FIC: Abandoned: The Re-Write ~ Harry Potter ~ HPLV/HPTR ~ Mature ~ Chapter 16

[batsutousai]

Title: Abandoned: The Re-Write
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: M/R
Main Pairing: Harry/Tom, Harry/Voldemort
Side Pairings: Ginny/Theodore Nott, Seamus/Blaise Zabini, past-Ron/Hermione, Hermione/Luna, others
Warnings: SLASH, mentions of child abuse/rape/torture, language, character death, minor Dumbledore bashing, Grey-to-Dark!Harry
Summary: A complete re-write of Abandon: Before the start of his seventh year, Harry Potter is abandoned in London by his muggle family and finds himself befriending Lord Voldemort.

A/N: Sorry, in advance, for the OCs at the end of this chapter, but I sort of needed to bring them in. For the title, you know... *shifty eyes*

It is tomorrow by the time I'm getting this up, but it's still yesterday somewhere, so... In my defence, I was a little bit focussed on it being an FMA holiday. Sorta. *shrugs a lot and goes back to playing with cats*

-0-
Chapter Sixteen: Public Opinion
-0-

Sunday morning breakfast started just like any other Sunday morning, with Hermione, Harry, and the Slytherins gathering around the Gryffindor table to eat while the other Gryffindors slept in. Ginny and Neville joined them just as the Daily Prophet was being delivered, commenting that the other boys were still wrapped in their blankets.

"We'd be happy to wake them for you," Nott offered with an evil smile.

"And give you our password?" Harry retorted as Hermione paid for her subscription to the rag the wizarding world called a paper.

"Well, you have ours," Parkinson pointed out, earning the green-eyed Gryffindor disgusted looks from the other Slytherins.

"I do not have the Slytherin common room password!" Harry complained.

"You got into our dorm," Blaise reminded him.

"Yeah, because I'm a Parselmouth."

"That's cheating!" Parkinson and Blaise chorused.

"Harry," Hermione whispered, pale. "Harry, you need to look at this."

As she was shoving her copy of the paper towards her friend, Harry's scar suddenly burned and he clapped a hand to it, eyes wide. 'Tom? What's wrong?' he demanded, ignoring the worried sounds of his friends.

The Dark Lord's voice was tight and angry when he responded, 'Read the paper.'

Harry reached out with the hand that wasn't clutching his forehead to take the paper lying limp on the table. While he focussed on it, he felt Hermione pulling his hand from his forehead to place a cool cloth against his scar.

'CHOSEN ONE SLEEPING WITH SUSPECTED DEATH EATER!' the headline proclaimed. Under it was a picture of Harry and Marcus kissing at the dance and, beneath that, was an article about Harry's 'current boyfriend', followed by a comment by the minister about how Marcus Brutús was a Dark wizard and almost certainly a Death Eater.

Harry stood, knocking Hermione's hand away. The cool cloth fluttered to the top of the table as Harry turned and stepped over the bench.

"Harry?" Hermione whispered, voice shaking. The others were watching him with wide eyes while others around the Great Hall were either looking at him with pity or turning suspicious eyes towards the Defence professor at the Head Table.

"Excuse me," Harry murmured. "I have a minister to castrate." Then he stalked from the room.

Ginny blinked. "What just happened?" she asked, glancing towards the paper that had started it all and was now covered with porridge.

"Scrimgeour made claims that Brutús is a Death Eater," Malfoy announced from over his own paper.

"You know, one of these days, Harry might actually kill that man," Neville commented tiredly, turning his attention back to his eggs. "Scrimgeour is more pro-active about You-Know-Who, certainly, but he's also an idiot."

"Politics makes everyone an idiot," Ginny retorted. "Dad said that Scrimgeour was a fine auror, but once he got elected to be minister, he had to be seen doing something, so he arrested a person here, looked for a hero there..."

"My father says Scrimgeour's always been an idiot," Malfoy reported importantly.

"Yeah, well we know whose side your father's on, Malfoy," Ginny snapped. "He would think Scrimgeour's an idiot."

Blaise sighed and shook his head, then focussed on Hermione and Neville. "Does Harry often have issues with the minister, then?"

