A/N: Hey everyone. This chapter will tie up all of the loose ends of CoS, including Lockhart's fate and what will happen with the Sword of Gryffindor as I've been asked about it. Hopefully, this will answer your questions. Anyway, on with the story. Enjoy!

Chapter 21: Plans for the Summer

The next few months had gone rather well in Harry's opinion. It appeared as though Lucius had actually told his son what had happened when Harry confronted him as Malfoy Jr. always had a fearful expression on his face whenever Harry looked at him. Also, the Weasleys and Dumbledore seemed to have backed off for now after Harry's defence of Ginny against her mother, which was a major plus for him, meaning that he was able to get on with his school work and spend time with his friends in peace.

What really made this year brilliant for Harry though, was that he finally understood what he had seen in the Mirror of Erised last year and acted on it. Ginny was everything that he needed and he would be an idiot to let her go after figuring it out. When news of their relationship became public, the school all had mixed opinions. Some were happy for them, some were confused as they believed that they were always an item, some were jealous and some were just plain angry with it. Ron was the first to voice his anger over Harry dating his younger sister, and he learned the hard way about what happens when someone would say anything bad about Ginny in Harry's presence.

Flashback

Harry and Ginny were in the Great Hall having their breakfast. Their relationship had just been made public this morning and they were already seeing how it was affecting the students and professors. Harry expected to hear something from Ron very soon, so when the angry, red-faced idiot stormed over, Harry was prepared to make an example of the foolish boy for anyone else trying to ruin his and Ginny's relationship.

"What the hell are you doing with my sister, Potter?!" Ron demanded.

"I'm doing what any decent guy does for his girlfriend; treat her right. Why? Do you have a problem with that?" Harry replied, daring the redhead to say something more.

"You need to stay away from her, Potter! She's not right for you! She's my stupid little sister! Also, do you want to have six brothers to deal with if you try anything with her?! I sure wouldn't!" Ron growled, trying to intimidate Harry.

Harry slowly got up out of his seat and faced Ron. Harry may only be 12, but he was still tall and muscular for his age due to his training. He watched with satisfaction as he looked down upon the now cowering idiot as he used his size to show just who was the most intimidating of the two of them.

"Oh, I believe that she's perfect for me, actually. And if you ever call her stupid again, you'll end up like dear Lucius will if he repeats the scheme he pulled this year. You and your brothers have nothing to worry about as I will treat Ginny how she deserves to be treated; as a beautiful human being. If you try to interfere, they you will regret the day that you were ever mean to Ginny, because I will give the hurt back a hundredfold. Do I make myself clear, Ronald?" Harry explained calmly, which only added to his intimidating posture. A calm, controlled foe was a feared one.

Ron could only nod and walk back to the rest of his brothers. Harry noticed that the twins didn't seem pleased with Ron, but Percy glared at Harry before putting a hand on his brother's shoulder as if to say 'Nice try. Maybe next time'.

Flashback ends

From then on, Harry and Ginny had no trouble from her brothers or from anyone else as they saw the confrontation. All of those who were angry or jealous of the couple were silenced by Harry's intimidating posture that day and none wanted to be the one facing the cold, piercing eyes of Harry Potter anytime soon. Lessons had been uneventful and the exams had gone swimmingly for the couple, rounding off this school year well. Harry had also finally exposed Lockhart as the fraud that he was after he confronted the idiot about his impossible feats and he tried to use a memory charm to remove Harry's memories of the confrontation. Instead, Harry pulled up a shield and sent the charm back at its caster, erasing Lockhart's memories instead. Dumbledore then sent the amnesiac Lockhart to St. Mungo's for treatment after that.

The day before everyone was about to leave for home, Dumbledore called Harry for a private talk. Harry had a feeling what the talk would be about, but told Ginny not to worry as he could handle the old man. Giving his girlfriend a kiss, he made the journey to Dumbledore's office and entered, drawing the Headmaster's attention away from the paperwork he was doing.

"Ah, Harry. Good to see you, my boy. Would you care for a lemon drop?" Dumbledore said with a grandfatherly smile.

"No thank you, Headmaster. What was it that you wished to talk to me about?" Harry asked bluntly.

"Ah, yes. You never allowed me to finish our talk on that day when you saved Miss Weasley's life. You must realise the importance of the sword that you are still carrying, yes?" Dumbledore enquired.

"Yes. It's a valuable artefact and a piece of history. Where are you going with this?" Harry responded, narrowing his eyes as he knew exactly where the old man was going.

