Harry Potter and the Fortress of Woe

Two days later Harry was sitting at the pond in the Burrow’s garden, moodily flicking stones into the crystal clear water. The sun was shining brightly, as though it were mocking his dark mood. Birds were chirping in the trees surrounding the place, sounding way too happy in Harry’s opinion. He should have known better. It had to happen this way and he was angry at himself for caring at all.

What had happened to put him in this bad mood? Well, Harry had spent most of the day passed avoiding Ginny, not yet ready to face her after their night spent together. He had occupied himself with reading the books Lupin gave him and was surprised what a good form of distraction they provided, after having shuffled through them for a while to grasp what they were about.

Your Mind – Your Best Weapon dealt with all kind of mental techniques utilized to gain the upper edge while duelling. It described Legilimency and Occlumency as well as methods to attack your opponents mind directly either to incapacitate, to maim or to kill. However it took years to master the mental attacks and without enough training the caster simply was too slow and therefore too vulnerable while preparing his strikes or simply unable to produce psybeams with sufficient strength. Due to these reasons, Harry decided to focus on Legilimency and Occlumency at the moment, thoroughly sick of people snooping in his thoughts and being able to think of a few information he would like to extract from other people’s minds. The book also mentioned a technique know as Blind Seeing, which allowed the user to feel other person’s minds, rendering it almost impossible to surprise or to ambush him or her. The fact that you could recognize persons at the unique feeling their mind caused, was the icing on the cake. Harry had almost immediately added learning this method to his to-do list, knowing how useful it could be in combat.

Fifty Wicked Combat Spells dealt with all kind of jinxes, curses, charms and hexes considered highly useful and potent in a wizard duel. Several of then were so powerful that they could blast through Shield Charms and still mortally injure the witch or wizard hiding beneath it. Also spells with an area of effect to fight several foes at once and advanced defence spells were described. It did not surprise Harry at all that the book had been restricted to Auror-use only by the Ministry, which was clearly indicated by the large red stamp which had been printed on the first page. The most interesting spell in the book though, was the Nearly Effortless Charm of Near Distance Teleporting, more commonly known as the Blinking Charm. Its user was able to “blink” over short distances, bypassing Anti-Apparation wards and without any inconvenience, a feat highly unusual for a magical way of travelling, which usually were either painful or dangerous. Of course the spell had a few drawbacks: it was very tiring when cast in rapid succession and the caster either had to be able to see the place he wanted to teleport to or remembering it from an earlier visit. The charm was another thing quickly added to Harry’s agenda.

The Auror’s Handbook was a book dedicated to the way Aurors should behave in all kind of situations. It described everyday situations as well as full blown battles between numerous Aurors and criminals of any sort. Naturally Harry considered the parts the most interesting which dealt with strategies applied in close combat. Harry wanted to fight his bad habit of always rushing into a fight without having a plan and while he had no hope of ever achieving Ron’s strategic genius, he still was convinced that the book, despite being very out of date, could make a difference. Maybe he would once even be able to win one game of chess against his best mate.

Last but not least there was the volume dealing with the Focus Arkanum. The Focus was a technique utilized to channel the magical energies of a magical being, allowing its users to cast stronger spells at a faster rate. Also it was supposed to increase your ability to pour the correct amount of power into any spell, rendering complex magical actions like transfiguration much easier. Normally a wand was employed to channel a wizard’s or witch’s energy so that he or she could spells. The Focus Arkanum was usually used to gain control over the amount of power the wand used, making it possible to supercharge spells. With sufficient energy channelled into it a more or less harmless Reductor Curse could morph into a flesh ripping bullet, which even penetrated walls. Theoretically it was even possible to substitute the wand completely, after all it was only a tool doing what the Focus could do much better, but this required a lot of concentration, energy and usually years of preparation. Therefore wands had been invented to make it easier for the mass of the magical population to actually cast magic and while a wand itself could never tap all of its wielders potential, this method had preserved. Of course the fact that the usage of the Focus Arkanum had caused a lot of deaths in the past due to wizards pouring too much of their energy in a spell, rendering themselves unable to control it and blowing themselves up in the process. Over the course of almost two thousand years, starting directly after the wand had been invented, the ancient Focus vanished more and more until only a few volumes about the subject remained. However not all wizards alive had forgotten about it. Harry had no idea if the Focus was indeed as powerful as the book described but even the small possibility that it would help him against Voldemort lifted his spirits.

