Like A Phoenix From The Ashes
Chapter 7
By Kinsfire
Neville faced the portrait that led to the rooms that Harry and the four girls shared. "Coming in, dear?" asked the woman in the painting.
"Building my courage up," Neville answered honestly. "I need to face those people and give them an apology for something, and it's not easy." The painting nodded in understanding and smiled at him. Finally, he took a deep breath and knocked on the edge of the painting. The door opened to find Susan Bones in a blouse that seemed to hug her figure, and he tried not to react to the dark circles he could see through the thin material that made her bra-less state noticeable. Taking another deep breath, he asked, "May I speak with the five of you?" he asked softly.
He was soon seated on the couch, eyes bugging slightly as he saw Luna sitting in her underwear as she studied, unconcerned at his entry. "Oh, hello Neville," she said before returning to her book. She picked up a quill and made notes about something, while he readjusted himself somewhat, trying to be unobtrusive about it. "Thank you for the compliment," she said softly.
"You're welcome?" he strangled out.
"Neville," Hermione said as she, Pansy and Harry came out of Harry's room carrying various books. "These should do us for the research, Susan. If we need more, we can ask for the headmaster's help." She looked back to Neville. "What brings you here?"
"Honesty," Neville replied. "I don't care if the rest of Gryffindor Tower ostracises me, but I need to find out what's happening. I trusted them when they told me about what happened over this summer, but that explosion of Harry's in the Great Hall the other day got me thinking. He's not a terribly good actor in my knowledge, so his rant at Ginny, and Ron by extension, was real. So I thought a little harder about it, and I know both you and Susan well enough that it got me bothered." He paused. "I've been wrong to listen to them all this time. I should have known better. Harry seeing two girls at the same time? If it was going to happen at all, it would be up front, and he'd be the envy of every single guy around, because it would likely become a threesome, because they'd be that close."
"That could be wishful thinking," Susan said.
"This is Harry we're talking about. If he gives his heart to someone or to some cause, he puts his whole heart into it, and the girls likely would end up together just because they'd want to make Harry happy, because seeing one girl and then the other would make him feel like he was cheating, even if he knew that both girls knew and didn't care. He'd never say it, but he'd feel it."
He scowled. "So I turned around and believed that the same Harry I've known all these years would cheat on Ginny. Really sitting and thinking about it, the only way that would work is if he was under someone else's control, which removes the culpability from him, since he's being forced. So if I'm honest with myself, I ruined a six year friendship because I'm attracted to his ex-girlfriend." He continued with a self-deprecatingly sarcastic voice, as if quoting someone, "Maybe she'll notice me if I believe her."
"So why are you here?" Luna asked.
"To apologise to Harry, and to tell him I'll support him. I may have lost his friendship and trust, but I'll someday be worthy of his respect."
"You are, Neville," Harry said, stepping from his room with Pansy, who was carrying her Charms text. "You show the same courage that you showed at the end of first year when you stood up to Ron, Hermione and me. And to face someone you feel you've done something to and admit you're wrong?" He stepped forward with a smile and held out his hand. "Thank you."
Neville took his hand. "I don't deserve your forgiveness, so I won't ask for it, but I thank you for at least letting me tell you I was wrong. I'll leave you five to your studying now." He tried to turn, but Harry wouldn't release him.
"Well, Neville, I hate to tell you this, but you not only have my friendship still, as well as my trust, or else I'd not have suggested you for the Prefect position, but you have my respect. And my forgiveness. You've owned up to something, and faced me. I can deal with you. Easily."
Neville smiled widely. "Thank you." He turned to Pansy. "I owe you an apology too, Miss Parkinson. Harry considers you a friend. Now that I've got my head out of my arse, I remember what that really means. I wronged you even more than I wronged him, if that's possible, by assuming that you would do that at all." He bowed from the waist. "I'm sorry, as if that means anything."
"It does," Pansy replied. "I won't deny that it hurt, but I have to admit that I am Slytherin, and acted like one. Hell, even my friendship with Harry flows from that - I'm saving my own life, and that of my family by being his friend." Her eyes twinkled. "Plus I get to stay in this suite of rooms with him and say that I lived with the great Harry Potter, the Man Who'll Kick Riddle's Arse. And call me Pansy. My friends do."
Harry broke in with a smile. "I want my epitaph to read - 'I didn't know that banana peel was there' or something like that, not something referring to how I defeated some idiot who has too much power and not enough sense." He looked at Neville seriously. "I won't deny that I'm … well, the girls have already heard this. I am both blessed and cursed to live with four beautiful women. The blessing is that they're all beautiful and like me. The curse is that they're all very beautiful and like me."