"It needs to be protected and displayed due to its historical significance. I was hoping that you would realise this and hand me the sword so that I can place it in a case to protect it from damage, seeing as you are a smart boy and can see the sword's significance," Dumbledore requested, or rather demanded as Harry analysed the tone of the Headmaster.

"I'm afraid that I cannot do that, Headmaster," Harry replied, mentally chuckling as he saw Dumbledore's shocked expression.

"Why ever not, my boy?" Dumbledore asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Harry always hated it when the old fool called him 'my boy'. He was not Dumbledore's boy, nor would he ever be, but he had to keep appearances for now and look as though he trusted Dumbledore. When Harry had analysed the Sword of Gryffindor, he found out that it, like the Sorting Hat, had a small amount of sentience and that it chose to remain with him as he had been deemed worthy of carrying the mighty blade. He wasn't going to give it up to Dumbledore of all people. He also decided that he could tell Dumbledore the truth this time as the old man wouldn't buy any other explanation, plus it would annoy the hell out of him, which only made Harry smirk at the thought.

"I found out recently that the sword has similar magical properties as the Sorting Hat. The sword has a bit of sentience and chose to remain with me. If you were to take it from me, it would just return to me once you held it in your hand. I'm sorry, sir, but I cannot give the sword up. Rest assured that I will look after it though," Harry explained, mentally grinning at the slight sign of irritation in the Headmaster's features.

"I see...Well, no matter. The other thing I wished to talk to you about was your current relationship with Miss Weasley," Dumbledore said.

"I don't see why that should be your concern, Headmaster," Harry responded with hidden anger.

Harry had a feeling that the Headmaster would try something once he and Ginny became official, now it turned out that he was right. He could see Dumbledore's surface thoughts using subtle Legilimency and saw two plans in the old fools mind. The first was to separate them and try to muscle in and tutor Harry, whereas the second was to use Ginny to control Harry. Neither plan was too appealing to him, and he would never allow the old bastard to do anything to hurt his Ginny.

"You are not old enough for a romantic relationship, my boy. You are merely 12 years old and Miss Weasley is only 11. There are many tasks ahead of you and you cannot be pulled down by a relationship when you should be working towards bettering yourself. This is merely a simple school crush and you will likely get over it quickly when you end the relationship," Dumbledore explained.

"I can assure you, Headmaster, that this is no school crush. I care for Ginny deeply, and she cares for me. I have never been better since she walked into my life and I have only gotten stronger as she remains by my side. I have been working to better myself for years, but now I have a real reason to keep it up. Those who try to interfere or hurt Ginny will end up much worse off, I promise you that. All you need to do is notice how Lucius, Draco and Ron have not tried anything since their last confrontations with me. I keep my promises," Harry replied, internally growling at Dumbledore's feeble attempts at trying to separate him from Ginny.

"I see...I just hope that nothing bad happens that will be detrimental to you..." Dumbledore sighed in defeat, for now.

"Don't worry...Nothing bad will happen as long as I live," Harry responded.

Harry then turned and walked out of the office, but not before seeing what the Headmaster was planning next. He saw the plan that Dumbledore was forming on how to get the Weasleys to destroy Ginny's self-esteem and make her feel worthless so that she would think that she wasn't good enough for Harry. If that didn't work, then he would place compulsion charms and the Imperius curse on the girl to break up with Harry.

Harry nearly killed Dumbledore when the old man thought of using the Imperius on Ginny anyway to make her a loyal slave and spy on Harry among other things. However, he controlled his emotions and went to find Ginny, Hermione and Hallie, then head to the carriages to take them to the Hogwarts Express. He needed to figure out a way to get her away from the Burrow or at least prevent Dumbledore's plans from working. What Harry definitely knew was that he needed to finish off Ginny's training in the mind arts. During this year, he had managed to teach her Legilimency and nearly completed her Occlumency training. In the summer, that would need to be finished as although her shields were strong, he knew that Dumbledore was very skilled in Legilimency and could break through her shields if he was determined to do so.

When Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Hallie boarded the Hogwarts Express for the ride back to London, he took this time to think on how to prevent Ginny from getting hurt by her family or Dumbledore. He was shuck out of his thoughts when Percy barged into the compartment, grinning at Ginny menacingly.

"Hello, Ginevra. Mother informed me this morning that Father has won over 1000 galleons at the Ministry's lottery draw this year. She and the others are using the money to take a trip to Egypt to visit William as soon as we get back home. I'm not particularly interested in going myself, so I have been asked to watch you this summer. You best be on your best behaviour while I'm having to look after you, otherwise I will call Professor Dumbledore to straighten you out. Good day, Ginevra," Percy explained, smirking as he saw Ginny's saddened face before leaving the compartment.

