Chapter 7

Tears and Secrets

Ginny tried to mouth something to him. Harry tried, but he couldn't get it.

"Harry, who's ring is that?" Fred asked.

Harry reached up and grabbed the ring, which had came out from under his shirt while he was flying.

"Nobody's" he said stuffing it under his shirt.

"Well it has to be somebody's," George stated.

"Leave him alone, George," Fred started, "it's probably his girlfriends."

"No it's not!"

"Well then who's is it?"

"Kids-" Mrs. Weasley started, but Ginny cut in.

"Leave him alone guys." She came to Harry's defense.

"You know?" Instead of blushing Ginny paled and hung her head.

"It looked like a wedding ring." Percy observed.

"Oh! Harry's getting married!" Fred yelled as George was saying "Come on Ginny, spill the beans."

Harry stood and turned around, ready to run up the stairs. Sally, knowing exactly what he felt, slid over to Fred and George, and hissed at them in a threatening way, which caused them to fall silent, and see what Harry was doing.

Harry stopped at the foot of the stairs, but didn't turn around, so they couldn't see the tears on his face. "Ginny, I want you to tell them so you guys don't need to keep secrets for me." Before she could argue he raced up the stairs. But several floors didn't keep him from hearing Ginny go nuts.

"You IDIOTS! Use your PEA BRAINS for one minute and THINK who's wedding ring would mean that much to him! YOU ARE SO THICK! Even Sally knows something's wrong! If you haven't figured it out yet it's his MOTHER'S! He didn't want everybody to know about it! I can't believe you two!"

Ginny was in a rage, something she rarely went into. Both Fred and George lacked color in their faces. She picked up Sally, stomped upstairs, and slammed the door.

Ron and Hermione went up to Ron's room a few minutes later to find Harry. But when they got there, they found the room empty.

Harry ran up to Ron's room, but he knew the were only a few minutes behind him, and he really didn't want to talk to them. He opened the window, there was a two foot ledge there, he could make it. He climbed out and walked along it until he got to the other side of the house. Then he climbed down to the ledge below it, which he assumed was about two floors down. He sat down, wiping the tears from his face.

'I guess holding it all in isn't the best way to do it.' And he promised himself he would have a good cry when he got home, but until then he better straighten up. He wished Sally was there to help him.

Ginny was fuming on her bed, trying to calm down, when Sally started acting weird. She started hissing, and Ginny thought for a moment she almost understood it. Then Sally went over to her window, and started hitting the glass. She hissed constantly at Ginny, who walked over.

"I guess you want me to open it..." Ginny pushed it open and Sally shot out. "Sal, where are you-" But then Ginny saw exactly where Sally was going. Harry was sitting on the ledge about three yards from her window.

"Ginny," he said, slightly surprised. "Come on out." Sally started hissing at him, but he shook his head 'no'.

Ginny climbed expertly out. "Guess you come out here a lot, huh?" Harry asked.

"Yes," she answered quietly. Well, his presence certainly calmed her down.

"Thank you," he said looking straight ahead.

"Thank you? But it's my fault! Why are you thanking me! If I had only kept my mouth shut, they wouldn't have known I knew, and you wouldn't have felt guilty about us keeping secrets! I messed up again!" She started crying in her knees.

"Ginny! That's not true! Oh, God don't cry. Come on." She looked up at him. He wiped a tear from her face and smiled at her. "There you go again, thinking everything's your fault. It wasn't your fault, it was mine. Thank you."

She sniffed, now embarrassed by her sudden outburst. "For what?"

"For being such a great friend. You haven't done it much, but that was because I was never around you, but you always stick up for me. It's kinda funny. You don't talk to me, but you stick up for me." He got a small smile out of her.

"It's really nice to have someone to do that. I mean, Ron and Hermione always stand by me, but they don't really ever stick up for me. Everybody always thinks 'the good, great Harry Potter can take care of himself. But I have flaws, just like everybody else. Nobody understands that."

"I do." Harry raised his eyebrows. "Well, to an extent, A mean, I try really hard to put myself in your shoes."

"And what do you come up with?"

