Interlude: Susan
Susan Bones briskly walked towards the Room of Requirement. In her hand was the latest report from her aunt, hand-delivered to her by Noddy. Generally, it would have gone directly to Harry. But their dear leader had holed himself inside the room, practicing. Popping into the midst of that would be bad for the health of her family elf.
The moment she entered the room, heavy pressure was imposed on her. It was as if the weight of the sky was set on her shoulders. The pressure was immense and she found it hard to stand. She was no slouch though. She had been training all this time. So, she managed to somehow overcome the pressure and stay on her two feet. Any lesser witch or wizard would have found themselves kneeling just due to the pressure.
She didn't even want to think about the mini-tornadoes spinning around the empty room. At least the effect of all that wind did not stretch past the barrier. The heightened atmospheric pressure alone was enough for her.
"Harry, aunty sent this file. You need to see this," she said, sure that he would hear her despite all the noise. Air carried sound, and right here, right now, air was under the whims of one single person.
True to her thoughts, the wind stilled the next instant, as if this was a calm meadow. The roaring winds became a calm breeze and the pressure weighing down on her vanished completely. The competitive part of her was raging because he had started elemental training after her, yet had gotten so far ahead.
Then again, ever since he came back from that mission with Dumbledore, his elemental magic had shot up something fierce. It was for the best though, he could use all the wind he wanted and fan her flames. The end result would still be their enemies burning to death. She'd gladly take that small victory.
"What does it say?" he asked as he combed his hair with his hand and approached her.
She handed him the file as she began recounting what she had read so far. It was not as if it was for his eyes only. Unless something was really important for operational security, the Knights were appraised on what was going on. Moreover, Susan was always good at Occlumency. She was often the liaison between her aunt and Harry whenever each of them was caught up with something else.
"Using the information you've mined from Hedwig's network and Cassiopea's newfangled runes in the newspaper, they got the stragglers. All political support for the enemies is dead in the water. The new prison is open, and all these politicians have been housed there. Active combatants have of course been culled by us and the Aurors. She has some praise for you for the whole newspaper idea, but as usual, she wants the runes gone after the war is done," said Susan.
A single paper with runes— no matter how obscure and undetectable they are — can't do anything. But daily papers with runes that form a sequence with each consecutive issue can do wonders. It won't work without Cassiopea's runes. And Susan was pretty sure that any mention of those runes would be under lock and key after the war. No point in tipping the enemy off about their tactics. Those things would be useful in the future for any such operations.
"What use it is? Riddle's still at large," grumbled the silly boy.
"Don't be such a sour puss. You know that it will help immensely after we are done with all of this. Cutting down their power structure goes a long way. Even if we haven't been in any direct fights of late, we have still struck a large blow," she said.
"Of course. I know. I'm just antsy. I want the bastard to come out of his bolthole so that I can end him once and for all," he said.
If it was anyone else, she would have called them delusional. But after the amount of damage he had dealt Voldemort last time, Harry was not wrong to be so confident. Yet, it was her duty as his longtime friend to curb a bit of it before it gets bad.
"Overconfidence does not suit you," she said with a smirk.
"It's just facts. I've considerably leveled up since the last time we fought. I just can't wait to be done with this and live my life," he said.
"Is that why you skipped breakfast?" she asked at once, narrowing her eyes. Winky was a sweetheart, and she had come to Susan to complain about how he had started training first thing in the morning and hadn't eaten a single morsel of the food she had made. This had been going on for a few days. A result of all the anticipation, she figured.
"Damn. What time is it?" he asked as he blinked in surprise.
"Come. The Quidditch match starts in half an hour. You need to take a break and get to eating. Winky has made some delicious sliders, nachos, and an assortment of dips for us to eat during the match. I expect you to apologize to her later."
"Yeah, sure. I wasn't planning on training this late anyway," he sheepishly said as they began walking out of the room.
She saw him wave his wand and recognized the privacy spells he was placing on them as they exited the room and began walking outside.
