Harry fell, crashing to the floor. As he thrashed about the floor beneath him vibrated violently. For a fleeting moment he had the disturbing fear that Giants were attacking, but then the pain that had been slowly receding from his scar shot through him again, raking over his body like molten lava. He could feel the fire as it spread over him, as though with a purpose, separating his skin from his body, and then it was over. Breathing as though he had run a marathon, Harry struggled to sit up though his attempts proved futile. It was another minute before Harry felt arms gripping his own and lifting him so that he was upright. As the haze clouding his vision faded he saw the concerned faces of Hermione and Ginny. The ground below him gave another lurch and he tried valiantly to stand, but failed miserably once more. His throat was so parched that he could only make wheezing noises when attempting to speak. A sudden fear and foreboding coursed through him as the two girls continued to loom over him nervously. Why weren’t they preparing for battle? Why did they stand over him as though he were infirm? Didn’t they realize their backs were to the door?
“Let me through,” the bossy, anxious voice of Madam Pomfrey came out of nowhere. “How long has he been awake?” she asked as she forced a jelly-like potion down his neck.
“He’s just woken up,” Hermione answered.
“He fell off the stretcher, onto the floor,” Ginny added.
The two girls shared a worried look.
“Well that’s all I can do for now,” Madam Pomfrey said, levitating Harry back onto his stretcher. “Call me if his condition changes,” she told them as she headed back out of the door.
“Bit of light might be helpful,” Neville suggested and Luna dutifully obliged with a flick of her wrist.
Another bump shook their cabin violently just as Harry came to the realization that they were on the Hogwarts Express.
“Wazzit?” Harry asked groggily, wanting to know what they were doing back on the train. Had they lost the battle? Where was Hagrid’s body now?
“You’ve been asleep for the entire ride,” Hermione answered shakily, taking a seat to his right.
“They’ve been worried you wouldn’t wake up,” Luna said with an honesty that made those around her fidget.
A small hand pushed the wet hair on his forehead out of his face and gently replaced his glasses, tucking them carefully behind his ears.
“Can you see?” Ginny quietly asked.
He nodded, struggling again to sit up. The dizziness that washed over him when he successfully sat receded slowly and he found that he had regained control over his speech.
“Where’s Hagrid?” He meant to ask where Hagrid’s body was but couldn’t bring himself to do so.
Looking around he saw that Ginny, Hermione, Neville and even Luna wore stunned looks on their respective faces.
“Hagrid?” Hermione asked with a note of disbelief in her tone.
Harry nodded his throat constricting as he did so.
“Hagrid?” Ginny repeated, incredulity lacing the surprisingly high pitch her voice had taken.
“Do you mean to say, ‘Where’s Ron’?” Neville cut in nervously.
“I think his mind may still be a bit addled,” Luna said, in a surprisingly normal manner.
“Hagrid’s body…” Harry began, but couldn’t complete the terrible thought.
“You mean Dumbledore’s body,” Hermione offered sympathetically. It seemed that she had sided with Luna that Harry was still somewhat out of it.
Instead of trying to convince Hermione that he was quite lucid, Harry turned to Ginny for help, this time with a new tactic.
“How did we get back on the Hogwarts Express?” he asked.
Ginny, who had seemed genuinely perplexed only seconds before, nodded with a patient sort of understanding.
“Do you remember Dumbledore’s death?” she asked, valiantly holding back her tears.
Harry nodded.
“How about the fires that led us to the Great Hall for the battle with SSS?”
Again he nodded.
“Well, you were knocked unconscious at the last moment by a particularly nasty curse,” Ginny informed him.
He nodded, a feeling of frustration unfurling within him. He was well aware of everything that she was telling him.
“Then, Madam Pomfrey gave you an extra large dose of sleeping potion to help you fight off the effects of that curse,” Neville chimed in.
“That is to say, you needed to sleep it off,” Hermione corrected.
“…and now you have!” Luna announced with more gusto than was appropriate.
The strangest sensation tickled Harry’s spine a full minute before he could identify it…hope furled within him. Had he been sleeping the entire time? Was Hagrid’s demise just an awful dream?
