Ame's Insanity (amejisuto) wrote in the_playground, @ 2008-03-12 15:09:00 |
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Entry tags: | ame's fics, drarry |
Haven HP/DM Rated R 4/?
Title: Haven
Chapter Four
Author: amejisuto
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Harry/Draco, various background pairings but the main one will be Fred/George/Lee.
Rating: R
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. .
Warnings/Squicks: Manipulative!Dumbles. I wouldn't go so far to say Weasley!bashing but um, I'm close. A few minor character deaths are mentioned, but not any of the main characters. More warnings may be added as I write the story.
Summary: Harry's graduated from Hogwarts, turned eighteen and defeated a Dark Lord. Now what is he going to do with his life?
Find the previous parts here.
Beta'd by the wonderful suki_blue. Thank you dearest!
Notes: First of all, I tend to totally ignore HBP and DH. I tend to think JK lost the plot sometime halfway through OotP, but that's just my opinion. So yeah, this is a total AU after book five. Don't look for quick updates with this story, I'll try to put up a new chapter once a month. Oh, and for any HP reading that haven't read my Spander epics, I tend to suck at writing smut so there will be much on the friendship and THEN the relationship and then a tiny bit of smut. LOL Hope y'all enjoy the show!
Chapter Four
Harry arrived a few minutes early for his meeting with Hermione and Ron. The plan was that they'd meet at King's Cross, someplace Ron would be able to find in the Muggle world, and then Apparate to the McDonald's in Deptford for lunch. Hermione would probably analyze the menu and criticize the lack of proper nutrition, but Harry figured Ron would get a kick out of the place.
Besides, Harry had always wanted to eat something from McDonald's. It was one of the little ways his so-called family would torture him. Left without food for days, forced to go to Tesco's with his aunt so he could load the bags and push the trolley. Not to mention lugging all the bottles of orange squash and cans of Coke that Dudley would drink.
Then they'd go through the Drive Thru of the McDonald's to get "Diddykins" a little snack. As if walking through the supermarket with all that food on the shelves that he wasn't allowed to eat wasn't bad enough, he was then forced to smell the wonderful aroma of Big Macs, Chicken Nuggets and fresh chips, then be forced to unpack the boot of the car and maybe, if he was lucky, he might get the tail end of one of Dudley's sandwiches, the bit of the bread that had nothing but Special Sauce and a bit of cheese but the meat had all been eaten.
Today, Harry was going to splurge. He was planning pigging out on Big Macs, chips, a huge milkshake so thick his brains would cave in when he tried drinking it through a straw, and vast amounts of Hot Apple Pies.
Then he wanted to go shopping. He didn't think Ron could handle Harrod's, that was for another day and another friend, but hopefully he could get his friends to go with him to Marks & Spencer or Debenhams for a few things. The castle was wonderful and well equipped, but they didn't have things like microplane graters for nutmeg or mats for the shower that would keep him from slipping.
There were probably spells for that sort of thing, but that wasn't the point. Harry didn't want to become one of those lazy wizards who used a spell for everything and anything, up to and including wiping his own arse. Magic was a wonderful thing, a gift, and he was afraid if he took it for granted, one day he'd wake up and be one of those narrow-minded idiots that followed the Ministry like sheep.
That reminded Harry to make a mental note to pick up some bog rolls. Perhaps he'd find out how to order them in bulk so he could make sure there was some in each loo. That was another thing they hadn't had 150 years ago. Harry wasn't sure what they'd used back then, but he'd stick to Charmin thank you very much.
The sounds of popping not too far away dragged Harry from his thoughts. Looking through the crowds, Harry saw a familiar head of busy hair and waved to catch Hermione's attention. As he made his way through the mid-morning rush, Harry saw not one, but two ginger heads following Hermione and swore under his breath in frustration.
They'd brought Ginny along.
It wasn't that he didn't like Ginny. Well, not exactly. He just never really knew where he stood with her. For years he'd somewhat avoided her, uncomfortable with her crush on the fictional Boy-Who-Lived. During Fifth Year she had become a friend and Harry had started to relax around her, treating her much as he did Hermione and Luna.
Sixth Year started out normal, but around winter holidays Ginny started flirting with him. She became clingy, always sitting near him or needing to use the same book at the library. At first Harry had been confused, going so far as to ask the younger girl if she needed to see Madame Pomfrey for whatever was wrong with her eyes.
That had not been fun. He'd come away from that conversation with a stinging cheek and the knowledge that Ginny had just as much strength in her arm as her brothers did.