So instead of sitting at the pond, sulking, he should be training everything he considered worthy, should not he? Well, he should, but he really was not in the mood at the moment and here is why.

Last night, while he had been lying awake in his bed, mulling over the wedding night’s events, a topic the more sensual parts of his brain really liked to dwell, he had realized that neither Ginny nor him had used any protection while having sex. The thought of becoming a father in the middle of a war he was not sure he would survive terrified him. And Ginny would be in grave danger as soon as anyone learned that she was carrying his child! Voldemort would especially enjoy torturing her to death if he got his spidery hands on her! And how would Mr. and Mrs. Weasley react? Heck, how would Ginny react? This whole episode, bad enough itself, had the tendency to shake the very foundations of Harry’s life and even this possibility rendered sleep impossible. He had lain awake all night, playing the what-if game until the sky got brighter and brighter. Finally abandoning all hope that sleep would claim him this night, he got out of bed vowing to talk with Ginny about the topic as soon as possible, sincerely hoping that everything would be alright.

Well, he had indeed talked to her, but everything was far from alright. He had approached her after breakfast, lingering behind until only the two of them were left in the kitchen. Breaking the topic casually he had considered impossible, so he had spent no time beating around the bush. She had told him not to worry about becoming a father for she had started taking a Contraceptive Potion while they were still together and had not stopped doing so after the break up. Harry would have liked to stop talking about this rather sensitive subject directly after this revelation, but Ginny had had other ideas. In her opinion their night together had been the ultimate proof that Harry wanted to be together with her, no matter how risky it could get. After all he had had unprotected sex with her in an unlocked room she had been sharing with Hermione. Every member of her family could have caught them in the act and he had not given a damn. Apparently he was more than willing to take the risks involved in having a relationship, so why should not they get back together?

Harry, naturally, viewed their night together as an unfortunate event caused by too much alcohol and teenage hormones. In his opinion nothing had changed, but as he told her his side of the story she had reacted badly, well actually much worse than badly. She had accused him of seeing her as some kind of cheap whore who would shag everyone in the country and it would not even make a difference! Harry had tried to calm her down but she had refused to listen to him and had stormed out of the kitchen, slamming the door behind her. After staring dumbfounded at the closed door for a few seconds and after another few to figure out what exactly had happened, Harry had left for the pond to think. And of course to brood over the injustice of the world and to wallow in both self pity and self loathing. However he was not going to remain alone for a long time.

“It kinda sucks being you, doesn’t it?” said a voice he recognized as Ron’s from behind him, just as he was throwing another pebble into the water.
“What do you want Ron?” asked Harry tiredly, not in the mood to play any games with his best friends at the moment. “I am not in the mood to play Quidditch or chess or any other game. Unless you have something really important to tell me it would be better to leave me alone for a while.”
“Always directly to the point, huh?” returned Ron, chuckling, while sitting down in the grass next to her. Harry’s gaze fall unto his best mate’s face he discovered that behind the joyful façade Ron’s eyes remained solemn. Apparently he had something really important to talk about. “Very well, I wanted to talk about Ginny and you.”
“What’s there to talk about?” asked Harry, as nonchalantly as he could; hoping that playing dumb would spare him this awkward conversation.

“Don’t play that game with me Harry.” replied the redhead, rolling his eyes. “Hermione told me everything about Ginny’s and your break up. Apparently my sister had wanted to share some things with her best female friend and after your little display this morning Hermione considered it best to inform me and convinced me to go after you while she talked with Ginny.”
“Alright so you know how things are between Ginny and me, but that still does not make it your business.” said Harry angrily, not at all in the mood for any of Ron’s big brother antics at the moment. Was it that difficult to see that Harry did not want to talk about this bloody subject? Talking with his best mate would not change anything but turning the knife in the wound caused by his involuntary break up. As much as he hated to admit it, he really missed her.

