The Second War

Chapter 4

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Ginny looked at Ron as he slept, caring for him in spite of the trouble he had caused the last night. There was a large amount of chatter downstairs - no doubt they were discussing the things which had happened last night, when Ron had run away from headquarters and been abducted by Death Eaters while Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Bill, Charlie, Severus Snape and 'Dung' Fletcher had looked for him.

"Stupid git," she said softly and she pulled out a large slab of Honeydukes' Best Chocolate. She wafted a piece in front of Ron's long nose. He began to sniff - he lazily opened his mouth to eat the chocolate. She pulled the dirtiest sock from under his bed and stuffed it in face. He coughed violently as she removed it from his face. He sat up in his bed, glowered at her and swiped the chocolate from his hand.

She smiled as Ron ate the chocolate. Sure he was an ungrateful prick who did not think twice about being polite or thinking things through; he also tended to act on his biases in most cases.

"So, you decided to rescue me, huh?" said Ron. Ginny hadn't expected this - instead of thanking them or anything, he was asking her if she had decided to rescue him, as if she had a choice in the matter.

"It was Harry," she said. "He went by himself, but we went after him. You ought to be grateful you stupid scumbag."

"Sorry," said Ron, clearly not understanding what she meant, but not in the right mind to argue. "Hermione and Harry! I can't bloody believe that they did it!"

"Did what?" said Ginny.

"Snogged," said Ron. "They were talking about it just to annoy me last night - that's all I thought about during the dinner and when I - ran off," he finished guiltily.

"They didn't snog last night," said Ginny. "They just got together and after the trouble you caused last night feeling jealous, how would they snog?"

"It wasn't my fault!" said Ron angrily. "If Hermione had given me a chance...!"

"Oh come on," said Ginny disgusted. "You pounced on her just because she got a bloody owl from Viktor!"

"SO?" said Ron, jumping out of the bed; he was now standing so high above her that she had to strain her neck to look back into his eyes.

"I'd watch your temper," said Ginny. "You don't want a warning from the Ministry, do you?"

"So what if I lose my temper and do magic?" said Ron, scowling at her, his blue eyes narrowed. "Harry, you and Hermione all did magic!"

"We did it to save your skin, so chill out," said Ginny. "Listen to some Radiohead or something."

She reached out of her bag and pulled out a magically-powered CD player.

"Did you like Pablo Honey?" said Ginny, peering up past his lanky frame. She opened the CD player and gave him a CD, holding it by the edges.

"Yeah," said Ron; he grabbed the CD and put it into a gold-plated instrument, which when it started playing, turned chrome. Depending on the mood of the song, the chrome would light up a different colour.

"Good," said Ginny. "I'd say that they have just the remedy for you."

Ron thought for a moment and pressed the Skip button on the chrome player.

"Good choice," said Ginny. "Creep..."

"Well, what did you expect?" said Ron, as Thom Yorke's unusual voice erupted from the stereo. Ron motioned to lower the volume, but Ginny blocked him.

"You need something to take your mind off everything," said Ginny. "We could check out Diagon Alley if you want to pick up The Bends. It came out early this year."

"Yeah," said Ron. "Do you know if any new U2 have come out?"

"Zooropa was like a few years ago," said Ginny. "We still haven't got it. But how about the money that Harry promised us?"

"I won't take a cent of his money," said Ron.

"Don't be so stubborn," said Ginny. "Sirius gave you Pig. Maybe he would've liked you to have some."

"He gave it to Harry," said Ron sullenly, now returning to a drone similar to that of Professor Binns, the ghost teacher who had a strange power of making exciting topics like bloody goblin rebellions seem like the story of Baldric the Boring's life. "That means it belongs to Harry, the whole estate, so I'm obviously not getting anything."

"Don't be an idiot!" she said savagely. "No one can be generous with you because you always feel so sorry for yourself, but you want to stay that way, even if it hurts the rest of our family. We need money, and no matter how selfish it seems Harry's right to give it to us."

"Fine," said Ron. "Why don't you get the money from Harry? He doesn't like you, so don't expect much!"

"I was hoping it would not come to that," said Ginny, "but I will ask him. It's not just for you, Ron, it's for all of us, and you shouldn't let something like Hermione remaining platonic with you and going with Harry instead come between your friendship with them."

