A/N: This chapter…well...I'll just say that it's got to be the most relationship-centered chapter I've written yet, particularly HG. And the chapter earns its T rating because of it. When writing it, I imagined a PG-13 movie in my head, and told myself not to go any further than that. If you are offended by anything, I'm sorry and feel free to complain at me. But I'm pretty sure I kept it T. Just a warning. I hope you enjoy.
Chapter 13: Hidden
"So Harry was able to withstand the attack just fine?"
"Luv, he trapped Draco in seconds and cursed him before he knew what happened."
"I suspect Draco won't be trying anything else anytime soon?"
"No. You on the other hand…"
"What is it, Sirius?"
"We need you to have a little chat with Marion Etman at the Ministry."
-0-0-0-
"It's definitely time for payback," Ginny said, nodding her head emphatically. "He deserves it. Hell, he probably expects it from you."
"Yeah…I did kind of mess up his face, though," Harry offered. In the week that had followed Harry's altercation with Draco, the healing of Draco's face had gone slowly. Such was the nature of damage done by curses. This particular curse left Draco's eye black, his left cheek blue, his bottom lip swollen and often bleeding, and his nose misshapen.
The school had been buzzing about the attack for days, but when both Harry and Draco stayed mum on the matter, all they could do was speculate as to why the attack happened, why Draco was seeking no punishment, and why no teachers were getting involved. The official, unchallenged story, is that Draco allowed it to happen to help Harry teach his lesson. Not a soul believed it, of course.
"True," Ginny conceded. "But what about retribution for trying to enter Hermione's and my mind? Shouldn't we get him back for that? Sneak into his dorm and turn his clothes pink, or something?"
Hermione, who was eating her lunch with Harry, Ron, and Ginny at the Gryffindor table nodded. She leaned forward and whispered in a conspiratorial tone, "Ronald and I are prefects, so naturally we can't get involved. But I would love to have my honor defended."
Ron, outraged at being forced to stay out, moaned through a mouthful of potato salad, "Hermione, I should get to defend your honor!"
Hermione appeared torn between being flattered at his words and disgusted by his manners. Ultimately, her disgust won out. "Ron, chew your food, and then we can talk. Besides, if you or I got caught, the implications would be horrible for Gryffindor. Can you imagine the repercussions of prefects getting caught in the Slytherin common room?"
Harry didn't feel like pointing out the much-worse implications of the Chosen One getting caught in the lair of many junior Death Eaters, so he kept his mouth shut. Instead, he let Ron and Hermione begin bickering, and turned to Ginny. "So what did you have in mind?"
"Well," Ginny said, glancing amusedly at Ron and Hermione's squabbling. "I figure the Slytherins probably change their passwords about as often as we do, so we might only have a couple more weeks of the password you got from Malfoy's head working to get us in."
Harry nodded. "Makes sense. We can go before our workout in the morning. Any ideas about what to do to him? Pink clothes seems a little pedestrian for you."
"Have you ever heard of Pavlov?" Ginny asked.
"The muggle?" Hermione asked, suddenly interested in the conversation again.
Ginny looked confused. "He wasn't a muggle."
"Yes he was. He was a great thinker in muggle psychology. He trained dogs to perform actions at the sound of a bell by ringing a bell each time they performed the action. They became conditioned to do something at the sound after a time."
Ginny got a look of understanding on her face and she nodded. "I'm studying his work for a Charms project right now, actually. He was trying to develop a spell that conditioned people to do things with a given trigger. But like all spells, the theory behind it had to be worked out first before a Latin word was linked to the new spell. That's where the dogs came in—he was just working out how the spell had to work."
Hermione's jaw dropped. Harry also found this very intriguing. It never ceased to amaze him when muggle and wizarding history collided.
"Anyway," Ginny continued. "I'm thinking we condition Malfoy to do something embarrassing whenever a common noise occurs. Like a cough or something."
Ron took a moment from eating to laugh out loud. "Yeah, we could get him to kiss a bloke or fart or something."
Hermione scoffed. "You are so immature, Ronald. Why not burst out in song, or dance?"
"We could get him to start shouting and declare to the world how much he loves Harry?" Ginny offered, grinning slyly at Harry.
"As much fun as that might be…" Harry said with a sardonic tone. "I think we'd best not clue him in to the fact that he's been hit with a conditioning charm. Clearly, after getting on his knees to propose to me, he'd realize something was off, and get the spell reversed."
"So you want to keep it a secret from him?" Hermione asked. "What fun things could we possibly do that would humiliate him without him knowing it?"
They were all silent for a moment before Ginny responded. "I've got it."
Two in the morning. It was the normal wakeup call for Harry on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Like today, he would generally wake up, exhausted, and then perform the energy transference spell, successfully waking himself up and feeling refreshed at the cost of a little magical power.
However, while he would normally meet Ginny and head straight to the Room of Requirement to work out, today he had a different destination. Harry stepped down the stairs from his dormitory and made his way into the common room. Ginny was already standing there, waiting for him when he arrived. She was dressed in all black. The clothes were tight-fitting, excellent for sneaking around and for distracting Harry very much. He felt his eyes disobediently sweep her form and he had to quickly distract his thoughts by announcing his arrival.
"I see you've dressed appropriately," Harry said, thinking her dress was anything but appropriate. "Considering I don't have my cloak or map presently, we'll need all the stealth we can have."
Ginny turned on the spot at the sound of his voice, and Harry noticed with a sense of pride that her eyes traced his own body up and down before she responded. "And you've decided to wear the worst possible clothes, Harry." Harry was surprised at her words, considering he had chosen an outfit similar to hers. "I'm supposed to be focused on not being detected—not on your fine ass." She tilted her head to get a better look.
Harry laughed lightly. "Don't be a hypocrite, Trouble. Like you didn't know how difficult it would be for me when you put that on. Let's go."
