Search:

SIYE Time:15:22 on 29th March 2024
SIYE Login: no


Harry Potter: To Love Is To Live
By _kb_

- Text Size +

Category: Alternate Universe
Characters:Albus Dumbledore, Draco Malfoy, Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, Minerva McGonagall, Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley, Severus Snape, Sirius Black
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Fluff
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 96
Summary: What if Ginny really got over Harry during his fourth year, and then he fell for her and found love while she was with someone else? Can he get her attention and convince her to be his girlfriend? What happens if he can't and she is the secret to helping him defeat Voldemort? {post-GoF & Alt-OotP } COMPLETE!
Hitcount: Story Total: 67762; Chapter Total: 5888





Author's Notes:
{A/N: The prank on Sirius and Albus is in this chapter. I hope it's OK, though it may strike some as a bit lame -- sorry! Do remember, the prank lasts for 12 hours.

Last chapter in this story for this year. The last 3 chapters will be uploaded in January. Thanks to everyone who has nominiated this story for a Trinket award. When the time comes to vote, you know what you have to do -- go vote. :-}




ChapterPrinter
StoryPrinter


Chapter 9: Fun and Not So Fun

[Mon Sep 2]

Harry and Ginny were up early enough that they were at the doors to the Great Hall a few minutes before they opened for breakfast. They had gone by themselves as Hermione wanted to wait for Ron, and he was slower to wake up that morning. Harry considered telling his friends about what was to come to give them motivation to get there early, but Ginny had talked him out of it, as the fewer that knew, the fewer there were to spill the secret.

They took a seat in their usual places at the Gryffindor table and began to help themselves to breakfast, while watching everyone file in. It took another fifteen minutes for their victims to come in, but their presence was duly noted and the two were pleased to see their victims sit in the same seats as they did last night.

Ginny turned to Harry and whispered, "Whatever you do, act normally. If you have to keep a straight face, bite the inside of your lip, or whatever else you have to do to think about something, anything, else so as not to give your amusement away."

"I don't think that's going to be a problem," he told her. "Everyone else will be rolling with laughter too."

"Yes, but when that dies down and 'specially if they start questioning people -- and you know they're going to look at you -- then you've got to be able to withstand the scrutiny," she explained. "Oh look, Sirius just stood up to look at the other end of the table."

Harry checked his watch. "Right; it's 8:23, we should have five minutes. More pumpkin juice?"

Hermione and Ron came in and sat down in front of them. "You're up early," Ron commented.

Harry shrugged slightly. "I'm looking forward to class, Ron. It should be an easy year."

They continued eating, engaging in light banter, though Harry kept his peripheral vision on the staff table. Then he saw it. Checking his watch, he saw it was indeed 8:28; the twins would be pleased. Focusing on his food, he tried to act normal and succeeded, until a few chuckles reached him. Looking around, he saw that Sirius' robes were now half way between black and pink, and they were getting lighter every second -- except for a small area on his chest that stayed black. Harry could not help but stare now, but then, he was not the only one. Sixty seconds after it had started, Sirius noticed that his robes were hot pink, except for a spot on his chest that read, "Ask me about my wand."

A few of the other teachers had noticed Sirius predicament, and pointed at him, chuckling at the initiation of the new teacher. Sirius appeared to be torn between anger and amusement. Pulling out his wand, he cast a "Finite Incantatem" on his robes and they went back to solid black. Harry looked at his watch and saw 8:30.

Dumbledore stood with a smile on his face and clinked his glass a couple of times. "Yes, our first prank of the year. Welcome to the staff, Professor Black." Everyone clapped and Sirius good-naturedly took a bow. "If the Heads of House will start passing out the timetables, we can be prepared to start class at nine. Prefects, please make yourselves available to the first years." He sat down at the end of his speech.

By the time McGonagall came over to the Gryffindor table, Harry noticed two changes at the staff table: Dumbledore's robes were starting to lighten, and a light patch was starting to appear on the chest of Sirius' robes. As he took his timetable from McGonagall, Harry gleefully saw that he would have Defense first thing today. He pointed this out to Ginny, who gave him an evil grin.

"What?" Hermione asked as she saw their expressions and knew they had to be up to something with looks like that.

"We've got Defense as our first class," Ginny told her friend. "I can't wait to see what Professor Black has to show us." It was all Harry could do not to burst out laughing. Somehow, he managed to keep it down as he pointed back towards to the staff table.

Now Dumbledore's robes were hot pink, but the words on his robes read, "Looking for love". Sirius' robes were still black, but the works "Ask me about my wand" were back, but in pink this time. Laughter was starting to spread through the student population.

Sirius must have made a comment to Dumbledore, though Harry could not hear it, because the Headmaster looked back at the Defense teacher and pointed. Sirius looked down and saw his redecorated robes and sighed. Another Finite Incantatem changed them back to solid black. The Headmaster left his pink for awhile.

Ron managed to wash part of his breakfast down before saying, "That was classic Fred and George, I wonder who did that?"

"Yes, it was," Hermione said thoughtfully as she looked at Ginny.

Ginny merely said, "Yeah, it was good. Hey look, the morning owls."

The birds came in carrying all manner of objects, many of them items the students had forgotten to bring with them. A small brown one dropped a newspaper in front of Hermione. She opened her Daily Prophet and after one look, exclaimed, "It's about time!"

"What?" her three friends asked her. She turned it around and they saw the headlines "FUDGE SACKED!" Underneath that was, "BONES TAKES OVER".

Harry smiled, "Yes, it is about time. Shall we go get our books, Ginny?" He glanced at his watch and saw that it was 8:36. Looking at the staff table again, he saw that Sirius' robes were again halfway back to pink, and with the words in black becoming more visible again. He laughed as he thought about his godfather having another twelve hours of this.

---

As Harry and Ginny sat in their DADA class waiting for it to start, they scanned their timetables further. They saw that an hour on Tuesday evening was scheduled with Professor McGonagall, and an hour on Thursday evening with Professor Dumbledore, their extra lessons. Harry was not too concerned, but Ginny was really hoping they were only for the first term, as preparation for OWLs would hit them hard in the second term.

Their teacher came out of his office door and into the class room looking quite normal. Sirius surveyed his students. Their desks were in a semi-circle around the back of the room, and there was a dueling area up front.

"Good morning, class." He looked right at Harry as he said, "I'm Professor Black." He had talked to Harry several times about remembering to call him "Professor" unless they were in private. "Let's start with the roll. Hmm, looks like we have Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs here. Teresa Baker?" and on he went.

As he finished the roll and was about to start the lesson for the day, he heard several snickers. Looking down, Sirius saw his robes were changing back to pink again. Damn! This is almost as good as what James and I used to do. He sighed as he contemplated what to do next.

"Professor?" He looked up and saw Ginny with her hand in the air. "Have you considered changing robes?"

"Actually, Miss Weasley, these are different robes than what I wore to breakfast; but thank you for your concern." As he looked at her, something about this prank reminded him of her brothers, but she looked innocent. Beside her, Harry had a slight smile on his face, but then again, so did the rest of the class. Casting another Finite Incantatem on his new robes, he decided he would just have to teach as is. He had noticed they alternated color schemes, so black robes with the pink words was about the best he was going to get for now. He would do some careful investigation during lunchtime.

***

[Fri Sep 6]

Harry walked Ginny back from dinner. Everything seemed right in the world. It had been a good dinner, spent in good company, and now it was the end of the week. True, they both had homework to do over the weekend, but they were taking the night off -- together.

As they walked down a third floor corridor towards Harry's secret destination, he saw Peeves up ahead where the corridor turned. The poltergeist appeared to be trying to do something to someone down the corridor that crossed the one Harry and Ginny were walking down. As they came to the intersection to see who it was, Peeves finally noticed them and shouted, "Oh, it's Potty and ..."

But Harry never heard the rest of Peeves non-sense, because as he cleared the corner, he saw Draco Malfoy just in time to see the Slytherin cast a pale yellow spell at him, one he had never heard before. He shoved Ginny hard back the way from which they had come, hoping she would be land behind the wall. The spell barely missed him because of his unexpected movement. Ducking and twisting, Harry shot off three quick Tickling Charms in a small horizontal spread. The two left ones hit Malfoy and he fell into a heap unable to immediately cast anything. With the smallest of pauses, Harry also cast a full Body Bind at the laughing and writhing Draco, fully enjoying the thought of Malfoy being tickled but not being able to do anything about it.

"Oh, I think a teacher needs to know about this," Peeves cackled.

"Hey Peeves, how about I make you a deal?" Harry offered. Both the spirit and Ginny looked at him with interest as to what Harry was thinking. "How about you don't tell anyone what you saw, and I'll give you a wand for free. How's that?"

"You'd give me a wand?" The poltergeist was amazed. "It's a deal! Give me the wand."

"Sure, Peeves, it's right over there on the floor. Grab it and take it with you."

Peeves laughed as he swooped down and grabbed Malfoy's wand, then took off laughing all the way down the hall.

Ginny looked at Malfoy and asked, "What about him? Attacking you like that wasn't very nice."

