A/N: So, I apologized for the last chapter, but there’s some insights here that maybe you guys will find interesting. So read, and enjoy, my friends. Read and enjoy.
Harry reached Ron’s room, and he entered to find Ron letting Pig out the window.
“Listen, Ron, I meant what I said down there. You two are gonna have to be able to be in the same room together. I need both of you if I’m gonna solve this thing.”
Ron grunted, “I’ll be there, but just to help you. I’m not saying anything to her.”
Harry was exasperated, and he opened Hedwig’s cage with a loud clang. She hooted at him, disgruntled, and flew out the window without even a backwards glance.
“Great. Now I’ve made her mad as well. I’m on a roll tonight,” Harry thought. He turned to Ron, who was sitting on his bed. Harry sat likewise, cross-legged on his camp bed, and looked at Ron, who was pulling at a loose thread in his blanket.
“Ron, why do you let this happen? You and Hermione are just getting there, and you let someone or something come between you? As I recall, last time it was Krum as well. You know that’s been over for years. You’re aware that there’s no Hermione substitute here. This isn’t school, and you can’t turn around and use Lavender.”
Ron looked up, “I wasn’t using Lavender.’
Harry smirked, and Ron inclined his head slightly, as if awarding Harry a point,
“Ok, yes I was, but she’s excited that Krum’s gonna be here Harry, I can tell.”
“Well, they’re pen pals, aren’t they? They’re friends. You don’t get upset that Hermione’s happy to see me.”
“Well, you didn’t snog her, did you?”
For a minute, Ron looked panicked.
“You didn’t, did you?”
Harry laughed until tears ran down his cheeks.
“Ron,” he said when he could catch his breath, “no. I love Hermione, I really do, but she’s like my sister.”
“I had to ask, I’m sorry. That was stupid. But I can’t get over it. She still has feelings for him.”
Harry shook his head. It was pointless to try and bring Ron to his senses. At times, Harry wondered if Ron had any senses to come to, but he let the discussion fall to the floor as they heard a sharp knock on the door. Harry waited for Ron to answer it, it was his room, after all, but Ron made no move towards the door. Harry sighed and got up to answer the door. Hermione stormed straight past him and sat, leaning against Ron’s bed so that she didn’t have to look at him. Harry stood in the doorway,
“Well, hi to you too, Hermione, glad you could get past your issues,” Harry muttered under his breath.
Ginny giggled softly, and said in a whisper to Harry, “Look, Harry, I’m sorry about, well, what I said before. I don’t know what came over me. I’m not that person; I don’t get jealous of other girls for no reason.”
“I know you’re not, that’s why it shocked me.”
“Blame it on stress. Or you could blame it on Ron and Hermione. That seems as much a reason to have a break down as any. I had to really twist her arm to get her to come.”
“Yeah, I had to twist Ron’s to keep him from leaving.”
“What are you two whispering about over there? I thought you wanted to talk, Harry. If not, then I’m going to bed,” Hermione called, a note of anger in her voice.
Harry grimaced and Ginny laughed, but they went into the room.
Harry returned to his cross-legged position on his bed. Ginny sat on the end of his bed, facing Ron and Hermione, who were not looking at each other.
“So, Harry, I’ve been giving this a lot of thought,” Hermione’s voice had become much warmer and almost tentative. Harry thought he knew why. She was about to bring up Dumbledore, and she didn’t want to upset Harry any more than necessary.
He was right.
“You gave us the whole rundown of what happened. I hate to say this, but…”
“Spit it out, Hermione,” Harry said, wanting to hear her opinions. Maybe she had picked up something Harry had missed in his many recollections of that night.
“Well, don’t get mad, Harry, but it just doesn’t add up. The way Snape killed Dumbledore.”
Everyone glared at her, “Look,” she said quickly, “I hate Snape, I’m not defending him.”
“Honestly, Hermione, he killed Dumbledore! What’s it going to take to convince you that he’s a bad guy?” Ron hissed scathingly.
Hermione ignored him and continued to look at Harry, whose eyes had turned cold at the mention of Snape’s name.
“Hear me out, Harry. It just doesn’t fit. Snape’s saved you before. From what you told us, he saved you again that night when he stopped a Death Eater killing you.”
“He told the Death Eater that I was to be left for Voldemort.”
