Harry Potter and the Fortress of Woe

Barely a minute after his narrow escape from Ginny, Harry found himself entering Ron’s bedroom with his best mate. The two of them had climbed the stairs in silence, both not foolish enough to discuss their planned journey to destroy Voldemort’s Horcruxes in the Weasley’s stairway. The burrow’s walls had ears, especially if Fred and George and their famous Extendable Ears were present. Still, Harry wondered if that was really all Ron wanted so badly to talk about. As far as he knew, Ron and Hermione were still dancing around each other, but a lot closer to accept their mutual feelings than a year before. Maybe Ron was going to ask him for advice regarding their bushy haired friend. Not that Harry was comfortable with this thought, not at all! Discussing one’s best friend love life was okay, but discussing your pseudo ex-girlfriends brother’s love life, who happens to have a crush on your female best friend, was like walking through a minefield. One false word and Harry would probably find himself once again between his two best mates and he really had no intention to make this experience yet again.

Suddenly he remembered that Ron did not even know that he had broken up with Ginny. In fact he doubted that anyone despite the two of them knew. He was not even sure if the Weasley’s knew about their relationship in the first place. It was well known in Hogwarts and Harry suspected that maybe one or two articles had been written about it in Witch Weekly or other shoddy magazines, but that did not necessarily mean that the other members of Harry’s pseudo family knew. Ron and Ginny were the only Weasleys left at Hogwarts and Harry doubted that both of them were overly eager to tell the rest of the family. Ginny for obvious reasons and Ron because he was too afraid of Ginny’s possible reaction to act without her permission. And he was right to be scared of his baby sister, Harry himself considered her intimidating and awesome if she was really angry. And damned sexy, as well! Oh, she was going to be livid about Harry’s narrow escape! Ron should better prepare himself for some rough days! Oh, and he himself should probably do so as well.

Shaking his head to chase away all thoughts of Ginny and their messed up relationship, Harry followed Ron into his bright orange room. It looked exactly as it had when he had last seen it. Every inch of the room was covered with items connected to the Chudley Cannons. Ron really owned everything ever produced and associated with his favourite Quidditch team, starting at books like Flying with the Cannons and ending with the posters covering the walls of this very room. He even owned Cannons bedclothes and boxers! Judging by the constant mass of orange on the room Ron also had no intention to abandon his little obsession in the near future. Well, whatever floats his boat.

Two beds were standing in the room and Hermione was sitting on one of them, her nose buried in a book as usual. She looked up, as she heard the door closing behind Harry and Ron and quickly stood up and walked over to Harry, capturing in a bone crushing hug.
“Harry.” she gushed, a few seconds later, after having released him. “How are you? Are you sleeping alright? Is Dumbledore’s death still bothering you? Did you do any research during your holidays? Do you have any ideas were we could start looking for the next Horcrux? I have been working the whole summer and …”

“Go easy on me Hermione.” said Harry, letting himself fall on Ron’s bed. Suddenly he realized how tired he was, the argument with Ginny combined with his insomnia had really worn him out. To make matters worse he felt a headache starting to build, as his tired brain tried to digest Hermione’s gush of information. “One question at a time. Am I alright? I guess I am as well as can be expected for someone who had witnessed his mentor getting murdered, while being unable to prevent it. Nothing I have not seen or felt before, it doesn’t make things more pleasant or dulls the pain, but at least you know that you will be alright sometime in the future.”
“Do you want to talk about…” Hermione started to ask.
“No.” interrupted Harry. “Talking is certainly not going to help here. I am not blaming myself for this death Hermione. Dumbledore himself rendered me unable to help him; I know I couldn’t have done anything to change this evening’s event. I know who to blame! The responsibility for Dumbledore’s death lies with Snape and Voldemort. Draco was only a tool, a pretty useless one as well, and while he certainly is not innocent, we should not worry about him at the moment. Probably he is already in Voldemort’s clutches, paying the price for his failure.”