"I'm going to the Burrow," said Ron. "When September comes, I'll take the Knight Bus to the train station."

"You are not running away again!" said Ginny. "If you do, no one is coming to find you, do you understand? Harry already risked his life for you! Are you going to make his efforts futile or let him die because he went searching for you and ended up losing to You-Know-Who?"

"I don't want Harry to find me," said Ron, his neck arched, his eyes closed to the point where no light could enter. "Just keep him safe here."

"What do you want, Ron?"

"Nothing," said Ron. "I just want to leave." And suddenly, Ron disappeared.

* * *

The crowd gathered in front of the large mansion. Many of them held pickets with huge posters on them. But all of them wanted the same thing: Dead Death Eaters. The crowd had been demonstrating for the past five hours. One of the demonstrators had lit a fire on his wand and was holding it for the moment that he would need it.

"Now," whispered a high wicked voice. The voice sent a shiver through the uprising. "The time is now. You have shown your hatred of my kind and you have shown that you don't want us here. How have you learned that we have returned?" The wizard holding the fire threw the fire at the gates. The fire disintegrated.

"I saw it," said a man, holding a very short wand, "and I saw the Dark Lord enter here yesterday! No doubt his Death Eaters have come and joined him here in this wicked manor."

"I see," murmured the voice from nowhere. "And you are no one. You thought you might be of some small importance having discovered where I reside? Do you know who I am?"

"You-Know-Who!" said a woman, panicking. "You're You-Know-Who!"

"You foolish human," whispered the voice. "Can you not say my name? Are you so inferior that you can not say my name, but you picket outside of where I reside, where you are in mortal peril? You stupid woman, you stupid people, you have revealed your own foolish, stupid nature!"

"Stop whispering," said a panicked voice. "Please stop!"

The voices in the crowd rose to a scream that all of that portion of Wiltshire could hear.

"Avada Kedavra!" said the voice and from within the darkness behind the gates, a green light lit up the grounds. One woman screamed, as she saw the thing that had produced the light, a skeletal white face with red eyes. And she died.

"So you see the result of your stupidity?" whispered Voldemort, raising his hands. The gates opened. Two teenagers, both about sixteen, who had been picketing dropped their pickets and started running from the demonstration area. "Avada Kedavra!' The curse missed the teens.

"My fellow Death Eaters!" said Voldemort sounding delighted that he had missed. "Get them!" Two Death Eaters on broomstick flew past the crowd and pursued the teens. The crowd watched as the Death Eaters killed the two teens.

"You see how effective that was?" said Voldemort. "Well, it is late now, isn't it?"

"It's nearly noon," said a Death Eater.

"Did I ask you?" said Voldemort. "Crucio!"

"Stop it!" said a woman. "Get the Dark Lord! We can overpower him; we're a hundred and fifty to three!"

The crowd moved onto Voldemort and the two Death Eaters. Voldemort raised his hand with his wand and yelled a curse that shook the world underneath them; Voldemort and his Death Eaters floated into the air, one of them twitching terribly, as the world opened underneath them and swallowed them.

From afar, a teen wizard who had been with the other two but had gone back for some ice cream from a Muggle ice-cream truck gazed onto the happenings caused by Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

* * *

Remus Lupin was unaware of the current happenings in the room - the happenings from the previous night (the worrying, the constant searching, and the relief) had caused him to enjoy only two hours of sleep. He'd had a bad week - there had been no full moon but he had managed to gain a workload over the week - the applications, he did not ever want to see another application again. Now the impending August 10^th and its full moon, thought Lupin.

"Stupid Umbridge," he said. "I might actually have a good job now had it not been for that stupid bitch!"

"We all hate her," said a cold voice next to him, "but some of us agree that you shouldn't have a job at the school."

"Only because you hated James, Sirius and now Harry," said Lupin. "Can't you let it rest? Harry's not his dad, no matter how much he may look like him."

"He's an arrogant tart," said Snape.

"I'm his guardian now," said Lupin. "That gives me every right to kill you if you offend him! Is that understood?"

"No, werewolf," said Snape. "It is not understood. Now just keep talking but I'm going to go up soon."

There was a soft cracking noise as a bearded man appeared from out of nowhere.

