AN/ I own nothing. Hope you enjoy this chapter!!!

Warning: Slash. Just like all my fics. Get over it.

The Carnival

Chapter 4

Harry woke hours before dawn a few days after the dream, with the image of Draco looking to him with hope and trust. It had been there with him since he promised to help. Each time he got a chance he tried to go see Dumbledore, but it got harder and harder, what with more attacks happening in the magical and muggle world. He sat up, knowing he wasn't going to be able to get back to sleep. He opened his side table draw and smiled at the picture of Draco he had drawn. Pushing the draw back closed, Harry swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. He changed quickly into jeans and button up shirt and edged his way through the maze of beds in the dorm since more people had been forced to stay at the school when their homes became dangerous or destroyed.

Once out of his dorm, Harry trotted down the stairs and out of the common room, also with some people sleeping there. Continuing his way until in the hallway, Harry suddenly broke out in a run, pent up energy finally being released after being unable to leave the castle, the halls too crowded for anything more then a shuffle to get through. Feeling the rush of cool air on his face and through his hair, Harry let himself get lost in the feeling, letting his mind forget, just for the moment about all the things in his life. It was then that he really began missing Quidditch and being able to fly, too many things needing to be done around the castle to keep it up to live-able standards, with cleaning and maintenance needing to be done each day, as the house elves now had to cook for so many more people, Dumbledore looking for more of the creatures to work and also some people to help Filch out. Meanwhile all of the remaining students were given essays to complete on a weekly basis, tutoring available for the younger years from the seniors, while the seniors were able to get lessons on certain days when the teachers weren't doing things for the order or organization of the visitors.

No exams were going to be done, but this way, when, or more suitably, if the school ever got back to normalcy and there were enough people left, they wouldn't be too far behind from being able to complete the last of their schooling. It was a hard life for the teens, but also for the families with younger children, who would usually have nothing to do except wander the castle, not being allowed outside by themselves due to the danger of the creatures in the forest, which had recently started to venture out of the dense trees. The older students and adults were allowed to go out, as long as they went in groups of at least four.

Slowing down as his adrenaline dropped, Harry looked around and found himself in one of the rarely used corridors near Dumbledore's Office. He guessed it was just because that's what his mind was on, but he still had a tingling feeling in his spine, urging him to continue on along the same corridor, quickly loosing himself in thought again. Weaving his way through the halls, passing the gargoyle statue and continuing on through more hollow and silent halls, slowing when he heard a sound other then his own steps and breathing. Coming to a stop, he realized that whoever it was had only one way to go, directly where Harry was.

Cringing, Harry turned and began heading back the way he came, being careful to keep his foot falls silent and breathing down. Keeping far enough ahead not to be seen or heard, but still being able to keep an ear out for where the other was, Harry continued on, passing the guard of Dumbledore's office and slipping into one of the passageways behind a portrait near to the statue, stopping at the mouth and moving the portrait to its natural place, hiding any signs of him being there, he sat and waited. Seconds later, he heard the footsteps come closer, stopping, he guessed, at the Gargoyle. The password muttered, the voice obviously the Headmaster's, before the elderly man could start the ascend up the stairs, Harry stepped out from behind the portrait, startling Dumbledore for a moment before he realized who it was and said sternly, "What are you doing out here at this time of night Harry, especially without anyone with you?"

Harry blushed slightly, he didn't know what to say, the number of times he had been told not to go anywhere alone, particularly at night. "I'm sorry Sir, but I couldn't sleep and I needed some time alone."

Dumbledore nodded, "I see that you were hiding, why reveal yourself to me Harry instead of waiting for me to leave?" he asked, he knew by now not to try and push Harry into going back to bed until he was ready, he chose alternatively to question the boy who was notorious for being able to slip away unnoticed and keep himself out of trouble when it isn't looking for him.

Harry paused for a moment, trying to organize his thoughts and how he could tackle the task of persuading the intelligent and manipulative man into doing as he needed. The image of Draco flashed by his eyes, tired and hopeful, giving him the courage to face up to the Headmaster and plead for Draco's innocence. "Sir, you remember the trip I did out to the muggle Carnival? Well something happened there that I didn't tell you about, would we be able to go to your office and I tell you there? As deserted at this place may seem, we both know how Hogwarts is with keeping secrets." Dumbledore's curiosity was struck and Harry knew it, it was needed for him to be able to tell his whole tale without interruption.

Once they were seated in the office, the door closed portraits actually asleep for once and Fawkes on his perch, head tucked away under a wing. "Please Harry, do go on."

Harry bit his lip and looking the old man in the eye, "Sir please do not interrupt me, just let me explain everything before you jump to conclusions. While I was there, I ran into Draco Malfoy…" a gasp from Dumbledore was heard as Harry expected and holding up his hand, knowing questions would soon follow of what happened, "Just listen sir…" the young hero said tiredly, before continuing his tale, leaving out how Draco and himself had actually met, just saying they recognized each other. He told of his promise to try and the dream, he told of the hopelessness Draco had felt before Harry had mentioned helping, and how the young man really was worn out and begged for Dumbledore to believe him that it wasn't an attempt to capture Harry or find secrets.

