CHAPTER TWO___

Over the next week, Ginny was playing investigator. She had secretly followed Harry around, and come to the conclusion that his schedule was as follows, taken from Ginny's notebook -

He wakes up at 8:00 every single day, on the button. I know because I get up at 7:40, not always on the button, but I'm usually down in the common room when he walks down at 8:00.

We have classes until 3:30, but his classes don't really matter.

After his last period, at 4:00 he goes to Quidditch practice until 6:00, when he comes into the common room, sits down for about five minutes, maybe playing a game of chess, before going upstairs to take a shower.

At 7:00 is dinner, which he always comes five minutes late, eats with Hermione and Ron, and then goes off to the library.

After the library, I always lose him. He walks away with something clutched under his arm every single night at 8:20, and then doesn't come back to the common room until 11:50.

Every single day.

Ginny sighed as she closed her notebook, concluding that she would find out where he went every night after the library, and what he did. And what WAS that thing clutched under his arm? She had to know, and tonight, she would.

After dinner Ginny went to the library and sat a few tables away from Harry, who was reading a thick book about every single professional Quidditch game played so far. It automatically updated itself, and he liked to read the differences of the quidditch games now and in the 1500's. Ginny stared at the book she was pretending to read, thinking of all the possibilities of Harry's whereabouts every night. She checked her watch. It was 8:15. Five more minutes, she thought to herself, and proceeded to act like she was reading once more.

At 8:20, she heard Harry slide his chair backwards and get up with his elbow bent and to his side, holding something down. Ginny quietly and quickly stood up and pulled on her cloak, and tiptoed down the hall after him.

He stopped at the muggle studies classroom, she observed from the corridor, peeking her head in. She watched intently as he walked in, looked around the dark room, and pulled something out of his coat. Is that -- a cloak? It was some sort of cloak, a silvery cloak that looked as if it were made of glass. He pulled it out, and put it on, or did he? As soon as he put it on, Ginny didn't see him anymore. She rubbed her eyes and looked again, and he still wasn't there. Looking closer, Ginny saw his hand, with no body, just has hand, stick out and close the door behind him. Ginny heard his feet and listened hard, following him.

He was going up many, many staircases, until Ginny recognized the one where she heard him stop moving and watched him pull of his cloak - the astronomy tower. From under his cloak he also had his Firebolt, which he mounted and soared up to the top of the tower, Ginny watching him until he was out of sight. The first thought that came to her mind was "He would be in so much trouble if someone saw him out flying like this." but then she thought that it was good for him, she knew what it would be like to just get out and soar and think and breathe in cool air. Which reminded her how freezing she was, and she began tiptoeing her way out into the corridor, when she heard Peeves cackling. At her first instinct, she ran back into the center of the tower, threw Harry's cloak over her, and squatted down while Peeves flew in and recited a whole medley of rhymes that made Ginny's head ache, so she busied herself with other things, such as the cloak. She looked around inside ; it was not really patterned, but it had tiny swirls along the border. She inhaled the scent of it. Is this what Harry smells like? She thought to herself, and inhaled once more, closing her eyes. It smelled like - cinnamon, and yet, it smelled sweet, maybe like vanilla - she sniffed it - she tried to put her finger on it, but it wouldn't come to her. When Peeves' voice died down, she peered out the top of the cloak, and a gust of wind nearly knocked her over. There it was, that smell again, the same one she smelled the morning of the quidditch match. Then it came to her. Harry smelled like a cool, brisk day in autumn. Like pumpkins and grass and leaves. She sighed and looked up at the stars.

Ginny held her breath and thought of something - How long had she been there? She couldn't see her watch it, was too dark, and, she soon realized, too late, because she saw Harry's dark, thin silhouette rounding the top of the tower. She couldn't move from under the cloak - he would see her. But if she didn't, then he would be searching around for his cloak. She took it off and only too late - she heard Harry's feet hit the floor just when she had reached the exit.

"Hey!" Harry called out to her. He didn't know it was Ginny yet.

Ginny turned around slowly. "Um...hi?" She said and started to turn around again.

"Ginny?" Harry said slowly, and walked toward her.

"Erm, yes, but I have to go, so please - "

"What are you doing here?" Harry looked at her in suspicion.

"Um..." I have to lie, she thought, I have to lie... "I come here - er, sometimes, at um, night--" she stammered "to, uh, look at the stars! Yes, the stars!" Harry gave her a funny look.

"I've never seen you here before," he said. "How long have you been here?"

"Oh, not long enough to see you leave!" She said, totally giving herself away. Harry turned around and picked up his invisibility cloak. "This is warm. Were you using it?"

"Er--well, I can explain, you see, Peeves came down, and he was singing in here, and I didn't know what it was so I just put it on to hide myself, and it made me invisible." Ginny said lamely. "Sorry."

"Well, if you're going back down to the common room, you might want to put this on." Harry said.

"Oh! Well, no, it's yours, you should wear it. I'll be fine." she said. "I'll just, um, be going now, then."

"Ginny."

"Yes?"

"I mean for the both of us." Harry said. "We don't need to lose any points for Gryffindor. It's big enough for three people."

Ginny felt her face get hot and was trying to stop herself from grinning. She suddenly didn't feel cold at all anymore. In fact, she felt like she was sweating. She walked awkwardly over to Harry, who was lifting up the cloak to put them under it, and stepped under, sweating. They made their way out and Ginny was thankful that they didn't have to squeeze. It would have been much too scary to have to walk with their arms touching. Ginny realized how stupid she sounded, talking to herself, and just let Harry lead their way down the corridors. Through all her thoughts Ginny had forgotten why she had come here in the first place, and decided upon asking Harry now, while she had him.

"So, do you come here every night, then?" she whispered to him.

"Most of the time. I love to fly at night. You won't -tell anyone, will you?" Harry looked at her.

"No! No of course not. It's your thing, I just happened to see you there. It wasn't like, I was, you know, SPYING or something like that." she said, half trying to convince her self that she wasn't spying. Even though you WERE, she thought.

"Alright then. I mainly go up there to think. It sort of helped after the whole - well, you know." Harry said. Ginny said something like "yeah", feeling stupid. What was she supposed to say to someone who had been through that much, and was still humble about it?

"So you still think about that a lot?" she asked.

"I guess you could say that. There isn't much left to think about. I don't want to be known as someone who tried to save Cedric and failed. I hate being famous." Harry sounded as if he would go on, but stopped himself.

"You don't talk to people much, do you?"

"Nope. I like it better that way." Harry said.

"Maybe you should try talking to people. We're all here for you, you know it. Everyone in Gryffindor is, but you won't open up to anyone." Ginny said. "You would feel better if you did."

To her surprise, Harry smiled at her, looked at the portrait, said "Stardust" and let her in the common room before him.

Ginny made her way towards the stairs. "Good night, Harry." she said.

"Night, Ginny. Thanks." Ginny stopped climbing the stairs.

"For what?"

"Talking to me." he said. And walked to his dorm. Ginny shook her head.

"What a weird kid." she said to herself, and went up to her dorm and laid her head down on her crisp, white pillow that smelled like the fall.