Harry Potter and the Dynasty of the Wand by Lady Snuffles
Chapter Notes: Here is a nice chappie on the months of October through December...the mystery begins to unravel...
Disclaimer: If Harry Potter were mine I wouldn’t have killed off (that certain person) at the end of HBP, so you can tell that it doesn’t belong to me.
I hate October, Ginny thought bitterly. With a passion. A diehard passion. Worst month of the year in my opinion. Worst month for Quidditch. Hell, it’s the worst month to go outside.
“Gin, are you okay? You look like you’re going to erupt.”
“I’m fine Harry,” she said slightly annoyed. Not with him but with how her day was going. We should not have practice on a Saturday afternoon, she continued in her mind.
“Are you sure? Harry’s right Ginny. You look a little flushed.”
“And you can tell underneath all of this damned mud?” Ginny complained to her brother. They had just come from a particularly wet Quidditch practice with the fact that it was pouring outside. Katie Bell, who was team captain this year, hadn’t called practice off until Seamus Finnigan’s broom had caught on fire from a lightning strike, and he threatened to spread the flames onto the pitch if she didn’t cancel. Katie had claimed earlier that month that they needed to practice no less than four times a week because even though they now had all seven players in working condition, so did every other team. Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper being the beaters from the previous year stayed on the team, and Harry took Ginny’s previous spot, much to her relief, and was reinstated as seeker. Ron again played as Keeper, and Katie, Ginny and rookie of the team, Seamus, were this years chasers.
“I just don’t understand why Katie has to be so.....UGH....all the time! I could give her a few pointers on which body parts to stick her broom up!” At this point Ginny began cursing with every swear word known to wizarding kind against Katie and her practice techniques. Harry had never realized she had such an extensive vocabulary.
Ron and Harry were both about ready to gag and cover Ginny’s mouth with her muddy robes that were trailing the ground, when they walked in through the portrait hole to Gryffindor common room. They found Hermione revising her Ancient Runes paper and she didn’t look up until she saw the sets of scarlet robes pass between her and the coffee table she was reading from.
“Well aren't we a bloody ray of sunshine?” Hermione asked the three of them rather cheerfully once they were all seated on the couch next to her. They plopped down with looks of grief, exhaust, and in Ginny’s case, annoyance. They all grunted their replies. “I’m glad you finally came back....I was so lonely up here in this warm, dry, cozy, comfortable tower with my hot chocolate and fuzzy blank-”
And Ginny cut her off saying, “No matter how nice that sounds to me, I need to go and wash off what’s left of the pitch. Then I’m going to bed; I’m beat. See you all in the morning.”
“G’night Ginny,” Ron and Hermione said in unison.
Harry walked her over to the stairs and he kissed one of the only not-muddy spots on her face which, to Harry’s appreciation, was her lips. “Goodnight Harry,” she said in response to his kiss.
“Night Gin. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
October went by with few highlights. The first Hogsmeade trip was fairly uneventful minus Ron wiping out in the middle of the Three Broomsticks and knocking over at least nine tables and all of the surrounding chairs...and people. Ron admitted that it was because he was over excited about finding a Paracelsus card in his chocolate frog box. One of the top two rarest cards in the entire collection, not to mention the second most expensive if you’re selling.
Most classes were as boring as ever and yet Harry found it harder and harder to keep a straight face in Defense Against the Dark Arts with Ron’s snide remarks. One day in particular had Harry laughing for hours on end. Ron had just attempted to pass Harry a note on which he had drawn an enchanted picture of Stick-Person Ron beating Stick-Person Krum into a small box and throwing it into the lake where the Stick-Giant Squid ate it. Instead of Harry receiving this note it was taken by Krum and shown to the entire class. Krum asked if he could have Ron stay after period and go over his fantastic art capabilities.
After a long and argumentative conversation Ron walked out the door and found Harry waiting for him. “I don't know what his problem is,” Ron hissed to him. “But I bet it's hard to pronounce,” he finished defiantly. Harry didn’t think he’d have made it through any other classes if there had been more after that.
