Meet Me Halfway

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and properties don’t belong to me. They’re owned by JK Rowling. I don’t make money from writing this fic. This story contains spoiler from all the seven books. Danyealle helped edit this chapter. Thanks a lot for her help.

Meet Me Halfway

Chapter II

“Hermione!” Harry exclaimed loudly when he saw the girl next morning.


“Yes Harry?” she asked when hearing his outburst.


“I want to ask you if there is food detector charm or something similar,” he said in rush.


“And you asked that because?”


“Uhm...” since he was bad at lying he thought he should tell the truth. Well, his edited version of truth of course. “Someone tried to slip me love potion yesterday,” he mumbled lowly.


Hermione’s eyebrow went higher. What?” she said. “Was that the Vane girl?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.


“Yes!” Harry admitted. “How did you find out about that?” After thinking, he had came to conclusion that the only person who had the chance to poison him was Vane since she had came to him at dinner and afterwards.


“Because the girl has been obsessed with you,” she said slowly. “And I overheard her talking to her friends a few days ago. I just didn’t think she is serious.”


At that moment Ron appeared. “Hey guys,” he said. “Uhm...is there something important happening now?” he asked at seeing their expression.


“Nothing except that someone has tried to give Harry love potion,” she said angrily on her friend behalf.

“What?” then Ron laughed. “Whoa mate. Girls have gone mad for you!”


“This is not funny Ron,” she said and her look immediately shut the redhead up. “For example… what if Bulstrode gives you love potion and you end up marrying her. That’s the worst scenario for this situation.”


“Eeew!” Ron said, shuddering in disgust.


“Exactly my though,” she said triumphantly. “Love potions are very dangerous thing. If the user doesn’t have enough knowledge, accidents could happen. In fact there was one accident where the wizard fell in love with the first thing he saw upon ingesting the potion and it is not a pretty story.”


“Could you teach me the charm then?” Harry asked hopefully.


“Since I’m prefect, I’ll go and have a talk with Vane. Don’t worry, she’ll never try pulling that stunt again.” Her eyes flashed dangerously and Harry was reminded about the time when she punched Malfoy in their third year. “And I will teach you the charm,” she continued. “In fact, all of us better learn it. We never know what will happen in the future, right?”


“Thanks Hermione,” Harry said. “You’re life saver.” He was inwardly rejoicing that she thought he didn’t drink the love potion from Vane. Well, Hermione didn’t need to know about his encounter with that devil.


“Yeah,” Ron said, interrupting his thought. “That sounds great.” He shuddered again. “Merlin! Marrying Bulstrode. Urgh!”


He and Hermione laughed at Ron’s expression.


With that matter settled, life went on for Harry. He tried his best to forget that that night ever happened. Also, he hoped that he would never see Lucius Malfoy’s arrogant face again. Unfortunately, his wish wasn’t fulfilled.


"It's time you learned the difference between life and dreams, Potter," Malfoy said coldly. "Now give me the prophecy or we start using wands."


Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna, Ginny and Neville were in the Hall of Prophecy at the Department of Mysteries surrounded by Death Eaters. How the hell had he come there at the first place? Well, it begun when he had dream about Sirius where Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries was torturing him. After the efforts to contact his godfather failed, Harry saw no other option than going to the said place and his friends were forced to tag along. And now, after entering the place he dreamed about so many times, he had the prophecy in his hands.


And that was the point when the problem started. One by one, Death Eaters appeared and they were lead by Lucius Malfoy, accompanied by Bellatrix Lestrange.

“Hand over the prophecy and no one needs to get hurt," Lucius drawled again.

It was Harry's turn to laugh. "Yeah, right!" he said. "I will give you this -- prophecy, is it? And you'll just let us skip off home, will you?” Give Lucius this? More like he wanted to bash the ball at Lucius’ face. “Now!” he shouted.

“Stupefy!” Six white lights went in different directions. The Death Eaters evaded them and started attacking. Soon they were separated.


Harry entered the first door he saw in his quest into trying to find way out. He thought that he had stepped inside a planetarium. The large dome ceiling projected a vision of stars, planets, and other celestial objects. Then, when he looked down at his feet, the floor was also a vision of moving galaxy. Over all, Harry got a feeling that he was floating in outer space.


He was startled when the door opened and the face of the hated the most in this world, aside of Voldemort and Umbridge of course, entered his line of vision.


“You!” he snapped, pointing his wand at the newcomer.


The man however was still as cold as always. “This is a trap.”


“You-What?” he asked, flabbergasted by the turn of event.


“This is a trap,” Lucius repeated slowly, as if talking to five-year-old child. “The Dark Lord planted a false vision through your connection with him to lure you here. He wants you to obtain the prophecy for him.”


“But-“ he tried to argue.


“You didn’t think that Dumbledore ordered you to learn Occlumecy for nothing, did you?” Lucius drawled, already confirming his opinion by seeing Harry’s look. “That’s priceless, you and your ego.”


Harry felt dread washed over him when he heard Lucius’ words. If what the man said was true then he had brought his friends here for nothing. What if something happened to them? “Why are you telling me this?” he croaked out.


Lucius raised his fine eyebrow. “And what did I tell you? As far as I know this conversation never even happened.” The man turned to the door and then paused. “I shall see you again soon Princess.” With that, he was gone.


Harry didn’t have time to think much about this as he went to search for his friends, hoping with all his might that they were okay. Luckily, the Order of Phoenix came to help and, when Voldemort showed up, it was Dumbledore who went against him. Voldemort escaped as soon as the Aurors plus Fudge arrived at the ministry.


