CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE - Arthur Weasley

Their trunks came from Hogwarts at noon as they were eating lunch. A wizard named Alastor Moody (everyone called him Mad-Eye Moody, because he had a fake eye) and a witch named Nymphadora Tonks (she told Attuoria to call her Tonks) arrived at Sirius's house. They were all going to go visit Mr Weasley at St Mungo's together.

Upon entering the hospital, which the entrance was hidden inside a vacant boutique, they headed to a ward on the first floor for creature-induced injuries.

"We'll wait outside, Molly," Tonks said to Mrs Weasley. "Arthur won't want too many visitors at once, it ought to be just the family first."

Attuoria and Harry stepped back to let the Weasleys in, but Mrs Weasley grabbed onto Harry's hand. "Don't be silly, Harry, Arthur wants to thank you. Attuoria, you should come in, too -"

Mad-Eye let out a grunt behind her. "The girl's staying with us."

"Oh. Well, alright then. Sorry, dear." Mrs Weasley quickly hurried the rest of the children into the ward.

Mad-Eye shoved past Attuoria and went to stand near the wall of the corridor. Although he was looking down at the ground, that fake eye of his was glaring straight at her.

Tonks noticed Attuoria glancing warily at Moody. "Attuoria, right?"

Attuoria nodded.

"Don't worry, it's nothing against you. There's just something we'd like you to talk to you about," Tonk nodded over towards the door as she spoke, "we don't exactly want the other kids to be listening in."

Attuoria nodded again, but she could feel her heart racing. Nervousness.

She knew Tonks wanted to talk to her about Voldemort. And so did Mad-Eye. They were members of the Order. They all knew that she could possibly be working for Voldemort.

But they didn't know that she knew about their suspicions. They were thinking, "maybe we could get some information out of this girl, because she's so young, she might crack under the pressure".

Little did they know, Attuoria wasn't going to be of use to them. The only thing she knew of Voldemort's plans was that he was planning to break out his followers from Azkaban. That's the only thing he's told her in the past few months. And it's not like the Order was going to be able to stop them.

Plus, none of the Order knew she could read minds. None of them knew her real identity as a Nightmare Demon. So far, as Attuoria was concerned, only her few friends, Voldemort, and Voldemort's followers knew that she was a Nightmare demon. Dumbledore knew as well, but Attuoria wasn't even surprised. That old wizard always seemed to know everything.

It wasn't long before Harry and the Weasley kids came out of the ward. Before Attuoria could even exchange a word with any of them, Tonks and Mad-Eye hurried her in. She thought she caught the sight of some extendable ears in George's hand as the door closed behind her.

"Attuoria!" The red-haired man on the bed greeted cheerfully. His face was wan, showing off a large patch of freckles across his cheeks. "I've heard all about you. I'm Arthur Weasley."

"Nice to meet you, Mr Weasley." Attuoria said politely. "All good things, I hope?"

"Yes yes, of course," he said, giving Mrs Weasley a split-second glance. She knew what he was thinking. All his kids said positive things about her, but many in the Order didn't.

"You feelin' alright, Arthur?" Tonks asked.

"Much better now, although the snake bites seem to have some special venom in them that prevents wounds from closing. I'm sure the Healers will find an antidote soon."

Tonks nodded, and turned to Attuoria. "Look, what we're about to talk about is quite a serious matter, and we completely understand if you don't want to talk about it. But here's the deal," she turned back to Mr Weasley and lowered her voice to a whisper. "They searched the whole area and couldn't find the snake anywhere. It just seems to have vanished after it attacked you, Arthur. But You-Know-Who can't have expected a snake to get in, can he?"

"I reckon he sent it as a lookout," Mad-Eye growled, his fake eye glaring at Attuoria. "'Cause he's not had any luck so far, has he? No, I reckon he's trying to get a clearer picture of what he's facing and if Arthur hadn't been there, the beast would've had a lot more time to look around. So, Potter says he saw it all happen?"

"Yes," said Mrs Weasley. "You know, Dumbledore seems to almost have been waiting for Harry to see something like this."

"Yeah, now that brings us to this kid over here." said Moody. They all moved their attention to Attuoria. "Dumbledore says you knew Potter was having some sort of vision before he had even woken up."

"You don't have any Seer blood in your family, do you?" asked Tonks.

"Um, I don't have a family," Attuoria said.

"Oops, that's right, sorry," Tonks apologised sheepishly, receiving a sharp look from Mrs Weasley.

"So what can you tell us about what Harry saw? Dumbledore seemed worried when I spoke to him this morning," whispered Mrs Weasley.

"'Course he's worried," Mad-Eye growled before Attuoria could speak. "The boy's seeing things from inside You-Know-Who's snake. Obviously, Potter doesn't realise what this means, but if You-Know-Who's -"

"Possessing him," Attuoria whispered at the same time as Moody, and he immediately jerked his head towards her.

"So you know?"

"No," Attuoria said quietly, noticing his accusatory tone. "It's just a guess. But I don't see why he would want to possess Harry. It doesn't benefit him whatsoever. It only puts both sides at harm."

"What do you mean?" asked Mr Weasley, sitting up straighter.

