Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

A Marriage of Convenience	By : NinaSweets Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Snape Views: 159377 -:- Recommendations : 6 -:- Currently Reading : 45
Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters and places all belong to JK Rowling this is a not for profit story.

Chapter List
- 31
- 32
- 33
WHAT? Two updates within a DAY! Madness I hear you cry! Well it was madness but also action. I get through action scenes pretty easily so here you go! Thank you for the kind words to my lovely reviewers, djaddict, Cathy, Sablesilverrain, SlytherindorMalfoy, moodysavage and Serena.

Chapter Thirty-Two

The castle was like a military camp under Umbridge’s rule. There was complete and utter silence in the hall as the students marched in two straight lines, girls on the left and boys on the right. No one dared to even whisper with Umbridge and her bloody Inquisitorial Squad handing out detentions like sweets to hungry children. Harry had managed to earn several from Malfoy because of his ‘stupid face’.

Harry stood outside Umbridge’s office with Malfoy and a few other random students who had gotten on the wrong side of the squad. Harry was amused because although Umbridge had proclaimed herself Headmistress the Headmaster’s office wouldn’t let her in. The gargoyle protecting it ignored her and would poke its tongue out at her when she threatened to blow it to pieces. Several days after Dumbledore had left the students had enjoyed a thoroughly frustrated Umbridge kicking and spitting at the stone gargoyle that wouldn’t budge.

She moved along quickly and set up her own office as the official Headmistresses and had weekly staff meetings which Snape always returned from irritated, grumbling under his breath about potion ingredients that required fresh human parts. Everyone was miserable and Harry couldn’t remember a worse time he’d had at Hogwarts. Not even when the Basilisk had been going around petrifying people.

The door to Umbridge’s office opened and Malfoy gave a happy sigh of relief that he choked on.

Snape slid out into the hallway and glared at the assembled group.

“What are you all doing loitering about at this hour? Curfew begins soon and if I catch a single one of you it won’t be just house points you lose!”

“Detention sir,” a Ravenclaw second year piped up. Snape shot a dark look at the young boy who stared back with undisguised fear.

“Detention?” Snape barked, “All of you?”

Everyone looked at Malfoy who had handed out the detentions and to his credit he didn’t falter under that intense gaze.

“Professor Umbridge insisted anyone breaking any rules should be given detentions, warnings aren’t effective enough,” Malfoy said holding his head up high.

“I shall remember Umbridge’s new discipline regime the next time I catch you about after hours Mr Malfoy,” Snape promised and Malfoy hung his head but said nothing.

“Potter! What have you done now?” Snape growled finally spotting Harry standing beside Malfoy.

“What haven’t I done?” Harry said with a very put upon sigh and Snape glared. “I was assigned detention by Malfoy for and I quote ‘having a stupid face’.”

“Well I can’t fault Mr Malfoy for being honest; I hardly think it’s punishable by detention though.”

Harry narrowed his eyes and his mouth fell open in shocked anger at the Potions Master.

“No doubt you will do something foolish to earn a detention soon enough so shall we use this one retroactively?” Snape asked with a quirked eyebrow. Harry was too shocked and insulted to say anything so he just blinked stupidly at the man.

“Excellent,” Snape said and swooped down to plant a kiss on his mouth. Harry again was shocked speechless he was a statue as the man slipped around him to head down the hallway. He was startled from his stupor by a slap on his arse and shot forward turning to glare at the man’s retreating back in shock.

Malfoy was staring at him like he’d grown an extra head and Harry almost felt like he had.

“What was that?”

“I’m going to be sick,”

“Snape has a tongue? I thought he just lived off people’s souls like a Dementor.”

“You are here to serve your detentions!” Malfoy said loudly over the rabble.

Everyone trudged into Umbridge’s office where she had set up papers with her special set of quills on her desk. Umbridge directed Harry over to a separate desk with an ordinary quill. Harry glared at her suspiciously but she just glared back.

“Only the best for the Boy-Who-Lived,” she taunted and Harry sat down to write his lines.

When she finally dismissed everyone Harry bolted down to the dungeons. He ran into Snape’s rooms so fast he tripped on the rug and wound up crashing into the coffee table winding himself. He rolled over and stared at the ceiling trying to get his lungs to work properly.