"Any news about Riddle?" he asked as he riffled through the contents of the file, reading the report.
"Same old. They have their suspicions. But can't do anything," she said.
Voldemort had holed himself inside a Fidelius-fueled location. So, no matter how much pressure they put on Dumbledore and Snape, they couldn't get the location out. All they knew was that Rookwood was the secret keeper. Everyone was on the lookout for him. If that bastard ever set foot outside the boundaries of the Fidelius, he would be nabbed.
Although, they had narrowed down a highly suspected area due to the magic detection apparatus in the ministry. The Fidelius hid them, but someone was popping around in muggle residences and doing magic. That was being detected. It was not a guarantee that they were based in that exact location, but it was prudent to keep an eye out in that locality. Many muggles had gone missing, and the perpetrators vanished in thin air. There was even an instance where Aurors got into a skirmish with two masked death eaters, whom they suspected to be Snape and Rookwood.
One thing was clear though, Aunt Amelia was willing to throw the book at Snape if he did not report back to them. Dumbledore's stalling would not protect him.
As they walked outside the castle pitch and moved towards the Quidditch pitch, Nev approached them from the greenhouses and fell in step alongside them.
It was just like old times, the three war orphans.
"Where are the others?" asked Harry.
"I don't know. I thought Hannah went to fetch them," said Nev as he looked questioningly at Susan.
"Yeah, she'll be here with them," she said.
It had to be done. Harry, Hermione, and Luna should not be allowed to be on their own for extended periods of time. Or even work together. They enabled each other something fierce. All three of them disregarded normal things like food and sleep if they had to keep going. It would be fine if that was once in a while, but it was a regular thing with those three.
Hence, Susan and Hannah played team moms whenever they could. Preparing was all well and good, but what use would one be in a fight if they were half starved and sleep deprived? At least that was the excuse she used when they refused to listen.
Hermione was driven by the rage of her recent loss. That was understandable. Luna operated to her own beats, so understanding that would be pointless. Harry though, Harry was different.
He operated like he was a man running out of time. It was as if he was chasing some ideal or goal that nobody could see. Yes, it was obvious that Voldemort was the target. Harry himself just said that he was confident about it. Yet, his frantic training was not the action of a confident man. It was of one desperately latching onto any chances of victory. She could understand that. She could respect that. What she couldn't do, was sit and watch as he destroyed himself. Overtraining often led to detriments, she was well aware of that. Voldemort would die, that was inevitable. She was confident in herself and her friends and knew that they would prevail. That's why she wouldn't allow them to harm themselves like this when they were already doing so much.
"Umm, guys, I need some advice…" said Nev, falling back to his old demeanor.
"What's it, Nev?" asked Harry.
"You know how Slughorn's Christmas party is coming soon?" he asked.
"Yes," they both responded.
"Well… I want to ask someone out…" his voice almost disappeared near the end.
"Hannah?" ventured Harry with a smirk and Susan had the urge to facepalm. Was Harry really that dense?
"What? No," answered Nev, and that apparently shocked Harry. Susan found that odd. Sure, Nev and Hannah were good friends. But it was platonic, at least so far. She didn't understand where Harry got the notion from.
"He means Hermione, you idiot," she said.
"Wait what?" now Harry just completely seemed out of it. This was the problem when you kept your eyes on the future, you failed to see what was standing in front of you.
A part of her thought that maybe Harry liked Hermione that way, and that was the reason for this behavior. But she quickly squashed that. She had spent a lot of time with both of them. They were workaholics. Bad ones. Their mind was completely absorbed in the war. There was no way that those two were thinking about romance.
"Yeah. I mean, she has always helped me, you know. Right from the very beginning. She's the only person who helped me whenever Trevor got lost. Even during her first-ever Hogwarts Express ride. She has always helped me with classes and just about everything," he said, losing all that meekness. Now, this was the Nev they had been seeing these past few months.
"She was the first person I asked for the Yule Ball back during the Triwizard. You know that right? I remember telling you," he continued.
