Like A Phoenix From The Ashes
Chapter 8
By Kinsfire
The next few days were tense around the school. The teachers were watching Harry carefully. He had a tendency to snap angrily at people, and it luckily had not gotten physical - yet. They wished to keep it that way.
He managed to drive Pansy to tears on the twenty-ninth of October, barking at her about some Arithmantic problem he was working on while she quietly gossiped with the other girls. Before the other girls could comment on it, he stood, walked over to his door and punched it as hard as he possibly could, actually cracking the large oak door, and breaking his hand. "I deserve it," they heard him murmur angrily. "If I can make her cry for no good reason, then I deserve what he does to me." He looked down to his left hand and then turned to the other girls. "Well, time to go see Madam Pomfrey, and listen to her lecture me about breaking things." He was out the door before they could react.
By the time that they caught up with him, he was almost to the hospital wing. "Harry, what did you mean by that comment?" Hermione asked.
"I can't tell you that, Hermione. You know that. I know I've said it before."
"Why can't you tell us?"
"I can't tell you that either," he said as he entered Madam Pomfrey's demesnes.
"Good heavens, Mister Potter. What happened to your hand?" the woman asked as she bustled over to Harry.
"Got into a fight with an oak door and lost. Don't worry, though - I had it coming to me."
"You did not!" Pansy barked out as she came running into the room. "Just because my emotions are closer to the surface this time of the month does not mean you have to break your door. I repaired it, by the way."
"I was nasty enough to you that I made you cry, Pansy. You don't do that to the people you love." He shook his head.
"I've discovered," Luna broke in suddenly, "that if I can't talk about a problem for some reason, writing about it seems to help me." She put her head back down into the book she seemed always to carry with her this year.
Madam Pomfrey was just finishing up repairing his hand when his head shot up. He grabbed his wand and created a biro and a sheet of Muggle writing paper, and scribbled something on it. For the first time since the day that Pansy and Hermione had become lovers, they saw Harry with a grin. He dropped the items on the bed and leapt to his feet, pulling Luna into a hug, making her drop the book. "You are truly worthy of being a Ravenclaw!" he said joyfully. "Thank you!"
He surprised them all by kissing her on the lips then. It was obviously intended to be a 'thank you' kiss, but before he could disengage, her arms flew around him and she was returning it with no little passion. They all heard him moan, and suddenly he was returning her passion with his own, and were rather surprised to see his hands slide down to gently grasp her rear end. Before anyone could say anything about it, though, he had disengaged himself from her and staggered backwards. "My God, I am so sorry, Luna, I didn't mean to … I wasn't … oh gods, forcing myself on you - I … oh my God, what have I become?"
Pansy walked over to him after setting down the sheet that he had created. "Someone who has been scarred by a disgusting little animal. Someone who has been scarred enough that he fears that real passion is a forerunner of what was done to him." She put her hands on his cheeks gently and said, "I read your note, Harry, and this is my response." He squeezed his eyes shut, expecting to be slapped, but was surprised when he felt her lips brush his. He opened his mouth to speak, and was surprised to feel her press closer and run her tongue into his open mouth. Before he could react, she had disengaged, hugging him tightly. "I know you'll never return the feelings after what The Bitch did to you," she whispered, "but I love you, Harry. I read what he did, and I still love you." She disengaged and stepped away.
Susan and Hermione were looking over the short note, and they both walked to him and kissed him gently. "It's not your fault," Susan said.
He gritted his teeth. "I can't say what I want to."
"Then write it," Hermione said simply. "Let us know. We'll find a way to put a stop to this."
"You have convinced him to speak?" came the Headmaster's voice. "I heard of the situation and came at once."
"No, sir," Pansy said. "He literally can't talk about it. Luna gave him a suggestion so good that she got a serious fondle out of it."
Harry was looking worried at the statement, but Luna came over and smiled. "I certainly will attempt to come up with equally good ideas if that is your method of thanking me," she said. Kissing his cheek, she added in a whisper, "Next time let me get my clothes off first."
He looked stunned. "Luna, I forced myself on you."
"No you didn't, more's the pity," she said, blushing slightly. "Even with the Headmaster here, I will say that I wish you hadn't stopped. Part of me wishes that we were on one of these beds earning ourselves a detention for improper activities. One of my fantasies involves pretend non-consensual, but only with those in this room. Minus the headmaster and Madam Pomfrey, of course," she said, the blush deepening. "If anyone was forcing anything, it was me taking the chaste kiss you were giving me and forcing my affections on you. Was I wrong?"
He scowled. "No, you weren't. But my hands …"
"…were nowhere that I did not wish them to be. If you hadn't broken free when you did, I was likely to have wrapped my legs around your waist." She looked him in the eye. "I am a virgin, Harry. At this moment in time, it is my most fervent hope to be relieved of that condition. By you." She looked to the Headmaster. "Full contraceptive protocols in place, of course, sir."
"You make it sound like a mission, Luna," Susan giggled.
"It is a mission," Luna said seriously. "I wish to be made love to by the man I am in love with."
Harry was now shaking his head in horror. "No, you don't know what I am - you don't want to do that, Luna. I won't let you degrade yourself like that."
They heard Pansy inhale. "You'll never be able to prove it, Headmaster, but don't be surprised when the Malfoy line ends."
Hermione looked at Pansy, and then at Dumbledore, and then back at Pansy. "Besides, you'll have an alibi." She looked back to Dumbledore. "No matter what." He snapped the paper at Dumbledore, who read it, his eyes going cold at the four words written there - 'Draco Malfoy raped me.'