"I've thought of the possibilities of this being a result of Legilimency," Attuoria began, trying her best not to reveal any clues to her true identity. "But at the same time, it doesn't seem quite right. Why would Vol - I mean, You-Know-Who, want Harry to see things through his snake? If, like Mad-Eye suggested, he sent a snake as a lookout, then he would want this maneuver to be a secret, right? Why would he want Harry to know what he's doing?" Her confusion spilled out, and the three adults stared at her with a mixed expression of horror and shock.

"A lot of things sure go on in that brain of yours," Tonks mused.

Attuoria shrugged. "Just piecing information together."

"Attuoria does make a fair point," said Mr Weasley. "You-Know-Who would not have wanted me to survive the attack. The knowledge we now have about his plans puts him at even higher risk. So it seems unlikely that he would want Harry to save me…"

"That's enough for the day," Mrs Weasley quickly interjected before Arthur could continue. "We should not have brought Attuoria into this, I told you, this is much too heavy of a matter for someone so young."

She stood up from her chair and gently took Attuoria by the hand. "Come on, dear, it's nothing you should be worrying or thinking about."

But even after they bid goodbye to Mr Weasley and headed back to 12 Grimmauld Place where Sirius lived, the idea of Harry being possessed by Voldemort didn't leave Attuoria's thoughts. There was something different about the connection Voldemort made with Harry's mind.

It almost felt as if Harry and Voldemort were one person. One entity. The fact that Voldemort could shift his entire consciousness into his snake, and then through his snake into Harry, was troubling. This wasn't a simple case of Legilimency.

Attuoria noticed that her friends were giving her uneasy looks on the subway, and Harry wouldn't meet her gaze. She knew immediately that they heard what she said back in the ward. That would explain the sudden increase of fear that surrounded her.

Harry shot up to his room the moment they arrived at the house. The trail of fear he left behind was unavoidable. Attuoria could sense it pulsing within him as he disappeared up the staircase.

She sat in the drawing room with Ron, an unnerving silence stretched between them. The rest were either down in the kitchen or in the dining room.

"Do you really think Harry is possessed by… you know," said Ron finally.

"I don't know," Attuoria replied quietly, staring at the antique carpet on the ground. She knew he was. Voldemort had taken over his consciousness last night. But how it happened, what exactly had happened, she wasn't sure.

"Do you think he could be, I don't know, using Harry to collect info -"

"I don't know," Attuoria said again, raising her voice slightly. Ron immediately shut his mouth, retracting back into the couch. "I just hope Harry is safe. If I knew anything more, I'd tell you."

"Where are you going?" asked Ron, watching as Attuoria stood up.

"To check on Harry."

"Oh, okay."

Attuoria climbed the stairs up to the second floor where Harry and Ron's shared room was. She could hear a distant yelling from behind the closed doors. But just as she approached the room, it went silent.

She raised her hand and knocked twice.

"Who is it?" Harry's muffled voice called.

"Attuoria!" she called back. After hearing what seemed to be a suppressed grunt, she pushed the door open and stepped into the room.

"Are you alright?" she asked, shutting the door behind her.

Harry was lying face down on his bed like a statue that had fallen over. His feet hung off the edge of his covers, and his trunk was placed rather lopsided near his bed.

"You know, if you want to talk about it…"

Harry aggressively shook his head, his messy black hair swaying back and forth like a puffskein in the air.

Attuoria sat down on Ron's bed. She stared at her friend. His entire aura was clouded with fear, and she could feel it.

"I'm not scared of you, you know that, right?" she said gently.

Harry groaned and flipped around onto his back. He had his glasses in one hand as he stared up at the ceiling. "Yeah, but why does that matter? They all are."

"Just a little."

Harry glared at her.

"Let's be honest, you're being a little too tough on yourself," said Attuoria.

"What is that supposed to mean?" said Harry. "I'm literally being possessed by Voldemort. You said that yourself."

"I said that was my guess." Attuoria let out a sigh. "I thought I'd be able to understand this, because this is my field of work, isn't it? Things that go on in the human mind. But surprise! I don't know what's happening. Kind of feel rather disappointed that I can't help you any further." She gave him a slight smile.

This situation was causing a lot of trouble for Harry, and she didn't want him to suffer. After all, he was the one that helped her through her first year at Hogwarts. Without him, she might not have made it to Hogwarts at all.

"It's not your job to help me though, so you don't have to be disappointed." Harry said to the ceiling. He sighed. "I'm just… worried, you know? Because if Voldemort's possessing me, then who knows what I might do next? I already attacked Mr Weasley as a snake, I -"

"That wasn't you." Attuora interjected.

"But it was. I was the snake! I saw it happen through the snake's eyes -"

"Well you're not a snake," said Attuoria. "And unless you become an animagus, you'll never be a snake. So no, that wasn't you. That was Voldemort's snake. Your consciousness was just inside the mind of the snake, that's all."

"Is that supposed to be reassuring?"

"I don't know. But you need to stop thinking that you were the one that attacked Mr Weasley. Because you're not a snake. You're clearly a human." She beckoned towards his body, and Harry let out what sounded almost like a laugh.

