Be prepared
All havoc broke loose in Harry’s mind. If Mrs Weasley were to find them there she would go ballistic.
“Come on,” said George, opening a door to his right, “in here.”
Ginny pulled Harry up and George bundled them into the bathroom.
“Colloportus,” said Ginny, locking the door behind them.
They waited in silence as the voice of Mrs Weasley grew ever closer.
“I wanted to deliver your Easter Eggs in person so that I could come and see how you were doing,” she said. “I must say, I’m quite overwhelmed at how this place has come on. Although I still don’t approve of your career choice,” she added quickly.
“Er, Mum, this isn’t the best time,” said Fred from just outside the bathroom door.
“Why ever not?” asked Mrs Weasley. “Are you entertaining guests?”
“Yes, its “ “
“ “ Lee. He’ll be here “ “
“ “ any minute.”
“At ten o’ clock in the evening?” Harry heard Mrs Weasley say sceptically.
“Yup. Works during the day.
“Couldn’t get here ‘til late.”
Mrs Weasley paused.
“Ok,” she said slowly. “Well, I’ll just use your bathroom and I’ll be off.”
Harry’s mouth fell open. She wanted to use the bathroom? He looked at Ginny and she too was wearing the same bewildered expression. He stared at her “ his mind blank “ hoping that hers was trying to figure out a plan. All of a sudden, her eyes brightened in that way that they did, and she whipped her wand out of her robes and knelt down on the floor, facing the door. Harry had no idea what she was doing, but there was no time to argue now, or any way that he could.
The door know turned and there was a push from the other side.
“Why ever have you locked your own bathroom?” Mrs Weasley asked the twins.
“Aloho “ “
At that moment, Ginny did an extravagant little pattern with her wand, and water started to run freely from its tip.
“ “ oh,” said the voice of Mrs Weasley, “what’s this?”
“A leak,” said George.
“The whole bathroom’s gone mad,” added Fred.
“There’s no point trying to use it,” continued George.
Ginny glanced up at Harry with a glint of hope in her eyes. Trust her and the twins to be able to come up with a story just like that.
“I was about to go in and fix it just as you arrived, Mother, dearest,” said Fred.
“You’ll have to hold on, I’m afraid,” said George.
“Alright, alright,” said Mrs Weasley. “I’ll go at home if it’s going to be a nuisance. Now, are you sure you have everything you need? I wish you’d let me tidy this place up a bit…”
Their voices trailed away as the three of them went back down the stairs, and Ginny stood up cautiously.
“That was too close,” said Harry.
Ginny giggled.
“It’s things like that that keep us on our toes,” she smirked.
“Ginny, it’s not funny,” Harry protested. “If she’d have caught us we would have been dead meat.”
“But she didn’t,” replied Ginny, “so we’re not.”
A minute or two later, the door opened and the Weasley twins stood there with amused grins on their faces.
“Priceless,” remarked Fred.
Harry and Ginny pushed past them into the living room.
“We should go,” said Harry. “I knew this was a bad idea.”
The three Weasleys looked outraged.
“Already?” asked Ginny. “We’ve only just got here!”
Harry couldn’t believe his ears.
“We’ve already almost been caught twice!”
“Yeah “ almost being the imperative word there!” said Ginny.
“Almost is close enough, thanks,” said Harry. “We’re going “ that’s final.”
“Your master has spoken,” said George. “You must obey or face destruction.”
Harry ignored him and turned to descend the stairs.
“Harry, wait “ “
He marched down to the shop and stepped up to the fireplace, taking a pinch of Floo Powder from the pot on the wall. Just as he turned to take one last look at Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes, he glimpsed Ginny standing at the bottom of the stairs.
“I’ll come back if it means that much to you,” she muttered.
Harry smiled and she joined him by the fireplace, taking some of the green powder. Fifteen minutes later they were climbing through the portrait hole, carrying the Invisibility Cloak which they had carelessly left on Professor Flitwick’s floor. The Common Room seemed to be deserted, apart from one brown and one red-haired head just visible above the sofa back.
“Are they awake?” whispered Harry.
Ginny peered round to have a look.
“Nope,” she whispered back. “Aww, look at this.”