“I am afraid that it is my business.” answered Ron, his face and voice suddenly devoid of all the cheerfulness he had sported seconds ago. “My sister’s boyfriends are my business if she likes it or not and if her boyfriend happens to be my best mate then it really is my business. If you had broken up with her for any other reason than to protect her I would have already kicked your arse. But on the other hand you seemed to be suffering at least as much as she does, so maybe kicking your arse would be irrelevant anyway…”
“I am so glad that you are once again in big brother mode.” replied Harry scathingly, his patience wearing thin. “But you are mistaken, I don’t miss Ginny and I really don’t want her back.”

His lie sounded unconvincing even in his own ears and Ron did not even bother commenting.
“So if you are suffering because of the break up and she is suffering because of the break up, then why the hell don’t you get back together?” he asked instead.
“Are you bloody insane?” snapped Harry. Of all people he had thought Ron would understand why he had to end things with Ginny, after all the redhead was at least as protective of her as Harry was. “You know as well as I do that she will become one of Voldemort’s main targets as soon as information leaks out that we are a couple! This sadist bastard will enjoy torturing her just to hurt me and I can’t bear the thought of something happening to her just because I am her bloody boyfriend! I have lost enough people in my life already and I really don’t want to add her name to the demised-because-they-chose-to-align-themselves-with-Harry-Potter list!”

“Yeah I know that and I understand you.” replied Ron calmly. “But there is a big error in your logic. You-Know-Who already knows that you and Ginny once were a couple for it was big Hogwarts’ gossip for almost two weeks. One of the Slytherins surely let something slip. And he does not know about your break up and even if he knew he would still be hunting Ginny just because there is the slight change that her capture would lure you out of hiding and cause you to attempt some crazy rescue mission. You told me two days ago to get a move on, because times are so unstable and because we may not have as much time as we thought we would have. Now I am passing the same piece of advice back to you. Both of you are miserable without each other and if you continue to dance around each other, it may be too late. Do you want Ginny to die with the last arguments between the two of you fresh in her mind? I certainly would not like Hermione to die this way. So get things back together, all right? You know you can do this, my sister can’t stay mad at you for a long time.”

Ron rose from the ground and clapped Harry on the shoulders in a reassuring manner. Harry felt the little sliver left of his determination to stay away from Ginny crumble under Ron’s attempt to mend his relationship. He knew how clueless Ron was about feelings in general and the fact that even he had discovered how much Harry and Ginny missed each other spoke volumes. Even Ron, the most protective of Ginny’s numerous brothers considered their relationship worth the risk of one losing the other. Could Harry really continue distancing himself from his pseudo ex-girlfriend, after Ron’s encouraging words? Could he really not honour the trust Ron had in him? After all he knew Ron’s attitude towards anyone starting a relationship with his treasured sister.

Well, maybe he could continue walking away, but Harry highly doubted that he could resist the combined pressure of Ron, Hermione and Ginny. He needed his strength to fight Voldemort and his goons and not his best friends and the girl he loved. Sighing, Harry decided that he had no other choice than to give in and even though he would have to confront a probably still livid Ginny in the near future, he felt kind of relieved as he rose from the ground and stood right next to his red haired friend.

“Oh, what I originally wanted to tell you.” said Ron, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Apparently, he had expected Harry to struggle a lot more. “Our booklists arrived and mum wants us to go shopping today. You should better hurry we are going to leave in half an hour.”

- - - - - -

Harry was strolling down Diagon Alley, his face hidden from view by his dark cloak’s hood. He was alone, because many Order members had considered it much too suspicious for a cloaked figure the walk with the Weasley family, who always attracted way much attention thanks to their fiery hair and usually big numbers. It would not have taken a genius to figure out who a disguised person walking with them would be and all of them would be an easy target. So, their escort of various Order members, under the leadership of Mad Eye, had decided that Harry should go alone, while they kept an eye on the Weasleys and on him. Diagon Alley was by far not as crowded as it would have been two years ago, but still Harry could see a big number of Aurors guarding the place. Voldemort would be hard pressed to inflict any severe damage with the Aurors and the members of the Order of the Phoenix in place.

