I don't own anything in the Potterverse.
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Dawn broke over Lion’s Watch, and Harry knew it was time to face some difficult conversations. The night before, they had all left the game room in relative peace, the events and injuries of the day still fresh in everyone’s minds. Harry knew, however, that today would have to be a day of explanations. He wearily got dressed and went down to the dining room
The room was empty, as it usually was that early in the morning. Harry walked towards the kitchen door and went in. Sitting at the smaller, private dining table, were Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, along with Tonks and Remus. They seemed to be deep in a serious discussion, and Harry quickly made to exit the room.
“Oh, Harry, just the young man we needed to talk to,” Mr. Weasley said a little too brightly.
Harry cringed, knowing that they would want answers about the previous day’s exploits, but he was unsure how much he could tell them. He smiled shyly at the four adults and took a seat at the table. “Good morning.”
They sat there for a moment as Tinky silently placed a cup of coffee in front of Harry. Tonks was the first to speak. “Harry, I thought you may want to know this; um, we got to Lancaster a few minutes after you got back here, from what Remus has told me. The bodies of Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange were recovered. Lucius Malfoy and a bloke named Phil Farmer are in custody.”
Harry’s head began to spin. He was responsible for the death of Bellatrix Lestrange, and as far as he could tell, Neville had killed her husband.
“What were you doing there?” Mr. Weasley asked.
Harry noticed how pale and tired he looked; he could tell that the eldest Weasley was having difficulty with the war in general. He had lost Percy”or at least they didn’t know where he was”and then yesterday his son had been injured and his daughter had been hit with an Unforgivable Curse. Harry didn’t know what to say.
“We were doing what Dumbledore asked us to do,” he stated, unwilling to look either Mr. or Mrs. Weasley in the eyes. “He gave me a mission and I have to finish it before the war can end.”
“Harry, we want to help you. Why can’t you tell us what’s going on?” Remus questioned.
Harry found a spot on the table to stare at, refusing to look up. He could hear the emotion in the voice of his former professor but couldn’t break his promise to Dumbledore not to tell anyone. Dumbledore had involved his friends, but Harry had promised not to reveal the truth about the Horcruxes or the prophecy to anyone else, and he was going to honor that.
“Dumbledore told me not to tell. It would put you all in greater danger if you knew anything about it.”
“But you told Ron, Ginny, and the others,” Mr. Weasley replied. Harry could see the strain in his eyes. He thought that Mr. Weasley was trying desperately to hold it together and not lash out at him.
Shifting uncomfortably in his chair, Harry continued, “Dumbledore involved them. I tried to keep them out of it to protect them, and not let them be part of this, but they wouldn’t listen. Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley, I am sorry. I didn’t want to put them in danger.”
Mrs. Weasley, who was strangely quiet and had refused to look at Harry, finally broke down. She started to cry. Mr. Weasley put a comforting hand on her shoulder, but Harry could see the tears building in his eyes as well.
Remus started again, “Harry, we trust you, we don’t want anything to happen to you or to the others”that’s why we need to know what’s going on.”
“Remus, I know.” Harry began to get frustrated at having to go over the same ground again. “I wish I could tell you, but I just can’t. I wish I could just do this by myself; I tried, but I can’t. I need them to help me, and I need you all to believe me that I won’t put them or myself in any unnecessary danger. But what we have to do is going to be dangerous.”
Harry continued to stare at the table as the oppressive silence began to weigh down everyone in the room. “Mrs. Weasley, I am truly sorry for doing this to your family.” Harry got up to leave.
He was surprised by the loud scraping of a chair behind him. He turned and was engulfed by a Weasley hug to rival any he had received before. Mrs. Weasley was still crying as she embraced Harry with all her might.
“Harry James Potter, I don’t ever want to hear you say that again. You have done nothing to this family except help, support and protect it. We love you as one of our own. Whatever you need to do, we’ll help you in anyway we can.”
She was joined by Mr. Weasley, who placed his hand on Harry’s shoulder and smiled.
“Oy, mum, you keep hugging him like that, people are going to start thinking you fancy him!” Ron announced as he walked into the kitchen. “Is breakfast ready?”