"Okay, enough, I get it, I'm not a snake." He closed his eyes again. "But why would my consciousness be inside a snake? How did I even get there?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out, too. Some might say it's advanced Legilimency, but I don't think so. I think it's something more complicated than that."

Harry let out a long exhale. "But other people won't get it, will they? They all think I'm Voldemort's little puppet now."

Staring at him, Attuoria felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. He's got it all wrong. If anyone was Voldemort's puppet, it was her. Not that it was a bad thing. She agreed to the deal, after all, to provide him with help if he needed it.

But the way Harry phrased it, puppet was a pretty good word to describe what she was facing. When Voldemort didn't need her help, she was limp, lifeless, useless. Only when he did need her help did she come alive.

"We can never control what other people think. It's up to them to choose whether or not they believe in something."

"You sound like Dumbledore," Harry groaned, grabbing a pillow and covering his face.

"Do I?" Attuoria frowned. "He seemed rather off yesterday. Stared at the ceiling quite a lot, didn't he?"

"Beats me," said Harry. "He won't even look me in the eye."

The two sat in silence, and it wasn't long before Harry fell asleep. The moment his light snoring began, Attuoria felt that uneasy feeling again. That pulling force coming straight from Harry.

Not again, she thought to herself. Was Voldemort in his head again?

As she continued to stare at Harry, the feeling grew stronger. That there was something wrong, something wasn't right, this wasn't normal - She knew at that moment that she had to find out for herself.

Launching herself off the bed, she climbed over to where Harry lay and gently pulled one of his eyelids open. Meeting with his bright green iris, she willed herself to enter his thoughts.

She sat down on the ground, leaning with her back against the side of Harry's bed. With her eyes closed, she put all her focus on the thoughts going through Harry's mind.

Exactly as she expected, she heard Voldemort. But it was faint, blurry, unclear. A hazy thought of only one thing:

"I need it."

There was so much yearning in that one thought. He was desperate. There was a door. A door was stopping him from getting what he wanted. He felt so much hatred towards the door, to the people that were preventing him from getting in, to the people that gave him faulty plans of how to get in -

"Harry? Attuoria?" Ron's voice broke Attuoria's focus from Harry's thoughts.

She jerked her attention over to the door, where Ron's silhouette stood. The light from the hall was seeping into the darkened room, emphasizing the dustiness of the moth-bitten carpet.

"Mum says dinner's ready, but she'll save you something if you want to stay in bed."

Ron glanced from Harry to Attuoria. "You're not sleeping, are you? Wanna come down?"

Attuoria shook her head. "It's ok. I'll stay with Harry." She glanced towards the boy on the bed, who was awake but pretending to be asleep.

"Alright. Well… there's food downstairs, if any of you would like some…" his voice drifted off and the door closed behind him. Attuoria and Harry were left in the gloomy room alone.

Harry groaned. "He wouldn't even have come up if you weren't here. I bet he's scared of being in a room alone with me."

"I really don't think so," said Attuoria, trying to shake away the thought that Voldemort was in Harry's mind a second ago.

"Even I don't want to be in a room alone with myself," Harry whispered, clutching his pillow to his chest.

"Well then you don't have to." Attuoria forced a smile. "I'll be here."

"Thanks," he said quietly. "I just hope I don't attack you, too."

"Trust me, if you attacked me, I'd be more worried about you than me." said Attuoria cheekily. Her knowledge of spells meant that she would never go down without a good fight.

"Getting cocky, are we? Have you ever tried duelling Voldemort?" Harry retorted, sounding slightly angry.

"No," Attuoria lied. She had, as practise (although she expected he didn't put in full effort) at Malfoy Manor. "But you're not Voldemort."

"Yeah, but he's possessing me."

"Doesn't mean you suddenly gain ten times the amount of magical ability. You're still you. He's just in your head."

"I still can't tell if the things you say are supposed to make me feel better."

"I don't know. I can't tell you how to feel."

"You literally sound like you're a hundred years old."

"Double that, actually."

"No way," Harry peered down at Attuoria, who was sitting on the ground. "I'm friends with someone who's two hundred years old?"

"Almost."

"You're older than Dumbledore."

"Technically."

Harry let out a sigh of awe and fell back onto his bed.

"But you know what," said Attuoria, "the day I met you on the rock in the middle of the ocean? I'd say that's the first day I really lived. You helped me through my first journey into the mortal realm, and you're still helping me now. Because you're the first true friend I ever had, I'll be with you in whatever journey you take. I promise."

There was a brief silence between the two.

"That was… really nice of you. Thank you." Harry rolled around on the bed and poked the top of Attuoria's head. "You were my first friend, too. I'll be here for you as long as you're, you know, still here."

"Even if I became a giant snake?" said Attuoria.

"Well, yeah, I suppose." Harry said with a smile, taking her question as a joke.

But Attuoria wasn't joking. She was working with Voldemort. Would Harry still stand by her side if he knew? She could never be too sure, but decided to take his word for it.

Harry fell back asleep within a minute. Attuoria remained on the ground, stretching her legs out towards Ron's bed. She would stay with Harry tonight, in case Voldemort entered his mind once again.