Chapter 19

Ginny's Confession and Heather's Story

Harry and Ginny made the suggestion of using the chamber to Heather, who loved the idea. Sally had been recruited to help her prepare it. When Heather didn't have a class, she could go down and clean the rooms with Sally, even when Harry was in class and couldn't open it for her.

This surprised Harry, as Sally had refused to go down there without Ginny or Harry. "I trussst Heather. I trussst Sssirisss too, and I feel sssafe with them," she replied when Harry questioned it.

What surprised Harry is that the children had stopped. It put him in a much better mood, carving their names in the rock (now rocks, he had split another when he ran out of room) was the most heart wrenching thing he had ever done.

He brought it up one evening while he and Ginny were working in the chamber. Heather was attending a staff meeting, Sirius was presumably with her in dog form, and Hermione was helping Ron study for the Charms test they had coming up.

"I wonder if Voldemort just gave up," Harry said.

Ginny suddenly stopped scrubbing the floor and looked up, regret etched on her face. "What is it?" he asked.

She looked down at her feet. "I hated seeing you so sad. So one afternoon when Dumbledore was bring you a new name, I told him I'd take it to you. I said that I would be able to keep you from getting upset. He seemed to think that was a good idea, and gave it to me, and he has since. I really was going to tell you, but you were finally happy again, and I couldn't do it. So I took the sword from your room, and carved the names for you. I'm really sorry. I just couldn't bring it up, not when you back to normal. Please don't be mad at me."

She cringed, waiting for him to yell at her. Surprising her, he did nothing of the sort. "You carved the names?" was all he asked.

She looked up at him. "Yes. You're not mad?"

He shook his head. "The sword let you use it? It let you take it from my dorm?"

Her eyes grew wide. "It did! I forgot, nobody could touch it! Why did it let me, because it knew I would give it back?"

"Maybe," he said, but he didn't look convinced. 'Why,' the little voice said. He closed his eyes and concentrated. The sword appeared in front of him, and he pulled it out of the air. "Why do you let Ginny use you?" he asked. The sword didn't reply. He glared at it. "Fine, keep you're secrets."

"Does it understand you?" Ginny asked. "I mean, I know Ron said it 'talked', but I'm having a hard time believing it."

'There are reasons.'

Ginny jumped at the 'voice' in her head, and took a step back.

"It's not a living thing," Harry said. "Just like the animals that we transfigure aren't really 'living'. Man can not create life, so it's not really a living thing, just a thinking one. Magically thinking. It has no emotions, no sense of time, just thoughts. At least that's what I get out of it. It only responds when it wants to." He looked up at her. "And thank you, once again you take it upon yourself to handle my problems. I would like to go see the stones though."

They left the chamber and walked out to the stones. The one with the message came first, and then the two with names on it. Most Harry recognized carving.

In memory of

John age five

Sarah age six

Margaret age seven

Isaac age five

Wendy age four

Linda age six

Randy age five

Kara age two

Nathan age seven

Jamie age four

David age five

Crystal age three

Mary age five

Brian age eight

Michael age nine

Diana age eight

Victor age twelve

William age ten

Carl age eleven

Danny age twelve

Then, there were some that he didn't recognize.

Nick age nine

Samantha age ten

Cindy age eight

Ashley age twelve

"Two to twelve. He is going to pay," Ginny whispered.

Harry looked at her, then unsheathed the sword and handed it to her. "Sign it."

"What?"

"Sign the stone. Under the lightning bolt, sign it."

Slowly, she took the sword from him and wrote underneath his lightning bolt.

My Promise

You will pay.

Lord Voldemort.

I swear to it if I have to hunt you until my dying day,

and curse you with my last breath.

You will pay.

Harry James Potter

Ginny Amber Weasley

"Carve something," he said. "Something like the lightning bolt that defines you."

Thinking for a moment, she bent down closer to the stone and carved very slowly. When she backed away, a rose was etched below her name, and it glowed gold.

"What makes them glow?" she asked.

'The anger.'

Harry nodded. "It's right. When I get angry at Voldemort, it glows brighter. Otherwise, it's just dull."