“If you’re finished?” Snape said icily from his favourite armchair. Harry just choked on a gasp in reply. Snape offered no assistance and continued to read from a book until Harry recovered.

Harry sat up on the floor and clutched the coffee table with one hand the other rubbing the bruise forming on his chest.

“What did you do to Umbridge?” Harry asked

“Nothing.”

“She was different,”

“All right, shall I call the Aurors? A professor has changed their attitude after receiving a promotion, how odd indeed,”

“She wasn’t promoted! She appointed herself, that doesn’t count!” Harry said angrily. Snape raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing,” Snape repeated.

“Then what were you doing in her office?”

“Giving my monthly report on Slytherin’s wellbeing to the Headmistress,” Snape said simply and Harry glared.

“She didn’t make me use one of her awful quills,”

“Perhaps she’s taking a liking to you now you’ve learned to shut your mouth in her presence,”

Harry was not going to get a straight answer from the man so he moved along.

“Why did you slap my arse?” Harry asked. Snape looked up from his book with a blank look and Harry raised his eyebrows expectantly.

“I wanted to,” Snape replied and looked back down.

“What? You can’t just go around slapping people, especially not their arses and especially not mine!”

Snape stood up and stalked toward him. Harry kept glaring; he didn’t want the man to think his behaviour was okay. Snape hauled Harry up easily and slipped his hand into the back pocket of Harry’s jeans. Harry was preparing to shout himself hoarse at the man’s attitude when a bright red quill was held up to his face.

“Er…” Harry said staring at it blankly for a few moments. A wide array of emotions passed across his face when he finally recognised it.

“You stole one of Umbridge’s quills?” Harry asked and Snape smirked, heading back over to his chair.

“You stole it!” Harry cried “You stole it during her meeting then slipped it into my pocket! What if she’d caught me with it?”

“You’d be in a lot of trouble wouldn’t you?”

“You’re unbelievable!”

“I know,” Snape said lazily.

Harry watched him twirl the quill between his fingers as he continued to read his book. He shook his head assuring himself he didn’t want to know what Snape would do with that quill before turning to his homework for the evening. His OWLs were fast approaching and they would decide what subjects he could take next year and the year after so he had to at least try to get decent scores. Harry was grateful for the peace of Snape’s rooms, even if he did have to put up with the man’s insanity. It was much better than being in the Gryffindor common room. Hermione had turned into some kind of rabid studying machine. She’d already lost half a dozen points when McGonagall had caught her hitting a second year over the head with a practise exam booklet because the girl had been ‘choking too loudly’ in the common room.

Harry couldn’t escape the crazed young woman at meal times though. The subdued atmosphere of the students didn’t seem to affect Hermione or any other studious fifth year. Hermione would quiz Harry and Ron endlessly over breakfast then get them to quiz her over lunch and at dinner they would revise her notes on different subjects from the past five years.

When Harry got to breakfast the next morning Hermione was hyperventilating into her cereal.

“Harry!” Hermione cried when she saw him. “You won’t believe it! Ron doesn’t know the dates of the seventeenth century Goblin Rebellions! Professor Binns assured me they’d be important dates that would come up in our exams,” she was practically shrieking by the end of her sentence. Harry rushed over and sat down beside her, waving his hands up and down in the universal sign for ‘keep it down’ because Hermione was being both loud and shrill.

“If Ron wanted to become a historian I would be worried but he’s not so it’s okay yeah? He’s just going to focus on the subjects that will help him be an Auror,” Harry said with a pointed look at Ron who paused in shoving toast into his mouth. He saw Hermione staring at him with a look of crazed horror and quickly nodded.

“Yeah, just the subjects I need,” Ron agreed quickly. Hermione deflated a little and then turned to Harry.

“What about you? You don’t know what you want to do, you’re going to have to pass everything really well so you have options,” Hermione said desperately.

“Sure I will, got to keep those options wide open,” Harry reassured her. Hermione nodded and pulled out the little quiz booklet she’d made.

