A Hard Home Truth
Chapter 11
A Hard Home Truth
The squeals of laughter and cries of delight reached Ned’s ears long before he entered the kitchens. It was a glaring contrast to the somber mood of the execution he had carried out earlier that day, nor the sorrow he felt when Catelyn had met him in the godswood, bearing more horrible news.
His mind was in a hundred different places right then, but among the jumble of thoughts came the final words of the boy he had killed.
The White Walkers, I saw them. The ranger’s warning echoed in his brain, but Ned pushed it aside, convincing himself that they were the ramblings of a desperate madman—the White Walkers had been gone for eight thousand years. He would be more comfortable in believing his own argument had he not witnessed things he believed to be impossible on numerous occasions in the last year and a half alone…
“Oh, Father, thank you!” Sansa cried, rushing forward, direwolf pup cradled in her chest. She embraced him tightly. Ned was taken slightly by surprise as he couldn’t recall the last time his daughter had shown him such affection. It was reassuring to know that his little girl was still inside the young lady.
The rest of his children offered similar cries of gratitude as they sat with their pups and attempted to get them to drink milk. Even Harry and Hermione looked at him more warmly than they normally did when he returned from an execution.
They had discovered the direwolf pups on their journey back. A dead stag had blocked their route, and upon investigation they had found the body of an adult direwolf not far away. For a long moment Ned had worried that the dead stag and wolf were his wards, but he soon saw that the coloring on both were completely wrong, which came as a great relief. His first instinct had been to dispatch the pups as well, but Bran’s protestations and Jon’s insistence that they were meant to find these pups had been enough to change his mind. There had been six pups in total; one for each of his true born children and his baseborn son, Jon.
Ned smiled down at his children all beaming and laughing together, knowing that soon things would be changing forever. “A raven came from King’s Landing,” he announced, taking a seat at a bench.
“What did it say?” Robb asked, not taking his eyes off of his pup as it tried to crawl into Hermione’s lap.
“The Hand of the King, Jon Arryn has died.” Saying the words didn’t make them feel real yet.
The other children looked at him in sympathy, knowing that the man had been one of Ned’s greatest friends, almost like a second father.
“I’m sorry, Father,” Jon said softly.
Ned nodded grimly. “Your aunt Lysa and cousin are well though.”
“That is good news,” Robb replied dutifully.
“Who will become the new Hand?” Hermione asked, fending off Rickon’s pup from her person.
“The King and his family are traveling to Winterfell,” Ned replied. There was a moment of surprised silence before he was assaulted by various questions.
“Why are they coming?”
“When will they get here?”
“Is the Imp coming?”
“Will there be dancing?”
“Are the princes and princess coming too?”
“Peace!” Ned held up a hand to silence them all. “I can only answer one at a time.”
“So, you are to be the new Hand of the King?” Harry asked.
“The King has not made his intentions explicit but that is the most likely motive for him to travel here,” Ned conceded. “It is a long journey from the capital and he would not bring his family for something trivial.” It was not ideal to play host to such a large party so soon after Robb’s nameday but Ned would never refuse his king and friend such a thing. Whether he would accept the anticipated offer of becoming the King’s Hand was another matter… “It should take them about a moon’s turn to get here as there will be so many of them traveling. I imagine Prince Joffrey, Prince Tommen and Princess Myrcella will be coming, though I cannot be sure about Lord Tyrion. As for the dances, Sansa, I expect there will be time for one or two at least.”
Sansa gasped in delight and immediately launched into details of the new dress she planned to make for the occasion. “…and I’ll spend all my nights on the embroidery, I don’t care how long it takes.”
“I’m sure you’ll look lovely, Sansa,” Hermione said kindly. “I almost wish that I’d be here to see it.”
Sansa looked horrified at the idea of Hermione and Harry missing such an occasion. “Oh, but you must stay for the visit of the royal family! How could you not?”
Hermione shook her head, handing Rickon his pup when it had escaped his grasp to nuzzle her affectionately. “We’ve already delayed our journey twice. We shouldn’t keep the Citadel waiting.”
“But it’ll only be another moon’s turn,” Robb pointed out eagerly. “That’s not going to make much of a difference, is it?”