"Yeah, poor cowardly little Draco," Harry commiserated in a singsong voice, knowing the Slytherin could hear him. "We're in the castle and so I doubt anything can hurt him too badly, and the Body Bind will wear off soon. Let's go." He grabbed her hand and started leading her off.

Quite some distance from their attack, they passed the statue of the one-eyed witch. Checking to make sure they were alone, Harry spoke, "Dissendium", and it moved aside. Harry had grown such that it was harder to get through the opening, but he still managed to fit inside. He lit his wand so Ginny could see the steep stairs and join him. The statue moved back and they were in a world of their own.

"Where are we, Harry?"

He led her a short ways down the small tunnel until it widened. There he conjured a small settee. "Well, Ginny, if you take this passage to the other end, you'd end up in the basement of Honeydukes in Hogsmeade."

Her face lit up. "This is one of the secret passages Fred and George told me about."

Harry sat down and pulled her to him so she was on his lap. "So Miss Weasley, I think I've had an excellent week. How about you?"

Putting her arms around his neck, she told him, "Mmm, me too." Then she paused before going on, "Does that include what Malfoy just tried to do to you?"

"What happened with Malfoy is part of what made it so great. I never completely realised how difficult he made class until I've had ones without him. That alone may be worth having to repeat a year. Anyway, I think I showed him who's better, and then when the thought of letting Peeves take his wand hit me, I just had to do it."

Ginny giggled. "Yeah, I liked that. I wonder if he'll ever get it back? Or if Peeves can use it?"

"I'm sure Dumbledore will make Peeves give it back, or he'll get the Bloody Baron to make Peeves to return it; but for now, Draco isn't much of a threat. And I doubt Peeves can use it, but I hope he hides it well."

"True. But Harry, why the Tickling Charms?"

"Oh, because the Tickling Charm is one of the fastest charms to cast: a single word with a quick jab for a wand movement. I just needed to slow Malfoy down a bit to get the upper hand on him. Doing the Body Bind on him without removing the Tickling Charm is probably a bit cruel of me, but considering what all he's done to me over the years, I think it's reasonable pay back. And even better, he really can't get me in trouble without admitting what he did, which would get him into trouble, not me." Harry was feeling pretty smug.

His girlfriend laughed at that. "That is good. So what did you think of Dumbledore's lesson?"

"I liked it; he has a much gentler approach than Snape. With Snape, he just threw me into the ocean without telling me how to swim. I think Snape gave me one or two comments of explanation, and immediately started trying to break into my mind. At least Dumbledore explained about organizing your mind, putting little locked doors, figuratively speaking, in front of special places in your mind, as well how to push people out. Snape never mentioned any of that to me," he told her. "By the way, since I didn't tell you then, good job with that. I think you're going to catch on faster than I will."

"I doubt it, you've already had some training and I haven't," she said.

"But I'm having to unlearn bad training, therefore I think you'll master it first, assuming I ever do." He was starting to wonder if he would ever really learn. He did not want to tell her yet how little he had stopped Dumbledore when the Professor had tested his Occlumency.

"Well, at least I made some progress there," she told him with a small note of pride in her voice, which gave way to disgust. "I don't think I made any progress with McGonagall. I mean really, 'Find your center'. Ha!"

"Yeah, that was really different. I'm not sure I have a center, but I think more of it as 'find the inner me'. Of course, I didn't do that, but I think I can see what she means. So with time, I think I can make it."

"I don't, at least not yet, but I do so want to be an Animagus," she confided in him. "Even if I won't know what I'll be until I do it ..."

"If you do it," he corrected her, "it's not guaranteed you know."

"When I do it," she told him a little forcefully.

He smiled at her. "OK, when. You want to practice now? She said we could do this ourselves."

"Maybe, but since we only have a couple of hours and we're alone, I can think of something else I'd rather do for awhile." She lowered her face closer and closer to his.

After a few minutes, the thought of I'm senseless, totally senseless, came into his head. They barely made it back by curfew.

***

[Sat Sep 7]

The next morning a thoroughly happy Harry and Ginny went to breakfast with a completely psyched Ron. Hermione resigned herself to merely coming along for the ride. Quidditch tryouts were this morning.

Ron split up all the hopefuls by position. Harry had no competition for Seeker. Jack Sloper stayed on as a Beater, but Seamus ended up being a surprisingly good tryout and got picked as a Beater too. After watching the Chaser tryouts, no one could have said Ron played favourites in picking his sister. Even without her Firebolt, she almost matched Katie in skill. Demelza Robins ended up being the third Chaser. Ron stayed as Keeper, of course.

Finishing up tryouts, Ron came over to Harry. "Hey, thanks for helping me out, it was like having an assistant Captain. You up for doing some of that in the future?"

"Sure, you know I'm there for you Ron."

"Thanks, Harry, and you know I'm always there for you, no matter what." That hit Harry in a way he had not expected. There was something about Ron's promise, his loyalty, that grabbed at him, and it must have showed. "What wrong, Harry?"

Harry looked around and saw Ginny over talking to Katie. Hermione was descending the stands to come meet them. "You got a few minutes Ron?" Part of Harry did not want to talk about this, until he realised that unless he made a conscious effort, he would never do this; and it was something that he needed to do.

"Sure, Harry, let me put the equipment away."

While Ron cleared up the equipment, Harry looked over and saw Ginny start to walk in with Katie. "Ginny!" He waved her over. He was not going to do this without her; actually, he was not sure he could without her support. She arrived at the same time Hermione did.

"What's wrong, Harry?" She put her arm around his waist to comfort him. There was something about his expression that screamed 'help'.

"I need to talk to Ron and Hermione." He looked at his brunette friend who nodded. "I need you to help me."

Ginny almost asked him what it was about, until he added that last part, then she knew. "Sure Harry, you know I'll always be there for you."

Harry drew her into a hug as they waited for Ron. A few minutes later he was leading them to the Room of Requirement. After triggering the door, they all walked in to find a fireplace, two couches, and a low table with Butterbeers on it.

"Wow!" Ron was pleased as he picked up a bottle. "I didn't know the room could do this."

"Me neither," Harry admitted, "but it does look like a cosy place to share burdens with your closest friends."

"Thanks, Harry," Hermione softly told him.

He gave her a hard smile, "Yeah, well, you may not thank me when I'm done." He got two concerned and puzzled looks. Ginny placed her hand over his. "I don't know how to say this, except to just drop it on you."

"However you want to do it mate. Like I said on the pitch, we're here for you."

"Thanks, Ron." Harry took a deep breath, both physically and mentally. "A few weeks ago, Dumbledore explained to me why Voldemort keeps trying to kill me." Hermione looked alarmed. "There's a prophecy that says I have to kill him or he has to kill me."

In a voice barely above a whisper, Hermione said, "The Daily Prophet was right, you are the Chosen One."

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed. For once, Hermione did not tell him off for swearing.

"It gets worse."

"What could be worse than that?" Ron looked amazed that Harry's statement could even possibly be true.

Harry looked down, unable to look at his friends; the task was so daunting. "Well, Voldemort split his soul and embedded the pieces into objects, so that he couldn't be killed unless you destroy those bits of his soul first. The good news is that Dumbledore has found five of the six objects. The bad news is that he hasn't figured out how to destroy them, and the last one is missing, though Dumbledore has an idea what it is."

"Maybe I can research how to destroy the objects," Hermione volunteered, as Harry knew she would.

"The objects are called Horcruxes. You'll need to talk to Dumbledore about them, you won't find any reference to them in the library. They are extremely Dark Magic." Harry finally looked up at his friend.

She looked shocked. "Not in the library at all?" The humourous thought that the library had failed her brought a little life back into Harry.

"No, Hermione, this is the darkest of Dark Magic. It takes a murder to create one. Anyway, I wanted you to know. I may share other things with you as I find out, but you must all promise to hold them secret, even if threatened." Harry hoped they would understand and not ask 'threatened by what?' A serious look came over them all, so apparently they did understand.

Ginny gave him a hug. "You know I'll protect you and your secrets no matter what Harry." He hugged her back.

Ron and then Hermione each put a hand on his shoulder and told him, "Me too, Harry."

As Ginny released him, he breathed deeply again, and realised he had not touched his drink. Picking up a bottle, he downed half of it in one long swallow. With a loud, "Ahh," he looked at his other two friends and smiled. "You want to hear a funny story about Malfoy from last night?"

Ron brightened considerably and even Hermione looked interested. Ginny merely chuckled and grabbed her Butterbeer. It's great to have good friends, Harry thought as he started in on the story. When he was done telling it, he thought Ron was going to wet himself from laughing so hard. Hermione was greatly amused too. Draining their drinks, they all left for lunch.

***

[Tue Sep 10]

In his first Potions class of the second week, Harry and his partner Ginny were diligently working on their assignment. Harry was doing the constant stirring it required, changing direction for every stir, while Ginny prepared the slug entrails and daisy roots required for the next step. Ginny was adding the mixture in while Harry did the final three clock-wise stirs, when a cauldron on the other side of the room had a mild explosion and belched its entire contents over its Slytherin owners and their workbench.