"Last year, Scrimgeour would occasionally pester him about interviews or publicity stunts," Neville answered, since Harry hadn't been spending as much time with her and Ron that year, due to their dancing around each other. "Harry said he wanted a hero as the face of the Ministry, to reassure everyone that the 'Chosen One' was behind them. But you know all those arrests they made Christmas of last year?"

Nott wrinkled his nose. "My Auntie Elizabeth was one of the ones arrested," he offered. "They came to the manor and arrested her in the middle of Christmas dinner. It was absolutely shameful."

Neville nodded. "Well, Harry somehow found out that most of those arrested had nothing to do with You-Know-Who and he completely lost it. He sent this scathing letter to the minster about how he'd never support a government that arrested its own citizens on account of idle speculations."

"Wasn't that around the same time as when Sirius was declared innocent?" Hermione realised.

Neville grinned, looking frighteningly like one of the Slytherins they were sitting with when they had managed to get something over on a Gryffindor. "Oh, yeah. That was Scrimgeour kissing Harry's arse."

"Please tell me Potter didn't let him get away with that," Malfoy demanded, paper set to the side in favour of learning more about the Boy Who Lived.

"Are you kidding?" Ginny offered, grin mirroring Neville's. "Harry wrote a nice little letter back, thanking Scrimgeour for correcting one of the Ministry's many mistakes and suggesting he focus on not making any more, since he could never correct all of the Ministry's past mistakes."

"But the Ministry didn't free the suspected people for another three months," Nott pointed out.

Neville shrugged. "They had to be seen doing something, even if it did piss Harry off."

"And it's not like Harry had ever intended to let them use him for their image, anyway," Ginny pointed out. "Ticked off 'Chosen One' or not, they couldn't just turn around and free everyone."

"That would be like admitting they were in the wrong," Parkinson added, sniffing. "They'd never have got away with that. Draco, if you don't stop shuffling closer to me, I will hex you."

Malfoy twitched and looked at Hermione out of the corner of his eye.

"Honestly!" Hermione snapped, rolling her eyes. "I'm not contagious, Malfoy!"

Neville snorted into his pumpkin juice. "Dear Merlin. You did not just say that."

Hermione sniffed and gave Neville an irritated look. "I am daily surrounded by pureblood idiots; you can't expect me to not catch on."

"I'm not an idiot!" Malfoy complained.

Parkinson snorted and patted Draco on the head as she stood. "Yes, you are. Scoot over; I have no problem sitting next to the mudblood."

"I'm considering whether or not I should take offence to that," Hermione muttered, but after almost a month spent around the Slytherins and the strange friendship that had come from Hallowe'en, she was almost used to the insults, especially since the snakes didn't avoid them when Harry wasn't around.

Parkinson shot Hermione a smirk as the rest of the Gryffindor boys came shuffling in, yawning and falling into their usual seats with nary a greeting.

After a cuppa, Dean muttered, "Harry came storming into the room a minute ago. He looked like he was about to kill something."

"Scrimgeour is calling Professor Brutús a Death Eater," Ginny explained, waving at the porridge-covered paper that had been shoved out of the way between Malfoy and Parkinson.

"Harry's going to kill him," Dean realised.

"Hate to be the minister right now," Seamus agreed, leaning his head on Blaise's shoulder. Since Harry had outed them to the other Slytherins two days ago, the two boys were no longer concerned with hiding their relationship.

"Scrimgeour's not doing himself any favours," Neville agreed.

"Scrimgeour is an idiot," Marcus said, coming to a stop behind the students. When they all turned to look at him, he asked, "Could you keep eyes on Harry today? I doubt your peers will be taking the paper well, and none of us need to be breaking him out of Azkaban for killing a student."

"Good point," Neville agreed. "What about you, Professor?"

"I have no intention in lingering with students on a Sunday," Marcus replied stiffly.

"And what the paper said? Is there any truth in it?" Ginny asked.

The professor gave the youngest Weasley an irritated look, then bared his left arm. "I'm not a Death Eater," he replied, then stalked from the Great Hall.

