Relations, Revelations

I still love you, Carmen, but now I love Joedi and Silvana even more because they came out of the blue to profess their love for my story :-D Thanks so much for the reassurance, guys. Especially since right now I\'m going through a bit of a dip in confidence. If anyone\'s been wondering whatever happened to Lucius after the floodwaters swallowed him up, he\'s coming up soon. And therein lies the dilemma. I\'ve got this whole long lovely outline all typed up, but the chapters are a whole other matter. I\'m sure it\'ll take 2-3 to accomplish, and I\'m feeling very impatient and discouraged. Especially with how hectic school has gotten. So I\'m thinking updates will remain as is, being any time on fridays. Not sure about the time for next friday (since it\'s my buuuuuurthday!) but it will be updated. Either wee hours of the morning or early afternoon. Anyway, enough of my drivel, here\'s the next chapter. Enjoy the humor, cuz it\'s all you\'re getting for a long time to come.


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Chapter 28 – Mental

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“Okay, where can we go? I\'m dying to get started.”

“The attic?”

“Naw. Dad still hasn’t gotten rid of the ghoul. My room?”

“Probably too small. How about the garden? I’m sure the gnomes won’t mind.”

“It’ll have to work. Do I need my wand?”

“Yeah. I’ll meet you outside.” Harry pulled his wand out of his pocket, grabbed two bottles of butterbeer from the pantry, and clunked down the wooden steps and into the scraggly back garden of the Burrow. The late morning sun shone down brightly and Harry sought shelter in the shade of a tall twisted tree. Mr. Weasley was back at the Ministry taking care of post-Voldemort business. Molly, Ginny, Hermione, and Sephera had gone into Diagon Alley to buy robes and finalize the arrangements for Charlie’s funeral. The twins had headed for Hogsmeade to discuss taking over Zonko’s Joke Shop from the elderly Mr. Zonko some time in the next year. The house was completely empty, except for two-thirds of the Golden Trio.

A few minutes later, Ron came huffing and puffing down the steps carrying his wand. He was looking quite out of breath after running up and back down all the staircases to his room. Harry handed him a butterbeer and Ron took it gratefully, taking a deep swig of the amber liquid.

“Okay, so how do we do this?”

“Well, I’m going to cast the spell—“

“Which spell?”

“The one for Legilimancy. Legilimens.”

“Oh, right. Go on.”

“So the spell’s going to allow me to break iyouryourd and and I’ll be able to read your thoughts.”

“Bugger.”

“Exactly. So you have to try and push me out by force of mind.” Ras las looking at him with a very Ron-ish expression; that signature confused look that only Ron could manage.

“It’s really not all that difficult. You can try to feed me fake thoughts, you know, to throw me off. Or just refuse me outright, like trying to brush off the Imperius curse.”

“Refresh my memory. How’s this supposed to help me with my dreams?”

“If you find yourself having one, you block it from your mind. Think of something different. You won’t keep having dreams about horrible things. I mean, they’re useless really, right? They’re not like those thoughts that Voldemort kept feeding into my mind. At least those helped me out, like with your dad and all. These just make you think of stuff that’s already happened and make you worry. So let’s block them. Ready to start?”

“Not rea—“

“Legilimens.” Harry pointed his wand at Ron, making eye contact.

Ron felt Harry invade his mind and giggled. “That tickles.”

“Stop laughing. You’re just making yourself an easier target.” Harry frowned, digging a bit deeper at the opportunity. “OH BLOODY HELL!!! I barely find out I’ve got a cousin and you’re shagging her already!!!” Harry severed the mental connection and prodded Ron in the chest with his wand accusingly.

“I did not! I mean, she IS my girlfriend! So I’d be allowed to if I wanted to. But I didn’t shag her! Really!”

“Close enough! Honestly Ron! You haven’t even known her a week! At least I waited a few months after Ginny and I got together!”

“You’re shagging Ginny!?!”

“Well… That’s not the point!” Harry turned pink, his ears burning at the sides of his head.

“You’re shagging my little sister!” Now it was Ron’s turn to prod Harry with his wand.

“I’ve known her for five years! We’ve been dating for almost a year!”

“She’s my little sister!” Ron groaned in agitation, threw his hands up, wand clutched in white knuckles. “I don’t care. But don’t you come bitching to me when I finally do shag Phera! Cast the bloody spell.”

Ron defiantly locked eyes with Harry, jaw set firm, and Harry pointed his wand at Ron. “Legilimens.” Harry heard the deafening crack of Ron’s leg breaking as he was dragged into the tunnel under the Whomping Willow. Then he watched Ron opening his Hogwarts letter and finding his prefects badge. Next he was de-gnoming the garden with the twins. Then he was being borne upon the shoulders of a number of Gryffindors all singing “Weasley is Our King.”

“Oh, Finite Incantatem. Honestly now, Ron! You’re not even trying!”

“Well what do you want me to do?”

“Block me! Think of something else! Fake me out! Pull a mental Wronski Feint!”

“Right, right, try again. I think I’ve got it this time.”

“Legilimens.” Harry dove back into Ron’s mind, and found it still open. He easily wormed his way in.

A quidditch game passed before his eyes, violently orange robes fluttering amidst a sea of blue. The Puddlemere United supporters screamed unbearably loudly, blue flags waving frantically. Ron, George, Fred, Percy, and Charlie all sat dejected in their seats, heads in their hands, orange CC flags hanging limply from their clenched fists. He was stuck. Harry couldn’t find his way out of this quidditch memory to get further into Ron’s mind.

