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SIYE Time:9:53 on 28th March 2024
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HB Prince: Year of Love
By DHobbit

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Category: Post-OotP
Characters:All, All
Genres: Angst, Drama, Fluff, Humor
Warnings: None
Rating: PG
Reviews: 309
Summary: *** The author has been reminded via the e-mail address on file that this story is listed as incomplete and has not been updated in over 2 years ***

This story starts at the end of Order Of The Phoenix. Although this story starts as the usual Harry/Ginny romance, I believe after several chapters, you will find that Ancient Dark Magic takes on a whole new meaning to our Harry and Ginny. Will Harry discover the key to the Half-Blood Prince?* * * *American Edition *** * * *
Hitcount: Story Total: 195786; Chapter Total: 3803





Author's Notes:
SUMMARY: Days leading to the end of summer. - - - Harry has a 'normal' nightmare. - - -Neville gets an idea.




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Chapter Nine - End Of Summer

All through the month, Winky and Dobby had been
remodeling the house one room at a time.

The Entrance Hall now lead to five rooms, six if you counted
the staircase. The Living Room, Defense Room, Dining
Room (OOTP Headquarters) were on the left as you came
in from the front door. On the right, was the staircase
leading up. Below the staircase near the rear was the new
loo that was directly across from the Dining Room. At the
far back of the hall was a window and to it’s right was the
stairs leading down to the kitchen. The door had been
removed and the stairs widened.

The new Dining Room (OOTP room) was completed. The
room was actually beautiful now. If a stranger were to enter
this room, they would never know that it was used for
anything other than a dining room. The long table was
refinished and now shone. The chairs had all been
upholstered in red velvet to match the new drapes. Winky
had somehow found an area carpet for under the table that
was phenomenal. Red, gold and green were the main
colors. The design was a phoenix and around the border
were scrolled flowers. It was an art piece in itself. She had
also found some oil paintings of phoenix for the walls. The
Order found it was far more convenient than the old kitchen.
The new loo right across the hall that was a huge benefit
also.

The Living Room was once two rooms that now had been
made into one large room. All the old carpets and wallpaper
were removed. The now modern room, was done in beige,
tans and browns. It was painted a light beige with a darker
beige wall to wall carpet. There were two very comfy
over-stuffed chairs against the left wall with a table and lamp
in between. These chairs were often filled by Lupin or Mr.
and Mrs. Weasley.

On the left side of the room, there were a couple of gaming
tables with more of the cube seats on rollers like the ones in
the Defense Room, only these were tan. After eating their
lunch, they usually piled into the Living Room for games or
just talking. They usually sat around the gaming tables at
this time.

There were two large chairs of dark and light brown tweed
facing each other with a sofa facing the large fireplace on
the far wall, forming a “U”. The chairs and sofa held throw
pillows and throws for cuddling on winter nights. Over the
fireplace was a huge painting. Winky had found it in a
catalog. Once Harry saw it, he had to have it. It was a
painting of a large stag standing proudly in a forest.

There were also a couple of other large sofas with lots of
throw pillows. The wall where the door stood had been
completely remodeled. Where there once was a normal
door, the opening had been widened. Now there were
sliding wooden doors that slipped between the wall. Most
often the doors were left open, that gave it a more inviting
atmosphere.

Harry liked to sit at the end of the sofa nearest the door. Just
like in the school Common Room at school, he had his spot.
Often at night he and Lupin would sit and read in there. Both
Harry and Lupin were quite pleased with their new “living
room”.

The Order members were also thankful that Mrs. Black’s
portrait was removed. It really was a pain to have to whisper
in the Entrance Hall, as not to ‘disturb’ the painting.

Harry wasn’t as interested in “The Order” as last year. In
fact, he had no desire to know about anything that they
were doing. He felt that the least he knew, the better. But
he did notice that Hagrid hadn’t shown up all summer. He
didn’t even get a card or anything from him for his birthday.
Hagrid had always remembered his birthday since he was
eleven years old. He asked Lupin about it one night. “He’s
out on assignment.” Lupin told him. “But he’s supposed to be
back before the next term begins.”

Harry was pleased to hear that. He missed Hagrid.
Hogwarts was never the same without Hagrid.