Since then their relationship was odd. Harry tried to treat her as a friend, nothing more, but it seemed to him that she would use any excuse to chase him with the intent of capturing the hand of the Boy-Who-Lived. Then she’d get mad that he wasn't taking the bait and stomp off for a week or so before the cycle started over again.
Luna was convinced she'd been bitten by a three horned werg beetle. One of his other friends said she was a psychopathic stalker. Neville didn't say much but every once in a while when the other young man wasn't looking Harry could see his quiet friend giving both Weasleys a look.
Ron and Hermione either stayed quiet or tried to get him to go out with her. It was one of the many reasons he found himself pulling away from his childhood friends. They just couldn't seem to understand that he wasn't interested in her that way.
Of course that had been only one of the reasons he was having problems with Ron and Hermione.
"Harry!" Hermione's voice rose above the din and he had to sidestep the running tackle of a hug the girl was about to give him. It wasn't that he objected to hugs, per say, it was just that if he allowed himself to be hugged by Hermione he'd have to let Ginny have her turn. Which he didn't mind if Ginny was in friend mode but if she was in stalker mode, well that wouldn't be good.
Instead of hugging her, Harry caught Hermione's arms and spun her around playfully. "Hermione! Good to see you."
"Oi! Hands to yourself Potter!" Ron's smile was just a bit too wide but Harry grinned back and slapped the him on the back. Ron always got territorial about Hermione. He'd even glare if his brothers or father talked to her too long.
Every once in a while when Harry was in a really bad mood he felt like pointing out that lesbians would probably find Hermione attractive as well but he didn't feel like causing Ron to stroke out in jealousy.
Even if it would be amusing.
"Harry! Did you miss me?" Ginny didn't grab at him, thank Merlin, but she did blink coyly. He still thought it looked like she had something in her eye.
"Like the plague, Gin." Harry grinned to take the insult away and hoped it seemed real. He didn't point out that she hadn't been invited, as much as it was on the tip of his tongue.
Harry had been spending too much time with sarcastic people.
"Come on, let's go. I've got a Portkey to the alley behind the place where we're eating."
Hermione's hands were on her hips. "Are you not going to tell us where you've been all this summer?"
"Umm, no. Because it changes. And it'll change again before I'm done so there's no need. No worries, Herm, I'm thinking about throwing a party once I'm all settled so that the people I want to know where I live will know."
Ron frowned. "Harry mate, there are still Death Eaters around, are you sure it's safe?"
"Safer than a vault at Gringott's, Ron. Come on, let's go." Harry reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a sock. He would have preferred to use one of the blank keys he was planning on using for Portkeys to Caer Gwydion but he didn't want Hermione asking questions about where he got such old fashioned keys.
Less than ten minutes later they were queuing up in line at one of the registers, Ron trying to pronounce the odd names of the sandwiches. Harry didn't see what was so hard about saying McChicken, but then again most pureblood wizards and witches had problems with electricity and telephone.
"Harry, what exactly are Nuggets? I mean, what part of the chicken are they from?"
Harry looked into Ginny's chocolate brown eyes and wished for a moment he could be what she and his friends wanted. But he couldn't do that, it wouldn't be fair to either of them. Harry might not be all that used to adult relationships, or hell, relationships in general, but even he knew that.
"They come from roosters actually. A lot of them. I mean, just think about it and you'll know what I'm talking about."
Ginny smacked him on the arm. "Prat! Why must boys always be so gross?"
"Because girls have the lurgi. Just get something and if you don't like it you can have something else."
Eventually they were able to order; the gum-chewing teen behind the register never even blinking when Ron asked about "Muggle notes" when Harry pulled a few pounds out of his back pocket.
Eventually they all got settled and Harry steered them to a table. There was no way he was sitting in a booth with Ginny.
"I can't believe I let you talk me into this place. I can just imagine my arteries hardening."
Harry rolled his eyes. Hermione was poking at her salad with a fork as if it was one of Neville's plants about to attack. Okay, so the lettuce wasn't the best for salad, what did she expect it was a fast food burger place. "Live a little. I thought Ron would love this place."
Ron, who had just stuffed a Big Mac in his gob, mumbled an affirmative.
"Really, Harry, Ron will eat anything so I don't think that's a good way to pick a restaurant. And who knows what you've been eating staying where ever you've been ... "
"Hermione, knock it off. If anything I'm still underweight so eating once at a fast food place is not going to kill me, and you eat healthy all the time so it sure as hell isn't going to kill you." Really, Hermione could be such a priss about certain things. She'd even gone on a three day hunger strike in Sixth Year to protest the lack of fresh vegetables. Harry had to admit, a salad was nice on the side after so many weeks of mushy peas and chips, but she'd done it in the middle of January.