The students all traded looks. "I notice he didn't mention anything about being a Dark wizard," Blaise commented.

"There's nothing wrong with being Dark," Malfoy snapped, giving his roommate an irritated look.

"I never said there was," Blaise retorted at the same time as Ron insisted, "Yes, there is!"

There was a long moment of silent glares, and then Hermione cleared her throat and suggested, "Why don't we go find Harry?"

"But–" Ron started.

"Reductor Curse!" Hermione said loudly over Ron's complaints.

Ron's mouth snapped shut.

The other students looked between Ron and Hermione with surprise, curious about what had just happened.

Luna floated over about then and leaned over to kiss Hermione's cheek, which had the brunette flushing. "Good morning, Hermione. Good morning, Slytherins and Gryffindors," the blonde said, smiling absently. "The flaffens are quite numerous over here; have you been arguing?"

"You said it yourself, Loony, we're Slytherins and Gryffindors," Nott snapped, sneering. "We argue."

Neville sighed and stood from the table. "I'm going to go find Harry. I'll meet everyone in the Room of Requirement."

"Why there?" Dean asked, looking up at his roommate.

"Because this," Neville waved his arm around their area of the table, "isn't a conversation for the library. For all that most of the school knows where we all stand on the issue, there's no need to go around discussing it in a public forum." So saying, he turned and left the Great Hall.

Parkinson sighed. "We did agree to save some homework so Potter wouldn't be forced to do his alone," she pointed out, standing and grabbing Hermione's arm to drag her to her feet. "Come on, Granger. Show us this amazing room of yours."

"You know where the Room is," Hermione muttered, allowing herself to be led from the Hall. The others slowly filed out behind them, Ron and Malfoy glaring at each other.

"We know where the room is, sure," Parkinson agreed, "but that doesn't mean we've ever used it. Slytherins have never seen a reason to meet outside our own common, since we're the only ones who can get in there. Except for Potter, apparently."

Hermione sighed and shook her head. "Yeah, okay."

-0-0-0-

Neville found Harry in the owlery. "Hey," he called, stepping around some hay covered in bird droppings.

Harry glanced over at the slightly older teen and raised a hand in a weak wave before returning his attention to the grounds. "How is it out there?" he asked quietly.

"No one's bothered me about it," Neville replied, leaning against the window sill Harry was sitting on. When Harry moved his legs, Neville smiled and took the silent invitation to sit next to him. "They look a little uncertain, honestly. Ginny asked Professor Brutús about the truth of the article and he bared his left arm. That calmed some people down, I'm sure."

"I hate the Ministry," Harry complained, resting his head back against the edge of the window.

"They're pretty useless," Neville agreed.

Harry nodded, expression thoughtful.

Neville sighed and reached over to pat the other teen's knee, earning him a flinch. "I agreed to drag you to the Room of Requirement. We've all still got some homework to finish."

"Okay." They both got up and started out of the owlery.

"Did you owl Scrimgeour?" Neville asked.

Harry shrugged. "Yes. I demanded he either send me his evidence of Marcus being Dark, or publicly retract the statement. I also told him that I know for a fact that Marcus isn't a Death Eater and if he doesn't make a statement apologising for his slander, I'll do it for him."

Neville grimaced. "If he has any brain left in that head of his, tomorrow morning's front page will have an apology for both of his claims."

Harry's lips curled with a nasty smile. "Oh, yes. I will happily destroy him if he gives me the chance."

"What's to say the next minister won't be worse?" Neville enquired.

"Oh, I'll get dirt on them, don't worry about that."

"Your mysterious sources scare me sometimes, Harry."

Harry shot his friend a smile, thinking that Mad-Eye would probably be pleased to know he was scaring people. The ex-auror was quite vindictive, and he never forgot a wrong, which meant he had a great store of blackmail material on pretty much everyone in the Ministry, and neither he, nor Harry, had any compunctions about using said material to keep the idiots in line.

They weren't far from the Room of Requirement when they were stopped by a group of lower years, all but two of which had been members of the DA. Andrew Kirke, the apparent leader, stepped forward, scowling. "First you're protecting and hanging out with Slytherins, now you're dating a Death Eater?" he demanded.