For most of the month, Harry had taken to reading in the
evenings. He was reading books found in the house. Many
of the books were about pure blood family trees and such.
He didn’t read those, but there were many about history and
ancient dark spells. He wasn’t particularly interested in
learning dark spells, but he was interested in what they were
about. He didn’t read those before bedtime. He had enough
trouble with nightmares, so he usually he read books that
Lupin found for him. Useful spells and of course, defensive
spells, before going to bed.

One evening, near the end of the month, he decided that it
was getting close to the time when he would be going back to
school. He wanted to say “goodbye” to Buckbeak before
Charlie took him away.

On the way, Harry gathered up his courage and went to
Sirius’ room. He looked through several drawers before he
found the one that had the letters that Sirius had referred to
in his will. He found the one with his name on it. He knew he
wasn’t strong enough to read it this evening, so he put it in
his pocket. One day he would read it. Today was not that
day.

He then went into Mrs. Black’s bedroom to see Buckbeak.
Buckbeak was curled up upon the bed. Harry bowed to him
and he bowed back. His eyes were so sad looking, they
reminded Harry of Sirius so bad. Harry walked over and sat
on the bed. He put his arms around Buckbeak’s neck. The
next thing he knew, he was crying, crying his heart out.
Crying the tears he hadn’t shed for Sirius... and himself. He
cried himself to sleep curled up against Buckbeak.

A few hours later, he awoke and dragged himself off to bed,
where he slept all night without dreams.

The house was so different that it was hard to believe it was
the same house they stayed in last year. Mostly because of
Winky. Harry came to the conclusion that Sirius was
definitely right, Kreacher did nothing to keep up the house.

Winky knew her stuff. It appears that House Elves could do
a LOT of work. Winky had an eye for what was attractive to
the eye. She also had a talent for making a room look very
classy, yet still comfortable.

Approximately three weeks into August, Winky completed
the kitchen. Apparently she had been wanting to get her
hands on that room from the start. It was painted a warm
creamy yellow. On the far wall the fireplace stood, she had
added a new mantle. There were now two ceramic vases
painted with flowers at each of the mantle. Inside these
vases was where the Floo powder was kept. The bricks had
been cleaned somehow so it all looked new. Above the
mantle was a large painting of some flowers and a bowl of
fruit. The colors in the painting reminded Harry of jewels.

Above the now refinished table was a large, beautiful
hanging light. It was almost as long as the table and almost
as wide. It had fruit design that was made of stained glass.
It had many of the same colors as in the painting.

The old chairs were gone. They had all been replaced with
new ones. The cupboards had all be painted. They now had
new brass knobs. A new sink and new green counters were
put in. The walls between the cupboards and counters were
painted a raspberry color. There was some kind of lighting
under the cupboards that made the room glow at night.

At the end of the room where the door and stairs used to be,
was all changed now. There were windows across that side.
The stairs were now widened so that at least three people
could walk abreast. The stairs were also now a very light
wood color. There was no door now, there was just an open
landing area. So that now, the morning light from the
windows shone upon the stairs and into the room.

It was NOTHING like the old green kitchen that remained a
memory of Grimmauld Place. Harry loved the new kitchen.
It now felt so warm and comfortable, especially when Molly
or Winky were cooking. It felt like “home”.

It was in the kitchen that Harry cornered Hermione one day.
Hermione had been unusually quiet this summer. Unless
they were in Defense Class, then she was her usual self.
She would get this “look” whenever Winky was in the room.

“Hermione, I want to talk to you about Winky. I know your
feelings about House Elf rights, S.P.E.W. You do not
approve of Winky being enslaved to me,” said Harry.

“You’re right! I don’t approve. I can’t BELIEVE that you
ENSLAVED Winky! Harry, what were you thinking?”

“Hermione, Winky is happier than she has ever been. I ask
her all the time if she is happy. She is delighted to work
here. She is part of my family. She ‘does’ for me and Lupin
just as Mrs. Weasley ‘does’ for her family. That is how I see
it and I believe that is how she sees the situation. I would
never ask her to do more than what she wants to do. Winky
loves to fix up the house. She buy things and Dobby helps
her make her visions a reality. She is happy. If I thought that
she was not happy, I would release her. She WANTS to be
enslaved to me. As long as she feels this way, then it will
remain this way.”

“In THIS situation I think that Winky’s feelings are more
important than yours on this subject. Please think about it.
Ask Winky her feelings,” said Harry.