They headed for the Slytherin Dungeon, keeping their ears and eyes peeled for any sign of a teacher or ghost wandering the halls at night. To be extra careful, they took secret routes that few students knew about. As they neared the dungeons, Harry had a flashback to his second year, in disguise with Ron as Crabbe and Goyle. A small smile played on his face as they neared the stone wall Harry knew to be the entrance to the common room.
Noticing his smile, Ginny asked quietly, "What's funny?"
Harry shook his head. "Just reminiscing. Prodo." Nothing happened to the stone wall. He said the password again, recalling the exact word that he had read in Malfoy's head. "Prodo!"
Once again nothing happened. "You're sure it was a password?" Ginny asked.
"Positive. I just knew it—his mind just let me know somehow. They must have changed it…" Harry looked down at his feet, defeated. He had really been looking forward to this.
"Well, I didn't come down here for nothing," Ginny said, before spouting off words. "Pie, dungeon, broom, quidditch, Snape sucks, Wheezes…"
Harry recalled his own futile attempts at trying to get into the Gryffindor tower at the beginning of term and laughed at Ginny. "Don't just laugh," she chastised. "What was it last time?"
"Pure-Blood, but that was years ago."
Ginny thought about it for a second and started spouting off words again, this time a little more focused. "Mudblood, Death Eater, Dark Mark, cunning, sly, snakes…basilisk."
The stone walls began moving, and a stairwell was revealed; Ginny blanched. Harry reached down and grabbed her hand. He gave it a gentle squeeze and Ginny looked gratefully up at him. She sounded dejected when she spoke after a long silence. "You'd think something that stupid wouldn't bother me anymore."
Harry shook his head. "I wouldn't think that. You went through something traumatic. You deserve to be affected by the memory."
Ginny was simply silent, so Harry offered one more condolence. "When Sirius died, I was devastated. But I had this secret relief deep inside of me that was grateful that his body was gone and that he was a convicted felon, all so that I wouldn't have to go to a cemetery. I am terrified of the day I have to walk through a graveyard again."
This time it was Harry's hand that was being squeezed. He looked at Ginny and they simply stared at each other for a long moment, empathy written on their faces. Harry had never shared that with anyone before. He never thought anyone would be able to understand, much less relate. He smiled softly at her and they turned back to the open wall.
"Looks like it's waiting for us," Ginny said and began to step forward.
"Wait." Harry held Ginny's hand tight, preventing her from walking forward. "If there's a charm that keeps it open as long as we're here, there might be other charms as well. Like a charm to warn Snape of students returning after hours..."
Harry took out his wand and cast a few detection charms. Ginny was a transcendent talent in the subject, but he would be surprised if she knew these diagnostic charms as a fifth year. He had learned them specifically for situations like these: getting into places he wasn't supposed to.
Sure enough, a simple alarm was installed on the entrance, along with other, more complex charms that Harry didn't recognize. He assumed they were different protections that would prevent people from simply blasting a hole in the wall.
"Okay," Harry said, finding Ginny's impressed look quite satisfying. "We're good to go now."
"You're so hot when you outsmart Snape, you know that?"
Harry smiled. "That's unfair. You are always beautiful, but I'm only hot when I outsmart Snape? What an odd qualifier…"
"Well, now you know what it takes to please me," Ginny said, now leading Harry down the stairs to the Slytherin common room. Harry was happy to note that they were still holding hands. Eventually they broke the contact, but not until they had made it to the sixth year boy's dormitory.
They took out their wands, and gave them a wave, silencing the door hinges, their feet, and their hands. Then, slowly and methodically, Harry opened the door.
There was no sound as they walked into the room cautiously—and it always felt eerie to Harry. He was accustomed to his feet making minute noises, and to hear absolutely nothing always caught him off guard. But he pressed on, moving gently into the room.
It was set up not unlike Harry's own room. There were four beds spaced throughout the room, and it didn't take long for Harry to spot Draco. No one in the room had drawn the partitions around their beds, and Draco's blonde hair was a stark contrast to the other three boys in the room. Harry moved over towards the boy's bed and came to a stop when he was at Malfoy's bedside, looking down on him.
It was then that he felt Ginny come up to his side. Whether intentionally or not, Harry didn't know, he felt Ginny's breast press against his side as she came up to him. This was just enough to illicit a soft, surprised gasp from Harry as a jolt of pleasure ran through his nerves. And the small gasp was just enough to cause Draco's breathing to change, taking a waking breath through his nose.
Harry instinctively grabbed Ginny and dropped immediately to the floor, landing on his silenced hands. He quickly rolled the two of them under Malfoy's bed, cursing both his hormones and poor planning at the same time. He came to a stop under the bed and held his breath. His hands were trapped underneath Ginny's back as he lay on top of her. Meanwhile, his back was up against the mattress above him. He dared not move for fear of alerting Draco to his presence.
With abated breath, the pair listened for signs that Draco was awake. The bed creaked lightly, and they could feel Draco shifting slightly, as if he were looking to his left and right and back again. Harry knew that he wouldn't last long in his position—for one, his hands would fall asleep soon, and two, he would likely become very aroused within moments with the way Ginny's curves were pushing up against him.
They needed to get out, but Draco needed to be fast asleep for that. Luckily, Harry was prepared. Unfortunately, he was not in the position to act. Cursing his luck, Harry leaned down to Ginny's ear. He had been avoiding eye contact with her to this point, and was fairly sure she was doing the same.
As quietly as possible, Harry whispered, "There is a potion in a vial in my left pocket."
He felt a whisper in his ear that sent a shock through his body. "You're not just happy to see me?"
"I'm going to be very soon if we don't act fast," Harry answered seriously. He hoped Ginny would find his comment to be playful banter, while still getting the hint that she needed to move quickly. "Seeing as I don't have my hands…"
"Right," Ginny whispered back. Then Harry felt her hand slide up his leg. He started thinking about Snape, trying to keep his body from reacting fast.
