ꜱᴇʀᴘᴇɴᴛɪɴᴇ ꜱᴇʀɪᴇꜱ | ᴛᴏᴍɪᴏɴᴇ

Whispers from the Past, ch. 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

After having a delicious desert of pumpkin cake, Harmony, Ron, Harry, and Ginny escaped the adults and went into Ron's room to talk. The girls sat on Ron's bed while Ron and Harry sat on the ground with their backs against the wall.

"I've really missed your mum's cooking, Ron," Harmony said. "I haven't eaten that well in a while."

"What, you didn't eat when you were with him?" Harry asked, his eyebrows rising up beneath his bangs.

"Yeah, you're as skinny as a wand," Ginny said, poking her ribs.

"Oh, I ate," she replied, remembering the countless nights of dinning with Voldemort in his room. "But the Death Eater that cooked for us was horrible."

"Mum always said the food you eat affects your mood," said Ginny. "No wonder Voldemort always has such a foul temper."

Harmony chuckled along with the others.

"I was telling Hermione earlier about Snape and my mum."

"Isn't that bonkers?" Ron exclaimed. "To think all this time we wondered why Snape hated Harry so much, and it was all because Harry's dad stole his girl." He got a good laugh out of that. "It's so weird, Snape in love. Who would've thought, you know?"

"His love for my mum was the whole reason he stopped being a Death Eater. He hated Voldemort for killing her."

"Then he went undercover, right?" Ginny asked.

"For Dumbledore, yeah," Harry nodded. "For nearly eighteen years he'd been working against Voldemort for Dumbledore, and to protect me." Harry was silent a moment, staring at his feet stretched before him. "He's one of the bravest man I know."

"It's so sad," Ginny said quietly, "what Dumbledore asked Snape to do for him."

Harry and Ron nodded.

Harmony looked around, frowning. "What are you talking about?"

Ron's red eyebrows rose in surprise. "What? You mean you don't know?"

"Know what?"

"Snape was the one who killed Dumbledore, for Draco," Harry explained.

Harmony shot up in her seat and exclaimed, "What?"

"I can't believe you didn't know that," Ron said. "Everybody knows that."

"I didn't!" Harmony sputtered. "Not even Voldemort."

Harry's eyes narrowed. "How do you know that?"

"Because that was what he told me the night Dumbledore died,'" Harmony said, the words tumbling out of her mouth. "He was so proud of Draco. He was going to reward Draco very well for it."

"Did Voldemort tell you lots of things?" Harry asked, his eyes glaring up at Harmony. "Did you two share a lot of conversations?"

Ginny rolled her eyes when she saw where he was going.

"Come on, Harry," Ron said, elbowing him in the ribs. "Can't you get over it? She was just a spy, like Snape."

"No, it's alright," Harmony said. "He has a right to be suspicious. We were suspicious of Snape, weren't we?"

"And we were wrong," Ron pointed out. "But I don't think it's really fair to compare you to Snape, I mean, he's just a suspicious-looking mate, period."

Harmony looked to Harry, her eyes pleading. "Is there any way I could absolutely convince you that I have not gone turn-coat?"

Before Harry could reply there was a small knock on the bedroom door. The door opened a crack and Fleur's white-blonde head appeared.

"Airmione?" she asked in her strong French accent.

"Yes, Fleur," Harmony replied as the young woman stepped into the room, holding a familiar book in her hands.

"I 'ope you wouldn't mind, but I looked through your sack to find more clothes to wash." She held out the book to Harmony with delicate hands. "And I found 'dis in your sack. I thought you might want it."

"Oh," Harmony read the front of the book, "thank you, Fleur." She quickly grabbed the book with a strained smile and tucked the book beneath her so the others wouldn't read the title. She had completely forgotten about the book that she carried with her since the night of the battle at Hogwarts.

When Fleur was gone Harry asked casually, "Which book is it?"

"Huh?" she asked, although she had heard him clearly. She raised her eyebrows innocently. "Oh. It's nothing. I always keep a book on me in case I get bored."

"Ah," Harry said, nodding as though he understood. But in a flash he and Ginny jumped at her, reaching for the book.

Harmony squeaked, "No, you guys, it's nothing! Really!" She tried to push their hands away, but Ginny got her fingers around the spine and pulled it out from under her. When it was free, she tossed it to Harry who jumped away from Harmony's reach.

The room was silent as Harry flipped through the book's old crinkled pages.

"Hm," he turned around, holding the title page open for the others to see. "Horcruxes. A bit of light reading, Hermione?"

"That," she said pointedly, looking hard at everyone, "is not my book."

"No, of course not," Harry said, looking down at the book in distaste. "I suppose it just found its own way into your sack without you knowing."

"What I mean is," Harmony grabbing for the book again and this time Harry let her take it, "it doesn't belong to me. But I had a vivid dream about the book and the very next morning I saw it. So it seemed important, like I was meant to find it. So I...well...I kind of stole it."

"From who?"

"Um," she hesitated, "Voldemort."

There was a moment of shocked silence, and then everyone burst out laughing.

"You stole from Voldemort!"

"You're mad!" Ginny said with her freckled cheeks flushed.

"Have you figured out why you dreamt about the book?" Harry asked.

Harmony shook her head. "No. I've hardly had a chance to read it."

"That's just weird," Ron said. "I mean, you dreamt about the same exact book. What do you have to do with Horcruxes? That stuff is supposed to be really dark magic."

"Well," Harmony began slowly, not meeting anyone's eye. "Voldemort did say something about teaching me to make a horcrux."

"Oh, no," Ginny said. "Did he ever get to?"

"No, thank goodness."

"You know what it takes to make a Horcruxes, right?" Harry asked. When the others just stared at him, he continued, "The person making the horcrux has to murder someone, and then a part of their soul rips away. If they didn't intend to make the horcrux the piece of the soul finds the closest living thing and inhabits it."

Harmony felt Ginny shiver next to her on the bed, and Ginny said sympathetically to Harry, "It sounds horrible. I'm so glad it's over, Harry, having Voldemort's soul in you."

"Horrible as in feeling emotions that aren't my own and having Voldemort invade my mind?" Harry said with a dark expression. "Yeah, it was bad, and they're gone now." He looked to Harmony then, and said as though speaking directly to her, "But it's not over. Not yet."