{ the boy who died }

Harry Potter. 18 years old. Leader of Dumbledore's Army. The Chosen One. “It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up...

[princesseilidh-blog]

Daphne rolled her eyes at his last words. “Yes, because we’re Slytherins we all have intimate knowledge of what the Death Eater’s might be thinking.” She shook her head. “Malfoy might,” she admitted, “and, honestly, if you’re looking to get everyone on your side, he might be your best bet.”

She shrugged, formulating her words before elaborating on her idea. “He has the most…pull…with the other two. Pansy’d go into the fire for him.” The last bit she said softer than the rest and more thoughtfully before returning her attention to Harry. “If you can convince Malfoy, you can have all of us on your side. I’m sure of it.”

[fromthecupboard-blog]

“That’s not what I meant.” But hadn’t it been? More likely, he had strictlybeen thinking of Malfoy – but it wasn’t like the others wouldn’t come in handytoo. “I’ll talk to him,” he continued wearily. Because he talked to Malfoyenough these days without actively wanting to seek him out.

Daphne was right. Harry andNeville could get the others to go along with whatever plan was necessary – butthey need Draco to get the rest of the Slytherins on board. Although, italready seemed that Daphne would go along with them even without Draco. “You’rein, then?”

[princesseilidh-blog]

Daphne bit her lip, fingers still tangling in her hair as she digested his words. She didn’t like it still, but he had a point. There was nothing they could do hidden away in this farmhouse. But it frightened her. Would she act the same way she had when faced with watching her sister die again? Would she freeze? She couldn’t know unless she went with him and tried to find something.

“You’re right,” she said, her voice reluctant. She had been raised to never admit that anyone else was right but her, something she was sure her parents regretted teaching her. “We need to act if we’re going to have any hope of ending this. Do you have a plan for action, at least?”

[fromthecupboard-blog]

It felt good to hear her say that. They’d all be hiding for so long that it felt like nothing had gotten done. Harry had never asked to be put in the situations he was, but he did thrive on action. He’d never been only to see idly by while someone else figured it out. He froze slightly at her words, however. “No, there’s no plan. Yet.”

He hadn’t thought too far ahead – the first goal was getting people on board with doing something, then they could work together to figure out what it would be. “We need people on our side. People like… Draco, Pansy, and Blaise,” he admitted reluctantly. “You all know more about what the Death Eaters might be thinking. And it’s not like we can just run in, wands raised. It had to be… stealthier than that.”

[detectivecrawley-blog]

Dueling | June 22, 1998

The recent news reignited Hannah’s goal to improve her dueling skills. It wasn’t enough to only be a healer, helping her friends after the fact – she wanted to be part of the battle, and to be more useful a member than just the housekeeper and nurse. At first, she tried teaching herself defense, but it proved a pointless effort. None of the spells were powerful enough to do much more than move a piece of hay, and she blamed it on poor technique. It was time to enlist the help of someone else, so that’s what she did.

“Hey,” she greeted, with that trademark smile gracing her small lips. “I need your help with something.”

[fromthecupboard-blog]

There were papers strewn about the table and they actually held information that could be useful this time around. They knew that Azkbana had been broken out of - and they knew the Death Eaters were distracted by it. There really wasn’t a consensus on how to proceed, but Harry was shifting through the various ideas which his eyes narrowed in concentration when he heard a voice in the doorway. Lifting his head, his eyes met Hannah’s soft smile. Surprised she was asking him for help with something over Dean, Harry looked at her in confusion. 

“Er... alright. Yeah. What is it?”

[princesseilidh-blog]

Daphne hesitated at his question, her tongue darting out to wet her lips. Her mouth had suddenly become very dry. “Well…” she started, absentmindedly bring a hand up to twirl her hair, a bad habit that apparently had not disappeared even in the heat of the battle. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “We don’t know anything. After we knew something would be better.”

[fromthecupboard-blog]

Harry couldn’t help it - he let out a low, bitter bark of laughter. That was the problem, was it? No one had any inclination of what to do next. Harry himself hadn’t expected things to turn out this way. He’d always thought it would just be him, Ron, and Hermione. And, while he wasn’t exactly against the idea of having the others, it was harder to figure out the next steps when there was twelve instead of three.

“That’s just it -” he began, his voice low. “We don’t know anything. Which is why we need to come and find something out. Rather than just sit around and wait for it to come to us. Because that hasn’t happened yet and it won’t happen later. It’s not like we all have to leave at the same time. We can go in groups.”