To Harry’s relief, and surprise, Malfoy did not remember Harry stuffing him into the broom closet. He was very pleased however, when he heard that Malfoy had spent the last four Saturday afternoons, and would spend the next six, alphabetizing the books in the library. Without magic. All for being caught in the corridors after hours. Harry, the rest of the Gryffindor’s, and some Ravenclaw’s and Hufflepuff’s, were determined to make this detention hell for Malfoy and they checked out every book they could without looking too suspicious. Making him spend hours figuring out how to alphabetize the invisibility section was Ginny’s idea entirely, which she was very proud of.
Ginny and Harry’s first day back as a “new (old) couple” did not go over well for many people. Especially Ginny. She was given the brunt of every insult from, “Why would he take her back of all people,” to “She’s only in it for the fame.” So Harry, being the great boyfriend he was, threatened every person that made a comment with, “If I hear any more than a snigger from you again, you could find yourself looking very unnatural when you wake up tomorrow.” The couple decided to keep their informal engagement a secret for the time being on account of them “just getting back together.” Ginny said that the ring was not important and she didn’t need one, but Harry knew that deep down Ginny wanted one to show off to the world. She did say, after all, that she wanted to tell people that she hoped to marry him one day. Harry figured that this would be the perfect Christmas gift, so Harry owled Lupin the key to his vault and asked him to take out all of the rings he could find saying that he would explain why as soon as he arrived at Number Twelve for winter break; which was just around the corner.
Surely and strongly, the cold and frozen winds of November came blowing over the castle as faithfully as May follows April. The white of snow and ice covered the grounds of Hogwarts in a blanket twice the height of Professor Flitwick. One day there was no snow....then it snowed for five days straight and Hogwarts received more than six feet worth of snowball ammunition. This caused the first Quidditch match of the season to be rescheduled until after Christmas break, since the only person who’d be able to see the match over the white powder would be Hagrid. Much to Ginny’s delight, all Quidditch practices were cancelled as well.
The D.A. continued through November and the beginning of December. Harry was surprised at how quickly the newcomers were catching on. After Christmas the D.A. could start where they had left off at the end of the last school year; Harry could teach the rookies how to conjure a Patronus. All of the returning D.A. members had a corporeal Patronus. Ginny’s had turned into a beautiful palomino horse, while Seamus’s “something hairy” ended up being a large grey wolf, and Ron’s Jack Russell terrier, unsurprisingly, found a liking for Hermione’s otter.
Harry decided to talk with Lupin during Christmas break about his next steps for the D.A.
Harry had a lot of talking to do with Lupin. So much had happened since they had last met that Harry just needed a wise friend to listen to him.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Is there something in particular you’re looking for? Because if you are, I’m sure I’d know where it is. At the rate I’m going, Madam Pince will be fired so that I can do all of the work in this damned library by myself without the cost of an employee,” Draco sneered, the evening before the holidays began.
Ginny was shocked. At first she wasn’t sure if he was talking to her. She actually had to look around to make sure that there was no one else that he could be trying to speak with. Not being too keen to hold a conversation with someone who all but called her a whore (even if he didn’t remember doing it) she said, “I think that someone has to be listening for it to be a real conversation.”
“Why so antisocial?”
“I’m not antisocial, I just don’t like you,” Ginny said flatly.
“Oh, that one hurt,” Malfoy said sarcastically. He held his hand on his heart in mock pain. “But anyways...is there anything I could help you find?” he asked again.
“Nope,” Ginny said just as flat. She picked a random book off of the shelf and walked away to the nearest table to sit and “read.” To her surprise, Malfoy followed her and sat in the seat across the table. “Is there something I could help you with?” she asked.
“Nope,” he answered the same way Ginny had.
She glanced over to the doors of the library and much to Ginny’s relief, noticed Hermione had just walked in. “Listen, Draco,” Ginny said standing up. “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening but it wasn’t tonight. There are some other people I’d rather be spending my time with, so if you’ll just excuse me...”
“Frankly...I don’t give a damn. I was just waiting to see if I could bother your pretty little head the same way I could Potter’s.”