Her small, perfect hand slipped into his pocket. If he had felt a shock from her whisper, his body was positively humming as her hand snuck further and further into his pocket. Snape in a speedo, Harry thought desperately to keep his body from reacting, but to no avail.
His blood began pumping excitedly as Ginny reached the vial and pulled it out quickly. "I'm sorry," Harry said, apologizing for the presence Ginny was likely starting to feel on her leg. "Hold your breath for thirty seconds after you pop the cap off the vial."
The potion was one of the many that he had made since his return to Hogwarts. It was also one of the many that Harry had held on to at the end of class. Snape never suspected that he was holding on to samples of potion—though he did try to accuse Harry of stealing ingredients again. Harry had simply chuckled at the infuriated man, telling him he hadn't done that since his second year at Hogwarts. In any case, Harry was glad for holding on to this potion now.
Harry and Ginny both held their breaths; Ginny uncorked the vial while holding it out from under the bed. An odd yellow gas emerged from the vial and immediately spread into the air in the room. Then the longest thirty seconds of Harry's life began. The contents were a sleeping gas. When the potion was exposed to ambient temperature air, it turned into a vapor and quickly diffused through the air. Harry thought the diffusion was anything but quick, however.
Harry knew that it wasn't unusual—what his body was experiencing. But he couldn't help but be embarrassed. He was doing as admirable a job as possible at keeping in control of himself, but he was only human. A teenage human, at that. He was decidedly avoiding Ginny's eyes as he counted to thirty in his head, each second passing like a giant pendulum making its gradual sweeps.
Eventually, and mercifully, the time passed, and it was safe to breathe again. Harry let out a long breath, and immediately rolled off of Ginny and out from under the bed. He got to his feet and took a few steadying breaths to get his heart and blood under control again.
Ginny stayed put under the bed where she also took some deep breaths. After a moment, she rolled out from under the bed. "You couldn't use the potion before we walked in?" Ginny asked dryly.
Harry was immensely grateful that she didn't bring up their little encounter under the bed. Instead, she seemed to be acting as though it had never happened. Harry was happy to go along with that. "Yeah…I really dropped the quaffle on that one…"
"You think?" Ginny said before taking out her wand. "How long does the potion last?"
"They'll be under pretty deep for about thirty minutes before the regular REM cycles return."
"Then let's get to work," Ginny said, progressing on Draco. Together, they cast a few lengthy combinations of charms on each occupant of the room. They moved from one bed to the other, double checking with each other that the spells were cast correctly.
Harry cast a glance around the room one more time after they finished at Crabbe's bedside. His eyes had long since adjusted to the dim lighting that the magic window allowed in. They were, of course, underground, but that didn't stop the fake window from bringing in real moonlight. When his eyes passed over Draco's nightstand, Harry instinctively walked over to it, almost like he knew something important was inside the drawer. Maybe he's the one who stole the Marauder's Map, and he's keeping it there, Harry thought.
Harry opened the drawer and did find some interesting parchment. It wasn't the map, however. It was a scroll. He reached out and grabbed the scroll, inspecting it. On either side of the roll of parchment were two beautifully rich knobs of wood, around which the parchment rolled. Holding a knob, Harry unwound some parchment, but found it completely blank.
"What are you doing?" Ginny asked softly, appearing at his side. "Is that a journal, or something?"
"I'm not sure," Harry whispered back. "Why have a blank scroll at your bedside? Unless…"
Harry thought of the Marauder's Map that he was missing dearly, and wondered briefly if there was hidden writing in this scroll. And then it hit him. They hadn't changed the password to the Slytherin Dungeon entrance—Harry had discovered the password to something else entirely while in Malfoy's head.
"Prodo," Harry whispered, tapping the scroll with his wand. Sure enough, dark lines began to materialize, words forming on the scroll. Harry looked excitedly up at Ginny, and she grinned back.
Glancing down again, Harry immediately saw key words like "Dark Lord," and "plans." Harry quickly unwound the scroll more to get a better look. Upon closer examination, Harry found he was reading a dialogue between Draco and his father. They had apparently developed a means of communicating in writing on this parchment. Harry read a few lines from the most recent dialogue.
I did as I was commanded yesterday, father. I waited like you said, until Potter was preoccupied with his class.
And how did it go? Did you get inside his mind?
Yes, and he immediately trapped me, and he might have even gotten into my mind. The Dark Lord said that he was untrained; how did he trap me so easily?
I suppose the Dark Lord was wrong, Merlin help us. Did he see anything?
I doubt it. I kicked him out fast, and only saw brief flashes from the summer. There's no way he understood anything from it.
Harry glanced back up at Ginny, who was also reading over his shoulder. "We need a copy of this," Harry said.
"A copy? Why not just take it?"
Harry remembered his training early in the summer when he had gone on a simulated mission that had ended similarly to this. Julia Lavier had information that he needed. If she knew he had taken the information, Voldemort would change his plans. Now was the same situation, and Harry quickly explained that to Ginny.
"I'm not as good at charms as you, Gin. Do you think you could copy this?"
Ginny bit her lip. It appeared that she was suddenly nervous now that the stakes were higher than a simple prank.
"Hey," Harry said, drawing Ginny's gaze back to him. "What are we training every morning for if not to make a difference in the war?"
A resolve came over Ginny's face and she nodded. Harry smiled broadly at her. "Great! Go look near Zabini's stuff for some parchment to copy onto. I'll look here. It's useless to check Crabbe and Goyle's stuff—I don't even know if they can write."