“Shall we go over History of Magic this morning? I know it’s not everyone’s favourite but it is important,” Hermione said sounding almost normal. Her voice was still a little squeaky but Harry was attributing that to stress. He’d never truly seen the girl stress before and while it was amusing to watch Malfoy smack his head repetitively with a potions book or Ernie McMillian furiously writing up flash cards and crying when he accidentally stabbed the paper with his quill it hurt him to see Hermione so worked up.

“Why not Charms?” Harry suggested. Hermione brightened and flipped through her book to the section of Charms. Ron sent Harry a panicked look across the table and Harry shrugged in response.

Charms was a bit of an iffy subject for Harry and Ron but they had a better chance of answering the questions correctly which would make Hermione happy.

A different kind of silence fell over Hogwarts as the OWLs started for the fifth years and NEWTs began for the seventh years. It was the silence of complete and utter concentration. Harry was sure he’d botched up his Potions exam, no surprises there, he’d gotten through Transfiguration just barely and Charms and done well on the practical but had scarcely written anything on the written section of the exam. He had of course done extremely well in Defence Against the Dark Arts and earned himself some bonus points by conjuring his Patronus for the excited examiner.

His final exam was for History of Magic. He waited patiently behind the Patil twins as they were each called into the Great Hall and placed at a seat in alphabetical order. Padma and Pavarti were led into the hall one at a time and then Harry was called in. He was sat at the end of the row next to Pavarti. She was about two feet away though so he couldn’t possibly lean over to catch sight of her paper if he had even wanted to. Harry spotted Hermione’s bushy brown head ducked low over her desk in her pre-exam ritual of reciting ever fact she could on the subject they were about to be tested on.

Neville was seated in front of Pavarti and Malfoy was in front of Harry making Harry roll his eyes. At least he’d be keeping his eyes on his exam paper; he didn’t really fancy staring at the back of that snooty white blonde head for two and half hours. The Great Hall door slammed shut after Blaise Zambini had taken his seat. The special ministry examiners swept around the room to do a last minute check for cheating spells or hidden notes and then the exam begun.

The exam booklet appeared before Harry the same moment as everyone else in the hall received theirs. Immediately there were the frantic scratches of quills flying across pages as the students began. Harry sighed and flipped open his booklet. He quickly set to work reading through the booklet and answering questions he definitely knew. He went back and debated over ones he wasn’t too sure of and wrote vague answers for those. Ones he didn’t know at all he tried to at least put down something so there weren’t so many gaping pages of just nothing. He rubbed his eyes tiredly as the words blurred together. The black ink was smudging and spreading across his vision and then he was falling forwards. Harry had fallen off his broom a fair few times in Quidditch and there was nothing that felt quite like the absolutely paralysing terror of the ground rushing up to meet you. Harry was unfortunately experiencing that now but with no idea how close the ground was or how long he would be falling for.

He was suddenly on a black tiled floor. He had been here before. There was blood on the tiles. Mr Weasley’s. Harry’s brain supplied for him. Harry stumbled away from it slipping slightly in his haste. The door at the end of the corridor. It was important. All the answers he’d ever wanted. All the answers he’d needed. They were all through that door. He had chased down the corridor countless times in his dreams but always woke before he could touch the handle. Not today.

Blood fell into his eyes and Harry looked up. Nagini reared down at him, mouth open wide and blood pouring from it. Harry ran, he ran up the corridor and crashed through the door.

He rolled across the floor and smashed into something soft but cold. He sat up and gasped. Sirius lay on his side staring sightlessly at the door Harry had come through.

“Sirius?” Harry whispered. He reached forward to touch the man. He didn’t want to but he had to. Had to confirm with his own hands. Was what he was seeing real? Like with Mr Weasley? Was Sirius already cold?

A pale white hand snatched his and hauled him back spinning him around. Red eyes bore into his and Harry couldn’t turn away.

“Harry Potter,” Voldemort hissed. Harry’s scar was on fire but still he didn’t look away. He stared and stared.

“The thorn in my side…” Voldemort whispered trailing bony white fingers down Harry’s face. “Your mother could have lived, your friends, everyone could have been safe and happy. Now…” Voldemort ran his thumb through the blood leaking from Harry’s scar and carefully marked his cheeks and his lips. “Now, you’re going to watch. You’re going to watch as I take them… as I kill them… every… last… one.”