Harry had barely looked over at the scene, now that he could stop stirring or his cauldron would have done the same, when Snape bellowed, "Potter, detention for ruining another person's work."

"Sir?" Even Harry was amazed at the man for this contrived charge, despite his past five years of experience.

"I saw you shoot that heating spell at their cauldron. Come to think of it, fifty points for your cheek too. Be here tonight at seven."

He took a deep breath and resignedly said, "Yes, Sir."

Turning back to his potion and his partner, Harry saw another problem about to explode: Ginny. "Ssh," he quickly hissed. "Don't worry and I'll explain later." He thought Ginny had heard him, but he was not sure, so he nodded back at the potion. Slowly, she went back to work, but Harry had to do most of it as she was so angry she could barely see straight. Still, Harry thought it was worth full marks when he handed it in.

As he handed their work to his teacher, the Potions master did not close his hand and the phial slipped out and broke on the floor. An old trick of his. "Whoops! I guess that'll be a zero for you two today," he drawled.

"No problem sir, I've got another." Harry handed it to him, but he held it so the teacher had to take it from his hand. Snape grabbed it and put it with the other students work. Harry went back and very discretely, with his body between his cauldron and the teacher, drew off another phial and pocketed it. For the first time that term, Ginny saw him do that and raised an eyebrow. "In a minute," he whispered. They quickly cleaned up and went to Herbology.

When they were out of the classroom, Ginny turned to him and started grilling him. "All right Harry, spill it. How can you let that go? And what was the extra phial for?"

"Look, it's something I've had to deal with for the last five years. Yes, I'm still very angry on the inside, but that's his normal treatment of me."

"Harry! You shouldn't have to deal with that."

"And I'm not, at least this year. You remember that talk I had with Dumbledore over the summer?" She nodded. "One morning just before we left the castle I couldn't sleep and went for a walk. I ran into Dumbledore, who was also taking an early morning walk. He told me some background stuff on Tom and we talked about some other things too, including his talk with Snape to reign in his prejudices with me. I told him I didn't think Snape would change, so Dumbledore told me to keep an extra sample of my work and he'd grade it for us."

"Really? Now that's one of the smartest things I've heard of."

"You mean beside asking you out?" he teased her.

"Of course, that's a given," she haughtily replied to tease him. "But what about detention?"

"Ah, well, I'm thinking you and I are going to go talk to the Headmaster in our free hour after lunch about that. None of this is fair, and it's even less fair to you, since his grudge against me and my father is affecting your grades." They were almost at the greenhouses now.

"OK, Harry, I see your point, and yes, we will go talk to the Headmaster. Come on, let's sit with Colin," she told him and led him to the workbench where Colin was standing by himself.

---

Colin turned out to be a pretty easy person to work with, which was a bit of a surprise to Harry because Colin had been such a "fan" the first couple of years; but apparently Colin had grown out of that and Harry had not even noticed. That made Harry a bit sad, so he tried to be nicer to the younger boy and treat him like a normal friend, especially since Colin was now his roommate.

They ended up walking to lunch together, just talking about classes in general. As they sat down for lunch, Harry noticed that he was surrounded by all the fifth years. It had happened once or twice before, but he had never really paid much attention, as he normally sat with Ron and Hermione, and Ginny joined him there. Still, they were nice people; his new dorm mates had been pretty good to him as well, though he was still getting to know them.

"Hey, Harry," Colin looked at him as he finished grabbing a chicken drumstick. "How come you always finish homework so much faster than we do? It's like you don't have as much as we do or something?"

Harry smiled. "Colin, I think you're overlooking the advantages of having seen all of this before. I wrote all the essays last year, and while I can't remember exactly what I put down, I have enough of a memory to remember the subject matter, so it's not that hard for me."

"But it's more than that, Harry," Colin insisted. "I know it's only the second week of school, but I already feel like I'm swamped, and you're never having to put in all the time we do, as if you have fewer assignments or something."

"Well, Colin, in general I do have fewer assignments than you do."

"Huh?" the camera bug questioned him.

Harry saw that he had the attention of everyone around him, trying to divine the secret of his success. "You do realise there are two types of homework, right?"

"No." There were many other heads shaking no in agreement. Even Ginny was looking at him in puzzlement.

"OK, I first noticed this last year, during a similar conversation with Hermione," Harry said. "Consider Transfiguration class yesterday. There's the basic homework, like two feet of parchment on changing dissimiliar objects. Everyone does that. The goal there is to help us understand the theory and basic principles behind the magic we're doing, that way, we'll have a clue when we try it in class. Understand?"

All the heads were nodding, and all eyes were on Harry. Food was being eaten very slowly as they listened.

"Now what I finally noticed is that there is a second kind of homework, a kind that Hermione never seemed to have, and what I don't have now but you do. What did McGonagall say in class yesterday at the very end?" He got blank stares. "Those of you who didn't turn your dried flower into a teacup ...", and he waited for them to fill in the blank.

Colin groaned, "Write a foot of parchment on similarities and differences between dried flowers and teacups."

Harry grinned. "Exactly! She's trying to help you out by making you think about the spell and its theories some more. Since I did make my spell work to her satisfaction, I don't have to do that. Therefore, I have more free time to snog my girlfriend, who also made her spell work correctly and didn't have to do the extra homework either."

"So Harry," Ginny spoke up very innocently, "you're saying that being prepared for class and doing well with your spells equates to more kisses?" She had a perfectly innocent face, though Harry would have sworn her bottom lip was sucked in just a little, as if she was biting it.

"For those who are so inclined and have the opportunity -- yes."

Ginny's roommate Violet, started giggling. Her other roommates Melinda and Mandy, soon joined in. Colin just dropped his head and shook it slowly. Harry's other new roommates: Jack, Andrew, and William, just looked at him like he was spouting nonsense. Finally, Ginny could not hold it any longer and giggled too, though she also kissed him on the cheek.

"So, Colin, does that clear up your problem?" Harry watched the boy slowly raise his head. Colin's face was red and his eyes were tearing up, until finally, he let out a full fledged laugh.

"Oh yeah, Harry," Colin finally answered when he could breathe properly again. "I think that does clear it up for me, except perhaps for the 'opportunity' part."

A smirk appeared on Harry's face. "Well, you can't borrow my girlfriend, but perhaps one of her roommates would be willing to help you out." There was a moment of silence, then mass giggling came over all the girls except for Mandy, who was blushing deeply. "There you go Colin, I think you have a willing candidate to discuss the matter with." Mandy now shot daggers at him, but the rest of the girls' giggles turned into laughter, Ginny included.

Harry finished his food and then rose; he had noticed Dumbledore had left a few minutes earlier. "Later everyone. Come on Ginny, we have an appointment."

Ginny stopped laughing, but she still had a mischievous look on her face. "Thanks, Harry! That's the most fun I've had at lunch so far this year."

"Yeah, but is Mandy going to forgive me any time soon?"

She laughed. "Depends on whether Colin asks her to Hogsmeade or not."

They eventually made their way to Dumbledore's office. With a "Pepperment Twist", the gargoyle started moving. Meeting with the Headmaster weekly helped to ensure that he always had the current password.

"Ah, Harry, Ginny, to what do I owe this pleasure to? Lemon drop?"

"Thank you, Headmaster." Harry took one and sat in front of the large desk. Ginny ignored the candy dish but sat beside her boyfriend. "I'm afraid you owe the pleasure to Professor Snape."

The twinkle left the old man's eyes. "I see. What happened, Harry?"

"Here's a sample of our latest Potions classwork." Harry handed the phial over, and then told the Headmaster what happened in class that morning. "If you wish, I'll provide you with my memory to view in your Pensieve."

"Thank you for your offer, but I have my own means via this recording device." The Headmaster reached over to the side of his desk and moved a crystal ball in front of them all. There, he tapped it with his wand. Watching it, he tapped it a few more times such that the image speeded up, then another tap and it slowed down. The three of them watched the scene Harry had described; there were images like with a Pensieve and sound. When it was done, the Headmaster leaned back in his chair and thought. The students remained silent.

After a few minutes, Dumbledore sat back up and looked at the students. "I believe thirty points each are in order for both of you for holding your temper, and I shall meet you at the Potions classroom at seven tonight Harry. But don't worry, you shall not be staying long. Both of you please meet me here at my office at eight for your extra lessons, though I'm afraid it will have to be a short training session as I also have an Order meeting tonight at nine."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

"Very well, if you'll head on to get ready for your next class, I can take care of a few things," Dumbledore said as he dismissed them. As the students left, Albus went over to a cabinet where he kept various school records and started searching for one. He had heard some news that morning which he thought might help him. Finding the folder he was looking for, he sat back down and started reviewing the student's record, including his OWL and NEWT scores.

***

The Headmaster strolled down the corridor that led to the Potions classroom. As he turned the last corner, he saw two students waiting there. "Good evening, Harry. Ginny, it's a surprise to see you here."