"I fear that some day I shall require Madam Pomfrey here to check my hearing. It seems to vanish on me at the most inopportune moments." He gave the group a knowing look, before saying, "Unfortunately, for legal purposes, Harry's written statement would not be enough. Even a Pensieve memory of the incident would not guarantee the success of proceedings against Mister Malfoy. I admit to being at a loss to figure how to prove this." He quickly added to Harry, "I believe you, Harry. I simply wish to place this before the Board of Governors and the Courts in such a way as to make it impossible for them to buy his way back in. I meant what I said. I will not have that in this school. Neither will I have them throwing Galleons around to protect him."
"What do we do now?" Hermione asked.
"We?" Harry asked. "How did this become a group project?"
"By you punching a door hard enough to break it and cryptically saying that you deserved what he was doing to you," Susan said. "By being wonderful enough that the four of us fell in love with you."
"I'm not going to let you put yourselves in danger," he said dangerously.
Pansy stalked back over to him, her face filled with a look that actually drove Harry backwards until he was forced to sit by backing into a bed. "Harry James Potter, we are going to help you, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. I may officially be a Slytherin, but being around you and seeing what kind of a person you are has … you … damn you, you made me a Gryffindor!" she finished with a yell, and then suddenly snorted out a laugh. "I said it before. I am in love with you, knowing that the feeling will never be returned. I will willingly face the Kiss for you, if I thought it would give you a chance to defeat Tom." She paused and looked at the others and blushed. "I'd face it for any of you, to be honest." She did an involuntary shrug that denoted an uncharacteristic shyness, then continued to speak. "We are going to put our heads together on this and figure out a way to get incontrovertible proof of what that disgusting little rodent did to you, and I'll castrate him before he can leave."
"Oh dear, there goes my hearing again," Albus murmured to quiet chuckles.
Harry looked at them for a long moment before asking, "Why? I'm damaged goods. I'm … uhng … I can't even say it …"
Pansy looked at him for a long moment, closed her eyes and bit her lower lip. It was obvious that she was thinking deeply, and the room was silent, for fear that she might lose the train of thought. Her eyes suddenly snapped open. "You're doing this to protect us. He's doing this and told you that you couldn't stop him from getting us. You agreed to let him have you if he swore that you were the only one in school to be touched. He agreed if you promised not to tell anyone."
"How - not quite, but … how?"
"He was my lover for five and a half years, Harry. I use the term loosely, mind you. Our first times were effectively rape, so I know how the little bastard thinks. There isn't an orifice I have that he hasn't violated at least once."
Harry saw red for a moment, and then saw nothing for a short time.
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When he was finally awakened, he found Pansy sitting by his bed with suspiciously wet eyes. "What did I do wrong, Pansy? Why are you crying?"
"You four were ready to kill him right now, no questions asked. We had to Stupefy you to keep you from killing him with your bare hands. Thank you."
"But why are you crying?"
"I've never been loved like that by anyone but my parents." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you."
"You're one of my best friends, Pansy. I am not about to let you be raped again by that … that … thing that rules Slytherin with an iron fist. He will die first."
Susan chuckled. "Should that have been 'I will die first'?"
"You can if you want, but I'd rather it be him. Why should I be the one to suffer because he's an asshole?" Harry said with a straight face. His mouth betrayed the amusement he was beginning to feel, however, since the corners of his mouth quirked upwards slightly.
"In all seriousness, however," Hermione interrupted, "you need to know that we are not going to simply sit by and let Malfoy do this to you any more than you would let him do it to us. We are going to work out a method of proving that it was him, and do so without you being subjected to him again."
"But …"
Pansy laughed suddenly. "He swore an Oath that he'd not let us come to harm, didn't he?"
Harry found himself unable to answer. He grabbed the paper and biro and scribbled a quick 'Yes' to answer her.
She grinned widely. "Polyjuice Potion. I take your place and let him do what he's going to. If there was no punishment stated in the Oath, then anything could happen, but it will be obvious, and then you'll be able to talk about it, because the Oath will be null and void."
"No," Harry said in a voice that brooked no argument. "You will not be subjecting yourself to another rape, and that's final."
She blinked at him for a moment. "Why not?" she finally asked, her voice holding an interesting tone.
"I told you already. You're my friend. My other friends made it obvious what their friendship really means."
"And as your friend, I choose to place myself in harm's way to keep the man I love from being hurt again."
"And I won't allow it," he said hotly.
"Why not? I don't buy your reasoning about friendship. A person doesn't put himself in such an untenable position for someone who's just a friend," she retorted.
"Sure you do," he replied, puzzled.
"Would you willingly have put yourself in this position for Neville? Or Hannah Abbot?" Susan asked softly. He could only frown. "I thought so," she finished.
"Could someone please explain this 'ah-ha' moment you all seem to be having?" Harry asked with some mounting annoyance.
"I know that you may not accept this from me, Harry, given our past history," Dumbledore said with a smile, "but this is truly something that can not be explained. You must come to it in your own time. Were you simply to be told, you would argue and fight the inescapable conclusion."
Harry looked sharply at the headmaster, but quickly realised that the man was telling him the complete truth. "Well then," he finally said, "I'm going to surprise everyone and act like an adult, and accept your answer. I'll know someday what you're talking about."
He stood straighter. "We now have to figure out how to get the evidence we need to eject the ferret from the school, without anyone else being hurt in the process."