It May Be Raining

Chapter Nine

Praemedicatus Crepundia

"But you only want the ones you can´t get..."

Harry had been watching the Slytherin girl for nearly a week and had gained no more intelligence on her than he´d had when he first saw her. He decided not to ask around, opting to watch her quietly and arouse as little suspicion as possible. He didn´t want her to be alienated by his prying, yet he had to know what her story was, where she came from, how she´d suddenly turned up there. Indeed, Harry determined that she must have transferred in, he was sure he´d never seen her around, prior to this year.

On closer inspection, she did seem younger than he first guessed, perhaps the year under Ginny. Harry felt oddly compelled by her mysterious air. He knew only her habits of outward appearance. She wore her hair pulled back neatly from her face in two informal silver clips (the style varied little from day to day). She wore an intricate bracelet on her left wrist that had some sort of jewels fastened to it. He couldn´t be sure. He´d never gotten a close enough look at the thing.

He was frustrated by the fact that more clues about the girl would not present themselves. For instance, he watched her stop in a corridor one day to talk briefly with Draco Malfoy, a formal sort of conversation about nothing particular. Harry kept hoping that during the course of the conversation, Malfoy would mention her name. He had not. Harry couldn´t even be sure that he knew the girl´s name. There was no indication on his face that would suggest familiarity.

So he did not know her name. There were a lot of other things that could indicate the sort of person she was. And Harry found out that her spate of sympathy and tears in the Great Hall the week earlier was not just a spate, she was generous to the point of Hufflepuff tendencies and was never seen without a load of books in her arms, also suggesting that she could study a Ravenclaw into the ground. So, why Slytherin? Harry was intrigued by this question. He wanted to find out more.

***

The end of term was approaching, giving Harry little time to study the curious Slyhterin who´d captured his interest. He didn´t know how to proceed with his investigation without asking someone about her. But who would know anymore about her than he did? He´d only seen her with Malfoy on rare occasions. All other times, the girl appeared to be a loner. He saw her in the library quite often, but didn´t know how to approach her.

With the commencement of classes on the Thirty-first of November, came the second round of the Wizard´s Chess Tournament. Ron was due to play Padma Patil and Justin Finch-Fletchly would be competing against Draco Malfoy.

Harry was looking forward to this competition, as Ron would enjoy it more now that he knew Hermione would be watching in the audience. He didn´t seem to be the barrel of loose nerves that he had been the night Dumbledore announced the Champions nor was he the quiet stoic that he´d turned into as a result of his disagreement with Hermione. No, this time around Ron was completely confident and not nervous in the slightest. Padma would be a cinch to defeat, if Malfoy could have done it in less than twenty minutes.

As dinner ended and the Champions were called to the front game tables, Harry surveyed the Slytherin table (as was his custom lately) for the raven-haired girl. She was there, sitting next to Malfoy and to Harry´s surprise wishing him good luck, which Malfoy seemed to receive with a smile--not a sneer--a smile.

Harry returned his attention to the front of the room where the four players were waiting expectantly. Harry wondered why the games had not started yet and was answered by the realization that Professor Dumbledore was not present, and then Professor McGonagall who entered the hall via a side entrance. She approached the tables that the Champions were seated at. Harry could not decipher her exact words, but caught the gist of it: Dumbledore wished to speak with Mr. Malfoy immediately.

Professor McGonagall looked to Professor Sprout as she exited with Malfoy. Professor Sprout took up the silent cue and instructed Justin Finch-Flectchly to resume his seat at the Hufflepuff table. His game with the Slytherin Champion would be rescheduled, he was told. Padma and Ron were instructed to begin their game.

As Harry listened to Ron and Padma call out their moves in turn, his eyes wandered back to the Slytherin table and the girl that was seated there, only to find that she had left the Great Hall.