"I'm only accompanying Harry. I'll wait here since you said he won't be long."

"Thank you, I think it best if you're not in the room; it will be difficult enough as it is. Harry, shall we?" Harry nodded and knocked on the door.

They heard Snape shout, "Enter." Walking in, the greasy-haired teacher spat out, "Potter, get in here and ..." His voice changed to one of surprise. "Headmaster ..."

"Severus, Mr. Potter has brought an incident in his class today to my attention, or actually a couple of incidents. One of those resulted in you giving him detention for something which he did not do. Could you please explain that to me?"

Snape glared at Harry. "Mr. Potter has always been disruptive in my class, so when things go very wrong, he's almost always the cause."

"I see, so even though you didn't see him do anything wrong, you still accused him of doing so and assigned him detention?" Snape did not say anything. Without taking his gaze from the Potions Master, Dumbledore said, "Harry, you may leave, your detention is cancelled."

"Thank you, sir," he said very solemnly and left, closing the door behind him.

"Severus, I'm very disappointed in you, especially after we had our talk this summer."

"Headmaster, Potter deserves to be punished. He attacked one of my students and took his wand."

"Oh? I hadn't seen a report for that filed. Why don't you tell me about it?"

"Apparently Potter and his girlfriend were walking down a corridor and did a Body Bind on one of my Slytherins, then gave his wand to Peeves. We've yet to get it back, so I've had to loan him an extra so he can protect himself."

"I see. And who would this student be?"

"It doesn't matter, Headmaster."

"But Severus, if I am to investigate, I need to know all the parties so I can ask questions." Snape did not answer. "Or would the victim be anonymous because there is no victim? Or maybe it's because the victim attacked Mr. Potter who only defended himself? Which is it, Severus?"

"There is a victim, Headmaster, but I'm unclear on all the details."

"Hmm, so you're using false charges to hand out punishment for an action you don't have all the details on. I'm amazed. How would you feel if Minerva gave undeserved detention to one of your students, say Mr. Malfoy?"

Snape's head snapped up and he glared at his superior.

"Yes, not such a comforting thought, is it?" The old man paused for a moment. "As Headmaster, I must consider the welfare of all of our students; therefore, I think we need to return to our previous discussion about whether this is the best job for you."

"But Headmaster?! If I'm not here, that would ruin my cover. The Dark Lord would probably have me killed."

"I'm still not saying you should leave, well, at least not permanently. However, I think it would do you good to take a week off, go relax, and think about what you want to do."

"A week?!"

"Yes, you're right, a week isn't very long. Take two weeks, Severus. Go visit the beach, my personal favourite, or take some nice nature hikes and go camping on the continent. Do whatever you like to do for fun, just go think about life and the balance of things. Your pay will not be docked, the holiday is on me. Come back and see me on the twenty-second, I think that's a Sunday. We'll talk about how you see things then."

"But, my classes, the students can't be in here unsupervised ..."

"Yes, you are correct. Never fear, I shall teach them. I made an Outstanding on my Potions NEWT. I also have a person in mind to help me on a temporary basis. You have your lesson plans done?"

"Of course."

"Very good then. Go pack and enjoy yourself; perhaps some time off will help you find a more balanced outlook on life. I'll see you at the Order meeting in a little more than an hour, then on the evening of the twenty-second." The Headmaster almost wondered if he would be hexed as he walked out, but he really did trust the man so he turned his back and left. He made it out of the room without a spell coming from behind him.

Dumbledore went to the Owlery to send off a message before heading to his office to meet Harry and Ginny, if they were not already there enjoying the solitude of the room in their own way. He chuckled at the thought of the young couple. Albus also wondered what they would think of the person he was trying to interview to help him with the Potions classes. It would probably only be on a temporary basis to help him out, as well as help the person while between jobs. Hopefully, he would find out tomorrow morning.

***

[Wed Sep 11]

Between an early morning interview, and teaching both a fourth year class and a seventh year NEWT Potions class, Dumbledore had quite the busy morning. His afternoon had been only slightly easier with a first year and two second year classes. Still, he was pleased as he now had some temporary help. It was time for dinner, and a surprise, at least for some people.

Harry and Ginny sat with Ron and Hermione for dinner this evening. Ham appeared to the main course for the evening meal and most people were filling their plates and enjoying it. Ginny was spooning out some new potatoes when she saw a redheaded man follow Professor Dumbledore into the Great Hall and up to the staff table. Her surprise was so great she dropped the spoon and the little round red skinned potato went rolling across the table.

"Hey, watch what you're doing," Ron told her. Ginny did not say a word, she only held out her arm and pointed. Ron looked up and his mouth fell open, fortunately, devoid of food. Harry and Hermione were only a little less astonished than when they saw who Ginny was pointing at.

As Dumbledore reached the head table, he stood in front of his chair and used his fork to rap on his goblet, The other man took a seat near the end of the table, where he had sat a few times before almost two years ago. Everyone quieted down. "May I have your attention? As I announced this morning, Professor Snape is taking some time off to deal with a personal issue, and I will be taking over his classes during his temporary absence. I am happy to announce that I have some help in my teaching role, which will help me balance that with my Headmaster duties. While I will continue to teach the fifth through the seventh years for the next couple of weeks, the first four years will be taught by our new teacher. Please give a welcome to Professor Percy Weasley. A smatter of applause greeted him, to which he inclined his head in acceptance. Only the students from the oldest two years already knew who he was.

The Gryffindor foursome looked at each other each unable to say anything for nearly a full minute. Ginny finally broke the silence between them with, "Well, at least we'll still have Dumbledore."

Hermione looked at her and slowly asked, "I wonder why he's here and not at the Ministry?" No one answered as they did not have a clue.

When his siblings cornered him later that night, Percy merely chided them to leave professor's personal lives alone, before continuing on his way to his quarters. It took a note to her mum and two days of waiting to find out that Percy had been sacked by Minister Bones after Fudge had been forced out of office.

***

[Fri Sep 20]

It was Friday afternoon and Harry was standing through another lesson on Thestrals. At least Hagrid was interesting, so Harry tried to listen to him. Harry had underestimated how boring it was going to be to retake his classes this year. It was their ease that made them boring. If it had not been for Ginny's presence, and he had to be careful not to distract her since she had not seen this material before, he thought he might go around the twist, as Ron would say. The last part of the second term should be better as he would not be repeating as many lessons.

When Hagrid was done, the class started walking back towards the castle. They had a free hour before dinner and Harry was seriously considering heading to the weight room for a quick workout. He had managed to continue doing three sessions a week since he had come back to school. A few of the other guys had been enthusiastic and done it too. He noticed that with the exception of Ron, they were all Muggle-born. Wizards just did not seem to be into physical fitness.

There was a very interesting side effect to working out, Harry had noticed, though it had taken him until just the other day before he had recognized it. It seemed that he and the other guys that were lifting weights got a few more stares from the girls, from the third year and up, than the other blokes did. When he mentioned what he thought he saw to Ginny, she confirmed it by giving him a sour look and saying, "I know, and you should hear them talk in the bathroom. Ugh." Though he did his best to hide it, Harry found that bit of jealousy in her quite amusing, and the attention was a bit of an ego boost too.

As they reached the edge of the forest near Hagrid's hut, Ginny suddenly screamed and jumped back behind Harry hiding her face against his back. He had been lost in his thoughts and was unaware of any problem. Still, his wand was in his hand before she could take a breath to scream again. Searching, he finally saw a big black snake with yellow eyes that was nearly twenty feet long. It was looking at the people and flicking its tongue to taste the air as they went by.

Chaos happened with Ginny's screaming. People started running towards the castle, even though they had no idea what was happening, what they were running from, or even if they might be running into the danger. "What's wrong?!" Hagrid asked as he came running up.

"Basilisk!" Ginny cried, while still hiding her eyes and blindly pointing.

Harry tried to comfort her. "It's all right, Ginny. It's not a Basilisk, it's just a snake. I can make it go away if you want."

"Yeah, it's me new pet, Ginny. Just go' it the other day," Hagrid told her with some pride in his voice.

"See Ginny, it's only Hagrid's pet. It's not a Basilisk," Harry tried to calm her. Of course, Harry also would not put it past Hagrid to try to raise a Basilisk if the gentle giant could get around the fatal stare of the snake.

"Y-y-you s-sure?"

Harry was trying to be as soothing as he could. "Yes, I'm sure and so is Hagrid. You know Hagrid would never hurt you, and I've already looked at it and I'm fine. We can leave and go up to the castle. Would you like to do that?" he asked in a gentle voice.

She nodded vigorously. Still hiding her face in her hands, she allowed Harry to lead her back up. He took her to the common room and pulled her to him on the couch where he held her close. Rubbing her back, he asked, "Are you better now?"

A sniffle escaped her, but she finally started talking again. "I'm sorry, Harry. When I saw the snake, it was like I was suddenly back in Tom's control, and back in the Chamber of Secrets. I don't know what came over me."

"I understand Ginny." He had had enough nightmares himself, and he knew the Chamber of Secrets had been horrible to her.

