A/N: Hey guys! We are so sorry for the very, very, very long delay. But, first year of high school, it was a bit busy. We had no classes together so we couldn't talk, although we did get to school together in the mornings but I (Jamie) don't function very well in the AM. Ha-Ha! I am most definitely not a morning person. So here is the next chapter, FINALLY! We finished it during final exams since there was lots of extra time. Once again, WE ARE VERY, VERY, VERY, SORRY! Hope you enjoy the really long awaited chapter!
P.S. How amazing was the movie! OH MY GOD! And incase you all forgot in the century that we haven't written, this is set in Harry's sixth year, post Order of Phoniex, Pre Half Blood Prince, so Dumbledore is still alive.
Chapter 7: The Morning After
"We love you," was the last thing he heard his parents say before he was once again pulled through the Mirror of Erised.
Harry didn't even notice the sudden pain that laced through him as he landed hard on his knees back in the dusty room with the Mirror of Erised. He didn't care that Ginny probably knew that he loved her. And he didn't care that Ron and Hermione and Ginny were all staring at him with concerned eyes. He was just kneeling there, in front of the mirror that held his life, the reasons why he was who he was today. Without them, he wouldn't have been "The Boy Who Lived," he wouldn't have been, "Harry Potter, Gryffindor's youngest and best seeker," and he wouldn't have been the boy with the supposed vicious murderer as a godfather. Lily, James, and Sirius were what Harry was, and he knew it. And now that he could never touch them again, he didn't know what to do.
"Harry?" Hermione's soft, kind voice came out of the silence and then there was a warm, little hand on his arm that made him shiver at the touch. He turned around slowly, keeping his eyes on the mirror until the last possible second to make sure he couldn't possibly get through. Finally, he looked at the three of them; Harry saw the concern in their eyes. Ginny's more understanding then Ron's or Hermione's, but still, he knew they all loved him and cared for him, no matter what he did in the aftermath of this encounter.
"I have to go see Dumbledore,' Harry muttered quietly, before sprinting off to the headmaster's office.
By the light coming in the windows, Harry knew it was around dusk and just after dinnertime. But he didn't care; he wasn't hungry. All he wanted was his parents.
Upon reaching the stone gargoyle, he came to a sudden stop in order to catch his breath and speak the password, but the gargoyle had already hopped aside revealing the spiraling staircase, which Harry rushed up, as if his life depended on it.
At the top, the door opened just as Harry reached it, allowing his entrance to the circular office, with Dumbledore sitting quietly at his desk.
"Good evening, Harry, I knew you'd be arriving soon," Dumbledore greeted him calmly. "Please make yourself comfortable. Sit down and have a glass of butter beer," he said while conjuring a bottle of it.
"I-I can't," Harry stuttered. "I don't know what to do now. This changes my whole life."
"Yes, well that makes sense. But I'm not going to say I understand after what happened the last time I understood." Dumbledore comforted, remembering the last time Harry had been in his office.
"I'm 16 and I met my parents for the first time, and saw Sirius again. And to top it all off, I'm given a power I don't even know I had, or how to use it," Harry said, pacing in front of Dumbledore.
"It can be a little nerve racking to have these…unusual things happen to anyone, especially an adolescent such as yourself. But please do, calm down and have a seat so that we can talk about these changes to your life," pleaded Dumbledore.
Facing the fact that nothing good could come from pacing, except wasting energy, Harry pulled out the offered chair and plopped down in it.
"Thank you,' Dumbledore started, "Now, let's start with the easiest and most important to you at the moment. Those magical mirrors. Accio! Within moments the mirrors came flying through the window into Dumbledore's waiting hands. Harry had tried to hand repair them upon arriving back at the Dursley's to overcome his boredom. He'd tried krazy glue, duct tape, liquid nails, but nothing worked. So he eventually settled for the old masking tape he'd always used to repair his glasses. He realized what a stupid mistake he had made, breaking the only remaining object he had of Sirius's, and spent almost the whole summer trying different techniques.
"Excuse me, sir. But how did you know that Sirius said for you to fix the mirrors. I haven't said anything to anyone about that yet," Harry questioned.
