Betrayal of the Best Kind
Pain
By Draco664
Pain
Harry set down the precious guide on the cold sand floor. A few weeks had passed since the unexpected encounter with the minister, and Harry had continued studying the guide for several hours each day. Though Harry was never top of his class in Transfiguration, his father's guide was an excellent resource, containing all the required passages from texts normally only accessible to students in the Hogwart's library.
"I think I'm ready, Mr. Prongs. I'm going to try the full transformation."
Mr. Prongs is delighted at Mr. Prong, Jr's progress.
Mr. Wormtail would also like to express his admiration, and humbly suggests that Mr. Prongs, Jr have a friend nearby for when he transforms.
Harry smiled wistfully. Why do I need a friend nearby, Mr. Wormtail?"
Mr. Wormtail would just like to say that Mr. Wormtail recalls Mr. Prongs' first attempt at full transformation.
Mr. Moony also fondly remembers Mr. Prongs' first attempt, and the pandemonium that ensued.
Mr. Prongs would like to point out that Mr. Prongs tried it first because Messrs . Padfoot and Wormtail showed they should not have been sorted into Gryffindor, and that Messrs. Padfoot and Wormtail learned much from Mr. Prongs' discomfort.
Mr. Padfoot still laughs at the image, and would like to point out that discomfort is too mild a word.
Harry's eyes widened. "What happened?"
Mr. Padfoot recalls being given detention for a week.
Mr. Wormtail objects, and states for the record that Mr. Wormtail could not think of a better story to tell the headmaster at short notice.
Mr. Moony has not been able to think of a better story, even with as much notice as needed.
"Let me guess. Mr. Wormtail claimed that Mr. Prongs was the butt of a failed attempt of a joke by Mr. Padfoot."
Mr. Padfoot would like to offer his sincere admiration at Mr. Prongs, Jr's deductive ability.
"Why didn't you say that it was not your fault, Mr. Padfoot?"
Mr. Moony points out that with Mr. Prongs, Jr's recently displayed deductive ability, Mr. Prongs, Jr should be able to figure that out for himself.
Harry started chuckling. "Mr. Padfoot was laughing too much to object to anything."
Mr. Prongs would once again like to express his delight at Mr. Prongs, Jr's progress in all things mischievous.
"So I should have a friend nearby just so they can laugh at my first attempt if it goes wrong?"
Mr. Wormtail would like to correct Mr. Prongs, Jr, and say that it is so he can be taken to the infirmary in the likely event that Mr. Prongs, Jr is unable to get there without help.
Mr. Moony agrees with Mr. Wormtail, but would like to state that Mr. Moony enjoys reminiscing the utter chaos that ensued as Mr. Prongs tried to disentangle his prongs, using only his hooves.
Fear trickled into Harry's heart. What if he messed up? What if he wasn't able to reverse whatever mistake he made? Would he die here? Would he be stuck here for good?
Harry had made significant progress with his animagus exercises. The partial transformations of various parts of his body had been accomplished successfully. All he really needed to do was to make all the individual changes at once. Sounded easy really.
"Mr. Prongs, I was sorted into Gryffindor for a reason. Let's do it."
~~~
Pain. Confusion. Disorientation. Harry couldn't remember what happened. The tendons in his hands, arms and shoulders felt like they had been stretched beyond breaking point and then frozen. Pain from his legs made him think they had been run over by a car, slowly. His spine had been twisted out of shape, crushing his internal organs. Worst of all was his head. His eyes now reported different, non-overlapping scenes to his brain, adding to his headache. His skull pounded, feeling as though his head had been crushed. Even his jaw was painful, as though all his teeth had been pulled.
Harry tried to stand, but couldn't retain his balance. Collapsing on the sand floor, He willed the pain to stop, to end.
Instantly, the pain ceased. Harry gasped for the breath he couldn't take before. His eyes slowly focused on the stone roof of his bleak prison cell. Heart pounding, he slowly stood on quivering legs.
"What the hell was that?" Harry asked the parchment lying on the sand.
Mr. Prongs would first like to ask if Mr. Prongs, Jr is all right.
"Let's just say I've only been in that much pain a few times before."
Mr. Padfoot would like to apologise to Mr. Prongs, Jr, and say that the first transformation is always painful.
Mr. Wormtail concurs, and would like Mr. Prongs, Jr to know that it is necessary to keep that fact from potential mischief-makers, since it is the only step that stops more wizards becoming animagi.
"I guess that this is why so few wizards willingly do this." Harry murmured.
Mr. Prongs would finally like to again express admiration and pride for Mr. Prongs, Jr, and say that it has been a pleasure helping Mr. Prongs, Jr to achieve his full potential as a magical mischief-maker.