"I have a message to deliver," said Dumbledore, and he proceeded to walk to the centre of the room. "Today, Lord Voldemort has revealed his position by killing 150 wizards that had congregated in front of Malfoy Manor. The lone witness has told me that there had been only two Death Eaters with Lord Voldemort at the time - it was these three alone that massacred the hundred and fifty wizards and witches that had massed."

"That's terrible," said Molly Weasley. "What does this mean?"

"This will naturally make the Evening Prophet tonight," said Dumbledore. "It will have an unusually detailed account from the lone witness who witnessed the massacre. There will be an attack today on Malfoy Manor by highly-trained Hit Wizards, and we will not know the results until tonight. We will know tonight what has happened. We can not send our people to fight however," continued Dumbledore sullenly. "We must put our trust in our Ministry."

"After all the shit the Ministry put us through?" said Snape. "We are not going to allow them to take credit for this when it's been us fighting--!"

"Voldemort does not know about this operation," said Dumbledore, "nor does he need to, is that understood, Severus?"

"Whatever," Snape said. Remus agreed however with Snape - it had been them who had been trying to convince the Ministry that Voldemort was back and now the Ministry was sending a bunch of Hit Wizards instead of those who'd been fighting them for a little more than a year. The fact that he agreed with Snape upset Lupin though.

"Well, what are we going to do?" said Lupin.

"Make a birthday party for Harry, of course," said Dumbledore jovially. Snape sniggered unpleasantly. "And that means you too, Severus."

"What?" Snape said. The last thing Snape would ever do was plan a birthday party for the son of James Potter, thought Lupin. What is Dumbledore trying to achieve?

"Well," said Dumbledore as if he hadn't heard Snape, "it's about time for me to get the house elves to preparing the meals."

"Boohoo," said Lupin looking at Snape, who had taken a murderous glare now at the empty spot Dumbledore had stood before.

"I will eat dragon droppings before I ever prepare a party for a Potter," said Snape. The thought of Snape gobbling down dragon dung humoured Lupin slightly. He suddenly remembered something.

"That didn't stop you from preparing a party for Lily," said Lupin snidely. Snape's pallid face went a greenish tint, Lupin guessed from disgust.

"Shut up," said Snape as he jumped out of his seat as smoothly as possible. "Do you think I asked you?" He left the room, his normal glide interrupted by a nasty bump on his way from a conveniently placed bolt in the ground. Snape cursed as he glided up the stairs; Lupin wondered what sort of things Snape would poison if he got near the food.

"He wouldn't kill anyone," said Lupin to himself.

"I'm not so sure about him," said Kingsley Shacklebolt. "He did look slightly murderous."

Lupin felt surly now. What if Snape did try killing Harry? Snape had saved him and revealed himself to the Death Eaters as a spy. If he wanted to kill Harry, he could have let them kill Harry, and even taken part.

"He wouldn't kill Harry," said Lupin.

"Not when Dumbledore is keeping his darkest secret," said Shacklebolt.

"Sunday bloody Sunday," said Dedalus Diggle. "You've heard the song, now sing!"

"What?" Kingsley said.

"It's a song," said Diggle excitedly. "U2, you know?"

"I don't listen to pop," said Kingsley simply.

"You're missing out on something grand," said Diggle.

"I think it's a good song for today," said Lupin. He then sung, "so many lost well tell me, who has won? The trenches dug within our hearts. Mother's children, brothers, sisters torn apart..."

"Sunday bloody Sunday," Dedalus and Lupin sang. "Sunday bloody Sunday!"

"Get a life," said Kingsley and he walked up the stairs, and was nearly run into by Nymphadora Tonks, her hair a brilliant shade of lime-green.

"Did I hear you guys singing U2?" she said.

"Yeah," said Lupin. "Care to join us?"

"Nah," she said. "I'd rather sing Creep. The kids are listening to Radiohead upstairs."

"Creep," said Lupin. "Very angst-pop..."

"Is not," she said sounding rejected. "How can you even consider Radiohead angst-pop?"

"And I answer with a question," said Remus. "How is this of any importance? We have a surprise party to plan. You can be the clown; you know, put on some makeup, grow a red nose and make the children laugh."

"Or I can be Thom Yorke's amazingly womanish twin!" she said. Her eyes drooped down as her chin lowered closer to the bottom of her face.

"Amazing," said Lupin. "But can you dance like Thom?"

"Remember James dancing disco?" said Dedalus. Lupin and Diggle laughed uncontrollably.

