Harry Potter and the War of Souls

Chapter 17

Werewolf Forest

After Harry returned to his dorm from breakfast on the following Saturday, he saw Ginny putting the finishing touches on making his bed.

"Ginny?" he asked. "What are you doing?"

"Fulfilling my promise. Isn't this what I said I'd do when you agreed to the Quidditch game?"

"Sure, but I thought it was a joke."

"No, the way you've stuffed everything under your bed is a joke. Honestly, Harry, how can you ever find anything?"

Harry smiled and got down on the floor with her. He peered under his bed and realized how tightly jammed in everything was. "That's an art, you know, getting everything in like that."

"Wait until you see how I organize it. That's the art."

Against his protestations, she began pulling out old books and essays, trinkets and gadgets he had gathered over time, and clothes he had outgrown but hadn't been quite sure what to do with.

"Your mother would be so pleased to see how domestic you've become," he teased, then groaned as he received a well-deserved jab at his side.

She leaned under again and said, "What's this?" then pulled out the jar he had stuffed far underneath his bed. "Gillyweed? What do you need this for?"

"Nothing."

"Don't lie to me, Harry. Refuse to talk to me if you have to, but don't lie."

"Okay, I can't tell you what it's for."

Ginny's face reddened. "Then I'll take a guess. You think a horcrux is under water somewhere - probably the lake - and you're going down to retrieve it."

Harry lowered his voice. "How do you know about that?"

"I overheard Ron and Hermione talking about them while we were still at Grimmauld Place. I don't understand exactly what they are but I certainly got the gist of it, and I also got the idea that you're searching them out."

"Have you told anyone else about them?"

"Of course not. What I don't understand is why you let Ron and Hermione in on it, but not me. Didn't you trust me?"

"Yes, I did - I do. But it just seemed like a big burden to hand off to you."

"That's what love is, Harry. You pick someone you can share a burden with and who can help you carry it. If you can't do that, then you can't really love."

Harry thought back to the conversations he and Dumbledore had shared about love. After Sirius' death, Dumbledore had said that he, Harry, loved so much that it hurt him deeper than most. But then, Harry had shared his burdens with Sirius, hadn't he?"

Harry looked around to assure himself the dorms were empty, then took Ginny's hand. "Dumbledore was searching for a total of six horcruxes. Three have been destroyed."

"Where are the other three?"

"One of them is a locket with Salazar Slytherin's mark on it. I think Mundungus Fletcher stole it from Grimmauld Place last year. The last I saw of him, he was talking to the Hog's Head barman so maybe he knows. The second is a cup that once belonged to Helga Hufflepuff. I think it's in a box buried at the bottom of the lake. The problem is that it's guarded by Inferi and I don't know how to get past them. That's what the gillyweed is for. And the third horcrux is a mystery to me, maybe something that once belonged to Gryffindor, but I don't even know what to look for."

"Where did you get the gillyweed?"

"From Snape. That's another long story."

Ginny was taking this better than he had anticipated. She nodded slowly. "And so if the horcruxes are destroyed, then Voldemort can be killed?"

"That's the theory."

"How are you going to do it?"

"I don't know."

"You don't have to do it alone, you know. There's an army of us who would fight Him with you."

"I don't think it matters if there's an army or not. In the end, it'll just be Him and I."

Ginny laid her head on Harry's shoulder. He moved his hand away from hers and put his arm around her. After a moment, she turned and stared up at him. He began to lean towards her for a kiss, but they pulled apart at the sound of someone coming up the steps. Ron walked in and looked at the two of them for a moment.

"You two back together?" he asked casually.

"No," Ginny said. "We were just talking."

"Good," Ron said. "Because relationships are too much work. They make you miserable, that's all." He sunk onto his bed and let out a long moan.

Ginny grinned and stood. "Nothing's going on between Hermione and Krum, you idiot. He tried with her, but she turned him down and told him flat out that she loves you. And if it makes you feel any better, she's just as miserable in the girl's dorms every night as you are right now."

Ron rolled over and looked at her. "She's miserable?"

"The person she loves doesn't trust her." She cast a glance at Harry. "If you love someone, you trust them, right?"

"Right," Harry said quickly, just glad he wasn't miserable right now.

"Okay, I'd better go. Harry, you're going to have to clean up your dorm area by yourself. I've decided no Quidditch match is worth having to manage this."

"Thanks a lot," Harry called after her.

Ginny's words to Ron must have made a difference for him, because Harry noticed by suppertime he and Hermione were sitting close beside each other again, each with a wide grin on their faces. He caught Ginny looking at them from further down the table and nodded at her. She smiled back then returned to her supper. He loved the feeling that look from her gave him, that maybe he and she shared something again.