"Your life sucks." Harry started laughing and Ginny joined him slightly.

"Well, I don't know if it's all that bad. I mean, I may not have my real parents. But I do have you guys, and Sirius."

"Sirius? Sirius Black?"

"What? Oh, aww- man!"

"He's out to kill you!"

"No, no he's not, please don't shout. And God Ginny what I'm about to tell you, if you tell anyone, you put somebody's life in danger. Understood?"

She nodded, her eyes wide. Harry sighed. "Sirius Black is my legal godfather and was my father's best friend. When they were in school together, Sirius black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, and a man named Peter Pettigrew were best friends. When they found out Remus was a werewolf, the other three became illegal animagies. My father was a stag, Sirius was a dog, and Peter was a rat, but you all knew him better as Scabbers."

Ginny gasped and Harry grimly continued. "My parents knew Voldemort was after them, so they went in to hiding. The spell gave only one person the key to their location. Now my parents were going to use Sirius, but at the last second Sirius had them use Peter as a bluff. Peter was really working for Voldemort, and he betrayed my parents. He set up Sirius, then faked his own death by become his rat form. I met up with both of them last year, but Peter escaped before we could clear Sirius' name. If you want to hear it in more detail, ask later. But trust me when I say that Sirius is not a murderer."

Harry looked sadly at her, and she slowly nodded. "So, um, subject change." Ginny could tell Harry was too worn out to talk about it. She could ask Hermione later.

"Right. I don't really know you too well do I? I wonder why that could be?"

Ginny laughed, which made Harry smile. "I'll get better, I promise."

"You better. It's hard to be friends with someone who only says one word sentences to you."

"True." Then after two seconds she realized what she had just done and laughed harder. "I never got to thank you for my necklace."

"Hey, does it work? It's supposed to glow when I'm near."

"Yeah, it works, I can feel it."

"Cool." The two talked for some time, Sally joining in on occasions. Talking about anything and everything seemed to put them both in better moods. They didn't even notice how much time had gone by.

"Harry!" came a shout from bellow them.

"What?" Harry shouted back, peeking over the edge.

"There he is!"

"He's up there!"

"Outside Ginny's room!"

Ginny and Harry looked at each other confused. A few seconds later Ron threw open Ginny's window. "Where have you been? You weren't in my room and we figured you went for a walk or something and you'd be back. But then a half an hour later you still weren't there and we started looking for you."

"I was right here." Ron suddenly noticed Ginny.

"What are you doing here?"

"Talking to Harry dimwit, what does it look like? If we had known you were looking for him we would have come inside."

"Well, I think there's something you should both see in here."

They all climbed back in the window to find almost everybody in Ginny's room. Ginny paled, there was a lot of stuff in here she didn't want them to find.

"Okay, everybody out, right now. I don't like this many people in here at a time."

They all filed out and continued down stairs. "I think you two should read this." Ron said handing them a magazine.

"It's my Teen Witch, I've been waiting..." she drifted off when she saw what was on the cover.

Harry groaned. "This can't be good."

(A/N: I could stop here, but that would be evil.)

It was Harry's picture on the front, talking to Tom the bar tender. The head line read; 'What has happened to the young Harry Potter we once knew? Does he have a girlfriend? Read and see!'

"Shit," was all Harry could say. Ginny fell down onto the couch and opened to the article. Harry sat next to her to read it over her shoulder.

This reporter saw the one and only Harry Potter in the Leaky Cauldron only a few days ago. He arrived looking as we all know him. After booking a room for one night and saying he had no luggage, the bar tender asked him if he was running away. Harry replied "Not really, more like escaping for a night. I'm going back tomorrow, today I need to do some shopping. I'll be back, all right?" The young boy then left.

He returned some time later and put his things in his room. He sat in a booth near the back and ordered a Rettub beer. Then, I saw it with my very own eyes, he pulled a green and orange snake out of his pocket. I did some research and found that it was a Common American Garter snake. Then, and girls I'm not kidding you, he talked to it. In Snake language, or Parseltongue.

