Harry decided to spend the last two weeks of the summer at Hogwarts. When Ginny came back into his room after he had got changed, he took her over to her portrait, which was now hanging on his wall. Slowly, keeping an air of tension, he grasped the edge of the portrait and pulled, revealing a passage behind it. In silence, he pulled her along by her hand, walking slowly so that she could keep up. At the other end, he pushed what seemed to be the end of the passage, but which turned out to be another portrait of her in a large, round room covered in portraits.
"What is this place?" she asked in a whisper, as though they weren't supposed to be there.
"The Room of Requirement. Very few people know about this place. Not even Dumbledore knows of the existence of this room. It can be whatever you want it to be, and will contain whatever you need."
"And you need portraits of people?"
"No, there are passages behind each of the portraits, like yours. I use them to get around the school unnoticed. The great thing about this particular layout is that someone else can be in a different layout of the room at the same time, unlike any other two layouts. I'm letting you in on this secret because I trust you, Ginny. If you ever want to get in, the password is Postulatum. Come visit me sometime," he explained.
Ginny nodded in agreement. She would visit him whenever she got the time. As Harry spent his time in the room, Ginny brought him snacks from the Burrow, forgetting that Harry could get food from the kitchens. From time to time, Harry visited the library as Madam Pince was away for the holidays. He took a huge pile of books from there and began to use them in the room, learning more advanced magic at an accelerated pace.
Contained within his pile of books were a number of volumes written by a man named Gilderoy Lockhart. He seemed to be well-travelled, but extremely arrogant. He had saved countless villages from terrors such as werewolves, hags, trolls and banshees, and was always writing about himself as though he were God's gift to mankind. Aside from the battling of monsters, he seemed rather air-headed; a lilac-loving, hair care-obsessed fool with an apparently charming smile. Harry had the image of a blond fool, grinning and showing off his shining teeth, and threw the books across the room, disgusted. The magic was all very basic anyway.
As Harry learned from the books, he was able to practice the practical side of the magic, by brewing potions or casting spells, as the room always catered to his needs, as did the house elves if the room couldn't. It was nearing the end of August and Harry was creeping back to library when he spotted Madam Pince, dusting the bookshelves. Harry quickly and silently hurried back to the room, followed by a shriek of terror.
"The books! Someone has stolen the books!" Madam Pince ran out of the library, crashing through the doors, and rushed towards the Grand Staircase. Brandishing her feather duster, she careered into the gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office and was knocked slightly off balance by the collision. "Sugar Quill!" she yelled, getting flustered as the gargoyle sprang to its feet, seemingly slowly. As it was moving aside, she bustled past it and up the moving spiral staircase to Dumbledore's office, slamming the door wide open at the top.
Dummbledore barely flinched as a red-faced woman appeared in the doorway with such force that a few small books fell from the bookshelves around his office. He watched interestedly as she bustled around, tidying them up, before addressing him.
"Albus, somebody's stolen the books! There are gaps in the shelves! There's a thief in Hogwarts!"
"Calm down, Irma," said Dumbledore calmly. "I'm sure there is no real thief. Perhaps one of the members of staff borrowed some books while you were away?"
"No," she sighed, shaking her head with both sadness and rage, "too many have gone." Dumbledore got up and followed the shaking Madam Pince through the corridors to the library, stopping as she opened the doors and gestured inside. "See?" she announced. "There are so many books missing."
"But Irma," replied Dumbledore, "nothing seems to be missing."
"NOTHING MISS... ing?!" She trailed off as she looked around and saw the shelves full with books, all in perfect order. "But I swear there were..."
"Never mind, Irma," murmured Dumbledore softly. "Let's get Severus to make you a Draught of Peace." He led her out of the library as she continued to mutter to herself, shaking her head, and steered her around the obstacles in their path on the way to the dungeon.
Harry, feeling rather flustered, walked through Ginny's passage, returning to the Burrow the day before they set out for Hogwarts. He managed to catch Ginny walking past his room when the other Weasleys weren't around, and so bid her goodbye. It wasn't so much a goodbye as 'see you later', but it was the end of the summer, and it seemed to symbolise the end of so much that was good. Though they knew they would see each other in just over a day, they both shed a silent tear that tey hoped the other wouldn't see.
Ginny travelled to London with the rest of the Weasleys and Harry in the Ford Anglia, which Mr. Weasley had enlarged even further than usual to accommodate the two extra people and trunks this year. The journey was made overnight, and, as always, they made it to King's Cross station just on time. Percy, Fred and George ran through onto the platform, eager to see their friends. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley followed, accompanying Ginny and leaving Harry and Ron on the platform.
Ginny was exchanging goodbyes with her parents when the train's whistle blew. Wondering where Harry and Ron had got to, they looked to the wrought iron archway which led back into the main station. They got a sudden shock as they saw that an iron wall stood at the end of the platform, preventing them from leaving. Groups of parents were waving their wands at the wall, trying to get it to return to being an arch and, at around five past eleven, they were successful.
Harry decided that it was time to leave the room and watch Ginny getting sorted. He opened Violet's portrait and walked along the passage to the antechamber just off the Great Hall. He opened the door just enough to see through, but not be seen himself, and watched as the sorting progressed. The rather pretty blonde girl with radish earrings looked straight at Harry, as though she knew where he was, but got quickly called up and sorted into Ravenclaw. Eventually, Ginny made up the grand finale of the sorting, and was unsurprisingly sorted into Gryffindor, her face, her hair and the red of the Gryffindor crest matching perfectly in colour and shade, as well as those radish earrings Harry had noticed earlier. That girl was still looking in his direction. Ginny half ran to the Gryffindor table and sat near most of the other first-year Gryffindors, just down from her brothers. He counted the red heads. One... Two... Three... Four... Just four.