"Dear, Dear Harry. You should know me by now. I have my little secrets everywhere. I know almost everything that goes on in this school," explained Dumbledore.
"Ev-ery-thing?" Harry said quietly and slowly, feeling a deep red flush creeping into his cheeks.
"Almost everything. I do respect my students' privacy," Dumbledore said, reminding Harry of the honorable man that he was. "So, you can leave these with me for now and I will work on them to figure out a way for you to communicate with your parents and god father."
"But, what about this power of mine?" Harry wondered.
"Right, this shouldn't take long," Dumbledore said, standing up and starting to walk around his office. 'When you were born the prophecy was made that you had a greater power that Lord Voldemort. This power was, of course, that of mind reading, allowing you to see into his mind without him knowing, therefore allowing you to protect yourself against the spells he was planning to throw at you.
"This power also included mind control, allowing you to perhaps turn his followers against him or something of that sort. But your parents and I had a long discussion a few weeks after your were born, just before you were able to use the power, about what we should do. We decided to extract your power because we wanted you to grow up as a normal wizarding child with no extra power. Obviously that didn't happen due to that terrible night with the death of your parents." At that, Harry's eyes widened and glazed over as he sunk lower into the chair. " In that meeting, we decided to give you back your power when you were mature and strong enough to wield it, so the age of 16 was agreed upon.
The power was stored in an ombre de puissance, a powerful magical object. I believe your parents have sent it back to it's secure location, so now I can summon it." Dumbledore performed the same spell Sirius had in Vie dans Ciel, and Harry watched as his power, once again, came into view. "I'll keep this safe in my office for now. I will send an owl to you when the mirrors are fixed and the five of us can work on getting this back in you,' Dumbledore ordered.
"Sure, whatever, that's fine with me,' Harry agreed solemnly, standing up and leaving.
"Good night Mr. Potter,' Dumbledore said over his shoulder as he and Harry walked off in their separates directions, him towards his pensieve and Harry for the door.
'Do you think he'll be okay?" Ron asked Hermione and Ginny. They had been walking back to the Gryffindor Tower from the deserted corridor in silence thinking about what was going to happen. But Ron couldn't take the silence anymore.
"Of course he'll be okay, he's Harry, he's always ok…after a while," Ginny said knowingly.
"Yes, but exactly how long do think that 'after a while' will be?" Ron replied.
"We may never know in advance. But we'll just have to help him through it won't we?" explained Hermione.
"Yeah, that's what we're here for. We're the ones who keeps him living," said Ron. "Nothing will ever be the same again will it, now that he has power?"
"No, it won't," Hermione replied, putting her hand on his shoulder, and sending delightful shivers through his body. Ginny, who had been walking along quietly thinking about the past events was surprised by this loving gesture. And even more alarmed when Ron didn't blush and act awkward after. Ron and Hermione almost never touched except when they hugged hello or good-bye. So, obviously this meant something had happened between them that she didn't know, but was determined to find out.
"I haven't seen you two since breakfast. Oh! And Miss Weasley, I haven't seen you since last night. Where have you been!" The fat lady demanded sounding very motherly.
"I'm sure you'll know soon enough. But I'm tired. Excuse me, Ne soyez pas Lion lache." The fat lady's portrait swung forward, obediently allowing Ron Hermione and Ginny to enter the common room, where Ron sat down on the comfy armchairs in front of the fire and they waited for Harry to come back from the headmaster's office.
"I wonder if he's okay?" Hermione thought aloud, with a sad look on her face, "He didn't seem to happy about what happened when he left."
"Didn't we already go over this, he's always okay after a while remember?" Ginny reminded them playfully.
"Yeah, but Gin, what really did happen in there?' Ron asked, "he was the total opposite of what the reaction should be to getting a power, and the prophecy didn't even call for his death."
"Oh, and start at the beginning,' Hermione reminded, "We have to hear everything."