Harry blushed at the comment while Mr. Weasley, Remus, and Tonks all shared a brief chuckle. Mrs. Weasley, however, was not pleased. She turned, her eyes still bright from her tears, hands on her hips, red beginning to build in her face. “Well, Ronald, care to explain to me why you were up ‘til three in the morning with Hermione?” Harry knew that they hadn’t been up to anything and suspected that Mrs. Weasley knew that as well; she was just trying to take the mickey out of her youngest son.
It worked, as Ron turned bright red and began stammering something in the way of a reply.
Hermione walked into the kitchen just as it seemed Ron was going to explode. “We were just talking, Mrs. Weasley,” she declared confidently, taking a seat where Harry had been sitting and taking a drink of his coffee, which he hadn’t touched.
“Of course you were, dear, I was just checking with Ron,” Mrs. Weasley replied, smirking at her son, while she wiped a few stray tears from her eyes. She then walked over, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and promptly sent them all out to the main dining room for a proper breakfast.
An hour later, everyone but Luna and Ginny were up and had finished eating. Harry left the house, wanting to go to his parents’ old home one last time before he returned to school. He wanted to look around a bit more, since he really hadn’t had a chance to yet.
He walked into the front room of the house and started looking around. He had seen the pictures before, had walked in all the rooms, and had looked at the furniture, but it didn’t lessen the emotion he felt being there. He simply walked from room to room, thinking of the memories he could have had growing up in this house. The emotions were not completely sad, nor were they completely happy; they were a mixture of joy at the love that was evident on his parents’ faces in each of the pictures, and sorrow for not having them to share his life with now.
In the den, sitting on his father’s desk was a small photo Harry hadn’t noticed before. It was of his father and mother. They were standing in front of the main house, the fountain with Gryffindor’s lion in the background. James was nearly glowing with pride as he stood there, one arm wrapped around Lily’s shoulder. His other was hand patting a very round belly. She was obviously well into her pregnancy with Harry.
Harry stared at the picture for a very long time, thinking of the love his parents must have had for each other, and for him. Once again, he felt his eyes welling up and growled in annoyance. After what seemed like hours, he left the house, taking the picture with him. He had a couple of things to take care of before they left for school that afternoon.
He walked quickly towards the main house, pushing the flying motorcycle along with him. He stopped in front of the fountain. Closing his mental walls and focusing his mind, he felt for Ginny’s presence. He smiled when he realized that not only could he feel her presence, but that he could pinpoint her in the house. She was on the third floor, in Luna’s bedroom.
He gently brushed her mind with his own. He felt the change in her emotional state, from one of calm to one of slight confusion. He allowed his mind to brush a little harder this time. She was aware something going on but she didn’t seem to be able to put her finger on it. Harry grinned to himself.
Morning Ginny, he thought.
Harry felt a burst of excitement working its way through her. He liked the feeling it gave her, and that excitement trickled down to him as well.
Come flying with me? The excitement level rose.
Harry waited for several minutes, sensing her movement through the house before she finally emerged through the front door.
“Harry, that’s just really cool!” she exclaimed as she approached him. She noticed the bike and had a look of both anticipation and apprehension on her face.
“So, you up to giving this thing a go?” Harry asked, smiling broadly.
She shifted from one foot the other, biting her bottom lip. “Harry, are you sure you know how to ride this thing?”
“Of course. Hagrid showed me a few days ago. Of course, if you’d rather not””
He didn’t get to finish the sentence as she jumped on the back of bike with a squeal. Harry got on in front of her and started the engine. Ginny wrapped her arms around his waist and as they started rolling slowly forward, he felt her arms tighten slightly. Suddenly he accelerated and took off, feeling the satisfying squeeze of Ginny’s arms around his chest.
He could tell, without touching her mind, that she was thrilled with the ride. They rose almost to the clouds and then dipped back down towards the main house. This was better than a broom, since the seat was softer, and it was probably faster. This would be his standard mode of transportation in the future, he decided.
They flew above the grounds of Lion’s Watch for an hour. They saw Ron and Hermione at their new favorite spot, by the pond. They watched as birds soared next to them over the tree tops. Harry took them to the very edge of the property, which was miles in every direction, showing her the different sights of his estate.
Finally, they landed on the path that led to his parents’ old house. They rolled to a stop, and Harry reluctantly allowed Ginny to step off the bike. She seemed a little uneasy on her feet, getting used to standing on the ground again.
Harry looked at her. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair extremely windswept and her eyes shone. Wow, he thought.
Ginny’s head snapped up with a smile. “What’s wow?” she questioned playfully.