The animagus guide went blank.
"You have no idea, Dad. No idea. This will be the biggest prank since the Maraurders left Hogwarts."
~~~
Summer 1 year ago
A tapping at his bedroom window woke Harry just before sunrise. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he saw Cho's tawny owl waiting patiently to be let in. Harry and Cho had been exchanging letters regularly over the course of this summer, Harry learning more and more about the girl he had once had a crush on for two years. She wrote about how her maternal grandparents had fled the magic intolerance of the then current Chinese government. How they had set up the apocathary in Diagon Alley, and how her father served in the British navy, before meeting and marrying her mother.
They had also exchanged photos of each other as children, though Harry had precious few of those. Cho was always careful to return them to him, after making a copy of course. Cho thought Harry was an absolutely adorable baby.
Their letters were not all happy and light. They both used the letters to pour out their grief, finding comfort in the other. Harry was glad to have confided in Cho the events of and following the third task, something he could not bring himself to do with Ron or Hermione. It was not that he didn't trust them, but the events did not affect them personally. Cedric's death had affected both himself and Cho deeply, and that bond allowed them to grow closer.
With a smile on his face, Harry untied Cho's latest missive and began to read.
Dear Harry,
Please find enclosed the last picture you sent me. I may have said this before, but you were such a cute baby! My mother thinks I am becoming clucky, and is very glad, since I have never expressed an interest in having children.
Harry's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.
Close your mouth Harry, I'm not interested in having kids just yet.
Harry closed his open mouth and chuckled. She had got to know him too well.
I know you don't receive much information on what is happening in the wizard world, though on second thought, you do probably get a bit from Ron. Nothing much has happened, officially. There is nothing reported in the papers, but there are several rumors going round. Generally it's events that a friend of a friend saw, that sort of thing. One story that is true, Professor Dumbledore sent a request to the ministry asking that students above forth year be allowed to practice magic at home during the holidays. Apparently the minister himself rejected it.
"Damn Fudge, you can't let anything disrupt your idyllic view of the world, can you." muttered Harry.
It is a dangerous move on his part. He is literally staking his entire political career on the fact that you are lying. Considering everything that has happened, you'd think he was either in league with or being blackmailed by You-know-who's supporters.
Harry blinked. That was something that had never occurred to him. The thought of the most influential wizard in Britain under the thumb of Voldemort was more than a little frightening. Perhaps he should mention it to Sirius next time he saw him.
Anyway, enough of the depressing stuff. Are you going to be getting your school stuff for next year from Diagon Alley any time soon? I'd love to see you again, and speak to you face-to-face. My parents would also like to meet the famous Ha Li Bo Te, but don't worry, I've told them how much you hate being fussed over. They will be polite and not make a big deal, I promise.
A big belly laugh threatened to escape Harry's control. This has got to be the first time someone's parents were more nervous than who they were being introduced to, Harry thought.
Please let me know when you are going to be in Diagon Alley, so I can make sure I'm not working in the shop.
Take care,
All my love,
Cho.
Harry stared at the way Cho had signed off her letter. The words 'All my love' kept running through his head. He was sure he was over the crush he had on her. For the last month he had been writing her letters and occasionally speaking on the phone, and since that first call had he not experienced the familiar 'butterflies in the stomach' feeling.
Now, he wasn't so sure. Those damned butterflies had returned with great gusto, as if reminding him that they had been absent for the better part of the summer. He knew she wasn't completely over Cedric, you don't have your boyfriend murdered and are perfectly fine less than two months later.
He also knew that he hadn't been totally honest with her. In one of her earlier letters, she mentioned that she told her mother everything, all her secrets. Harry was glad that Cho had such a close relationship with her parents, but it was that relationship that made him hold back. Confiding in her about Sirius would mean trusting her mother with that secret, and Harry was not about to jeopardise Sirius' safety like that.
Also, he had not mentioned his father's letter. Not even to Ron or Hermione. He couldn't articulate why he kept it from them, he just knew that it was something deeply personal and private.
Harry scrounged around on his desk for a relatively nice sheet of parchment and a quill.
~~~
Cho stared out her bedroom window, watching the sunrise. Already the sounds of people bustling going about their business in Diagon Alley filtered up to her room. The dawn's first light had touched her perfect features minutes before, as she watched the beginning of a new day.
The summer had been a trying time for Cho. Cedric's death had affected her deeply, it had been the first time someone close to her had died. Bad enough, but his violent death at the hands of someone whose return the minister was desperately trying to cover up made it doubly hard.