Where the House Elves were supposed to get fresh lettuce and tomatoes in the Scottish Highlands in the middle of winter, Harry didn't know. It had taken Harry pointing out she was making the Elves jobs harder to get the girl to stop fasting, during which time Draco decided to bring up the fact that Hermione once had bucked teeth.
Harry had had to lock himself in one of the public bogs and put up a silencing charm before he laughed himself silly. The idea of Hermione as a rare human/rabbit hybrid was hilarious, especially since when she got confused or was working on a puzzle her nose wrinkled up and had a tendency to twitch.
Up till Graduation Harry had made a point to never study while sitting directly across from her. He knew for a fact he'd crack up and she'd nag at him till he said why and that would be bad.
Ginny gave him a supportive smile. "I think it's a very interesting place, Harry. Dad would love it!"
"Your Dad would go spare trying to take apart half the kitchen." Harry gave a genuine smile back. He might have a few issues with the elder Weasleys, but he did get a kick out of Mr. Weasley's enthusiasm about Muggle things.
Harry, for his part, found the food rather disappointing. It had always smelled so good but the hamburger itself was nearly tasteless and flat, and the chips were greasy and rather floppy. He wasn't sure if he'd wanted it because he thought it would be good or because it was something Dudley had had and enjoyed.
He should have known Dudley would eat anything.
"So how long before Godric's Hollow is rebuilt?"
Harry found himself almost snorting pickles through his nose as he coughed and blinked confusedly at Ginny. "Huh?"
"That is what you've been doing all this time, rebuilding Godric's Hollow, isn't it?"
"Uh, no. Why would I do that?"
Ron and Hermione were suspiciously quiet and Ginny was starting to frown. "Well, that's where you're going to live now, right?"
Suddenly Harry realized that Godric's Hollow was rather close to Ottery St. Catchpole and The Burrow. He thought about banging his head on the table but didn't want to get that nasty smelling Secret Sauce in his hair.
"Ginny, I don't think I could ever live there. Yes, I still own the property but I'm leaving it under the Fidelus for now." Harry was afraid that some nut job, or jobs, would set up a shrine to him or something equally as horrifying or embarrassing. No, Godric's Hollow would remain hidden except to him and a few of the Caer's House Elves he'd told where to find it so they could keep up the grounds.
"Why not, mate? I mean, it is your family home." Ron's sounded genuinely curious so Harry let himself relax as he answered.
"It's only one of the Potter estates actually. The one where I'll be staying at is much more secure. Besides, it would be creepy living where my parents died. I mean, even if they didn't leave ghosts I'd still feel odd living there." Harry really, really, really didn't want to live where his parents had fallen to Voldemort.
"Don't you think you should have talked to me before choosing where to live?"
Harry felt as if he was on the tracks and a train was headed his way. There was no way he could avoid the oncoming collision and the milkshake in his mouth turned to paste as he swallowed. "No, Ginny, I don't."
"But ..."
Harry closed his eyes in pain. No matter what he said it would be the wrong thing. Well, unless he proposed and that was not happening. "Look, Gin, I like you, you're a good friend and my best mate's little sister. But I've said it before, I don't like you that way. It hasn't changed and I don't think it's going to."
Ginny's face was pale, her freckles standing out. "I ... I always thought you were just waiting ‘til after you killed Voldemort ..."
"I'm sorry, Ginny. No. And if Ron or Hermione have given you any encouragement, well I'm sorry. And I'll have words with them later on. To tell you the truth, while I don't mind you being here and am glad to see you, I didn't even invite you today. I just owled Ron and Hermione."
If it was possible, Ginny lost even more color and stood up. "Excuse me I've got to ..."
She made a break for the loo and Hermione followed, glaring at him over her shoulder.
"What the bloody fuck was that all about?"
Joy. Harry now got to deal with the angry brother.
"That was me telling the bloody truth, Ron! And if I find out you and Hermione have been telling her I'm secretly pining for her, I'll hex you both into the fucking New Year! I don't like her that way, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with her or me, it just means I'm not in love with her! And I'm not going to act like a prat to get in her knickers and then tell her so!"
"She's just like your Mum, everyone says!"
"One, I have no idea since I don't remember and two, I don't have an Oedipus complex so it doesn't matter how much she may or may not be like Lilly Potter!" At Ron's confused look Harry became impatient. "Look, do you want to shag your Mum? Because I bloody well don't!"
