Chapter ten

Three weeks had passed since aunt Minerva had warned him. Harry had found that Dumbledore was keeping a close eye on him. He felt the man watching him during breakfast, lunch and dinner. Harry had asked Hedwig to deliver his letters to his dormitories, so Dumbledore couldn't see him getting a lot more letters then usually. The four teens had fun writing to Tonks, she was very funny and didn't hide the fact that she liked Remus at all. Remus was a bit more reserved, but it was clear he liked Tonks as well. Hermione had started her research on animagi. She had found it took most persons months. Harry however had already started his training. Hermione had scowled a bit at him for it, but Harry reassured her he was only looking for his animal within him.

In the meantime classes went on. Potions was the same as ever. Snape still hated Harry and the Gryffindors. Harry just ignored him for most of the time. Defence against the Dark Arts was dull. Lockhart often played scenes from his own books out and Harry was the one who got stuck playing Lockhart's opponents every time. History of Magic was the same as ever. Harry tried to stay awake, but it proved very difficult. Harry enjoined his other lesson though.

Harry was sitting in the common room with Ron, Hermione and Ginny when something strange occurred. A strange creature appeared in front of him. "Harry Potter is in danger, Harry Potter must leave Hogwarts immediately." The creature said. "Calm down." Harry said. "Who are you?" "I'm Dobby sir, Dobby is a house elf, but dark things are going to happen and Harry Potter must leave now." Dobby said. "What is going to happen then?" Ginny asked. "Dobby can't tell." Dobby said, banging his head on the floor. "Stop punishing yourself Dobby. Why can't you tell me?" Harry asked. "Master forbid Dobby, Dobby can't tell. Dobby is a bad elf for coming. Bad Dobby." Dobby said, banging his head once more. "Master is calling Dobby, Dobby must go." Then he turned to Ginny. "Don't trust the book that writes back." He said and with that he left. Ginny looked at Harry: "That was strange, the Hat said something like that to." "What?" Ron asked. "well, if the Hat and Dobby said it, I think you shouldn't trust it." Hermione and Ginny agreed with that. They spoke about what Dobby could have meant for a while, but no one knew it. In the end they decided to go to bed. Maybe sleep could give them answers.

The next day Ginny was laying on her bed. Harry, Ron and Hermione still had class for another twenty minutes. She wondered what she should do in her free time. Normally she would do her homework, but she was already finished. Ginny grinned, Hermione would be proud of her. She decided she would do some sketching. She wasn't particularly good at it, but she enjoyed it and it couldn't hurt. She opened her trunk in search for some parchment. She found an old worn diary. She couldn't remember it, but it didn't look like it had been used, so she decided to use it. Ginny started sketching. She had decided to sketch her dorm, so she could show her parents. But as soon as she had made a couple of lines, the lines disappeared. "Hello." The book seemed to write back. Ginny wanted to write back, but the her Father's Dobby 's and the Hat's warning shot through her. Frightened she closed the book. She run towards the common room, the diary in her hand. Thank Merlin Harry, Ron and Hermione just came through the portrait hole.

"What's wrong sis? Has someone done something to you?" Ron asked. Ginny shook her head. Trilling she nodded towards the diary. Luckily Harry seemed to catch on. He took her hand and let her to the sofa where he putted her in his lap. He took the diary from her and gave it to Hermione, who also seemed to have caught on. Ron took one look at the diary and sat down next to Harry. He began stroking Ginny's hair. "Don't worry sis, we will throw it away." He kept reassuring her, while Harry hold her close. Together the two boys managed to calm Ginny down. "What happened?" Harry asked soft. "I, I was sketching and suddenly my lines disappeared. Then the book seemed to write back. It said Hello. I closed the book and ran downstairs." Ginny said, still shocked. "You did well." Harry whispered reassuring, or at least he hoped. He didn't have any experience at comforting someone, but looking at Ginny he seemed to be doing well." "We should bring this to professor McGonagall." Hermione said. "I'll see if I can catch aunt Minerva's attention, but else we will stay after class tomorrow. Is that okay Ginny?" Harry asked. Ginny nodded: "But please don't let me keep it, I don't want it close." "I'll take it." Ron said. He took the diary from Hermione and went to bring it upstairs.

