Harry Potter & The Black Sacrifice
Post 9 : Delegation
Chapter 7
Delegation
Voices from downstairs woke him up the following morning. Harry was used to this, as Hermione & Ron had permission to come and go as they pleased. He took his time getting ready, for he wanted to prepare himself for the reaction that revealing the contents of Dumbledore's diary would provoke in his two best friends. He felt a chill go down his spine; whatever had transpired so far, the diary meant that the real quest began now.
"…. well Sirius was S.O.B. , but I bet nobody will ever see anything special about that."
Harry froze halfway down the stairs. That was not Ron that Hermione had brought with her.
He reached the bottom of the stairs and peeked his head into the doorway to observe the two guests in his living room. He had barely done so when a fiery blur of red hair & freckles (enshrouded in a flowery smell that reminded him of the Burrow) had run into him so fast and hard that it knocked him down onto the floor.
Ginny was down on the floor with him in a flash, kissing him fiercely and punching him in the stomach at the same time, knocking the wind out of him.
"You GIT! You selfish PRAT!!" Each insult was succeeded by another punch to the stomach. "I've been dying inside for two months! And all this time… all this time Ron & 'Mione have known!" But she started laughing and hugged him so hard, he lost his wind again.
When his wind had returned, he was able to laugh a little himself. He pointed to Hermione. "It was her idea! Punch her for a while why don't you!?"
"Yeah and I bet you fought real hard against it," she mock pouted. "The whole world thinks you're dead, and here you are, in your comfortable mansion, letting everyone believe it. Not everyone will forgive you as quickly as I have." With that, she kissed him so fiercely again that Hermione began to blush.
Ginny looked up and grinned. "Sorry 'Mione. I'll wait until later."
Harry looked over at Hermione. "What made you change your mind!? What happened to 'The less people that know, the better.' ?"
Hermione grinned. "The Burrow is depressing enough as it is right now, and I haven't seen one of my best friends smile in months. I wanted to bring some cheer back to her, what little I could. Besides, it's not as if she'll go running to find a Death Eater to tell."
Harry frowned for a second, sat up, and looked over at Hermione. "Hey that reminds me… whose idea was it to make the ministry think I was dead?"
Hermione observed Harry for a moment, suspecting that he was joking. "Harry… we thought.. Wasn't it yours?"
Harry stood up and walked over to the couch. "No.. I figured you or Ron must have sent some fake evidence in as part of your plan."
"No.. the plan never involved faking your death."
Harry began to pace, and Ginny reclaimed her spot on the couch.
"So someone completely unknown wanted the ministry to think I was dead. Why would someone do that? Do you have any idea what the so-called evidence was?"
Ginny actually answered this one. "They wouldn't tell us, but Dad overheard Scrimgeour talking to Fudge about it. Not the most discreet man, Mr. Scrimgeour. Anyways, Dad thinks it was a body part."
Harry smirked and ran his hands all over himself. "Well I don't appear to be missing any vital parts. What makes them so sure it was mine?"
Hermione answered. "They would have done some magical tests on it… and they wouldn't feel comfortable announcing their suspicions unless they were sure it was yours."
All three of them frowned at once. "It must… it must not have been a body part then. Unless there's a clone of me we don't know about!" Harry joked.
"Don't forget Harry, Voldemort," (Ginny flinched) "has your blood now. Who knows what he's capable of doing with it?"
Harry considered this for a moment, then shook his head. "Voldemort wouldn't want people to think I was dead. What would be the point? It's not his style. No, he'll want people to KNOW when I'm dead, and that he's the one responsible."
Ginny piped up again. "So… who then?"
Harry sat down in a recliner and sighed. "I suppose we won't know until we find out for sure what the body part, or whatever, is. Until then…. I have something to tell you that is more important right now. But Ron should be here to hear it as well."
Ginny got up, reached in to her pocket, and pulled out some floo powder. She walked over to the fireplace, threw the powder in, and stuck her head in to the fire. "RON! Get over here now!"
There was a loud crack outside, and Ron walked through the front door. "Will you keep your voice down!? Mom almost heard… bloody hell, what are you doing here?"
Hermione repeated herself for Ron's benefit. "It would have been nice if you'd informed me," said Ron. "Dad has spent the night at the Ministry two nights in a row, and she's handing out extra chores to keep her mind occupied. Since you weren't around, they all went to me!"