Both Ron and Hermione shuddered at Harry’s cold words. His emerald eyes were almost black with hatred and his hands, which were curled into fists, were shaking slightly. They realized that the calm and controlled façade Harry had erected was only a mask he was wearing to hide his anger, loathing and pain. They should have known. After all Harry had worn this very mask a lot in the past two years, starting after the Third Task in his fourth year. His two best friends could only guess why he was hiding beneath it, but they knew that Harry hated to get pitied and tended to associate talking about problems with it. Also Hermione suspected that Harry felt destined to be a hold in these dark times for his allies and was unwilling to further burden them with his problems. Whatever it was, Harry could be as stubborn as a mule when asked to open up and only very rarely allowed his guard to drop. However Hermione considered it to be a progress that he had admitted not to be perfectly fine, like he had always claimed to be in the past. It was no big step, but at least he had made one at all. Of course she was not happy about him channelling all his pain into fury at Voldemort and Snape, but at least this was better than blaming oneself.

“Anyway, we have more important things to talk about than my pain.” continued Harry, his face grim. “I am sure that both you had as much success as myself searching for any hint leading to the remaining Horcruxes.”
“Yeah, we found absolutely nothing.” replied Ron. “All those painful hours of researching, useless! It ruined my holidays combined with this blasted wedding.”
“Ron!” said Hermione, scandalized. “Even though we have not yet discovered anything about the Horcruxes doesn’t mean that the research was useless and that we won’t find something soon. And it’s your brother’s wedding, you should show a bit more enthusiasm.”
Just as Ron opened his mouth to reply, Harry interrupted the brewing argument.

“Enough!” he bellowed, not at all in the mood for another row between his two best friends. His suspicion that they still were oblivious to the other’s feelings was growing stronger and the throbbing in his head increased. “I am tired and not at all in the mood for you two having a go at each other! If you want to row, do it somewhere else and we will talk in the morning!”
Both of his friends stopped immediately, chastised.
“Sorry mate.” said Ron sheepishly. “I guess that everyone is a bit short tempered at the moment.”
“It’s okay.” replied Harry tiredly. “I guess I will finally have to accept the fact that you two will never ever stop rowing. Anyway, I want to talk with you about what we planned to do after the wedding.”
“I agree, we should plan this thoroughly.” said Hermione, immediately warming to the subject. “I have thought quite a lot about it and …”

“Wait a moment.” interrupted Harry, cutting her off with a quick hand movement. Then he whipped out his wand and placed a Silencing and an Imperturbable Charm on the door. “There are some noisy people living here and I don’t want to take any chances.”
“Anyway, what I was saying…” started Hermione.
“Sorry Hermione, but you should listen to me first.” interrupted Harry once again, the firmness in his voice leaving no room to argue. “I have been thinking a lot about this quest in the last month and the more I think about it the more I doubt its sense.”
“What?” cried Ron. “But it was your idea in the first place!”
“That’s right Harry.” agreed Hermione. “You said that…”

“I know what I said.” snapped Harry. “But I was angry when I said this, much angrier than I am now. And I had a lot of spare time to think about last year and about what happened due to what reason. And I don’t like the conclusion of my contemplation at all.”
“And what exactly is your conclusion?” asked Hermione, slowly getting hacked off at Harry’s behaviour. “Care to enlighten us?”
“It’s quite simply.” replied Harry, ignoring his best female friend’s irritation. “We are not nearly powerful enough to bypass the protection Voldemort has most likely placed around the remaining Horcruxes. Therefore the idea is rubbish; we would only get ourselves killed. Later, when we are properly trained, we may take another go, but at the moment getting more powerful is clearly the most important thing. The fact that we don’t have any clue where to start our search makes this decision even easier.”