Ginny grinned and wandered over by Blaise Zabini's dresser. Harry unrolled the parchment more and more, determining how much parchment would be needed. Ginny soon returned, and when combined with the pieces of parchment from Draco's bag, the paper Ginny brought back was enough to start copying. Ginny waved her wand masterfully as words began appearing on the blank parchment.
After a few minutes of copying, the work was complete. With Ginny's skill, the copy should last a few days. On top of that, Harry had a charm-strengthening potion stored in his trunk from one of Snape's classes that he could dip the copy in, extending the lifetime of the charm exponentially.
Harry and Ginny set about putting the room back in the state they found it, Harry careful to magically wipe the writing from the scroll and put it back in Draco's drawer. It seemed the thirty minutes of deep sleeping was almost up, as Crabbe began shifting in his bed and making mumbling noises. Giving each other scared looks, the pair of pranksters quickly stepped towards the door and slipped out of the dormitory.
Harry excitedly grabbed Ginny's hand again as they rushed silently up the stairs to the common room, pausing only briefly to make sure no one had gotten up for a late night walk or snog. They rushed through the common room and up more stairs to the entrance, Harry's mind buzzing with anticipation over the stolen communication of the enemy. The wall opened up for them and they passed through.
After stepping through the entrance, the wall closed behind them, and Harry and Ginny both froze, turning to look at each other in fear as their fault dawned on them simultaneously. They hadn't removed the door alarm again after it reset.
"Shit," Harry exclaimed. "Let's move."
Harry chose to start running down the corridor, knowing that Snape's office was in the other direction. His problem was that he didn't know which direction Snape's quarters were in, so he was just blindly running. He took a turn down a hallway, Ginny right beside him. It would seem they would get their workout in this morning after all.
They got halfway down the hallway when Harry heard footsteps up ahead. Harry cursed inwardly as he looked around him, for something to hide in or behind. No such luck. There wasn't enough time to get back to the first corridor either.
Harry knew getting caught outside of the Slytherin common room this late at night wasn't the end of the world. Even getting caught having pranked Draco wasn't the worst thing. A few detentions and lost house points, Harry could deal with that.
But Harry couldn't get caught with Draco's communication with his father. For the most part, Harry trusted that Snape was on Dumbledore's side. But he took such pride in his role as spy, that anytime someone suggested doing some spying, he became furious. Even Harry and Sirius' plan to deceive Voldemort through the mirror had left Snape in a foul mood for weeks. He would likely destroy the parchment if he discovered it.
So with that in mind, Harry glanced down at the parchment rolled up in his hands nervously. He thought about vanishing it, but didn't want Snape casting Priori Incantatem to discover what Harry had been up to, and finding the parchment that way. Instead, he turned to Ginny, who had a calculating look on her face, and whispered, "Sorry."
Then Harry wrapped his hands around her waist, securely pinning the parchment to her back, and kissed her.
In his haste to hide the parchment, Harry didn't consider the ramifications of his action. He merely pushed Ginny up against the wall, hiding the scrolls from anyone's view, and tried to make the kiss look as convincing as possible.
That goal was not difficult to achieve, he soon found, when Ginny began kissing him back after a moment of surprise. Her hands shot into his hair, sending pleasant shocks down his back. Her lips began moving sensually against his, and Harry's thought ceased to exist. He had never been so affected by a kiss.
Distantly, he heard footsteps approaching, but Harry had stopped paying any attention. Instead, his hand that was not holding the parchment roamed Ginny's back, making its way up to her hair and then back down, resting on her hip. His thumb began rubbing circles on her lower abdomen, and he deepened the kiss with his tongue gently caressing her lips. Ginny just began to respond by opening her mouth when a very loud "ahem!" interrupted them.
The pair broke apart, startled at how lost they had become in each other. Harry turned around quickly against the wall next to Ginny, but kept his parchment-holding hand behind Ginny's back.
Snape had a furious look on his face as he glared between Harry and Ginny. The only condolence of having been woken up by a pair of hormonal teenagers being that he had caught them and could punish them. "When you said you preferred my dungeons, I thought you were being facetious."
Harry put on a look of shame. "Right…well, we decided to give it a try after I joked about it."
Snape narrowed his eyes. He glared right into Harry's eyes, and Harry knew what was coming. Snape was trying to discover if Harry and Ginny had set off the alarms of the Slytherin Dungeons. But it didn't add up, because the alarm had gone off just once. If it had been Harry, the alarms should have gone off when he entered the common room and when he exited. Two alarms. He would never suspect Harry of canceling the charm for his entry and then foolishly leaving it in tact at his exit.
"As it turns out," Harry added casually. "We weren't the only ones who liked the idea. We saw some of your Slytherins out here just a minute ago. They must have been at it for quite a while, considering they were still in their school robes." Harry inwardly cheered his quick thinking. The only thing that would make sense for the alarm to go off is that a Slytherin just left the Dungeon, or someone was finally going in for the night.
Snape didn't seem to buy it, however. Perhaps Harry's explanation was a little too convenient. "Legilimens," Snape said, after whipping his wand out quickly.
Suddenly, a powerful force was in Harry's mind. Having trained with Dumbledore, Harry's mind was fully equipped to handle Snape. However, he was caught enough off guard, and Snape was different enough in his attack style to Dumbledore that it took a moment to put up his defenses. As a precaution he quickly hid parts of his exploits that night away while allowing Snape to look at the obvious portions of their escapade.
Before Harry could put up defenses and force Snape out of his mind, the Potions Master had seen Harry and Ginny leaving the common room and walking toward the dungeons. But that wasn't nearly enough to assume something else had happened that night.
Snape appeared furious at his failure after he was forced out of Harry's mind. "What are you hiding, Potter?"
Harry raised his eyebrows incredulously and nodded at Ginny. "You really have to ask what I kept from you? Like I would let you see what we're up to, and I've got to wonder why you want to."