His scar seemed to explode and he screamed. He was falling again but it was much shorter distance. He was falling back on his seat and hit the floor with a deafening BANG! The enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall swam before him, showing a cheery blue sky. Harry felt hands on him, helping him sit up. He clutched at the arm of the middle-aged witch who was in front of him. Her eyes were a bright grey, like Sirius’. They were full of concern.

“Are you all right dear?” she asked.

Harry looked around. The world seemed to be tilted slightly to the left and he leant right to try and compensate for it. The worried faces of his classmates stood out like stars in the night sky. His gaze zeroed in on Hermione who seemed to be just holding herself in her seat. She pointed to her face and Harry raised a shaky hand to his own. There was blood on it. He’d bled all over his exam paper. It was everywhere. It seemed to be filling up his vision. He tilted more to the right but only the arms of the examiners kept him upright.

“Get him out of here!”

Harry was escorted out of the hall in a daze by the woman and an elderly man with crazy white hair that looked to be exploding from his head.

“We’ll get you cleaned up and take you back so you can finish,” the woman was saying soothingly. Harry shook his head.

“No, no I’m done. I’m done. I have to go.”

He managed to get them to leave after assuring them he was heading straight to the hospital wing. He wasn’t though; he headed straight to the first bathroom he could find. He stared at his reflection in the mirror. It wasn’t Harry Potter staring back at him though, his reflection was smirking at him and there was darkness to his eyes that Harry hadn’t seen before. He reached up a hand and watched the reflection do the same. He touched the marks Voldemort had drawn on his face. It was real. Sirius was in trouble. He had to go. He had to get to the Ministry.

He ran out into the hallway and crashed straight into Ginny and Luna. The three of them all toppled over but Luna seemed to bounce up like a graceful cat. She helped Ginny up quickly before crouching down to Harry’s level.

“Are you all right?” she asked. Harry stared at her. She looked like an angel, her pale hair was illuminated by the window behind her making her seem to glow and Harry could only blink.

“Harry what happened to your face?” Ginny asked crouching down beside Luna.

“Voldemort… Sirius…” Harry muttered.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in an exam right now?” Ginny asked checking her watch with a frown.

“Voldemort. Like with your dad, he has Sirius,” Harry said sounding a little clearer now. Luna’s almost non-existent eyebrows shot up to her hairline.

“Are you sure?” Ginny asked and Luna looked to the girl before back at Harry.

“Yes,” Luna answered for Harry and it was Ginny’s turn to look at her.

“Well what do we do?” Ginny asked

“I have to get to the Ministry,” Harry said urgently.

“All right, how? Umbridge’s office is the only one with a floo connection,” Ginny said.

“We fly,” Luna said dreamily.

“Again, how?” Ginny asked.

“You can’t come,” Harry said finally pulling himself up.

“The hell I can’t!” Ginny snapped. “You’re in no condition to go by yourself, you can barely stand. At least Luna and I can defend you.”

“No,” Harry said shaking his head.

“We’re going to waste time arguing,” Ginny said simply.

“Come on,” Luna called from the end of the corridor. Harry and Ginny had been so busy fighting they hadn’t noticed her move. Harry sighed and followed with a triumphant Ginny by his side.

They followed Luna out of the castle and quickly across the grounds. Harry and Ginny ran to keep up with her unaware of the many eyes that watched them.

Luna headed into the forest and disappeared through the trees. Harry and Ginny only exchanged a glance before following after her. Harry watched as her hair darted in and out of view. It seemed like Luna was spirit almost, the way she seemed to glide harmlessly through the underbrush while Ginny and Harry stumbled after her. After a solid twenty minutes they found themselves in a clearing where Luna stood waiting.

“We’ll use these,” Luna said and held out her arms. Harry and Ginny both frowned at her.

“Thestrals!” she said, “They can only be seen by those who have seen death.”

Harry felt something brush past him and he stepped closer to Ginny out of instinct.

“How many are there?” Harry asked warily.