"Well, last night I was sitting in the common room at, like elevenish, studying of course." she added grudgingly, remembering once again it was her OWL year. "And then I saw Harry's foot pass by me, he was wearing his invisibility cloak. So I followed him out of the tower. He was running pretty fast so I was able to follow his footsteps. He ran down to the entrance hall where we found Dumbledore with the Mirror of Erised. Dumbledore led us to that room the mirror was in and then left, so I went in. And then,' Ginny continued with a sigh as she blushed a rose color, "We had this whole fiasco about what we both saw in the mirror and then I saw Harry's par-" Ginny had heard the portrait whole open and whipping her head around really fast she continued, "Parrots! We met Harry's parrots!" Ginny exclaimed, looking at Ron and Hermione nervously. She didn't know if Harry would be all right with her telling them.
"What? Harry doesn't have any parrots! If anything you would have met-Ow!" Ron howled as Hermione elbowed him in the ribs.
"Yeah, real nice save Gin. It's fine you can tell them, but I'm going to bed." Harry said gloomily, walking right past them to the staircase leading to the dormitories."
"Hey…wait!" Hermione called, jumping out of the chair and over to Harry. "What did Dumbledore say?"
"Nothing really," Harry replied, turning to go.
"You'll talk to us tomorrow right? We have to know Harry, you know we do." Hermione reminded him. "It's in the prophecy." Harry didn't say anything in response to that. He just turned away and walked up the stairs, leaving Hermione looking after him trying to understand what was going on inside his head.
The following morning, Ginny awoke to a beautiful, sun-shining day, perfect to spend in Hogsmeade. But realizing she still had one more day left of classes until the weekend, Ginny groaned and aroused to start the day.
The morning was Ginny's favorite time of day. It was her time to get clean and make herself beautiful. The birds were always chirping in the spring and the world was so quiet and peaceful in the winter. Peacefulness allowed her to think. Therefore the morning was her time to think. And the shower was the best to do that, so that's what she did.
The morning sun lighted the prefects' bathroom spectacularly. And it was entirely empty since no one ever chose to wake-up very early. But, Ginny had always been an early riser, so she took advantage of the loneliness. Ginny's thoughts started turning as she stepped into the hot, lavender scented stream of water she had drawn up for her shower. What would happen between her and Harry now that he knew she loved him? When and how were they going to be able to give Harry his power back? But, then a most surprising thought occurred to her as she was rinsing the shampoo out of her hair. "The desire of two hearts will be the key to open the reflection of his past."
"Oh my god," Ginny murmured to herself. Through all the excitement, Ginny had not realized, Harry loved her too. "The desire of two hearts," she desired him and he desired her, once they had established that a couple nights ago, Harry's parents were visible to her, opening Vie dans Ciel. But wait, she thought to herself, Harry didn't say anything about seeing me in the mirror, he said he only saw his family.
But he paused and then said Sirius, showing he was replacing something or someone with Sirius, who is his family, as a desire, thought the more aggressive confident side of her.
So, that doesn't mean anything, he could have had something caught in his throat, Ginny's timid side argued back.
He was blushing a lot up there when it came to the part about the prophecy, confident Ginny remarked.
Don't be stupid, shy Ginny retorted.
"This is ridiculous!" Ginny scolded herself out loud, "I need help." Ending her argument with herself, Ginny went off to find her best friend, who also happened to be closely acquainted with Harry.
"Don't you think we should wake him up? Breakfast only lasts for so long you know." Neville questioned. He was referring to Harry who was still sound asleep and probably didn't plan on waking up.
"Yeah, then there's classes and he already missed yesterday's. Who knows what the teachers will say if he misses today's too," added dean Thomas while securing his tie.
"Especially Professor Snape," squeaked Neville exhibiting his fear for the potions master.
"Too true, too true," replied Seamus, "But what I really want to know is where he was all yesterday."
"Ginny wasn't around either and I'm thinking she was with him. They've been hanging out a lot lately," said Dean thoughtfully, "I don't like that."
"You should know," retorted Ron remembering Dean had been Ginny's boyfriend for a few months. "Wait, she broke up with you over the summer, what do you care?"
"She broke up with me," Dean repeated, "I still like her. It would be a different story if I had broken up with her."