"Professor Brutús isn't a Death Eater," Neville snapped.

"What I do in my free time is hardly a concern of yours, Andrew," Harry added, raising an eyebrow. "I was sure I'd made that clear last time."

"We respected you," Mark Summers, a sixth year Hufflepuff, said, looking hurt. "We trusted you to be our mentor and now you're befriending snakes–"

"Of course I'm befriending snakes!" Harry snapped. "I'm a Parselmouth!"

The humour in that statement fell completely flat on the angry younger students, many of them paling at the reminder, while others raised their wands to point them at Harry.

"If you think of Harry as your mentor, why won't you let him be that mentor?" Neville asked, desperate to keep a fight from breaking out. He didn't want to see the result of a nine on two battle, especially since he suspected that Harry could destroy the younger students without breaking into a sweat.

"Mentor us in befriending Slytherins?" Andrew demanded. "Why would we want that?"

"Perhaps so we don't come up behind you when you're alone and stab you in the back," a voice commented drily from behind the nine students. While the argument about Light vs. Dark had been going on, Malfoy and Nott had left the Room of Requirement to use the loo down the hall and been distracted by the impending fight.

"You've all seen Potter duel," Nott helpfully reminded the younger years. "Do you really want to continue ticking him off today? He might 'accidentally' forget you're all supposed to be friends and cast something dangerous."

"Honestly, I'm surprised you haven't cursed them all yet, Potter," Malfoy added, looking around the students to where Harry and Neville stood. "I would have."

Harry shrugged. "Didn't feel like wasting my energy on them," he replied. "Especially not with Professor Snape around the corner."

The younger students all tensed as the mentioned professor made his appearance from behind Harry and Neville. Neville had paled a bit at the mention of the professor and determinedly did not look behind himself.

"A surprisingly wise decision, Potter," Snape said silkily as he stepped forward to stand next to the two seventh years.

"I do try, sir," Harry replied drily. "Come on, Nev. Let's leave the good professor to deal with this lot."

" 'Good professor'?" Neville whispered in response as the two seventh year Gryffindors moved through the nine younger students to reach Malfoy and Nott.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Longbottom," Snape called after them, making Harry bite back a smile and Neville sigh.

"Really, Longbottom, what did you do?" Malfoy asked as the four seventh years left the younger students behind to be punished.

"He wondered about Snape's status as 'good'," Harry answered the other boy. "What brings you two out here, anyway? I mean, I’m grateful that you kept that from escalating any further with your timely arrival..."

"Stop sucking up, Potter," Nott complained. "It's not becoming."

Harry stuck his tongue out at the Slytherin in response, making Nott groan.

Malfoy and Neville both snickered, then shot each other distrustful looks.

The door to the Room of Requirement opened and Dean poked his head out. "Oh, good. Harry, would you please get in here and stop them?"

"Stop who from doing what?" Harry asked, speeding up a bit.

"They're arguing about Dark magic," Nott muttered.

"And why weren't you two in there, supporting your side?" Neville asked as Harry slipped into the room.

"Toilet," the Slytherins chorused, then made a bee-line for the men's room.

"Ginny and Ron were ganging up on the Slytherins," Dean explained as Neville joined him at the doorway. "Malfoy and Nott made a retreat while Parkinson stayed to hold her side."

"What about Blaise?" Neville asked.

Dean pointed at where Seamus was standing between his boyfriend and the two Weasleys. Hermione, meanwhile, had decided to stay out of the debate entirely and was sitting off to one side with Luna, who was trying to talk the older girl into kissing her.

Harry's entrance had remained mostly unnoticed, but that wouldn't last long, as the room helpfully provided a Mimbulus mimbletonia right in the middle of the fighting group and Harry tossed a dart that had also been provided at the plant.

Harry, Luna, and Neville all had sense enough to throw up magical shields to protect themselves, Hermione, and Dean, but the arguing quintet got covered in the sap.

In the sudden silence, Harry stepped forward and asked, "Are you quite done?"

"What is that smell?" Malfoy asked as he and Nott walked back into the room. They took one look at the mess and both muffled snickers.