[dadraco-deactivated20170722]

Draco rolled his eyes. These people were so high strung when their emotions got involved and none of them listened.

“Did I say we should do nothing? No. What I’m suggesting is that we take a less – direct approach in our response. They’ll be humiliated but not weakened. We’d barely make a dent in their defences with our current number.”

[fromthecupboard-blog]

Harry narrowed his eyes - Draco did have a point. Twelve teenagers against the Death Eaters did not seem like good odds. Though, he, Ron, and Hermione had been up against Voldemort’s mind and they’d managed to find and destroy all the Horcruxes aside from the snake. Still, he took a deep breath and spoke. After all, they’d accepted the Slytherins in the group for a reason - because they had insight the others didn’t.

“So what are you suggesting?”

[weasleyways-blog]

Ron grunted softly, not wanting to be too obvious about his annoyance. He didn’t want to talk about the forest or anything else that happened that day. There has been plenty of times where he had thought about erasing it from his memory, but there was too high of a chance he’d screw up and make himself even less useful than he already felt. Still, having to lose his brother twice was still weighing heavy on him, the guilt overwhelming every time it was replayed in his nightmares.

He wanted to be the support his best friend was asking for, but Harry had also been distant and it bugged him a lot. The raven-haired boy had a habit of closing himself off when something was bothering him, but he should know by now that is usually only made things worse.

“We just can’t afford any mistakes.”

[fromthecupboard-blog]

Harry clenched his jaw tightly and forced himself to stay calm. He wasn’t angry with Ron - or any of the D.A., really. He just felt so immobile and he was tired of people dying while everyone tried to protect him. Ron, as always, would go where Harry went. There had only been a handful of times where that hadn’t happened and they all stemmed from some sort of jealous anger. All of which had been forgiven by both. In those instances, both their stubbornness was to blame. Harry wasn’t about to let that happen yet again.

“You’re right - we can’t.” I don’t want anyone else dead because of me, went unspoken. “Which is why we’d better get to work and plan something out. We don’t have much time.”

[princesseilidh-blog]

“Of course I’m coming. If we’re fighting back, I want to be involved. I just think that right now is a foolish time to attack.”

Daphne ran a hand through her hair, frowning at the bespectacled boy in front of her. Never in a million years had she thought that they would ever work together, and now she was seeing more proof that they simply couldn’t work together. He had no sense of timeliness or of death, both things that Daphne had become more acquainted with than she would like to be. It frustrated her that he couldn’t see how unsafe he was being.

[fromthecupboard-blog]

“And when would you suggest would be better?”

His voice was hardened - but it wasn’t really Daphne’s fault. While Harry could admit that he had a slight prejudice towards Slytherins, he also knew that they all weren’t the same. Sirius himself how told Harry once that the world wasn’t grouped into good people and Death Eaters - and that could hold true for the Hogwarts houses as well. The simple fact that the Slytherins were here - helping the D.A. - proved that to be true. But old habits died hard and it wasn’t easy accepting them fully.

[harry-potter-edits-blog]

credit to creator.

[briaremersxn-blog]

Any other teenager would find staring at the ceiling without thought liberating, a reminder that there were no classes to go to, no work to do, simply no responsibilities. But to Dean, to all of them, no matter the age they were, the stagnated nature of action was stress provoking. As much as he would breathe deep, fingers splayed across the firm plane of his stomach, Dean’s head couldn’t help but move a mile a minute. Running through the ‘what ifs’ he could be helping to prevent if he wasn’t trapped. With nothing to do, his thoughts can run away, and no matter the wifi broadcasts, without the physical evidence in front of him Dean was nowhere near reassured. His lips curve in a frown when he moves to leave, barely noticing Harry till the shorter boy was blocking his way bodily. “I uh-” Dean rocked back as not to loom over him, hands in his pockets. “Right… sure, Harry, what do you want?”

[fromthecupboard-blog]

Harry had always liked Dean. Even when he’d been dating Ginny and Harry was jealous, he couldn’t help but think that Dean was a good guy. That was part of the reason Harry was so annoyed by them dating. Dean and Harry hadn’t talked much one on one since they began camping out in the farmhouse, but it wasn’t because Harry had a problem with him – just that there really hadn’t been an opportunity. Harry was always in the middle of the planning and leadership duties. Dean was always with Hannah or fiddling with that damn radio. Which came in handy, really, when it came to the task Harry needed.