"I can't do that again Harry, I've got to get over that."

"You will, you just need a little more time."

Passion jumped back into her voice. "Harry! It's been over three years." She sighed. "I need to do something."

Trying to be as comforting as he could, Harry told her, "Look, it's just a fear. Face the fear and understand it, and it can then go away."

Her voice was just shy of a shout, "Face a basilisk? Are you crazy? You almost died doing that."

"That does seem a bit extreme when you put it that way, but there is a much safer way. You could face a dead basilisk if you want; I could help you," Harry replied.

Ginny gasped as she understood. "I don't know, Harry. Yeah, there's a dead one down in the Chamber, but I'd also have to go back down into the Chamber too. I'd have to face Tom again."

"Maybe you need to do that, Ginny. You told me you want to be beside me, even when I have to face Him. Can you do that without freezing up? Because if you can't, I can't take you." He paused before he quietly tacked on, "Not that I want to expose you to that danger."

A small voice told him, "I hadn't thought of it that way. I thought I was past him, that I had conquered Him, but the thought of the Chamber scares me Harry."

"I understand, Ginny. It's not my favorite place either. But you know, you don't have to decide now, you have some time."

"OK," she quietly agreed.

"Let's go to dinner, Ginny." He helped her up and gave her a hug, which she greedily accepted.

As he started to pull away to walk, she squeezed him tighter, making him look down at her. "Tomorrow, Harry, take me tomorrow. I have to do this soon or I never will." He hugged her again to give her a little more comfort.

***

[Sat Sep 21]

After a full breakfast for Harry and a meager one for Ginny, Harry grabbed his broom and they walked to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. They had told Ron and Hermione they wanted some alone time and were going to go fly for a bit.

Though he did not say it, he was quite grateful Myrtle was absent. He supposed she was interesting in her own way, but she was not his favourite ghost. If her weepy nature had not put him off before, her showing up in the prefect's bathroom last week while he was in the tub had most certainly done so.

Finding the faucet with the snake, he hissed, "Open" and it all moved around so the opening in the floor was now visible. They could have slid down, but Harry thought the pipe was disgusting, so he got on his broom and let Ginny climb on behind him, then they slowly descended. The slime and the bones at the bottom were still in abundance. Ginny lit her wand so they could see better.

They went through the passage, over the rocks and through the hole. Finally they came to the last door, which also took a command in Parseltongue to open. Just before it opened, Harry put a Bubble Head Charm on both of them. He truly doubted three years was enough for the smell of a rotting sixty foot snake with no fresh air to go away. Other than the spell and Harry's commands for the passage doorways to open, neither had spoken a word.

Stepping through the last doorway, Harry lit his wand to look around. He finally saw some torches on the walls, and lit them with a spell. Even with all the torches, it was still a dreary place. Most of the flesh from the Basilisk was gone, but there was still a little on the skeleton of the large reptile. He held out his hand and helped her through. Her movements were very slow and stiff, until she saw the giant skeleton, then she froze.

In some ways, this was not so bad, she thought. It did not look that much like a snake; and yet, she knew what it had been, that it had been near her, and that because of her, a number of people had almost died. She took several minutes to just stare at the thing, but she finally realised it was dead, and she was going to be all right.

Turning to Harry, she gave him a very small smile and grabbed onto his arm, as if he were to escort her to a dance, and she walked up to the snake skeleton and slowly walked around it. Harry did a few Scourgify spells as they walked around to get rid of the last of the rotting and partially mummified snake flesh. When he was done, there were only the bones left.

Turning around, she now stared at the statue of an ugly figure, Salazar Slytherin. He probably really did not look like that. In fact, now that she thought about it, she was sure as she had seen his portrait in Dumbledore's office. So she knew it was a grotesque representation. Looking down, she saw blood stains on the floor, a little bit of Harry's and mostly the basilisk's. And finally the ink stains from the damn diary, the bane of her first year here. With a last look around, she realised she was just in a cave.

She looked at her boyfriend and said in a slightly muffled voice, "Thanks, Harry. It's possible I may not be totally over it all, but I do feel a lot better. This will never be my favourite place, so don't ever think of bringing here for a picnic," Harry gave a small chuckle, "but I can deal with being here -- it's just a cave."

"That's my Ginny", he told her, also muffled by the Bubble Head Charm.

"Harry? What's that over there? I don't remember it."

He looked to where she was pointing. It was a hole in the wall. "That was the basilisk's lair as I recall. Come on, let's take a quick peek." That did not thrill her, but she did not protest and went with him. Lighting his wand again, he poked his head through the opening. There was actually a fairly good sized room in through there. Looking around, he saw another opening in the back. "I'm going in. Do you want to stay here or come in too?"

"I'll go with you," she said with no hesitation. Holding his hand, she bent over slightly and followed him in.

This place was filthy, with more slime and many more rat bones. It was impossible to walk without making a crunching sound. Harry slowly walked towards the other doorway, his lit wand in front of him like a sword. Part of him wished he had Gryffindor's sword with him now. At the second doorway, he looked in to find another much smaller room, maybe ten by ten at the most. He did not expect to see what he found: a desk and a chair.

More rat bones were in here, but Harry walked in anyway. Ginny followed, still holding his hand. Except for dust, there was nothing on the desk. He noticed there were three drawers on the left side, and for no reason he could explain, he decided to look in them. The top and middle smaller drawers held nothing, but the bottom drawer was not empty. If Harry did not know better, he would have said that it held the hilt half of Gryffindor's sword. The handle was the same jeweled handle, and the blade was about the same length as the handle.

"That looks just like the sword," Ginny said excitedly and she reached to grab it. As her hand neared the opening of the drawer, all the alarms in Harry's head went off and his hand snapped out and grabbed her wrist. "STOP!" he shouted. She looked at him in surprise. "Don't you see? It's a missing relic of Godric Gryffindor; it's the last Horcrux."

Her eyes went wide as she thought about what she had almost done. "Are you sure?"

"No, and I can't remember the spell Dumbledore used to test it, but let's pretend that it is. So we can't touch it, yet we need to take it to him."

"How did he move the ones that he showed you?" she asked.

"Oh yeah, he either levitated it or carried it in a towel. Too bad I don't have a bag or something."

"Can you remove the drawer and take it up in that?"

"Good idea, but let me look at all this first." Harry remembered his ability to see the glamour on Dumbledore's hand, and tried to think about that while he looked at the drawer. No matter how he looked, he could not see any other magic. But did that mean there really were not any traps here? The Headmaster had mentioned having to battle everything from Inferi to a dragon to get the other Horcruxes. Suddenly it hit him, this one had a guard too, but he had killed it three years ago. He smiled at that.

"OK, I think it's about as safe as it can be. Here, hold my wand." He handed her his wand and tried to remove the drawer from the desk, it would only slide in and out, but would not come all the way out. He gave up after a few minutes. "We just need something to carry it in." He could think of nothing except his dirty hands right now, so he wiped them on his jeans. That gave him a thought.

"I have my T-shirt," he told her. "I could take that off and put in there.

She smiled. "I like that idea, but what will people think when we come out of the bathroom and see you without a shirt?"

"Good point, too bad I'm not wearing my robes," he groused half-heartedly.

"But I am wearing a shirt under my jumper," she told him. "Here, hold the wands." She took off her jumper and handed that to him too, then she started taking off her white shirt, but stopped when she suddenly realised how closely Harry was watching her. She turned around before removing it the rest of the way. She handed the shirt over her shoulder to him and held out her hand for her jumper.

Harry plainly saw her bra strap across her shoulder. "I think you should turn around and get this Ginny," he suggested, his voice a little wobbly, not putting her jumper into her hand.

"Harry!" she cried and he could see her neck and the top part of her shoulders turn slightly pink.

"It's only a little lace, Ginny."

"Harry, it's not the lace, it's what's under the lace."

"Oh, you mean I might really get to see something?" he teased, sounding the tiniest bit hopeful.

"No, it's all covered up." She stopped for a moment to look down at herself. Just as Harry was about to hand the jumper over, she huffed, "Fine." Turning around, she grabbed her jumper out of his hands. Harry was not disappointed at the sight and smiled broadly. "Happy?" she asked and sounded a bit put out as she found the sleeves in her jumper.

"Very! At least until I get to see more. You are so beautiful Ginny. Your face, your hair ... your skin looks so soft, and well, everything else looks just right on you."

She paused with her jumper still in her hands. "Really?" Harry thought she sounded surprised. "I'm not too small up top? I know I'm not built anywhere close to what Lavender is."

"Ginny, don't you ever worry about that. I think you're just right, up top and down bottom. I wouldn't change a thing about the way you look."

"Really?" she asked again. He nodded very seriously.

Ginny smiled in gratitude. "Thanks Harry, you don't know how much that means to me."

"Then I guess it must be even better because it's the truth."

"Yes it is, and I'd kiss you for it, but these charms prevent that. In fact, we need to get busy as they will wear off eventually." She quickly pulled the jumper on over her head.