Parkinson scowled and banished some of the gunk onto the two other Slytherins. She also tried banishing some at Harry, but the Gryffindor had been wise enough to keep his personal shield up; Malfoy and Nott weren't so lucky.

"Dammit, Pansy! These were my best robes!" Malfoy snapped.

"What do you mean, your 'best'?" Parkinson shot back. "You have six other robes that look exactly like that one."

Harry rolled his eyes and moved over to Hermione and Luna. "Hi," he said, taking a seat next to the Ravenclaw. "How are you two?"

"But this one is the newest!" Malfoy argued.

"He can tell?" Hermione muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Your green one is the newest," Nott helpfully offered.

"Stay out of this, Theodore!" Parkinson and Malfoy chorused.

"Have you seen any rinkles today?" Luna asked Harry.

"Wrinkles?" Hermione asked, deciding to ignore the argument going on just over Harry's shoulder. The other Gryffindors and Blaise seemed to have the same idea and came to join them at the table, which magically expanded.

"Not wrinkles, rinkles," Luna corrected.

"Who cares?" Ron grumbled, trying to clean his robes and not having any luck. "Harry, come on. Tell the Room to stop making it come back."

Harry shrugged. "You know I can't see them," he replied to Luna.

Luna smiled knowingly in response.

"Harry..." Ron whined.

Harry sighed and gave his long-time friend a tired look. "Seriously?" he asked, vaguely noting that the Slytherins had stopped arguing. "You're seriously going to start a fight about Dark magic?"

"I tried stopping them," Hermione offered.

"Thank you," Harry replied, shooting her a fond smile. When he looked back at Ron, Ginny, and the Slytherins, however, his smile was gone. "Why did you start a fight about Dark magic?"

"Malfoy was saying that Dark magic wasn't bad," Ginny snapped, looking disgusted.

"Brutús said he wasn't a Death Eater, but said nothing about the claims of him being a Dark wizard," Neville offered when Harry rubbed at his scar. "Malfoy said it wasn't such a bad thing to be Dark and Ron disagreed. Hence the fight."

Harry nodded and looked over at Seamus and Blaise. "And where do you two stand in this?" he asked them.

"Dark magic is no worse than Light magic," Blaise insisted.

Seamus shrugged, looking uncomfortable. "I was going to stay out of it," he said, "but then Ginny pulled out her wand."

Harry nodded and Seamus' robes cleaned themselves.

"Why only Finnigan?" Nott demanded.

"He got involved to protect Blaise, the rest of you fought for personal reasons," Harry said. "Now, perhaps you'll allow me to solve the question which started this whole debate?" When everyone nodded, most looking wary, Harry offered, "Marcus is a Dark wizard."

"And you're dating him?" Ron demanded before turning to his sister. "You spent so much time trying to get them together, and now what–?"

"Ron," Harry interrupted, scowling, "you know my stance on Dark magic. Why do you expect me to care whether or not Marcus is Dark?"

Everyone got really quiet, staring at Harry like he'd grown a second head or something.

Then, as if a flip had been switched, they all started demanding to know what he'd meant by that. Luna just smiled to herself while Hermione sighed and Ron looked chagrined.

Harry waited for almost a full three minutes before silencing the lot of them and stalking from the room, disgusted.

-0-0-0-

Once again, Neville was the one to find the younger teen. This time, Harry was sitting, disillusioned, in a corner of the Gryffindor common room. He'd pulled out one of his books on Dark magic from Mad-Eye, just to be difficult, and set up a ward around his corner to keep people from wondering why an empty chair was sitting over there. Neville was one of the few people who didn't let the spell affect him and so knew right away what was going on.

"People are going to wonder why you're sitting by yourself," Harry commented once Neville had dragged over a chair and sat in it, facing the supposedly empty chair.

Neville shrugged and pointed to his throat.

Harry smiled to himself. "What? Lion got your tongue?"

Neville rolled his eyes while Harry snickered to himself.

Once the Boy Who Lived had calmed down, he asked, "Are you going to gripe at me if I remove the spell?"