She hummed in agreement and looked at her dumbfound friend. All Harry could do was dumbly nod.
"I didn't know about that one little detail. But I did know about everything else," she said, seeing as she was the only one responding to Nev.
"Well, yeah. Krum beat me to it. I was too passive. And after the ball, she had that whole weird row with Ron, so I just gave up. Last year, Umbitch just ate up all positivity in the school, so once again, a bust. I was convincing myself on giving up. But we've spent so much time together this year, and I want to give it one last shot before I move on," he said.
"You should go for it," she said and then looked at her other friend. Harry still hadn't come out of his stupor, so she nudged him with her elbow.
"Oh wow. Damn, I really wasn't paying attention, huh," Harry mused.
"Well, let me give you some advice…" Susan began as they continued walking towards the pitch.
##################
The match ended an hour later, and it was nothing much. Just a small distraction, not that it really helped. Harry's mind had been somewhere else the entire time, once Nev had told them about Hermione. It was as if Harry never even considered the possibility. It was pretty out of the norm for him. She blamed it all on stress. And Neville was just internally freaking out about how he would ask Hermione out to the ball.
It was nice, worrying about silly little things in between all that had been going on. For a while, everything felt grim, and didn't seem like the fighting would ever end. This was nice. She liked it.
Now that Nev had brought up the topic, she too couldn't stop thinking about it. The four of them had gotten invitations to the party, but she was sure that nobody wanted to attend. With the workaholics in the team, it was not a stretch to think so. It now looked like it would be more than simple paper anymore. The invitation would serve its purpose.
"Sue," Harry said as they both made their way back to the Room of Requirement. Nev and Hannah were back at the greenhouse. Meanwhile, Hermione and Luna had squirreled themselves back into the secret classroom they had repurposed into a lab of sorts.
"Yes Harry?" she asked.
"I was not thinking about going to the ball at all. Was planning on spending that time just training."
"Mhm," she nodded along.
"I now think maybe I should go…" he said as he scratched his chin.
"Okay."
"What about you?" he asked.
"Wasn't really planning for it. But if someone asks, I might consider it," she said dropping another subtle hint. She had been doing that since summer, and for a while, it looked like Harry was interested as well. But the more the war picked up the pace, the more all of that stopped. She understood the importance of what they were doing, so she stopped. She had a lot on her plate as it was.
"So… so, will you go with me?" he asked abruptly.
Now it was her turn to gape like a fish. For a second, her mind just blanked out. She hadn't expected him to come out and ask her like that. Especially after the overworking spree, he had been having. Maybe it was the result of that instead.
It did throw her off because all that internal justification she made was rendered moot by one single question.
She didn't respond and just stared at him in shock before she gathered herself.
"Sue?" he asked once again, nervousness creeping into his voice.
She could see it in his eyes. For the first time in quite a while, his mind was not in the war. Instead, it was completely focused on the present. She had always had a soft spot for him. This past year had just been the icing on top of the cake. What was there to even think about?
"Yes. Yes, I will," she said before abruptly walking away. She was in no state to spend time alone with him right now.
Also, she was afraid that if she stayed a few more minutes in that spot, she would break out in unsightly giggles. There was no way she was going to let anyone witness that.
Susan knew that this was not a confession or anything dramatic like that. She was mature enough to understand that. She knew Harry. Yet, it didn't stop her from feeling giddy. All the blame for that went to hormones. For her, that was the only culprit.
She had to find Hannah. There was so much to talk about.
##################
The next two weeks were awkward for everyone involved. There was just this tension in the air that they could not ignore. Nev and Hermione were awkward around each other. Harry and Susan had also caught a case of awkwardness.
It severely cut down on the small talk. Everyone instead was focused on their individual goals. It didn't help that there was no information regarding Voldemort. Whatever he was doing, he was doing inside the confines of the Fidelius. So, they trained.
It was December the twentieth, and Slughorn's party would mark the end of the term. After the party, they'd be returning home for the break. There were plans to try and ferret out Death Eater supreme during the break, but this day, Susan could not bring herself to think about it.
