A/N ~Well, it’s up. I hope you all like it! This chapter will start to have just a teensy bit of Ginny/Harry in it. And I’m going to have Ginny’s POV also. (That’s where the teensy bit of Ginny/Harry comes in.) By the way, just thought I should warn you, this chapter is much longer than the other two, so I hope you like long chappies!!! I know I do, but please tell me in the reviews if you like long better than short. Thank you all so much, and I hope you enjoy!!!~ _______________________________________________________________________
Harry was wondering if he was having hallucinations when Sirius spoke again.
“Harry, I’ve been waiting for the day when I could see you again. I’ll tell you everything that happened to me in the last year as long as you promise me that you’ll tell me everything that’s happened to you.” Sirius was positively beaming at Harry. “Oh yeah, I guess I can lift the spell now that you’ve gotten over the shock.” He muttered the incantation, and Harry felt that he could move again, but he was by no means over the shock.
Then a terrible idea came to Harry. “How do I know that you’re not a Death Eater?” Harry asked tentatively.
“Well, you said that awfully calmly. If I was a Death Eater, I’d think you’d be more at least a little more afraid. Hmm, how can I prove that I’m not a Death Eater?” Sirius looked around Harry’s room, as if looking for inspiration, when his eyes lit up.
“I gave you that.” And as he said this, he pointed over at Harry’s firebolt that was lying next to his open trunk. “I gave you that before you even knew that I was innocent. I didn’t leave you a card or anything. I just sent it to you.” Sirius smiled at Harry after giving the proof that it was really him.
“And besides Harry, I just thought of another thing. I couldn’t be a Death Eater because the Death Eater would need one of these,” he plucked out one of his hairs, “to make the Polyjuice Potion.”
“Sirius, is it really you?”
“Yes, Harry, it’s really me.” They were both crying tears of joy, and neither cared. Neither would have cared if the whole world was watching them cry like babies. Both were happier than they had been in a very long time. They hugged each other like a father and son who had been separated for a long time. They finally broke apart after what felt like hours, but it was really only about a minute.
“Sirius, you died. I mean, I guess you obviously didn’t, but what happened? You fell through the veil after you got hit with the curse, and I tried to run after you, but Lupin held me back.”
“Well, good thing he held you back. You would have died if you had run after me.”
“But Sirius, I don’t understand. How come I would have died, but you aren’t dead?” Then another idea struck Harry. “You aren’t dead, are you?”
Sirius laughed. “Of course I’m not dead! I’m more alive than I have been in a long time, Harry.” Sirius smiled at the puzzled expression on Harry’s face. “I’ll explain everything that’s happened to me, but not yet. First, you have to tell me everything that’s been going on in the wizarding world, because I have absolutely no idea. I’m just going to fire a whole bunch of questions, the first being what happened at the Ministry, right after I fell through the veil?”
“Like I said before, I tried to get at the veil. I just wouldn’t believe that you were dead. But then it hit me, it hit me hard, that you weren’t coming back. An anger filled me that I’d never had before. I ran after Bellatrix-“ Harry stopped, because to his amazement, Sirius had started laughing. “Why are you laughing?” asked Harry, a little offended that his godfather found it funny that Harry ran after the person who had supposedly killed him. “It wasn’t funny. I could’ve died if Dumbledore hadn’t been there.”
“Oh, that’s why everyone stopped fighting. Dumbledore showed up. I wondered.”
“Yes, but why were you laughing when I said that I went after Bellatrix?”
“Because that is exactly what James would’ve done, Harry. Finish her off; make her pay for what she had done.”
“Oh,” said Harry, with a new feeling of great pride filling him because of what Sirius had said. “Well, that is what I tried to do, make her pay. Anyway, we both got up to the Atrium. We were dueling when Dumbledore came and stopped me. That’s when Voldemort came-“
Sirius gasped. “Voldemort was in the ministry of Magic itself?” asked Sirius amazed. “What happened?”
“Dumbledore put some kind of enchantment on a statue so that it would guard me, and he did it to Bellatrix too. Neither of us could move. Dumbledore and Voldemort were dueling, but then Voldemort disapparated. I thought that he was gone, but-" Harry faltered at this point, remembering what happened next, and he shuddered.
“What?” Sirius asked. “Did he come back with more Death Eaters?”
“No, he came back inside me.” Sirius gasped, but Harry went on. “I had never been in so much pain before. I thought that I was dying.” Then he added, “Come to think of it, I probably was.”
“But why? Why did he go inside of you? That part just doesn’t make sense.”
