Disclaimer: I don't own it.
Now, here's chapter Twenty-One!
A/N: Thanks if you reviewed! (and to "dumbuldore 4ever", I'm sorry--your email address didn't pop up, so just email me… My email address is on my profile page. Thanks!) Ah I got this one out rather quickly! I'm proud of myself!Chapter 21: Ginny's Revelation
"Oh just look at them!"
"How sweet!"
"He must be so tired! Poor thing!"
Harry heard voices around him, but he had no idea who the words were coming from. He barely remembered anything from the previous night, and his head was pounding. He slowly opened his eyes, his surroundings swimming into view.
Ugh,
At first, all he saw was the Golden Sphinx that he had collected in the First Task sitting next to him. Then he looked down Ginny, her face pressed into his chest, breathing deeply and sound asleep. He smiled, but then looked up to see a rather large group of girls gathered around the couch on which he and Ginny had fallen asleep the night before.
"Er--" he said uncertainly, straightening his glasses. "Hello?"
"Hiya Harry!" one of the girls chirped, but Harry hastily shushed her.
"Quiet down a bit," he said, gesturing to his sleeping girlfriend.
"Oh, sorry," the girl said, sounding louder than before. "We just came to congratulate you on your excellent performance yesterday. You were brilliant!"
"Thanks," Harry said, running a hand through his now tangled hair, then rubbing his neck, which had begun to ache from his position on the sofa.
"We all made buttons," the girl continued, brandishing a large, hot pink button. "See? They say 'Support Harry Potter: Gryffindor's Hero' on them!"
"Yeah," he replied noncommittally, wanting nothing more than to fall back asleep to escape his raging headache. A small idea popped into his head, and at that moment, that was all he cared about. "Ginny. Gin--Wake up," he murmured, gently shaking her awake.
"Hmm?" she asked, her voice muffled. Harry smiled a bit, ignoring the looks on the girls faces, which clearly showed immense jealousy. "Wassamatter?"
"Gin, come on," Harry said, wiping the messy tufts of fiery hair out of her face. "Come with me."
"'Mmkay," she replied, half-asleep, too tired to refuse to whatever Harry wanted. Besides, her head was hurting too much.
Harry grinned at the girls around him before picking Ginny up bridal-style and carrying her up the stairs to the sixth-year boy's dormitory, the Golden Sphinx tucked in his elbow. The Gryffindor girls gaped at him.
"Did he just blow us off?" one of them asked.
"I think so," said another. "But who cares? At least he talked to us!"
A loud chorus of squeals were heard after this statement, and they went off to one of the girl's dorms to giggle about what had just happened. They were clutching each other and chattering the whole way up the stairs.
Over in the boy's dorm, Harry opened up the door and walked in, careful to not bump Ginny's head on the doorway. He walked softly over to his bed, where he pulled back the curtains and laid her down on the mattress, placing the Sphinx on his bedside table. He gave a quick look in Ron's direction, and upon seeing him fast asleep, Harry climbed in next to Ginny.
He shoved the curtains closed, and pulled the blankets over them, making Ginny turn over and burrow into Harry, murmuring something incoherent into his chest. Harry barely had time to worry about what Ron would think when he saw his little sister in his best mate's bed, when he wrapped his arms around Ginny and fell into a blissful sleep.
Some hours after that, and several peaceful dreams later, Harry was awoken by Ron's voice.
"Harry mate," he said. "It's nearly noon. We've both been asleep for ages, and Hermione's going to kill us! I'm heading down to find her."
"Okay," Harry said groggily, through the curtains. "I'll be down in a bit."
He closed his eyes and listened for the sound of the door opening and closing before he jumped out of bed and hurriedly began to get dressed into a new set of clothes, the curtain still separating him and Ginny. "Gin!" he hissed. "Ginny! Wake up!"
"Why?" she asked, her head buried in his pillow. The word was long and drawn-out.