The rumors last year are quite true, our adorable Harry is a Parselmouth. But all you witches out there, it doesn't end there. He pulled out a necklace. I never got a good look at it, but it was clearly a gift for a young girl.

Harry then left for Muggle London, so of course I stuck around to wait for him to come back. Boy was I in for a surprise! I hardly knew it was him.

But as he told the bar tender, he found it a good thing that it was hard to recognize him. I took a chance and snapped a picture. As you can see below, his hair is bleached, his ear is pierced, he got new glasses, and new clothing. Is this to impress the receiver of the necklace? Who is this lucky girl? Is this a good change? Tell us in the poll below!

"I think I'm going to be sick."

"I don't blame you." Ginny shut the magazine. "Not only is it one sided, disturbing, and just plain weird, but this story is poorly written."

"At least she didn't follow me into the stores."

"Hey Harry, you could always send them a hate letter." Fred said brightly.

"Maybe if I ever get around to it. Well, I think I'm going to go home, it's been a long day."

"Harry, dear, please stay for dinner at least."

"No thank you Mrs. Weasley, I'll grab something at the Dursleys before bed. I'll come back soon, I promise."

Harry left shortly after that, but he didn't go stright home. Harry flew over to the ledge he and Ginny had sat on. To his surprise, Ginny was already there.

"I guess you do come out here a lot," he said landing beside her.

"Harry!" she looked up at him surprised. "I thought you left!"

"Well I did, sorta. Everybody else thinks I'm gone." Sally slithered down his leg to her.

"Why are you here?"

"There's something I need to show you. Since Ron and Hermione already know about this, it's only fare you should too. Can you ride?"

"Depends if you'll have me home before midnight," she said with a smile. Harry laughed and helped her climb onto the broom behind him.

"Hold on, were going straight up."

"Hold on to what?" she asked worriedly.

"Me," and he took off. Ginny quickly grabbed him around the waist, and, by some miracle in her mind, she managed to stay on. They landed on the roof.

Harry walked over to something sitting a few feet away. As he picked it up, Ginny realized it was made of cloth. He put it around himself, and disappeared.

Ginny gasped. "Harry? Where are you?"

"Right here," the empty air answered. He took off the cloak and reappeared to human eyes again. He handed it to her.

"The ring is the only object I have of my mothers, and this is all I have of my father. Sally found the ring in the pocket of this. It's an invisibility cloak."

"Oh, wow. This answers a lot of my questions," she said looking at it.

"What questions?"

"Questions about how you three manage to pull off some of the things you do. I may not talk a lot Harry, but I am very observant. I watch, and I listen, and frankly, some of the stuff you pull off seemed impossible until now." She wrapped the cloak around herself and smiled at her missing feet.

"Sal, we should go," he hissed.

"I want to ssstay with Ginny, can't I ssstay and you can get me next time you visssit? She's sssuch a fun perssson to ssstudy."

"Study?"

"Well yesss. I need to ssstudy you people to find out how thingsss work. Like shaking your head meansss 'no'. You never told me that'sss what it meant, how do you think I figured it out?"

"I never thought about that. You won't be able to talk to her you know."

"Yeah, I know, but after ssstaying with you for ssso long, you got boring."

"Oh thanks Sal."

"You're very welcome."

"Well let me ask her."

Ginny was still looking at the cloak when Harry spoke to her again. "Ginny, Sally wants to stay with you until I come back again, is that okay?"

"Really? She does? Yes that's okay!" Sally moved up around her neck.

"Then I need to go. I'll take you back to your room."

When Ginny walked downstairs for dinner, everybody was shocked to see she had Sally.

"Ginny, dear," started Mrs. Weasley. "Why do you have Harry's snake?"

"Well, Sally wanted to stay with me. Harry said it was because she wants to study human behavior, and she already knows him inside and out. He said he'd be back in a few weeks to pick her up."

"But, the snake was on his wrist when he left."

"What, oh. Yeah he came to my window."

Ron stared at her, Fred and George didn't seem to care, Hermione smiled and seemed very happy, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley seemed more worried about keeping a snake in their house for two weeks.