"Right," he agreed. Setting her shirt on top of the desk, Harry levitated the knife on top of it, and he finally grabbed the two sleeves and tied them around the knife. He carefully carried the bundle by the ends, while Ginny brought their wands. When they got back out into the main chamber, Harry had an idea. "Ginny, cut off one of the smaller bones from the tail of the snake. I want a stick about three feet long."

With a cutting charm, she did that, and handed the bone to Harry, who laid it on top of the rolled up bundle. Then with his wand, he shot out a few ropes at it and tied the two together. He grabbed the bone like a stick and carried it all much more easily. "Let's go," he told her.

They traversed their trail backward, out the little door, which Harry closed, over the rocks, and finally, they carefully flew back up the slide with Ginny holding the bone stick. Once in the bathroom, Harry closed the entrance, and because they heard a noise in the plumbing, they quickly went out into the hallway to avoid Myrtle. Even with care they had become filthy, so they cleaned themselves off with several Scourgifies and headed to Dumbledore's office.

"Almond Joy" Harry spoke, and the gargoyle came to life. At the top, they knocked on the door but no one answered. It was the first time Harry had ever been here and the Headmaster had not greeted him. Of course, should he have been surprised? The Headmaster had many things to do. They looked at each over trying to decide what to do. Feeling overly bold, Harry turned the knob, and the door opened. The only living soul in the office besides them was Fawkes, who just looked at them and blinked.

Walking in, Harry was not sure what to do, but he considered that maybe Fawkes could help, he had in the past. He stroked the bird's head for a moment. "Fawkes, can you get Professor Dumbledore? We really need to see him." The bird seemed to turn and flick his head, though the bird did not trill a sound. Harry was not sure what to make of that. He set the bundle and bone stick down on the big desk.

"I wish I could wash up," Ginny said after a moment.

"He has a small bathroom over there," Harry pointed. She went in. Harry noticed all the little portraits were awake and looking at him. Most wore a disapproving look, he guessed they thought he and Ginny should not be there. "Can anyone tell me where Professor Dumbledore is or when he'll be back?" No one answered him. When Ginny came back out, Harry went in and washed his hands and face too. It was not as good as a shower, but it would do for now. Harry sighed. "I wished I could send him a message."

"Harry! Duh, we can. I should have thought of it earlier." Taking her wand out, she cast "Communio Patronum". "Now we wait."

He sat down and she came over and sat on his lap. "I do like this," he admitted while he put his arms around her waist, "but why now?"

"Because I've been dying to do this since you told me I was beautiful." She leaned into him and kissed him soundly. Hearing a slight cough, she looked up and saw Professor Dumbledore in the doorway. His eyes were twinkling madly.

"Well, I've caught a number of students in broom closets over the years, but I must say this is the first time I've caught a couple in my office," he said with a chuckle as he came into the room. "Now that you have my attention, please tell me what's so important," he asked as he settled into his desk chair. "Oh, what's this?" He started to reach for the bundle.

"Stop!" Harry shouted. To his credit, the old man immediately froze, except for his eyes which looked up at Harry. "You should treat the object inside the shirt as if it is a Horcrux, Professor."

The Headmaster's hands went back to his side and a serious look came over his face. "Please tell me about it, Harry. I have trouble imagining how you overcame what was guarding it based on what I had to face."

"We went back down into the Chamber of Secrets this morning Professor. Ginny wanted to face her fear of basilisks, and I thought maybe seeing the dead one would be good enough."

"I also wanted to face my fear of the Chamber and Tom," she admitted in a small voice.

Dumbledore nodded. "I understand, go on."

"I saw a small room I hadn't been in before and we investigated. In there was a desk, and this was in the drawer. Remembering your warning and care, we levitated to a shirt, then tied it to a small basilisk bone to make it safer, and brought to you."

The Headmaster nodded approvingly. "Good work. Very commendable really, but also very dangerous for you to have come this close to it, if it is one. All the Horcruxes I found were guarded by difficult to overcome magic."

"Professor, if you think about it, only someone who could speak Parseltongue could get to this. Not to mention it being guarded by a sixty foot basilisk." Harry was a little proud to point that out, and that he had overcome both obstacles when he was twelve.

"Good point, Harry. I must say though, that I'm surprised you would find a Horcurx in the Chamber, since I don't believe Tom would hide two of them in the same place," the Headmaster reasoned.

"If you think about it sir, he didn't hide two of them there." Dumbledore looked thoughtful, but waited for Harry to continue. "The essence of Tom in the diary used the Chamber since it found itself here at the school, but I don't think it was meant to have done that."

"Hmm, that is an interesting theory, Harry. I see what you mean, the diary really didn't have a place to hide, other than wherever it found itself. That sort of made it a floating location. Yes, very well reasoned... Well, let's see what we have here." Dumbledore Vanished the rope and carefully untied the simple knot in the shirt and opened it up. Very little surprised Dumbledore at this point in his life, yet a gasp escaped him as he viewed the object in front of him. He looked up to the students.

Pulling back, he went to the glass case behind him and pulled out the sword and brought it over. The hilts matched perfectly. "Well Harry, if nothing else, you appear to have recovered a second Gryffindor relic. I believe I can say that, unfortunately, I was in error again. Apparently, the handle under Godric's hand in the picture on the wall is not his sword, but this knife." He put the sword back and pulled out his wand. Casting the animal detection charm, they all saw the knife briefly glow red.

A large smile came upon Dumbledore's face. "Excellent work, Harry and Ginny. You have not only found the last Horcrux, you've saved us a lot of time and danger by not having to find Nagini and test her. Hmm, I should give you a large number of points for this, but it's not actually school work. I shall have to find another reward for you." He thought for a moment. "It's not much, but how about a dinner alone for just the two of you one evening. I think I could persuade Sirius to give up Dobby for a night to take care of the food."

The teens looked at one another with smiles. Harry turned back to the Headmaster. "In the Room of Requirement and from dinner time to curfew?"

"Would the Saturday evening after your first Quidditch game work?"

"Deal!" Ginny agreed brightly.

***

[Sun Sep 22]

Harry got up early on Sunday morning, as had been his habit for the last couple of weeks. Sunday mornings, Monday evenings, and Wednesday evenings were the times he and Ginny got together with Sirius to continue with their Defense training. Most of the morning would be for training, while the two weekday evenings were only an hour, or at most two hours long. Between that and a couple of weight sessions on other early mornings, Harry was glad he was ahead in all of his classes and was doing well on his homework. He did not have nearly as much free time as he would have liked. The occasional prefect patrols did not help.

As he was about to go downstairs, he heard Ron's voice from the landing above him and knew his friend was up too, which was a bit unusual. Still, he did not worry about it; Ron knew he got up early to work out from time to time.

Downstairs, Harry took a seat on the couch and waited for Ginny. He was usually ready before she was. Of course, if he had had everything his way, they would both be still lying in bed somewhere with her snuggled up next to him. That got him to thinking about their relationship. They had been getting along quite well, and since that day they had had to stay home from Diagon Alley, they gone a little further than snogging. Harry sort of wanted to go a little further still, but he would never push Ginny to do so. But how much further did he really want to go, at least before marriage?

That thought really hit him hard, as he had never given it any serious consideration. Just how serious was he about Ginny? Did he want to make it permanent? He was only sixteen now, and she was fifteen; they had plenty of time before marriage was even possible. Since Sirius had given him "The Talk", he knew contraceptives were really up to the witch through a potion, but there was no way he was going to mention that to Ginny. A forced wedding did not appeal to him either, so that created one boundary in their physical relationship. There were other obvious stopping places before that point; perhaps he needed to think about what the boundaries should be. He knew that if they were not careful, it would be far too easy to be caught up in the passion of the moment and do something they would regret.

But this was not the time for contemplation on that topic as he saw Ginny and Hermione coming down the stairs. To his surprise, as they reached the common room, he also saw Ron and Neville starting to come down the stairs too.

"Hey Harry?" Hermione called to him while Ginny gave him a quick good morning kiss on the cheek and sat down close beside him. "I was wondering what your training sessions were like. Would you mind if we came too?"

He looked at Ginny who just shrugged. "Ah, who's we?" He supposed he did not mind sharing it too much, but it was not something he wanted everyone to know about either.

"Ron and I," she answered. Then she saw Neville walk up too and understood why Harry had asked.

"Hi Harry," Neville greeted him. Harry had not seen too much of Neville this year. Only a little here and there around the common room and at meal times.

"Hey Neville. What's up?"

"Oh, gotta go get an early breakfast. I'm supposed to help Professor Sprout with some new Fairie Ferns she got in yesterday. Sort of extra credit work, as well as allowing me to get some extra experience."

Ron snorted, "Right, like you need extra credit in Herbology. I swear Neville, when you graduate you'll be able to take her place."

Though Neville had partially overcome his shyness in the past couple of years, he still looked bashfully down on his shoes at Ron's comment. "Uh, thanks, Ron. I wish I could come see you train, Harry, I'm sure you're really good now, considering how good you were last year."

"Thanks Neville."

"Say Harry, are you going to restart the DA this year?" Neville wondered.