"Because your bloody brother was just here and I am not about to get killed for having you in my bed!" Harry replied. Ginny snorted.
"Oh!" she said with a laugh. "I am in your bed! I was wondering why the girls dorm smelled like Ron's dirty laundry mixed with old Chocolate Frogs!"
"Oh very funny," Harry replied. He was not in the mood for her wisecracks when his life was hanging on the line. He wasn't even this scared during the Task yesterday! "Please, Gin? Please get up!"
"Oh alright, alright," she said, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Harry emerged from behind the curtains, having finished changing. "Harry, can I borrow one of your shirts? I don't feel much like walking over to the girls' dorms to get one of mine. I can just stay wearing these jeans…"
"Sure," he replied, tossing one of his old Quidditch shirts at her and turning around to allow her to change in privacy. "But if Ron asks, you snuck in here and nicked it while I was sleeping."
"Got it," she said, jumping out of bed and stealing Ron's hairbrush that sat on his bedside table. She began to brush her mane of tousled hair. "How do I look?"
"Great," he commented, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the door. He peeked outside, and when he didn't see anyone, he and Ginny made their way through the Common Room and out the portrait hole.
"Nice hair," she stated, nudging him in the ribs slightly. He laughed as they walked down to the Great Hall to find the others. His hands had been constantly running through his hair--a sign that he was nervous.
Harry cautiously opened the doors to the Great Hall, peeking inside. Ginny laughed, before pulling him away from the doors. She put her hands forcefully on his shoulders, forcing him to look at her.
"Harry," she said. "We didn't do anything. Nothing. We were just sleeping, after a long night of partying."
"Right," Harry said, taking a deep breath to calm himself down.
"So don't let Ron get to you," she continued. "Plus he didn't even see us, so we have absolutely nothing to worry about!"
Harry nodded. "Thanks."
"Now I'm starving," Ginny said, grabbing his hand and leading him into the Great Hall. "I am a Weasley, after all. I need to eat!"
Harry grinned, and was about to reply when there was a loud buzzing that caught him off guard. The entirety of the school was now gazing up at him, some grimacing with jealous, some with admiration evident on their features. And some--some were just flat out fascinated.
"Well lookie here," Ginny said into his ear. He could tell she was smirking by the tone in her voice. "It looks as though I've got a celebrity on my hands."
Harry blushed and stepped a bit closer to her, before they continued farther into the hall, towards their friends and family at the Gryffindor table. Harry and Ginny plopped down in front of Violet and Irisa, the former of which looking very miffed. Harry raised his eyebrows at them, surprised to see them sitting next to each other. Violet sighed, and her jaw clenched tighter than it already was.
"What's going on…?" Harry trailed off as Violet shot a very pointed look in Seth's direction, but her twin brother seemed to be taking no notice of them. He was currently reading the Daily Prophet. Harry nodded in sudden realization. "Oh--"
Ginny shot a look at her boyfriend, who got the hint and leaned in to whisper to her, "Well, I suppose that she's trying to act civil to Irisa to make Seth happy. To keep the peace, so to say…"
"Ohhh, okay," Ginny said. "I don't get how you all can do that--talk to one another with just glances."
"Well--it's really just the Seth and Violet that do it," Harry said fairly. "I just sort of picked up on it over time."
Ginny nodded, and turned to dish out a rather generous helping of biscuits and gravy onto her plate. The houselfs who worked in the kitchens had been serving breakfast all day, knowing that the students would be waking up late in the afternoon, and assumed that they would want to wake up to breakfast. Ginny was eternally grateful for this.
"So," Harry continued, turning back to Violet and Irisa. "What happened to you all yesterday?"
"Oh, not much," Violet said. "I just used a few simple spells that I learned that came in very handy. Although, I was rather stumped with the Acromantula. I froze and my mind went blank, and it had carried me off for a few minutes before anything came to mind. I was alright in the end."
Harry gaped at her. "It carried you off?"
