So Much for No Strings Attached

Chapter 47 Sitting on the Fence

Fred and George were waiting for Harry outside the post office where they had arranged to meet in the afternoon when Harry agreed to meeting up with them. Naturally it was closed. Fred didn’t like how isolated it was. He now wished they had arranged to meet up in the middle of the day where it would be harder to spirit them away with no witnesses should things go south.

 

Then at exactly half eight Fred heard the crack Fred instantlt recognised as Apparation. Two men with the same dark hair and eyes appeared. The teenager appeared unused to apparation and only after finding his legs did he approach where the Weasley twins were stood whilst the older man had a grace that the smaller man sorely lacked and watched on with one hand on his wand.

 

‘Fred, George,’ Harry said caught between wariness and beaming at them.

 

Fred blinked as he realised that this boy was Harry James Potter or Hadrian Salazar Slytherin as it had turned out was Harry’s true name. They had known, of course, that Harry was under Dumbledore’s powerful glamour to hide who Harry’s true parents were. Yet Fred hadn’t realised how different their friend would look without the glamours making him look like Lily and not the bloody Dark Lord.

Harry was still a midget but that was more nurture - or lack of it as the case may be - than nature anyway as neither of his parents were small from what Fred knew at least. Harry’s hair was still dark but now the bird’s nest had a curl which served to make it looked purposeful. But the biggest difference were Harry’s eyes. Gone were the glowing green orbs. Replaced with chocolate coloured eyes.

 

‘Harry,’ breathed George.

 

‘Hey,’ Harry said nervousness clear on his new face.

 

‘Is it true-?’George gulped apparently unable to complete the sentence.

 

‘-did you kill Hermione?’ demanded Fred.

 

Not even in the half-light did Fred miss Harry’s flinch at the question or the way his face filled with pain and guilt. After a few seconds Harry’s mask was back up as though it had never fallen in the first place. The fact that there was even a momentarily slip up given how good Harry was at hiding his emotions displayed exactly how much anguish he must be feeling over what had happened.

 

Fred didn’t know whether that made him feel relieved or horrified. One – it meant that it was true that their friend had killed Hermione Granger no matter what she was planning. On the other hand, the fact he was feeling guilty for murdering someone who wanted him dead was a sign that he was not the evil that Dumbledore would paint him as.

 

‘It’s true,’ gulped George. ‘Why?’