthfully.

Slowly, very slowly Harry moved his gaze from Sirius to Ginny. He looked into the depths of her and seemed to see into her very soul.

"Can this be true?"

Harry heard the words and saw a line of puzzlement form on her brow, but her lips had not moved.

"GINNY?" Harry thought his question. "Is that you?" he continued without uttering a sound.

"HARRY?" Her mouth opened in shock, but her voice remained silent. "How come I can hear you when you're not speaking?"

"I... don't know," he stuttered. They turned in unison to further question Sirius, but found that they were now quite alone.

Harry spun around, searching for his godfather.

"Sirius? SIRIUS?"

His cry went unanswered.

"SIRIUS! Don't leave me! Not yet! Please!"

"Harry, I will do what I can to answer your questions, but for now Ginny's needs are greater than mine. You are no longer alone. You must learn to trust...and to love."

As he realised that his godfather was gone once more, Harry sank down to his knees and buried his face in his hands.

"Come back!" he said quietly, pleadingly.

"Harry?"

A soft hand was laid on his shoulder. When Ginny got no response, she moved in front of Harry and knelt before him. She gently took his hands in hers and pulled them away from his face. She looked into their vivid green pools shining with unshed tears and her heart felt as though it was breaking.

"Harry, you heard his words as well as I did. Sirius will be with us always - he lives in the hearts of those who loved him and you most of all. We have been given a chance to speak with him and we must trust what he told us."

"Trust? How can I trust what I don't understand? I trusted Dumbledore and look where that led me. If he'd been honest with me and told me -"

Harry hesitated. Ginny knew nothing about the prophecy and he was going to keep it that way.

" - everything, I might not have made the decisions I did. He manipulated me, Gin, I felt like a damn puppet with him pulling my strings."

Ginny sat before him with her hands clasped lightly together in her lap.

"Well that's certainly a feeling I understand all too well, Harry."

"You? How can you?" he snapped back at her. "You're just..."

"Just what, Harry?" She continued without giving Harry a chance to answer. Ginny was now towering over Harry with one hand on her hips and the other wagging a finger in Harry's face. Her stance and her temper reminded Harry forcefully of another redhead, but not Mrs. Weasley. Ginny at that moment reminded Harry most forcefully of his own mother lecturing James Potter over his behaviour towards Snape.

"... and you're not even listening to me now! Boys! You're all impossible!"

"Sorry, Gin! Really I am, I'm just so confused."

"You're confused! Well I've got news for you, Harry James Potter, you're not the only one!"

Harry was now listening to what Ginny was saying, really listening. The two teens sat side-by-side looking from the cliff-top to the distant setting sun casting an orange-red glow on the gulls whirling below making them appear other-worldly.

Ginny told Harry that the first they knew of events at Privet Drive was when the whole family was woken by a group of Aurors wanting to search for Harry. When asked why they were looking for him, the Weasleys were told bluntly that he was a murderer and that they had a warrant for his immediate arrest and incarceration in Azkaban.

Ginny went on to say that her mum stood in the front yard and was in the middle of giving the Aurors a piece of her mind when they told her that one of her own sons was a witness to the crime.

Still Molly stood, arms akimbo.

"Well I wouldn't believe a word Percy says after the way he behaved last year. I certainly didn't bring him up to -"

But her words failed her when a redheaded figure moved through the Aurors to stand before his mother.

It was not Percy.

It was Bill.

He was very pale and had bags under his eyes.

"I saw him, Mum! I saw Harry kill his aunt, uncle, and cousin! I SAW HIM!"

"No! It can't be true! Harry would never!"

Bill's nod was like a knife plunged into his mother's heart. Molly Weasley's knees gave out and if Arthur hadn't been at her side, as always, she would have ended up on the floor.

"Oh, Harry! Harry! What have you done?"

Bill and his father led Molly back into the warmth of the kitchen. The Aurors went to follow, but Arthur stopped them at the threshold.

"You may have a warrant for the arrest of Harry Potter, but you do not have one to search my home; until you do, you will leave my property."

The rest of the family had been woken by the noise and Fred, George and Ron stood at their father's shoulder.

"You're quite righ,t of course, but we will be back, you can be assured of that." On that note, the Aurors turned as one and walked back along the path.

"What's going on, Dad?" observed Ron, Ginny and the twins.

"That's what I'd like to know!" echoed their father.

All the Weasleys were now gathered around the kitchen table.

---- ooo ----

As Ginny continued with her narrative, Harry stood up and paced back and forth, his hands alternately pulling at his hair or thumping one fist into the palm of the other hand.

"Bill told us what he'd seen, Harry, but I'm sure Mum and Dad didn't believe it. Ron definitely didn't. Straight away he said that a Death Eater could have used Polyjuice Potion to impersonate you. At that Bill had to agree that it was possible. He'd followed you from home under an Invisibility Cloak and saw you enter a shop. He thought you'd be only a couple of minutes and was surprised when it was almost a quarter of an hour before you reappeared and headed home. I asked Bill what you were wearing and he said you had on jeans and a white t-shirt. When he thought some more, though, he remembered thinking that the t-shirt seemed a lot cleaner when you came out of the shop than when you went in."

"Well, that makes sense," said Harry. "I'd been gardening all day and Aunt Marge didn't give me the chance to have a drink before running her errand, let alone change my clothes."

Ginny looked Harry up and down; he was still wearing jeans and a sort-of-white t-shirt. Thanks to Sam his clothes had been laundered, but now were beginning to get 'high' in the fragrance stakes.

"It's a good job we're dreaming or whatever this is 'cos I don't reckon I smell too sweet about now."

"And those shoes!" said Ginny.

"What? What's wrong with them?"

"They're both left feet!" replied Ginny barely being able to stifle the giggle that threatened to erupt.

"No wonder my right foot's been feeling weird. I hurt both feet and they've been wrapped in makeshift bandages." Ginny's laugh turned to a scowl and a look of concern.

"Harry, what happened? Tell me, please?"

So he did.