Harry Potter and the Ties that Bind

Chapter 41

Harry was really sore the day after being ambushed. His body ached, his skin was bruised, and he had lost quite a bit of blood. Despite having spent the entire night healing his bruises and cuts, it didn't change how his body felt like it had been put through several rounds with a champion kick boxer.

"I can't believe someone attacked you on your way to the Gryffindor tower," Susan said in astonishment.

It was breakfast, and everyone was sitting around the Gryffindor table in their usual positions. Harry had a large plate of pancakes, French toast, eggs, muffins, and orange juice. He normally didn't eat so many carbohydrates, but he'd exhausted his magic last night and needed to replenish. While not a well-known fact, food, like rest, was a great way to help replenish lost magic.

"I'm sorry," Daphne apologized. "You were attacked because you walked me to my dorm. If you hadn't—"

"If I hadn't, then I wouldn't have gotten such valuable information," Harry interrupted. "Please don't apologize. Not only was this incident not your fault, but I learned a lot."

Tracey made a face. "What could you have possibly learned from nearly getting killed?"

"I'm with her." Terry pointed at Tracey.

Harry chuckled. "Because it shows how desperate the person who's trying to kill me is getting. It also tells me that the person who created that area wide illusion at Hogsmeade is the same one who tried to bury me under the Shrieking Shack."

"How do you figure that?" asked Lisa.

"Deductive reasoning," Harry replied. "First off, there have been three attacks in several weeks. Each time there has been an attack, I was there, either as the one being attacked, or as part of a group that was attacked. Now, when you look at it like this, how many people do you think there can be that would so blatantly launch attacks of this nature?"

Lisa hesitated for a moment. "... One?"

Nodding, Harry lifted his hand and raised a single finger. "That's right. One. There aren't many people who would attack others like this. If there was more than one psychopathic killer on the loose, then it would mean the DMLE isn't doing their job, which I know for a fact that they are."

"So, there's no possibility that the attacks on you and the attack at Hogsmeade were separate incidents?" Blaize asked.

"I doubt it. I mean, it is possible, but the chances of these attacks being perpetrated by two separate people is unlikely."

"You mentioned this person being desperate," Neville prodded. "How do you figure they're getting desperate?"

"Because of the nature of their attacks," Harry answered. "Their first attack was a lot more subtle. They tricked Professor McGonagall into giving me a letter that had me travel out to where no one else was located, and then attempted to kill me. Granted, dropping a building on me isn't subtle, but the Shrieking Shack is old, so it would have been easy to make it look like an accident had I died. The second attack wasn't as subtle, but it was still a brilliant method of assassination. By casting an area wide illusion that affected everyone within a certain radius, they made it look more like a terrorist attack than an assassination."

Harry paused to make sure everyone was following him. Tracey and Terry were leaning forward, and Hannah, Lisa, Astoria, and Ginny were staring at him. Luna looked at him for but a moment before going back to whatever she was reading—the Quibbler, it looked like. Even Blaize was looking right into his eyes. Underneath the table, Harry felt a hand gripping his robes. That would be Daphne.

He continued. "If I had died then, I would've just been another casualty. It would've been big, sure, but no one would have believed that I was the target all along. However, the last attack was an all-out assault on just me. Not only that, but they attacked me inside of Hogwarts. There are hundreds of students and numerous faculty, and that's not accounting for the many portraits, several of which witnessed the attack. This person has all but said I'm their target. Now that the staff and portraits know, everyone is going to be extra alert."