Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Chapter Five: Ginny's Wishes
"So Errol fainted on the job?"
"Um, he's been doing that quite often. He'll probably come staggering in any day now..."
"Everyone into the kitchen while I create the dinner."
Each person took their place around the kitchen table. On normal circumstances the table would have to magically stretched, but Bill and Charlie had not come home for the weekend like they usually do. Business at their jobs was expected to run overtime.
In an attempt to strike up a conversation, Ron told them all of Hermione's new prefect status.
Hermione face flushed scarlet, even though it was greatly expected of her.
"So Harry, I heard you had an interesting summer..."
"No, the Dursleys were the same selves."
"From what I heard you didn't stay at the Dursleys..." George went on.
Mrs. Weasley promptly rapped the outstretched hand reaching for the potatoes. "I will not have you bringing worthless gossip to my table George Weasley!"
"But Mum! I just --"
"But nothing. Hermione, I believe that we were talking about your becoming a prefect... riding the golden chariot of success I see."
"Do we have a Head Girl in our midst, Molly?"
And from there the conversation split-one half reminiscing on olden days and the other half talking about summers. Ron clearly wanted to see Harry alone, he kept "subtlety" jerking his head toward the stairwell, even to the point that he pulled a neck muscle.
Harry politely excused himself after that incident, causing a ruckus behind him as everyone but Mr. and Mrs. Weasley excused themselves to follow them.
When Fred and George felt Harry was traveling too slow for their liking, they hoisted him upstairs and threw him onto Ginny's bed. It was, by far, the most pristine out of the others.
The ghost in the attic cackled and the conversation started.
"So, Harry. I guess we all know how your summer went..."
"Wha-" he asked innocently.
"Don't play stupid, Harry. We all know..."
"About wha-"
Ginny narrowed her eyes and threw a newspaper into his face. "Harry, look at it."
Harry's eyes had just enough time to see "Potter Seen With..." in large bold font and a knock on the door silenced them. By the stack in his hand, he could tell that there was more than one paper with similar titles. "Time to sleep, talk in the morning."
"Good night!"
"G'night"
"Night."
Ginny scrambled into her nightclothes and turned off the light. "Hermione? You awake?"
Hermione answered. "Why Ginny?"
"I just wanted to congratulate you. I didn't before."
Hermione was silent for a while and replied, "That's not really why you asked if I was awake, was it?"
"No."
"Do you want to talk?"
"No. Yes. Maybe later."
Hermione's bed creaked a bit, a sign that she understood and shifted. Ginny looked up at her glow-in-the-dark studded ceiling and sent a silent wish to them. I wish that the papers are wrong. I wish Harry liked me instead of Cho... I wish --"Oh this is stupid!" The last part was vocalized and Ginny turned away.
One of her tiny glow-in-the-dark stars shot across her ceiling, passed through the wall, and landed in the adjoining room.
*~*~*~*
The portkey created the tug behind his navel and the spinning sensation. Landing hard next to stone, two others stood waiting.
"Kill the spare," said the cold, cruel voice once more.
Another voice screeched, "Avada Kedavra!"
There was a thump upon the ground beside him and Cedric, the real Hogwarts Champion was to join the others who lay forevermore in the sleep of death.
And the only thought he could guiltily think was, I did that... I caused his death.
Harry sat up in bed, sweating slightly from the nightmare. He felt a slight tickle upon the bridge of his nose, and tried to look forward. Being, as he was, without his glasses, all he could see was a luminous blur.
He reached for the nightstand where he kept his glasses and looked down his nose. "What are you?"
The only difference from before was the edges of the luminosity were clearer, and a faint humanoid shape could be made out of it.
The glow laughed; a twinkling laugh full of mirth and answered in a high misty voice, "It does not matter what I am, Harry Potter, what matters is why I am here."
"So little entity, why are you here?"
"I have come to fulfill a wish. Are the rumors in the papers true?"
"Rumors? I didn't even have time have look at them!"
The merry laugh twinkled again and Harry was once reminded of stars. "Harry, then look!"
Harry just barely made out the bold headlines of each. The first paper: "Potter Seen With Chang in Hogsmeade," "Potter and Chang: Together Again?" "Hogsmeade becomes Meeting Place of Famed Couple," and a few more until finally, "An Innocent Walk Might be Something More" splashed upon an article in FYW (For Young Witches.)
"What are these people publishing?!"
It seemed like the little being smiled. "Are you telling me that none of this is true?"
"It's all--trash."
"Thank you, Harry Potter, one wish has been fulfilled."
The little being floated to the window, shimmered brightly, and Harry fell back asleep.
*~*~*~*
When Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley woke up the next morning neither remembered the events of the previous night.
The paper stack lay on Ron's nightstand. After a second, he found some pictures inside. The pictures were really worth a thousand words. A delightful Harry clasping Cho to his side, and she flirtatiously kissing his cheek. Another showed them beneath a cherry tree; flowers wafting around them both. The next one was of a carriage ride in the starlight with the moon looking down upon them and smiling. And there were more--so much more.
And upon seeing each one after another Harry's jaw just dropped to the floor. The last picture were them both sitting beside a waterfall and thoroughly enjoying themselves to say the least. Both of them were soaked to the bone, and neither one of them seemed to notice very much...
Ron had awoken and stood behind Harry. "Was it a good kiss? It sure looks like it..."
"Ron! I wasn't the one kissing Cho!"
"Are you sure, that sure looks like you."
Now indignant, "Ron! I DIDN'T KISS CHO!"
Holding his hands in a posture of surrender, he backed away. "Harry, you know I'm your friend and will stick by you until the end of the world," here he faded off to a mumble, "but that doesn't mean that you could lie to me."
He walked out of the room, leaving Harry quite alone.
*~*~*~*
A few seconds later...
Harry started ambling down the stairs when he heard a shrill shriek. He sprinted the rest of the way down and found the kitchen in total turmoil. Mrs. Weasley and Hermione were cowering in the corner from whatever was splashed around the room, Ron was leaning over a bowl in the center of the table, his face covered in what looked like cinnamon oatmeal. Ginny walked over to the bowl and lifted a gray lump of feathers from it.
"What is it, Ginny?"
"I think--"
"It's breathing!"
"I think it's Errol," Ginny finished.
A/N: Again, the personal bout of thanks.
Lady Lockhart: I didn't catch you the other chapter... yay! I made another person's list of faves!
Shadow: I'm proud to make *someone* other than me happy!
Harry Potter: Ooh, a new reviewer! I hope this chapter was up to your standards.
SaneLunatic: Like the new name, another compliment for my batch.
Kelzery: Again, my first reviewer, thank you for liking it!
Ady: nothing seems to get past you, huh. You liked the joke too! thank you!
Danika: You didn't sign in! Thanks for the "criticism" you know I love *constructive* criticism, I'll try to slow down. Just for your information, Kristen D. took the pic with a digital school borrowed camera, thanks for all the compliments!