"Mate, that' s a rather feminine thing to say," teased Seamus, "Hey, did you sit around blubbering and eating ice cream, watching romance movies after the break-up, like one of those wimpy girls?"
"Crying over the realization that you could never touch that amazing body again," Neville added.
"Ugh, that's disgusting!" Ron scolded, "I don't want to ever hear you talking about my sister again!"
"You have got to admit, she's really hot though," said Seamus.
"EW, EW, EW! Gross! I will not admit to that, I will not admit to anything! She's my sister!" Ron yelled.
"Shhh! You're gonna wake him up!" Neville whispered.
"Well, you know what? I want to wake him up," replied Ron, while walking over to Harry's bed "Get someone non-perverted in here to talk to."
"Oh, good, then he could tell us where he was yesterday," exclaimed Seamus, walking over, eagerly awaiting a story.
"Harry," Ron said, gently tapping his shoulder, "Harry, wake up."
"No Gin, not now," Harry murmured, apparently still asleep.
"Looks like you've got no one on your side now, mate," Seamus said, putting his arm around Ron's shoulders and looking down at Harry. The response to that was a roar of laughter from Neville, Dean, Seamus and surprisingly, Harry.
"I thought you were asleep!" Ron exclaimed, hoping Harry might be in a good mood if he was laughing.
"No, I didn't sleep all night, but I couldn't resist," Harry replied gloomily. His mood showed he was still upset, but there was nothing like a good joke to start the morning.
"Of course you didn't sleep," agreed Seamus.
"You were up all night shagging my ex-girlfriend," Dean replied. Now it was only Neville, Dean and Seamus rolling around with laughter.
"Weren't you tired? You haven't slept in two days." A concerned Ron asked, following Harry to the bathroom where he turned on the shower to let it warm up.
"Yes, I'm tired but that doesn't mean I don't have insomnia," Harry retorted taking off his shirt.
"Oh, don't worry, we have history of magic today, you can sleep in class and then copy my notes," Ron offered.
"Thanks."
"And then at lunch you can tell me, Hermione and Ginny what happened in Dumbledore's office," Ron replied smartly. Watching Harry as he felt the steaming water.
"Of course I will," Harry said sarcastically, "But that has to happen after I shower and eat, because I haven't done any of those in two days either!" His voice had risen to a yelling volume, and to end the conversation, he slammed the shower stall door in Ron's face.
"Well," Ron murmured leaving the bathroom and heading for the common room, "We can see someone got up on the wrong side of the bed…only because my sister was on the other side of it."
"Hermione Granger!" Ginny yelled, hearing it echo throughout the girl's dormitory. After a couple seconds of no response but other Gryffindor girls staring at her, she raced up the stairs to her part of the dormitory to put her bathroom caddy away, and then went on a hunt. She needed an answer and pronto.
"Hermione!" Ginny yelled, "Where are you?" Remembering that she had missed all her classes yesterday, Ginny figured she would be in the library, studying her heart out so that she would not be behind. Grabbing her books for the day, Ginny dashed out of Gryffindor tower and sprinted to the library.
On the way, Ginny noticed many points and whispers headed in her direction. Her absence from school yesterday had spread amongst the students and rumors had been made of her whereabouts. But she didn't care; all she cared about was getting to Hermione.
Upon reaching the library, Ginny rushed to Hermione's favorite spot, a dusty book shelf-shielded corner in the ancient runes section.
"Oh thank god I found you," Ginny greeted Hermione breathlessly.
"I'll be sure to get the message through next time I go to church," Hermione joked, "Why did you need to find me?" she continued closing her book to show Ginny had her full attention.
"Oh, well, uhhh…I had a question," she paused as she sat down opposite Hermione, "about Harry," she continued, her cheeks blushing a light rose color.
"Oh, I see," Hermione understood, "You were thinking about the prophecy."
"Yeah, I was in my thinking spot, Ironically it's far from here."
"To each her own," Hermione said patiently. "The prophecy does say 'The desire of two hearts will be the key to open his past' meaning the two hearts' desire must desire for each other opens the entrance to Vie dans Ciel. And since it worked, obviously you desire him and he desires you."