“But Harry, I thought it was so important to destroy the Horcruxes.” said Ron, confusion evident on his face. “Do you really think we can take our time?”
“I agree.” piqued up Hermione. “It is only a matter of time until Voldemort discovers that some of his Horcruxes are gone and then he will raise the protection on his remaining ones. We really should hurry and use his ignorance for our advantage.”
“I know, I know and both of you are right.” replied Harry and started to pace in the room. “Yes it is important to destroy the Horcruxes, otherwise I won’t be able to kill Voldemort in the end. And yes, we should use every advantage we can get and it is likely that Voldemort will discover that some of his Horcruxes are missing. But this still doesn’t change anything. Don’t you remember what I told you about the cave? Without Dumbledore I never would have gotten out of there alive! Heck, I would not even have made it inside, because I would never have been able to find the way to open the magical barrier! I really don’t want to think about how the other Horcruxes are protected; Dumbledore’s withered hand is proof enough that we are dealing with the darkest of magic!”

“So, basically you are afraid of doing it.” said Ron, his voice sounding both disappointed and accusing at the same. “I never would have thought that you would ever be too afraid to do the right thing.”
“Of course I am afraid, and you should be too!” cried Harry, irritation at his best friend’s lack of understanding growing in him. “We are nothing but three seventh years without any important special abilities! Why do you think we would be able to fool the most powerful dark wizard of a century? All Voldemort has to do is to place two Death Eaters as guards and we are doomed. I fought Snape last year; I know what I am talking about! He showed me how weak I really am and how foolish it was to ever consider myself a worth opponent for Voldemort or his goons.”
“So you are just going to give up and hand the world to You-Know-Who on a silver platter?” said Ron angrily. “I can’t believe you Harry!”
“No, certainly not!” shouted Harry, furiously smacking his left palm with his right hand. “I am going to kill Voldemort for everything he has done to me and to this world and if I have to travel the world to find these bloody Horcruxes! But I am not stupid enough to do it with six years of school as my only weapon. As soon as the wedding is over, I am going to search for someone who is going to train me. And if this means to work with the Order, then so be it! I need to learn Occlumency, wordless magic and especially some fighting techniques. Maybe I could ask Tonks or Remus for some assistance, they are not going to ask too many questions...”

“So, you are going to keep the information about the Horcruxes to yourself in each case?” asked Hermione.
“Yeah.” returned Harry, nodding. “Dumbledore must have had his reasons not to entrust the Order with this sensitive information and I will continue this strategy. The longer we can keep Voldemort in the dark, the better.”
“And how high do you think our chances are to find and to destroy the Horcurx on our own?” continued Hermione.
“Less than zero.” said Harry, sighing. “Even if we somehow would be able to find all of them, we still would have no idea how to destroy them. And this kind of information is not going to be printed in any schoolbook. We are going to need more sources of information and this is probably going to mean the restricted section in Hogwarts or the library in Grimmauld Place. And both of these places we are not going to be able to visit without the Order’s help.”

“Looks like you are right, mate.” replied Ron, scratching a few stubbles on his chin. “We are going to stay put then. But let’s hope that we can somehow get stronger or this whole thing will come down.”
“Alright, I agree.” said Hermione, after the two boys had been looking at her few half a minute. “But I am not happy with this and I think it could be a grave error. However I don’t have any better ideas either.”
“Alright that’s settled then.” said Harry happily, sinking down on one of the beds.
“Why do you want to wait till the wedding is over Harry?” asked Ron. “Should not we start as soon as possible?”
“We probably should, but I want your brother to have a somehow normal wedding and not to have to listen to your mum complaining about us getting involved in the war. We should fight to live not live to fight. That’s a big difference and everyone can do with a bit of normalcy at the moment.”

Ron and Hermione pondered Harry’s last statement in silence and a few minutes after that the three friends said goodnight to each other and went to sleep.

