Coming Darkness

Chapter Five

Coincidence?

Harry had a bit of a lie-in the following morning. Since it was Saturday, he didn't need to worry about missing class. He sat up in bed and took a few moments until he actually felt awake. Pulling open the curtains, Harry put on his glasses and found Ron fully alert, sitting across from him on his own bed. Seeing that Harry was finally up, Ron turned to face Harry with a unbelieving look on his face.

"Morning Ron" Harry said a voice tinged with sleep. He did not have a good feeling about the way Ron was looking at him. In the back of his mind he knew there was a reason but was still too sleepy to think of it. So he waited until Ron decided to speak.

"Why did you do it, Harry?" Ron asked in a quiet voice filled with shock and confusion. He waited a moment, although he didn't really seem to expect an answer. "Dumbledore told the whole school at breakfast," Ron continued on in a quiet voice. "Everyone was shocked. Some of them believe that a spy is in the school but no one can think of a reason why they'd attack Mrs. Norris. Others are thinking back to when the Chamber of Secrets was opened. They're afraid that someone is after the squibs and muggleborns. Neville seemed terrified. After we heard, he just sat there staring off into space for a while. The teachers don't have any ideas who did it. They encouraged any students with information to come forward. I know you two snuck out last night, same as you've been doing for a while now."

"Why did you do it?" Ron's dead voice began to grow in volume and intensity as he continued with his quest for answers. "Was it just an accident? Did the cat just wander by and you didn't want to risk being found? I know you've been hiding things from me lately but was it worth killing over?! Why couldn't you just tell me?"

Ron wasn't completely making sense and, not knowing what to say, Harry decided that silence was best.

"If you don't want to answer, fine! It's not like you've been sharing anything with me lately, why should you start now!" Ron turned away and stood up.

"I'm going down to lunch before I miss it." Ron stomped out of the room.

Harry got ready and headed down to the Great Hall. He had already missed breakfast and he didn't want to miss lunch too. As he was walking, two Slytherin boys swept by him, heading to lunch as well. Harry overheard part of their conversation.

"Did you hear about the cat?" asked the first boy.

"Ya, Lisa told me about it a little while ago. I was totally gobsmacked! I wonder who did it."

"I certainly don't have any idea, but Draco Malfoy has been telling the whole house that he knows who it was but won't tell anyone till lunch. I hope we didn't miss it."

The two boys got to the Great Hall a few steps ahead of Harry and headed toward the Slytherin table. When Harry walked in the room everyone stopped their excited chattering of a moment before, and turned to stare at him. There was barely a sound as Harry stopped, surprised by the absolute attention. Some of the students wore shocked expressions on their faces while others simply looked disgusted, repulsed even, by his presence. As he cautiously surveyed the room he saw Draco being led out of the Great Hall by Professor McGonagall. As they passed by, Draco put on his favorite smirk while McGonagall shot a nervous glance at him.

Harry didn't know what had happened. Instead of standing there for who knows how long, he decided to just go ahead and sit down. Someone would eventually tell him what had happened, even though he already had a pretty good idea.

"HE DID IT!" a voice along with an accusing finger shot out towards Harry from across the massive room. His movement toward the Gryffindor table seemed to have startled Filch out of whatever state he had been in and now he seemed mad, very mad. From behind the teachers' table Filch rose and began shouting like a mad man. "He killed Mrs. Norris and now he's going to pay for it. He knew what would happen. I'm going to kill him!" Filch made a move to jump over the table but Dumbledore was already at his side trying to calm him down.

Harry stared in shock as Filch was still attempting to bypass Dumbledore and attack him. He suddenly felt a tug on his arm and found Hermione dragging him out of the Great Hall.

"You have the worst timing Harry." Hermione still had her arm hooked in his as she led him back to the Gryffindor common room. As they walked, she explained what had happened before he had come in.

"You missed the announcement during breakfast, sometime during the night Mrs. Norris was found dead. Dumbledore asked anyone with information to come forward. No one said anything then, I think we were all in too much shock to say anything. Shortly after lunch started, Malfoy jumped up onto the Slytherin tables. He stood there and started shouting to the whole school, saying that he knew who had done it." Uncertainty crept into Hermione's voice as she paused, not wanting to repeat what Draco had said. Gathering up her resolve she rushed forward with the rest of Draco's speech. "He said that you had done it Harry. He mentioned what had happened with Colin and how you attacked him a while ago. Then he pointed out that you had missed breakfast and still weren't there for lunch, he said that killing Mrs. Norris must have tired you out. By that time, Professor McGonagall was finally able to reach him and drag him out. That was when you walked in. You really do have bad timing Harry, if you had just gotten there a bit earlier or later, it wouldn't have been so bad, but everyone had just heard Malfoy say that you had killed her and then you walked in. If I didn't know any better, I would have said Malfoy timed it that way." They had finally reached the common room and Hermione stopped and turned to face Harry.

"Don't worry Harry, no one will believe that lying prat," her voice spoke with a conviction that Harry did not feel and turned soothing as she continued. "I know you've been acting kind of odd lately but I think I know why. You just need to believe in yourself, like I do and like Ron does. We both have faith in you Harry." Hermione came forward to catch a stunned and bewildered Harry in a tight hug.

Ron came through the portrait hole to find them in a close embrace, each resting their heads on the other's shoulder. "Why don't you just come out and admit it!?" Harry and Hermione jumped apart; startled by Ron's angry words, but Ron wasn't done shouting yet. "Why did you have to try and keep this from me, especially you Harry, how could you do this to me?" Ron's face was getting as red as his hair as his anger built.