“Well, you know the wireless. I figured since you’re always… around it anyway, you could keep an eye on it for me.” He lowered his voice. “I think maybe there’s a pattern in there somewhere. I don’t know how – you’d know better than me – but look for something familiar. I think maybe we can find out where they’ve been broadcasting from.”

[princesseilidh-blog]

“Obviously things don’t always go according to the plan. Plans aren’t foolproof, there are extraneous circumstances, etc. But we have nothing, no inkling of anything that could help us bring the Dark Lord down. We’d all get killed. And, no offense, but some of us don’t really want to die.”

[fromthecupboard-blog]

“Then don’t come.”

He couldn’t help it. They all wanted him to lead them - and then, when he tried to, all he got was backlash. But no one won a war by sitting on their hands and being afraid of dying. Harry was the only one who had ever died here (even though he admittedly couldn’t remember it, since it never happened to him and only an alternate self) and he wasn’t afraid to try something risky. If anything, he was more concerned about everyone else.

[gingevra-blog]

Witching Hour ;; Harry & Ginny                 [June 18th, 1998]

[gingevra-blog]

She regretted her words the moment they fell from her lips but made no attempt to retract her accusations. Ginny had never been big on admitting her failures. So rather than interrupted him, apologising or doing anything even remotely proactive, Ginny just sat there and let him shout at her. Maybe his anger could be her punishment, Ginny thought about how appropriate that was as the increase in volume of his voice caused a familiar itch of irritation grow in her mind. She did not speak, and instead soaked up his anger; the slowly reddening shade of his face, the venom in his voice and the way his eyes looked to have turned black (although the more logical part of Ginny’s mind told her that was most likely down to poor lighting than anything else). She deserved it. And when he was done Ginny simply shifted in the seat, turning her attention away from him and back to the window she’d been so fixated on when Harry first entered the room. She did, at the very least, manage to roll her eyes at him before turning away. Not even Merlin himself could stop her doing that.

If she were being honest with herself, having Harry shout at her hurt more than she thought it would. Ginny was the type of person who cared little for the opinions of others, so had never really listened when they voiced them in a less than courteous way, if it’d been anyone else who’d shouted at her in that manner she’d likely throw a curse or two before stomping off but this was Harry. Harry who she loved. Harry who she’d literally defied the laws of time to save … Harry who was looking at her now like she was something to be reviled. Ginny had taken one glance at the reflection he cast in the window before the pain of seeing his anger stabbed at her heart and she was forced to go back to looking at the distant landscape of the farm. The longer she sat in silence the harder she struggled against the desire to scream at him and Ginny kept having to remind herself that just a few seconds before she’d decided his anger was to be her punishment for being so horrible. The problem was, Ginny was too hot-headed, too impulsive, and she quickly realised that the battle to keep silent was lost the moment she started thinking of witty retorts to throw at him.

“I’ll say what I damn well please, Harry. And don’t think—” She fell silent. Whatever Ginny was about to say forgotten in a second, along with the anger that gnawed at her inside. It’d been replaced with … what? Shock? Fear? Confusion? She wasn’t sure, all she could really be sure of was that she’d seen something moving near the woods outside the window. Ginny stood up from the sofa and moved across the room until she was so close to the window that she could feel the cold of the glass against the skin on her forehead. She cupped her hands around her eyes and peered outside. It was pointless though, whatever she’d seen was gone. She turned to Harry, panic written all over her face.

              “Something is out there.” She told him, so afraid she                didn’t even care about the     shakiness of her voice.

[fromthecupboard-blog]

Harry could’ve said more – wanted to say more – but Ginny just turned away and the conversation evaporated as quickly as it had come. Clenching his jaw, Harry opened his mouth as if to shout one more time (she was the one who had wanted to talk and now she’s about to give him the silent treatment), but he shut it quickly. Arguing with Ginny was never fun. Arguing with Ginny now – when he was supposed to be keeping her at arm’s length – was against everything he’d been tring to do. He leaned back in his chair and moved his eyes towards the window as well, though his eyes were unfocused.

It was, of course, only silent for a few moments because Ginny would never let him have the last word. At her voice, Harry sat up straighter again, his head whipping towards her once more. The anger in his chest hadn’t gone away and, as much as he didn’t want to, he couldn’t stop himself from arguing back. His retort was already moving through his mind when Ginny stopped talking suddenly, moving anxiously towards the window, and Harry knew that something was wrong.