“What?” Fudge looked like he couldn’t believe his own eyes when he saw a very alive Voldemort strutting in the atrium of Ministry of Magic.


Harry almost snorted. Yeah, right. For a year, Fudge had adamantly refused to admit that Voldemort had returned to save his own skin. The Minister was an idiot who cared more about his reputation than for the good of his people. And just look at what happened now… And in the Ministry of Magic itself for no less.


“Harry!” someone called him.


“Sirius!” He turned and hugged his godfather. Sirius was fine. His godfather was fine. Harry didn’t think if he would ever be able to forgive himself if something happened to Sirius because of him. Cedric was more than enough of a reminder of that.


“Sirius Black!” Fudge exclaimed, eyes huge. “Catch him!” he ordered the Aurors there.


“No!” Harry snapped angrily. “You will not do so.”


“What?” Fudge looked confused. “But he is you know who supporter.”


“Sirius didn’t do such things.” He said, defending his godfather.

“Harry is right Cornelius.” Dumbledore chimed in. For once, the twinkle disappeared from his eyes and the being that stood before them was the defeater of Grindelwald.

“Harry!” new voice joined them.


He turned and saw Hermione, Ron, Luna, Neville and Ginny. They all were fine. Luna had a nosebleed and all of them had scratches on their bodies but other than that they were fine. Harry was really relieved to see them and relaxed before he turned his attention back to Fudge.


“It was Peter Pettigrew who betrayed my parents,” he said coldly. “He sold them out and when Voldemort fell he ran away and hid in his animagus form. A rat.” The last part was said in disgust.


“What?” Fudge stammered again like an idiot he was. Harry was truly disgusted by him, a person who at point acted like a fatherly figure to him and the next moment acted like he had highly dangerous disease.

“Sirius was jailed for something he never did. So I demand that you, right now, clear my godfather name,” he continued.

“That is…I can’t do that,” Fudge argued.


“You can and will Minister,” Harry said. He actually didn’t know where he got the courage or the skill to spin his words from but adrenaline probably made it all flow out from his mouth. He didn’t even stumble over on one word. “You denied that Voldemort had returned and now look around you. What else do you want to admit it? Or do you want to wait until you get home and find a dark mark outside your house?” he asked harshly.


Fudge winced at this.


“You will announce that Voldemort has come back and that we have to be prepared,” Dumbledore said, speaking for the second time. “And while we are at it, you will remove Madam Umbridge from Hogwarts.”


“But-I…” it was very obvious that Fudge wanted to deny their requests but faced with Harry and Dumbledore’s hard looks and the accusing expression on everyone else faces, he finally admitted his defeat. “Fine. I’ll do it.”


The next few weeks passed quickly for Harry because of all the activities he had to do. First, now that Sirius name was cleared and he was a now free man. Sirius looked really happy because of this and Harry too was happy for both of them or three of them if he counted Remus.


Then after that, Sirius wanted to totally renovate over Grimmauld Place, declaring that the place was unfit for his dear godson. Grimmauld Place, Harry found out later, turned out to be London base for Black family. Aside of that, the Black family also had houses in a few European countries. And that’s where he and Sirius stayed during the renovation, a house located in southwest Bavaria, Germany. The house elf there didn’t act like Kreacher so after all those years, the house was still in good condition and unlike Kreacher, they obeyed Sirius without any question.


“Why don’t we go to France?” Harry had asked when he knew that they were going to have vacation there. “You have house there.” He pointed out.


“Too many people we know there,” Sirius replied shortly.


He nodded in understanding. After all, France was located near England and, from the stories he heard during years at Hogwarts, he knew that many of his schoolmates went to France to spend their holiday. They couldn’t have privacy if people recognized them there. Beside that, the house they were currently staying was really beautiful with the most magnificent nature scene Harry ever seen, and, also he could see the famous Neuschwanstein Castle from it. Ron was really excited at the prospect of going abroad again for holiday. Yes, that was right… Sirius and Harry also invited Remus and the entire Weasleys family plus Hermione to spend the holiday with them, which they accepted.


In the middle of August, the renovation of Grimmauld Place was done and Harry almost couldn’t believe his eyes. The house was huge with three floors, basement, attic and even garden. All the dark artifacts were gone too. Sirius told him that he put those dark artifacts in special place with powerful ward on it. And the picture of Sirius’ mother was also gone much to Sirius great relief, as well as everyone else.


“Where is Kreacher anyway?” he asked.


Sirius grinned. “At Hogwarts. He works there now.”


“Really?”


Sirius shrugged. “Dumbledore’s idea actually. At least I don’t have to see him again.” He broke into big grin. “Guess who is working here now?”


As if it was the clue Dobby and Winky appeared on the room.


“Dobby! Winky!” he said in surprise.


Wow! He never thought that Sirius would go that far. After that, Sirius showed him his bedroom. It was huge, with the biggest bed he ever seen, connecting bathroom and even connecting closet, bookshelf and study desk and couch and table. It was perfect for someone who lived in the cupboard under the stairs for the first eleven year of his life.


“This is perfect!” he gushed happily and went hugging his godfather. “Thank you so much Sirius!”


Aside of Grimmauld Place, Harry also went to the Burrow. He was there when huge black eagle owl swooped down into the room and dropped a letter at his lap. Confused, as he didn’t recognize the owl, he poked the letter using his wand. Well, nothing happened. But there was nothing wrong with being suspicious. So he opened the letter and read it. There was no sender name but Harry knew with utmost certainty who the sender was just by reading the content.

Private Room
Taillevent French Restaurant
This Saturday at 1 p.m
I shall meet you there Princess


Author’s Note:


Hi. It’s me again. Thank you for reading this story and giving me reviews.