- - - - -

The days before the wedding passed in a blur. Harry could not remember every seeing the burrow so full and busy, even though Percy still lived in his London flat. Like Ron had predicted, Mrs. Weasley had taken charge over the wedding and her utmost devotion caused all other inhabitants of the house to get include as well. Harry and all the other present Weasley boys except for the groom-to-be were busy with organizing the decorations. The wedding was scheduled to be held in the burrow’s backyard and therefore the garden had to perfect. Of course this meant that Fred, George, Harry, Ron and Charley had to spend countless hours degnoming, mowing the grass, cutting the rose bushes, etc. Every time they thought everything complete, Mrs. Weasley would come up with a new idea how to decorate, usually causing them to undo a large part of their work, only to redo it again in a new way. It was save to say that all Weasley involved complained to no end about having to complete these tasks and most of them were angry at Bill as well, who in their opinion only had to amuse himself with his veela wife, which was completely unfair to boot. Especially Ron, Fred and George complained about this, wisely out of earshot of Mrs. Weasley or their eldest brother and Harry strongly suspected them to be a bit jealous. He knew that Ron had always been affected by Fleur’s beauty and he knew that the twins had a fable for beautiful women as well. Charley himself seemed saddened that Bill was getting married at all; apparently still viewing matrimony as Bill had earlier in his life. Harry himself was quite happy with the current arrangement.

Working in the garden meant not having to spent time alone with Ginny and he was both disappointed and relieved about this. Disappointed about not seeing her nearly enough as he wanted to, but relieved that he did not have to endure her nagging him about their relationship. He knew that he was not off the hook, not having finished their little bargain, but he was grateful for every second he could get to rebuild his almost crumbled defence. He had been so close to throwing caution away and to letting her win. Much too close, this was never going to happen again! He was going to make sure that he did not have to see her hurt in this bloody war and if staying away was the price he had to pay for doing it then so be it!

Ginny herself was spending most of her days with Mrs. Weasley and Fleur, who were busy trying to find out how she looked best as a bridesmaid. Often Hermione joined them, claiming to support Ginny in this desperate situation, but Harry strongly suspected that Hermione enjoyed getting girly sometimes. Still, he was a bit worried that Ginny had told Hermione of their break up, she had these strange knowing looks in the last two days. He was not at all comfortable with the thought of Hermione wanting to fix his love life. It would be uncomfortable, because Hermione would be talking with her best male friend – assuming that she considered Ron more than a friend – about her female best friend and also a bit hypocritical, due to her and Ron still dancing around each other. Their constant bickering was making Harry mad and he vowed to do something, if things were not getting better after the wedding was over.

Mrs. Weasley had organized new dress robes for him and Ron, getting them from Diagon Alley one morning without telling them. Harry was disappointed, because he wanted to get his hands on more defence books, but resigned to the fact that he did not have any other option than to go there sometime later this summer, probably accompanied by the Order. He had seen several Order members in the burrow during the last days, apparently reinforcing the wards and preparing for eventual attacks. Harry had briefly considered speaking to Tonks and asking her to train him, but she had always been around much too many other members for him to do so. He did not want the Order to ask any more questions regarding what he and Dumbledore had been doing last year. He vowed to ask Remus for help as soon as he had to opportunity to do so.

Finally the long awaited day of the wedding arrived.

Harry started the day at an ungodly hour, waking up at five am due to one of his countless nightmares. He did not know what he had dreamed about in the first place, having forgotten it as soon as he had jerked awake, but he knew that he would never be able to go back asleep with all the adrenaline pumping through his veins. Cursing softly under his breath, he got out of bed without waking the still sleeping Ron. Looking at his watch, he realized that he had four hours to kill before the ceremony would start. Sighing, he grabbed some of his normal clothes and headed to the bathroom, he could still change into his dressrobes later.

An almost scalding shower later, Harry dressed and walked downstairs to prepare himself some breakfast. He was more than surprised to find a cheerful Mrs. Weasley already rummaging around in the kitchen, whistling some joyful tune, he recognized as a love song of the Weird Sisters.
“Harry dear, you are up early.” she said as soon as she saw him. “Is everything alright?”
“Yeah, just bad dreams as usual.” replied Harry, trying to sound casual to prevent her from fussing too much about him.
Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips, deciding not to comment on Harry’s insomnia. “Well, breakfast will be at about eight, so you still have three hours left, but you can grab some toast if you are hungry already.”

