Author's note: ok, it's slightly different. The idea just came to me one night, and I wondered how Harry and Ginny would react to my stories. Mostly this story is me making fun of my own story. All the stuff in Italics is parts of the first chapter in Keeping Harry Sane. It's not all there, because that would be boring for people who have already read Keeping Harry sane. Chapter five of Keeping Harry Sane should be out soon. Aria*(If you read this) please read the bottom authors note.
Disclaimer: Harry and Ginny are not mine, yada, yada, yada. Is there really anyone who doesn't know that? On and Ginny Fire is Aria*'s (a awesome author, and if you haven't read her stories, you should)
What do they think?
Keeping Harry Sane
Part One
Of Waiting, Watching, Spies, and SIDs
Just as I hit the enter button to begin my new series, I heard a small cough behind me.
"Ahem." Spinning around I found myself face-to-face with none other than Harry Potter. He had taken a seat on the couch behind my computer. He looked very at home.
"Harry? What are you doing here?" I figured I was hallucinating, things like that do happen at times I should be in bed, so I blinked, but he was still there.
"Reading your story. What else would I be doing? Making cookies?"
"Anything is possible. So what do you think so far?"
He blinked in confusion at the almost empty screen. "You mean the title?"
"What else would I mean?"
"Well, its…its…well…its…"
"Spit it out."
"Do you want me to be nice or do you want to truth?"
"Truth."
He continued. "Its lame."
I sighed. "You are so inspirational."
He nodded at me. "Well I think I have to read more of the story to decide if I like it or not."
"Right." I clicked and clacked away at the computer for a few moments, then backed away for him to read it.
Weeks passed after Ginny's meeting with Harry out by the lake. He hadn't said anything to her about her offer. She wondered if he took her seriously. Maybe he had thought that she was joking and anyway why would he come to her? He had Ron and Hermione. But Ginny had noticed a definite change in Harry. He was more reserved. He wasn't saying much. Although this might not be how he was really acting as Ginny only saw him at meals, he was rarely in the common room. But on the rare occasion that he was in the common room he didn't talk to anyone. He would sit in a chair and stare at the fire. On many occasions Ginny had had to control herself so she wouldn't run up to him, wave a hand in front of his face, and yell 'is anyone home?' But that would probably just call unnecessary attention to herself.
He sighed and relaxed back on to the couch. "It's just as I feared. Depressed Harry finds happiness in long suffering Ginny. See I already know what is going to happen. Then we fall in love, have some big adventure that tests the power of our feelings. We make it true and at the end we realize we were made for each other, and there's a whole lot of mushy stuff. Am I right?"
I gaped at him. "Well I'm—I'm not—well exactly sure about that."
He sighed again. "I think I better call Ginny." He snapped his fingers and a small redheaded girl appeared next to him, looking very confused.
"Harry? Where are we?"
"Buckingham Palace."
"Really?" asked Ginny amazed. "Well, I was fairly mad when suddenly in the middle of my chess game with Ron I get popped away, but if you were going to show me where the queen lives, I guess I can miss getting my butt kicked." She stopped and looked around. "I always thought it would be…well bigger."
"Yeah, me too. I guess this is just one of its small, homier rooms." Here he gave Ginny a small smack on the head. "No, silly, this isn't Buckingham Palace, its not even England. We are at the house of *Ice Lily*, a fanfiction writer. She's writing a story about you and me—"
She held up a hand for silence, having recovered from her short visit to the Queen's house. "Say no more. I know exactly what it's about. I'm extremely depressed because Harry won't give me the time of day, Harry saves my life, or I save his or something like that, Harry realizes he's in love with me, and we live happily ever after. I wish you would stop taking me to these people's houses, Harry. I've read enough of these stories about what all you Harry Potter obsessors think will happen to me and Harry."
"Has it really been done that many times?" I asked. They both nodded. I sighed and said, "well you do have something wrong, there is no life-saving by either of you."
"Well then," said Ginny without missing a beat. "I somehow get involved in his plot to end evil, and we fall in love."
I nodded. "I fell so…so unoriginal."
"Well there might be some hope," Harry said. He waved his hand at the computer screen. "Continue."
"Should I be scared?"
