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Harry Potter and the Cracked Reservoir
Chapter 9: Planning
By Musings of Apathy
Chapter 9: Planning
Thanks to my Beta’s Donalddeutsch, Cateagle, Kat Armstrong and Sparky40sw.
"Professor," Harry said, getting his Headmaster’s attention. Ginny was off in conversation with some of the order members when Harry decided he needed to make some arrangements.
"Yes, Harry?" the Professor responded from under his outrageously festive party hat. "How are you enjoying your party?"
"It’s very nice, sir," Harry said with an honest smile.
"Good, good," Dumbledore said. "Now what can I help you with?"
"Can we go somewhere private?" Harry requested.
"Certainly," the Professor said as he looked for somewhere not overrun with guests, "let’s take a walk."
They left the party headed for the woods at a leisurely stroll.
"Professor, I have a couple of questions," Harry started. "First, I want to tell my friends about the prophecy and what I’ll have to do."
"Why is that, Harry?" the Professor asked neutrally.
"They’re going to be in danger and deserve to know," Harry stated as fact. "Plus, they’ll wonder where I’m spending my time when I’m training and why I’m suddenly training so much. I guess that I want them to know the reason that this falls to my shoulders."
"Of course, Harry," the Professor acknowledged his reasoning. "But do give them some choice. Ask them if they want to know more information if it could be dangerous for them. If their answer is yes, I have no problem with them knowing. Will you inform them of your recent power issues?"
"I should," Harry said thoughtfully. "They would get insulted if I don’t keep them informed. While I don’t think that they have a right to have my life be an open book, I do think that they need to know that much."
"I agree that you should," Dumbledore replied," and that no one has a right to all of your secrets, friends or no. And the second question?"
"Can we make arrangements," Harry asked, "for Ginny and myself to go into muggle London to fulfill the part of Sirius’s will that requested that I burn my old wardrobe and buy a new one?"
"Of course, Harry," the Professor said. "I’ll make arrangements for you and Miss Weasley to be able to shop on Monday the tenth of August."
"Thank you, Professor," Harry said. "Can you take some money out of my vault to buy suitable muggle clothes for the order members that may help so that nothing looks out of the ordinary? Some wizards, or most as it were, don’t seem to grasp the concept of muggle clothing."
"You are awful trusting that I understand such things," the Professor mused.
"I always believed that it’s not a difficult thing to understand," Harry reflected, "it’s just that most wizards refuse to dedicate enough thought to learning about muggle culture and with your penchant for muggle lemon drops, I believe that you may be knowledgeable enough to get it done."
"Thank you, Harry," Dumbledore answered. "Have you thought of what you will get Miss Weasley for her birthday? With her birthday the day after your shopping trip, you may not have any time to shop for her."
"Oh, of course," Harry stopped walking, "her birthday. Hmm, it slipped my mind. I’m not going to be able to go shopping before the eleventh. Could you do me a favor? Can you also go to Quality Quidditch Supplies and buy the best chaser broom available in the world and send it to me. Also, do they make a case for brooms?" he asked. "Moody’s trunk gave me an idea that you could have a flat box just big enough for the tail and magically expanded to hold the entire broom but outwardly very thin. Do they have that?"
The Professor chuckled at his student’s sudden enthusiasm. Harry was the kind of person that everyone had the urge to please. Subconsciously, a person could tell when joy is a rare thing in life for another and for most there is a want to help. The question is whether the subconscious is listened to or not.
"How about," the Professor offered, "if I find a suitable box for her new broom and teach you to perform any spells that could help and you can decide what the case needs to be like."
"Thank You, Professor," Harry said brightly.
In the days following the party, Harry continued his magical and physical exercises, determined to meet any fight prepared. He managed to find a couple of hours each day while Ginny did homework and the others were…well…otherwise occupied to sneak into the forest behind the Weasley’s house and practice his power control and the speed that he could access his core. Harry again utilized his broom for reaction training but had to keep his altitude low, as the Burrow didn’t have perfect privacy in their orchard where the mock Quidditch pitch was set.
Ginny came out to investigate on one of these times to find him zigzagging through the perimeter trees and was immediately shocked and frightened.
"Harry James Potter!" she yelled loud enough to get his attention.
Unfortunately he couldn’t spare the attention as the broom’s tail clipped a small branch and launched him into a broomless high-speed, low-altitude flight that, while it could have been singularly exhilarating, was not what the human body was designed for. The flight was too short and ended with him skidding across the lush green grass on his back, feet first.
