A/N: for the record this was done wed. but wouldn't let me upload anything until today. it would've been done tues but i went to the Fox so yeah. sorry for the wait but it is totally not my fault. ENJOY!

Chapter 9

Harry slowly rose from the boulder where he sat. He still has a mission. He still has to do what he promised.

He was sixteen years old. He has experienced a girlfriend, his first kiss, and friends that would do anything for him, even risk their own lives just so that he could live. He has seen his parents even if they were just images in mirrors, pictures, or were just vapors.

He has faced a dragon, talked to mermaids, banished Dementors, and stared at a Basilisk straight in the eye (so what if the Basilisk was blind? He had still looked at it). He knew jinxes, hexes, charms, and transfiguration spells to protect himself and others to a certain point.

He has experienced death in close proximity. He has lost those who meant the most to him, even if he was only one year old. He has seen and experienced torture (mental and physical). He has survived all three Unforgivable Curses.

He has already faced Voldemort six times and lived to tell, where others died without so much as a plea to live. Voldemort may have Harry's blood running through him. He may be stronger than ever. He may be in the valley waiting for Harry knowing that he was going to come.

He may have a trap which may lead Harry to his death. He may rise again in triumph for the time being, but he would be defeated someday. If not today, someday; If not by Harry, if not by Dumbledore, by somebody stronger and better prepared; if not by an enemy, by a friend that backstabs him in the back.

Voldemort might triumph today, but he won't triumph forever. He will be brought down by greed, power, and lovelessness because that is his weakness even if he didn't know it. Voldemort did not know love, he never did. Harry, on the other hand, experienced love every day of his life.

Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Hagrid, Dumbledore, Sirius, his family, the teachers at Hogwarts, most of the students, the Weasleys. The little kids that looked up to a messy haired kid, the parents that admired the bravery of a sixteen year old boy, the people affected by Voldemort's reign of terror, the families of those who had been murdered by Death Eaters or Voldemort himself, the people tortured and disfigured, but still alive, by Death Eaters or Voldemort.

These people loved him. They admired him. Harry loved them, even the people he didn't know or who didn't love him back. He loved them because he needed to, because loving them would help him.

Because love is the greatest magic of all.

"Can I leave yet Madame Pomfrey?" I asked, throwing the covers off of me.

"Just a minute honey," Madame Pomfrey said from her office. She spends more time in her office than she does taking care of her patients. What does she do in there?

"I'm missing all of my classes," I whined, not really caring if I missed my classes or not. So far I had missed Advanced Charms and if Madame Pomfrey kept me any longer I would be missing Advanced Transfiguration. I kind of wanted to go to some of my classes this year. If I was going to fail I might as well try.

"I'm coming," Madame Pomfrey said, walking out of her office with another pill in her hand.

"More medicine?" I asked, taking the pill. I mentally checked myself to see if anything hurt; nothing did.

"You haven't eaten anything since yesterday's lunch and that wasn't even a good lunch. You must be starving."

"But I'm not," I said, swallowing the pill.

"You will be."

"Can I go now?" I asked, itching to walk out of the Hospital Wing.

"I've never seen anyone so eager to get to class. You can leave in a minute, I just want to talk to you," Madame Pomfrey said, sitting in the bed next to mine. "The reason why you were so sick yesterday is because you had a mild case of food poisoning."

"Ok," I said slowly. I didn't really care that I had food poisoning. As long as it was gone, I didn't care.

"But that isn't why you had a headache. Have you been stressed a lot lately?" Madame Pomfrey asked.

I thought back to my schedule, my friends, my life; yeah you could say I've been pretty stressed out. "Yeah a little bit."

"Well that's what is causing these headaches-"

"But I've only had one," I cut in.

"But you will have others if you stay stressed. I want you to try and stay out of stressful situations as much as possible. It could be bad for your health. Every night I want you to meditate in an attempt to relax," Madame Pomfrey said, standing up. I just stared at her with my mouth opened.

"I'm taking some of the hardest classes available, how am I supposed to not be stressed?" I asked, also standing up.

"You try your hardest but if you start to feel stressed then stop. I'll tell all your teachers but this doesn't mean you get a break on your homework," Madame Pomfrey said sternly. "They know a stressed student when they see one so they'll know if you were actually stressed or just slacking. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am," I said quietly.

"If you do get one of those headaches again, come here to get some medicine. I won't be handing them out everyday though."

"Yes ma'am. Can I go now?" I asked hopefully.