Harry blushed a bit but didn’t take his eyes off her. “Ginny, I need to ask you something. Well, tell you something, really.” He began to blush even more.
Ginny stepped closer to him, taking on a very serious expression. “What is it, Harry?”
Harry felt his stomach flip and the beast in his chest roared. “Ginny, I just wanted to tell…”
“Harry, Ginny, hey, where have you two been?” Ron bellowed from behind them. “Mum has been looking all over the place for you two; we have to get going. The Portkey is set for ten minutes from now.”
Harry couldn’t have been more frustrated at that moment. He wanted to go throttle his best friend. Ginny seemed to find his consternation humorous and simply grinned at him. “My brother does have wonderful timing, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah,” Harry growled. “Look, I really need to talk to you.”
“Later; we need to get going, but trust me, later you can tell me whatever you want.” She turned to go, allowing her hand to brush his knee. She then started to jog back towards the main house. “Hurry up and put the bike away, Harry, we don’t want to miss the Portkey.”
Harry, grumbling the entire way, rode back to his parents’ house. He had wanted to show Ginny the house, if she could see it”if the Fidelius Charm had been undone. Unfortunately, he had only thought of that this morning.
He put the bike away and stalked back to the main house. He made it with about a minute to spare. Glaring at Ron, he placed his hand on an old picture frame and felt the tugging behind his navel as he and the others were whisked back to Hogwarts.
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Harry’s day, which had started so wonderfully, had become maddeningly frustrating by that evening.
They arrived in Hogwarts, and Ginny, along with Hermione, Ron, and Luna, had been ordered away to help with the arrival of students back from the Christmas holiday. They were called upon to check the rolls of who had arrived, and who, if anyone, had not returned, and to make sure they were settled back into their common rooms before dinner. This took far longer than usual, since all the new security measures in place for the school had to be followed.
Harry spent the afternoon in the common room. Neville and Parvati chatted with him for a while but it was obvious they wanted some alone time. Harry contented himself with studying Transfiguration, waiting for a chance to get Ginny alone and discuss where their relationship was and where it was going. Every so often he would check his watch and grunt in frustration, since it still didn’t work. < Grrr, why didn’t anyone get me a watch for Christmas?
He tried to escape the common room when Romilda Vane arrived with her pack of boy-crazy fifth years. Since Neville and Parvati were now an item”although Harry didn’t know how Romilda knew, for neither Parvati nor Neville had made it public”Harry seemed to be back on her list of hopeful companions.
She sidled up next to his chair, doing her best to look attractive. “Hi, Harry, have a good Christmas?” She batted her eyes and placed her hand on his shoulder.
He fought to not reflexively brush the hand away, but instead got up and stepped back towards the staircase to the boy dorms. “Hi, Romilda, yeah, Christmas was great; erm, you?” He took another step back towards the stairs but Romilda continued her advance, smiling demurely.
“Yes, Harry, I had a wonderful holiday,” she purred. “Anything new happen while you were celebrating with Ron and Ginny?” Her eyebrows rose as she said Ginny’s name. She took another step closer to him.
“Oh no”well, actually, yes”I mean…well, I need to go get ready for dinner,” he stammered. “See you later, Romilda.” He turned and was up the stairs before she could respond.
He stepped into his room, heart racing, thankful to be out of that situation. She might even be pretty if she wasn’t so aggressive, but, “bwww,” he mumbled with a full body shiver. He stepped over to his bed and noted the time on his clock. 4:15. “Great, still forty-five minutes ‘til dinner, and now I’m stuck in this room.” He flung himself on his bed and tried to relax.
A few minutes later, a thought came to him. He sat up in his bed and raised his walls. He had intended to reach out to Ginny, but as his mental barriers rose and his focus sharpened, for the first time he noticed a faint red glow from the corner by his trunk.
He jumped off the bed and walked over to investigate. He found the box of Black family trinkets, which Aberforth had given him weeks ago. Harry knelt down and picked the box up. Walking over to the bed, he placed it gently on the mattress, as if there was something delicate in it that hadn’t been there before, when he had unceremoniously dropped it in his room.
He began sorting through the contents of the box. He found assorted bits of silver cutlery, golden goblets and plates, and a pewter picture frame, without a picture in it. He reverently placed each item on the bed as he removed it from the box. He wasn’t sure why he was being so gentle, but that just seemed to be what he needed to do.