"Uh, no, I really don't have any plans to. We have a good Defense teacher this year, so I didn't see any need to," Harry explained. "Why do you ask?"

Neville looked a bit embarrassed as he said, "Just wondering, because, well, I liked it. The DA, and you, really helped me. I don't think I would have made an Outstanding on my Defense OWL if it weren't for you."

"I'm glad for you Neville, it was fun and useful. If you still want to do it, perhaps you should ask Professor Black about making a club for it." Neville did not say anything, though he seemed to be thinking about it. "Anyway, we gotta go."

"Me too," the future Herbologist told him. They all walked out together, though soon they split up.

"Hey! Aren't we going to get breakfast first?" Ron asked, while pointing the direction Neville had gone.

Harry smiled at him. "No Ron, Ginny and I will wait until lunch to eat. I've already had some water and that will hold me until then. I've found that having a lot of food on my stomach for these sessions isn't a good idea."

"But ..." Ron started to object.

"Hey, if you want to go eat, that's OK with me. Hermione said you two wanted to watch and that's fine. Once we really start, I probably won't even remember whether you're there or not." Ron was looking a little put out at that, so Harry added, "And it's not that I'm trying to be rude, it's just that these sessions are for us. If you want to come learn things by watching, that's fine, but unlike the DA meetings, these are only for Ginny and I to learn things."

Hermione tried to placate her friend. "We understand Harry, we're just observers." She was also curious what he was doing and if she could learn anything. Deep down, she also felt a little left out and wanted to join in, but was not sure he wanted her to, which hurt a little.

Walking into the classroom, they found Sirius already there. He looked surprised at the two visitors. "Hermione, Ron, I didn't know you were coming."

"Harry said we could come watch, though I suppose that's also up to you," she acknowledged.

He thought about it for a second. "I'm fine with that. You can sit over there, but you're on your own as far as protecting yourself from stray spells. Oh, and a wizard's oath that you don't discuss this with anyone outside of the four of us or Dumbledore." Both of them pulled out their wands and so swore.

They took a seat and saw their two friends stretching. Neither Harry nor Ginny was wearing their robes any longer, but rather tight fitting jeans and long sleeve T-shirts. Harry had a wand holder on his left forearm, while Ginny had one on her right thigh. Near the end of their preparations, a quick charm caused Ginny's hair to braid itself into a single, thick, long braid. Hermione found it interesting how her two friends, which were so alike, still had their own style about certain things.

"All right you two," Sirius said to his two trainees, "a duel between you to warm up, then we'll try something harder." Harry and Ginny stood back about twenty feet from each other. They got into their ready stance, but neither had their wand in their hand.

Hermione heard Ron's stomach growl, and he grumbled about missing breakfast. She shot him a quick irritated look for interrupting what was sure to be interesting, but conjured him a glass of water to hold him. "Go!" Sirius shouted.

Each of them moved while drawing their wand, Hermione noted. Ginny's first spell was a shield, and a good choice as Harry had already fired a Tripping jinx and a Stunning hex, both of which bounced harmless off her shield. She had fired back with a Stunner too, but it only went through the spot Harry had been in. He had rolled to his right and fired a Bludgeoning hex, followed by a spell Hermione had not ever seen. The first hex took her shield down, and the second spell transfigured her clothes into a bikini.

Ginny looked down and saw her lack of clothes and huffed, "All right Potter, you asked for it." She shot her patented hex at him in retaliation. Again he was too fast and it went through thin air, and came very close to her and Ron, Hermione noticed. As Harry continued to move around, he shot off a series of Tickling charms. One of them hit Ginny and started her chuckling, although she seemed to be trying to ignore it. Still, it was enough that Harry was able to conjure a barrel behind her and summon it to him. That knocked her legs out from under her, and he sent an unknown pink spell at her, which hit her as she hit the floor. Finally, he hit her with an Expelliarmus, which sent her wand flying to him effectively ending the match.

"Good job Harry," Sirius congratulated him. "I think the cutting spell would have done the job," he said as he pointed to the pink line of paint across her stomach, their substitute for the dangerous cutting spell.

"What are you doing to my sister?" Ron roared.

"Silencio!" Harry flung at his best friend, breathing heavily from the exercise. "Shut it Ron, we're in training and all's fair in war. If you don't like it, leave." Harry's seriousness and anger were very evident. He was bothered by his friend's stupidity at missing the obvious point, and he was also still partially caught up in the emotion of the mock battle. "You know what I'm training to do, so don't distract me."

Ron still was not happy, but he stopped trying to make a scene. Harry transfigured her clothes back. "That was pretty good, Harry," she told him with admiration in her voice. "I haven't seen you use that one before. I liked the barrel too, but why didn't you just summon my feet or my shoes to knock me down?"

He laughed as he started to calm down emotionally, "Because I didn't think of it. I would have preferred to yank a rug out from under you, but you weren't standing on a rug."

"OK you two," Sirius stopped them. "Now for your hard challenge, Harry, before we start working on individual spells."

"I still say we two should fight you," Harry grumbled.

Sirius' bark of laughter came out of him. "You know we stopped doing that a few weeks after we started, and that it would be useless now, Harry. I'd be lucky to last ten seconds against the two of you together. But you know, since you brought a couple of friends, maybe we can pull them in and try three on two. That's still probably not fair, but I guess it will have to do." He turned to the two observers. "Well, you two want to help out since you're here?"

Ron nodded, obviously eager to get back at Harry, but Hermione hesitated. That whole match had taken maybe twenty seconds at the most, and Harry had done some spells they had not even covered in class yet. And the speed at which he cast his spells was incredible, at least compared to her. To make matters worse, Ginny was not that far behind him, and she almost made up for the gap in sheer determination. Still, they would have Sirius helping them, though she did not know what to think of his comment that it still would not be a fair match. "I suppose," she finally said.

"Excellent," the professor told them. "You start thinking of some good things to do while we push Harry a bit. Ready, champ? Or is it going to be chump today?" Sirius laughed at his own joke.

"One day Sirius, I'm going to do this and then you'll stop laughing," Harry told him seriously. He relaxed and shook his arms to loosen up. "OK, Hermione, say the word."

"Go!" she shouted suddenly. Now Harry was jumping to the side and shooting a Stunner at Sirius. Ginny was going on the offense and sent a Body Bind at him; it missed. They kept flinging spells at each other, and because Harry had to keep moving, Hermione actually had to throw up a shield at one point to protect herself. Just as she thought Harry was about to get the upper hand after two minutes of hard work, when he animated a chair to go after Ginny, his girlfriend hit him with a spell that stuck his feet to the floor. That loss of mobility was all it took for Sirius to finally hit him with a Stunning spell and Harry fell backwards, though Ginny was fast enough to hit him with a Levitation charm so he did not fall at a wrong angle and break a leg or some other limb, since his feet were still stuck to the floor.

Sirius unstuck him and let Ginny lower him down before he revived the boy. "Good job Ginny, I really like that feet-gluing charm."

She smiled. "I purposely had to go find that as he's so good with moving around that it's hard to hit him.

Hermione was getting less sure about participating after hearing that. She wondered what else they knew she had not heard of; but maybe it worked the other way too. She had done a lot of extra reading and had come across some spells that were not covered in class.

Harry needed a few minutes to recover and drank some more water. While he did that, he and Ginny put their heads together to discuss strategy. Hermione had already taken the silencing spell off of Ron and they talked with Sirius quietly about what to do. Sirius did not have many words of wisdom and confessed he did not know how to win against them.

Ginny and Harry had a small argument over who was going after Ron, but Harry finally won it. Still, to confuse matters, he stood in front of Sirius and looked at him as they got ready for the three on two duel. Ginny stared at her brother, who started getting very nervous with the way she was looking at him. "Any time, Sirius," Harry told him with a predatory grin on his face.

"Go!" the teacher said and conjured a shield, but it did not go quite all the way to the floor, nor did it protect him from Ginny who was not in front of him. She summoned his shoes and he dropped hard onto his back. Then with a Mobilicorpus, she lifted the professor and moved him to the left, right toward her two friends.

Meanwhile, as Ron started towards Harry, the black-haired boy did a Banishing charm on Ron and sent him backwards and slightly sideways. When he made contact with Hermione, Harry cast a Sticking charm on them so they were stuck together, stopping Hermione's Stunner halfway through her cast. The couple were knocked off balance and started to fall. Sirius moved across the floor at knee height and ran into them such that they all landed in a heap. Harry shouted, "Accio Wands!" and caught the two of the three wands that came to him; Ginny reached over and caught the third. The couple laughed at the other three.

After a moment, Ginny had pity, at least on Hermione, and cast a "Finite Incantatem" to end the sticking charm. "Well, that was fun, wasn't it Ron?" she taunted him. He was rubbing his right elbow where it had hit the floor, but he did not say anything.

"That was pretty incredible," Hermione admitted. "I wasn't sure I wanted to do that after watching you two fight against each other, but to see you work together is just amazing. How did you get to be so good? Not that you weren't good last year in the DA, but you're doing spells that we won't cover until later this year, and maybe not even until seventh year, based on what I saw in our studies this summer."