She looked at the mirror in her dorm and twirled around, inspecting every inch of her person.
The royal blue ballgown she wore was perfect for the occasion. The enchantments on it caused it to shimmer beautifully from some angles. She wore jewelry that complimented her blue eyes and red hair. For once, she didn't keep the hair braided and let it free. Hannah had helped her style it properly. All in all, she was satisfied with the ensemble.
"I wish you would come," Susan said, looking at her friend who was packing her trunk.
"Sorry, Sue. Firstly, I have no intention of third wheeling. Secondly, I wasn't personally invited. So, I'd have to piggyback on your invitation and stuff. I'd rather get back to the new house. I haven't been there ever since the reconstruction. Mum and Dad were shaken up by the raid at our house. We all extended the trap willingly, but watching your home get wrecked is still a bitter feeling. As you very well know. I just want to spend time with them," Hannah said.
"Fine," grumbled Susan.
"Hit me up on the communicator after the ball. I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about," said her best friend with a smirk. Hannah then floated the trunk behind her with a flick of her wand and began walking out. Due to her situation, she had permission to leave early, and she was doing so.
"Yeah. I'll talk to you tonight," said Susan.
"Have fun," waved Hannah as she walked out.
All alone in the room now, Susan began pacing back and forth, barely repressing the urge to bite her fingernails in anxiety.
Fifteen minutes later, her communicator buzzed, indicating that Harry was outside the common room. With anticipation, she walked out of the dorm, almost in a glide, and reached the entrance quickly.
She walked out of the door and stilled as she caught sight of Harry. He seemed to have a similar reaction as he froze up upon seeing her.
He was wearing a sharp suit that fit him perfectly. She knew that it was one of those bespoke suits he was so fond of. He had gone and purchased lots of them during the summer but hadn't had the chance to use them. Until now.
The suit jacket and the trousers were navy blue. He wore a crisp white dress shirt underneath the jacket and had a gold tie around his neck. The pocket square was the same color. Finishing it all was a navy blue cape with gold trimmings that hung off his shoulders. Thankfully, it was more like an overcoat rather than a superhero-style cape. It was a good blend of muggle and wizarding fashion.
"A cape?" she couldn't help but ask.
"Just looks fancy, doesn't it? It's more of a coat, but well," he shrugged as he smiled at her warmly. "You look great. Really love what you've done with your hair," he said.
She could feel her face heating up as she waved her hand nonchalantly.
"Thank you. You look dashing as well," she replied as he held out his hand.
She took it wordlessly as they linked their arms and began walking towards the party location.
After a few minutes, they entered Slughorn's office, only to find the whole place expanded and modified for the party.
"Ah, Harry," exclaimed Slughorn enthusiastically as he walked towards them. Susan knew that this was coming, but she still couldn't help but roll her eyes.
To her amusement, Slughorn came to a stop next to them and dragged two mirages towards a crowd of people.
She looked at Harry and raised her eyebrow in amusement.
"You're fast and loose with those realistic illusions, aren't you?" she said with a smirk. Harry had grown to love the fact that his illusions could now function as tangible constructs. It showed, as she could see Slughorn talking the ear off of the two illusions.
"Eh, not like anyone except for us would know it. That over there would test my patience. I still have to monitor the illusions and guide them through the conversations. But I'd rather not partake in all that personally," he said.
"So nobody can see us?" she asked.
"Nope. They'll avoid crashing into us all the same. In ten minutes, I'll get the illusions to beg off all that rampant pomp and join us. They'll disappear and we'll be visible instead," he said.
"You sure know how to treat a lady. I'm sure my patience would wear thin and I'd have to emulate my aunt to sack off that conversation," she said.
"I know. Now, may I have this dance, milady?" he asked her as he extended his palm toward her.
"But of course, good sir," she giggled as they walked to the designated space and began swaying to the mellow music.
And so it went on for a good couple of minutes. They danced in comfortable silence, enjoying each other's company. She couldn't hold back her curiosity and finally broke the silence.