Harry was so lost in thought that he never even heard Ron as he announced his checkmate over Padma, or the indignant shriek that Parvati elicited on her sister´s behalf. He was wondering all the while why Dumbledore had interrupted the match to speak with Malfoy. Was he in trouble for something? Harry couldn´t even venture a guess. Malfoy and his two thugs had kept clear of Harry and his friends for the most part. Indeed, he hadn´t even shown up in their compartment on the train ride to school, as had been tradition since their first year. Maybe it was to do with his father. This was a far more curious avenue of thought. Harry´s mind reeled with scenarios.

***

Harry had lost interest in the girl that had occupied his thoughts for weeks past. It was almost as if she had evaporated into thin air, or had Harry imagined her entirely? She was never in the library and she didn´t show up to meals. Other than that, Harry wasn´t sure where he could find her. It´s just as well, he thought, she seemed like she wanted nothing better than to blend into the background and his attention to her would surely put and end to those plans. Harry left it at that.

"Get up, Harry!" came Ron´s excited voice far too early one morning. "Harry! Neville! Get up, its Christmas," Ron exclaimed.

Harry reached for his glasses as Neville merely groaned and pulled his pillow over his head. Dean and Seamus were already up and tearing eagerly into packages.

"Merry Christmas!" Harry called to them.

Ron had already begun to decimate his own pile.

As Harry began to look through his own, he found a letter from Sirius. He opened this one last of all. It read:

Harry,

I hope my letter finds you well. I´m sorry I could not come in person to wish you a Merry Christmas and to give you this photograph that Remus and I found when we were going through some of my old things. I want you to have it.

Harry noted the photo that was attached to the letter. It was a family portrait. His father and mother stood in the foreground, Harry in his mother´s arms and a smiling Sirius standing on the other side of James. Harry had an album full of pictures of his parents and Sirius was even in some of them but this picture was special to him because they were all there, together. He stared at the four smiling faces for a long time, tuning out the sounds of his dorm mates tearing through their own packages. Then he placed the photo in with his collection of other sacred images of his lost family that Hagrid had given him before the end of his first year here. That seemed like a far off and distant memory. The letter continued briefly:

I know that you don´t have any pictures of your family and this is the only one that I´ve been able to find. Remus was able to keep it for me while I was away. He´s kept a few other things of mine as well that were, at one time dear to me. I know that this particular picture might be dear to you as well, so it´s yours. I don´t have long to write, I am finishing this off on a train in fact, but I didn´t want you to go the entire holiday without hearing from me. Sadly, I have to ask you not to write back. We are all in a rather precarious situation here and it would not be safe for any of us to make contact with those of you back home. And it is especially dangerous for your owl. If anything comes up you know that you can always go to Dumbledore. I will do my best to contact you on as regular a basis as possible.

Merry Christmas, Harry

Sirius.

After all presents were opened and both Ron and Harry donned new Weasley sweaters, Dean and Seamus followed them down the stairs and out of the castle with Ginny and Hermione to enjoy the snow that continued to fall in large crystalline flakes.

Neville remained buried under his masses of blankets and pillows.

***

Harry, Ron and Hermione sat warming by the heat of the blazing common room fire after an intense snowball fight that left them all freezing and soaked through. Ron was slightly apprehensive, Harry could tell, about tonight´s final chess match between himself and Draco Malfoy. After Malfoy´s match with Justin had been rescheduled, Ron and Harry were both astounded at how quickly and effortlessly Draco had checkmated him.

He wasn´t taking his nervousness to the extreme like he had when Dumbledore announced the Champions back in October. Then, he was a basket case. The nervousness he showed this time was evident only on his face.

Hermione sat next to him on the sofa, arms wrapped adoringly around him, trying her hardest to placate him. He wasn´t buying it.

Harry knew that Ron was unstoppable at chess--no matter how good Malfoy appeared to be or in what record time he´d beaten Justin. He wouldn´t get past Ron--that was for certain. Ron was the one that needed convincing, however. But Harry was unable to convince him at that moment, he was distracted by the entrance of a pale and worn Neville followed by Ginny who wore a look of concern.