Harry found himself wishing he'd never suggested this lunch, which in a way was idiotic. This mess would have happened no matter where they met up and it was probably better that it didn't happen in the Wizarding world or, Merlin help him, The Burrow.
"Leave my Mum out of this,” Ron said, bristling.
Edmund, sensing the tension in the air, poked his head out of Harry's button down shirt.
Ron eyed the snake with trepidation, but he still looked ready to fight. "Tell me, what's wrong with my sister that you don't want to marry her?"
How this even got to marriage, Harry had no clue. Maybe there was something in the oil for the chips that made wizards insane and that's why they don’t eat at Muggle fast food places. "There is nothing wrong with your sister, Ron ..." Other than the fact that she was clingy, controlling and possessive where she had no right to be. "And there's nothing wrong with me. I just see her as more of a sister than a potential mate."
That was stretching the truth out as well, but Harry didn't think a white lie in this sort of situation would be that bad. And things were already terrible so it couldn't make it that much worse.
Ron gave him a look of disgust and Harry found his hand going to his wand. "I'm beginning to think the Prophet is right about you, Potter. You're arrogant."
Harry's own anger sparked and Edmund hissed to counterpoint it. "And you're a fucking prat who has no idea what he's talking about." Harry got up, the chair he was in making a screeching noise as it skidded across the ugly orange tiles.
Ron stood as well and more than one of the diners were watching them. Harry paid them no mind though, he'd never seen them before and he doubted he'd see them again. "You've become nasty ever since siding with those ruddy snakes, having one as a pet, sucking up to the Slytherins."
God. Harry was sick of Ron whinging about the fact that Harry had defended the Slytherins who had defied Voldemort at the end of Sixth Year. Every disagreement he brought it up and Harry was sick of it. It was a dead thestral, and Ron just kept hexing it and hexing it.
"No, Ron, I'm not nasty nor am I stuck up or siding with anyone against you, that's your insecurities talking. What's been happening to me is the fact that I'm growing up and no longer letting other people's views affect my own. I'm thinking for myself and standing on my own two feet. You, Ginny, hell, the entire Wizarding world seems to want this hero on a fucking white horse to save the day, and then ride off into the sunset with the beautiful princess and everyone lives happy ever after.
"I'm not that hero. Given a chance I would have moved to bloody Australia, but Voldemort would have followed. I was pushed into play by a force greater than me and now that I've played my part I'm bloody well done. I'm not some paragon of virtue or some martyr to die so that everyone but me can live. I'm an ordinary bloke who puts his trousers on like everyone else, who doesn't dare eat baked beans too early in the morning otherwise I'll fart in Transfiguration classes, and who cares about his best friend's sister but doesn't love her and refuses to lie just to make everyone feel good."
"Harry ..."
Harry wasn't sure what Ron was going to say but he didn't want to hear it. They had the same bloody conversation every four or five months it seemed. He thought that if anyone would see past the Boy-Who-Lived image it would be Ron, who had been there when he was moody, grumpy, hurt and just plain normal. The boy who lived in the dorms just a few feet away and heard nearly every nightmare, belch, fart and nocturnal emission he'd had.
Somehow though, Ron still expected him to live up to some heroic image, while at the same time was jealous of the attention. Franky, Harry had had enough.
"No, Ron. You need to take care of your sister. And you need to bloody well apologize if you're the one who's been putting ideas in her head! I'll owl or floo you later on, maybe the three of us can do this another day. And I do mean three, as in you and I and Hermione."
He turned and walked away, dumping his rubbish in the bin as he left the restaurant. It was probably a good thing he didn't like the food because he didn't think he'd ever walk into a McDonald's again.
Harry walked down the street, no destination in mind. He was angry and frustrated. He wasn't willing to let go of their friendship but damn if Ron and Hermione didn't make it hard sometimes. Then again they probably said the same thing about him.
~"That did not ssseem to go well."~
Harry gave a bitter laugh. ~"Underssstatement of the year, Edmund. I don't know what to do now."~
~"Don't be a sstupid little moussse. You planned on ssshopping today, ssso ssshop. Don't let your day be thrown by an argument."~
Harry stopped and thought about it for a moment. ~"You're right. How did you get sso damn sssmart?"~
~"The Maker granted me the great honor of being born a sssnake, that's how."~
There wasn't much Harry could say to that.
*****
TBC ...
Additional Author's Note: Just so y'all know, the lurgi are the British versions of cooties. And we all know that girls have them! Oh, and ten imaginary Galleons to the first to guess who calls Ginny a '"psychopathic stalker"! HEE!