Harry wasn’t entirely sure how he had ended up at Hagrid’s hut; his feet seemed to have subconsciously carried him there. As of late his subconscious was doing a lot of things he didn’t understand. Nevertheless he knocked on the front door and waited to be invited in; he didn’t have to wait too long for the half-giant to open the door.
“Well, hello there, ‘Arry!” he boomed. “Come in; come in. No Ron an’ Hermione?”
“No, they’re back in the tower; I’ve just come from Professor Dumbledore’s office.”
“ ‘Course yeh have. Yeh’ll have just had your Occlumency lesson, won’t yeh?” Hagrid asked, as he put the kettle over the fire.
“Yeah, but we didn’t do any Occlumency; we talked about some dreams that I’ve had…”
“You been havin’ more dreams?”
“Sort of, but that’s not the point. He told me some stuff.”
“Oh yeah? What kinda stuff?” Hagrid was now fussing with the teapot.
“About the night my parents died.” At Harry’s pronouncement Hagrid nearly dropped the teapot he was holding.
“What about it?” he asked nervously.
“How you found us, but I want to hear it from you.” Harry looked at the groundskeeper sternly.
“I s’pose that I can tell yeh, seen as Dumbledore has already. The night yer parents died, I was here, tendin’ to the ‘ippogriffs. I came back home afterwards and was just settlin’ down with a cuppa when that Fawkes appeared in mid air and near gave me a heart attack. Anyways, he dropped a letter righ’ in the middle of me dinner; it was from Professor Dumbledore tellin’ me about what happened and askin’ would I go to Godric’s Hollow and get the two of yeh out o’ the place. I’d never refuse to help Dumbledore. He said there was a Portkey up in his office and it would take me there, so I set off straight away, I did. When I got there, the house was a mess, a real state. Weren’t nothin’ left of it really. I saw yer mum and dad, ‘Arry, and it was terrible. Never want to see anythin’ like that again. I spent near an hour looking for yeh. I shifted a big hunk o’ plaster to find the wardrobe all in one piece. I opened the door and saw little Liza sittin’ in at the back; she had yeh sitting on her knee all wrapped up in blankets and screamin’ as loud as yer lungs would let yeh. When I tried to lift yeh out she blasted me a good twenty foot across the room, speared me right on a bit o’ wood she did. I still got the scar to prove it an’ all.
“Eventually she came out. I think she realised that I wasn’ goin’ to take yeh away from her. When we went back downstairs for the Portkey, Sirius was sittin’ in the middle of the livin’ room with yer dad cradled against him, sobbin’ his poor heart out. I ain’t never seen a man cry like that before or since, broken he was. Wanted to know where yer mum was and when I told him he shot up the stairs and cried even more. He came back down and asked to see the two o’ yeh; he held yer in his arms and gave both of yer a kiss. He said that nothin’ would hurt yeh now, and he’d make sure o’ that. He wanted to leave with yeh but I had me orders; I had to do what Dumbledore asked. He understood, o’ course, and told me to take that bike o’ his, said he wouldn’t be needin’ it any more.
“Dumbledore had told me to take Liza to the Weasleys, so that her Great Uncle Aberforth could pick her up, and then I’d to meet him at yer aunt and uncle’s house. Two o’ yeh fell asleep just as we were flyin’ over Bristol. Yer shoulda seen poor Molly’s face; she wanted to take the both o’ yeh. We had a difficult job getting you outa Liza’s grasp; we was tryin’ to juggle the pair o’ yeh about without wakin’ yeh. But we managed somehow. When I got to Surrey, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall were waitin’. Professor McGonagall had heard the news that You-Know-Who was gone and who it was that stopped him. She knew that the only relatives yeh had left were the Muggles and she’d been watchin’ them, didn’t like ‘em at all she didn’t. She wanted to take yeh and have yeh raised by a wizard family, but Dumbledore said that it was better yeh were brought up away from all o’ this until yeh were ready, and he was right, wasn’ he? Look at how yeh’ve turned out; yeh do yer mum and dad proud,” Hagrid finished encouragingly. Harry simply nodded; he was trying to absorb everything he had learned in the last hour.
“Thanks, Hagrid,” he finally said.
“Thanks? Wha’ for?” Hagrid was looking at him like he’d grown an extra head.
“For coming to get us and for taking us away from there.”
“Don’ be daft, ‘Arry, yeh don’t have to thank me for that. I was proud to help. Besides yeh’ve been a good friend to me, Ron and Hermione, too. Didn’t turn yer back on me when Buckbeak hurt Malfoy…”
“That was his own fault.”