Once Harry had told everything he could, he took a breath in and waited for a reaction from Dumbledore. The headmaster didn't talk for quite a while, his face expressionless and eyes without their sparkle. Harry didn't know what to do, didn't know if he should say anything. So he sat, and waited and pleaded with any god that could have been listening for the headmaster to trust him, hoping he had made the right choice telling him what happened, worry began to wriggle into his mind and clench at his heart when he saw Dumbledore nod his head slightly, a hint of a smile begin to form. "Well this is certainly something I did not expect…" he said looking down to his desk, shuffling papers around distractedly. "However, before I can agree to help, I need some idea of how you are going to help him. What do you want to do? Get him out? Shut down the camps? Help more people then just him? Not only this, but how are you going to do it? How can we get help to him?"

Harry pondered this for a moment, he was now hopeful, the fact that Dumbledore had brought up so many questions meant that he was seriously thinking it through, while at the same testing how much Harry really wanted this. The two continued talking through the morning, by the time Harry had gotten Dumbledore to agree, it was getting to the end of breakfast time and the young man was exhausted but at the same time extremely please with his accomplishment. He looked to the Headmaster and saw that he too was tired, "Sir, if it's okay with you, would I be able to go down to breakfast? I believe Ron and Hermione may start to worry as to where I am." Dumbledore nodded his approval, and waved Harry out of the room.

The Gryffindor stood and left the room, not for the excuse he gave the headmaster, but to give the old man some time to rest, he had obviously not slept since the day before as he had been out on Order business until Harry found him hours before. Not bothering to go to the Great Hall, Harry headed up to the Gryffindor Common room, and glancing around saw that his friends had already left, as had most people, except those rearranging the room for day use from the camping area it had been only just before. Harry walked tiredly up the stairs to his dorm and entered it; it was completely empty of people, so he lay down on his bed, wanting to get a nap before heading down to give Hermione and Ron the good news.

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Harry woke suddenly to someone landing on him heavily. Sitting up and grabbing his wand, he luckily saw who it was before any spell was cast, "Ginny! What are you trying to do?! Give me a heart attack or get yourself killed?" Harry said putting his wand back up his sleeve and looking to the girl.

She just grinned and ran out the door, yelling out, "Don't worry guys he was just up here sleeping!!" before turning around and jumping on him again. "No big brother, I was trying to get you to wake up, do you realize how much you scared everyone? So where were you?" she asked while Harry tried to push her off him. Rolling off him of her own will and pushing at him as he tried to get to her resulted in him falling half off the bed. Striking then, she lunged forward and started tickling him, giving him no chance to try and right himself, but holding him still on the bed.

Harry continued laughing, unable to get a proper breath in meant that he couldn't get the strength needed to sit up, combined with Gin constantly fighting away any attempts of his to tickle her back meant that after only a few minutes he was calling for mercy. Laughing like a madman, Ginny sat back and let Harry fall off the bed at the sudden movement, this caused the young girl to laugh once more and stick her head over the edge, grinning like the child she was. Harry lay on his back, glowering at the young red head. "Hmph just for that I won't tell you where I was!" he said grumpily. Ginny just grinned again and rolled off the bed again landing on heavily on the poor boy again. "FINE!! ALRIGHT!!! I give!" the two stood laughing, Ginny brushing her clothes off before sitting down heavily on Harry's bed again, as he slumped against the head board. She turned to him and raised an eyebrow in question.

"Fine… I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk and ended up going and talking to Dumbledore…" Harry said as Hermione and Ron walked in. "I told him about what happened when I went to the carnival and was able to persuade him into helping to get Draco out. We have been awake since trying to figure out what we should do and how." Hermione nodded, he could tell she disapproved of the late hours but didn't say anything bout it, of which he was thankful, while Ron on the other hand was just annoyed that he didn't tell them that he was going anywhere. Ginny just smiled, she had been told about what had happened when she kept on pestering them about it after having woken Harry up in such a manner as before and finding a drawing of Draco under his pillow after he had drawn another one and hadn't been bothered to put it away since it had been extremely late.

Harry went through all of what he and the Headmaster had come up with. Next time Draco got in contact with him, Harry was to find out how many other people he thought wanted to get out as well and would be willing to put their services to aid Dumbledore. From there, he was to try and gain some idea of where the camp was and how many people there were, as trainers and trainees. A set up of the camp was also needed so that they could figure out if it would be easier to just get Draco to take himself on one of the scout trips again and get him out of it, try and get him to lead a group under the pretence of collecting information or just take over the camp.

Together they came up with some extra ideas to make it easier, even trying to figure out a way that would make it seem less like Draco outright defied the Dark Lord and that it just happened that the Order got him or something like that. Ginny came up with the idea to fake his death, which seemed to work better then just kidnapping him as that would then mean that the Dark Order may try and get him back. When they had started it had been around ten and they soon found themselves in need of food at around noon and so they headed down for lunch, and after that heading off to do the chores required of them or finish some of their class work and helping the younger students.

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AN/ Thank you to my Beta Gemma!!

The people shouldn't fear its government; the government should fear its people.

- V for Vendetta

One death is a tragedy; a million is just a statistic.

- Marilyn Manson