"There are guys in the school who'd kill to be in your position, you know," Neville said with a smile.
"They think so," Harry said. "But Luna is more dressed now than some times that I come in here to study. The day I regained my sight I almost died of blood loss to the brain, because Susan was the most dressed girl in here, in a tank top and knickers - and I walked out the door to see her bending over for something."
Pansy spoke up. "And despite what the Weasleys insist on passing around the school, there are still virgins in this suite of rooms. None of us have been in his bed - and I will be the first to say that it's not for lack of trying."
Neville was aroused by Harry's description of their occasional mode of dress (or undress, as the case might be, especially since Susan was excellent eye candy) but he was intrigued to see Harry's eyes widen in surprise at Pansy's admission, and then a wince of pain. Suddenly, everything became clear to him. Harry was developing feelings for these girls, and at least one of them was in love with him - apparently Pansy, and this was news to Harry. I'll bet that he doesn't trust himself now, thanks to the Weasleys.
"Harry, I will state here, before you all, that I intend to defend you to Gryffindor Tower. You deserve no less than that. I will face the slings and arrows of their anger and disgust at my turning traitor on them."
"Don't go looking for it," Harry said. "Just do what you want to when the conversation turns to our accommodations or some such."
Hermione laughed. "Harry, this is Neville. He'll make sure the conversation turns that way."
"You know me so well," Neville laughed. "I do need to return to my duties, though. I just needed to make sure that I came to apologise to you. Actually, I need to apologise to the three of you as well," he said, looking at the other three girls. By tarring Harry and Pansy, we also tar the three of you with the same brush."
"I forgive you," Susan said, "and I'll bet that they do as well." Luna looked up and nodded, smiling, and Hermione just walked over and hugged him.
"If Harry and the others don't mind, you could come and study with us occasionally," Pansy said. "You'd need to get used to our varying states of undress, but I'm not going to complain if one of Harry's real friends chooses to join us for studying."
Harry spoke up. "Plus it gives you somewhere to leave your homework so that the Gryffies don't destroy it on you once you start defending us."
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Quidditch practice finally began, and the team made it quite clear to Harry that he was unwelcome during their first practice. After the third Bludger almost hit him when there was no reason for it to be in his part of the sky, he simply landed, packed things up, and left. After getting dressed, he quietly informed McGonagall that he would not be playing Quidditch this final year, since Gryffindor had made it quite clear that the team would not work as a well-oiled machine with him on it. While he found the sport fun, it was really the flying that he enjoyed, and he knew that there was no way that they could take that away from him. "I'm sorry about the Cup, but I seriously doubt that they'll be good enough to win."
He sighed. "By the way, I'm stating this now. Unless an apology comes to me before they officially remove me from the team, I will not rejoin, even if Bill and Charlie show up the very next day and admit their wrongdoing."
"I am sorry that you feel this way, Mister Potter," she said in her best school-teacher voice, "but I understand your decision." She relaxed and said, "As much as I act as if the Cup is all-important, I support you in this, Harry. Currently I'm angry enough with my own House that I'd likely take points from them for the same reasons that Severus would." Harry's eyebrows rose at that. "I won't, but now you understand me, I think." He nodded with a slight smile.
She paused and when she spoke again, it was softer still. "If I overstep my bounds, please forgive me Harry, because I do it for the best of reasons. Be careful with the young ladies that you share the suite with. I think that all four of them are in love with you."
"I know they are," he said sadly. "The problem is how I feel about them. If it weren't for the fact that I felt exactly this way about Ginny at one point, I'd call it love. But I can't feel that for four girls, so it must be just teenaged lust. We've already written to Amelia Bones to talk to her about the situation, and she'll likely visit at some point to see what is happening. I won't hurt them intentionally, but I can't let them continue to think that they're in love with me, when I can't return their feelings. I think I do, but I know better, so I refuse their advances." He winced. "Please don't take points. There have been some conversations about being 'friends with benefits', if you understand my meaning. I haven't taken any of them up on it, because they might think that I'm finally returning their feelings. Ginny taught me quite well that what I'm feeling is lust, and nothing more." He shrugged. "Well, I have studying to do. My grades should be much higher this final year, if only because I won't have Quidditch interfering with my studying." He left the office, and Albus stepped from the side room.