"Boohoo. Sit down, Harry has something important to tell us."
Harry ran upstairs and came back down with the diary. He re-read the letter from Dumbledore to them. All three remained silent after he finished.
After a minute, Ron broke the silence. "I think…. I think we should each pick one remaining Horcrux to research independently. Hermione will keep studying the locket, I'll start researching Gryffindor & Ravenclaw, Ginny will start researching… Nagini I guess, though I don't know what she's going to find…"
Harry shook his head. "I've decided that I don't want this coming between you guys and your schoolwork. This is…. What? What's wrong?"
Ron & Ginny were both looking at Hermione in an odd way. "You didn't tell him!?" yelled Ron.
"I was going to today. I just hadn't gotten around to it yet."
Harry frowned. "Tell me what!?"
Ginny & Ron spoke at once. "Hogwarts is staying closed."
Hermione nodded. "Too many parents are keeping their kids at home; there haven't been more than 23 students who've returned to school. The governors decided that, for now, it would be in everyone's best interest to keep it closed."
Harry sat down and put his head in his hands. "I guess I'm stuck with you all then." He grinned at Ron. "So I'm researching Hufflepuff's cup then?" Ron nodded. "Fine. But you realize there's more to this than just the Horcruxes themselves. Just as the items themselves were significant to Tom Riddle, the places he will have stashed them will be also. The ring was in the Gaunt house… the locket.. was once in the cave.. the diary was left in Lucius Malfoy's keeping."
Hermione moaned. "It's like one of the logic puzzle books my father has in his waiting room at work. Which Horcrux goes with Which Location…"
Harry ignored this. "I was thinking we'd write down a list of any locations that Riddle would have deemed significant enough, and maybe cross reference them with those haunted places books that Hermione bought."
Ron grabbed Dumbledore's diary out of Harry's hands. "No doubt Dumbledore will have included some of that information in here."
Harry said "Let's go off memory for now; we'll look through that later. Somebody write these down. The Riddle House, which we already know is considered haunted… the Orphanage…. Borgin & Burkes… Hogwarts, of course… anything else?"
Hermione chimed in. "Well I guess this is covered by Hogwarts, but the chamber of secrets was significant to him…"
Ron said "And what about Azkaban? It would certainly be guarded well.."
Ginny began to write down Azkaban, but Harry held up his hand. "I doubt it. Despite how many of his followers wound up in there, he never had anything personal vested in it."
Ginny looked up timidly. "What about…. Your parents' cottage Harry? Surely.. the place he met his downfall is significant to him.."
Harry looked at Hermione, who shrugged. "Yeah… write that down. Though we did visit it the day after the wedding… I think we would have noticed anything unusual. But we'll check it again."
He sighed again. "This is a good start. And frankly, I'm done being serious for today. Let's go do something fun."
…
Hermione & Harry were stunned to learn that Ron & Ginny had never been to a movie, so the 4 of them walked into town to see what was playing. They caught an early showing of Austin Powers, which had just been released the previous week. All four agreed that it was pretty lousy, but they enjoyed themselves just the same.
They spent the rest of the day exploring the town and simply enjoying each other's company. It was the best day Harry could remember outside of Hogwarts.
…
They returned to Harry's home just as the sun was beginning to set. Hermione & Ron, arm in arm, went inside the house, but Harry grabbed Ginny's arm. "Wait… I want to talk to you. Alone."
He led her over to the other side of the house, which had an incredible view of the entire town. He sat her down on the lawn and looked in to her eyes, which were unflinching. "My mind hasn't changed, you know. We still can't be together."
Ginny smirked. "Yeah… funny thing about that. At this point, thanks to that horrible Skeeter woman, everyone knows we were together at school. Do you really think it'll make a difference to V-Vo… dammit… You-Know-Who that we're broken up on a technicality?"
Harry considered this for a moment. "I suppose you're right."
Ginny continued. "If I'm in his sights now, it's not going to matter to him that we've broken up. He'll know you still care about me." Harry nodded again.
She put her arms around his neck and kissed him softly. "If I am going to be a casualty in your little war Harry, I want to at least be able to enjoy the reason for it. While I can."
As the sun set over the Potter manor, and over the Trio's last happy day together, Harry could only think of one thing to say. "As you wish."
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