Chapter 57: The World’s Greatest Healer
Harry felt a bit bad for being so rude to Mrs. Weasley, but if it was going to get her off his back about going to Grimmauld Place, then that’s how he was going to be. Dumbledore and Lupin had spent the summer trying to convince him to go, and Dumbledore had stopped short of ordering him to go. Harry couldn’t understand why they all thought it was so important. Maybe they thought he had dealt with the passing of Sirius unhealthily, but after all, they were the ones telling him to close down his emotions in the first place, so he didn’t care much for considering their opinion on the matter.
Monday, instead of being the place he least wanted to be, Harry was able to go to Katie’s house. He and Ron would be spending the day their, and Neville had gone to see Susan. Charlotte was quite disappointed that Ron would be leaving the Burrow to spend the day with his ‘precious Hermione” (as Charlotte had taken to calling her within an hour of learning of her existence).
Harry and Ron traveled to the Bell home at about noon, by Floo Powder. Hermione and Katie were waiting by the fireplace for them when they each arrived.
“Harry, it’s so good to see you! I missed you,” Katie said, giving him a hug and a kiss.
“Well, it’s only beentwo days…” Harry said, grinning.
“Two very long days…” she replied. “What’s that you have?”
“Oh “ it’s an Easter Egg I made especially for you…” he said, a little nervously.
“Oh, thank you!” she said, taking it from him happily.
“Careful my mum and dad don’t see you with that,” Hermione said. “They might tell you you’ve had enough chocolate…”
“Mr. and Mrs. Granger are very concerned about my dental health, as well as my father’s and sister’s,” Katie told Harry. “Apparently we eat way too many sweets…”
“They gave all of us sugar-free artificial-chocolate eggs for Easter,” Hermione said.
“That sounds disgusting,” Ron said, still shaking off the dust from his robes.
“Well, Katie’s dad gave us plenty of chocolate to make up forit… but don’t let my mum and dad now that, Katie and I hid it in our room… Anyway, they’ll be waiting for us in the kitchen, so I’ll just send these eggs upstairs…”
Hermione took out her wand, muttered something and the eggs vanished. Ron gave her an awe-filled smile.
“You know I love you, right?” he said.
“Of course,” Hermione said.
“Reminds me actually, we have a visitor at the Burrow…” Ron told her.
“Who?”
“Charlotte Delacour…”
“Relation to Fleur?” Hermione asked.
“Cousin,” Harry said. “Oh, and Bill and Fleur got engaged…”
“What? That should have been the first thing you mentioned!”
“Yeah, well “ you’ll be a little more concerned about Charlotte…” Harry said.
“Why?”
“Because she’s a sixteen-year-old dark-haired, dark-eyed version of Fleur “ who just happens to be in love with Ron…”
“You’re kidding!” Hermione scoffed.
“Hey!” Ron said. “Why is that so hard to believe?”
“And what do you think of her, Ronald?” Hermione asked.
“Oh, well she’s gorgeous of course “” he said grinning. “But she’s nothing compared to you. Bit annoying, really “ never leaves me alone. Always fawning over me…”
.“And when he’s not around, she never shuts up about him,” Harry added. “You should have her heard her when I told her about you…”
“What did she say?” Hermione asked.
“Something about relationships that ‘spring from childhood friendships’ are just ‘an illusion’…” Harry said dully, rolling his eyes.
“Well, she’ll be singing a different tune by the time I’m through with her,” Hermione said.
“That’s my girl…” said Ron.
“Tomorrow should be interesting…” Katie said to Harry.
They entered the kitchen; Libby and Mr. Bell were seated at the table with Mr. and Mrs. Granger. Ron looked nervously at Hermione’s parents, but they greeted him no different than they had when he and Hermione were just friends. Ron was then introduced to Mr. Bell and Libby.
“Well, that was more comfortable than I expected it to be…” Ron said quietly to Hermione.
Hermione looked nervously at Ron.
“Yeah “ um… that reminds me Ron. I haven’t actually told my mum and dad about us, yet…”
---
“Feel sorry for Ron…: Harry said as he and Katie sat down in her room; they had just finished lunch with the Bells and Grangers, and left to spend some time alone. Ron and Hermione were still downstairs in the kitchen,pretending to be nothing more than friends.