"Omigod, Harry!" she exclaimed as she raced after his still form.
She skidded to a halt on her knees and grasped Harry’s hand in hers. His eyes fluttered open and a smile cracked his lips.
"Ginny," Harry asked, "why did you have to yell at me?"
"I thought you would be hurt," she said with tears prickling her eyes.
"I guess that you ended up correct," he says ironically, "Maybe you’re turning into a seer. But, please, next time wait until I’m not flying through trees to yell at me."
Ginny looked bashful as she fully realized her mistake.
"Now, what was all of the shouting about?" Harry asked. "Why are you up here?"
"Well, the shouting," Ginny shuffled on her knees, "I…uh…panicked and…yelled."
"And why are you up here?" he asked. "I thought that you did homework around now."
"I finished it all," she said triumphantly.
"Like ‘Ron’ sort of saying that you finished," Harry said, "or ‘Percy’ sort of saying that you finished?"
"Oh, Harry," she slapped his arm, "Ron isn’t that bad."
"Yes he is," Harry stated emphatically. "He’s my friend, but he’s the worst procrastinator in the whole school. A game of tiddily-winks would distract him from homework."
"Well, at least you weren’t hurt," Ginny said. "Let’s go down and see what the two love birds are doing."
"But first…" Harry said as he grabbed the back of Ginny’s head for a mind-numbing kiss. He was really enjoying being with Ginny.
Ginny and Harry found Ron and Hermione at the kitchen table studying; none to willingly on Ron’s part. Harry mused inwardly that this new relationship could be good for Ron’s grades.
"Hey, guys," Harry greeted, "How goes it?"
"Great," answered Hermione enthusiastically, "Why aren’t you doing your homework?"
"Did it in the Hogwarts library in the first week," Harry dismissed with wave of his hand.
"Oh," Hermione said, "of course. You always tend to get your summer homework done early."
"Yeah," Harry grinned, "Nothing better to do."
"What were you doing while we were in here slaving away?" asked Ron, earning a glare from the bushy haired woman next to him.
"I was just flying my broom," Harry smiled, "when your sister tried to get me killed."
Ginny huffed, "I did not try to kill you."
"Ron, see what you think," Harry argued. "I was weaving through the perimeter trees to your orchard at full speed when she yelled at me, causing me to hit a branch and thus the ground. What do you call that besides trying to kill me? I told her next time to wait until I wasn’t concentrating to yell at me."
Ron contemplated this, glancing from Harry’s expectant expression of confirmation to Ginny’s glare of warning.
"Leave me out of this one, mate," Ron said wisely. "With her temper, you should know better than to do anything to anger her when you are dating her."
Harry glanced at his girlfriend. "Yeah, Ron. Thanks for the support and the warning," Harry said followed by, "Ow," as Ginny hit his shoulder.
"That’s for flying so dangerously and risking your life," Ginny glared.
"Ginny," Harry replied, "I’ve been doing it for weeks now; all summer. A broom was the best way to get into the Chamber," Harry continued without thinking.
"The Chamber?" Ginny asked, her voice going high and worried. "You’ve been back into the Chamber of Secrets?"
"Oh, yeah," Harry said, realizing his mistake. He had not told anyone besides Professor Dumbledore of his practice area. "I needed a practice area during school where I wouldn’t be interrupted and wouldn’t put anyone in danger if I used a powerful spell," he said, "Come on, let’s go somewhere more private so that I can tell you what’s been going on with me since the ministry."
The rest looked grave and eager at the same time. Harry knew that they each had reasons to want to know his story, mostly in their caring for him.
They adjourned to the boys’ bedroom and found comfortable seats, the girls on each of their boyfriend’s beds with them.
Harry cast silencing and locking charms on the room and door.
"Harry, you are not supposed to do magic. You could be expelled," protested Hermione.
"That’s part of the story, Hermione," Harry said.
Ron looked excited, "You can do magic? When did they give you a waiver? Why did they?"
"Calm down Ron," Harry asked. "Just listen to the story and then you can ask questions."
He received nods of assent from his audience. Ginny, however didn’t look shocked as she had seen him do magic in front of the teachers and they didn’t react, so she figured that it was kosher.
"Well," Harry started, "I guess that you all know the basics of what happened at the ministry up until the order arrived." Nods yes. "Well, as you know, after Sirius was stunned and fell through the veil, I tried to follow him through it but Professor Lupin held me back and told me that it was too late and Sirius was dead. I saw Bellatrix run out of the hall before Dumbledore could capture her. I ran after her into the entrance hall where she stopped. I used the cruciatus curse on her and she returned the gesture."
