the marriage stone (Discontinued)

Chapter 8 All the Kings Men

Harry went with Ron and Hermione to Honeydukes the following weekend, dressed in some of the more casual clothing Snape had bought him. Nevertheless both Ron and Hermione commented on the outfit, Hermione telling him he looked quite nice. Ron just made gagging noises at the thought of Snape buying Harry anything. Harry endured it all with little comment. He and Snape had an unspoken agreement not to bring the subject up again.

As they walked the path toward Hogsmeade, Harry talked about his last letter from Sirius and the promise the man had made him to come visit as soon as possible. "I'm hoping he'll be here this weekend," Harry told them.

"Isn't it dangerous for him to come back here," Hermione protested.

"Not if he stays out of sight," Harry replied. "He's already doing work for Dumbledore as it is, and needs to report in occasionally. And the Ministry still doesn't know anything about Snuffles. Sometimes I think he prefers that form."

"Think he'll hurt Snape when he gets here?" Ron asked hopefully.

Harry just shook his head. "You keep forgetting the fact that none of this was Snape's fault. He only married me to protect me. And it's not like he's done anything to hurt me since then. Sirius might not be happy about things, but Snape hasn't done anything wrong either." He was amused by how disappointed Ron looked at the thought.

"You don't actually want Snape to do something wrong do you?" Hermione asked the redhead.

"No, of course not!" Ron assured them both, and they both laughed at the look of dismay on his face.

"Don't worry, Ron," Harry assured him. "I'm sure sooner or later Snape will say something that will set Sirius off, and you can watch the two of them fight."

"You think so?" Ron's eyes lit up at the thought.

"When did you get so blood thirsty?" Hermione sighed. "Boys!" She shook her head in disgust.

They spent a few hours at Honeydukes, and then later at the local pub, all of them joking around with some of their classmates and enjoying a game of Exploding Snaps. Afterwards they wandered up and down the streets of the village looking into various shop. Harry stopped to admire a gleaming sword he saw in a shop window while Hermione dragged Ron across the street to look into a bookstore. Harry smiled, listening to Ron complaining the entire way. He also noted that Ron didn't refuse to go with Hermione however. Said a lot for Ron to abandon a display of weapons to go look at books.

Laughing to himself, Harry decided to give the two of them a few moments alone and he turned his attention back to the sword in the shop window. It reminded him faintly of Godric Gryffindor's sword that he'd used to kill the Basilisk during his second year of school. That seemed almost a lifetime ago now.

Movement inside the shop caught his attention, and he looked up, peering through the window. Several men were inside, talking to the store proprietor. It took Harry a moment to realize he knew one of them. Alphedor Carlton. A Death Eater. He'd met the man during one of Voldemort's attacks last year. And here he was now, with a group of other men, buying weapons of some sort.

Just as he started to back away, one of the men in the shop glanced up toward the window and spotted him there. A shout when up. Harry turned and ran, eyes scanning for cover. He didn't think he could make it into the bookstore in time.

The door burst open and he heard the first curse shouted, shooting past his head as he ducked and dove toward a large rain barrel in front of the bookstore walkway. Even as he dove he felt something slamming into him, vaguely aware of a sharp pain. Then he was rolling to his knees, turning, wand raised in his right hand. Oddly enough his right hand wasn't moving properly, and he couldn't for a moment understand why he couldn't lift it all the way.