Harry needed no explanation as to the cause of this scene. He knew what it was all about. It was Christmas. Neville would have paid a visit to St. Mungo´s today, and to his parents.

He watched distractedly as Ginny ushered Neville into a chair at the back of the common room and then sat beside him. They talked in hushed tones for a time. Harry guessed that Ginny was trying her hardest to make him feel better. That was what Ginny did, and she did it well. But Neville was a hard case and he didn´t think Ginny would make much headway concerning him. He doubted if Ginny even knew the cause of his altered behavior.

But he knew. Harry was locked in a mental tug of war: should he talk to Neville, tell him he knew everything, or should he keep his nose out of it and continue to be a horrible friend. His feet seemed to have already made the decision for him. Before he´d even come to the right conclusion, he´d gotten up and moved over to where Neville was conversing in hushed tones with a sympathetic Ginny who sat patting his hand comfortingly. Neville stared off at the ground as he spoke giving him that look that people adopt after facing a shocking situation and haven´t quite come to terms with it yet.

Harry had felt that way at the end of last year. For a week or so, he was trapped in a fuzzy half-reality where nothing really seemed to focus and everything sounded and felt miles away.

"May I join you?" Harry said as Ginny looked up at him. Neville seemed not to hear a thing. Ginny shook him from his alternate universe. He shrugged and Harry was admitted into their solemn group. Pulling up a seat hadn´t nearly given him enough time to adjust his thoughts or determine what might be the appropriate way to begin with what he had to say.

But in the end, the direct path is always easiest and most times the less painful route. Harry was blunt and honest with his friend. Ginny listened with quiet attention. Neville seemed more coherent with every sentence he spoke. He told him about the Pensieve and the trial that he´d witnessed. When he finished, Neville looked a little relieved at the fact that Harry had stopped or that he´d told him everything, Harry could not be sure.

"I´ve seen the Pensieve as well," Neville began after a moment of silence. "Professor Dumbledore showed it to me at the beginning of third year, after the Dementors attacked the train."

Realization dawned on Harry. Neville had been in the same compartment as himself and the rest of them when a Dementor had boarded the train. It had affected him the most. He´d ended up on the floor. But, looking back on things, Harry did remember Neville turning as pale as a ghost. Of course, he would have remembered the moment that his parents were attacked. He must have been there, though very young.

Neville continued, "I wasn´t allowed to attend the trial." Anger permeated his voice. Harry had never seen this side of Neville before. He was usually a very gentle and quiet person. Ginny looked alarmed as well, but remained silent. "I didn´t believe Crouch for a second," he said bluntly. Harry had just entered into another train of thought and was about to ask when Neville had beaten him to it. "I´m glad it ended the way it did, Azkaban was too good for him," he finished in an even tone.

"Neville, you don´t mean you actually wanted that Dementor to-," Harry began but was cut off by Neville who answered with a flat, "Yes."

Harry heard his words but did not look at him. He caught a curious sight that drove another realization into his mind: Ginny shuddered at the word Dementor. Harry wouldn´t have given this a second thought as Ginny was good at empathy and would almost certainly place herself in the shoes of the unfortunate, even if they happened to be the shoes of Barty Crouch, Jr.

Only Harry was confronted with the remembrance of that same train ride two years ago and Ginny huddled into one corner, shaking uncontrollably. It wasn´t entirely in the past for her either. Her nightmare was very much with her. The Chamber would never be closed to her. His past would never go away. Neville would always be haunted by the sound of his tortured parents.

They were kindred spirits in a dark place that few understood.

He felt for the two that sat and suffered before him. Knowing exactly what it was that they were going through yet, being unable to say anything that would ease the burden of it frustrated him. He longed to silence the nightmare that played in the background of his mind as well. But it couldn´t be silenced as long as there were such memories to be made or such creatures to feed off of the only thing that brought balance to them; the pleasant thoughts that made the grim ones bearable.

