Title Dating Susan Bones / / / Rating M
Chapter 09 - Losing Padfoot
Warnings Contains some mild language and violence throughout.
This chapter contains some text from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix...
-Dating Susan Bones-
Previously on Dating Susan Bones...
He was walking along the cool, dark corridor to the Department of Mysteries again, walking with a firm and purposeful tread, breaking occasionally into a run, determined to reach his destination at last. The black door swung open for him as usual, and here he was in the circular room with its many doors.
Straight across the stone floor and through the second door, patches of dancing light on the walls and floor and that odd mechanical clicking, but no time to explore, as Harry felt that he must hurry.
He jogged the last few feet to the third door, which swung open just like the others, but once again he was in the cathedral-sized room full of shelves and glass spheres, his heart beating very fast…
Harry knew for a fact that he was going to get there this time, the urge to do so being important to him. When he reached number ninety-seven he turned left and hurried along the aisle between two rows, but there was a shape on the floor at the very end, a black shape moving upon the floor like a wounded animal. Harry's stomach contracted with fear, yet at the same time it was with excitement
A voice issued from his own mouth, a high, cold voice empty of any human kindness, "Take it for me, lift it down, now, I cannot touch it, but you can…"
The black shape upon the floor shifted a little. Harry saw a long fingered white hand clutching a wand rise on the end of his own arm, hearing the high, cold voice say, "Crucio!", casting the Cruciatus Curse.
The man on the floor let out a scream of pain, attempted to stand but fell back, writhing. Harry was laughing. He raised his wand, the curse lifted, and the figure groaned and became motionless.
"Lord Voldemort is waiting."
Very slowly, his arms trembling, the man on the ground raised his shoulders a few inches and lifted his head. His face was bloodstained and gaunt, twisted in pain yet rigid with defiance. "You'll have to kill me," whispered Sirius.
Little would Harry realise that today was the last day he would see his godfather...
Broom Closet outside the Great Hall, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland
25th June 1996
"There is a room in the Department of Mysteries," interrupted Dumbledore, "that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all.
"That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the
end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you."
Harry closed his eyes. If he had not gone to save Sirius, Sirius would not have died. More to stave off the moment when he would have to think of Sirius again, Harry asked, without caring much about the answer, "The end of the prophecy, it was something about…'neither can live…'"
"'…while the other survives,'" said Dumbledore.
"So," said Harry, dredging up the words from what felt like a deep well of despair inside him, "so does that mean that . . . that one of us has got to kill the other one…in the end?"
"Yes," said Dumbledore.
For a long time, neither of them spoke. Somewhere far beyond the office walls, Harry could hear voices, students heading down to the Great Hall for an early breakfast, perhaps. It seemed impossible that there could be people in the world who still desired food, who laughed, who neither knew nor cared that Sirius Black was gone forever. Sirius seemed a million miles away already, even if a part of Harry still believed that if he had only pulled back that veil, he would have found Sirius looking back at him, greeting him, perhaps, with his laugh like a bark…
"I feel I owe you another explanation, Harry," said Dumbledore hesitantly. "You may, perhaps, have wondered why I never chose you as a prefect? I must confess…that I rather thought…you had enough responsibility to be going on with."
Harry looked up at him and saw a tear trickling down Dumbledore's face into his long silver beard.
Leaving the Headmasters office, he saw the one person who he knew that he could talk to, the woman who would be able to help him in his current mood. Escorting her to the nearest broom closet, Harry and Susan kissed each other, their kiss wiping away most of his worries.
Hospital Wing, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland
29th June 1996
'HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED RETURNS
In a brief statement, Friday night, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge confirmed that He-Who-Must-Not-Be Named has returned to this country and is active once more.
"It is with great regret that I must confirm that the wizard styling himself Lord — well, you know who I mean — is alive and among us again," said Fudge, looking tired and flustered as he addressed reporters.
"It is with almost equal regret that we report the mass revolt of the dementors of Azkaban, who have shown themselves averse to continuing in the Ministry's employ. We believe that the dementors are currently taking direction from Lord — Thingy.
"We urge the magical population to remain vigilant. The Ministry is currently publishing guides to elementary home and personal defence that will be delivered free to all Wizarding homes within the coming month."
The Minister's statement was met with dismay and alarm from the Wizarding community, which as recently as last Wednesday was receiving Ministry assurances that there was "no truth whatsoever in these persistent rumours that You-Know-Who is operating amongst us once more."
Details of the events that led to the Ministry turnaround are still hazy, though it is believed that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and a select band of followers (known as Death Eaters) gained entry to the Ministry of Magic itself on Thursday evening.
Albus Dumbledore, newly reinstated headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, reinstated member of the International Confederation of Wizards, and reinstated Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, was unavailable for comment last night. He has insisted for a year that You-Know-Who was not dead, as was widely hoped and believed, but recruiting followers once more for a fresh attempt to seize power. Meanwhile the Boy Who Lived-'
"There you are, Harry, I knew they'd drag you into it somehow," said Hermione, looking over the top of the paper at him.
Harry was sitting on the end of Ron's bed and they were both listening to Hermione read the front page of the Sunday Prophet. Ginny, whose ankle had been mended in a trice by Madam Pomfrey, was curled up at the foot of Hermione's bed; Neville, whose nose had likewise been returned to its normal size and shape, was in a chair between the two beds; and Luna, who had dropped in to visit clutching the latest edition of The Quibbler, was reading the magazine upside down and apparently not taking in a word Hermione was saying.
"He's 'the Boy Who Lived' again now, though, isn't he?" said Ron darkly. "Not such a show-off maniac anymore, eh?"
Everyone agreed with the assessment and laughed. They all knew it would be a long war now. Little would Harry expect something that his parents and godfather have done to backfire on him…
-Dating Susan Bones-
And that's the end of Dating Susan Bones. If you haven't read the sequel, The Betrothal Situation, what are you waiting for! For all of those who have read the story, I thank you very much. For those who have reviewed and given their opinions, I have appreciated them they much
Disclaimer I don't own the Harry Potter series. Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only. Any text used from the Harry Potter series is used under the fair use allowances of various copyright acts
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Type Multi Chapter / / / Status Complete
Distribution FFN, AO3, GryffindorTom Online
Story ID 074 / / / Publish Date 05/03/2017