"That's what I thought," Ginny replied calmly. "Oh my god," she breathed, "I'm in love!"
"Yes you are," Hermione agreed, turning back to her book and hoping Ginny wouldn't think any further. After all, she wasn't sure if Ron wanted anyone to know yet.
"Wait…you and Ron were the ones to open the exit," Ginny said slowly, "And the entrance is the same as the exit. And you were really close when we saw you through the mirror. Good gracious, you and Ron are in love too!"
"Oh…I was hoping you wouldn't realize that. Ginny! You're not supposed to think! You're not in your thinking spot!" Hermione scolded.
"Oh who cares!" Ginny replied, and then grabbing Hermione and jumping up and down she sang, "We're in love! We're in love! We are the desire of our desires' hearts!"
"Shhh! This is a library! Not a choir class!" scolded Madame Pince as she walked by, re-shelving books for the day ahead.
"I knew you would get over excited," Hermione said regrettably.
"Come on, come on, come on. We've got to go to breakfast to see the loves of our lives. Oh this is so exciting!" Ginny exclaimed waiting for Hermione to gather her books. When she finally had them all in her bag, Ginny grabbed her arm and started tugging her along and then all of a sudden she screamed, "Ahhh! I'm so excited!"
Madame Pince immediately popped her head around the corner to find Hermione lagging behind Ginny whispering her apologies.
Ginny and Hermione walked into the Great Hall, arm in arm, whispering to each other about their plans for making their relationships official. They had already ruled-out running up and kissing them because that was too corny and publicized. They also found that talking about it over breakfast would be awkward. So the final decision came to be asking them out to Hogsmeade the next day. They arrived in front of Ron and Harry with bright, smiling faces, only to find two gloomy ones.
"Okay, let's go!" Ginny ordered, "Turn those frowns upside down…s," she added the "s" at the end very awkwardly with a confused smile on her face and a laugh from Hermione. "Well it rhymed better." She said as her excuse.
"What are you two so happy about?" Ron asked.
"It depends. What are you two so sad about?" Hermione questioned.
"I was happy when I woke up," Ron began, "But then Mr. Unhappy here had to grace us with his presence and spread the gloom."
"Well you better get ready to be happy because we have a surprise for you," Ginny said cheerfully.
"What might that be?" Harry said to his oatmeal, while swirling it around with a spoon.
"You two are going with us to Hogsmeade this weekend." Hermione explained.
"As our dates," Ginny added, making both boys' head whip up to reveal wide surprised eyes.
"Yup, since the prophecy made it clear to us that I love you," Hermione indicated Ron, "And she loves you," she pointed to Ginny and then Harry, "And vice versa," Hermione continued gesturing with her hands, "we decided to make it official and go on our first dates."
"I'm glad you took matters into your own hands. But you gotta make him happy first." Ron said pointing his thumb at Harry.
"Fine," Ginny ordered, "You, me, broom closet, now"
"What?" Harry exclaimed, "You can't be serious. You haven't even eaten yet."
"Oh well, the better my breath will smell, and the better my lips will taste," she replied.
"Ewww," Ron grunted as Hermione laughed, "Too much information."
"You told me to make him happy," Ginny said, defending herself and pulling Harry out of his seat.
"Just don't be late for class," Hermione yelled after them, "You didn't go yesterday, remember?"
"Yes mother!" Ginny yelled over her shoulder. Hermione and Ron watched them leave the Great Hall and saw Ginny slap Harry's rear end before they started talking again, Ron with a most disgusted look on his face.
"Oh come on, don't look like that," Hermione complained, "You know we did the same thing yesterday."
"Yeah, but she's my sister," Ron complained back.
"And she's growing up," Hermione said, "It's time to let go. We are all adults. What's going to happen when she gets pregnant and has a family with Harry? Are you going to be disgusted then?"
"I don't even want to think a bout that. But what I do want to think about is tomorrow and how we are going to spend the whole day together…alone," Ron added the last word with a sly smile on his face while he started tickling her palm and playing with her fingers.
"See, I told you we do the same thing," Hermione said back to Ron with an I-told-you-so tone in her voice as she reached for some pancakes on the center plate.