“Does Tonks live on a street called Sunshine Lane?” he asked Ginny hesitantly.
“Far from it,” she said with a very unladylike snort.
The feeling of elation spread throughout his body so fast that his brain was immersed by a queer floating sensation much like the brain freezes he had experienced after one too many banana split sundaes. He experienced a minor twinge in his scar and his hand shot automatically to cover it, but not before he spotted Ginny’s glazed over eyes.
“Get out of my mind!” Harry yelled standing abruptly, and then realizing that he was still weak when his knees gave way and he was back in the stretcher.
Ginny gave him an exasperated and somewhat angry look. “How did you know I was listening?” she asked pointedly.
“You weren’t just listening,” Harry roared back, his scar still stinging by her intrusion, “you were trying to vessel voyage into me!”
The accusation hung in the air as warning bells and whistles began to clang in Harry’s mind. For a moment he couldn’t fathom why the room had suddenly gone so still, but then…
“I don’t understand…” Luna’s dreamy voice brought his oversight swiftly into focus.
“Vessel voyage?” Neville stated as the normally confused look on his face became all the more pronounced.
Harry panicked. He broke out into a cold sweat that rapidly ebbed away his remaining strength and forced him to lie back in the stretcher. What had he done? Ginny’s face, whitewashed by shock floated before him. Hermione, her shrewd eyes revealing the need for damage control. Luna, her dreamy eyes giving away the vast intellect that challenged Hermione’s own, quickly working to decipher the clue Harry had unwittingly given. Neville’s face, his pudgy cheeks puffed out as he gazed at Ginny with fear in his eyes and Harry knew that he had understood the term even if Luna had yet to work it out. Harry closed his eyes, his need to escape greater than ever before. Why had he said that? What had he done?
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When he awoke again it was not because the train was trudging along at high speeds over bumps and around sharp curves. As a matter of fact he was not on the train at all, he realized grateful that his glasses had been left on his face though he took a moment to wipe them down before returning to his perusal of the room. It didn’t take long to recognize the vestiges as that of Privet Drive. He wondered for a moment if he was actually back on the train having yet another nightmare due to the curse that had hit him when a movement in the shadowy corner of the room caught his attention. Sitting quietly, watching him with icy silence through red-rimmed eyes was Ginny. Something about her frightened him, something about her was primordial, ferocious, and even evil. A flash of red illuminated her body, then all at once, before Harry had a chance to consider it, it was gone.
“Hello Gaia,” Ginny said calmly, though the ferocity in her eyes did not match her measured tones.
“Ginevra,” Harry heard himself reply flippantly and recoiled with the awareness that Ginny was addressing him, well, his body at any rate.
“It’s been a long time old friend,” Ginny said in a clipped demeanor.
“Indeed,” Gaia agreed in mock sadness. Harry felt that he had been caught in some sort of parallel universe.
“What have you done to Harry?” Ginny demanded her temper bursting through the thin façade of indifference that she had been unable to maintain.
“Why whatever do you mean?” Gaia replied gaily, unfazed by the little girl’s temper tantrum.
“How did you do it?” Ginny asked, taking less than a second to change tactics and play on Gaia’s ego. “How did you vessel voyage into a moving target when you didn’t even know where that target was going to be?”
“Flattery will get you nowhere,” Gaia replied coolly, repositioning the playing field to her advantage. “I assure you the more fascinating question is why? Why did I risk being lost, when I could so easily have gotten in touch with you by other means?”
“Very well then,” Ginny said through heavy breathing, “we’ll play it your way. Why, indeed?”
Harry or Gaia as it were, lovingly fingered an old, blood-stained dagger that was hanging on the wall. It was a grotesque form of decoration that made Harry cringe. A knock on the door drew their attention and silenced the conversation. Without waiting for an invitation Hermione threw open the door and quickly spotted Harry, awake and able to stand of his own accord. Relief seeped throughout her face even as the trapped Harry screamed muted warnings to alert her of the danger she had walked into. With a casual flick of his hand, as though shooing a pesky fly, Gaia slammed Hermione into the hallway wall and slammed the door shut. Another flick and all the window covers were drawn shut and a fire erupted in the hearth.