Feeling a sudden need for solitude, Harry quickly grabbed a piece of toast with butter and strawberry jam, before heading outside into the garden. He sat down below an old oak, which stood in the middle of the lawn and had been climbed countless times during the last twenty years, and started to munch his toast, enjoying the still cool morning air ruffling gently through his hair. The sun had risen only shortly ago and he could still here the birds singing, praising the raise of a new day. Harry considered their song strangely comforting. The world appeared pure and peaceful and it seemed impossible that anything could destroy the magic of the moment. Lying down on the ground, his gaze lazily travelled up one of the burrow’s wall, finally coming to rest at a certain window. The window leading to Ginny’s bedroom. Damn! The peace he had enjoyed for a moment was gone, replaced with his conflicting feeling about his girlfriend.

Harry growled in frustration and tried to convince himself that it had been the right decision to push her away, like he had done countless times during the last few days. It had been easy, because he only had to convince himself. Their different tasks had kept Ginny and him mostly apart and she had not been foolish enough to corner him in front of her family, yet. Still he had a bad feeling about tonight. As soon as the wedding was over, Ginny was surely going to approach him once again, wanting to finish their so-called deal. It was going to be hard avoiding her. Well, at least it was unlikely that she would talk about this topic in public, which would leave him off the hook as long as the wedding was going.

Truth be told, he still did not know if he would be able to convince Ginny to stay away from him. Heck, he was not even sure if he still wanted to convince her. A battle between two even matched opponents occurred in his head: his desire to protect her versus his hunger and longing for her. Harry lost himself in his thoughts and only was jerked out of his reverie as Mrs. Weasley called him, telling him that breakfast was ready.

- - - - -

Harry felt uncomfortable standing in the hot sun in his much too warm dressrobes. It was eleven o’clock and the ceremony was in full swing, having started approximately an hour ago. He was not paying any attention to it at all, his gaze and thoughts fixed on the gorgeous redhead serving as a bride maid. His mind had been wiped blank as soon as he had first seen her in her pale gold robes, her fiery hair framing her face in elaborate curls. She was definitely the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and even the thought of pushing her away seemed ridiculous at the moment. His mind was swimming with images of Ginny; memories and fantasies blending to form a world dedicated solely to the two of them. And some parts of this world were definitely not meant to be ever exposed to one of her overprotective brothers. Harry allowed himself to get lost in these pleasant thoughts and was startled when clapping erupted around him.

He blinked and suddenly realized that Bill was passionately kissing Fleur, the Ministry official leading the ceremony standing beside them and clapping his books shut. Harry quickly lost himself in the stream of well-wishers, grateful not to have an excuse to stare at Ginny any longer. The day was definitely going better.

- - - - -

How very mistaken he was. After the wedding itself was over, the feast started. Mrs. Weasley had outdone herself, but Harry was much too distracted to even realize what he was eating, yet alone tasting it. Due to some cruel coincidence, Ginny was sitting directly across of him and the mysterious way she was smiling at him during the meal did nothing to calm his anxious nerves. The bad feeling he had had about this day had returned and increased tenfold. He wondered what actually could go wrong, but failed to find any answer.

After the feast, the dancing started. Harry watched dozens of pairs stepping unto the dance floor, but only two really mattered to him. Hermione, after looking expectantly at Ron for a full minute, rose and started to dance with Charley Weasley. Ginny followed her swiftly and danced with one of Fleur’s cousins, Jean. White hot jealousy burned in Harry as he watched the girl, he still thought of as his, dancing with a man, who was neither her brother nor her father. However he knew that he was hardly in the position to do anything against it, he was supposed to have ended things with Ginny after all. He was sure that she had planned this carefully to rile him up and damn her, it was working!

Instead of carefully planning and executing Jean’s violent murder, Harry focused his attention on his best mate, who was currently busy staring daggers at Charley and Hermione. Finally growing tired with his two best friends dancing around each other, especially in these troubled times, Harry decided to take matters in his own hand.
“She’s only trying to make you jealous, Ron.” he told his redheaded best friend. “Go after her, she wants you, not Charley, nor anyone else.”
“Are you sure?” asked Ron, a faint glimmer of hope shining in his eyes. “It certainly does not look like it at the moment.”
“Trust me.” answered Harry. “If it does not work, feel free to beat the crap out of me.”
“Thanks, mate, I really appreciate it.” returned Ron, rising from the table. “Things alright with Ginny and you?”
“Just peachy.” replied Harry dryly, casting a glance at his still dancing pseudo ex-girlfriend, who seemed to be having the time of the life. Sighing, he took a deep gulp of the white wine, which had been served during lunch. He had the feeling that he was going to need it later that day.