"Were it not that I need them so much in the Order, I would remove the entire family save the twins," he said sadly. "They have damaged that young man beyond anything I have ever seen Riddle do. I may have done my own damage to him, but I have worked to mend that rift, and believe that we have made excellent inroads toward it. What he feels for the ladies is truly love - I can sense that in the sorrow he feels in his belief that it is not love."
"What do we do?" Minerva asked.
"Support him as best we can, and make our willingness to speak to him on any matters evident to him. Beyond that, I do not honestly know what can be done. I am continuing to work on William and Charles. William is closest to breaking, but Charles is as stubborn as his mother. Someday the truth will out, however."
"It will never be soon enough," Minerva responded. "To think that he once thought of them as family. They aren't worthy of the title."
"They are too certain of the truthfulness of their members, and act as they always do - with not enough information. They will certainly feel sorrow for their actions when this has played out, but it will be too late for them ever to regain his trust as completely as they once had it."
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The month of October came in quietly, unless you counted the screaming from the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Harry had been ejected from the team with cries of 'irreconcilable differences' as their reasoning. This hadn't been enough to make them scream, however. Where their loud wails came from was discovering that Harry was now the unofficial coach for the Hufflepuff team's Seeker. They attempted to prevent this, but it was pointed out to them that since he was not on any Quidditch team, his time was his own, and if he chose to offer a friend the fruits of his knowledge of the sport, then he was more than able to, and there were no school rules preventing such. In fact, there were actually no rules preventing him from having done it while still a member of the team.
Hufflepuff's Seeker improved mightily under Harry's tutelage, and Minerva McGonagall shook her head. "I'll be sorry to lose the Cup this year, but at least I'll have lost it to a team that Harry was teaching," she quietly said to Pomona Sprout one day in the teachers lounge.
"I simply wonder how the Weasley family could be so … I don't know what the word is that I'm looking for is -"
"Stupid?" Minerva supplied acidly.
"Not the one I was looking for, and one you will never hear me claim in public …"
"… Nor I," Minerva admitted.
"… but I have to admit that the word does fit. I don't know the boy as well as they do, and I know that he wouldn't do such a thing. To think that he would be with Ginevra and then supposedly sleep with Miss Parkinson? The two are friends, and I've been fairly certain since about May that she would like more, but Mister Potter is not the type to sleep around."
"You know that, your House knows that, and even Severus Snape admits that the Weasleys are doing Harry dirty. He and Harry are finally making peace with one another because of this." Minerva scowled. "You never heard me say this, but with my House's tendency to follow A Cause, I'm surprised that more of them don't follow You Know Who."
"I never heard you say that," Pomona repeated as she smiled. "But I agree."
"Well, there is nothing we can do about what is already done," Minerva said, "but we can at least try to mitigate the damage. I'll be out there on your game days cheering on your team."
"Unless it's Gryffindor we're playing," Pomona laughed.
"Well -" McGonagall smiled in answer.
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Pressure for a certain conversation between Hermione and Pansy had been building since the school year had begun, and they were in the post-conversational afterglow when Harry returned to the suite on October 20. Despite the fact that their activities were fairly obvious since Hermione's bra had unexplainably gotten fifteen feet from the couch, Harry looked at them, grunted something that sounded like it might be positive, and walked into his room. His movements seemed somewhat painful. They made no effort to dress. They were on their feet in an instant and at his door. "Harry, we're coming in," Pansy said before she opened the door.
The girls gasped as they saw his back disappear under his robes. It looked raw. "Who do we have to kill?" Pansy asked, and Hermione realised that her new lover wasn't joking. Someone has hurt her … well, our Harry, and I pity the one who did it.
"I can't tell you." he said simply, and turned to face them. "Congratulations, by the way. I've been wondering for about a week or so when you were going to admit it to each other. Think I first realised it the day I got my sight back - your foot was in Pansy's lap, and her nipples were so hard that they had to have hurt."
"They did," Pansy said softly. "At least I finally got her to kiss them and make them feel better," she added in a voice that should have had Harry trying to tear through his loose-fitting robes.
Hermione's eyebrows rose at his lack of a reaction. "Take off that robe right now and lie down on the bed, Harry. We're dealing with your wounds." When he didn't move, she added, "Don't make me Stupefy you. You're in pain, and we want to help you."
"You would, wouldn't you? You'd Stupefy me and take me to Madam Pomfrey." It was not a question. At the serious nod from both ladies, he said, "Unless you swear to me not to bring the teachers in on this, I will fight you every step of the way."
"Harry, if you've been attacked …" Hermione began to say.
"Swear it!" he replied harshly.
"On one condition," Pansy said. "You tell us who did this to you."