“Someone will come up to see what’s taking her so long,” Ginny mentioned casually.
“Well then, shall we get down to business?” Gaia asked in the same tone one would use when asking for a scone during a tea party.
“Let’s,” Ginny replied tersely, “and be quick about it.”
“Is that any way for you to talk to the person you planned to frame for the murder of Igor Karkaroff?” Gaia asked with sickening sweetness.
“Cut the small talk,” Ginny ordered, standing so she could be face-to-face with Harry. “We both know you’ve been possessing Charlie all year,” Ginny declared.
“Liar!” Harry hissed, feeling a rush of molten anger. “I only possessed him once to talk to you!”
“Now who’s lying?” Ginny asked, her face turning scarlet as she lost all semblance of control. “First Charlie, then Ron, and now Harry,” Ginny spat out with all the hate she could muster, “you’re nothing more than the devil’s own.”
Harry saw his hand collide with the side of Ginny’s face and realized that Gaia had slapped her. He seethed, knowing that she had dared to use his body to harm Ginny and swore oath after oath of vengeance against her. Ginny’s reaction was along the same lines as she brought up her wand to inflict damage upon her attacker who in turn laughed like a madwoman.
“Go ahead,” Gaia taunted, splaying Harry’s arms open in a come and get me type of fashion. “Perform your precious little bat boogey hex if you can muster up the courage,” she mocked in a carousing manner. “Why you can even perform the Avada Kedavra,” she rejoined, “I won’t mind at all.”
“You evil…” Ginny began her forehead beading with sweat at the exertion of holding herself back.
“Tut, tut, tut,” Gaia responded warningly while placing Harry’s own wand to his neck, “we musn’t forget ourselves and become impolite boors.”
Ginny quickly backed off, but was a bit slower at putting her wand hand down.
“Just remember, his life is as much on the line as yours is,” Gaia whispered.
“I should expect no more from someone who works for Voldemort,” Ginny shot back, her anger still evident though she made no move to act on it.
Harry felt the anger flare up in him once again along with something else, a feeling of injustice.
“You’ll do as I say or the boy dies,” Gaia said evenly, her emotions firmly reigned in.
After a moment, Ginny gave a jerk of her head to indicate her cooperation. Harry felt an adrenaline rush and realized that Gaia was on the verge of achieving her goal, whatever it was. He desperately fought to regain control of himself but to no avail.
“What will it take for you to leave him?” Ginny asked, her voice resigned and prepared to make whatever sacrifice required to ensure Harry’s freedom.
Dread filled Harry even as Gaia’s jubilation caroused through him. Ginny put herself at the mercy of this madwoman and Harry couldn’t do a thing to stop her.
“It’s quite simple actually,” Gaia told her, “all I want is a trade…you for him.”
Harry screamed. He fought for control so fiercely that Gaia almost let him slip back into power but that didn’t happen. Instead, she held on long enough to see Ginny nod her head stiffly. Ginny’s body went limp and fell to the floor though a bright light of purple brilliance remained where she had been standing only seconds prior. Harry realized he was seeing Ginny through Gaia’s eyes and was, for an instant, transfixed the sheer power of Ginny’s essence.
”I didn’t do it,” Gaia’s voice whispered inside his head, “she lies to protect her lover!”
”Stay!” Harry pleaded, determined that Ginny not sacrifice herself for him. ”If you’re telling the truth don’t take her!” he insisted.
”If you love her, come for her,” Gaia challenged, as he felt her beginning to break away from him. The molten lava burned quickly through him, hastily making its way to his scar. ”Where?” Harry thought desperately, resisting their separation.
”Check the Memoirs…” Gaia advised in the merest of whispers before the link between them was irrevocably broken and his forehead exploded in pain. As a purple pink mist disappeared before his eyes the door of the room was smashed to bits by a kaleidoscope of Order members and Harry, weakened once more, fell into the arms of their leader, Remus Lupin.
In Adversity We Know Our Friends by Wise Owl
Chapter Notes: Yes...I'm the worst person ever in the history of the universe!!! I know you've been waiting for an update and this has just been sitting there all along! Well one fan has been waiting on this chapter for a while...thanks for naming it!