She nodded, but waved him off. "Yes, the judges must have taken off a few points for that… But don't worry. Wait until you hear hers," she said, gesturing to Irisa. "It's a miracle how she got out alive."
"Well, that's one way to put it," Irisa said, glancing at Harry and Ginny, who had raised eyebrows. "Er--Well, let's just say that I had a bit of trouble near the end…"
"A bit of trouble?" Violet said. "You nearly got your soul sucked out by the Dementors! You're just lucky that you finally gained use of your legs before it was too late," she leaned forward and whispered, "In the end, she just ran away. No wonder the judges took off points for that mistake. She could have just used a simple patronus--"
"No!" Irisa burst out. "I'm sorry, Seth. I just can't do this anymore."
Violet looked at her blankly.
"I just can't deal with her!" Irisa said. "You all see how much she hates me! I didn't do anything to her, and yet she treats me as if I murdered her owl or something!"
"What did you do to Jellybean?" Violet jumped up to face Irisa.
"I didn't do anything to that atrocious thing!"
"Then why did you bring it up?"
"I was trying to make a point!" Irisa cried, throwing her hands in the air. "Forget this! I need some time alone!"
She picked up her bag and stomped away. Seth, who had remained silent the entire time, just merely stared at the door she had just exited through. Harry and Ginny exchanged looks, and through that glance, she finally felt what it was like to know exactly what someone else was thinking. She reveled in this thought.
Ron and Hermione had been sitting quietly through everything, but Ron decided to break the uncomfortable silence.
"What the bloody hell was that about?" he said. Hermione elbowed him in the ribs.
"Language, Ronald!" she hissed. Harry and Ginny sniggered. Seth blinked, before picking up the Daily Prophet. "What are you reading about, Seth?" she continued, trying to change the subject.
He looked up at her. "Apparently this guy named Tom Riddle got an award or something. I guess he invented some sort of spell."
"Tom Riddle?" she asked. "He sounds really familiar…"
"Of course he does," Ginny said. "You've read practically everything in the world that there is to read. He is bound to be mentioned somewhere."
"That's it!" Hermione said. "I've got to go!"
She jumped up from her seat and rushed out of the Great Hall.
xxx
Hermione ran into her dorm and tossed open her trunk, sorting through the several books stacked inside. She finally found the one she was looking for, and pulled it out and flopped onto her bed with the book in front of her.
She remembered when she had first gotten the book, a few days earlier in the library. She had knocked over a few books that day, and had seen it laying among the others on the floor. Something propelled her to pick it up, and she ended up taking it without checking it out, which was a first for her.
She had read it that night. It was a book about powerful witches and wizards in history, and she had come across an entire chapter about a man named Tom Riddle.
She flipped it to that very chapter, and began to scan through it's contents. One sentence stuck out to her. Tom Marvolo Riddle is considered a rather talented man, and some even say that he could do anything he set his mind to, whatever it may be. It scared her to think about what someone with as much power as him might do.
Seth had said that Riddle had won an award for inventing a spell… What type of spell? She wasn't sure, but she had a very bad feeling about this man. Something about him definitely made her uneasy.
Hermione sighed and made a mental note to read the entire Prophet article later on that day.
xxx
A few days later, Harry was sitting in the library with Ginny, who was attempting to finish her Potions essay. He had the Sphinx sitting on the table in front of him, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do with it. He tried prodding it with his wand and muttering a few spells, but all it did was make a fuss and tell him that he wasn't going to get anywhere with such rudeness. He even tried asking it politely what it was supposed to do, but it refused to tell him. To make it all worse, it spoke these things in riddles, which made Harry want to pull his hair out.
"Oh, it's not that bad," Ginny said after Harry sighed for the twenty-fifth time in one hour. "I think this was the desired effect, really. The judges don't exactly want to make it easy for you, do they? If you just read between the lines--"
"What lines?" Harry scoffed. "Would you be so kind as to point them out to me, seeing as I have no idea where they are."