“Yer stood by me when everyone found out I was half-giant…”
“That doesn’t matter; you’re not like your mother.”
“You helped Grawp while I was gone…”
“How is Grawp?”
“He’s fine, doin’ really well, he is. Professor Dumbledore’s been helping out,” Hagrid said proudly.
“Professor Dumbledore knows about him?” Harry exclaimed.
“Well, yeah, he told me he’d known all along,” Hagrid blushed.
“He knows everything; nothing slips past him.”
“Noticed that, have yeh?”
“Yeah, how does he do it?”
“Professor Dumbledore’s a powerful wizard, ‘Arry, more powerful than most people realise or give him credit for.”
“I’m beginning to understand that. Thanks for the tea, Hagrid, I think I’ll go back and see Ginny now.”
“Yer quite welcome. Give my love to Ron, Hermione and Ginny, won’t yeh?”
“I will do. See you tomorrow afternoon.” Harry exited the hut and began the climb up the castle’s front lawn.
“I got a good lesson lined up for yeh. I think yeh’ll like it,” Hagrid called after him.
“Bye, Hagrid.” Harry set off up the school lawn in the direction of the front entrance, wondering what on earth it was that Hagrid would be bringing to the lesson; in his experience when the Care of Magical Creatures teacher said that he had a good lesson lined up, it usually meant he was bringing something dangerous and possibly deadly.
He decided against going back inside just yet; instead he went for a walk in the grounds. His head teemed with thoughts about what he had learned today, that he had a bond with Ellie. There was the news that his dad and Sirius had a bond that had lead to Sirius feeling his father’s death. Would he feel it if Ellie died? He shuddered; he didn’t want to think about that. It was dark outside when he arrived back in the tower. Ginny, Ron and Hermione were sat around the fire; the fifth year was the first to vent her fury. “Where have you been? I was getting worried about you!”
“I went down to see Hagrid after my lesson with Professor Dumbledore, and then I went for a walk in the grounds for a while.”
“Is something the matter?” Hermione’s tone was much gentler than the one used by her younger counterpart.
“Nothing in particular, I just found out some things about the night my parents died.” He tried to hide the feeling of sorrow that had been building.
“What kind of things?” Ginny’s tone had changed as well.
“Hagrid found me and Ellie in the bottom of a wardrobe,” his voice dropped. “She blasted him across the room with a defensive shield; she protected me.”
“What did you expect? She’s your cousin, so of course she protected you,” Ginny shook her head.
“I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t that.”
“It’s because you’ve never really had any proper family, mate. You don’t know how these things work,” Ron smiled at him.
“She blasted Hagrid across the room?” Hermione was sitting in the corner with an expression of awe.
“He reckons it must have been a good twenty feet,” Harry repeated the earlier words of the gamekeeper.
“Do you realise the kind of power required for that?”
“Well, we knew that Ellie was strong.” Ron shrugged his shoulders.
“Blasting a half-giant across the room is more than strong, Ron. Don’t you remember how those stunners bounced of Hagrid when Umbridge tried to remove him? And that was half a dozen grown, fully trained wizards. Ellie was only three and yet she did more damage than six adult wizards. Doesn’t that surprise you?”
“I s’pose,” Ron muttered.
“When you put it like that, but I mean she had to be powerful; she’s Dumbledore’s granddaughter,” Harry reminded
“Haven’t you lot learned anything?” Hermione said exasperatedly.
“What d’you mean?” There was an offended edge to Ron’s voice.
“She means that parentage counts for nothing. Look at Neville. He admits that he was practically a Squib, and he comes from a long line of powerful wizards. Look at our dad’s cousin: he’s an accountant!” Ginny scolded.
“Okay, okay, point taken,” Harry submitted. They chatted generally for a while before Harry decided to go to bed early; his head was sore and he was desperately tired. But he would soon wish that he had stayed awake.
The room was dark, and only a single streak of moonlight stretched its way across the space to a figure huddled and broken in the corner. The window that allowed the moonlight in was near the ceiling of the room, and Harry was left with the suspicion that he was in a basement somewhere. The walls were slimy and the smell of dampness and decay infected the air. Every now and then, the curled up form would give an involuntary shiver. From this distance the only thing Harry could establish was the fact that it was definitely a man; a cold, dirty, ragged and exhausted man. His breaths were taken sharply and often; every time he breathed out the steam rose in flumes and dissipated. Harry, or rather Voldemort, appeared to be sitting in a chair in the diagonally opposite corner. He rose and took a step towards the figure, and then another and another. Each step seemed to take forever and felt like he didn’t get any closer to the shivering wreck. When the final step was taken, Harry was horrified to see a mop of red, curly hair attached to the man.