“I already have. She SAYS she is happy, but honestly,
Harry, she CAN’T be,” said Hermione.

“Look, I don’t understand House Elves either, but she IS
happy. If you are going to remain mad at me about this,
you’re gonna be mad a long time, because unless Winky
tells me different. she’s staying,” added Harry.
Hermione frowned for a moment, then shrugged her
shoulders.

Harry’s defense classes were great. He really appreciated
their instructors. These were people that put their lives on
the line every day. Contrary to what Ginny had said, Harry
did not want to die and he didn’t want any of his friends dying
either. The war was in full swing. He knew that sometime
soon he and/or his friends will be caught up in some battle or
another. So he took all the defense lessons very seriously.
So did all the rest of his friends. They all worked hard.

In the first couple of weeks, the classes were mainly based
on instructions and information. As Harry got physically
stronger, the classes became more physical.

Shacklebolt spent many days showing them how to use
common objects as weapons. He showed them how simple
common tricks could help them escape or capture an enemy
such as tying an enemies’ shoelaces together so they could
trip and fall.

Harry was especially interested in the little spells that didn’t
take a lot of power to perform. Such as hexing the enemy’s
shoes to be slippery. It took very little power, but made it
almost impossible for the enemy to walk. Jellylegs could do
the same damage but took more ‘power’ to perform.

Harry thought about how tired they all got when trying to
escape from the Department of Mysteries. These little spells
were easy and would come in handy.

One day during lunch break, Harry asked Luna why she
was taking all these defense classes. He knew why the rest
of them were taking them, but Luna always seemed to be a
mystery to him.

“Well Daddy needs to have someone around who knows how
to protect themselves. He is not the fighting sort. He is the
intellectual type, isn’t he?” Ron and Hermione rolled their
eyes behind Luna’s back. “He sometimes gets threatening
letters because of some of the articles he writes. Telling the
truth can be dangerous,” she said, in her dreamy voice.

Harry wondered if Luna’s father knew the truth from the
fiction.

Luna was a funny little thing. Often times, she was so quiet
that Harry would forget she was even in the room. He liked
her, even though she was sometimes insightful and other
times she was just bizarre. She often made the others
giggle.

It was hard for him to figure her out. He was not sure if she
still had a crush on Ron. She did laugh at his comments
quite often.

Of all the students, Luna was the least talented, but at the
same time, with the D.A. from last year and all this extra
training, she was far more advanced than any other of the
students at Hogwarts.

Neville was constantly improving. His new wand was HIS
wand and it worked so much better for him. He was far more
accurate with this one, but Neville’s improvement was not
really consistent. He seemed to have good days and bad
days, but even with his bad days, he was not a wizard to be
messed with now.

Hermione was still usually the first one to ‘get’ a new spell,
as was usual for her. She understands instructions so
easily with her logical mind. Although, sometimes Ginny
would ‘get’ it first, Hermione did the majority of the time.
Harry had high hopes for Hermione as an instructor for the
D.A. this coming year.

Ron and Harry were about on the same level about learning
a new spell. But Harry always had just a tad more power
behind his spell work.

Ginny had a bit more power than the others also. Unless you
counted Neville’s’ good days.

All in all , they were ALL good students.

When Mad Eye Moody was to be their instructor for the day,
“Constant vigilance” was the rule of the day.

After lunch one day in the second week. They noticed that
one wall had pictures of Death Eaters tacked up on it.
“Some of these you know on sight, others you may not.
Look at their pictures, learn to recognize them. If you come
across ANY of these people, escape as quickly as possible.
Let an Order member know as soon as possible. Course
these are but a few, but ones I happen to have pictures of.
Let me add that all Death Eaters are dangerous,“ said
Moody.

Mad Eye talked to them about words being used as a
weapon. “If you know your enemy, it can help you defeat
them, or at least, save your own life. Beware the word of a
Death Eater. Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix LaStrange being
two fine examples. They both use the spoken word as a
weapon. They are experts at finding your slightest weakness
and using it against you. They also will throw your virtues
back in your face to try to make you think that they are your
weaknesses, when in fact, they are your strengths,” said
Moody.