"Funny, Harry," Ginny said, rolling her eyes.
"Seriously, though," Harry said. "What should I do?"
"Well," she said, chewing on the end of her quill. "I'd assume that whatever you have to do would possibly relate to Egypt or something. That is where that giant sphinx is."
"How did you know about that?" Harry asked. "I thought wizards didn't really get into Muggle history like that.
Ginny scoffed. "Muggle history? Wizards are the reason that thing is still standing, and besides--a few years ago, we took a family trip to Egypt during the summer."
"Oh, did you have fun?" Harry asked.
"Yes, as a matter of fact we did--" she paused, wondering how on earth their conversation had turned to this. "But that's beside the point. We were talking about your little golden friend there," she pointed to the little Sphinx, who was now taking a nap on her essay.
"Right," Harry said. "So something to do with Egypt… I have to take it to Egypt?"
Ginny laughed. "I don't think so…but how did you get that thing to move around and talk, anyway?"
"Oh, well--I'm not exactly sure," he said, his brows furrowed. "I think I might have mispronounced a spell or something, and this was the result."
"How lovely," she commented idly, moving the Sphinx off of her assignment and dipping her quill in the ink.
The door to the library opened and a large group of girls entered. Instinctively, Harry and Ginny both collected their things and moved to the very back of the room, behind the shelves. Harry's popularity was becoming second nature to them, lately, and they were actually getting rather good at hiding from admirers.
"I'm finished!" Ginny said some minutes later, setting down her quill excitedly. "Here, have a look."
She passed Harry her essay, and he quickly read it, pointing out a few spelling errors, and the occasional fault in punctuation.
"It's good," Harry said, passing the parchment back to her. "It's better than I could ever write. I'm dead awful at potions."
"Oh, you can't be--" but Ginny stopped as Harry clapped a hand to his forehead. "Harry?" she asked. "Harry, what's wrong?"
"My…scar…" he choked out, his eyes squeezed shut.
That was all she needed. She grabbed Harry's hand and tried to pull him away to either Dumbledore or Madame Pomfrey, but he resisted.
"Gin…"
"Harry we have to--" she started, but he cut her off.
"No--Just--" Harry broke off, and slumped to the floor.
xxx
It was nearly three days later, and Ginny was sitting in the Hospital Wing, next to her bed-ridden boyfriend, who had yet to wake up. She hadn't even left his side since he collapsed, until Ron and Hermione forced her to eat something, which ended up being a lost cause, anyway.
All around Harry's bed, hundreds of get-well cards and gifts from admirers and friends were stacked into towering piles on his bedside tables. They even had to wheel in a few carts for extra space. Ginny picked up another bag of Bertie Bott's, waving her wand over it to check for any potions or charms. Who knows what lengths those girls would go to….
She pulled the small drawstring and sifted through the bag's contents. Ginny picked out a red colored bean, and was pleased to find out that it was cherry flavored. She chewed on the candy with a thoughtful expression on her face as she stared out of the window above Harry's bed.
"A penny for your thoughts?"
Ginny nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the voice from bedside her. Harry had rolled over on his side to face her, his glasses on the little space of the bedside table that was not covered by gifts.
"Harry!" Ginny said, putting a hand over her heart and breathing heavily. "When did you wake up?"
He shrugged, sitting up and squinting to look at her once more, before saying, "What happened?"
Ginny stood up and moved her body to sit at the foot of his bed. She twisted her hands in her lap, unsure of how to ask him.
"Harry," she paused. "What was the last thing you remember?"
He looked at her weirdly, but answered her nonetheless. "We were in the library, and we went to the back--" he stopped talking. A hand shot up to his forehead in disbelief. "--And my scar was hurting."
She nodded mutely, before talking after a rather long silence. "Dumbledore said that it isn't a good sign."
"Well, if it isn't a good sign, then he must know what has been going on, right?" Harry asked hopefully. "I mean, if he doesn't know anything, how can he assume that it is bad?"