"We worked for at least four hours a day on Defense alone, plus we also had Charms and Transfiguration all summer, Hermione," Ginny told her. "And since school has started, we spend at least another six hours a week on it outside of class. Since we've had so much individual tutoring, we were bound to become better at dueling."

The brunette just gaped at them, and even Ron was starting to lose some of his anger now that he realised there was a good reason that they had to become such excellent fighters.

Sirius decided to add one more thing. "Plus, you guys need to understand that Defense work, fighting, is a talent these two have. I can't say I know what all of your strengths are Hermione and Ron, but these two are a natural at this. With the training I've been giving them, they were bound to excel at it, so please don't think badly of them. They weren't showing off, well, at least not too much. I've drilled it into them not to hold back. The quicker they can end a fight, the less chance there is for an enemy to get lucky and hurt you. That was a lesson I learned back in June, one that almost killed me because I was toying with the person I was fighting. I push them hard for a reason. They always have a target on them, and they really aren't allowed to fail."

"What do you mean they aren't allowed to fail?" Ron was perplexed at that.

"You know what Harry has to do right?" Sirius asked the boy; Ron nodded. "If he gets himself killed before taking out Voldemort, then we'll all be much worse off, or dead. Harry can't fail if we're all to enjoy life the way it was meant to be enjoyed. Likewise, Ginny can't ever fail either. If she does and is captured, she'll be used against Harry, and we can't let that happen. It's ugly, but this is war." He hoped they did not ask about what would happen if one of them were captured; they probably would not like the answer.

Fortunately, the conversation was brought to an abrupt end by a knock on the door, and the Headmaster entered the room. "Ah, a bigger crowd than normal today," he observed with a smile and a twinkle. "I'm very sorry to interrupt, but I need Sirius and Harry to accompany me on a short journey."

"I can't go too?" Ginny asked.

The old man smiled at her. "No, I'm sorry Ginny, but I need to keep the party small. I'm sure Harry will tell you about it when we return. Gentlemen? If you'll touch this." He held out an ostrich feather quill. The other two reached out and Dumbledore activated the Portkey and they were gone.

Ginny sighed, "Well, I bet they won't be back soon, so we might as well go visit the kitchens for a snack."

Ron started to brighten at the thought of food, but he still had something on his mind. "Ginny, about what Harry did to you."

She looked at her brother with a disgusted face. "Ron, get over it. It was a joke, and actually highly effective. It distracted me, which is what he meant to do. When we're fighting, whether play fighting like that or for real, Harry's right, everything goes. I know Harry wouldn't do more, though I'm quite sure he's capable of vanishing all of someone's clothes. And I point that out to you, because in fact, that's what he wanted to do to you for interrupting. I talked him out of it because Hermione was here. If she hadn't, I think I would have let him do it to teach you a lesson."

Her brother looked shocked, "But, but, ..."

"OK, maybe we're being a little hard on you, but you've been all right with us dating so far, so don't mess it up. Both Harry and I can take you out in our sleep, and don't start in on the fact that I have six brothers. I'd bet on Harry and I winning against all six of you any day."

Ron was looking at her trying to figure out if she was serious or bluffing. Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "Yes Ron, she's being serious, and I think they could too. Not only are they using spells we won't see here at Hogwarts, they're using simple spells in ways we haven't even imagined. Bill and Charlie might be good, but they haven't been trained like these two." She looked at her friend. "Ginny, has Harry dueled Dumbledore yet?"

"Once," Ginny told them as they approached the kitchens, "and Harry almost got lucky." Ron gulped and dropped the argument.

---

When Harry came out of the jerk and the flying from the Portkey, he saw that he was in an old house that had seen much better days, and not much cleaning lately. "Where are we?"

Dumbledore smiled at him. "This is a place I come to about every twenty years or so, when I want to do something I don't want anyone else to find out about. It's quite well hidden. Let's go to the basement." Going below, Harry felt something he had not felt in a while, and was not sure he wanted to feel it now either: a very particular coldness.

The room they descended into had a doorway with bars in it. Looking through the bars, Harry saw a mostly empty room. It had a small table in it, and a Dementor who was standing and not doing anything. "Is that real?"

"Oh yes, Harry. It is contained by a few special spells that the Ministry uses on Azkaban. Between the bars and the spells, we are quite safe here, or at least we are as long as we don't go too near the bars. Now, it's time for our experiment." Reaching into his robes, Dumbledore pulled out a small wooden box. With his wand, he levitated a ring from the box and sent it through the bars and set it on the table. The reaction from the Dementor was immediate, it started gliding to the table. The soul in the ring was calling to the Dark creature.

The creature reached down to the table, and when its robed hands, or where they assumed its hands or claws were, rose up, the ring was no longer there. It lifted its "hands" to its face and the three men held their collective breath. A few seconds later there was a loud noise like an explosion and shreds of the Dementors robes fluttered to the floor. The creature was not to be seen. The three just looked at each other for several very long seconds.

"Well that was interesting," Sirius said.

"Very," Albus added.

"But did it work?" Harry asked.

With several levitation spells, they finally found the ring under a shred of cloth. Dumbledore did the testing spell on it and the ring did not glow. Smiles appeared on all their faces. Dumbledore summoned the ring and caught it in his bare hand. Then before anyone could stop him, he shoved it on the middle finger of his left hand. Nothing happened. Turning to his pupil, he praised him with, "Excellent idea Harry, most excellent. It is a difficult way to rid ourselves of Dementors, but they shouldn't really exist anyway. I shall return to where I got this one and get some more. By the end of the day, Tom Riddle should be mortal again."

Harry shouted, "Yes!" and pumped his fist into the air. The two older men laughed at the young man's exuberance.

***

Dumbledore barely made it back in time for dinner, but when he sat down to eat, he had managed to get six Horcruxes together with six Dementors and they had all cancelled each other out. He was very pleased to have finished that task. When he was nearly halfway through the evening meal, an owl flew to him and stuck his leg out. The short message informed him he had a visitor. Nevertheless, he finished his dinner and pudding before he left; he felt he had earned it.

With a full stomach, the Headmaster made his way back to his office for what he hoped was a short meeting. This was a meeting that he was not sure how he wanted it to end. If he was truthful with himself, he had conflicting emotions. He decided that it would be best to just to wait and see how things would turn out.

Walking into his office, he saw his Potions Master with a glass of Firewhisky in his hand. Albus was not sure if that was a good sign or not. "Severus, it's good to see you again. Did you have a relaxing time?"

"Yes, Headmaster. I got lots of reading done, as well as brewed several of the more difficult potions I didn't get to this last summer."

"That's an interesting way to spend time off, but we all have our own ways. So, did you come to any conclusions about what you'd like to do in the near future?"

"Yes, Headmaster. I'd like to continue teaching."

Snape was sounding very formal, Dumbledore thought. "I see, I'm not against that, but I would like to know how you plan to deal with the issues that gave you difficulty, as I don't want to see you have those kinds of problems again." While Dumbledore was being vague and wording it as if he wanted only a trouble-free life for Snape, which he did, they both knew what he was really talking about.

"My plans are to ignore a number of things that I didn't used to, at least as long as there are no major problems. 'Live and let live' is an appropriate policy in some instances, such as with dragons and other less than desirable creatures." Severus still hated Potter, but he did recognize him as a force to be reckoned with, especially when he had Albus looking out for him.

"I believe that will work, Severus. However, I think I shall make one other small change to help you out." The former Death Eater raised an eyebrow. "I believe part of the problem is that you had extra stress from too much to do. Therefore, I plan to let Percy Weasley continue to work here and teach Potions for the first and second years only. I know you never liked the lower levels."

"I see." Snape was both happy and upset. He had always hated dealing with the introductory material, yet he also did not want to give up control. Of course, what choice did he have at the moment? "As you wish Headmaster, though I would request he use a different classroom."

"Certainly Severus, I think that would be best for everyone. I'll tell Percy that. I'm also thinking of having him teach the first two or three years of Arithmancy too. That should keep him busy, and Professor Vector has been wanting fewer hours as she nears retirement."

"I'm sure that will keep Weasley busy and out of my hair."

"Very good then, we are agreed. And Severus? Our other goal is in sight. Soon, you'll be free."

Reviews 96
ChapterPrinter
StoryPrinter




../back
‘! Go To Top ‘!

Sink Into Your Eyes is hosted by Grey Media Internet Services. HARRY POTTER, characters, names and related characters are trademarks of Warner Bros. TM & © 2001-2006. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions on this site are those made by the owners. All stories(fanfiction) are owned by the author and are subject to copyright law under transformative use. Authors on this site take no compensation for their works. This site © 2003-2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Special thanks to: Aredhel, Kaz, Michelle, and Jeco for all the hard work on SIYE 1.0 and to Marta for the wonderful artwork.
Featured Artwork © 2003-2006 by Yethro.
Design and code © 2006 by SteveD3(AdminQ)
Additional coding © 2008 by melkior and Bear