Ginny and Ron flinched at the mention of the name, but Hermione spoke anyway.
“Harry, why would Voldemort care who killed you as long as the job got done?” Hermione said bluntly, clearly hating to speak of Harry being killed, but finding it necessary to mention in order to make her point.
“Well, the prophecy says that one of us must kill the other, so he knows he has to kill me, doesn’t he?”
“Harry, he’s never heard the whole prophecy. That’s the whole point, isn’t it? Even if he’s guessed because of the ‘Chosen One’ stuff that’s been printed in the Daily Prophet, isn’t that more of a reason to have you killed by his Death Eaters. If you’re dead, then you can’t destroy him.”
She was making sense, and Harry didn’t like it. As if sensing his need to brush her evidence off, Hermione continued before he could say anything,
“Snape also told you to keep your mouth shut and your mind closed, isn’t that what you told us? Well, that’s sound advice for Occlumency, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but the fact remains that he killed Dumbledore, Hermione! Are you completely overlooking the most important thing?”
“But he made an Unbreakable Vow. He had to, and I hate him for doing it, but who’s to say Dumbledore didn’t know what the conditions of the Unbreakable Vow were? When Malfoy failed to kill him, Dumbledore knew Snape would have to. I’m still reeling from the way you described it happening. Harry, I just don’t see Dumbledore begging for his life. I think there was something else going on that we don’t know about.”
The room was quiet. All eyes were on Harry. They were waiting for a patented Harry blow-up, but instead, Harry said wearily, “What you’re saying makes sense, Hermione, but I saw it happen, and you can’t fake the kind of hatred that Snape showed for Dumbledore that night. It was horrible.”
“I know, Harry,” Hermione said softly, “Snape’s a horrible man. If I met him on the street, I’d have a thing or two to say to him, or curse him with, but the fact is, there are factors here that don’t fit into the whole ‘Snape is just an evil Death Eater’ theory. I believe Dumbledore had to know more than the fact that Snape was truly sorry about his Death Eater activities to trust him again.”
There was silence, while Harry nodded.
“You’re right,” he said.
Three jaws simultaneously dropped to the floor.
“What? Harry, you don’t think Snape’s still on our side?” Ron asked, incredulous.
“I hate him. I hate him almost as much as Voldemort and I’d kill him if I could find him, but Hermione’s right about there being holes in what we know. We could ask Lupin.”
“He’s coming for the wedding,” Ginny spoke for the first time. She had been listening intently, but not questioning or adding her input.
“Oh, but he wasn’t on that list Fleur had,” Harry said, side-tracked from the Snape discussion.
Hermione and Ginny laughed.
“Harry that was just Fleur’s list of guests. It’s Bill’s wedding, too. Of course he would want members of the Order to be there.”
“Oh, alright. We can talk to Lupin about it after the wedding, then. I don’t think he’ll know anything, or he would have told us before now, but I can’t think of anyone else who would know. Maybe someone at Hogwarts, a teacher maybe, but Lupin’s really the only one I can think of that would tell us if he knew anything.”
“I’ve been thinking, Harry,” Ginny started now, her mind had obviously been wandering while he had decided to talk to Lupin, “You said that Malfoy was lowering his wand when the other Death Eaters came. Do you think he’s come back to our side?”
“No,” Harry said bitterly, “He was gonna curse me with an Unforgivable Curse last year, in case you’ve forgotten. Just because he didn’t have the guts to kill Dumbledore, doesn’t mean he’s on our side. He’d have so much more to do on Voldemort’s side.”
“I feel a bit sorry for him. After all, Voldemort did threaten his family. He was forced into it. Of course, I still don’t like him. It’s just that it’s not pure hatred now. There’s a little pity mixed in there too,” Ginny said.
Ron looked as though he would agree if he wasn’t afraid of Harry’s reaction. He was just as shocked as the rest when Harry, himself said, “Yeah, I feel a bit sorry for him too.”
“I don’t,” Hermione said, her eyes cold and unyielding, “that little ferret doesn’t deserve anyone’s pity. It’s the path he would have gone down anyway.”
The other three shuffled nervously. None of them had ever heard her speak with such hatred before. Harry thought it probably had more to do with the fact that Malfoy had very nearly killed Ron the year before than with all of the grief he had caused Hermione herself with taunts and harsh words. As if realizing how uncomfortable she was making everyone, Hermione said,
“Well, now that I’ve said that, what did you want to talk about Harry?”