"You used an unforgivable? Are you going to get into trouble?" Ginny was terrified that she would lose Harry to Azkaban.
"No," Harry answered, "Professor Dumbledore says that I won’t be punished but he did talk to me about it. Besides, I hardly had any effect with it. Bellatrix said that you have to mean it to make an unforgivable work. You have to want to cause suffering. Well, I taunted her that the prophecy was broken and that Riddle knew about it and then he came and confirmed it. She was knocked out and Riddle started to duel with me. I was hopeless in the duel. If Dumbledore hadn't arrived and animated the fountain statues to intercept the curses, I would not have survived. They dueled for a short time before Riddle invaded my mind and asked Dumbledore to kill me to get to him. In the end the ministry filled up with officials that saw Voldemort as he left with Bellatrix unconscious body.
"Dumbledore sent me to wait in his office with a portkey until he joined me about a half hour later. He started to tell me that it wasn’t my fault that Sirius died and I got mad. I yelled and screamed. I threw things. I tried to destroy everything that he had in his office. He didn’t seem in the least affected by any of my anger. He said that if I knew any of the truth I should be trying to destroy even more and that he had too many possessions anyway. I sat down for him to tell me why I should be more angry and he told me what he should have told me five years ago. He told me the real reason that Voldemort killed my parents and tried to kill me."
The audience was glued to the story that they had not heard before with rapt attention.
"Oh, Harry," said Ginny with concern. He took her hands in his and continued.
"He told me the prophecy that Voldemort was after when he got me to go to the ministry. See, only the persons that are involved in the prophecies in the ministry may get them from the shelves. Others will be driven into St. Mungos if they try to get a prophecy from the shelves. As you know the prophecy was broken, but it seems that Dumbledore was the original person to hear the prophecy and he still remembered it. He showed it to me in his pensieve.
"It says that a baby will be born to parents that defied the dark lord three times and that this person will have the ability to vanquish him," Harry paraphrased. "It also says that he will mark me, or the baby, as his equal and that neither may live as the other survives.
"So in other words it is either he or I. It will come down to a real battle between him or me and either I will have to be a murderer or a victim."
"Harry," admonished Ginny, "just because you will have to end up killing a person, if you can call him that, it does not mean that you will be a murderer."
Harry eyed her in disbelief.
"Harry," Ginny continued, "Murder would mean that you killed an innocent person. If you kill someone to save yourself or others it is not murder. It would be wrong to not kill someone like him if you have the chance. If you have the means and opportunity to kill him and end his reign you will be saving thousands if not millions of lives. You cannot, seriously, be considering yourself a bad person for having to kill that bastard."
"Killing just sounds like such a horrid thing to do," Harry said. "I feel like it makes me no better than him."
"Soldiers have to kill all of the time. This is war, Harry and if you have the chance to take an evil from the world in battle then it is your duty as a good person to save the world. Any of us would take the same opportunity," Hermione chimed in.
"But you don’t have to," Harry whispered. "I do."
Ron stepped up in the conversation at this. "But Harry, we’ll be in the battle at your side and may have to take lives of deatheaters to protect ourselves or others."
"Harry," added Hermione, "if the side of good is fighting a battle for the knockout and the side of evil is fighting a battle to the death then the side of evil will always win as they’ll gladly take our lives when they wake from our knockout punch."
"So you’re saying that we need to fight the same battle," Harry said, bewildered. "You won’t feel guilty about killing another human."
"We are not saying that," said Ginny, "Of course we will. Guilt is what makes us humans. The ability to recognize the sanctity of the life of other people is what separates us from animals. Deatheaters and Bloody Riddle himself gave up the right to live when they committed themselves to the side of evil and killed innocent people."
"That makes sense," Harry straightened his shoulders. "I hadn’t thought of it like that."
"That’s why people discuss their problems with others," Ginny said, "for perspective."
"Thanks, Ginny," Harry said. "And Ron and Hermione, thank you two as well."
"You're welcome, Harry," Hermione said. "Now continue your story. You haven’t even got to the summer yet."
"Okay, well," Harry restarted, "he also told me that the reason that I keep going back to the Dursleys is some ancient blood magic that protects me as long as I can still call their home my home. At least now I know why I was sent there."
"Yea, well, it doesn’t seem worth it if you ask me," grumbled Ron.