He kept that feeling for the next several days and even dreamed of her one night, that the war was over and they were free to be together. They were alone at a picnic with nothing in the world to worry about. He laid her back on the grass and began kissing her. Then the dream changed and their summer day became a winter night. She vanished entirely as the rolling hills surrounding the burrow became a thick forest where no human belonged.

But Harry wasn't afraid here. He ruled this forest and every evil being within its boundaries. Except tonight, there was someone who did not belong.

He stopped at a meeting place in the middle of miles of densely packed trees where the full moon gave off just enough light for him to see who had come. He was soon surrounded by a pack of werewolves who, in their present form, respected no person or thing. But they would heed him.

"It has come to my attention that there is one among you who seeks to undermine me," He said. "He whispers lies to you in the hopes that you will abandon me. You know who you are, Remus Lupin, traitor of your kind. You have tried to come back to us again? But you knew I would discover you, did you not? I could kill you quickly, but that would be too good for you. I command you all to kill the traitor. Kill him and never let me hear of disloyalty again."

He turned as the sounds of a sudden and fierce fight amongst the werewolves rose up behind him. He laughed.

Harry sat up straight in bed with a searing pain in his scar. He choked down the bile that rose in his throat and forced himself not to scream. He fumbled for his glasses then stumbled out of the dorms and down to the common room. He had to see McGonagall. He had to get help.

"Harry?"

Harry squinted. "Ginny, what are you doing up?"

"I, I was just up, that's all. What's the matter?"

He walked towards the door, still in so much pain he could barely put one foot in front of the other. "I have to get to Professor McGonagall."

"You can't even stand. What's happened?"

"Lupin. They're killing him."

"Wait here," Ginny said. "I can get her back here faster than you can get there." She flew out of the portrait hole and he fell into a chair, trying to remember anything he had seen that might tell them where Lupin was.

Within a few minutes, Ginny returned, leading McGonagall who was in her night clothes and looking terrified. "Mr. Potter?" she asked. "What has happened?"

Harry flew to her side. "Remus Lupin is being attacked by the werewolves. They're going to kill him. We've got to help him."

McGonagall's eyes widened. "Oh dear."

"I don't know where he is, but I thought - I hoped you might."

"I do know where he is," McGonagall said softly. "There is a forest at some distance from here."

"Tell me where it is," Harry said. "I'll go, I can help."

"I'm afraid that's not possible. It's too dangerous."

Harry felt his jaw clench. "It's my decision to make."

"No, it's not. Remus took on this task with an understanding of the great risk involved and made me promise - made every member of the Order promise that if something happened to him, no one was to go in after him."

"But I'm not a member of the Order," Harry argued. "I never made that promise!"

"No one can go after him. I know this is terrible for you but we can do nothing for him."

"I'll find out where this forest is on my own then," Harry said.

"If you go after him you will die and still fail to save him," she said firmly. "There is no question of that. Would you sacrifice everything you can do for us in the attempt of the one thing you cannot? Besides, I have no choice but to refuse you this information. I gave Remus my personal promise that I would never let you go after him to this place. I'm sorry. We will just have to let events there unfold as they will." She placed a hand on Ginny's shoulder and said, "Stay with him tonight. I'll go back to my office and if there is anything I can do for him, I assure you I will do it."

She left the portrait hole and Harry turned and brushed a stack of books from the table onto the floor. He picked up the one book that remained and threw it against the wall where it dropped near the fireplace. Ginny didn't attempt to approach him but instead waited for him to calm down.

"Snape would know where the forest is," he said. "I could go through the floo to his home-"

"Didn't you hear what she said?" Ginny asked.

"I don't care what she said! I can't do nothing." Harry turned and kicked at the wall, and felt a sharp throbbing in his foot as a result.

"You're not doing nothing! You have a purpose in this war. Tell me this, would Lupin want you to go after him?"

"No," Harry said sullenly. "But he's all I have left of my parents. I can't let him die."

Ginny walked over to him and wrapped her arms tightly around him. "Whatever happens, Harry, there are still people here who will always love you."

He pulled her closer into him and let his head rest on her shoulder. Eventually, out of sheer exhaustion, they moved to the couch and sat holding each other. He wasn't sure when he fell asleep but when he awoke later, she was up at a table with Ron and Hermione. There were books spread across a table and they were talking softly.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"The forest you saw is probably in Albania," Hermione said.

"Ginny told you?"

"I hope it was okay," Ginny said.

"Sure. Can we find him?"

Hermione moved her finger along the map and shrugged. "The forest where I think he was is huge, and it's a terrible place. Harry, I don't think even if we could find him we would ever get out of there alive."

"But we're going to try, aren't we?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Ginny turned to him with a determined look on her face. "We're going to try."