“I thought you lot might have ideas about where the next Horcruxes might be after we leave Godric’s Hollow.”
“You’re so sure that there will be one there?” Hermione asked.
“Well, yeah. Voldemort thought that by killing me, he was going to eliminate anything that could stop him. So, you’d think that Godric’s Hollow would be a good place to hide one. Besides that, I want to visit my parents’ graves. I never have, and after seventeen years, I think I should,”
Ginny put a hand on Harry’ shoulder, sensing Harry’s guilt, and whispered, “Harry, you never had a chance to visit them. It’s not your fault.”
Harry smiled weakly at her and replied,
“I should have made time. But regardless, I need to go, and I’m hoping that there’s going to be a clue there.”
“It would make sense that there would be one there, even if Voldemort hadn’t planned on killing you there, Harry,” Hermione said.
“What’s that, then?” Harry was shocked. What other ties did Voldermort have to Godric’s Hollow?
“Well, the village was named for Godric Gryffindor, wasn’t it? He grew up there, and after he passed on, the town was named after him.”
At the flabbergasted looks on everyone’s faces, Hermione sighed impatiently, “I read it in A Biography of the Hogwarts Founders. Honestly, don’t you lot ever read?”
Harry felt suddenly lighter.
“Is the house where Gryffindor grew up still there?”
“I believe so. When he died, his friends and family put spells on the house, to keep it standing, I mean. No normal house could have made it through this many centuries without help.”
“I think there might be a Horcrux there,” Harry said eagerly, “I think we just got one step closer.”
Everyone seemed to be in better spirits, and Ginny said, “Well, Hermione and I had better be off to bed. We have to get up in the morning.”
“What for?” Ron asked
“Hermione talked so much about Muggle wedding clothes that Fleur decided she wanted the girls in gowns instead of dress robes. She also made Hermione a bridesmaid.”
Hermione blushed, “She didn’t have to, I mean, I wouldn’t mind just sitting with the rest.”
“But Fleur said Hermione was basically part of the family, so she was going to be like a sister anyway. Bill’s all upset because this means he has to put a stop to the dress robes that the French woman, Madame Dubois, was making for Fleur, Ginny, and Gabrielle. He also has to go into the office again so he can change his money for Muggle money. We’re all going down to the Bridal Shop in the village so that Fleur can find a Muggle dress, and she can find some bridesmaids dresses for me, Hermione, and Gabrielle.”
Ginny did not sound pleased at this. Hermione looked excited, though, and Ron couldn’t resist commenting.
“Want to look good for Vicky, do you?” he asked Hermione.
“Oh, Ron! You just don’t understand the fun in weddings. Girls don’t always have to look good to please men, you know! Sometimes we do it for ourselves!”
“Ha! A likely story.”
“Oh, you are impossible!”
And with this, Hermione stormed from the room grumbling a “good night” to Harry and slamming the door behind her. Ron turned over in his bed so that his back was to Harry and Ginny, and mumbled to himself, throwing the covers over his body and pretending to go to sleep.
“Well, I guess I’d better go fix what I can,” Ginny said, glaring at Ron, “You know, Ron, you can be such a prat sometimes. You ever think that maybe it’s not Krum she wants to look good for?”
Ron continued his charade of being asleep, and Ginny sighed, shrugging, “There’s no hope. They can only fix themselves. We can’t do a thing. It’s just that they’re both so hard-headed and stubborn. Well, goodnight Harry.”
And she gave a small wave and left just as Hermione had. It had been a most insightful meeting, and Harry was more eager than ever to get to Godric’s Hollow, sure that there would be something to help him defeat Voldemort there. He fell asleep to the sound of Ron’s too-loud-to-be-really-asleep snoring, dreaming of Ginny, Godric’s Hollow, and horrible, red eyes.
A/N: I know. It was short, but necessary. I would like more than anything to just be writing the romance parts of this, but it’s hardly believable that Harry and the gang wouldn’t want to discuss more important things. Although I personally think the romance is the most important thing. But, please review, and the next chapter will be full of fun, mushy stuff. And probably some more fighting. You know how Ron and Hermione are.