"I suppose," Madame Pomfrey sighed, waving me out the door. I smiled and raced out, happy to be out of that too clean, too sterile, too hospital-like room.

The only thing keeping me awake was the tapping of my nail against the desk. I watched it rise and then fall back on the wood. My eyes started to droop and my finger came down on the desk and did not rise.

"Ginny!" A ruler slammed down in front of my face causing me to jump a mile in the sky.

"What?" I said, suddenly alert but still a little drowsy. I looked around, looking for the source of the noise until I found Professor McGonagall standing in front of me with a ruler in her hand which was on her hip. I shrank down in my seat at the look she gave me.

"Now that Ginny has finally decided to pay attention," Professor McGonagall said, continuing her speech, "you are all to read the first chapter in your book and then write a foot long essay on it."

Various groans sounded from the room, including from me. I already had homework in Defense against the Dark Arts and Potions, and I learned from Anna that I had homework in Charms too. I could tell already that this was going to be a great year.

I walked out of the Transfiguration classroom obviously angrier than I entered it.

"I barely have any homework!" Anna said joyously as she skipped beside me. I turned my head and glared at her, wishing with all of my might that we would switch bodies. Besides, Anna is the smart one, why is she taking all of these easy classes? "I've only got two relatively short essays and some light reading, what's your homework like?"

"Three monstrous essays, a large reading section and I'll probably end up having homework in Astronomy too," I said glumly.

"I didn't even know that they offered higher Astronomy classes," Anna said.

"Well apparently they do," I said.

"What time is the class?" Anna asked.

"I think eleven until one. I'm going to be so tired," I groaned. I'll admit; I was an early go-to-bed person. I went to bed early and woke up late. I liked to sleep.

"Well come on, let's go to the library and get started on these essays," Anna suggested, pulling my arm in the direction of the library. I really didn't want to go, I mean, I really didn't want to; but I had three essays.

"Fine," I groaned, letting myself get dragged to the stuffy library.

I dragged my feet down the eerie, silent hall. It was a quarter to eleven and I reluctantly dragged myself out of a comfy chair and into the cold hallways. I had yet to meet one student, teacher, or ghost. I was getting kind of creeped out.

I turned a corner and faced yet another silent and dark hallway. I knew the way to the North Tower but hallways always looked so much different in the dark so I might have gotten lost. I was starting to get creeped out.

"Who's there?" a voice demanded in the dark. I jumped at the voice and flinched as a bright light was shone into my face. "Ginny?"

The light was shone down towards the floor and I saw Draco standing before me. He just happened to pop up everywhere, didn't he? I suddenly noticed a gleaming on his chest and saw the Head Boy badge. How had he managed that?

"What are you doing up?" Draco asked, his eyes roaming my face for some explanation for why I was up.

"I have Astronomy," I said simply, making to move past me. He barred my path.

"The higher level Astronomy has been canceled; not enough students signed up," Draco informed me. My blood began to boil. I was up at an ungodly hour, at least for me, for a class that had been canceled! Did they like torturing me or something?

"Canceled?" I repeated.

"Yeah."

My day was getting better by the second. Thank god it was almost over.

"They didn't tell you?" Draco asked. "I'll show you if you don't believe me; they posted a note on the door."

"No, no, that's ok. I really don't feel like walking all the way down there," I said, besides, if Draco was lying, I didn't really care if I missed the class or not.

"I'll walk you back to your common room," Draco offered as he began to lead the way to the Gryffindor common room. I couldn't do anything but follow him.

After the silence between us became overbearing, I had to say something. "Why are you being so nice?" I finally asked after a few moments of contemplating in my head.

"I thought we've already been over this," Draco said.

"You said you're sorry and you said why. You never said why you're being so nice," I reminded. Draco was silent as he took deep breaths.

"I have my reasons," he finally said. "Here's your common room, I trust you know the password." He began to leave but not before I could get one last word in.

"Is it because of my brother?" I asked before he had gone too far. Draco stopped but stayed facing away from me.

"Not all of it," he said before he began to walk away again.

A/N: i want you guys to be totally and brutally honest with me: what do you think of the beginning of the chapter? not just this one but all of the chapters where it talks about Harry. This particular one is my favorite so far tho.For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, the italic parts are flashbacks of Harry rightbefore he faced Voldemort in his sixth year. they become more important later. but honestly, tell me what you think of them...and the rest of the story! REVIEW!