[CHAPTER 16]
EMILY'S FINAL STRAW.
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THE NEWS THAT RON had been poisoned spread quickly next day, but it did not cause the sensation that Katie's attack had done. People seemed to think that it might have been an accident, given that he had been in the Potions master's room at the time, and that as he had been given an antidote immediately there was no real harm done. In fact, the Gryffindors were generally much more interested in the upcoming Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, for many of them wanted to see Zacharias Smith, who played Chaser on the Hufflepuff team, punished soundly for his commentary during the opening match against Slytherin.
Emily, however, had never been less interested in Quidditch; she had tried to talk to Harry, but he had, if possible, avoided her even more than usual. And so, Emily had spent another night up on the astronomy tower, expressing all her anger to Draco Malfoy, who had, much to her surprise, said and done nothing but listened to her.
"What do you mean he doesn't want to see me?" Emily asked, her mouth slightly open.
She was now stood in front of the hospital wing for the second time this week, this time faced with an ashamed looking Hermione.
"I'm sorry Em, but he just told me he–"
"Spare me the details," Emily said bitterly.
"For what it's worth, I think he's being stupid," Hermione offered, but it gave Emily little comfort.
The match against Hufflepuff had gone disastrously wrong when McLaggen had decided to be an even bigger prat than usual and had, in an attempt to show the Gryffindor beater how to beat a bludger, knocked it against Harry and cracked his skull.
"I'm going, please let him know from me he's being a complete moron," she told Hermione, before promptly disappearing down the large staircase.
The next few weeks Emily was in a foul mood. With Harry having positively disappeared off the face of the earth, she spent most of her time steering clear of Hermione and Ron and juggled her spare time between Kate and Violetta and Draco. Even Draco had become more distant, and Emily could not figure out for the life of her why everybody was so dead-set on steering clear of her. On a warm evening in April, the entirety of which Emily had spent flying over the grounds on her broom, she had returned to the common room only to be greeted by very healthy-looking Katie Bell, surrounded by jubilant friends.
"Katie?" she asked, completely bewildered, and the girl smiled at her broadly.
"Em! So good to see you!" she cried, and crushed Emily into a hug. It seemed her near-death experience had imbued with an additional zest for life.
"I'm so glad you're back," Emily said, with a breath of relief, "It was awful without you on the team, McLaggen been such a tosspot–"
Katie interrupted her with a laugh.
"I heard," she said knowingly, "Listen, I wanted to say thanks, for your letters and the Zonko stuff you sent me over Christmas,"
"Of course!" Emily said without missing a beat, "The healers are dead strict about sweets on the Spell Damage ward, I would know,"
"I had to hide them in my mattress, just like you said," Katie nodded, "Worked though, old Smethwyck didn't suspect a thing,"
Emily laughed properly for the first time in a while, and a warm feeling spread through her chest.
"Katie! You're back! Are you okay?" cried another voice, and Harry, Ron and Hermione had just stepped into the common room. Emily's smile immediately turned into a scowl as she took a couple of steps back. None of them seemed to have noticed her.
Typical, she thought to herself.
"I'm really well!" Katie said happily. "They let me out of St. Mungo's on Monday, I had a couple of days at home with Mum and Dad and then came back here this morning. Leanne was just telling me about McLaggen and the last match, Harry..."
"Yeah," said Harry, "well, now you're back and Ron's fit, we'll have a decent chance of thrashing Ravenclaw, which means we could still be in the running for the Cup. Listen, Katie......that necklace...can you remember who gave it to you now?"
Emily's eyes widened. She couldn't believe Harry was being so direct with her.
"She's just come back," she said coldly, and Harry seemed to notice her now, "Give her a break,"
They looked at each other for a moment, and Harry opened his mouth as if he were about to reply, but Katie interrupted.
"It's okay Em, but no," said Katie, shaking her head ruefully. "Everyone's been asking me, but I haven't got a clue. The last thing I remember was walking into the ladies' in the Three Broomsticks."
"You definitely went into the bathroom, then?" said Hermione.
"Well, I know I pushed open the door," said Katie, "So I suppose whoever Imperiused me was standing just behind it. After that, my memory's a blank until about two weeks ago in St. Mungo's. Listen, I'd better go..."
She gave Emily another bright smile, before hurrying after her friends, leaving Harry, Ron, Hermione and Emily to stare at each other for a moment.
"That was pretty tactless of you," Emily said tersely at Harry, crossing her arms over her chest, "Did you need to press her about it?"
"Yes I did," Harry replied, voice slightly raised in defence, "It might tell us who hexed her,"
"As if you haven't already made up your mind about who you think it was,"
Ron and Hermione looked uneasy, which told Emily that the guess she had made was right on the nose.
"I think we'll head to dinner, Ron's been whinging he's been hungry all day," Hermione said quietly as Harry and Emily glared at each other. She gripped Ron tightly by the arm and dragged him with her.
"Decided I'm worth a word?" Emily said dryly when they had disappeared through the portrait hole, and Harry looked ashamed for second, but it was quickly replaced with anger.