It took only a few minutes to find the source of the red glow. He tentatively pulled out a heavy locket. It looked just like the one he had seen in the memories he and Dumbledore had witnessed the previous year. In his hand was Slytherin’s locket.
He stumbled back, still holding it in front of his eyes, before finally coming to rest on Ron’s bed. This was the Horcrux Dumbledore had died for. The emotion of that fact was threatening to overwhelm Harry as thoughts of that horrible night raced through his mind.
Neville walked into the room. “Hiya, Harry,” he announced amicably.
“Shhhh,” Harry responded, without looking away from the locket.
“Okay,” Neville replied in a whisper. “What’s that?”
“A Horcrux,” Harry whispered in response.
“Why are we whispering?” Neville questioned, still not daring speak at a normal voice.
“What? Oh sorry, Neville,” Harry said, shaking his head, as if to clear it. “Just sort of got caught up in the moment. This is the locket that Regulus Black took”the one I was hoping to find in Lancaster.”
“It was in our room the whole time?” Neville queried. “Why didn’t we know?”
Harry was beginning to feel very foolish over having not investigated the box sooner. He had had it for months and had simply forgotten it was there. He had risked his friends’ lives and his own on a useless trip to Lancaster when the answer was sitting in his room.
“Harry?” Neville whispered. “You okay? I mean, it’s good news that we found it, right?”
“Yeah, I was just thinking about how stupid I was for not having found it earlier,” Harry replied guiltily.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I do stuff like that all the time. One time Gran sent me this Pumpkin Pasty and I didn’t””
“Thanks, Neville,” Harry cut in. “I appreciate your support.” He really did appreciate Neville trying to make him feel better, but was not interested in hearing about some pastry that went unfound for months, at least not right before dinner.
“So, what do we do? Do we destroy it like last time?”
“That seems like a good idea. We’ll meet in the Room of Requirement after dinner. You don’t have any plans with Parvati do you?”
“No, she needs to work on homework. I do too for that matter, but this is more important,” Neville stated, pride filling his eyes.
Harry waited another twenty minutes before Ron entered the room. He smiled tiredly at Harry. “Good grief! That was a pain. I’ve never seen such chaos in my life. Getting all of us to the train station was mild compared to that.”
Harry didn’t respond. He sat on his bed looking pleased.
“Harry, didn’t you hear me? I said that was really… Hey, listen…” Ron finally got fed up and threw a pillow at his friend. The pillow made contact with Harry’s head and he toppled over.
“Hey, what was that for?” he grumbled.
“Because you weren’t listening to me,” Ron growled back, a smirk beginning to break out on his face.
Harry threw the pillow back at Ron, but he easily ducked it. “Sorry I wasn’t listening; I was just talking to Hermione.” He smiled broadly at Ron’s reaction.
Ron’s eyes widened and he began to open his mouth and close it without sound coming out. Finally he was able to formulate words. “How were you talking with Hermione?”
“I can project words into her mind. At least I can now; this was the first time I’ve been able to do it. I told her I needed her to come up here as soon as she could, Ginny too.”
Ron looked extremely confused by all this. “So you can talk to people, in their heads?”
“Yeah, it’s worked only on Ginny, and now Hermione, but if I practice, I bet I could even talk to you, Neville and Luna.”
“Wicked,” Ron responded, his face changing from confusion to glee. “Try me.”
“Okay.” Harry focused on Ron. “You’re a git.”
“Am not,” Ron bellowed, grabbing another pillow.
Hermione and Ginny walked in just as Harry fired a pillow back towards Ron.
“Male bonding, how adorable!” Ginny proclaimed.
“Harry, how did you do that? I was just sitting in my room and all of a sudden I heard your voice in my head,” Hermione questioned, obviously impressed.
“It’s part of the connection I have with you all. I can sort of talk to you through my mind.”
“So, you have gotten that strong?” Hermione was looking at him in wonder. It made Harry feel a bit uneasy.
“Hey, Harry, this could really come in handy during Potions,” Ron announced.
“It most certainly will not, Ronald,” Hermione rebuked him. “Harry, you must not abuse this ability.”
“Hermione, you know that he would never do something like that,” Ginny interjected.
“Thanks, Ginny,” Harry smiled. “So, back to why I told you I needed to talk with you. I found Slytherin’s locket.” He pulled it out of his pocket and held it up for all to see.