"Wow, the difference between the Yule Ball two years ago and now is quite palpable. You dance well," she said. Everyone knew about how that event went, after all. Susan wondered what Parvati would think of this.
"Ah, well, I'm a changed man," he said with a smirk.
"Sure you are," she said with a snort as they kept dancing.
A minute later, he perked up and turned to the side.
"The illusion is done. The copies begged off Slughorn's group. Shall we join them?" he asked as he pointed towards a table to the side.
Hermione and Neville were seated over there. Right at that moment, Hermione spotted them and waved with a smile on her face. It was nice to see her smiling so freely after such a long time. It seemed like Neville was doing things right.
"Yes we shall," Susan said once again with fake pretentiousness. The both of them chuckled as they walked towards their friends.
On the way, Harry snagged two glasses of mead from a waiter and offered one to Susan. It was turning out to be a good evening.
##################
A couple of hours later, the four friends walked out of the venue. All of them sported bright smiles on their faces.
Susan liked the fact that everyone had such an opportunity to put the war behind them for a single evening and enjoy life for a change. She never thought that she would have to thank Slughorn for anything. But here she was.
Soon enough, Neville and Hermione diverged as the both of them went towards the Gryffindor tower. Harry stuck with her as he escorted her to the Hufflepuff common room.
"So, I hope you had fun," he said as they closed in on the common room.
"Very much so, Harry. I hope you enjoyed yourself too," she said.
"Yup. It was a great evening," he said with an affirmative nod.
"It was nice seeing you having fun for once. I know that it is important, but you had been driving yourself into the ground. This was a happy change," she said.
"I know. I liked it too. In fact, I… I would like it if we could do this more often," he said as his eyes burned into her own.
She didn't say anything, knowing that he had more to say.
"Sue… Susan. Would you like to go on more dates with me?" he asked hopefully.
"Yes, Harry," she answered without hesitation.
They stood like that for a couple of moments, just looking at each other. They then slowly began leaning toward each other. As they drew closer, her heart picked up the pace. She could almost hear her frantic heartbeat. This whole evening was a boon in between all that had happened.
Right as their lips drew close, almost about to touch, their communicators rang with a high-priority signal. She drew back with an ugly expression on her face and could see that Harry was in a similar state.
He cursed loudly as he plucked his communicator out and played the message out loud. The privacy and obfuscation charms on that thing made eavesdropping a moot point anyway.
"Knights, there has been an important development. We have found Severus Snape. I repeat, we have found Severus Snape. Dumbledore and the Order are in a frenzy so don't worry about school. Report back to the headquarters. I repeat, please report to the headquarters ASAP," her aunt's voice echoed through the communicator as Harry sighed. It was a mixture of relief and dismay. Relief at finally finding Snape. Dismay at the interrupted first kiss.
"Let's go, this is more important," she said as she motioned him to lead the way. They could change into their uniforms in the HQ.
A part of her wanted to snog him first before they left. But a first kiss demanded a proper moment. Their proper moment was interrupted due to the dungeon bat. Even when he was not there, Snape couldn't help but ruin things.
Oh well, things had been quiet for far too long. Something was bound to happen. Just that the timing of this sucked.
She knew one thing for sure though, this was the beginning of the end.
##################
A.N: Merry Christmas to all of you!
This chapter has been a long time coming. Apologies for that. Part of it was my busy schedule. Part of it was writer's block. Couldn't scrounge up the motivation for this story. Mainly because I wrote an ending and had to scrap it because I did not like it at all. But now here we are. The final arc starts with this chapter. The final battle will begin after the next chapter. So, let's go!
As for the romance angle, I know that I mucked it up in this story. No proper focus was given to it. At most, only throwaway comments were made. So, this is at least an attempt at a first date. Hope you liked it. Don't worry, we will be diving full force into the final portion from the next chapter. No more distractions.
If you want to talk to me on discord, please find the invite in the auxiliary chapter.