"Probably," Ginny said.
One night at about six o'clock while Ginny was sitting in an armchair trying to remember the ingredients in a complicated invisibility charm Harry came over.
Here Ginny, who was reading over my shoulder, broke in. "In case you were wondering, it's an invisibility potion, not charm, and the ingredients are boomslang skin—."
"Not now," I said swatting her away, "I'm on a brain wave."
He sat on the arm of her chair and didn't look at her. She looked up at his face. It was like looking at a statue. He didn't say anything, just sat there. Ginny decided not to talk first. He would come out with what he want to say. Finally after several minutes he spoke.
"Remember the time at the lake?"
"Uh yeah." How could she forget?
"I need to talk to someone." Ginny nearly grinned, which would have spoiled everything. She promised she wouldn't laugh. Harry Potter wanted to talk to her!
Harry, who had taken Ginny's place at my shoulder, giggled. Ginny pushed him out of the way and read it.
She sighed. "This is getting worse and worse."
"No offence or anything, but that last line is pretty lame," Harry said.
"Yeah, I don't flip out or anything when Harry talks to me." She pointed at Harry and began to wave her hands in front of her face. "Oh my god! He looked at me." Moving back a few steps so she was closer to the couch, she made one last swoon, and fell over backwards.
"Haha, very funny. I like the line, so take it or leave." Ginny sat back up. "Now let me finish."
The common room slowly emptied until it was only her and Ron left.
"Well, Sis, it's nearly eleven. I think you should be getting got bed."
"Just a small note," Harry said, who was still reading over my shoulder. "I have never heard Ron call Ginny, sis.
"Well He does NOW! OK? Happy? I didn't ask for you two to read over my shoulder and tell me what you hate. That's what the reviewers do (hint, hint). Now let me finish." I pushed him away and began typing again.
"I'm going in a little while. I just have to finish studying."
"Whatever, I'm going to bed. Big potions test tomorrow, I need sleep. 'Night."
"Goodnight." Ron walked up the staircase just as Harry came down. They didn't talk just nodded at one another. Ginny figured this was from being tired.
Harry glanced around the room then walked over to the chair that Ginny was sitting in. It was the same chair she had been in five hours ago.
"You don't move much do you? Never mind, lets go somewhere that we can't be over heard." He walked towards the portrait hole and opened it. Ginny got out of the chair as quickly as she could. This was made difficult because she had been sitting in the same position for the last five hours. Her left foot had fallen asleep.
"Don't you think that maybe we should be using the invisibility cloak?" Harry looked up sharply. Ginny wasn't supposed to know about the cloak. But she had spent hours upon hours of staring at Harry and knew a lot of things she probably wasn't supposed to know.
Harry didn't ask her about how she found out though. Just said, "No, we won't get into trouble." Ginny wondered for a moment why this was but she wasn't going to not go with Harry because they weren't invisible. She had been dreaming about the day that they would walk the castle together at night hand in hand. And although this wasn't a romantic stroll this was probably the best she would ever get.
I glanced around nervously to see where they were. To my relief, they had found the deck of cards I had left on the couch and had a game of spit going. I was safe…at least I thought so.
Nothing Harry did ever really surprised her.
I had thought I was safe until I heard a "Oh gosh," from behind me. I kept typing.
They kept walking. Finally after in seemed they must have walked around the entire school twice, and Ginny was sure that they had passed the same statue at least three times, Harry lead her into an empty classroom.
At least that was what Ginny had thought it was at first. But when she entered it she realized she was incredibly wrong. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked around at Harry. He had this strange insane look on his face. She looked around the room. It seemed to have once been a bathroom, a boys bathroom at that. But now it had a love seat, a squishy armchair, and a desk. The desk had definitely been used. It had papers all over it and a weird box thingy that had a screen and this thing with letters on it in front of it. She continued to stare at this box. She had never seen anything like it. Harry must have noticed something because he said, "It's a thing muggles use. It's called a computer."
"I do know what a computer is. Dad has one. And they don't work at Hogwarts." Although this was a good point, I chose to ignore her.
"I think I'm going crazy." This was almost enough to make her break her word. Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter, the hero, everyone's idle, thought that he was going crazy.