“More than enough for us and the others,” Luna said.

“The others?” Ginny repeated.

Her question was answered less than a second later when Hermione, Ron, Neville, Fred, George and Cedric came crashing through the trees.

“Geez bring the whole school why don’t you?” Ginny said and Hermione opened her mouth to argue.

“Umbridge is looking for you,” Ron interrupted before Hermione could get started.

“Why?” Harry asked.

“Someone may have trashed her office a little,” Fred said with a shrug.

“I’ve been in an exam,”

“Ah but this clever someone may have waited till the exam finished to give themselves an alibi,” George said. Harry stared at him blankly and then quickly shook his head.

“Harry what happened?” Hermione asked worriedly. She stepped forward to look him up and down.

“Voldemort has Sirius,” Harry said and Hermione’s eyebrows rose as her lips thinned.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, it was like with Mr Weasley, I know it Hermione.”

“Maybe we should check, just to be sure,” Hermione said hesitantly.

“How? Umbridge thinks I trashed her office she’s going to expel me. I can’t go back and sit through that while Sirius is in danger, I won’t.”

“But maybe we could tell someone,” Hermione offered.

“Who? No one can do anything with Umbridge running the school!”

“Snape!” Ron said and Hermione nodded.

“He’s part of the Order, he can check for you,” Hermione said.

“Okay we’ll go and tell my husband I’m going to risk my life for a man he hates and see if he lets us go.”

Hermione and Ron exchanged that look. It was look Harry knew well and hated just as much. He was being crazy. They weren’t sure how to talk him out of his wild scheme.

“Harry you can’t just go rushing into this,” Hermione said soothingly. Harry shook his head,

“I’m not rushing, I’m wasting time talking to you,” he snapped.

“Well don’t you think that maybe you’re not seeing things clearly? I mean you seem to have a bit of a people saving problem, you’re trying to always be the hero and sometimes you have to leave it to adults!” Hermione snapped back.

“A people saving thing? Well it’s only saved your life a couple times, and yours,” Harry nodded to Ron, “Oh and everyone else’s! You’re welcome.”

“That isn’t what I meant; you need to come up with a plan,” Hermione said crossly.

“I have a plan, I plan to go to the Ministry and rescue Sirius,”

“Then we’re coming to,” Hermione said with a firm nod. Ron nodded as well and stepped forward with Hermione.

“You can’t all come,” Harry said and Hermione gave him a look that promised pain if he dared to even try to leave her behind.

“We have to,” Neville said stepping forward. “We’re the DA; we have to help one another. We’ve been training for this, to fight, right?”

Harry looked to Hermione hopelessly and Hermione glared back at him. He knew what that look meant. It was all on him. They could go with his plan, everyone following along and risking their lives or they could go up to the castle like Hermione wanted and find Snape to help them.

“Come on then,” Harry sighed and Hermione took a deep breath but headed over to Luna.

“We’ll be taking Thestrals,” Luna said to Hermione. She took hold of the other girls hand and gently pulled it forward until Hermione was touching the invisible creature.

They had waited too long as Luna and Neville were going around helping everyone who couldn’t see Thestrals get acquainted with the odd creatures they’d been surrounded.

“Oh no Headmistress, looks like you were right, they were trying to flee,” Malfoy said stepping out of the shadows with a big grin on his face.

“Oh dear oh dear,” Fred said shaking his head.

“Looks like you’ve got us,” George agreed.

The Slytherins and Umbridge advanced on them wands raised.

“We surrender,” Fred said holding both his hands up to show he was unarmed. George did the same but he was holding a little ball in one of his hands.

“Drop it!” Umbridge ordered.

“All right,” George said and let it go. There was a bang and Harry couldn’t see two inches in front of him. Someone grabbed his hand and shoved him into a Thestral. He mounted the creature and felt someone climb on behind him.

“Go!” Luna’s voice breathed behind him. Harry gasped as he shot off into the air breaking through the impenetrable darkness and the tops of the trees. He heard a shriek and turned to see Hermione and Ron come through the trees after him both on Thestrals of their own. It was very odd so see his friends seemingly floating in mid-air as they soared over Hogwarts castle. Ginny and Neville were sharing a Thestral and caught up to their other side.