Harry walked around an armchair to stand next to Ginny, and saw that Hermione looked as if she had fallen asleep mid-sentence. She had a half-finished essay on her knee and a quill between her fingers, and a pot of black ink was teetering dangerously in Ron’s hand next to her. As Harry watched, Hermione shifted so that she was lying across Ron’s chest. They never acted this close “ their subconscious’s must have been at work.
Hermione stirred and Ron lifted his hand to rub his eyes as they both woke up. As soon as they had regained consciousness, they jumped apart with looks of horror on their faces.
“Oh, um, sorry,” stuttered Hermione, looking from Ron to Harry to Ginny, then averting her eyes elsewhere.
Ginny chuckled.
“You know, you are allowed to act like a couple,” she told them.
Ron was shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably.
“Yeah,” said Harry, “it’s not as if you have to keep it a secret.”
“We certainly don’t,” added Ginny, winking at Harry.
“I’d noticed,” grumbled Ron. “Where have you two been, anyway?”
“Oh, nowhere,” said Harry vaguely.
“They’ve been doing something they shouldn’t,” muttered Hermione disapprovingly.
Ron looked scandalised.
“What?”
“Oh, no no,” said Harry quickly, “not that.”
Ron breathed a sigh of relief, although still looked slightly unsettled.
“Well, I’m going to bed,” Harry announced.
He turned and strode towards the boys’ staircase. When he was about half way up, he heard footsteps running up behind him.
“You’re not supposed to come up here,” he teased, turning to find that Ginny had caught up with him.
“I know,” said Ginny as they reached the dormitory, “but I wanted to talk to you.”
She sat down on his bed and Harry changed into his pyjamas.
“I wanted to thank you for coming with me this evening,” said Ginny.
“Hey,” said Harry, sitting down next to her. “I like the odd adventure too, you know that. You should go before anyone catches you in a boys’ dorm.”
“I suppose,” said Ginny, looking slightly disappointed.
“Night,” said Harry, leaning in to kiss her.
Their lips connected, but when they pulled away, Ginny was looking up at Harry expectantly. She shrugged and started to walk away, which made Harry nervous.
“Gin, what’s wrong?” he whispered into the darkness.
She turned and he saw the glint of the moonlight in her eyes.
“I feel a bit… strange,” she answered slowly.
“Strange?”
Ginny walked towards him and stopped just in front of him. She looked up and he saw that her eyes were troubled in a way that he could not comprehend. Then he felt it. Stress; fear; pressure which hurt his soul.
“You’re tense,” he muttered.
Ginny’s eyes brightened, and she stared at him. Harry did not know why he had said that she was tense, or whether it was true.
“How did you “ ?”
Then, as if she couldn’t figure out what was going on, she took a deep breath, and continued to speak.
“I am,” she said.
“Why?” Harry asked.
“Aren’t you scared?” she replied. “Can’t you feel it? It will come, Harry. Some time soon. I know it will. Something terrible. Something…”
She trailed off at a loss for words. Harry hesitated. He knew that he had been feeling exactly the same lately; that no matter how hard he tried to push it out of his mind, the darkness that he knew was going on in the background would soon break out of its shell and surround them all, and he sensed that Ginny could feel the pressure of it all, just as he did.
“I need “ “ she started again. “ “ I just need to “ talk.”
Harry put his arms around her.
“Let’s talk then.”
* * *
As the Easter holidays came to an end, everyone at Hogwarts seemed to fall into a kind of pre-examination depression. Teachers desperately tried to cram as much information as they could into the students’ brains in the week before their exams, but they were already so saturated with things to remember that it wasn’t much use.
Harry felt as if his brain had turned to mush with all the revision, but he seemed to be coping a lot better than his friends. Ron kept falling asleep at meal times, and Hermione was constantly complaining of headaches. Ginny, on the other hand, did not seem to be revising much at all, and when she did her concentration span was limited to half an hour at the most.
When Monday morning came at last, the students trudged down to breakfast looked very sullen indeed. Harry ate his breakfast with an extremely tired-looking Ron and Hermione on one side, and a rather-too-casual-looking Ginny on the other.
“How an you be so relaxed?” he asked her.
“What’s the point in getting stressed?” she replied. “I’ll do the best I can and that’s the best I can do.”
This seemed sensible, but was a lot harder than she made it look.
An owl carrying the Daily Prophet landed in front of Hermione, and she unfolded it sleepily to read the front page.
“Oh my “ !” she gasped.