Snape flushed slightly, his anger at Harry only rising, and his gaze shifted to Ginny. His mouth opened and wand rose as if to cast the spell again, and Harry felt pure fury rise in him. His wand whipped out of its holster in a flash, and Harry stepped slightly in front of Ginny before he spoke in a deadly voice, cutting Snape off just as he began the incantation.
"Don't you dare go inside of her mind, Snape," he said, not caring about formalities or respect at this point. "It doesn't matter who we are or what you think we might have done; you have no right to go into her mind."
Snape took a step back and his wand fell slightly. He was taken aback by Harry's aggressiveness and seemed to realize what he had nearly done as well. There was a long moment of silence as Harry and Snape stared each other down. At last Snape breathed in deeply and spoke.
"Potter, Weasley, get back to your tower immediately. Don't ever let me catch you down here again." With that, Snape turned and strode towards the Slytherin Dungeons, his cloak billowing behind him. Harry and Ginny stood frozen to the spot for a long moment, staring at his retreating form.
Eventually, they looked at each other and let out nervous laughter. Harry wasn't sure if he was more nervous at the feelings she had elicited in him during their kiss or at what punishment they had just avoided.
"So, I take it he would have gotten in a lot of trouble for going in my mind?" Ginny asked, trying to understand why Snape had let them go without any punishment.
"Yeah," Harry conceded. He then explained Snape's actions the best he could. "We've got a silent agreement that I won't tell Dumbledore what he almost did if he doesn't tell anyone what we were up to."
"That's twice tonight you've outsmarted that git—you'd better be careful, or I won't be able to resist jumping you and having my way with you." Ginny was, of course, referencing her earlier comment about Harry being attractive when he outsmarted Snape.
Harry's mind flashed to the incredible kiss that they had shared. Even if it was for show, it had been the most electrifying experience of his life. It was unfair to even compare it to any kiss he shared with Abby. "On the contrary, Weasley. I'll be looking for every possible moment to outsmart him—being jumped by you sounds very exciting."
Together, they began walking towards the stairs. But they weren't heading to Gryffindor Tower. Instead, they were going to the Room of Requirement for their morning workout. They chatted a bit about what they had experienced that night, but not once was the kiss or under-the-bed incident brought up. They both avoided those discussions like the plague.
Harry realized that all that he had accomplished by removing the memory of their near-kiss from a month earlier had been undone tonight. Not just undone, but outdone. Harry was in for a long workout session, full of trying to control his thoughts and feelings towards the red-headed beauty accompanying him.
-0-0-0-
Hermione prided herself on always paying attention in class. She was attentive, and soaked up every detail from her professors. She loved learning—and it paid off. Hermione was always the top of her class, and no one rivaled her in knowledge, even if Harry did beat her out in skill and power.
But today, Hermione was having a tough time paying attention. She had three things on her mind that kept her from focusing on whatever Professor Flitwick was currently saying about the dangers of combining spells that affected the brain. Something about personality altering and such. She would read up on it later.
The first thing that distracted her was Harry and Ginny's odd behavior this morning. Not that their behavior hadn't always been a little strange. If asked before term started, Hermione would have guessed the two would be together within a month. Of course, Ginny had been in a relationship, and Hermione would never condone Ginny just dropping Dean for Harry, but it seemed like such an obvious move.
But then Harry added another strange element to the equation. He started dating Abby. Abby was a fun girl, and Hermione genuinely liked her. She didn't know of anyone who didn't like the girl. She was pretty, but not annoyingly so. She was kind, but not in the way that made Hermione feel like a horrible person. She was unassuming, which Hermione guessed was the reason for Harry liking her so much. She had truly seen Harry for the boy he was instead of the Boy-who-lived.
But Hermione was sure it wouldn't last. Because even after they started dating, Harry and Ginny's relationship continued on in the same way. That way being the way Hermione had seen newly-weds act around each other.
Their banter, if often inappropriate (especially to Ron), truly was a joy to listen to. Hermione never got bored if she was around the two of them. The way she saw them checking each other out when they thought no one was looking left no doubt at how attracted they were to each other. Not to mention the amount of time they spent together. If Hermione was right, she suspected they did far more than run each morning together—most likely spending hours training.
But that's why they were so confusing. Just when the sexual tension had come to a head—about the same time the Order took down sixteen Death Eaters in October—and Hermione was sure they were going to break, the tension disappeared. It was as if the looks of longing had ceased overnight. One day, Hermione was sure Abby and Dean would be getting dumped, and the next day, they looked like the most loved people in the school.
For an entire month, the tension was slowly returning. But still, Hermione had to doubt what she had once thought inevitable. Maybe they weren't in love with each other. Maybe they truly were just two hormonal and attractive people—who were able to move past each other when they realized how great their current significant other was. Hermione didn't quite buy this, of course. It was a little too convenient that they both moved on at the same time. Something must have happened between them to throw the switch.
But if a switch had been thrown a month ago, it had been flicked back into place this morning.
The tension was palpable as they joined Ron and Hermione at the breakfast table. Ron even noticed, the usually (and currently) insufferably ignorant-to-all-things-emotional, Ron. He had given her a funny look when the two sat down and started eating. Dean was present, and Ginny wouldn't look him in the eyes. Harry would force conversation and was suspiciously vague when he talked about the prank on Malfoy.
"We got into the Slytherin Dungeons," he said, with somewhat shifty eyes. "Moved into Malfoy's room, and I had this sleep vapor potion that we made in class a few weeks ago. So we put them all in a deep sleep and then cast the charms. Then we…left. Pretty straightforward operation."
Hermione chose not to comment on him having nicked some potion from class because his refusal to meet her eyes was intriguing. Something else had happened this morning. Harry and Ginny were back to being moments away from snogging each other's brains out. Hermione could feel it. They actively avoided looking at each other, only to have their eyes gradually pulled back to one another like a summoning charm had been cast. Then, they would look away immediately and restart the vicious cycle.