"You're the one who hasn't said a word to me," he spluttered, and Emily's eyes became so big they looked the size of small saucers.
"You're joking, right?" she said derisively, "Please tell me you're taking the piss,"
Harry looked at her defiantly. "I'm not! In fact, I–"
"What? What could you possibly say to explain how you've treated me the last months?" she seethed.
"You lied!" he said forcefully.
"I'm sorry?" she asked him, eyes narrowed at him.
You weren't with Kate at all, that night" he said plainly, and she frowned.
How could he possibly–
The realization was slow, but Emily's mind flashed back to their fifth year, when she had had marvelled at Harry's map of Hogwarts, the one that showed everybody and where they were.
"You're spying on me now?" she asked him, the complete disbelief and betrayal evident in her tone.
"Not on you," Harry said, and his voice trembled with rage, "On him,"
He said the last word as if it were poison on his tongue.
"Imagine my surprise to see who he was with,"
The anger in his voice hit Emily like a punch in the gut.
"Where do you get off spying on Draco?" she told him, holding her head as high as she could.
"Draco?" Harry's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head, "Are you two all chummy now?"
He was practically yelling at her, and Emily could feel the anger swelling inside her body.
"What exactly have you two been getting up to? You been reporting to Draco about me, so he can go straight to Voldemort?"
"No–"
"Then what? You've been pretending to be my–", he hesitated, "–friend, all of this time, and behind my back you've been cosying up to Draco Malfoy, acting like a right slut? I've seen you! More than once!"
Emily snapped. Her hand flew across his face so quickly Harry barely had time to register it, and his neck snapped to the side with the sheer force of the slap.
"You're really doubting my loyalty?" Emily bristled, and her voice was low and dangerous.
She furiously rolled up the sleeve of jumper. There, on her pale skin, her arm was covered in long, ghostly white scars, some even running past the point of where her jumper covered them.
Harry had never seen them before, and underneath all of his anger, guilt started to crawl up his throat like bile as he averted his eyes.
"In case you had forgotten, Harry Potter," she said his name in a way that made Harry wince, "I took a curse for you last year, and spent an entire summer recovering from protecting you,"
"There it is," he said finally, "The resentment I knew you bore me,"
"I do resent you," she said, "But not for that. How dare you think I am anything but devoted to you after I almost died for you? How dare you treat me like I am nothing and look past me for months because you're so preoccupied with yourself and how angry you are!"
She was screaming at him, a rage on her features Harry had never seen before. Emily felt like all the anger she bore him, all the weeks of being ignored and the holidays spent suffering from her wounds had exploded out of her and was spewing out of her mouth in searing hot words.
"I have been through hell and crawled my way back, all for you," she said, and finally her voice began to tremble with emotion, "And you have the audacity to give me this crap?"
There was a tense silence, and just when Emily thought Harry was about to lift his wand and hex her into next week, his shoulders sagged. He let out a long sigh, the fire in his eyes disappearing, replaced by glistening tears.
"I'm sorry," he said, his voice filled with so much misery Emily swore she could feel her heart break, "I just felt so betrayed, I– I thought you liked me,"
Emily was stunned into silence. Not in the three years they had known each other, had she seen Harry look so vulnerable. He reminded her somewhat of Draco.
"God, I've been such a prat," he mumbled, "You must hate me,"
Heart aching at the look on his face and ignoring the anger still bubbling inside her, she stepped forward and embraced him, putting her arms around his neck and holding him tight to her.
"I don't hate you, Harry," she said, as she felt him return the hug, his arm wrapping tightly around her back, one of his hands coming to rest on the top of her shoulder, squeezing her so tight Emily's breath left her. They pulled away from each other after a moment, and Emily's fingers set the collar of Harry's shirt straight.
"I like you," she said grudgingly, her hands coming to rest on his chest, just below his neck, "But sometimes I could just–"
She pretended to strangle him, and he let out a laugh as a tear fell down his cheek, before his own hands came up and fell over hers, pressed up against his chest.
"I understand," he said quietly, a smile on his lips. Emily hadn't realized that the tears she had been wanting to cry for weeks had also welled up in her own eyes, and she sniffed.
"Great, now we're both crying," she said, and Harry chuckled.
"We make a pretty pathetic pair," he agreed, and she laughed.
"Yeah, we do, don't we?"
And then, doing something she had wanted to do for three years, Emily leaned forward and kissed him. The world seemed to fall away as their lips met. It was slow and soft, comforting in ways that words would never be. His hand came up and rested below her ear, his thumb caressing her cheek as their breaths mingled. He pulled her even closer than she already was, so that she pressed up against him, hands wedged underneath her until there was no space left between them and she could feel the beating of his heart against her palms. They pulled away from each other, a little breathless, and Emily let out a little chuckle despite herself.
"What are you laughing at?" Harry asked her with a smile, and it only made her laugh more.
"Nothing," she hiccupped, and his arms loosened around her waist, "But we should get to dinner,"
He hummed in agreement. "You go on down, I still have to put some stuff away in my room,"
Emily nodded with a smile, and he watched as her long dark hair disappeared through the portrait hole.