Neville shook his head, and Harry knew he wouldn't lie, so he silently removed the silencing spell, then expanded his spell over the area so people wouldn't wonder about their corner.

"Are you going to remain disillusioned?" Neville wondered quietly.

Harry sighed and removed his spell, setting his book to one side so he could focus on his friend. "Better?" he muttered.

Neville smiled and shrugged. "I'm sorry I reacted the way I did," he offered, "but, to be fair, you sort of surprised all of us. I mean, sure, you occasionally pull out a book with a couple of Dark spells in it, but reading about Dark spells is completely different from casting them."

Harry smiled. "You know, I tried that argument on Marcus once. He laughed in my face."

Neville rolled his eyes. "I suppose there really isn't a difference to a Dark wizard or witch, but to someone who only really uses Light and Neutral spells, there's a difference."

"I suppose," Harry agreed.

Neville relaxed back in his chair. "After everyone had calmed down a bit, Ron and Hermione told us about your usage of Dark magic at the end of last year." Harry tensed. "You might have impressed the Slytherins."

Harry let out a quiet snort. "And how many of you lot did I alienate?"

Neville smiled. "Ginny was a little twitchy, but she calmed down after a bit. Everyone else was just sort of... Well, they took it okay enough. Seamus looked a bit like he wanted to make a smart remark, but since you'd helpfully silenced him..."

Harry snickered and relaxed back into his chair. "Shay will never change," he decided.

They shared knowing smiles and fell silent, content to just sit together.

Finally, Neville offered, "I don't think they would have taken it so well before the Slytherins joined us. Seamus might have, sure, since he was already dating Blaise, but Dean and Ginny and I..." He grimaced at having to admit to his own failings.

Harry sighed and reached forward to touch Neville's knee. "Hey, it's okay. I didn't expect any of you to ever accept my usage of Dark magic, honestly. And..." He swallowed, suddenly finding his chest too tight. "Thanks."

"Harry, Dark magic or not, you're still our friend," Neville insisted, "and we would have been fools to forget that just because you're willing to look past the Ministry's prejudice."

Harry managed a shaky smile of thanks and leant back into his chair again, relaxing when Tom sent him something like a mental hug.

Again, the two fell silent. This time, however, the silence was broken by a couple of Gryffindors nearby who were talking about Marcus and Harry:

"Do you really think Brutús is a Death Eater?" Victoria Frobisher, a sixth year, asked.

"He bared his arm for the whole Hall," Ren Miyazaki, also a sixth year, replied. "He's no more a Death Eater than I am."

"Careful what you say, Ren," Simon Magus, a fifth year, warned. "Everyone knows your boyfriend is a Slytherin."

"Just because Rai is a Slytherin does not make me a Death Eater," Ren muttered.

"Professor Brutús is too nice to be a Death Eater," the only second year, Sonya Frobisher, said quietly.

"How nice someone is hardly indicates whether or not they're a Death Eater," Simon snapped, frowning.

"He doesn't have a Mark," Ren cut in before Simon could reduce Sonya to tears or Victoria could come to her sister's defence with something deadly, like nail polish. "And I doubt Harry would go around dating one, anyway."

"Like you'd know," Simon muttered.

"I don't need to have been in the DA to know whether or not my own Housemate would date a Death Eater," Ren snapped.

"Especially when you're friends with Ginny Weasley," Victoria offered, sending Ren a tense smile. She was Ginny's roommate, but she hardly ever spoke to her. Ren and Regina Ordway were closer to the sixth year prefect than anyone other than the seventh years she usually hung out with.

Simon snorted and looked away.

Victoria rolled her eyes. "Look, I was in the DA, and Harry really isn't the type to date a Death Eater. I mean, his whole life has revolved around defeating the Dark Lord, you know? I doubt he'd even date a Dark wizard, let alone one who moonlights as a Death Eater. The Daily Prophet likes to blow things out of proportion, and you know they go digging for stuff to publish – just think about the TriWizard Tournament!"

"Scrimgeour spent most of last year trying to get Harry on the Ministry's side," Ren offered. "Gin was always complaining about it. Knowing the Ministry, this is probably just another ploy to get the 'Chosen One' in their pocket."