"So just about a week into the holiday," Harry told his story, "I was lying in bed asleep when I had a dream of Riddle and his ilk doing a ritual. It turned out to be a power ritual to increase Tom Boy’s magic power, only it seems he was at his maximum or something because when they finished their ritual there was some sort of reaction through my scar connection with the Dark Tosser and I awoke to a burning in my chest like I was going to be consumed in fire. I panicked and sent Hedwig with a letter to Dumbledore asking for help. He came in the morning and took me back to Hogwarts for a check-up. It turns out that Riddle broke the containment on my magic potential so I had to learn to do the magic again. I had to put up a mental barrier to control my magic. That didn’t take long but he let me stay at Hogwarts for the interim until I could come here."
"That’s horrible Harry. I can’t imagine what it feels like to have your magic burning you up from the inside," sympathized Hermione.
"But, why were you in the Chamber of Secrets?" asked Ginny nervously.
"Part of the new depths of magic is that I have to practice magic every day and I needed a place where it would be safe to practice high power spells. I have a huge chunk of stone down there so that I can hit it with everything and not bring down the walls. I did a lot of patronus charms to erase the dark magic feeling and transfigured everything so that it’s not so gloomy. I changed the statues so that all of the mascots are represented and destroyed that Salazar Slytherin statue. Hit him with some powerful blasting hexes. Now that was fun," Harry smiled. "A few hundred cleaning charms and all is better."
"Oh, okay," Ginny said quietly, "Harry?"
"Yes?" Harry said as he turned to her in his arms.
"Can I ask a favor?" she whispered.
"Sure, anything," Harry said with confidence.
"When we get back to school," Ginny asked, "can you take me down there?"
"Sure I will," Harry said. "The first full day back is a Saturday and we can go down there after breakfast."
"Good," she seemed emboldened, "I’ve been scared of the thought of that horrid place for so long and I want to conquer that fear."
"Sounds very Gryffindor of you," Hermione said.
She brightened and smiled to the rest of the room, "Thank you."
She kissed Harry deeply in appreciation.
"Oh, eewe, yuck." Ron mock gagged. "I really don’t need to see my little sister doing that."
"Well, Ron," Harry said, "Hermione’s the sister that I never had and you’re the brother that I never had; so when I see the two of you, it’s like incest. So just keep that in mind."
"Oh, Harry, yuck. I didn’t need that idea in my mind," Ginny said, "enough of this. We’ll all have to see each other because, I don’t know about Hermione, but I’m getting this whenever I can." Ginny gave Harry a quick kiss on the lips to illustrate her point.
"Okay," Harry rattled his head, "If you two are going to be so attached, I am willing to call a truce and get used to seeing…that."
"Okay," Ron agreed, "truce."
"I also talked to the Headmaster about one other thing," Harry said, "Ginny, would you help me to pick a new wardrobe? Sirius instructed in his Will that I burn all of my old clothes and buy new ones. Well, not necessarily in that order. I do have to have something to wear to the shop. Oh and we will go on August tenth. The Professor is making arrangements."
"You trust me to pick your entire wardrobe?" Ginny asked with a smile.
"Sure," Harry said obviously, "of course I do."
Ginny rocketed into Harry, hugging him with all of her might.
"Ginny," Harry said in a strained voice, "air is becoming an issue."
Ginny let go of him and kissed him.
"Thank you for trusting me so deeply."
Later that day Harry caught up with Ron and Hermione, hoping to talk with them without Ginny around, as she was upstairs reading one of her schoolbooks.
"Ron, Hermione," he said, "I need to ask a favor."
"Sure, Harry," answered Hermione, "What can we do for you?"
"I’d like to send you guys for a day in Diagon Alley," Harry said, "all expenses paid."
"Okay, Harry," Ron started, "What’s the catch? You want to pay for a day in Diagon Alley for the two of us, there has to be a catch."
"You’re my friends, can’t I just do something nice?" Harry asked innocently, "Okay, just one, I want you to go on the tenth."
Ron looked perplexed. Hermione, however, knew exactly what the catch meant.
"Sure we will, Harry," she said. "You want us to spend the day in Diagon Alley on the same day that you and Ginny are in muggle London."
"Yeah," Harry said shyly, "I don’t figure that Ginny and I will have much chance to go out on dates for a while, considering that half of the order has to go along with us," he finishes bitterly.
"Sure, Harry," Hermione said, "But I’m sure that you’ll find some good ways to make her feel special while at school without having to leave the castle grounds."