“I didn’t know either, but Dumbledore explained it to me afterward. Voldemort was hoping that Dumbledore would sacrifice me to try and get to him. When he saw that Dumbledore wasn’t going to kill me, he disapparated and took Bellatrix with him. The pain left me, but I was still really weak. About ten seconds after Voldemort and Bellatrix disapparated, Fudge and some Ministry workers showed up. Oh, by the way,” Harry added, “Fudge was sacked a couple of days after this happened.”
“I would hope so,” Sirius mumbled under his breath.
“Rufus Scrimgeour is the Minister now. He’s no better, “Harry added, rolling his eyes. “Anyways, Dumbledore sent me back to his office with a portkey, but he didn’t come for another half an hour. When he got there, he told me everything. About why he wouldn’t look me in the eye for a year, about why I had the urge to bite him when he did look me in the eye once, and all about the prophecy. You must know all about that from the Order, right?”
“Yeah, Dumbledore told all of the Order members about it. Bloody Snape was listening in for part of the original hearing of the prophecy; that’s why Voldemort even knew about it in the first place.”
“I know-“ Harry had just realized something that he was very surprised he hadn’t thought of before. Sirius didn’t know what Snape had done. He didn’t know that Dumbledore was…
“Sirius, there’s something you’ve got to know.” Harry paused wondering how to say it. “Snape did, Snape-“
“Snape what? What did Snape do?” asked Sirius looking very apprehensive.
Harry took a deep breath and answered, “He… he killed Dumbledore.”
There was a long pause in which neither of them spoke. Harry stared down at his feet. Sirius was trying to process this terrible piece of information, and then it sunk in. Dumbledore was dead. Snape, Sirius’s childhood enemy, had killed the most powerful sorcerer in the history of the world.
Sirius was the one to finally speak (or rather stutter). “But, he, Harry, how?” he asked.
“He used the Avada Ked-“
“No, I mean, what happened? How could Snape kill Dumbledore? It just couldn’t be possible.”
“Okay, I have to start from the beginning for it to make sense. Last summer, Dumbledore came to pick me up from here to take me to the Burrow. But first he took me to persuade this guy named Slughorn to teach again. He was our potions teacher this year; Dumbledore finally let Snape take Defense Against the Dark Arts.” Harry paused, and took a deep breath. Sirius’s face twitched and Harry went on, “Then he took me to the Burrow, and I stayed there until school started. In school, Dumbledore started giving me personal lessons. He took me inside people’s memories, and one house elf’s,” he added. “All the memories were about Voldemort’s past.”
Sirius interrupted, “That must have been really weird for you.”
“Yeah, it was kind of weird. Anyways, one of the memories showed the reason that Voldemort didn’t die the night he tried to kill me. He has these things called horcruxes. He has seven, which is the most any dark wizard has ever had. To get one, you would have to kill someone, and then you put a part of your soul into an object. I destroyed one of them in my second year; a diary. Dumbledore destroyed another one of them last year; a ring that belonged to Salazar Slytherin. Then Dumbledore found out where another one was, and he took me with him to get it. We apparated to a cave by the sea somewhere, and we had to go through all these obstacles to get to this island with a stone basin. And then-“ Harry stopped, and gulped down the lump that was forming in his throat.
“What happened, Harry?” Sirius asked, looking concerned.
“Dumbledore made me feed him the potion that was in the basin. It made him really weak, and he said that he wanted water. I got some from the sea that was surrounding the little island. As soon as I touched the water, inferi came out and tried to grab me. I panicked and couldn’t remember what Dumbledore had said to do, but all of a sudden he stood up. He made fire, and the inferi were afraid of the light and warmth. Dumbledore grabbed the locket that was lying in the bottom of the basin, and we apparated back to Hogsmead. Madam Rosmerta ran to us and pointed over at the school; the Dark Mark was there, over the Astronomy Tower. We got Rosmerta’s brooms, and flew there. When we got there, we could hear fighting below, and I ran over towards the door. But then I froze, literally. Dumbledore put the same spell on me as you did tonight. I was under the invisibility cloak, so no one knew I was there except Dumbledore. He froze me because Malfoy ran up to the Astronomy Tower. But because of the second it took to put the spell on me, he couldn’t save himself from the disarming spell that Malfoy shot at him.” Harry closed his eyes, remembering that terrible night.
“Harry?” Sirius asked apprehensively, disturbing Harry’s thoughts.
Harry took a deep breath, and continued, “Dumbledore just kept talking to Malfoy. He got a lot of information, such as that Malfoy had repaired the old vanishing cabinet that went to Borgin and Burkes. By getting the Death Eaters to go into the one in Borgin and Burkes, it took them to Hogwarts. As Malfoy was saying all this, some Death Eaters came up the stairs. They kept telling Malfoy to kill Dumbledore, but Malfoy just kind of stood there. Then Snape came bounding up the stairs, and… he did it. He killed him.” Harry looked up at his godfather, who had a sympathetic look on his face.