“I beg your pardon?” Ginny asked.
“I said, I wanted to see if I could bother you the same way I could bother your boyfriend, seeing as I can’t I’ll just leave you be.” Draco then stood up and pushed in his chair.
As he turned to leave Ginny asked, “Why did you want to know?”
He turned back around with a smile on his face. “Honestly, I really didn’t want to know. I was trying to pry...but you’re a steel vault.”
Ginny still looked confused so Draco continued, “I didn’t get those bruises on my face from nothing. I think I said something to offend your dear Harry, and he’s the one who knocked me out in the broom cupboard. I think that it was him, because I had planned on saying something to him to set him off earlier that day and that something had to do with you. I was just now trying to see if I could poke around enough to get you to tell me if he had done it. Obviously, seeing how stubborn you are, I’m not going to get anywhere so I’ll leave you be.” And with those parting words he left Ginny standing there with a blank expression on her face. She couldn’t believe how close to right his guess was about the day Harry hit him. As a matter of fact, he was right.
After a few more moments of reflecting on Malfoy’s words, Hermione came over to her. “Ginny? I saw Malfoy with you. What did the greasy ferret have to say this time?”
Ginny realized that Hermione, or anyone else for that matter, didn’t really need to know what Draco had said, spit out the first thing that came to her mind. “Hermione...I-I think he was hitting on me. I feel completely violated! I’ll have nightmares for weeks. Ewe!” She gave an involuntary shiver at the mere thought of her words.
“Oh you poor thing,” Hermione said in the most pitiful and heartfelt voice she could come up with. “Don’t worry about it. Tomorrow you’ll be back at the Burrow and there will be so much going on that you won’t even have time to think about him.” And with that the two girls found their books and left the library to finish their packing.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Ron, really! How can you possibly still be packing?” Harry asked in mock rage. Ron saw it as a very good imitation of Hermione, so he laughed, earning himself a sharp glare, which was also reminiscent of his girlfriend.
“Well I’ve had to pack, unpack, and re-pack at least three times.”
“Why?”
“I keep forgetting things! And then they don’t fit so then I have to take everything out and reorganize!”
“Honestly Ron....just expand your trunk. It’s not that hard,” Harry said with a small grin on his face. Expanding trunks was not one of Ron’s finer talents.
“Well...maybe I don’t want to....back off,” he said trying to gain the upper hand of the conversation and failing miserably.
“Alright...I’ll be waiting downstairs with the girls.” Once he made it down to the common room he saw both girls sitting on the couch talking in hushed voices.
“If you’re talking about me then there’s no need to whisper,” Harry said sarcastically, thinking that he was nothing close to their topic of the conversation.
“Actually we were,” Ginny said truthfully.
“Ginny!” Hermione squeaked.
“What? I’m not going to lie. Besides, it’s not like this is something we need to keep from him...anymore.”
“What? What is it?”
“We’ll tell you on the train ride. Merlin knows that it’ll be a long one.”
“And why is that?” Harry asked.
“Oh you’ll see,”Ginny answered obscurely. He raised his eyebrows at her, and then their conversation came to end with a loud crash coming from somewhere up the staircase to the boys’ dormitories followed by a series of strained curse words. “Let’s go down to breakfast while “Graceful” finishes whatever he’s doing up there,”Ginny said.
“Sounds good to me.”
“Actually, I think I’ll go help Ron. It sounds to me as though he’s struggling a great deal,” Hermione suggested.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
An hour and a half later Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were all aboard the Hogwarts Express on their ways back home. Ron and Ginny to the Burrow, Hermione to her home in Kent, and Harry to number twelve Grimmauld Place.
“Now tell me Gin. What is this secret that’s not really a secret because you were planning on telling me anyways?”
“You’re curious aren’t you?” Ginny asked suspiciously.
“Well what if I were? Would you tell me?”
“Actually I’d tell you,” Ron answered for her.
“You’re in on it too? Am I the only one that doesn’t know what’s going on?”
“I don’t know what’s going on,” came a dreamy voice from the compartment door. Everyone turned to the door and saw Neville and Luna standing in it.