"Well at least now I understand the title. But really, I'm not that insecure. And if I was, I wouldn't say so," said Harry.
"Yeah. his pride would get in the way." Harry turned around and hit Ginny playfully in the arm.
He gave her a smile that melted her heart.
"Yeah, my heart melted." Ginny's voice was dripping with sarcasm.
That was it. If I was ever going to get this story done, I needed quiet. I turned around to face them. "Now looky here." Harry snorted with laughter at my chose of words. "It's late, I'm tired and not in a good mood—well I was until you two showed up—but the point is, BE QUIET! When you showed up I thought you would help me, but no. So the rule is, be quiet unless you have something helpful to say. Got it?" They both nodded vigorously.
In transfiguration she found a note in her copy of The Advanced Art of Transfiguration.
Ginny,
Meet me, same place same time.
-HP
"As if that hasn't been done bef—oh I mean, uh good um sentence."
"That's what I thought, Gin."
"Please don't call me Gin."
It was times like this that Ginny wished she had made some friends in her year. The only people she sort of considered friends were her family, Harry, and Hermione. Friends to sit with at lunch would have made her life nicer. Instead of sitting next to Ron who wasn't in the mood for talking, she could have sat with a sixth year who would gossip away. But there was no way to redo her first year at Hogwarts.
"You think it was my fault I didn't make friends? Which by the way I did. But for the sake of your story, you could at least do the decency of adding something about a man named Tom."
"Keep your pants on—" I started.
"Yes please do," broke in Harry.
"Ahem, as I was saying, don't have a cow, that comes later. Well, not that you have a cow, but the whole cow thing. I mean later in the story, you don't have a cow, I was just using that as an expression. You see, later in the story, the secrets of chamber comes in—no I mean the—"
"We understand," said Harry soothingly while patting my shoulder, "its late." I nodded miserably and continued typing.
At eleven Ginny was alone in the common room. She wondered where Harry was. She felt extremely important to be the person that he wanted to meet with. She thought back to all those years when she had blushed when his name was said. How looking at him nearly made her faint.
"Not true! Not true! It—."
"It didn't nearly make her faint, she did once." I spun around to see Harry grinning wickedly, while Ginny was sending him glares that could kill.
"I didn't."
Harry was still grinning. "Yeah you did, remember? You're second year…Christmas time…"
Ginny had buried her head in the pillow on the couch. "yogvmncprentmphf."
"Pardon?" asked Harry.
Ginny raised her head out of the pillow. "I was young, you had given me a nice present, and well, you were being nice, and I had drank too much of that stuff Fred and George had given me, it was hot. And I didn't really faint, I just sorta feel over."
"Don't worry, Gin, we know you're over that." She nodded.
How reading his name could send shivers up and down her spine. No much of this had changed. The only difference was that she had learned to control herself. Most people had forgotten about Ginny Weasley, the little girl who was in love with the famous Harry Potter. But someone hadn't, and the someone meant more to her then the rest of the Magical community. Harry Potter still remembered her. She was still important to him.
As she was thinking these thoughts Harry walked in. It was almost like seeing it is slow motion. The only light was from the fire. It was dancing over his face in a way that made him look inhuman. He turned his head side to side looking for her. She watched him spot her, she watched they way that his eyes lit up when he did. He started towards her, moving in and out of the shadows. He reached up to brush some hair out of his face; she loved it when he did that. He opened his mouth to talk, but Ginny couldn't hear what he was saying. She was lost in his eyes.
"I almost like that part," said Ginny, who seemed to have recovered.
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"I'd say so. I'd said your name at least ten times." Ginny felt that familiar tickle that meant her face was turning red. She tried to force it back to its normal color, although this didn't matter much because it was so dark.
Suddenly Ginny jumped. "Harry look at the time." She thrust her watch into Harry's face.
"Oh no. It's six in the morning. We better go before anyone notices we're gone."
I gasped. "It's six in the morning? What? I typed all night."
"Don't have a cow," said Ginny, with a slight giggle, using my expression, "six in England. It's midnight here. Ron must be confused, one minute I was there, the next I wasn't."
"Wait a sec, why were you and Ron playing chess at four in the morning?"