“Another joke shop prototype?” Harry shouted over the wind. Ginny grinned and nodded

“They stayed behind to help us escape,” she called back.

Harry turned to face forward watching the sun set over the distant mountains to their side. Harry glanced behind him to where Luna was seated her eyes closed and her hair billowing behind her like a shooting star.

“Luna, do the Thestrals know where to go?”

“Oh yes, they’re like owls, they just have a way of knowing where to go,” Luna replied opening her eyes to look at him.

“Great,” Harry said quietly and turned to face the front once more.

It felt a lot like riding Buckbeak the Hippogriff, except about a hundred times more unnerving because he couldn’t see the creature he was sitting astride. Luna seemed happy though so Harry sat back to try and enjoy the ride.

It took them most of the night to ride to the Ministry of Magic. By the time they arrived it was just before dawn and the London streets were deserted.

They all landed on a dreary dead end street with a lone telephone box and one flickering street lamp.

“The visitor’s entrance is just around here,” Ginny said quietly. “Dad’s taken me to work a few times with him this way.”

Harry carefully slid off the Thestral and helped Luna down with a smile as the girl gave a quiet whoop of joy when she dismounted.

“Er… thanks,” Ron said sliding from his Thestral and patting the air. He obviously missed the Thestral as Neville redirected his hand with a small laugh.

Harry turned to Ginny who had been helped down from her Thestral by Neville.

“Which way?” Harry asked. Ginny pointed to the phone box with a grin.

Harry turned to face the rest of the group. There was the rustling sound of wings and the Thestrals took off into the night sky.

“Thank you friends!” Luna called after them.

They were alone now. Harry turned back to Ginny and nodded, indicated she should lead the way. Ginny turned and headed to the phone box and held open the door flourishing her hand inviting everyone to enter before her. Harry headed in first followed by Luna, Neville, Hermione, Ron and then finally Ginny. They were crammed in tighter than a can of sardines.

“Whoever is closest dial six-two-four-four-two,” Ginny’s muffled voice came from behind Ron where she was squished. Harry was closest but could move his arms so Luna reached past him to pick up the receiver and dial the number as Ginny had said.

The phone box gave a violent shudder and then began to descend into the ground like a lift.

“Welcome to the Ministry of Magic,” a cool female voice greeted them. “Please state your name and business into the receiver.”

“Er…” Harry said not really sure if he should be giving out information to the box. What if they got stopped?

“Ginny Weasley, visiting her father Arthur Weasley from the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office,” Ginny said.

“Thank you, Ginny,” the voice said and a name badge slid out of the change slot on the telephone.

The lift stopped and they all streamed out into the open, Ginny took her name badge and tossed it into a trashcan next to one of the dozens of fireplaces that lined the walls.

“Now what?” Neville asked quietly.

“Don’t worry I know where to go from here,” Harry said and headed forward.

The Ministry of Magic atrium was just as spectacular in the middle of the night as it was during the day. The Fountain of Magical Brethren stood in the middle of the Atrium, its gold statues of a witch, wizard, centaur, goblin and house-elf shining like a beacon in the dim lighting of the night. The domed ceiling above was a beautiful peacock blue with gold patterns almost dancing across it. During the day the hardwood floors were practically invisible with the hundreds of pairs of feet hurrying across it. Now, though, the Atrium was silent, lit by lowly flickering candles set between each fireplace and a few around the fountain.

Harry headed across the room and past the fountain hitting the button on the lift far more times than necessary. When the lift arrived the odd group piled in and Harry punched the button for the lowest floor. Harry stood at the front of the group almost ignoring his friends behind him. He was restless. Itching for a fight. Perhaps he could even finish this whole thing tonight. Perhaps Voldemort would finally be gone and if he had to go too that was okay.

“Department of Mysteries,” the female voice from before informed him.

“That’s cheerful,” Ron muttered as they stepped off the lift.

Harry looked up and down the hallway recognising it from his many dreams. Thankfully the floor wasn’t splattered with Mr Weasley’s blood.