“Bellatrix is insane. There is no doubt about that. Her
specialty is taunting. She loves to make her victims suffer.
She likes to use words to torture her victims and if she has
time, she likes to use spells that cause pain as opposed to a
quick death. That is also one of her weaknesses. In some
cases, talking to her, making her think that she as ‘got to
you’ can give you the advantage of gaining time. But
remember at all times. Getting away from her is the best
option!” said Moody.

“Lucius Malfoy is another for using words as a weapon. He
usually tries using the ‘superior’ approach. If once he thinks
he has found something that you are sensitive about, he will
keep trying to ‘push your buttons’ till you are distracted and
do something foolish. Never let him think that he is getting to
you, no matter how much he is,” said Moody.

“Remember that at your age, pride is something that you are
most sensitive about. Some people never get over this.
Don’t let them get to you. Make their weapon useless!”
yelled Moody.


Mad-Eye explained about how Death Eaters usually attacked
in threes. “If you meet a Death Eater, you better start looking
around for another. And if you find two you better believe
that there is a third hiding, probably behind you.”

“It is best if there are two or more of you to fight back to
back.” He demonstrated how this is done. He matched each
of the students into pairs. He had Ginny and Ron practice
the longest, because Ginny was the shortest and Ron the
tallest, they would make the most uneven sized couple. He
spent a lot of time on this tactic because you had to try to
learn how your partner moves as soon as possible. He also
taught them to fight in threes and fours back to back. Fred
and George happened to catch a couple of these lessons of
fighting back to back.

Kingsley Shacklebolt spent a lot of time teaching them to use
their other hand to cast spells. Just like with writing, you
have your strong and weaker hand. He gave each of them
an extra wand to use, so on some days, they had to only use
the extra wand with their normal wand hand and their normal
wand with their weaker hand.

Accuracy was the problem to overcome with this lesson.
They spent several days working this. He explained, which
they already knew, that there are times during battle when
you could get separated from your wand. Sometimes you
are forced to use someone else’s’. Hogwarts doesn’t teach
you with anything but your own wand. Some experience
using other wands is an advantage.

Tonks took several of her days showing them how to dodge
spells. She also worked them at aiming spells. Tonks would
always make it fun with some amusing targets to hit, like
pictures of Filch and Snape.

Remus Lupin spent his lessons teaching “new” spells to
them. Harry was especially happy on Lupin’s teaching days.
Lupin was a natural born teacher. His lessons were always
pleasant and he explained things so that everything seemed
so easy.

Harry’s Occumancy lessons with Professor Dumbledore
were far more pleasant than with Snape.

Dumbledore actually TAUGHT him how to clear his mind.
He TAUGHT him how to hide thoughts. How to block
intrusion. Blocking his mind was extremely hard. It took a
lot of effort and power to do this. In the first few weeks he
was usually totally exhausted at the end of each lesson, but
by being TAUGHT exactly what to do in the first place,
helped a lot.

It was good to see that he could measure his improvement
as time went by. Towards the end of the month he was
hardly tired at all after a lesson. He also noticed he was not
having nearly as many bad dreams and his scar was not
acting up much.

In the third week of August the full moon was coming. For
four of those days, Lupin disappeared. Tonks, Ginny and
Ron came to stay with Harry. Although he missed Lupin, he
did have a very good time with them for those few days.
They all played Exploding Snap for a few hours. Then Harry
and Ron played wizard chess while the Tonks and Ginny
would go up to the ‘girls’ room to talk or whatever.

One day near the end of August the girls started talking
about their upcoming day trip to Muggle London. They were
all going to get make-overs. While Harry and Ron were
playing a game of chess and Harry was half listening to the
girls talking about what they would like to do in London.
He heard things like they wanted to wax their legs. Harry
had no clue what this was about but he really didn’t think that
shiny legs would be very attractive.

Luna was talking about having her hair stripped, THAT didn’t
sound too pleasant. They talked about getting their hair
highlighted and cut. At least the cut part he understood.
He preferred girls to have long hair for no other reason that
he always thought it was prettier, more feminine. Of course,
they could cut on Hermione’s hair for hours and he doubted
they could put a dent in it.

The worst, was when Hermione mentioned that her mother
and Mrs. Weasley would probably want to get their faces
peeled. Harry hoped that Mrs. Weasley would not go that
route because that sounded really painful. It made Harry
shudder just to think about it.