Harry snarled as he wished that he could pummel the pompous prat for upsetting his Ginny, but he couldn't without alerting Dumbledore to any problems and possibly cause the Headmaster to bring his plans for Ginny forward. That was when Harry had an idea. With only Percy there to deal with, his plan to get Ginny away from the Burrow would be all too easy now.

After the Lockhart incident, Harry thought that it would be prudent to research into this branch of magic as he saw the use of it in case anyone tried to blow his cover. He had learned how to use the charm in many ways, including erasing and altering memories, and also learned how to use compulsion charms to place subliminal messages into a person's mind to follow certain instructions. While it wasn't actually the Imperius curse, as the victim still actually had control over their body, it was still a form of mind control, even though it was subtle. However, Harry believed that the situation called for drastic measures if Ginny's wellbeing was on the line here.

After Harry had finished fine tuning his plan, he decided to tell Ginny about it and why he needed to do it. He hesitantly called out to her using the connection between their minds.

"Ginny, there's something that I need to talk to you about," Harry said.

"What is it, Harry? Is something wrong?" Ginny asked worriedly.

"Very. Or at least it would be if my plan to prevent it fails, which I don't see happening," Harry answered.

"Tell me what's going on now!" Ginny demanded heatedly.

"When Dumbledore called me up to his office this morning, he tried to get the Sword of Gryffindor. He failed, obviously, but then he started to enquire about us, saying that we weren't ready for a relationship and that I didn't need you distracting me," Harry explained.

"There's more to it than that, Harry. What else did the old fool say?" Ginny questioned.

"It's not what he said, but what he thought that was the problem. He was going to get the Weasleys to abuse you until you break down and end our relationship after you become convinced that you have no worth and that you don't deserve me. That is most certainly not true, though. Remember that. You have way more worth than an infinite number of Dumbledore's and you are the only girl that I will ever love, romantically that is. I love Hermione and Hallie like sisters, but you are so much more. But even that isn't the worst of it..." Harry explained, trailing off as the thought of Dumbledore defiling his Ginny made him become enraged again, which she picked up on.

"Harry...I've never felt so more anger radiating off of you before...Not even when my family chastised me the evening after the Chamber incident...What's wrong?" Ginny asked hesitantly, feeling very frightened by Harry's rage.

"Do not be afraid of me, Ginny. It's that old bastard Dumbledore that's the problem! He had a backup plan in case the Weasleys failed to break you! He would go over to the Burrow and place compulsion charms on you to break up with me or use the Imperius curse to make you do that, then be his slave! That's why I'm angry! The very thought of him fantasising about abusing you makes me want to go back to Hogwarts and kill him where he stands!" Harry explained angrily.

"No! There must be a way to prevent that! I don't want to be used again! Not again!" Ginny exclaimed, leaning into Harry as he held her while she cried, remembering Tom possessing her and subjecting her to a lot of mental torture by feeding her some of the memories of what he did to other people; killing, raping etcetera.

Hermione and Hallie shared a look as they saw Ginny suddenly burst into tears. Harry and Ginny had told them about the fact that they could talk telepathically to each other, so the two girls realised that the couple were having a private conversation where whatever made Ginny cry angered Harry immensely.

"That bastard is never going to touch you! I've figured out a way to prevent him coming into play anyway. Your family actually did some good for a change and did us a favour by going off to Egypt and leaving you with only Percy to deal with. All that research into memory charms and compulsion charms are about to pay off..." Harry stated, leaving his last sentence up for interpretation.

"Let me guess? Percy is going to be in for an odd summer while I spend my summer with you?" Ginny questioned with a hopeful tone of voice.

"You would guess correctly. Once that is dealt with, we'll go to Gringotts, claim my inheritance and property, then ask about our bond. Once we have our answers, we can move into our new home, or more my old home, I guess," Harry explained, getting a bit nostalgic at the end as a memory of his mum and dad playing with him in a large decorated room appeared in his mind.

Ginny had finally stopped crying now and was content to just snuggling into Harry's side as he absent-mindedly stroked through her hair to comfort her. Soon, they would be back in London and he could make sure that the two of them were well out of Dumbledore's control for good.

A/N: The next chapter will be the start of the summer. Thanks for all of your reviews and I hope that your questions have been answered. I'm sure that the Egypt trip is later on in the summer but, for the purpose of this story, I needed to bring it forward so that Harry can protect Ginny from Dumbledore. I will warn you that Dumbledore will only get worse as the story goes on, but he'll be too late to act once Harry receives his inheritance and he and Ginny learn about the soul bond. Expect some Harry vs Dumbledore in later chapters once Harry drops his mask. Until next time. Bye.