“And following that, there will be another reason to stay!” Hermione argued. “It’s not that I’m desperate to leave you all, but…” she turned to Harry, “we have a journey to take. Right?”
Harry shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t see the harm in it,” he replied, causing the others to cheer and Hermione to sigh. “Come on, you must admit it’ll be interesting to see the King and Queen. The Citadel’s not going anywhere.”
Hermione looked at Harry stoically for a few seconds before finally turning to Ned. “We wouldn’t’ be an imposition on your household?”
“Not at all,” Ned replied, though in truth the lingering presence of Harry and Hermione was slightly concerning. There were the more obvious worries that Robb was going to fall further into his infatuation or that someone in the King’s party would discover their magic. But there was also something lurking underneath the surface; something that neither of them apparently wanted to acknowledge.
“That’s settled then,” Sansa declared happily. “Oh, Hermione, you must let me help you make a new dress too. The ones you wore at Robb’s celebrations were nice enough but now we’ll be seen by royalty!”
Hermione smiled tightly in reply. “Thank you, Sansa, that’s most kind. But if you’ll all excuse me for a moment, there’s a book of Maester Luwin’s that I’ve been meaning to borrow and now I’ve got enough time to read it.” She extricated herself from the direwolf pups that had somehow managed to clamber onto her person. The pups whined as she left and Harry frowned at the floor.
“Those pups look like they’ll fall asleep at any moment,” Ned pointed out to fill the silence in Hermione’s absence. “Best take them to your bedchambers.” His children followed his suggestion without argument; Jon carrying Rickon’s pup for him.
“You wish to speak to me, my lord?” Harry asked as he lingered behind.
Ned rose. “It was very thoughtful of you and Hermione to delay your journey to Oldtown for Jon’s coming of age as well as Robb’s.”
“Jon is just as much our friend as Robb and we think he deserves to know that,” Harry replied. Jon would be turning sixteen in a couple of days’ time, though there would be very little celebration of the event. “Hermione and I both know how it feels to be treated differently because of our last name.”
They exited the kitchens and Ned led them up some stone stairs to stand atop the inner wall of Winterfell. “It pleases me greatly that you have all become close friends,” he said. “But you risk your friendship with Hermione the longer you wait to tell her.”
Harry turned his head sharply to stare at Ned. “I—I don’t know what you mean, my lord.”
“The Citadel,” Ned prompted.
Harry’s face fell and he leaned forward over the wall while Ned waited patiently for him to respond. “She’s depending on me,” he eventually muttered. “It doesn’t matter what I think.”
“And what do you think?”
“That it’s impossible,” Harry admitted glumly still staring at the ground far below. “I know that it brought us here in the first place, but we didn’t make the time turner ourselves. Maester Luwin says that what Hermione and I can do is far beyond the magic taught at the Citadel, but to us, a spell to take you to another world that’s… that’s…” he struggled to find the words to describe their predicament and shook his head.
“Have you told Hermione this?”
Harry laughed harshly. “No. How could I? She doesn’t understand that sometimes there isn’t a solution for everything no matter how hard you look; even if it’s always worked for her before.”
“So, you plan to journey to the Citadel, train as a master and investigate magic even though you consider it pointless?”
Harry looked up at him in confusion. “What else could I do?”
Ned frowned at his defeated attitude. “Live,” he suggested. “If it’s impossible for you to get home, would it not be a waste of the lives you and Hermione have been given to chase a dream? Would a life here be so bad?”
“You don’t understand,” Harry shook his head.” It’s not just Hermione who’s depending on me. Back home, there’s someone I need to save. If I give up on him, I’m condemning him to a fate worse than death.”
Ned didn’t envy Harry’s position. It was obvious that the boy was extremely loyal to those he cared about and would put their needs before his own. “Whatever you decide, putting it off won’t make it any easier.”
“I’ve already decided,” Harry said forcefully, possibly to convince himself. “I’m going to do the right thing.”
“But are you sure what the right thing is?” Ned questioned, laying a hand on Harry’s shoulder. He couldn’t help but feel that soon after the King’s visit, either Harry or Hermione were going to be extremely unhappy.