Ginny shrugged. "Ron's weird," was all she gave as an answer.
"Well, Gin," Ginny glared at him, "I think we better say goodbye," Harry said waving to me.
"Bye," said Ginny, "hope we helped."
"Right," I said sarcastically.
Harry was just about to snap his fingers, when Ginny yelled. "I forgot. I have to give you something." She ran around the room and pulled a random book out of the bookcase, which was next to the couch. "It's very important. And since eventually you have to get one—or more than one—I figure I'll save someone the trip and give it to you now." She was flipping the pages quickly, looking for something. I glanced at Harry, but he just shrugged. "Ah-ha," Ginny announced victoriously. Pulling out her wand, she taped the book, muttered a few words, dropped the book onto the floor, and jumped away.
The pages of the book began to turn quickly, as if a strong wind had blown through the room. Then the book began to glow, and move. The next second four people I had never seen before were standing where the book used to be, stretching their limbs.
"Ah," the tallest one said, "so good to be out."
"Yes," another one agreed. The third nodded. The last hadn't said anything yet.
I shoot a look at Ginny. She was beaming and had her hands clasped together. "PERFECT!" she shouted to no on in particular. Then to the four newcomers she barked. "In a line, against the bookcase, height order." Seeing that there was only four of them, not a lot, I didn't see much point to this, but I didn't question.
She walked up to the first one, who happened to be the tall boy who had spoken first. She yanked his baseball hat off his head, and said, "No hats in the house." The boy nodded sheepishly and took the hat back from Ginny. This boy was about 16 years old, he was wearing a pair of baggy black years, a black t-shirt, and metal chains hung out of his pockets. He looked oddly familiar, which was weird, because this was the kind of boy that my mother would not let in the house.
"This is James," Ginny said to me. "Don't mind what he's wearing. Wanted to make an impression I think." That's when I realized where I had seen him before. He looked just like Harry. "Give them a few days, and they'll be back to normal." She walked up to the second person. "This is Virginia." Virginia was dressed in normal jean flares, and a Boston Red Sox t-shirt. We would definitely get along. "And here we have…." She studied the third one's face for a moment, then shrugged. "New one." I wondered for a moment what 'new one' meant. The 'new one' was wearing baggy khakis, with a 'life is good' t-shirt. "Well, new boy, aren't you going to introduce yourself?"
The 'new boy' glanced from Ginny to me. "I'm Carson."
Ginny smiled at Carson. "Hello Carson." She turned to the last, and shortest, of the bunch. "Another new one, although I happen to know this one. This is Stella." Stella was the youngest by far. The others looked to be in their middle teens, she was around twelve. She was wearing an orange and yellow mini skirt with a flowery pattern. She had on an army tank top that definitely didn't match. And to top it off she had on cowboy boots.
"Hi," Stella said, smiling.
Ginny turned to me. "Well there you have it, James, Virginia, Carson, and Stella are you new muses. Of course, they aren't new, they were always there, but well, considering your other writing, I'd say they were asleep. Since Harry and I cannot stay forever to, uh, help you, you have muses."
"Thanks," I said sarcastically
Ginny nodded. "Now hand over your papers." The muses all dug around in their pockets for a moment, and each produced a bunch of papers. In James's case, they were all bunched up. Ginny reached out a hand and they handed them to her. After un-wrinkling James's she flipped though them, making small tutting noises.
"Now it seems that James was sent because he's your favorite character in the Harry Potter books." Here she raised her eyebrows at me. I shrugged. "Virginia is here to help you with serious stuff, grammar and emotion. I'll say she has her work cut out for her." Harry, who had moved up next to Ginny, nodded. "Carson and Stella are your non-Harry Potter muses. You see, you get one or two muses for every kind of story you write. James and Virginia are your Harry Potter muses. They can help with other stuff, but they usually don't. Carson and Stella are your all around muses. They're for every kind of story, especially original ones." Ginny looked back down at the papers. "Carson's specialty is humor, and stuff like that. Stella is more serious, but can be funny at times. She's good at sarcasm, and sincerity."
Harry looked at his watch again. "Ginny, we really better go. I've got Quidditch in ten minutes."