"Well, Harry, the scar itself wasn't exactly the best thing to begin with," Ginny said softly. "Dumbledore reckons that it has something to do with a curse. He thinks that someone wanted you like this."
Harry blanched, but remained silent, staring straight ahead.
Ginny remembered seeing that look on Harry's face before, and with a sharp pang, she suddenly remembered something that had happened weeks ago.
"Have you ever seen this scar before?" The question seemed absurd, but before Harry could shake his head 'no', something sparked in his mind, as he suddenly remembered something. He nodded. Ginny looked as shocked as Harry felt. He looked across the desk at Dumbledore, who was giving him a searching look. "Well, it wasn't exactly real," Harry clarified. "I had this dream once…In the dream, I had this," he brushed his finger over the scar on his pale, white forehead. "What happened in this dream?" Dumbledore asked seriously. Ginny gaped at the both of them, her hand still linked with Harry's. "I--I was at the Ministry of Magic, where my dad works. I don't remember it making much sense," Harry said. "Anyway, I was standing in the atrium, by the big fountain--just looking into the water. And that's when I heard a voice." Ginny's gaze locked onto Harry as he spoke the next words. "It was whispering to me. It said something about me being chosen."
Ginny's hand clapped to her mouth in sudden realization. "Harry."
Harry's head snapped up to look at her. He now had his glasses on. "What is it?" he asked, concerned by the look on her face.
"Remember when you were talking to Dumbledore about that dream you had?" he looked confused, so she clarified. "The one where you were in the Ministry, and you saw the scar on your forehead."
"Oh!" Harry said. "That one. What about it?"
"What about it?" Ginny said, unbelievingly. "That is a huge clue! Harry--what if--what if what you saw was real? What if you really are chosen for something? What if--" she said this all very fast, and her eyes became rather anxious.
"Ginny," Harry said, noticing this. "Calm down. Breathe. I think you have a point, but we really can't deal with this problem right now. Compared to everything that is going on, this seems to be the least of my worries."
"What are you talking about?" she cried, surprised by his obviously careless attitude towards his well-being.. "That's crazy, and of course we can deal with it!"
"No, Ginny," he said sternly. "I have too much in my life right now. I don't need to explain this to you! You already know how hectic everything is already! I can't think about this absurd scar on my forehead anymore."
"Harry, this is serious!"
"I know, Ginny!" he groaned in frustration. "Just drop it!"
"How am I supposed to drop--"
"STOP!" Harry yelled, releasing his pent-up frustration and emotions from the past few days. "Please. Stop nagging at me. Everything is fine."
"Don't lie to yourself," Ginny said quietly. "You know that everything is not fine. Even Dumbledore said that the scar was put there by Dark Magic! I don't know what they think about Dark Magic in America, but here, it's BAD."
Harry blinked at her. "Really? I think you are just blowing all of this out of proportion!"
"I'm just trying to help!" Ginny screamed. "I'm your girlfriend! I have the right to be worried! I care about you!"
"Worried?" Harry said. "If this is your definition of worried, then I do not want to see you when you're acting hysterical."
"Harry," she said in a warning tone. "Don't go there."
"Why not?" he asked, beginning to mock her. "I'm your boyfriend! I have the right to state my opinion!"
"There's a fine line between stating your opinion and being downright rude!"
"I don't think I was being rude," he said. "I think I was actually quite accurate."
Ginny huffed. "Well," she said, reaching the end of her fuse, "we finally found something that we can't agree on."
Before Harry could stop her, Ginny jumped off the bed and stormed determinedly out of the Infirmary, the door swinging closed behind her.
A/N: So what do you think? I thought that a fight between Harry and Ginny was needed to show the tension in the air for everyone, and I also wanted to add a bit of Harry's stubbornness into the story somewhere. Please review!
EDIT: I went back and changed up the ending a bit. It was bugging me all day.