She would watch them closely in the coming days, try to find out what had happened. Ginny probably wouldn't tell her, but she would ask anyway. She always did love a little drama.
Which brought her to the second reason why she was having a hard time concentrating on Flitwick's current discussion on memory charms. It was interesting stuff, but when she had Harry and Ginny to analyze, and Ron to worry herself over, not interesting enough.
Yes, Hermione could admit it to herself now. She was infuriatingly attracted to Ron. Why? She couldn't guess. Maybe it was his tall build, his cute freckles. Maybe it was because he was one of the few people who could make her laugh. Really, genuinely laugh. Maybe it was the occasional earnest compliment she got from him, contrasting their usual bickering selves.
Why did they bicker? Again, she couldn't know for certain. Maybe it was because he was stupid and she was smart. Or, Hermione admitted to herself, maybe she loved fighting with him, getting a rise out of him. He was cute when he was irritated. And it was fun, in an odd way.
Hermione shook her head. It was useless to feel this way. She was fed up with waiting for him to act. He might feel something for her, she couldn't be sure. She knew Ginny thought Ron fancied her. But he hadn't acted on it, and Hermione was growing tired of waiting. She had been approached by a handsome seventh year Ravenclaw named Liam yesterday, asking her to the Hogsmeade trip the first week of December. Hermione had to admit she was excited by the prospect. But, because she was waiting for Ron to ask, she had kindly asked if she could get back to Liam.
And here Ron was, absent-mindedly doodling quidditch posts on his parchment instead of taking notes about the imperius curse mixing with mental charms. Hermione fought the urge to smile, and forced herself to roll her eyes, instead.
The third and final reason Hermione was having difficulty focusing this morning was because she was waiting for someone in the room to cough. That had been the trigger that Harry and Ginny had used for the Pavlov charm. At long last, in the midst of Hermione's jumbled thinking, Pansy Parkinson let out a small cough.
Ron's head swung up immediately from his doodles and he stared at Draco. Hermione scoffed internally at Ron's lack of subtlety. She meanwhile shifted in her seat ever so slightly and used her peripherals to look at the group of Slytherin boys on the other side of the classroom. She noticed Harry also checking them carefully.
It started out small. Draco started to bob his head, ever so slightly, as if a tune were playing in his head. After a half minute, he started humming softly. A rendition of "Hoggy Warty Hogwarts" left his lips, so soft that Hermione would not have made it out if not for knowing what conditional behavior Harry and Ginny had given to Draco.
"This is anticlimactic," Ron whispered to Hermione.
"You're so impatient, Ron. It's about the longevity of the prank—that's what's so great."
What Ron and Hermione didn't know is that Harry and Ginny had cast three more Pavlov charms that morning. The trigger of which was the song, "Hoggy Warty Hogwarts." The conditioned response was annoyance.
A loud slap was heard throughout the classroom. All heads swiveled over to the Slytherin boys. Draco was rubbing the back of his head. "What the hell was that, Goyle?"
Goyle, whose hand was stilled raised after having struck Draco, responded. "That song! Stop singing it!"
A small fight then broke out which was stopped soon by Professor Flitwick, with the deduction of five house points for disruption. Harry glanced over at Ron and Hermione, a smirk on his face. "Okay," Ron said, suppressing glee as he leaned back in his chair. "I look forward to the longevity of this one."
Hermione inwardly scoffed again. Just one second ago Ron was calling the prank lame. Someone gets hit upside the head, and he loves it. Why did she like an impatient, immature guy like him?
Maybe she would reconsider her response to Liam.
Still, even in her annoyance, she couldn't help but smile at Ron's comment as he gave Harry an inconspicuous thumbs up.
-0-0-0-
"I've spent the last few hours going over the dialogue between Draco and his father, and I've discovered some interesting things," Albus said to Sirius and Harry, all gathered in his office.
Harry had surprised him earlier that afternoon when he came to his office bearing a stack of informative parchment. Harry's explanation of how the pages came to be in his possession had been vague, but Albus figured he knew what Harry had been up to. "Well, my friends convinced me we needed to get back at Malfoy, and while I was in his dormitory last night, I happened upon some letters."
Of course, these weren't just letters. It was an impressive bit of magic that Dumbledore didn't yet know the interworking of. Instant communication through writing. Albus was familiar with the emerging technology of email in the muggle world, but this was the first of its kind in the wizarding world, as far as he knew. Albus wondered if Voldemort was also utilizing this magic in his circles to communicate plans. If so, it might be possible to use it against him.
"Does he reveal any of Voldemort's plans?" Sirius asked, bringing Albus back to the present.
"None of Voldemort's plans outside of Hogwarts are discussed in any detail. However, it is clear that the command to get into Harry's mind to discover the prophecy and the Order's plans came from Voldemort, as Severus reported. We also learned that Voldemort has another servant at Hogwarts, spoken by Lucius as "his backup." It is interesting to note that Lucius often speaks in an annoyed or sarcastic tone when referring to Voldemort and his plans. It is a change that Severus has not noticed, so it is interesting that Lucius is so open about his annoyance with his Master to his son."
"Yeah," Harry concurred. "If anything, from what I gathered in Draco's mind and what I read, I would say that Lucius is at war with himself over Voldemort's methods."
"Indeed," Albus confirmed. He pointed down at a piece of parchment. "Here we see very clearly that Lucius is hiding something that gives reason for his doubt." Albus again read the lines that had given him such shock and cause for pause. It had preceded the go-ahead to enter Harry's mind.
Son, you know as well as I do what the Dark Lord has done to our family. However, until the correct path is more clearly laid out for us, we need to do as he says. He has given the order for you to attempt to access Potter's mind. Don't rush it. Be patient, and wait for when he is distracted. You may even want to try to get into his friends' heads first, see what they know. The Dark Lord has told me, however, that Potter's mind is weak.