"I can't. Not won't - can't."
"We'll find out, you know," Hermione told him. "Four women who love you very much and who don't want to see you hurt again are not going to take this lying down."
"Don't do this!" he barked. "I have my reasons!"
"So do we," Pansy said softly. "Stupefy."
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Harry awoke in the Hospital Wing. Dumbledore was sitting next to the bed. "Ah, Harry, you're awake. We need to talk."
"Why? I can't tell you anything about the attack."
"I don't know what hold they think they have over you, but I will not simply sit back and permit any of my students to be sexually assaulted."
"You'll have to, sir. I'm not going to take Veritaserum, not that it would do any good, since all that it is, is basically a liquid Imperius, and we know how effective that is on me. I've learned enough Occlumency to have shields up at all times, and I'd recognise even your attempts to get into my head."
"Whom are you protecting? Is it one of the Weasleys, perhaps?"
Harry snorted. "If that were the case, you'd know everything about it. I can't tell you what happened, though."
"There is nothing to be ashamed of, Harry. It wasn't your fault."
"I know that, sir. I will reiterate that I can't tell you what happened, however."
Dumbledore sighed. "When you feel the desire to speak to me about this, my door will be open. At any time of day. Until then, however, I understand that there are four ladies very worried about you out here."
The curtain parted as Dumbledore dropped a Silence that Harry hadn't even known was there. Outside stood all four of his suite-mates, Pansy and Hermione looking the most worried. For the first time Harry could remember other than her grandfather's death, Pansy was close to crying. "Hello, ladies," he said as brightly as he could muster. "Are you here to sneak me out from beneath Madam Pomfrey's watchful eyes?"
"No," Poppy said with a smile as she stepped out from behind him. "They're here to walk my favourite patient back to his quarters. Your physical wounds have healed, and holding you overnight would solve nothing. I believe these ladies can help you with your psychic trauma." She frowned deeply. "I would be tempted to forget my oaths if I ever discover who did this to you."
"Please don't," Harry said softly. "It's not worth the psychic trauma you'd put yourself through for forgoing them, even if only for a while." He stood and walked the few steps to the girls. "I'll come back tomorrow if you'd like, Madam Pomfrey." At the shake of her head, he looked at his suite-mates and said, "Shall we?"
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At breakfast the next day, Harry sat quietly at the table. He was no longer in pain or experiencing tenderness, but he was certainly not as cheerful as he had been just the day before. He remained sullen and sniped at people all day.
It was worse the next day when photographs began to circulate the school. The Slytherin and Gryffindor tables were laughing the loudest, while the Ravenclaws were split between disgust and laughter, the line at that table extremely strongly demarcated. Hufflepuff, on the other hand, to a person looked ready to kill as the photos circulated. They were all of Harry in compromising positions, often with tears of shame and sometimes pain in his eyes.
Luna scowled and growled "Accio photos!" As the offensive photographs flew toward her, the other three girls fired of Incendios that were perhaps stronger than they had intended, as the photos burned white-hot.
Neville scowled at the rest of his House and stood. "You make me ashamed to be a Gryffindor," he said before walking proudly to Harry's table. "May I be permitted to join you?"
Harry simply nodded as he stood. "It's not the company, Neville. I've no appetite." Harry walked away from the table, and the girls joined him, as did Neville.
As they passed the Gryffindor table, Dean snarled, "Maybe now you can understand what you did to Ginny, you arsehole."
The look that the five people with Harry gave Dean caused the young black man to back away carefully from them. Ginny jumped in their way. "He deserved it, after the way he treats people! I'm glad it happened!"
The sound of the back of Hermione's hand striking the redhead's cheek echoed through the Hall. A small stream of blood flew, since it was the hand wearing the ring that Harry had originally intended as Ginny's promise ring. "Ginevra Molly Weasley, any possibility of repairing our friendship is now gone. When your lying brothers finally admit that they broke your relationship with Harry because they didn't like the idea of you growing up, you'll regret everything you've said since the twelfth of August, and you'll not be able to retract it. And I'll not forgive."
Harry was still facing away from the group when he suddenly said, "Ronald Weasley, if you don't put that wand away, I will shove it so far up your ass that you'll have to open your mouth to cast spells." The thing that shocked most in the Hall was that Harry had been correct - Ron had been in the process of drawing his wand to curse Hermione for striking Ginny. Ron vacillated for a few moments before putting his wand away, and the sextet left the Great Hall.
Author Notes:
We discover what has been happening in the next chapter. And what the response will be.