“What’s new there?” Harry distinctly heard Hermione mutter under her breath.
“Me neither,” Neville said.
“Well why don’t we tell EVERYONE while we’re at it Hermione?” Ron asked in a very frustrated manner.
“Well, do you really think that it’s my fault that Ginny read my diary?”
Harry stared at her transfixed. “Ginny! You didn’t!” She only looked at the ground; the ends of her ears turning slightly pink.
“Oh-yes-she-did!” Hermione said enunciating each syllable.
“What was in“” Harry was cut off by Ginny saying:
“Well it’s not like there had been anything important like this in there the times before!” Ginny supported her response with a stone hard facial expression.
“You read it more than once?” Hermione asked semi-angrily.
“What was so importan“” and Harry was cut off yet again.
“Well what would you like me to do? I’ve already said that I’m sorry.”
“I guess sorry isn’t go-”
“WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON?” Harry yelled above the argument.
Everyone was silent until Neville spoke up. “Would you like us to leave?” he asked. Everyone but Harry nodded their heads.
“Ok, we’ll check back in a couple of hours then,” Luna said pulling on Neville’s arm.
“Well?” Harry asked once the compartment door was shut.
Ron cleared his throat. And he cleared it again. And more times after that until Hermione elbowed him hard in the ribs. With a sharp intake of breath he said. “I think we figured out where “it” is.” He looked anywhere but at Harry.
“And?” Ginny urged him on.
Ron looked as if he was scared to go on. “And we think that it’s your house.”
“Pardon?” Harry asked still confused.
“Your house...Potter Manor,” Ron said, worried about what Harry’s reaction might be.
“Ron, I hate to break it to you but...my house was destroyed. I thought you knew that.”
“But Harry...your house in Godric’s Hollow was destroyed. Haven’t you ever thought about your parents lives before all of the hiding? Before the war? Don’t you think that maybe they would have had a house? A real house that wasn’t hidden?”
“Well I....um....uh.....no I can’t say that I have.” Harry looked out the window of the train and saw all of the colors and blurred shapes whizzing by. What if Ron’s right? “What makes you think that’s “it”?” Harry asked still staring through the glass.
“Well,” came Hermione’s voice. “When you think about it...and I mean really think about it...what gave you your greatest strengths?” Harry just stared at her completely at a loss. Continuing as if she hadn’t stopped at all she said, “Your parents.”
“Well I’m glad that clears things up,” Harry said skeptically. “It could have been really annoying if you hadn’t explained yourself properly.”
“Here, I’ll try to put it in to perspective for you....um....Flying is one of your best skills. Everyone says that you got your flying skills from your dad.”
Harry still had a partially vacant expression on his face, so Hermione went on.
“Okay well let’s try this one...your strongest and most powerful spell...what is your corporeal patronus? Your da-”
“My dad’s animagus form?”
“Good, good. You’re catching on. And how about this? You get your protection from Voldemort from the love of your mu-”
“My mum’s sacrifice.” Harry looked towards the floor in thought. “But what does that have to do with my old house?”
“This is the best part....I didn’t even get this until Ron explained it to me.” Hermione cut off to let Ron take over for his moment in the spotlight.
“Now, this could be nothing, well I suppose it would still be something, but...if your greatest strengths were the ones that your parents gave you, what is there to say that the “power you need to have a fair duel” between you and Voldemort isn’t something of your parents? Something they left behind for you to have? Nothing at all.”
~A/N: So I did have a reason...it wasn’t just this random idea. Does “it” make at least a small, microscopic way, shape, or form of sense to you now? Next chapter is all about Christmas! Yeah baby! Exciting huh? I love all y’all that review for me! Keep ‘em coming! Quote from the next chapter: “Really mate! Do you have to do that in front of everyone?” -Ron
I would also like to add, that this chapter is dedicated to Edgar Stiles. He was my favorite character on my favorite TV show entitled "24." Was being the key word. Unfortunately, Edgar was killed off and I felt as though I needed to do something in his honor. So Edgar....this chapter belongs to you and your short lived life.*tear*