"What did Voldemort do to his family?" Sirius asked. "Is he just referring to the legal problems Lucius has faced since the Ministry last summer? That he no longer has any pull at the Ministry?"
"We can only guess," Albus responded with a sigh. "But it seems as though whatever it was, it is enough to make Malfoy think about other options. Perhaps running away, perhaps switching sides. We don't have enough information to go on. Which is why I suggest we start monitoring them."
Harry seemed to take this information well. Albus had long since noticed that Harry was a fan of taking action. He hated simply sitting around, and waiting to respond. He liked to go on the offensive.
Sirius, on the other hand, appeared troubled. "This all seems a little too convenient for me," he said. "How do we know this isn't their response to us sending them faulty information through the mirror? I mean, Lucius Malfoy doubting what side he should be on? That wouldn't happen in a million years."
Albus had considered this and made his own decisions, but let Harry speak. "Okay," he said, nodding. "But we can't just sit here and ignore it. We need some other evidence, more than one scroll of conversation between the two. We need Snape to observe Malfoy more closely, or get inside Malfoy Manor and watch him when he's the most vulnerable."
Albus sat back. "Get inside of Malfoy Manor…" he said wonderingly. It might just work.
"Sirius, get in contact with Bill Weasley. Harry, can you call in another favor with the twins? The work they did with the ear piece communicators and goggles may be useful once more."
After discussing their plans for a while longer, Albus asked Sirius about the mission he had given to Sarah Sellers. She was to interview a politician who had started to make waves among their society. Many were calling for a change in leadership.
"Went fine," Sirius said. "She said she was expecting a lot more of a reaction out of Marion Etman."
"Do you think he can block his emotions like you?" Harry asked.
Sirius shook his head. "No. Sarah just doesn't think he's a Death Eater. She went in as a reporter, saying she was going to write a piece on him in the Prophet. That got him excited, and she suspects he's a very ambitious guy, with his eyes set on the throne, so to speak."
"He didn't speak highly of the Minister?" Albus asked.
"He said all the right things, of course. Very politically correct. But he got in plenty of jabs at him, highlighting his failure to act when you two warned him about Voldemort's return. He even implied that Fudge might not be calling all the shots right now, which is true of course."
"And how did he react when we brought up some of the names of the known moles in the Ministry?"
Sirius nodded his head. "That's exactly why Sarah doesn't suspect him. He never showed any nerves, or reason to be afraid of associating with them. Instead, he was proud that he had support within the Ministry, that so many different Departments were backing him in his desire to run against Fudge this January. And I have to admit that if we don't expose the moles for who they are, Etman may well win."
Albus sat back in his chair. "Perhaps Voldemort isn't looking to take over the Ministry just yet, then. He just wants a puppet."
"A puppet?" Harry asked.
"In the world of politics, it's an 'I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine' mentality. If these dozens of moles all help this man get in office, he will be obligated to help them. Make them heads of their departments, push bills that they want. I wouldn't be surprised if Death Eaters almost completely fund his campaign."
"So he gets in office, only to be forced to do Voldemort's will?" Harry asked incredulously.
"It will be gradual," Albus said. "But pretty soon, he would be as bound to Voldemort's doing as Fudge is to us right now."
"So what's the plan?" Sirius asked.
"The elections aren't for two months. We need to discover more Death Eaters first, let Voldemort think he's winning. Then, we expose everyone for who they really are."
-0-0-0-
"Bill, I'm so glad you're home," Fleur Delacour said to her fiancé as he walked in the door. "You were so late!"
Her French accent was adorable. She was beautiful. And Bill was one lucky guy. He closed the front door behind him and stepped forward, grabbing Fleur by the hips. He pulled her to him and kissed her smiling lips.
Fleur moaned into his mouth as he deepened the kiss. They broke after a short while, and Fleur slapped his arm. "You'll spoil me with homecomings like that."
"Then spoil you, I shall," Bill responded cheekily as he took off his robes and guided his fiancée into their small home. He was hungry and tired after a long evening at the edges of Malfoy Manor, but after just one look at Fleur and one whiff of her scent, food and sleep were the last things on his mind.
He stepped into the sitting room, sat down, and pulled her into his lap, where he continued what he had started in the entryway. Fleur aggressively responded, though she peppered him with questions in between kisses.
"So what did you find out?" Fleur asked breathlessly as Bill finally released her mouth and started trailing his lips down her jaw line towards her ear.
"Lots of wards," Bill said, nibbling at her ear when he arrived. She tilted her head to give him more access to her neck which he was soon attacking with vigor. The power she held over him was incredible.
When she let out a moan, Bill was pleased to note he had some power over her as well. Her hands worked their way up his torso and onto his chest, sending waves of pleasure through his body. "Could take me months before I can open a hole for someone to get in."
"That's too long?" Fleur asked, though Bill doubted she was listening too much. Her hands made their way under his shirt and he reveled the touch of her skin on his.
"Mmhmm," Bill confirmed as he worked his own hands under her shirt and attacked her mouth again. "Though Dumbledore did give a strange suggestion that would lower the wait time," Bill continued when Fleur pushed him back to pull his shirt off of him.
"What's that?" Fleur asked, her eyes raking over his bare chest.
Bill lifted himself and Fleur up slightly before swinging her around so she lay under him, stretched out on the couch. His fingers went to the bottom of her shirt and he started to unbutton the blouse. "He said that if necessary, I would only need to remove enough wards to get an underage wizard through. I could do that in a month."
The shirt unbuttoned, Bill pulled it open. He absorbed everything about the beautiful woman beneath him, and all other thought ceased. They concluded their recap of his day immediately, and set about focusing on the present.