"He danced so badly," said Lupin. "But he was so into that!"

"Good thing Lily never saw that!" Diggle said.

"Yeah," said Lupin. "Good times, those were."

"We ought to go now," said Dedalus. "Get started on the party, hmm?"

* * *

Harry cleared his head while Hermione studied the books intently. She seemed to be deeply interested in the book, Magical Minds and How to Use Yours.

"You got it?" said Harry, peering at her through his glasses.

"You free of any emotions?" said Hermione.

"As much as I'll be able to with you in the same room as me," said Harry. "You bring out the best in me, Hermione."

"Fine, let's do it," said Hermione.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?"

"Snape and Dumbledore both, for different reasons, want you to do this," said Hermione. "They even appeared before the Minister to get you to be able to learn this."

"I suppose," said Harry.

"Three, two, one," said Hermione. "Legilimens!"

Harry concentrated on keeping her out of his head. Somehow, she was better at Legilimency than Snape, or somehow more effective. The outside world faded as memories of Dudley, his aunt and uncle and Cedric pierced through. He pushed her away, and the thoughts left.

"Wow," said Hermione.

"Did I do it?"

"No, you just have a really effective punch," said Hermione. "You're really going to have to work on this Occlumency thing."

"You're good, though," said Harry, "at Legilimency."

"Are you kidding?" she said, but she was blushing.

"I am never going to get this," he said and he conjured a bunny out of thin air. "That I've only gotten better at, however." The bunny winked and it disappeared into the air.

"Nice fluffy bunny," she said. "But you have no problems still. You only have one direction to go - up."

"Nice, you just said I bombed," said Harry.

"It's only the truth," said Hermione, and she stood over him, a change from the usual shortness compared to Ron and Harry. She fell on top of him and kissed him fervently. Harry did not stop or even try to stop the kiss from continuing but he wasn't sure he was doing it right either.

The door opened, and a red-haired teenage girl appeared, in a very inappropriate transparent shirt and panties.

"Hey cool," said Ginny. "You're making out!" She pushed Hermione off of Harry and she flung herself onto Harry. "Guess what?" she asked after emerging from the kiss. "Ron's Apparated to the Burrow!"

"What?" Harry said. "Ron's gone?"

"Gone away," she said in a very peculiar sing-song voice. "But tell me more about that kiss."

"What kiss?" said Harry.

"This one," she said cheerfully. She kissed Harry and suddenly Harry awoke from his dream.

"Are you mad?" said Hermione. "Ron's left for the Burrow?" Ginny, who was not dressed in the scant underwear from his dream, nodded. "Oh god... we have to go--!"

"We're not going looking for Ron," said Harry, nodding furiously.

"Oh, you're awake," said Hermione, who had not been reading about magical minds. Her look was laughable, her expression impossible to read. "Yes, Ron's left and we are looking for him."

"He doesn't want to be found," said Harry. "We're not risking our skins for that attention-seeking twerp."

"Hey!" said Ginny offended.

"Yeah, well he's caused a lot of trouble," said Harry. He did not want to come on as mean so he considered what he had heard in his dream, which had probably carried over from life. "He's Apparated?"

"I didn't say he Apparated," said Ginny surprised. "I just said he left. But he did disappear into thin air. I'm sure it was Apparition."

"What else could it be?" said Hermione. Her brow was narrowed. "He has to be somewhere other than the Burrow. St. Ottery Catchpole is very far away from London. I'd say he must be somewhere else if he's taken the Knight Bus, but he doesn't really have a lot of money."

"Good point," said Ginny. "We don't have any money, so he must be at... let's try a bench in Regent's Park. It's only sort of far."

"Regent's Park," said Hermione. "Can't say I haven't heard of it..."

"Well, of course," said Ginny. "That's where the London Zoo is."

"So why would he be at the zoo?" Harry hadn't been to a zoo since he had set free the snake subconsciously before he had even known he was a wizard or a Parseltongue.

"Come on," said Hermione, with a sudden surge of recognition. "It's the site of a lot of wizard demonstrations - naturally only one part of the Park, but it's the only one used by wizards outside of Diagon Alley and the Ministry, or even St. Mungo's, they have to keep quiet there."

"How are we getting there?" said Harry, now considering the actual passage there.

"We walk," said Hermione. "Ought to get a fresh breath, hmm?"