“That must have been really hard for you to tell,” Sirius said after a few moments of silence.
“Yeah, it was. But, you know, I think that I needed to tell it all and get it out of my system. But now Sirius, it’s your turn.”
Sirius looked out of the window at the now-rising sun. “Harry, we have to go.”
“What?” asked Harry, taken aback.
“We have to go. What do you think your aunt and uncle would say if they saw your dead godfather walking around their house?” Sirius asked with a smile.
“Oh, right. Okay then,” Harry said, looking around at his very cluttered room. “I guess I have to pack everything that I want to keep since I’m never coming back again.” Harry looked up, realizing what he had just said. “I’m never coming back, never, ever, coming back.”
“Um, Harry?” Sirius asked, waving a hand in front of Harry’s face. “Earth to Harry, we have to pack now.” Sirius shook his head, giving up. Harry was in a kind of trance, every now and then muttering “never coming back”. “Well, I’ll just pack then,” Sirius announced to the room. With a wave of his wand, all of Harry’s belongings flew into the trunk with a soft “thud”, which made Harry come out of his trance.
“Sirius, where are we going?” Harry asked as this thought struck him.
“Grimmauld Place. I mean, where else could we go? Not the Burrow since they all think I’m dead, remember? And not anywhere else, because everyone else thinks I’m dead too.” Sirius laughed, as if this were the most amusing thing in the world. (Although if you think about it, it is quite amusing.)
* * *
Ginny woke up earlier than she had hoped the next morning. She had wanted to sleep in, but she woke up to the rising sun. Ginny groaned, and stuffed a pillow over her face. Then, as she found she couldn’t breathe with the pillow over her face, she threw it right off again. She sat up, and swung her legs over the bed. She looked around her room at all the things she owned. There was Arnold on her desk, sleeping soundly and making small squeaking noises every once in a while. Next to Arnold were some of her school books, and a few quills.
Ginny went over to her desk and opened a drawer, searching for her mirror. She thought she might as well do her hair now that she was awake. She didn’t find her mirror, but instead found a small picture of Harry. She looked at it for a second, but then thrust it back into her drawer. She didn’t want to think about Harry. She didn’t want to look at Harry. She didn’t want to know Harry. She didn’t want to love Harry.
As she turned and went back to sit on her bed, the thought flooded into her mind about her last conversation with Harry, which was almost a month before. It wasn’t fair that he had to be the one to kill Voldemort, and it wasn’t fair that she had to worry about what would happen if he didn’t. Nothing seemed fair to her anymore.
And, she thought, Harry, Hermione, and Ron weren’t going back to Hogwarts (she had found out last night that it was going to reopen). Mrs. Weasley did not yet know that Ron wasn’t going back because he hadn’t told anyone, but she had listened in on their conversation at Hogwarts the month before. It wasn’t fair that she had to go back, but they weren’t going to.
All of a sudden, a thought came to Ginny. She knew what she had to do. She wasn’t going back to Hogwarts while they all risked their lives. She was going with them, and there wasn’t anything anyone could do to stop her.
* * *
“RON, GET UP!”
“Whazzgoinon?” he asked wearily. He rubbed his eyes as he yawned, and sat up. He wondered why his mother was waking him up so early, but a glance at the clock told him it was eleven o’clock. “Well, never mind then,” he thought to himself.
“RON, WAKE UP!!!”
“I’m up,” he answered, but it was too quietly for her to hear him. He threw on his jeans and a t-shirt, and walked down stairs. He walked to the table to find Charlie devouring a sandwich.
“Hullo,” Charlie managed to say, even though his mouth was very full.
“Hi,” Ron answered. “Where’s Ginny?”
“Dunno. In her room, if I had to make a guess.”
“Did Mum say when she was going with Fleur to get the wedding dress?”
Charlie opened his mouth to answer (or maybe just to take another bite, Ron couldn’t particularly tell), but Mrs. Weasley walked into the kitchen and answered herself, “In about ten minutes, if Fleur’s not late.”
Ron quickly ran his hands through his hair, and smoothed his shirt down. He ran to a mirror and smiled vainly at his reflection, who smiled vainly back. Then he went back over to the table and sat down, and expressed the obvious, “I’m hungry.”
“Yes, dear, you’re always hungry. I made you an egg sandwich. Here,” Mrs. Weasley replied while handing Ron a sandwich.
“Thanks, Mum,” Rom said gratefully.
“You’re welcome, dear. And when you’re done, could you go and check that your sister hasn’t died up there? I haven’t heard hide or hair of her all morning.”
“Sure, Mum.”
Just then, they all heard a loud “CRACK” as Fleur appeared beaming in the middle of the kitchen. “I am ready to go shopping weeth you, Meeses Weesley.”