“Get up, boy,” Voldemort ordered. The destroyed outline of Percy Weasley rose from the floor unsteadily. Harry had never seen such fear in the former Head Boy’s eyes.
“W-w-what do you want?” he asked shakily.
“I shall ask the questions. I wish to know where your family are. You will tell me or you will die.” There could be no doubt about the seriousness of that threat.
“I won’t tell you,” Percy said defiantly.
“Very well. CRUCIO!” Voldemort pointed his wand at Percy, and Harry watched as he crumpled to the floor, screaming in agony. An excruciating number of hours later and this torturous behaviour was continuing.
“Tell me now.” It was obvious that Voldemort’s patience was waning.
“No.”
“If you are not going to be useful then I shall have to kill you.” There was playfulness in Voldemort’s voice that infuriated Harry; he made it sound like Percy was being unreasonable.
“Even if I am useful you’ll kill me, anyway, so I might as well take the information to my grave with me,” Percy shuddered. Harry felt his heart swell with pride; Percy was doing his family proud.
“You shall be in your grave soon enough. I am giving you one last chance: if you tell me I will not kill you, and you will be free to go,” he bargained.
“I will not.”
Those were Percy Ignatius Weasley’s final words and, seconds after they had left his lips, he fell to the cold and mossy floor, rigid as a board and with his eyes wide in terror. He was dead.
Harry woke with a start; his heart was racing and his breathing was rapid. He pulled the pendant that Ellie had got him for his birthday, and that he had worn ever since, from under his pyjamas. He grasped it tightly in his hand and called her name loudly. Ron stirred at this.
“Whaaaaaaaaaaats the matter, Harry?” he yawned.
“It’s Percy.”
“What about….” He was interrupted by Ellie appearing in the gap between their beds.
“What’s wrong, Harry?” she asked urgently.
“We need to get your granddad now, Percy…” He looked at Ron and leaned in closer to whisper in her ear. “Percy’s dead.”
Ellie gasped. “The two of you get up now. Get Hermione and Ginny and come to the headmaster’s office immediately. I’ll meet you there.” She set off at a run and disappeared with a whip of her dressing gown.
Harry and Ron got out of bed and threw on their dressing gowns; they raced down the stairs and stood looking at the staircase up to the girl’s dormitory. “How do we wake them?” Ron asked.
“We can shout. On the count of three we’ll shout for Ginny. One… two… three,” Harry counted and after three. “GINNY!” they hollered as loud as they could. Harry then counted down from three with his fingers.
“HERMIONE!” they shouted. A couple of minutes later, there was a lot of noise as all the girls they had woken dragged themselves from their beds. They heard doors opening and mass of girls in their dressing gowns were peering down the staircase at them. Ginny and Hermione managed to push their way to the front; they apologised to the others and encouraged them to go back to bed with the promise that they would keep Harry and Ron quiet.
“If this is your idea of serenading us in the night, then you had best think again,” Ginny mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
“We need to go to Dumbledore’s office now!” Harry called. Hermione and Ginny looked at each other and raced down the stairs. The four left the common room at a run with Harry in the lead. They didn’t stop running until they were stood in front of Professor Dumbledore’s desk. Ellie was sat in the headmaster’s chair, with her fingers interlaced in an image that eerily echoed her grandfather.
“Where’s your granddad?” Harry asked without delay.
“He’s gone to find out if what you saw was real.” Her eyes glanced sideways at the fire. She waved her wand and extra chairs appeared for them to sit in.
“What was it you saw, Harry?” Ginny asked with concern.
“It was something about Percy,” Ron told her bitterly. “What’s the stupid prat done now?”
“Ron,” Ellie said gently. “In Harry’s dream Percy had been captured by Lord Voldemort. He… he was killed.” Her eyes no longer sparkled; instead they were full of sorrow.
“Well it serves him right! Especially since he wouldn’t believe that Voldemort was back,” Ron exploded.
“Ron, don’t!” Ginny cried. She didn’t get any further because Dumbledore stepped out of the fire. There was sadness in his eyes and no one needed to ask if what Harry had seen was true; the answer lay in every mournful line of his face. He pointed at a quill on his desk and called ‘Portus,’ he held it out for the others and they put a finger to it. There was an empty pit in Harry’s stomach, but it was the look on Molly’s face when they landed in the kitchen that broke his heart.
A/N: I’m sorry but somebody had to die and Percy was top of my list!
As ever my heart felt thanks go to my superb betas the marvellous Maeve and the astonishing Ashley.
Next chapter is… Farewell and Bon Voyage.