"Do you want to go down or stay here?" Hermione asked after a while. "Down." Ginny said. "Come on then, I'm hungry." Ron said, as if to prove it, his stomach growled at that moment. The four friends laughed. The tension was forgotten for a moment. At dinner Harry felt Dumbldore's gaze on them again. Harry looked at the head table pretending to be talking to Ginny. He noticed Dumbledore looked almost expectant. "Watch out what you eat or drink." He told the other three as casual as possible. "He's looking a bit to expectant if you ask me." Ignoring the urge to look at the head table Hermione asked: "What should we do, it's not like we can't eat." Harry sighed. "I think I have an idea." Ginny said. "Pretend to be eating, I'll ask Fred and George to ask us to take us away."

Ginny threw something at George, or Fred, it was a piece of parchment. It read:

Take us out of here. Will explain later.

G.

Fred and George nodded to her and started bickering with her immediately. They bickered for a while and Harry, Ron and Hermione joined them soon with it. Fred and George stood up and started tickling Ginny. She tried to tickle them back, but found she couldn't reach them. So she stood up. One of the twins found a particular ticklish spot. Ginny shrieked. Everyone in the Great Hall was watching them now. "I'll get you." Ginny said slowly, but hard enough to be overheard. "Help." The twins said, pretending to be afraid. Ginny started walking towards them. The twin turned around as one and walked as fast as possible without running away. "I think we should follow them before she does something to them." Harry said, loud enough for Dumbledore to hear him. Harry, Ron and Hermione stood up and walked after Ginny and the twins. They hadn't eaten much, but everything was better than letting Dumbledore come between them.

"So, what's going on?" One of the twins asked. Everyone looked at Harry, Harry sighed and decided to explain a bit. "For some reason we don't know Dumbledore has been trying to get between us. I noticed he was looking very expectant at us. I didn't trust it and told Ron, Hermione and Ginny. You know the rest." Harry explained. "That's pretty bad." The twins agreed. The rest of the evening was spent thinking of ideas to avoid getting slipped a potion. The twins came up with a brilliant idea. They would eat in the kitchen. They would sit at the Gryffindor table, but as far away from Dumbledore as possible and they would only act like they had eaten. It would take a lot of acting skills, so they spent a lot of time practicing. Ron came up with the brilliant idea to take some food from the kitchen with them.

The next morning they decided to test their idea. They went under Harry's cloak to the kitchen. They ate a small breakfast and took a little with them. Next they went to a route that would suggest they came from the Gryffindor tower. They went to the Great Hall and sat down as far away from Dumbledore as possible. They made sure they were talking and laughing the whole time and occasionally putted a bit of food in their mouths. Ron's plate was full as always off course, but Hermione did small disappearing charms on his food and he ate the one that came from the kitchen. It was a bit of work but they managed it. They occasionally looked at the Head Table. Everyone confirmed that Dumbledore was again looking expectantly at them.

After a while the second part of their plan was set in motion. They had agreed with Fred and George that they would start a prank war with the and Lee Jordan. Since they had attacked Ginny the night before it was Ginny's turn. She nodded at Harry. Harry hid his wand from Fred and George, but made sure Dumbledore could see it, and murmured something. At first it seemed nothing had happened, but soon their food started to run all over the table. Fred and George burst out laughing, but soon they found out they couldn't get it. "This is war!" they exclaimed. Lee grinned. "I'm in." he said. Harry and Ginny wended to Ron and Hermione. They nodded, just as they had agreed the night before. "Challenge accepted." Harry shot back. Everyone in the Great Hall had heard them and so knew that a prank war was starting right now. The had agreed to announce it this loud, so Dumbledore knew what was going on. Professor McGonagall rose up from the Head Table. "Ten pints for Gryffindor for an excellent performance of the locomotor spell." She said to Harry when she was close to them. She winked to Harry and left the Great Hall. "Did she just wink at you?" Ron asked. Harry grinned: "I think she has just figured out what is going on."