“Oh, Fleur, do call me Mum. After all, the wedding is coming, so I will be your mother-in-law,” Mrs. Weasley said happily.
“Hi, Fleur,” Ron said as he jumped up, and sent his chair flying. “Oh, sorry,” he said blushing crimson. He got his chair and sat back down, avoiding looking at Fleur.
“Shall we go then?” Mrs. Weasley asked Fleur. Fleur nodded happily, and Mrs. Weasley said, “Be good, you two. If I come home and the house is messed up at all, you two will pay.”
“Mum, we’re not three-year-olds,” said Charlie, rolling his eyes.
Mrs. Weasley and Fleur disapparated with a loud “CRACK”, and Charlie got up to leave.
“Where are you going?” asked Ron.
“Weasleys Wizard Wheezes,” Charlie answered, and without another word, he too disapparated with a loud “CRACK”.
Ron looked around the kitchen expecting someone to be there, because it was very seldom there was only one person in the kitchen. Seeing that there was no one, he ate what was left of his sandwich and got up to go see what Ginny was up to.
* * *
Hermione woke up, instantly groaning in pain. She had a major cramp in her neck from sleeping on the couch, and sat up massaging it vigorously. In the room next to her, which just happened to be the kitchen, she could hear her mother frying up eggs, and her father slurping coffee.
Hermione got up, and walked into the kitchen. She looked over at the clock, and was surprised to find that it was eleven o’clock. She usually got up earlier than this, and her parents were usually just now getting up. Hermione walked over to the table and sat next to her father, who was reading the paper.
“’Morning,” she said to them both.
“Good morning, honey. You slept in,” Mrs. Granger replied.
“I know. And you woke up early. You’re usually just now getting up,” Hermione said.
“We got up about half an hour ago,” Mr. Granger replied, with another slurp of coffee.
Hermione just realized that her parents should actually be at work. Since they weren’t, she had forgotten that it was a Friday. “Why aren’t you at work? I just remembered that it’s not Saturday.”
Mr. and Mrs. Granger looked at each other. “We took the day off. We didn’t really want you alone with that girl,” Mr. Granger answered.
“Why? She’s unconscious, and I can do magic. Even if she were to wake up, I could take care of it.”
“We know, honey, but we’d just feel safer knowing that we were here with you,” Mrs. Granger replied.
“Okay,” Hermione said simply, knowing it would be useless to argue. “I’m really hungry, are you almost done with the eggs?”
“I’m done,” Mrs. Granger announced, and brought three plates of eggs to the table. All three ate and talked, and ate and talked, and ate and talked, until they all finished. Hermione got up to go get dressed.
When she got up to her room, she found two owls outside her window, pecking to get in. She went over and opened the window so they could fly over to her desk. One owl did, but the other flew around her ceiling excitedly.
“Pigwidgeon!” Hermione exclaimed, realizing who the owl was. She let him fly around as she went over to the other owl and took the Daily Prophet from its beak. She deposited a Knut in its small, brown pouch, and it flew off. She looked at the front page’s big headline: GOVERNERS DECIDE TO REOPEN HOGWARTS. “Finally,” she thought to herself. She set the Prophet aside, and told Pigwidgeon to come down. She took the letter, and immediately recognized Ron’s messy handwriting. As she read the letter, she laughed to herself. The letter was telling her that the school had been reopened, but she had obviously just found that out.
Hermione decided it was useless to write back to Ron since she was going to see him tomorrow. As she got up to throw the letter away, she froze. The girl was stirring. All of a sudden, she sat up. At the sight of Hermione, she started screaming, which caused Hermione to start screaming, which caused Mr. and Mrs. Granger to run up to Hermione’s room, which caused the girl to scream even more at the sight of them. (Do you see the importance of cause and effect here?) Then the girl flopped back on the bed. Hermione and her parents all ran over to her, but she was once again unconscious.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, not again!” Hermione groaned.
“I think she’s just fainted,” said Mr. Granger. “Why don’t you stay in here and call for us when she comes around?”
“Okay,” Hermione answered, and her parents went back to whatever they were doing before. Hermione realized that Pigwidgeon was still fluttering around her ceiling, but he had a letter still tied around his ankle. Hermione realized it must be for Harry, and she sent him on his way.
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A/N~ So, how’d I do? Please tell me in the reviews, or I’ll feel really lonely, Boo-hoo. Poor me, I’m lonely. Anyways, how’d yall like the really long chappie? I like long chappies, so that’s why I wrote one. Just kidding. It’s long because Harry had to tell his story, as you can tell by the chapter title, but I can make them all long if that’s what you want. PLEASE TELL ME!!!!!!!!!!!!~