Hermione quickly turned and locked the door, then placed a Silencing Charm on it. “Harry, don’t go announcing things like that without taking precautions.”
“Er, right, thanks,” Harry stammered. He hadn’t really thought he needed to take precautions like that at Hogwarts but he figured she was probably right. “So here it is. We didn’t need to go to Lancaster. It was in the box that Abe gave me a couple of months ago.” He held the locket out, but they all seemed unwilling to touch it.
“Harry, didn’t you mention that Professor Dumbledore had told Aberforth, he thought there was something important in that box?” Hermione asked.
Harry was once again astonished by the memory of his bushy-haired friend. “Yes, he did.”
Hermione seemed to ponder this for a few seconds. “Something about that is strange, but I just can’t put my finger on it.” She took a seat on Ron’s bed and seemed to be deep in thought.
Ginny took the locket, weighing it in her hand. She too seemed to be pondering something. This left Ron and Harry to just stand there feeling lost and out of the loop. After thirty seconds, Ginny finally spoke. “Do you remember when we were cleaning Headquarters a couple of summers ago?”
“You mean the summer when Harry was really moody and all filled with angst?” Ron answered.
“Thanks, Ron,” Harry responded dryly.
“That’s the one!” Ginny exclaimed. “I think we found this locket. It’s the one we couldn’t open.”
Harry and Ron looked stunned. Ginny looked extremely pleased with herself. Hermione looked as if she hadn’t even heard.
“What do we do with it?” Ron asked, coming back to the main subject.
“Tonight, in the Room of Requirement,” Harry responded. “We’ll take care of it then.”
“Great! Well, since we aren’t doing anything now, let’s get something to eat,” Ron announced, getting up.
“You two go ahead,” Harry remarked, suddenly feeling nervous. “Ginny, could you stay for a second?” Ginny nodded silently.
Ron looked like he was going to protest leaving Ginny in Harry’s room, but Hermione quickly marched him towards the door. “We’ll wait for you in the common room. Don’t take too long, though.”
She took the enchantment off the door and unlocked it. Once they had both gone, Harry turned back to Ginny, who was smiling at him. He blushed. Did it just get warm in here?
“Well, what would you like to talk about? I don’t think Hermione will let us stay in here more than a couple of minutes,” Ginny declared.
Harry was feeling much more nervous, now that he was alone with her. He went to his pack and took out the picture of his mother and father. He looked at it again. Why is this so bloody hard? He stepped back in front of her. “Ginny, I need to talk to you.”
Ginny shifted from one foot to another. She smiled gently at him. “You said that, Harry.”
Harry nervously grasped and regrasped the picture in his hand. “Right, um, I said that…I mean...” Have her eyes always been that brown? “I wanted to tell you something.”
Ginny stood, waiting patiently for him.
Harry had had an entire speech ready to go for this moment, and now the words simply would not come. He had thought for months about how he would ask her to rekindle their relationship. He had dared to imagine it being after the final confrontation with Voldemort, but here he was. He was going to try and start a relationship with her again and he had no idea what to say.
His mouth went dry and his brain seemed to have completely shut down. Finally, after what seemed like days, but was in truth only a few seconds, he grasped upon something that Abe had told him during the summer.
“I wanted to say that… you’re worth it.”
Harry had contemplated numerous responses that Ginny could have had when he told her he wanted them to get back together. Although he was vaguely aware that she probably didn’t know all that the words ‘you’re worth it’ meant to him, she could probably figure out that he wanted to go back out with her. He was not prepared for the reaction he got.
The color in Ginny’s cheeks went from a gentle, natural flushed pink, to a vibrant red. Tears leapt to her eyes as her hands came to her mouth, muffling a strangled squeal.
Harry panicked, thinking that somehow he had done something terribly wrong. He, however, did not have time to try and make amends. Before he could say another word, she raced through the door and down the stairs.
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A/N: I certainly hope you liked this one. Harry seems to have finally realized the being with Ginny is worth the risk of losing her in the war. Isn’t that sweet. I really enjoyed working on this one. Great thanks go out to Kerrbear and Cableguysmom for all their help, and to my wonderful betas Ginny Guerra and JenC for all the long hours they spend making this presentable. Thanks ladies, I couldn’t do it with out you.
Up next, we see why Ginny ran out of the room, a trip in another housed common room and a Weasley returns.