"They're going about it the wrong way," Sonya offered. "No one wants to be told their friend is evil."

"Especially if that friend isn't evil," Ren agreed, grinning at the younger Gryffindor.

"Miyazaki, don't flirt with my sister," Victoria ordered.

Ren saluted her, then stood. "Hey, Gin!" he called, waving at the redhead who had just come in through the portrait hole. "Want to come settle something for us?"

Ginny rolled her eyes, but moved over to where they were sitting, silently waving at her roommate and swatting the back of Ren's head. Then she gave the boy a curious look, silently asking, 'What did you need?'

"What's wrong with your voice?" Sonya asked.

Ginny let out a silent sigh and shrugged.

"Harry silences his friends when they tick him off," Ren helpfully offered, grinning. "What did you say to him?"

Ginny pulled out her wand and set it against the side of Ren's head in response.

"Shutting up!"

Victoria snorted at her roommate. "Brutús: is he a Death Eater?" she asked.

Ginny shook her head.

"You're certain about that?" Simon demanded. "Maybe he glamoured his Dark Mark."

"Maybe you're an idiot," Harry commented as he dropped the spell from around his corner and on Ginny with a negligent wave of his wand. "You can't glamour the Dark Mark, first of all. Second, I can vouch for him not being a Death Eater."

"And we should believe you why?" Simon snarked. "Have you gone around undressing him to check everywhere, Potter?"

"I've known him for seven years," Harry retorted even as he felt sick at Simon's words, "I know he's not a Death Eater."

"Are you absolute–"

Harry made a violent motion with his wand and Simon's entire mouth disappeared. "He's not a Death Eater," the teen said sharply. "End of discussion."

The other students gave him surprised looks. After a moment, Ginny croaked, "I have a new fondness for silencing charms."

Neville let out a nervous chuckle. "Sometimes, Harry, we forget how violent your temper is," he offered.

Harry sniffed and crossed his arms over his chest while Simon had a minor panic attack, hands covering his vanished mouth. "Madam Pomfrey can fix it," he offered to the younger Gryffindor before focussing on Ginny. "I assume you came looking for me?"

Ginny nodded. "Yeah. Wanted to apologise for... Well, mostly for reacting the way I did."

"You say that like I hadn't expected your reactions," Harry replied drily. "You weren't there when Ron flipped his lid last year."

Ginny grimaced. "Yeah. I suppose I understand, now, why he was acting so weird over the summer. Still, I'm sorry."

Harry waved his hand at her and stood. "Whatever. Where are the others?"

"Still looking for you, mostly. Hermione and Luna went to the library to work on their homework some. Something about the chitterslugs, or something, calming you down."

Harry smiled fondly at Luna's word for their peers. "So they did. Well, let's go join them, I suppose. The others will stop searching eventually."

"Or we'll run into them on the way," Neville agreed, also standing.

"See you, Victoria, Victoria's little sister," Ginny offered, following the two seventh years towards the portrait hole.

"Don't forget me, Gin!" Ren called after them in a tragic voice.

"I'm sorry, who was he again?" Ginny asked a nearby third year, who giggled.

The portrait closed behind them, cutting off Ren's tragic monologue about being left behind by his best friend.

-0-0-0-0-0-

-0-0-0-0-0-

A/N: Erg. OCs. XD (But I love Ren and Rai. *coos over her OCs* Maybe I'll bring them in again.)

~Bats ^.^x

Spell Explanations:

• Lippenverschwinden -- meaning 'lips vanish' in German.
  A neutral jinx which removes the lips and mouth opening of the victim, creating a smooth, seamless patch of skin where they would have been would have been. While not, necessarily, illegal, it is frowned upon.

Abandon & Reclaim Series:
Abandon the Prequel: Sixth Year
Abandon chapter 01
Reclaim chapter One
Abandoned Chapters:
One || Two || Three || Four || Five || Six || Seven || Eight || Nine || Ten
Eleven || Twelve || Thirteen || Fourteen || Fifteen || Sixteen || Seventeen || Eighteen || Nineteen || Twenty
INCOMPLETE

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