That night, Harry had a nightmare. One of the few “normal”
nightmares he has ever had. Luna had bald patches where
they had stripped her hair. They were all running away from
some hair stylist who was going to highlight their hair with
green and purple stripes, but the girls couldn’t run very fast
because they had waxed their legs so they were slipping and
falling. The worst part was when Mrs. Weasley came to
wake him up and her face was nothing but red, raw meat
where they had peeled her face off.

He jumped up from his bed breathing hard. He couldn’t go
back to sleep so he sat up in his bed for three hours waiting
for the sun to rise.

On the day that the girls went to London, Harry and Ron
along with members of the Order, went to Diagon Alley.

First they went to get new school robes and then each picked
out two new dress robes. Then they headed over to the
Quidditch store and picked out a couple of new brooms and
uniforms.

The brooms were for Ron and Ginny. Sirius’ will stated that
they both were to have everything NEW. This included
brooms. So Ron chose a broom that was keyed specially for
a keeper. It was called “The Hover” made by Nimbus. It
could fly fast but it’s main strength was it’s power to “hover”
near the goals. Ron was beside himself over the purchase.

The broom they choose for Ginny was a “Lightening Lady”. It
was fast! It was a Chaser broom, geared for speed and
agility. Harry had the shop keeper put it back for her. So
when she came in she could decide if that is what she really
wanted. Ron and Harry had already learned that you don’t
assume anything with Ginny. It may be the best broom for
her, in their opinion, but that didn’t mean that Ginny would
agree.

They spent the rest of the day picking out school supplies like
quills and parchment, all the boring things. Harry was trying
to stretch the day out as long as possible because he hadn’t
been out in daylight in almost two months. But Mad-Eye
keep edging them on from beneath his invisibility cloak.

Another reason that Harry wanted to delay going back, was
because he was secretly frightened of what the girls were
going to do to themselves. Specially Mrs. Weasley. That
face peel sounded awful.

The next day Mrs. Weasley came to tell Harry that the girls
would all be going to Diagon Alley shopping so they would
not be at the defense lesson. Harry was so relieved to see
that Mrs. Weasley looked fine. In fact, she looked fabulous.
She had her hair cut and styled. She had on a very nice
outfit that made her look at least ten years younger. She
looked mighty fine indeed. He didn’t ask about the face peel.
Since her face looked very smooth and healthy, obviously
she hadn’t had that done.

He told her about the broom that they had put aside for
Ginny, so they would make sure to stop by and check it out.
Harry reminded her that Ginny and Hermione needed to buy
new trunks. According to the will EVERYTHING was to be
new.

Mrs. Weasley reminded Harry about the end of summer
party they were going to have tomorrow night. That would be
two days before they left for school. She told him that they
needed at least one day before school to make sure
everything got packed.

When Ron and Neville showed up to take their last defense
lesson, they all decided to cancel the lesson, since the girls
were missing and just hang out for the day. Harry asked
Ron about the girls. “How do they look? Was their
make-over a success?” asked Harry.

Ron shrugged, “They looked the same to me. Well, Luna’s
hair is lighter, more blonde. She looks a lot better actually.
Hermione’s hair is shorter and smoother.”

They hung out in the drawing room, mostly snacking. Neville
came up with an idea about the party. “What if we asked the
girls out on dates to the party?”

Ron and Harry looked at Neville like he had two heads.

“Well?” said Neville. “There is going to be at least two balls
this coming year. It would be good to get in practice about
asking girls out.”

“Two balls? Where’d you hear this?” asked Harry.

“From Gran, don’t know who she talked to, but she said
there were two planned,” said Neville. “Course I had all
those dancing lessons. So I’m ready.”

“It seems that dancing lessons have been popular lately,”
said Harry.

They thought for a while. Ron said that he learned his lesson
and he would ask Hermione early this time. And yes, it
would be nice practice, so he would ask Hermione to the
party.

“Good,” said Neville. “Cause I was going to ask her if you
didn’t.”

“What?” said Harry and Ron together.

“Yes,” said Neville. “I know that you got a thing for
Hermione, Ron, but you don’t seem to ever ask her out. So I
been giving you lots of room, but if you don’t start asking her
out soon, then I will.”

Ron’s jaw dropped in shock.

Harry snickered.

“I will ask Ginny,” said Harry. “I guess it’s time we see if I
wasted money on those dancing lessons.”

“Ok!” said Neville “Luna it is!”

* * * *
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