|
2000 Miles | ||||||
|
Category: Post-OotP Characters:All Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Fluff, Tragedy, Drama Warnings: None Story is Complete Rating: R Reviews: 453 Summary: When Harry realises his need for Ginny he eventually finds a way to tell her how he feels, but their fairytale romance is interrupted by a battle with the Dark Lord, and Ginny is determined that she won't lose Harry and is prepared to go to any lengths to prevent it. H/G, R/Hr. Hitcount: Story Total: 164399; Chapter Total: 7948 |
Previous Next |
|
||||
|
O that ‘twere possible, After long grief and pain, To find the arms of my true- love Round me once again!… A shadow flits before me- Not thou, but like to thee. Ah God! that it were possible For one short hour to see The souls we loved, that they might tell us What and where they be. ~By Alfred, Lord Tennyson Chapter IV: NEWT Classes “Here’s your timetable, Harry,” said Hermione handing him a sheet of parchment at breakfast. “Damn it,” said Harry. “Double potions first thing today, and first on Friday.” “That sucks,” said Ginny sympathetically. “I’ve got a good day today. Care of Magical Creatures first, then Divination, then Defence Against the Dark Arts.” “Defence should be better this year,” said Ron. “We’ve got the real Moody.” “Thank God Dumbledore convinced him to come,” said Hermione. “And Moody likes us because we’re the Order’s kids,” said Ron. “I wonder why Dumbledore still wants me to continue with the DA?” said Harry. “He wants students to get involved outside of class,” said Hermione. “Oh, Ginny, Ron, there’s a prefect meeting tonight, Katie asked me to tell you.” “Great,” grumbled Ginny. “I’ll have a lonely evening then,” moaned Harry. “Oh stop pitying yourself, Harry,” scolded Ginny. “Yes, Miss Prefect,” said Harry, who smiled and saluted Ginny. Ginny glared at him and smacked his arm. “That was uncalled for!” he exclaimed. Ginny giggled. Harry took a last bite of his toast when the bell rang. “Come on,” he said, jumping of the bench. “Potions! I can’t wait!” Harry’s second lesson of the day was Defence Against the Dark Arts, a class which he shared with both Ron and Hermione. When the bell rang the class rushed into the room. There was a mixture of Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and Gryffindors, but no Slytherins. Ron, Harry and Hermione sat together on the front row. Moody entered the classroom and surveyed the advanced students. “Welcome to NEWT level Defence Against the Dark Arts,” he growled. “I know that this must be strange for you, seeing as I supposedly taught you two years ago, but the less said about that the better. Seeing as I don’t know you, it would be best for me to take the register so here we go. Abbott, Hannah” “Here.” R 20;Bones, Susan.” “Here.” R 20;Boot, Terry.” “Here.” R 20;Brocklehurst, Mandy.” “Here.” R 20;Brown, Lavendar.” “Here.” & #8220;Corner, Michael.” “Here.” &# 8220;Finch-Fletchley, Justin.” “Here.” 220;Finnigan, Seamus.” “Here.” 220;Ah, yes. An old friend. Granger, Hermione.” “Here.” & #8220;Longbottom, Neville.” “Here.” &# 8220;Yes, I knew your parents. Good people, very good people. MacDougal, Morag.” “Here.” R 20;Macmillan, Ernie.” “Here.” R 20;Patil, Parvati.” “Here.” &# 8220;Of course. Potter, Harry.” “Here.” R 20;Hmm. Wouldn’t have expected otherwise, Potter. Thomas, Dean.” “Here.” ̶ 0;Turpin, Lisa.” “Here.” ̶ 0;Weasley, Ronald.” “Here.” 220;Quite right, Weasley. How’re your parents by the way, I’ve not seen them for a while.” “Oh, they’re ok,” said Ron, his ears turning red. Harry looked at him and grinned. “Well, then. Let’s see how much you know. Now, I know that your teaching in this subject has been disjointed, what with that useless Quirrell in your first year, the even more useless Lockhart in your second, Professor Lupin covered Dark Creatures with you I believe, and then you had that imposter show you the unforgiveables. Of course last year it’s quite hard to say. I’m sure you learnt practically nothing from that Umbridge woman, but I am supposing that most of you were members of the illegal defence group started in school and would have learnt much there,” said Moody. “Potter, what did you cover last year?” “In lessons, sir, or in the DA?” replied Harry. “The DA, of course Potter,” growled Moody. “Erm, we covered mainly jinxes, hexes and curses. You know, spells useful when duelling. We started small, with things like Expelliarmus and Petrificus Totalus but we also covered stunning and the impediment curse. We were just doing the Patronus charm when we got caught