She nodded. "I'd noticed, but anger is that powerful? It's a scary thought. Powerful enough to make stone glow."

'Anger is what makes evil. Voldemort is evil. He is consumed by anger. Harry Potter could become the same, but love will counter that anger and release it.'

With that little thought in mind, they started to walk up to the castle. "Thank you again Rose. You're the best friend I could ask for."

Ginny blushed slightly. "That's not true."

"It is. You work so hard at it, and I don't really understand why." Their walk shifted, and they were going around the lake instead of back to the school.

"Well, for three years, I had wanted to be a part of your group, and now that I am, I guess I feel that I better do my part."

"Why did you want to be in out group so much? All we ever did was get into trouble."

"There were a number of reasons. You were always there for each other, and I had never had anything like that. In my first year, I confided only in Tom, and in my second, all I did was hate myself. I had never had a real friend. You guys were always happy, while I was never happy. You went on all kinds of adventures. But the biggest reason, I guess," she turned a deep crimson, "was, as I'm sure you noticed, that I had a huge crush on you."

Harry laughed slightly, not enough to hurt her feelings, but good-naturedly. "It was hard not to notice. You hardly ever spoke in front of me, your face was always red, and I won't bring up Valentines day."

"I didn't send you that," she said suddenly. "Liz did. I was crying because you had the diary. That was the first time I had seen you with it. Trust me, my poetry is better then that. And it really wasn't my fault, I had a reason for hero-worshipping you."

"Really?"

She nodded. "I've never told anybody, but you've saved my life twice, Harry."

"What?" he asked looking over at her, but she only looked ahead, avoiding his eyes.

"When mom was pregnant with me, Voldemort was a his height. Mom and Dad didn't want to bring another child into that horrible time, so mom was going to have an abortion. She was so upset, she wanted one more chance to have a girl. She was supposed to go to the hospital on November first, but the night before, you defeated him, and mom changed her mind. I had a crush on you since I was three years old, when mom told me what happened. Imagine the person to whom you owe your very existence showing up in your kitchen one day. I didn't know how to act, or what to say." She shook her head. "My whole life I had wanted to get to know the real you, and then you were right there, and all I could do was stick my elbow in a butter dish."

"You should have told me," he said quietly after a long period of silence.

"I just did. Tom knew, I'm surprised he didn't tell you."

"He didn't because it has to do with him being defeated. That was a touchy subject with him."

Ginny laughed, and they found themselves approaching the stone, from the other side. They stopped for a moment to look at it. With the sun setting behind it, and the surrounding Phoenix flower making the red and gold of the rose and lightning bolt stand out, it was quite a sight, but there was a sad feel to the area. A pain that went back a few years, as if more dead had been mourned in that very spot.

"Who?" Harry asked, not realizing he was speaking out loud, as these thoughts ran through his head.

The same thoughts must have gone through Ginny's too. "Lily. This is where Professor Snape mourned her. Phoenix flower means something about her to him, and this is probably where he came when she died. You know, I think he blames himself for her death. Like if he had done something different, he thinks she would be alive."

"Probably wishes he had killed Sirius during school."

Ginny shook her head. "No, I have a hunch that he was a spy for Dumbledore. He probably feels if he had figured out that Peter was the traitor, then everything would be different."

"Sirius is the same way. They have a lot in common. Actually, I hadn't thought about that. Snape has to know Sirius is here, he knows he can turn into a dog. Maybe they settled their differences?"

"Maybe, but more likely they are pretending that the other doesn't exist."

Sirius and Heather walked back from the staff meeting. Or rather, Heather walked and Sirius trotted along beside her. It had been a very depressing meeting, mostly on the subject of Voldemort. It brought back many bad memories for both of them. They entered Heather's sleeping quarters with heavy hearts, shutting the door.

Heather fell on her bed with a heavy sigh. Sirius sat down in a chair, a polite distance away. It was one thing to tease in front of the Professors, but everything took on a whole knew meaning when they were alone. Besides, he wasn't it to mood to tease.