Harry hurried down toward the door from his dream and pushed it open. There wasn’t Sirius being tortured by Voldemort behind it. Instead it was a stone circular room with black doors all around it. Harry stepped in and was followed immediately by everyone else. The door slammed shut behind them and then the room began to spin.

“How are we going to get out?” Ginny asked

“Just try them all,” Harry replied heading for the one immediately opposite him. He pulled it open but found only a room filled with twinkling lights. It looked to be a room of the cosmos actually; it was quite pretty but not what he was looking for. He closed the door and the room spun around again.

“Oh this is ridiculous,” Hermione said and pulled open a door next to her when the room stopped. It was the cosmos room. Hermione pulled out her wand and drew an ‘X’ on the back with blue flames. She slammed the door and the room spun again this time with the added blue blur of the ‘X’. When the room stopped the ‘X’ was on their right.

Harry pulled the door in front of him open; it was a small ante chamber. He stepped inside and pulled out his wand lighting the tip of it. There was a door before him and Harry didn’t hesitate in rushing through it.

He stopped and ignored everyone crashing into the back of him from his sudden halt. The room was filled with stacks and stacks of shelves. Each shelf held a small crystal ball of swirling clouds. They were all labelled with dates and initials. Some of them were so old the labels had faded or worn away.

Something in Harry told him not to touch. It would be very bad. He turned to warn his friends but was a second too late. Ron’s hand closed around one of the spheres and he was sent flying back into the shelf opposite. He crashed into it with such force he broke the entire cabinet. The shelves of crystal balls came crashing down around his unconscious form. Harry watched the clouds form the shapes of people, almost like ghosts and they all began to speak, overlapping one another as still more broke around them.

Hermione’s scream was louder than the overlapping voices though. Harry turned to see what she had. He wished he hadn’t. Ron’s fingers were still attached to the crystal ball on the shelf. The rest of him clearly wasn’t.

“Hermione!” Harry cried and grabbed her shoulders. “I don’t know any healing spells! You have to know something, help him!”

“I- I – I don’t know many,” Hermione babbled. She was shaking her head at him like a wild dog. “I can’t re-re-re-re-reattach b-b-but if I stop – stop – stop – stop – stop” she slapped herself across the face and gave herself a shake, “Stop the bleeding!” she finished quickly.

Harry gave her a nudge toward Ron and she began pulling broken wood and glass off him as she let out an awful sound like a wounded cat.

Harry turned to Neville, Luna and Ginny.

“Is he here?” Ginny asked quietly. She had gone deathly pale, making the freckles across her cheeks and nose stand out vividly, like grains in white bread.

“He was further down that way in my vision,” Harry replied.

“Okay,” Ginny nodded and turned to Luna. “You stay with Hermione and Ron, Neville and I will go with Harry.”

Luna nodded and stepped back toward Ron and Hermione raising her wand in a defensive pose to protect them both.

Harry quickly hurried on, Ginny and Neville kept close behind him.

Harry held his wand to the right side carefully reading the shelf numbers as he rushed along.

He stopped short and again ignored as his friends crashed into him. He should be here. He had to be. There was no way. It couldn’t be… it couldn’t be a trap. He had led his friends to their deaths…

“Harry,” Neville said softly.

Harry slowly turned but Neville wasn’t looking at him. He had his wand held up illuminating the shelf to their left just above the height of Ginny’s head, eye level with Harry.

“It’s got your name on it,” Neville said glancing at Harry.

Harry stepped forward raising his wands light. The little ball reflected the light back at him but Harry was too fixated on the yellowed aging label.

S.P.T. to A.P.W.B.D

Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter

Harry’s hand reached for it.

“Harry,” Neville said nervously, “I don’t think you should touch it.”

“It’s got my name on it,” Harry said not looking away from his name written in slanted cursive handwriting.

“Sirius isn’t here, we should go,” Ginny said urgently.

Harry ignored her. His fingers stretched forward and fastened tightly around the glass ball.

UGH! I hear you cry hahaha, sorry gotta leave it there gang. This author needs her beauty sleep it’s nearly midnight in Aussie land. Leave me your thoughts in a review, even if it’s just to say ‘UGH!’, Nina
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A Marriage of Convenience