Of course this operation required a lot of manpower better used elsewhere, which was why Mad Eye had a first argued against Harry going the Diagon Alley at all. To Harry’s surprise Molly Weasley had rushed to his aid, insisting that he should have the opportunity to go shopping as an ordinary boy. The grizzled ex-Auror had not liked it, but in the end he had given in, unwilling to spend too much of his time arguing with the stubborn Mrs. Weasley, but had insisted on splitting the groups and on Harry wearing a disguise. Mrs. Weasley had pursed her lips at the plan, but knew when not to press a compromise. Harry himself had been quite grateful for Mad Eye’s plan, wanting to get away from Ginny for a while, who was stubbornly avoiding his gaze, failing horribly to keep a neutral expression on her face. Harry knew that he chat he planed to have with her later that day was going to uncomfortable at best, partly because Ginny was at least as hot tempered as he was and partly because he still did not know exactly what he had to apologize for. He knew that he was only delaying the inevitable, but still he felt grateful for the little extra time.

Pushing Ginny out of his mind, he pulled out the mysterious letter he had received together with his booklist and read it again, while he walked down the nearly empty alley.

Dear Mister Potter,

Please meet me in my office before the welcoming feast; we have important things to discuss.

Yours sincerely

Minerva McGonagall, headmistress.

It was short and to the point, but Harry could not think of a single thing the new headmistress wanted to discuss with him personally and that could not wait till the feast was over. What was so important that she did not even gave a hint in her letter? Was she going to riddle him about the quest he had started with Dumbledore once again? She should know better then to try, though. His attitude towards sharing the secret his old mentor had passed to him had not changed at all, and he was not going to pass this information to anyone. Dumbledore may have been much too trusting, but if even he did not consider the Order trustworthy enough to learn about the Horcruxes, then Harry certainly would not be foolish enough to tell them. Mulling the letter’s content over and over in his head, Harry finally decided that the only way to find out was to indeed meet with McGonagall before the feast. Considering the dark times, bad news should be expected, but Harry was confident that nothing his old transfiguration professor could tell him would overwhelm him, he had had his fair share of bad news in the past, after all.

As he walked down the alley he suddenly saw a little shop in a side street he had never seen before. Magical Devices To Fix Your Body’s Flaws was written in green ink on the front door. Harry’s curiosity had been piqued. Mrs. Weasley had decided to get his books and every other stuff he might require at school so that he did have the time to look for more … exotic items, as she had put it. It also prevented him from walking into any shops where Death Eaters might be waiting for him, expecting him to buy his equipments like an ordinary schoolboy. Even though the shop did indeed look a bit shady, Harry decided to check it out. He still was in Diagon Alley after all and fixing your body’s flaws sounded highly useful, especially if you expected to fight for your life in the near future.

He entered the shop and found it crammed with all kind of shelves filled with all possible variants of magical prostheses. There were wooden legs, golem arms and hands and even some of the magical glass eyes Mad Eye Moody used. Just as Harry bent down to closer examine one of the artificial eyes, a voice sounded behind.
“Well dearie, are you interested in buying one? Otherwise I must ask you not to touch them, they are very breakable.”
Harry wheeled around to find a middle aged, plump witch with a heart shaped and cheery face standing behind a counter he had overseen in the chaos of the shop’s interior. For a moment he was not sure what to say, but then an idea struck him.
“No, but I would like to buy some magical contact lenses.” He said, realizing how helpless he would be in a fight as soon as his lenses were knocked askew. “Do you have got some?”
“Of course. Coloured or clear?” replied the witch.
“Clear.” answered Harry very satisfied with his eyes’ colour and seeing no need to change it anytime soon.