"This early? You're a slave driver."
"It was the only pitch time." He gave a short wave to me, then snapped. As they disappeared I could hear Ginny yelling at Harry about 'inappropriate times for Quidditch.'
I was left alone in my computer room, at 12:15, with James, Virginia, Carson, and Stella. "Umm…. So why don't you tell me about yourselves."
"We're muses," said James shortly.
"Really? I didn't know," I said.
Virginia slapped him on the arm. "Well, we are muses, but we are also much, much more."
"We'll be your friends." Said Carson, with fake sappiness in his voice.
"When you have no one else to talk to, we will be here," James said, wiping away a pretend tear.
"You two are too difficult to work with. I'm asking for a transfer," shouted Virginia.
Stella smiled. "You can't do that."
"Unfortunately, I know that…" Virginia sighed. "Well about ourselves. We have come from the World Wide Association for Muses or WWAM. There are a lot of other muses there. Until we come to you, we sort of sit there and wait. Um, I think you have heard about Ginny Fire, from your friend Aria*. Ginny Fire is one of my friends. I'm sort of like her, but made especially for you. See my shirt," she pointed at the Red Sox logo, "definitely for you. James here," she jerked her finger in James's direction, "is too immature to tell you about himself—"
"I can talk, so let me. I like to cause havoc and chaos. Your story has zero of that so far, and I am going to change it. Carson is like me, but has too much of a sense of right and wrong, so he's not as good. Always worried about being caught. That is the number one rule: don't worry about being caught."
Carson grinned, and shrugged. "Tell me that again when you get someone in one of her stories expelled."
Stella pushed a strand of curly brown hair out of her face. "I'm Stella, peace keeper, and with them around, you need it. Like Ginny said, I'm mostly serious, but can be fun, when the situation permits. Oh, and I like horses."
Virginia took over again. "So we could begin now, or later. I mean working on your story."
I looked at the clock again. "I think I'll wait until tomorrow. I need to go to sleep. Ten-thirty tomorrow sound ok?"
"Well, we are very busy," said James. "Places to go, people to see."
"Ten-thirty is fine," Virginia said, completely ignoring James. "We'll just bunk up here," she indicated the bookshelf with a wave of her hand. "You get some sleep."
"Get a lot," James said rather loudly. "At ten-thirty tomorrow we need to do some serious work on this, uh, well I don't know if I should call it a story."
Carson nodded, "I would call it…an attempt that failed. Kind of like…Gettysburg."
Virginia gave him a confused look, then decided that if she didn't know what Gettysburg was she didn't need to find out. "Don't be so mean, you guys. It's not that bad."
"It's our job, Virgie. We gotta be mean."
"GOT TO! Got to! Got to! Not gotta. God, I hate slang expressions. And I hate the name 'Virgie'"
"Language," reprimanded James. "And wouldn't 'God' be considered a slang expression?"
Virginia chose to ignore him, and turned back to me. "Go get some sleep, okay? See you in the morning." She winked and disappeared. At least I thought that she had disappeared, until a heard a tiny squeaky voice yell, "James, Carson, Stella, come on." I looked up at the top of the bookshelf, and there was Virginia. A very small Virginia, but it was still her. James gave one wave before he disappeared (or became small), soon followed by Stella and Carson.
I clicked the save button on my computer, and shut it down. Tomorrow should be fun, I thought sarcastically, and headed upstairs, not really knowing if I had been dreaming or not.
Author's Note: Well, what do you think? It's weird, I know, but even if you think so, it would be nice to tell me in that little box. If Aria* is reading this, I hope you don't think that I copied you. I didn't try to, but if you think that I did, just let me know and I'll take this story down. I actually had the first part written before I read yours, but I added everything about the muses when you asked about my muses. But if you feel at all like I copied you in any way, please tell me and I'll take the story down. Oh and I forgot to ask in my review of chapter 21, how was your vacation? And, I hope you feel better.
Extra note: Does anyone know anyone famous named Carson? The name just came to me and it seemed so familiar, and as I don't personally know anyone with that name, I was thinking it might be a movie star or something. I don't know, but if you do could you let me know?
Hugs and Kisses to anyone who reviews!
*Ice Lily*