“Ron? What about Hermione. Not only does she have to tell her mum and dad that she had a boyfriend for over half a year, but Ron’s going to go mad once they get away from her parents…”
“I don’t think he’ll go mad, exactly. I think he’s too surprised to say anything… but you’re right, Hermione probably has it worse. She’ll be a mess trying to explain herself to everyone.”
“But I can’t wait to see how it all goes down…” Katie said, grinning.
“Same here…” Harry replied.
“So, what’s so special about this egg?” Katie asked
“Open it and see,” Harry said.
Katie opened the egg.
“Chocolate Frogs,” she said, happily. She dumped all the Frogs out onto her bed, and went to open one, when she noticed a piece of paper had fallen out with them. She looked at it curiously, glanced at Harry curiously for a moment, and then opened it and read aloud.
“Dear Katie, the past seven months with you have been some of the happiest times in my life. You are the happy thought that drives awaymy dementors. Thank you for being there, and know that I will never leave your side. I love you. Harry.”
“Harry, thank you so much,” she said hugging him, and clearly trying her best not to cry.
She looked down at note, and back to the Chocolate Frogs.
“It’s just like the Easter eggs…”
“Your mum used to give you…” Harry finished.
“How did you know?” Katie asked, astonished.
Harry felt nervous. He had spent a lot of time going back and forth on the idea of giving Katie the egg. He knew it would mean everything to her, but he also knew she would want to know how he knew about the eggs her mother had given her on Easter, and he didn’t want to lie. But he had come to a decision: it had been a month and a half since he had found out about his Legilemency powers; he was ready to share it with someone. It only felt right that Katie be the first one he tell, especially since he had ‘accidentally’ looked inside her thoughts.
“Katie, remember I told you there was more to the visions I was having?” he asked tentatively.
“Yes…”
“Well, do you know what Legilemency is?”
“It sounds familiar…”
“It’s the ability to go inside another person’s mind. It’s the reason I had to practice Occlumency, which is protecting against the intrusion of my mind…”
Katie nodded to show that she understood.
“After I had the visions, Dumbledore tested my Occlumency and came to the conclusion that Voldemort was not breaking back into my mind “ but that I must have been breaking into his.”
He took a deep breath.
“Dumbledore tested me to see if I was a Legilemens. And I saw into his mind. I could see his memories… it turns out that I’ve inherited the powers of Legilemency from my mother.”
“That’s amazing Harry…”
“Well, I don’t really have any control over it. That’s how I knew about the egg, Katie. You must have been thinking about it… you looked sad and I wished I knew what you were thinking, and the memory just came out of nowhere.”
Harry said this all very quickly; he was sincerely hoping that Katie wasn’t going to get mad at him for perusing through her mind.
“So you saw into my thoughts by accident?” Katie asked, raising her eyebrow.
“Yes “ purely accidental. I’m really sorry… If I had have known, I would have prevented it, I swear…”
“It’s alright, I get it. Besides “ this egg means a lot to me, and I probably would have never thought to tell you about the eggs my mum gave me… I’m kind of glad you accidentally invaded my private thoughts…”
“Katie…”
“I’m teasing!” she said. “But you should probably be more careful…”
“Oh, alright…” Harry said, thoroughly relieved she wasn’t going to throw all her Chocolate Frogs at him.
“Have you ‘accidentally’ seen anybody else’s thoughts?” Katie asked.
“Pettigrew. During class…” Harry told her.
“So what’s it like?”
“What d’you mean?”
“Finding out that you inherited it from your mum?”
“I don’t know “ I felt really proud. People always compared me to my dad, talent-wise. It felt nice to have a connection to my mum, as well…”
“I wish I had a connection with my mum, some part of her…”
“You have her name, don’t you…”
“Well, a name’s not really important.”
“Well, she was a great Healer.”
“And how is that a connection, for me?”
“Well, you’re going to be a great Healer someday. Best in the world, I expect…”
“Stop it…”
“No, I’m serious. You’re going to be brilliant... you’ll have you’re little badge and it will read: Katherine Bell, World’s Greatest Healer…”
“No, I doubt my badge will ever say that,” Katie said.
“Oh yeah, sorry “ make that “Katherine Potter, World’s Greatest Healer,” Harry said, hardly believing his own daring.
Katie blushed madly, but recovered quickly.
“No “ I don’t like the sound of that “ I’d much prefer if you were Harry Bell…”
“That's never going to happen, Mrs. Potter…”