The witch started to rummage behind the counter for a while and extracted a small wooden box, placed it on the table and opened. Inside lay two small, clear lenses, protected by the chest’s padded interior from any damage which might occur to them while getting transported or handled in the shop.
“These high quality lenses are one of the best on the market.” explained the saleswitch. “Once in place they will automatically adjust themselves to your eyesight and will remain there until you wish to remove them. They are unbreakable and charmed to be extra soft so that they will never cause you any discomfort, while you are using them. There are a few better models on the market, buy they are restricted to Auror-use only, because they are able to see through Invisibility Charms and Cloaks. The same is true for some of the glass eyes. You don’t look like an Auror, so will you take them?”

“Yes, I would like to buy them.” answered Harry immediately, considering it highly unlikely that he could lay his hands on any of the Auror lenses. He paid the saleswitch the hefty sum of twenty galleons and she showed him how to attach and to remove the lenses. Harry took of his glasses and put in the contact lenses and was pleasantly surprised to find the world almost immediately slipping into focus. Pocketing his glasses, he left the shop and discovered that it was time to meet with the Weasleys already. Five minutes later he was back at the Burrow.

- - - - - -

The same day, after dinner, Harry walked up the stairs leading to Ginny’s room, determined to finally fix things with her. She had constantly ignored him all day and all his attempts to start a conversation with her had been useless. Growing tired with her avoiding him, Harry had decided to take the bull by the horns and pay her a visit in her room. He knew that setting things right was not going to be easy, but the longer he delayed talking with her, the worse it would get. The irony of the situation did not escape him: a few days ago he had tried in vain to push her away and now he was successful but was not even in the least bit happy about it. Harry made a mental note to stay calm during their conversation, after all Ginny was a hothead herself and the situation would only grew even worse if he lost his temper as well. Steeling himself for the worst, he knocked once on the closed door leading to the lion’s den, waiting for disaster to strike,

Nothing happened. Everything remained silent, no noise betraying Ginny’s presence in the room. Harry furrowed his brows in annoyance; he knew that she was in there; after all he had seen her entering the room just a few moments ago. Hermione was downstairs with Ron so she was not hanging around with his best female friend. Therefore only two options remained. Either she had left the room without him noticing it or she was in there and ignoring any knocks on the door, because she expected him to come after her and had no intention to have a heart to heart with him. Well, only one way to find out.

Harry tried to open the door only to find it locked. Growling in frustration he whipped out his wand and tried to open it magically, using the Alohomora he had learned from Hermione during his first year. Nothing happened. Damn, he should have known. Ginny had six brothers so she would learn a hard to negate locking charm as soon as possible to prevent them from snooping in her room. Well, maybe a more direct approach would be in order.
“Ginny!” he bellowed, banging his fist against the door. “Open up this bloody door or I will blast it into a million pieces!”

For a moment nothing happened but then the door was yanked open revealing a livid Ginny Weasley standing on the threshold. Her chocolate eyes were burning with rage and she was glaring at Harry in an intimidating way which would have made Mrs. Weasley proud. Harry thought she was incredibly sexy.
“Harry James Potter!” she shouted. “How dare you threatening to blast down my door? You will leave right now and leave me alone before I hex you into oblivion! You have made you point, haven’t you? You don’t care about me you only wanted to sha… - oomph!”

Harry had quickly pushed her inside just in time before she could share the fact that they had had sex with the entire Weasley family, which probably would have severe consequences for him. They were going to talk, but privately and not in hearing distance to any other member of the family. He doubted that Ron, despite having encourage him to get back together with Ginny, would be overjoyed to find out all the details of his sister’s and best mate’s relationship. He closed the door behind him, while Ginny regained her balance and just had time to cast a Silencing and Locking Charm on the door, before she was shouting at him again.

“WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?” she demanded angrily, her fiery gaze locking with his.
“Talking to you.” replied Harry calmly, even though he was starting to get slightly intimidated by the livid redhead standing in front of him.
“I think we have some things to discuss and I don’t want your whole family to know about all the details.”
“We have nothing to discuss.” snapped Ginny, having calmed down somewhat. “You think I am so kind of whore and shagging me is no big deal, because everyone is going to have a go, so you can just go and leave me alone! I should have known better! That was the reason why you do not want to be together with me, you don’t want to be tied to a girl!”
“That’s rubbish and you know it!” returned Harry heatedly, getting riled up by all the unfair accusations she threw at him. “You know why I broke things off with you and you know that I never planned on using you!”
“THE HELL I KNOW!” she shouted, her original fury back. “I thought I knew you! I expected you to come back to me and I was not too surprised to wake up one morning after getting ravished from you the night before, but I would have never considered it possible that you would dare telling me that nothing had changed afterwards! Now I am not sure what I know anymore, why don’t you tell me? You seem to know everything, what…”

Harry shut her up in the only way he could think off: he kissed her. He crushed his lips to hers and pried her mouth open with his tongue. Their tongues met, just a buried one hand in her fiery mane and cupped her right cheek with the other one. She started to respond and an electric tingle travelled down his spine as their tongues started to dance. They could always talk later, now they had some problems to mend.

- - - - - -

While Harry and Ginny were sorting out their problems, Sandro the assassin had just arrived at the shaft that would be his entrance to the Ministry of Magic. It was part of the ministries ventilation system, but had been abandoned and sealed nearly fifty years ago. Normally, this would render it impossible for anyone to enter, but Sandro had learned from an informant that a tiny crack had appeared in the seal, a crack that would be sufficient for him to enter. Sandro slipped out of his black cloak and neatly folded it before laying it to the ground. Had any Muggles been near, they would have been shocked to discover that instead of flesh, Sandro’s whole body seemed to be made of shadows. The only thing not black on his ebony body, which resembled that of a slim, athletic tall man, were his eyes which were only white slits and his needle like teeth. Smiling a toothy grin, the shade assassin, jumped right into the shaft, which was only one feet wide. He should have never been able to fit through it, but his body turned into a cloud of shadows and he swiftly floated down the tunnel.

He slipped through the hair thin crack in the magical seal blocking the shaft and entered the Ministry’s main ventilation system. Sandro had been there several times and therefore had no trouble finding a way leading to the place he wanted to go. A few minutes later, he left the ventilation shaft in the department of the Ministry where especially valuable prisoners were held, normally criminals needed to testify for the Wizengamont to gain enough evidence to arrest an even bigger fish. And that was exactly why Sandro was here. Some members of the Wizarding World paid very much money to dispose an old friend currently in the Ministry’s custody. It was amazing how generous fear could turn a person. Sandro had been hired to dispel and old wizard’s worries today and he intended to do so.

He shifted back into his human from and crept along the deserted corridors. Few people had access to this high security area and that made it even easier for the assassin to do his job. Apparently the Ministry had not considered it possible for someone to evade the countless wards and protective enchantments placed on this place regular entry and Sandro made a mental note to keep his method of entering the place a secret as long as possible, just in case he had to make another visit in the near future. Sneaking around another corner, Sandro finally found what he was looking for.

A small, fat man with greasy grey hair was held in one cell at the very end of the corridor, a single bored looking guard standing in front of the cell’s door. His clothes marked him as a member of the Squad of Magical Law Enforcement, which was not a surprise, because Aurors were much too valuable to be used for guard duties and therefore were only ordered to do so if extremely dangerous prisoners had to be monitored. Sandro smiled his toothy grin, because this would make things even easier for him.

Before the guard had any chance to react, Sandro had already launched his attack. In a lightning fast movement, one of his arms, which ended in claws rather than in hands, extended to almost fifteen feet in length, and started flying towards the surprised guard and ripped his throat out, painting the nearest walls red. The prisoner, who had until a few seconds ago talked heatedly to the guard, obviously trying to convince him to let him go, screamed in terror and stumbled back against his cell’s wall, but it was already too late. Sandro had turned into smoke once again, slipping through the iron bars and blasting through the enchantments guarding the place as though they did not even exist. Teeth bared in a leery smile, he grab the convict by the neck and lifted him of the ground, taking a moment to bath in the angst he could see in his victim’s eye, before breaking his neck with a single, quick movement.

He dropped the body to the ground, before summoning the black book holding the names of his next jobs. He smiled as he crossed out today’s name. Another job well done.