- - - - -

At the same time, at another place:

The Falling Noose was not a pub anyone faint of heart would ever consider visiting if he had any chance to avoid it. Located in one of London’s poorest outskirts and heavily protected by magical wards to keep Muggles and unwanted guests away, it was a safe haven for everyone not wanting to encounter anyone even remotely connected with the law. Usually it was so crowded with every type of criminal and dark creatures the Wizarding World had to offer and no Auror would be foolish enough to enter it without with at least thirty colleagues to back him up. Of course this amount of shady people in a small bar caused the atmosphere to bristle with violence. A murder a week was not uncommon for The Falling Noose and was largely tolerated by the patrons, as long as the furniture did not suffer too much.

The pub itself was crafted mainly out of ebony, black tables on black floor, between black walls, blood red tablecloths and tapestries adding a bit of colour. The lanterns illuminating the place were enchanted to provide light matching the tablecloths and furthermore increased the pub’s dark atmosphere. In a corner of this very pub Serverus Snape was sitting, hidden beneath his black cloak, sipping wine out of a goblet crafted out of bone. He was drumming his fingers impatiently his table’s dark wood, obviously waiting for something or someone.

Another ten minutes passed, before Snape was jerked out of his impassive state by another man, covered completely in a black hooded cloak sat down across of him. The only thing visible on him were his eyes, two unnaturally glowing white slits, devoid of any emotion.
“You are late.” snapped Snape as the soon as the stranger had settled down.
“My costumers are always content, despite my tendency to be late.” replied the other man, his voice as cold as the wind in a December night. “I highly doubt that you would understand this though; good assassins are hard to come by, as you demonstrated once again in your pathetic way of killing Albus Dumbledore.”

“That’s not what this meeting is about Sandro. I don’t care if you are the Nightshade, you should better watch your tongue.”
“Oh, it definitely is.” returned Sandro calmly, ignoring Snape’s threat. “Tell me why I should get into business with a man, who has a fifty thousand galleons bounty on his head. Your and your master’s views are of no interest to me. I could care less who rules this country, I will be needed anyway. However taking a side is always a risk, so tell me why I should get involved.”
“How about half a million galleons? Would that be enough to motivate you to start working for the Dark Lord?” asked Snape, smirking.
“Well, that depends on the job.” returned the Nightshade. “But I think this should be sufficient. What does Voldemort want me to do?”
Snape glared at the assassin for using his master’s name, but answered nevertheless. “The Dark Lord wants you to capture Harry Potter.”

Snape had expected the assassin to refuse the offer, after all few wizards would be willing to hand the so called Chosen One to the Dark Lord and even fewer would try to capture Potter, due to all the guards and magical wards shrouding the boy. Sandro, however, did not miss a beat and appeared completely unimpressed.
“Yeah, I can do this.” replied the assassin. “The payment is adequate. I will hand the boy over to you as unharmed as possible.”
“Outstanding.” said Snape. “When will you deliver him to us?”
“Hm, let’s see…” replied Sandro, summoning a book bound in black leather and started flipping through it. “Around Christmas, I think. I am horribly busy at the moment.”
“That’s not nearly fast enough!” snarled Snape furiously.
“Well, then find some other assassin to do it.” replied Sandro. “But I highly doubt that you will find one.”
“… Fine then, get on with it.” said Snape grudgingly after having pondered the situation for a moment. His master would not be pleased, but he did not have any idea how to improve the situation.
“Excellent, send me an owl with the detail, will you?” replied Sandro cheerfully. “Well, I have got to go. See you later, Snape.”

With these words, he rose from the table, leaving the pub, before Snape had any chance to protest.