Harry Potter:Diamond Heart.

Colin Creevey dozed beside the fire in the common room, breathily heavily and steadily until his head slipped off the the edge of the chair back and jolted him back awake long enough for him to reposition himself and repeat the cycle. The younger Gryffindor hadn't been dreaming, and Harry's attempts at wordless, wandless legilimency were not strong to give him any more than the slightest hint of thoughts or feelings. He saw nothing in the mind of a sleeping Creevey without using his wand, but it hardly surprised him.

Being able to cast the spell with any success without the incantation or a wand was quite exceptional, and had Harry been able to maintain eye contact he was sure his attempt would have let him glean something of his targets strongest emotions and thoughts.

He had agreed to stop teaching Neville earlier in the day. His friend was capable of clearing his mind during most of Harry's straightforward legilimency assaults, and occasionally capable of breaking the connection completely. Neville had asked, demanded and even pleaded to get Harry to do more than just contest their willpower or throw basic impressions and images at him, but he'd refused adamantly each time. If Salazar's opinions about the family's talent for mind arts were correct then there would be precious few wizards capable of matching Harry's attempts on Neville's mind.

'You're not looking very ill,' Katie remarked, drifting across to slump on the arm of Harry's chair. 'That horrible sickness you picked up yesterday has vanished.'

'I found a cure,' Harry smiled.

He had. The rest of the day had been spent sheltering under a succession of conjured umbrellas with Fleur's head on his shoulder. It had been the best moment in months. There was something very right about being with Fleur under their willow tree. Harry wanted nothing more than to go back, with Fleur suspended and at the Chateau the temptation was worse. 'Was it French medicine?' Katie asked innocently.

'Why would you think that?' Harry asked, trying furiously not blush at the memory of just how he had been kissing Fleur.

'I went to the hospital wing when Neville said you were sick, but you weren't there and nobody had seen you since your lesson with McGonagall.' Katie was beaming happily down at him from her perch on the arm of his chair. She knew she was right.

'I might have got lost on the route to the hospital wing,' Harry admitted.

'You can just admit you miss her,' Katie told him, ruffling his hair.

'Of course I miss her,' Harry caught her wrist and replaced her hand on the chair arm, 'I'll always miss her when she's away. That's how it's meant to be, isn't it?'

'I wouldn't really know,' Katie shrugged. 'I missed you when we briefly together but apart, but I missed spending time with you and talking with you more than anything else.'

'That's not the same,' Harry murmured quietly. He missed speaking with her, hearing her voice, hearing her laugh, but he missed the warmth of her head on his shoulder and being able to run his fingers through her cascade of silver hair.

'It is how it is, I guess,' Katie decided. 'Everyone's different. Just be careful about getting caught disappearing off to France. Rita Skeeter hasn't written anything about you in almost a week, she's probably desperate for another.'

'I'll be careful,' Harry promised. He certainly had to be more careful than he had been last time. There had been wet footprints by the door when he'd left the chamber, nobody ever tried to use Myrtle's bathroom, so someone had seen enough to become curious.

I'll have to ask Myrtle if she saw anyone.

'Since you were away did you happen to read what Skeeter wrote in the absence of a story about you or Dumbledore?

'No.' Harry looked up, interested, he'd never managed to have a more thorough look at the paper. 'I only glanced at the front page and noted I wasn't there.'

'Someone cast the Dark Mark over Godric's Hollow,' Katie lowered her voice to a whisper, 'the Ministry are blaming Sirius Black as an escaped supporter of You-Know-Who, but Skeeter went a bit off the script from the look of things. She mentioned that Black was last reported in Cyprus only three days ago, and that he never cast the Dark Mark after killing Peter Pettigrew.'

'Just enough to inspire doubt about the story,' Harry realised, puzzled. 'Maybe someone at the Ministry upset her and this is the only way she can get back at them.'

'Or she might just want more money,' Katie suggested lightly. 'The interesting thing is that the Prophet got into trouble for revealing the details of a secret investigation, so Skeeter shouldn't have known about the Cyprus thing at all.'

'I don't think she should know a lot of things that she writes,' Harry grinned. 'She must know someone in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.'

'She is very good at finding out secrets, isn't she?' Katie mused. 'I wonder how she does it.' 'What else did the article say?' Harry asked.

'Not a great deal, it was only part of her column. There was a bit on the Dark Mark, that it's He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's personal symbol and only cast by members of his inner circle, some of whom have escaped from Azkaban.' She rubbed her chin thoughtfully, shifting further on to the arm of Harry's chair. 'She speculated about why the mark might have been cast over Godric's Hollow too.'

'My parents,' Harry replied simply.

'The Daily Prophet believes it was Black taking credit for their deaths.'

'I suspect they'll never actually catch whomever was responsible, Sirius Black or not,' Harry commented. 'They didn't manage to keep him in Azkaban and they haven't found him in two years.' 'You don't seem all that concerned by it,' Katie remarked. 'The Dark Mark was cast over your parents house.'

'They died when I was a baby, Katie, and everyone knows who killed them,' Harry replied. 'The house is just a memorial, I've never set foot inside it. There isn't really a good reason for me to care, I'd rather they were casting big obvious pieces of magic in the sky than murdering people.'

'Maybe they're only just getting started,' Katie suggested darkly. Harry tilted his head to look up at her.

'Maybe they are,' he agreed. The more times he cast the mark somewhere appropriate the more doubt he would create in the minds of the Ministry and the public. I'll have to think of another place to cast it soon.

'Enough gloomy talk,' Katie decided, forgetting that she was the one who had started talking about it in the first place. 'It's almost DA meeting time.' She gestured at the handful of people who were making their way out through the portrait.

'Have fun,' Harry encouraged, gently pushing her off the arm of the chair onto the floor.

'Oh no you don't, Harry,' Katie pouted up from the floor, 'you promised you were coming to this one.'

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