She lay the newspaper down flat on the table and started to read aloud to the people around her.
“Last night, the Wizarding World’s worst fears were confirmed when the Ministry finally lost total control of Azkaban prison,” read Hermione, her voice sounding more shaky on every word. “Since the Dementors left the island last year, trained Ministry officials have struggled to keep order, and were overthrown once and for all in a mass riot yesterday evening. Thousands of the prison’s criminals are now attempting to rejoin He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and everyone is urged to stay on their guard.”
Hermione looked up at Harry, her face pale and set.
“Bloody hell,” murmured Ron, Hermione being too shocked to scold him.
Harry felt a hand clasp his, and he turned to see Ginny looking at him uneasily.
“What’s going to happen?” she whispered.
“I don’t know,” replied Harry, wrapping his arms around her.
She clung to him nervously, and Harry thought for the briefest moment that he had felt a rush of her worry pass through him, but it came and went so quickly that he didn’t have time to register it properly. Everyone in the hall had now heard the news, and people were speaking to each other in low whispers of what they thought might happen.
“The Aurors will catch them,” said Ernie Macmillan confidently to Justin Finch-Fletchley. “It’s their job to put a stop to those kinds of people.”
Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy was glaring around looking extremely smug, making Harry feel even more like punching him on the nose than he normally did. Professor Dumbledore stood up at the staff table, and everyone was hushed into silence.
“I am sure that you have all heard what has happened,” he said firmly, “and I must ask you not to panic. The walls which surround you now are among the safest in the country, and there is little to no way that any of you could be harmed while you remain within this school. As for exams “ “ everyone held their breaths “ “ they will proceed as normal.”
The students groaned in unison, except Hermione, whose face had brightened slightly. Dumbledore chuckled sadly and sat down, and Professor McGonagall stood up.
“We are implementing some new school rules in the light of recent events,” she announced. “Firstly, no one will leave the school grounds under any circumstances. All Hogsmeade trips have been cancelled. Secondly, all students are to stay alert, and to reside in their common rooms or in here when not in lessons. Finally, Quidditch matches and training will no longer proceed to take place.”
The entire student body groaned again.
“That’s so unfair!” moaned Ginny. “We’ve got to keep playing Quidditch! It’s the only thing that will keep our spirits up!”
“Anyone found disobeying these rules will be “ “
Professor McGonagall was cut off as there was a loud rap on the doors of the Great Hall. They swung open dramatically, and Mad-Eye Moody started to limp slowly up to the staff table. Whispers began to rise again as everyone questioned why he was there, until he spoke to Dumbledore, who then stood up once more. He looked extremely grave.
“Word has just come from that Voldemort and his newly reacquainted followers are planning an invasion of the entire wizarding world,” he announced sombrely. “This will mean a full-scale war against what can only be classed as evil. We have, in some ways, been expecting this for some time, and now that it has come, we must all pull together to present a united front. War is coming; we will be prepared.”
* * *
The rest of that day passed like a blur for Harry. He was so caught up in the news of the escaped criminals that he couldn’t concentrate in his work at all. The whole way through his Potions theory paper, he kept checking his watch to make sure that Ginny was safe, or glancing about nervously at his friends, even though he knew it was just paranoia.
“I’m going to find Ginny,” he told Ron and Hermione as they left the exam.
“No, you musn’t!” hissed Hermione. “We have to go straight to lunch like McGonagall said!”
Hermione carried on being overly snappy throughout the afternoon, and Harry was glad when evening came and he could go and sit quietly in the common room with Ron and Ginny while Hermione worked.
“I can’t believe that we’re actually at war,” said Ginny as she sat on the hearth rug and stared into the fire.
She sighed deeply and rolled onto her front, propping herself up on her elbows.
“I’m so scared,” she whispered.
“We all are,” said Ron.
“You’d be crazy if you weren’t,” added Harry.
They sat in silence for a bit, all gazing pointlessly into the roaring flames.
“Ginny?” said Ron after a few minutes.
“Mm?” she replied, without tearing her gaze from the hypnotising flames.
“It’s going to be alright,” he told her. “The war won’t last long.”
“I hope so,” answered Ginny, although she did not sound completely convinced.
A/N: So there it is! As you can probably tell, it's starting to get more exciting now, leading up to the end of the story. Keep reading and please review!