last year,” said Harry. “Right, so you did a lot. Mainly duelling as you said, so maybe we’ll start by recapping what you learnt last year. Could I just have a show of hands for those who were in the DA last year?” said Moody. Almost everyone in the class raised their hands. Only Seamus, Morag and Lisa didn’t, seeing as Seamus had only been to one meeting. “That’s brilliant,” growled Moody, looking around at all the hands. “Well, let’s pair you up then shall we? Ok, I think I’ll have Weasley and Turpin.” Ron shot a pained look at Hermione. He stood and walked to the back of the class to stand with Lisa Turpin. “Granger and Finnigan.” Hermione stood up and met Seamus at the back of the room. “Abbott and Finch-Fletchley.” Hannah and Justin stood and walked to the back of the room to stand with the others. “Brown and Longbottom.” Lavendar opened her mouth to protest, but then thought better of it. She stood and joined the others at the back of the class. “MacDougal and Thomas.” Dean and Morag stood and walked to the back of the room. “Bones and Macmillan.” Susan smiled at Ernie as they got up from their seats. “Patil and Corner.” Harry felt a stab of hatred whenever he heard Michael Corner’s name, although he wasn’t sure why. “Brocklehurst and Boot.” Mandy and Terry joined everyone else at the back leaving Harry as the only one who remained seating. “Oh, dear,” said Moody. “We appear to have an odd number. This will make things awkward. Tell me, Potter. Do you know of anyone else in the school who has the talent to be in this class but isn’t here? Obviously not seventh years, but perhaps any of the fifth years maybe could transfer up.” Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione who both looked highly disappointed at the fact that they weren’t paired up together. “Yeah,” said Harry thoughtfully. “There is one girl, a fifth year.” “Spit it out, Potter,” growled Moody. “Who is it?” “Ginny Weasley,” muttered Harry. “Ah, yes,” said Moody. He too, knew of Dumbledore and Sirius’ views of Harry and Ginny’s future relationship. “And why is that, Potter?” “She, erm,” began Harry feeling his cheeks burning. “She showed real talent for curses and hexes, especially the Bat Bogey Hex.” Ron’s grin faded a little. He had been on the receiving end of one of Ginny’s hexes just one too many times. “And she was one of the first to produce a fully fledged Patronus,” finished Harry. “Well then,” said Moody. “I’ll have to clear it with McGonagall first but will have Miss Weasley transferred into this class. In fact, go and get her now Potter and I’ll talk with McGonagall later.” “Yes sir,” said Harry. He got up and left the room. Where did Ginny say she was second? Harry asked himself. Divination. That was one room Harry had been hoping he would never see again. Why had he chosen Ginny? Why hadn’t he just said there wasn’t anyone? He had to admit that the thought of working with Ginny all year was alluring. Maybe Sirius was right. Maybe Ginny was perfect for him. The silvery rope ladder dropped down in front of Harry and he climbed it. The familiar perfume filled his head and once again made him feel drowsy and stupid. “Professor Trelawny,” said Harry. “Professor Moody would like to see Ginny Weasley. She’ll need to bring her things with her, because she won’t be returning this lesson.” Ginny, looking puzzled, packed away her things and followed Harry down the ladder. “What does Moody want?” she asked Harry, curiously. “We’re one short in our NEWT class, so I have no partner for duelling practice,” said Harry. “You’re point being…?” pressed Ginny. “Moody asked me if there were any fifth years who showed particular talent for Defence last year in the DA and I… erm…” Harry tailed off looking embarrassed. “Suggested me,” Ginny finished for him. “Why?” “You’re great at defence Ginny. Your Bat Bogey Hexes are amazing and your Patronus was brilliant. And look at the way you fought last summer. There was only two people that I could have picked to join our class, seeing as four of us who fought last summer are already in it,” explained Harry. “Me and Luna,” said Ginny. “Yeah,” said Harry. “But you’re much more talented and much prettier than Luna.” Harry turned even redder. Ginny giggled. “I’m not that pretty.” “Yes you are, Miss Prefect,” said Harry. He stroked her hair with his hand. “Don’t,” whispered Ginny. Harry snatched his hand away. He didn’t even realise he’d been doing anything. “I’m sorry,” he said. Ginny pushed the door to the defence classroom open. “Ah, Potter, Weasley, I’m glad you’re