He was on his feet in a moment, pulling out his wand quickly. It was always in arm’s length for this reason – Harry had too many dangerous surprises he’d had to deal with in the past. It felt like a lifetime waiting for her to turn around and tell him what made her stop so suddenly. The fear was evident in her voice and it made Harry’s heart drop right into his stomach. The argument from before suddenly felt very far away and all he wanted now was to keep her safe.

“Stay here, Ginny!” he said and, without any explanation, turned on his heel and towards the door. He could’ve given her an excuse – you aren’t of age yet, someone needs to wake the others, we need a lookout – but they all died on his tongue as he raced to find out what had breached their wards. He pressed his back against the wall as he opened the door quietly.

[weasleyways-blog]

“I bloody well do want to do something. And you’re probably right, this is a very unique opportunity to catch them by surprise, but they warned everyone to stay away from anything related to the Wizarding World. What if they’re just extra alert or kill anyone they see? They might be distracted, but they’re most likely also reckless and very cross. Merlin, it’s hard to think straight when I want nothing more than to follow you and surprise those arseholes.”

[fromthecupboard-blog]

“We’ve been staying away from the Wizarding World and I’m sick of it. It’s like the stupid forest all over again. We have our goal and we know what the final Horcrux is. You-Know-Who isn’t just going to lay down and let us take over. The longer we wait – the more people die.”

He hadn’t meant to bring up the forest with Ron, but it wasn’t a time to tiptoe around the issue. They’d been restless once – and look what had happened then. When they’d been Horcrux hunting, they hadn’t exactly known what they were looking for. They know now and it’s only one to go until Voldemort was mortal again. Harry couldn’t just sit around so they could babysit him and keep him safe any longer.

[dadraco-deactivated20170722]

“You say that as if they won’t be expecting someone to make a move. They’re Dark wizards, Potter, not idiots. Of course they’ll expect you to strike now. And they won’t be trying to figure it out, they’ll attempt to contain it. Which means killing every muggleborn on sight. No prisoners this time.”

[fromthecupboard-blog]

Honestly, Draco would know better about Dark Wizards than Harry (considering he was one) but admitting to that, despite the fact that it was meant to be an insult, would probably only give Malfoy a bigger head. 

“And sitting around doing nothing is not going to stop them from… ‘trying to contain it.’”

[princesseilidh-blog]

“Key words being ‘try to find’. If we already had a plan of attack, now would be the time to do it. But we have nothing. It would be foolish of us to presume we could come up with an attack plan before they figure this all out.”

[fromthecupboard-blog]

“There have been plenty of times in my life where I’ve just had to act without a plan. In fact, nothing really ever seems to go according to plan when we do have one, so I see no reason to wait.”

[weasleyways-blog]

✖ | Requested by Harry (@fromthecupboard​)

I hope you’re winning the war, To make everything like it was before, All that we were we can still be again, I swear.

– Gone, The Butterfly Effect

Obviously, life was never calm for either Ron or Harry. From the moment they met, things were bound to get complicated, with Harry being Hogwarts’ biggest celebrity and Ron being the fan who immediately claimed him as his new best friend, taking him under his wing in a way his mother should have been proud of. He knows people are depending on Harry to save the world, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel the need to support and guide him, in any way he can possibly can. Jealousy has often clouded his judgement in dangerous situations, but Ron likes to believe those feelings are in the past and he can now simply have his best mate’s back.

His best memories are the ones where he was alone with Harry. Sometimes Hermione would be there, too, but what mattered was that they had no worries, even if it was just for half an hour. Playing chess or just generally goofing around. He misses those times and with the world gone to absolute shite, he hopes there is a way they can have those times back. Even though those days seem centuries ago and he feels decades older than he did a couple of years ago, he longs to have those moments of carelessness and happiness back in his life.

[weasleyways-blog]

“I’m with you, mate. I really am. But don’t we need more of a plan, rather than just assume they’ll be distracted? We can’t afford losing people, we have to be tactical about this. It’s like chess. You can never really predict the move the other player is going to make, unless you have them all figured out or trapped.”

[fromthecupboard-blog]

“I’m not saying we just jump into the first action we see - but it’s not like we can sit around and afford to wait, either. They won’t be distracted for long. And it’s like the Ministry... we planned that for weeks and nothing when as we’d planned. There’s a point where you’ve just got to, I dunno, do something.”

[fromthecupboard-blog]

“The Death Eaters will be distracted, trying to figure all this out. This could be the best time to try and find a way to attack. I’m tired of sitting around waiting - it’s time for us to fight first!”