-0-0-0-
Magic is an interesting thing. A wizard could study it all of his life and still know almost nothing about the power. He might think he knows a lot, but when all is said and done, when he passes on to the next realm of existence, he would see how little he understood. How little he realized how involved Magic had been in his life, and the lives of all around him. He would think that he had learned to control magic, and fail to realize that Magic had been in control the whole time.
Of course, Magic's control was generally hands off, a gentle guidance—there were laws to obey, after all. But when Magic could operate within the bounds, it was ever-present.
The night after Harry and Ginny snuck into Slytherin Dungeons, they found themselves unwittingly subject to Magic's control. Their thoughts were identical, albeit unknown, to each other. And Magic took advantage of this, and linked their minds without their knowledge. Magic frequently occurred, in this way, without a wand and a command; it was known as "accidental magic" or "emotional magic" to many.
The learned wizard who studied magic his whole life could tell you of a spell he knew that could link the minds of two people for a time. They would share basic thoughts and dreams—it was helpful to develop empathy. What the learned wizard couldn't tell you, though, is that Magic 'performed' this spell often, even when not commanded by a wand and Latin phrase.
The only difference being that no one knew the spell had been cast.
But Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley invited the spell to be cast when they matched their thoughts. Those thoughts were of anxiety, shame, and excitement.
They were anxious about the kiss they had shared that morning. It unnerved them how right it felt, and how unsure they were of each other's feelings. They were anxious about the tension that had developed as a result. Sure they had played it cool because the other had as well, but inwardly, they were anything but cool.
They felt shame. Each knew that it was simply acting. They hadn't really cheated on their respective significant other. It was a charade used to fool Snape. But the fact that they felt the shame was evidence that it was not simply a charade. They had enjoyed it, and wanted it again throughout the day. Thus, they felt more shame, and it had been hard to face Abby and Dean that day.
Finally, they felt excited, in a way they hadn't ever felt about their current relationships. The tension between them was so electrically charged, they never knew if something might send them over the edge. They were always just a moment away from dropping all pretenses and snogging the daylight out of each other.
These shared thoughts provided the perfect atmosphere for their minds to be linked. As the two settled in for bed that night, their thoughts melded as one even if they were in separate quarters. Anything one thought or felt, the other did, too, simply assuming it was their own thought. They understood each other perfectly—without knowing it.
As they drifted into sleep, the spell did not lift. A shared dream emerged, which just happened to begin in the dungeons that morning. Harry had Ginny pinned against the wall, kissing her deeply and passionately. Ginny responded excitedly, her hands guiding through Harry's hair. Due to the shared nature of the dream, each participant knew exactly what the other wanted most. And this time, there was no Snape to stop them from continuing.
Harry ran his tongue along Ginny's lips, asking permission to enter. She responded tantalizingly slowly, smiling as she gradually opened her mouth. Harry felt the smile against his lips and found himself happily infuriated with her teasing. So, to teach her a lesson, he forcedly opened her mouth with his tongue and waged war with hers.
She moaned deeply in Harry's mouth and Harry felt his arousal sweep through his body. Only this time, he wasn't ashamed of it, and Ginny didn't need to hide how excited she became as a result.
Harry lifted Ginny up on his waist so he could feel more of her body on his. She responded by running her hands up and down his body, squeezing his backside as she kissed his neck. She found a particularly sensitive spot that caused Harry immense pleasure and he had to slowly set Ginny back down as he gained more control of himself.
But the playful side of Ginny came out in this brief pause in action, and she disappeared down the hallway. The scene shifted in a way that only dreams can do sensibly, and Harry found himself chasing her towards the Great Hall. But as he ran down the hallway, he stepped on something soft. He glanced down and found black fabric. Picking it up, he found it to be the tight shirt that Ginny had been wearing.
Becoming more aroused at the thought, he pressed on, finding pairs of shoes and socks, and some black pants before he reached the doors to the Great Hall. He opened them eagerly and stopped in his tracks when he saw her, standing in front of the Gryffindor table, in simply her underwear. The moonlight from the enchanted ceiling glistened off her light, creamy skin, and Harry thought he had never seen anything so enticing and beautiful in his entire life.
Ginny waited anxiously as Harry stepped forward, lust in his eyes. It had started playful and confident, but as she waited for his reaction, Ginny had to admit she was nervous. But Harry quickly dispelled that concern, which he knew she had because they shared the dream.
"Ginny," he said huskily as he stepped forward, pressing up against her. "You are…perfect." Feeling the physical evidence that he truly believed what he said against her, Ginny let out a joyous sigh. They met in a tender kiss. They tried to convey in that kiss the true feelings of love and care that they felt for each other before the moment turned passionate again.
And it did, Ginny tearing off Harry's shirt and pulling down his pants so he became as lightly clad as she was. Harry hoisted Ginny on to the Gryffindor table and climbed on after her, hovering over her.
Both awoke at the same time many dream minutes later, panting heavily, and unaware that in rooms not terribly far away from them, the other had just experienced the same dream. After allowing their bodies to finish reacting, they grabbed their wands and cleaned up after themselves. Then they stood and found where they were hiding their respective memory vaults.
They gave the passwords that opened the vault and together, they shook their heads and sighed. They hated to remove yet another memory. But they simply would not be able to face the other the next day if they had the memory of that morning and the dream in their subconscious. They wouldn't be able to eat at the Gryffindor table either without very distinct images forming in their minds.
Together, they held their wands to their temples and pulled a silver essence from their minds. No more would they be plagued by the memory of a kiss and a dream. They locked their vaults and hid them away, feeling temporarily more comfortable, but now with a large sense of loss and shame in their hearts.
Magic broke the connection between the two teenagers' minds, letting their consciousnesses drift from one another. If Magic behaved like a man, it would have sadly shaken its head at the two fools before it.
A/N: Let me know what you think. I love to hear from ya!