here,” said Moody as they entered. The desks had been stacked up against the wall and all the partners were standing facing each other. “Now, Miss Weasley,” said Moody. “How would you feel about transferring into this class? You’ll still take your defence OWL of course, but you’ll take your NEWT next year.” “I’d be honoured Professor,” said Ginny, smiling. “Great,” said Moody, his knarled face twisting into a smile. “You’ll partner Potter then.” Ginny took her place opposite Harry. She couldn’t help but notice that he was looking at her strangely. In fact he’d been looking at her strangely all summer. She knew that it was part of who Harry was to act strangely, and he certainly wasn’t very good at voicing his emotions, but he’d been acting strangely around her too. “Now,” continued Moody. “This year we will be covering a great many curses, jinxes and hexes, so today will just be a recap of what you already know. Your partners today, will be your partners for the whole year, so if you have any problems I suggest you straighten them out quickly. For your homework this week, I want a two scroll project on the correct wand movements, incantations and mind set for the following five spells. Stupefy, Petrificus Totalus, Avada Kedavra, the Bat Bogey Hex and Locomotor Mortis.” Moody scribbled the instructions down on the board. “I want diagrams of wand movement, descriptions of the effects of the spell and some background information about the spell. This shouldn’t be of any trouble to you, and I want you to hand in two scrolls per partnership. For those of you with a partner in another house, you will have to organise meetings in the library to do the work. You have exactly one week to complete the project. Now, I will call out the names of one partnership and you will demonstrate the spell which I will also name. I don’t want you to block the spells, but I want you to cast the spells immediately to see which gets through first.” “Oh great,” muttered Ginny. “I’ve got no chance.” “Too right, Miss Prefect,” whispered Harry. “I’m gonna kick your ass.” “Now, I’m terrified,” said Ginny, mock trembling. “Seeing as Potter and Weasley are talking,” said Moody, looking quite amused. “They can go first. Now class, I will let you pick their spell. The stunning spell or the Bat Bogey Hex.” Harry suddenly looked scared and Ginny grinned. “Bat Bogey Hex!” shouted Ron and Harry glared at him. Unfortunately, Harry’s glare invoked a loud agreement from the rest of the class which caused Ginny’s grin to widen. “That settles it then,” said Moody. Harry groaned. “We’ll try you to with a couple of stunners.” Ginny’s grin faded quickly, but Harry’s expression brightened. The two raised their wands and waited for Moody’s count. “3… 2… 1…” “STUPEFY!” shouted Harry. “STUPEFY!” cried Ginny, less than a split second later. Jets of red light simultaneously shot from the ends of Harry and Ginny’s wands and the two teenagers ended up flat out on the floor. The class was silent, unsure of whether to cheer or be anxious. “Excellent,” said Moody. “Excellent. Oh, don’t worry. They’ll come round before long. Right, next couple then. Let’s see. I know. Granger and Finnigan and your spell is Impedimenta.” That evening Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione sat on the sofas by the Gryffindor fire. Harry and Ginny were both rubbing the backs of their heads. “Honestly,” said Ginny. “Stunners and no cushions. That’s downright unfair.” “I know,” said Harry. “My head is killing me.” “I’m gonna have one hell of a headache in the morning, and it’s hurting too much to even think about doing any homework right now, let alone Moody’s project,” groaned Ginny. Harry put his arms around her and pulled her into a hug. He kissed the back of her head. “Feel better?” he asked. “My head does, but you’re scaring me,” she said. “What’s gotten into you, harry? You’ve been acting weird all summer.” “I’m just trying to be your friend Ginny. Is there something wring with that?” Harry said looking hurt. “No, I’m sorry. It’s just not like you, that’s all,” said Ginny. She snuggled back into his arms. “This is nice,” she whispered. A/N What do you think? It still isn’t good I know. I’m planning to skip a few months to Hallowe’en. I’m thinking of having a Hallowe’en ball. There may be a bit of H/G fluff approaching. I can smell it in the air. I’ve decided on an ending for my story, it’s just getting there that’s the problem. Ah well, I’m working on it. And I promise to update in the next few days. Review please. |
| Reviews 453 |
Previous Next
|