The three best friends stood in a triangle now, in the center of the room. Ron was glaring at Harry and Harry was staring back. Hermione faced Ron as though he had gone completely nutters. "What on earth are you talking about Ron?"

Ron turned to face Hermione, "What, now you're going to try and deny it?"

"Deny what!?"

"That you two fancy each other! That you've been sneaking off to meet each other for the past month or so, and have been hiding it from me!"

Hermione glanced at Harry to see if he knew what Ron was babbling about and then turned back to a still enraged Ron. "We have not been sneaking off; Harry's been avoiding me just like he's been avoiding you."

"You want to go over this, fine! Let's start with your boggart in Defense on the first day. I don't know how long this has been going on, but that was the first time it occurred to me." Ron got a bit of a sick expression on his face as a new thought occurred to him. "My God! How long has this been going on!? Is that why I didn't see either of you all summer?" Ron doubled over a little at this as though he wanted to vomit. "Were you two together then too?" Ron stopped to contemplate this idea, spinning in circles and mumbling, 'my God' as he did so. Even though he couldn't stand the sight of them, he kept turning around to glance at them before turning his back on them again.

"Ron calm down! Just because I'm afraid of Harry dying doesn't mean that I love him. I mean, I do love you Harry" she blushed as she glanced over at Harry and then hurried on, "but as a friend, I'm not in love with him."

"You were always running off to the library 15 minutes before Harry would be getting back from there. Do you think I wouldn't realize you two were meeting together? How do you explain that?"

"Ron, you know I practically live in the library. It's not my fault that every time I got there Harry decided to leave." Hermione, outraged at the ridiculousness of the situation had started shouting back.

Ron, sounding uncertain now, but still not believing, "you were spending even more time there. Since that first week of school you've gone to the library every single day. The only times you were that dedicated before was when you were on some quest to find something, like during the Triwizard Tournament or when we were trying to save Buckbeak for Hagrid. So what are you trying to figure out this time?" Ron had a somewhat smug expression on his face as though he knew he had caught her there.

"Since you've been so observant lately I'm surprised you didn't note when I started my daily visits to the library, it was that same day of our first Defense lesson. I was trying to figure out what Harry's boggart was."

"What are you talking about?" Ron seemed completely befuddled by this. "Harry's boggart was Harry as Head Boy."

"Didn't you find it a little odd that Harry's greatest fear would be becoming Head Boy!? Didn't you notice that Harry's boggart didn't look exactly like Harry?"

A worried and confused expression was beginning to develop on Ron's face as all of these points that he had ignored were pointed out to him. "If it wasn't Harry then who did you think it was?"

"I wasn't sure, which was why I didn't mention it, but I suspected that it was Tom Riddle. Is that right Harry?" Hermione turned to Harry for confirmation. When he gave a slight nod she continued. "The only students who know what Tom Riddle looked like are Harry and Ginny, and since Ginny wasn't there, and I thought Harry would just deny it, I had to look for pictures in the library. The problem was that there's hardly anything written about Tom Riddle, as far as history is concerned he was just a Head Boy at Hogwarts and therefore wasn't worth a whole picture. I never found one of him which is why I was still looking."

Ron seemed satisfied with Hermione but had one question left for Harry. "That explains why Hermione was at the library all the time but that doesn't explain why you were going there all the time. And why were you sneaking out at night?"

Harry had been silently staring at the floor lost in thought, now he looked up to look Ron straight in the eyes. His voice was loud and clear as he answered Ron, "You're absolutely right Ron," Harry turned towards Hermione as he continued, "we shouldn't hide it from him any longer, there's no point." Hermione's eyes widened in shock as Harry crossed the short distance separating them. He caught Hermione in a close embrace as one hand circled behind her back and his other hand tangled in her hair. Harry tipped her head back slightly and began kissing her with a fierce intensity.

For a moment time seemed to stop, Ron and Hermione frozen in shock, then motion went in fast forward. Hermione, recovering from the initial shock, began struggling, trying to separate herself from Harry. Ron closed the distance in a moment, and placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. Harry stiffened up, knowing what was coming next. In an instant he was jerked away from Hermione only to face Ron's oncoming fist. Harry's head snapped around and he took a few steps backwards from the force of the punch. Ron shook his throbbing fist and stared at Harry, shocked that he had just punched his best friend.

Harry recovered quickly. Lowering his head he charged at Ron. Harry's head and shoulders connected with Ron's stomach and both boys went tumbling to the common room floor. Ron shoved Harry off of him and scrambled to his feet. As Harry was getting up Ron pulled out his wand and aimed it at Harry. Once Harry got to his feet, he retrieved his own wand and the two former best friends faced each other, ready to duel.

"Expelliarmus!" Both boys' wands flew through the air to be caught by Hermione. They stared at her in shock, obviously both had forgotten about her in their rush to attack the other. She had tears in her eyes and her voice hitched as she addressed them, "Stop it! You two are best friends..."

"Not any more!" both interrupted simultaneously.

"...you shouldn't be fighting."

"Hermione, give me back my wand." Ron held out his hand and walked close enough for him to reach her.

"No! I'm not giving either of you your wands. And if you try fighting the Muggle way then I'll Petrificus Totalus both of you." Her voice left no doubt in their minds that she would do it.

Ron glared at Hermione for a moment, shot a nasty look at Harry and silently walked out of the common room.

Hermione turned to face Harry. She started to say something but then a crowd of Gryffindors came in through the portrait hole. Lunch was over. When she turned back around, Harry was already gone.

Up in the fifth year boys dormitory Harry laid on his closed off bed, unusually calm for what he had just done. Staring off into space, he was reflecting upon the oddity of a Divination prediction that had come true. He had just hurt Ron both physically and emotionally. And he had done both on purpose.