Though it had darkened Harry´s mood considerably and Ginny seemed more withdrawn than usual, Neville seemed okay--not fine--but okay. Harry and Ginny stood to follow the others down to the Great Hall for dinner and the final match that was to take place that night. Neville thanked them both for being honest and caring, true friends that were there for each other. He declined dinner and wished Ron all the luck in the world at the chess match against Malfoy and returned to his dormitory to sleep away the rest of Christmas, not one of his favorite holidays, to begin with.

Harry wished he could do more, but Neville now knew that he had friends who understood his situation, not just Harry, but Ginny as well and he knew that he could talk to either of them anytime at all.

***

Ron took his seat across the game table from Malfoy. He wore a resolute expression as he made his first move. Malfoy, however, seemed less in the game than Ron did. He looked as if he were being forced to finish out the tournament against his will and was unconcerned with whom the results would favor. He dully announced his move.

Harry made the perfunctory scan of the Slytherin table. When he didn´t find the curious little girl there, he shrugged and thought maybe she had returned home for the holidays.

As the game wound down and several pieces from both sides of the board were smashed into unrecognizable bits, Ron declared his checkmate over Malfoy, who looked as though he´d resigned himself to this fate long ago. Dumbledore announced Ron as the winner. Both competitors got to their feet. Dumbledore signaled for the two to shake hands. Ron returned the gesture with a look in the Headmaster´s direction to suggest that he was mad for even thinking it.

Harry was surprised to see Draco offer his hand to Ron first, who took it apprehensively. Draco congratulated Ron with none of the ever-present sneering superiority that always accompanied any action toward a Weasley.

However curious this scene might have been, what followed sent Harry into a torrent of conspiracy theories. He followed Malfoy´s eyes as they flicked to the back of the hall briefly and caught those of the black-haired girl Harry had been casting about for. Draco gave her a quick smile before turning his attention back to the front where Ron was being awarded his prize: the tournament trophy and one hundred house points for Gryffindor. Their table went mad with cheering as Ron made his way over to the exuberant crowd.

Ginny was standing on top of her chair on the opposite side of the table from Harry, Ron and Hermione. She jumped down as Ron came over to them and crawled under the table to meet them on the other side. She kissed her brother on the cheek and congratulated him quickly. She then turned to Harry as he was watching Hermione smother Ron in an excited hug.

"Harry," she began in a timid voice.

"What is it, Ginny?" Harry answered her in a distracted tone, not taking his eyes off of his two friends and grinning widely.

Ginny continued, vying for Harry´s attention as she had something very urgent to discuss with him.

"I need to talk to you when you have a moment," she said sternly. Harry´s attention was all hers. He took his eyes from his two friends and settled them on the worried and fidgeting Ginny. He figured that it must have something to do with their talk with Neville earlier and complied immediately to her request.

***

Ginny had him by the hand walking very quickly up the marble staircase. It took a great deal of concentration for Harry not to trip on his way up them.

She pulled him into the empty Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom where she doubled over panting with exertion. "I didn´t want anyone to see us," she added as an excuse for her speed.

A long and awkward silence followed in which Harry could find nothing to say and was curious as to why he was dragged so forcefully there. He was just about to speak when Ginny sat down at a desk at the back of the room and withdrew a small package from her pocket.

"Merry Christmas," Ginny said, holding the package out to Harry. Harry looked between Ginny and the gift she waited for him to take. "It´s not really a Christmas gift," she explained, "It´s more of a, of a-," she struggled for her words apparently very nervous in this situation. "Oh just open it!" she said losing all hope of a proper explanation.

Harry did as he was told. He tore open the brown paper wrapping and was met with a stunning piece of jewelry. His mouth hung open as he examined the intricately worked and beautiful ruby surrounded by a band of gold on a delicate gold chain. There were tiny words inscribed on the gold band that encased the ruby. It looked to be Latin.