He glanced at Heather who stared at the ceiling without speaking. 'God, how old was she? Fifteen? I never thought about it, she always seemed to be our age. She was fifteen, and lost every friend she had. James and Lily dead, Peter 'dead', me in prison, and Remus left to deal with the loss on his own, and he had his own problems. What happened to her?'

"Books?" he asked tentatively.

"Yeah?" she looked up surprised at the use of her childhood nickname. It didn't fit her anymore, so she rarely used it.

"After everything happened, what happened to you? Dumbledore didn't tell me, but it must have been horrible."

She closed her eyes in pain, remembering the year that Lily had died. "I- I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"No, no it's okay. It's time I talk about it anyway. It was hard, everybody was so happy. Voldemort was gone, it was over. Then they would see my face, and it would get real quiet. Harry was all I could think about. Four more months and I would have been sixteen. I could have quit school and taken care of him, and I would have in a heart beat, and Dumbledore probably would have let me. He might have even had me stay at the school. But he went to Petunia. Sirius, she's horrible, and her husband is worse. Four months! Then the thing with Peter, and you, and I lost it completely. I would go shouting down the halls that you were innocent. I believe I went slightly insane. I would talk about you getting proved innocent, and adopting Harry, and moving to the countryside where I would join you when I got out of school." She laughed slightly.

"Well, after that wore off, I hated myself for ever trusting you. I couldn't blame you, because I knew it wasn't you. So I blamed myself for everything. Then one night at dinner, everybody was laughing, and I just didn't have any reason to go on. I took out my wand, stood up on the table and pointed it at my head. The whole room went quiet really fast. Dumbledore stood, and told me that I had to live so somebody could tell Harry what his mother was like. After that, I spent a month in the hospital and three months after that I had to be in adult supervision at all times, including sleep. I lived in my own little hell. So one day, in my sixth year, I packed and left. My parents didn't really notice. I moved, and never told the teachers where I was going. I finished school in California, and took up a job there. I wrote to Dumbledore telling him I was in America and I would be back in ten years to see Harry.

"I blocked out this place completely, and missed my ten year deadline. I couldn't bring myself to face the memories. Then you got away. Did you know that's why Remus came? It was to protect Harry from you. Dumbledore figured if anybody could guess your movements it would be one of us.

"Remus wrote me at the end of the year and said he quit. I figured it was time for me to come see my godson. He is my godson. Maybe not legally, but he is. I came during the summer, so I could face the memories and be here to greet Harry. Dumbledore asked me to stay and teach. I said yes, only because I thought Harry needed me, which he really doesn't, you know? He's so, I don't think there's even a word for it. When I'm near him and he's in one of those moods, I feel like he's a hundred years my senior. He's a naturally born leader."

"Just like James."

She nodded. "And just as caring as Lily. And then Ginny, I almost want to call her Flower. I have to look her straight in the face to see the difference. She even holds herself the same way."

"I've done the same to Harry. I want to call him Prongs, but then he looks at me, and the eyes give it away."

"It hurts to see both of them in him, but it feels good too. Sweet and sour."

"It hurts because it makes you miss them, but it feels good because it reminds you why you miss them," Sirius said quietly.

Heather nodded, squeezing her eyes shut, and letting a single tear leak out. Sirius hesitated, then moved over slowly and sat down beside her. Heather reached out and pulled him down beside her, and cried on his chest.

"I miss them so much, Sirius."

"I do too," he said in a strangled voice, his eyes shut tight as he stroked Heather's blond hair to comfort her. They laid together for a very long time and eventually they both fell asleep.

Ginny peaked in Heather's door, and clamped her mouth on a giggle. "I think we better leave them alone," she whispered.

"Let me see." Harry looked in and grinned. He shut the door very quietly. He and Ginny walked away, discussing what this new development in the soap opera of Hogwarts could mean.

(A/N: Okay, I got about five different E-mails from people who said that they loved my story and couldn't wait for me to continue. This made me feel so special and loved that I HAD to get more chapters out. I still promise to post every full moon, but there should be lots of chapters in between! Thank you everybody who said they liked it!)