“Finite Incantatem. What was that all abou
“
“Chudley Cannons. ‘89 season, first game. Bill took us. Puddlemere United absolutely thrashed the Cannons. Final score was 370 to thirty.”

Harry winced. “Hang on a minute. I couldn’t find anything else. Like I was stuck or something... Have you ever had dreams about yourself? Like seeioursourself from a distance?”

“Nope, it’s always other people.” Ron beamed.

“So in other words you fed me an old memory to throw me off?”

“Yup.” His grin spread wider.

“Bloody hell. You’re good.” Harry grinned back.

“RON!!! Ron, where the bugger are you!? ROOOOOON!!!” The boys saw through the windows Ginny’s image going from room to room in search of her brother.

“Out here, Gin!”

“Oh.” She turned and flung the door open in front of her and pranced down the back steps, then across the grass to the boys.

“Hi Harry.” She stood tiptoe and kissed Harry on the cheek. “Ron, Mum wants you to floo into Madam Malkins to try on a robe she found for you. Also, she wanted me to ask you, Harry, if you’ve got a set of dress robes for Friday”

“Yup. Though I should probably get them dry-cleaned tomorrow.”

“Dry what?”

“Muggle way of laundering robes.”

“Have mum check them out. She can probably run her wand over them and they’ll be good as new.” Ginny looked at Ron and tutted, tapping her toe. “Honestly, Ronald. Mum’s waiting.”

“Don’t you have to go back?”

“No, I’ve got mine already. Dora’s just got to lengthen the bottom and I’ll be able to pick them up tomorrow. Well, hop to it, boy! Unless you want mum to give you a good tongue-lashing.”

“I’m going already, I’m going.” Ron walked up the lawn back to the house mumbling all the way. “Merlin knows I’ll probably end up with some horrible frilly robes like those rotten ones from fourth year. Those were just disgusting…”

Ginny snickered and smiled at Harry from under a curtain of red hair.

“So how’d it go?”

“Really well. I know I’m really no good at legilimancy, but he managed to block me out alright. He fed me false thoughts and distracted me. I’d still hate to put him up against Snape. That man’s freakishly good at legilimancy.”

“Do you think you’d be able to hold him off after your training with Lupin?”

“Yeah, probably. Just because Voldemort’s gone, I doubt Sev would go easy on me. He still likes to test me like that. Says I need to toughen up for all the crap that life is more than willing to throw at me.” Harry took her hand and led her down to the frog pond. “If I got good enough for Remus to volunteer to teach me legilimancy on top of my usual occlumency, I must be alright. I’m still rotten at it though. I think I’ll have Ron practice with him a bit.”

“So since Ron’s getting occlumency lessons now, want to teach me how to make a patronus?”

“Whatever for?”

“Because it would be so cool! I mean, your patronus is a stag, right? I’m dying to know what mine would look like!”

“Well I mean, they’re good for a bit more than looking cool…”

“I know, driving away dementors.” Ginny’s face slipped for a split second, but she recovered her smile. Harry noticed.

“Ginny, really, why do you want to be able to summon your patronus?” He pulled her down onto a rock by the pond.

“Because whenever I get too near dementors, the thoughts that run through my mind are unbearable.” A single tear slowly trickled down her cheek. She hastily wiped it away with her shirtsleeve.

“Oh, come here, Gin.” Harry sat down on a rock by the pond and pulled her onto his lap. She tucked her head neatly into the crook of his neck. “We haven’t confronted dementors in ages. What makes you think we’ll start again now?”

“Well, Ron’s dream for one,” she sniffed. “I mean, if he’s dreaming stuff that’s really happened, then thatns tns that the dementors have broken loose and have gone over to Voldemort. What if Lucius sends them after us now that the Death Eaters are in Azkaban?” Ginny’s face paled and she stared at Harry in shock “Who’s guarding Azkaban now?”

“That’s a damn good question. I honestly hadn’t thought of it. But I’m sure since the Ministry was alright with putting the Death Eaters in there, there’s got to be some sort of guard force.” Harry thought for a moment. “You still haven’t told me what you think about when the dementors get to you.”

“You first. I’m afraid I’ll look foolish.”

“Ginny, you’ll never look foolish to me.” He kissed her forehead. “That’s Ron’s job.”

She half-smirked. “Okay, but you first anyway.”

“Well… when the dementors get to me, I hear my mum screaming. If I manage to stay conscious for long enough, I can hear my dad telling my mum to run and get me out of there, then I can hear Voldemort’s laugh. I’ll tell you, that’s a sound I don’t think I’ll ever forget. Even though he’s gone, his laugh is going to haunt me forever.”

“I never knew about that.”

“What, me hearing my mum?”

“Yeah. That’s why you passed out on the train third year.”

“Exactly. Lupin said I passed out because my worst moments are so much worse than peo people’s. So how about you?”

“I hear Tom. The first time the dementors got to me, I heard Tom telling me that everything was going to be all right and that nobody’s ever nice to first years and that it wasn’t my fault that my brothers were ignoring me. The more dementors get to me, the more I hear Tom say. Slowly I’d hear him telling me that if I just did what he said, everything would be okay. And then I feel like I’m going back into that trance. And ust ust keeps coming back to me. The look on Colin’s face just before the basilisk petrified him… and Justin’s face, and the look in Hermione’s eyes when she thought I had betrayed her…” She inhaled deeply, lip quivering, voice growing hoarse. “Like I was purist scum!”

Ginny buried her face in Harry’s shoulder and wept.

\"Saturday morning, first thing, we\'ll work on your patronus. I promise.\"