"audi Domine deprecationem meam cum clamavero ad te cum levavero marcus meas ad oraculum sanctum tuum," Harry silently read to himself, in awe at how such a long phrase managed to fit on such a tiny charm and yet remain legible.

"It´s a Praemedicatus Crepundia," Ginny informed him. "A protective amulet. I´ve put an inscription on it. It says: `When evil men advance against me, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall.´ Psalms 27:2."

Astonished, Harry looked up from the glittering ruby to Ginny. "This is... it´s...wow! It´s really beautiful, Gin. But I can´t acc-,"

"If you were going to finish with `I can´t accept this´ it´s too late, Harry," Ginny said with authority, cutting off Harry´s words decisively.

She moved toward him and took the chain from his hand. He held its brown paper wrappings between them, as if it was an excuse not to move closer to Ginny, even though he very much wanted to. Harry concentrated very hard on keeping his heart from beating out of his chest at the realization that she was just inches from him as she stood on her tip-toes to reach around his neck and fasten the chain. She seemed entirely unaware of the internal struggle that was beginning in him at that very moment. He wanted to touch her flawless, porcelain cheeks, to know what it was like to kiss her. She really was quite beautiful and Harry had never realized how amazing her bright brown eyes looked when they sparkled in dim light.

He hardly heard her as she continued with the instructions on this rare and beautiful gift. "Now you cannot take it off. Its protective properties will be useless otherwise, and it´s important that no one else sees it. It must be kept a secret. Only its owner and its creator can know of its existence. It will ward off all curses from the wearer. If I did everything correctly, that is." She looked into Harry´s eyes and shifted uncomfortably as this was the first time that they hadn´t tried to avoid eye contact with each other.

Ginny was suddenly struck by how tall Harry appeared when she was standing this close to him, she never considered him tall but he towered over her. She was considerably shorter and made a mental note never to stand so close to him in the future. She was sure she looked absolutely dumpy and dwarf-like next to him. When had he gotten so tall? She was sure she couldn´t remember when that had happened.

Suddenly Ginny realized with much embarrassment that she was staring and standing alarmingly close to him. Her arms were still around his neck, she realized with horror, where she was still fumbling with the clasp. He looked shocked and uncomfortable, she noticed and was about to move back when it happened.

Harry had thrown down the paper that he was holding and drew Ginny closer to him, bending slightly to kiss her. He had wanted to do that since, he didn´t know when, but it felt right at the moment.

Ginny kissed him as well, shocked at his daring and enjoying it too much to recall herself immediately. But she did recall herself eventually and with much torment pulled away from him.

He, in turn, looked shocked and embarrassed and began to mutter an apology, which Ginny promptly silenced.

"Harry," she said, paling in front of him. "I´m sorry. I can´t do this right now." Her lip began to tremble, Harry noticed with astonishment. That was definitely the wrong thing to do at the moment, he thought with a mental kick. Oh bugger! He´d screwed up big time. He couldn´t look at her but was sure that she was angry with him, but when she spoke again that thought was put immediately from his mind.

"Harry, don´t misunderstand me, please. It´s not you--you´re wonderful. It´s me. I can´t do this right now. I´m not good enough..." she trailed off, apparently not wanting to finish that sentence as much as Harry didn´t want her to.

She looked down at her shoes as if they would tell her what to say next. She kicked the scuffed, Mary-Jane type shoes together methodically before continuing. "I´ve got to get down to the kitchens and get Neville some soup or something. I´m worried about him. He doesn´t look so well." She turned and made to retreat from the classroom but stopped and turned to wish Harry a Happy Christmas before disappearing down the dark hallway.

Harry was left in the lowly lit room staring after her and wondering why she was always running away from him. Maybe it was the best thing for the both of them. It was definitely too dangerous for her to be close to him, no matter how close he wanted her to be. He didn´t want her hurt and distance was the best way to keep her safe. Her and everyone else Harry loved.