Harry had helped her through the ordeal more than he suspected. He had always been there, since her second year at Hogwarts. He always got attention and recognition, even though it was clear he wanted nothing more than to be a normal boy. She smiled as she remembered one of the first times he had ever spoken to her, stammering out a offer to take her to the Yule ball last year. She had been truly sorry at that moment that she had agreed to go with Cedric.
It wasn't that he was the Boy-Who-Lived. Several girls had already asked him to the ball, just because he was, well, Harry Potter. At the time she had been angry with them, just wanting to go with him because he was famous. In one of his letters, he had mentioned that he had never before spoken to the first three girls that had asked him to the ball last year. It was the same with her, to a lesser extent. A lot of people had asked her, and none of them saw her as anything other than a pretty face.
She had thought the same about Harry to start with. Apart from snapping at her earlier in the year when he was under a fair bit of stress, he had never spoken to her before asking her to the ball. But there was something about him that was different from the other boys she knew at Hogwarts. The way his eyes just captured hers, his beautiful emerald eyes, so expressive, yet so mysterious. His letters had contained so much she was sure only a handful of people knew about him.
Harry was certainly not just The-Boy-Who-Lived. He had faced down the most feared wizard of recent times, even dueled him, in the middle of a ring of Death Eaters, and still escaped. He had withstood each of the unforgivable curses, cast at him by You-know-who. He had faced down and flown against a dragon and helped Cedric rescue Cho from the bottom of the Hogwart's lake. He'd even survived an encounter with Sirius Black, You-know-who's lieutenant, though Harry had been curiously uninformative about that. Surprising really, since he had told her all about how the troublesome trio (as Harry and his friends are known amongst the staff, according to professor Flitwick) had beaten professor Quirrel to the Philosopher's stone, and rescued Ron's sister from the Chamber of Secrets. Even his adventure of arriving at school in a flying car in her third year.
Perhaps he still felt in danger, after all, Black was still at large, and had not been sighted even once since the end of her forth year.
Even though he had opened up to her in his letters, Harry was still an enigma to her. She had cried when reading his description of the cupboard he lived in for ten years before coming to Hogwarts. She felt anger and hatred towards his relatives, after reading how they treated him during the summer. He was telling her the truth, she knew, but how he turned into the person he was spoke volumes about his character. His eyes hid far more then they expressed. Yes, there was more to Harry than a famous scar.
Cho's thoughts were interrupted by a snowy owl floating in through her window on silent wings. Cho made sure Hedwig had some water and an owl treat before removing the letter from Hedwig's leg and reading Harry's reply.
Dear Cho,
Thank you for returning the photo of my mother and I, it is one of my favorites. I'm glad you enjoy these photos as much as I do. It means a lot to me to be able to share them with someone.
I'll bet, thought Cho. She had sent him a few dozen photos of her taken as she was growing up, and had initially been surprised at how few Harry sent her. It was only after she had been a little upset that she realised that he had sent her nearly his entire collection. She still felt guilty at her first reaction.
Normally I get to spend a little while at the Weasleys' at the end of the summer, but this year the headmaster has been reluctant to let me leave Privet Drive. If I don't get permission to visit them, I'll visit you on the 28th of August. I refuse to stay here any longer than necessary; I will take a room at the Leaky Cauldron for the last few days of the holidays.
Cho let out an excited squeal. She knew it was horrible of her to think it, but she almost hoped that Harry wasn't allowed to go to the Weasleys, so he got to spend a few days living just around the corner.
I might even end up staying in Diagon Alley even if I am invited to the Weasleys. They are going through a bad patch right now. Percy has moved out and there have been a lot of arguments apparently. The last thing I want to do is make it more awkward for them.
I am looking forward to meeting your parents. The only parents of people I know who I have met are Mr. & Mrs. Weasley, Mr. & Mrs. Diggory, and Malfoy's Dad. Well, that is not strictly true, I met Crabbe and Goyle's fathers too, but they had masks and dark robes on and were trying to kill me at the time. I haven't even met Hermione's parents. They are not exactly prominent in the wizarding world, being dentists, but I would like to meet them one day.
I hope I'm not being too forward, but in our school letters, one of the requirements is a dress robe. Using all the powers of reasoning available to me, I'd guess there is going to be at least one ball. May I have the honor of escorting you to the dance? I realise it is not the same as asking in person, but I doubt I'd make a lot of sense if I had to do that. I seem to recall stuttering and mumbling a lot the last time I tried.
Cho's dark eyes widened. Harry was asking her to the ball. He didn't even know when it was on, but he wanted to make sure he went with her. A vast feeling of relief settled on Cho's shoulders. At least now, she would be going with someone who respected her, and knew she was not just a pretty face.
Please let me know, I really do look forward to seeing you on the 28th.
Love, Harry.
Cho grabbed a quill and started to write a quick affirmative reply.
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