Disclaimer: All the characters, setting, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, the
title belongs to Jars of Clay
Chapter 5
Dreams
Ginny Weasley was confused. She had spent her first two years at Hogwarts admiring Harry Potter. She had spent her second two years getting over him. Now, here she was, about to start her fifth year, Harry Potter free, and the only thing she could think about was Harry Potter. Honestly, that boy made no sense. Sometimes he could be so sweet and thoughtful and other times it was like she wasn't even there. The fact that he had spent the last month at her house made everything that much worse. Her mind kept flipping back to the day they had gone to Diagon Alley. That day he was so sweet, he bought her the gorgeous dress robe that was now folded neatly into her trunk. Then that night he had crossed the hall to her room, something he had never done before, and actually talked to her for a while. She had felt so silly, telling him that she wanted to be his friend, and he had only smiled. Since then, they had become better friends, although, he still ignored her a quarter of the time.
Like today. When they had gotten onto the Hogwarts Express, she had followed Harry, her brother and Hermione into a car. Ron had promptly told her to leave because they had "important things" to discuss. Well! Ginny was far too strong of a person to take that! She continued walking into the next car, as if she had never meant to sit with them anyway. Even at that, Harry didn't say a word to her. Obviously, he didn't want her around to hear all the terribly important things they were going to discuss. It was stupid, Ginny knew. What did she really expect after all? It wasn't like she and Harry were that close and it certainly wasn't that he was going to start liking her all of a sudden. Then Ginny was reminded of the way that Harry fell all over himself when she came out wearing that dress robe. He had complimented her several times, but in the end, she was just Ginny Weasley. She knew she wasn't nearly as pretty as Cho Chang, but she also knew that Harry no longer liked the delicate Ravenclaw.
Speaking of Cho Chang . . .
That day when they had arrived at Platform 9 and ¾, Cho Chang was among the first to greet them. The seventh year girl looked particularly stunning that day, especially with her shiny new Head Girl badge. Harry and Hermione had congratulated her and talked to her for quite some time. Apparently, Cho and Harry had become good friends last year as they both mourned the death of Cedric. Ginny couldn't help feeling jealous even though she knew quite well that Harry was no longer interested in her. Then who was he interested in? Harry was a sixteen-year-old boy, certainly he had some love interest.
Suddenly, her car door opening interrupted Ginny's thoughts. She looked up to find Harry looking back at her. He started before she could say anything.
"Ginny, I'm sorry Ron told you to leave. I should have said something about it. Anyway, you're more than welcome to come sit with us."
"What makes you think that I had planned on sitting with the three of you?"
Harry just looked at her. It was as if he could see everything she had been thinking about for the last ten minutes.
"Well, actually, I was kind of hoping that you would come join us."
Ginny looked at him blankly. "Why?"
"Look, Ginny. I don't have very many friends. You were right, I'd really like for us to be friends."
"Harry, other than the Slytherins, who isn't your friend?"
"That's not what I mean. I mean people that are really my friends, people that know me just as Harry, not as the Boy-Who-Lived. Other than Hermione and Ron, I don't have those kind of friends."
"I'm sorry Harry, I didn't mean . . . well, I just thought . . ."
"Don't worry about it. Come on, I really want to know what you think about all the stuff I'm going to tell them."
"Wait. If you want to be my friend, why have you been ignoring me half of the summer?"
Harry couldn't really answer this. He had been so taken aback by his reaction to her at Madam Malkin's, he was not really sure where his feelings were leading him. He was only sixteen after all and hadn't really sorted out the difference between hormones and real feelings. Plus, he was afraid that Ron would kill him if he really did have feelings for Ginny.
"Ok, well let's try an easier question," Ginny continued when Harry didn't answer. "Why did it take you so long to come get me if you really wanted me to hear about all your 'important things'?"
Harry relaxed. "Run-in with Malfoy. Stupid prat came in with his bodyguards. Honestly, you'd think he was really afraid someone was going to hurt him the way he makes those two follow him around."
Ginny laughed and decided that if she was going to have Harry Potter as a friend, it wouldn't help to refuse his offer of friendship. Sighing, she got up and started to follow Harry out of the train car.
"Harry? Do Ron and Hermione know that you came to find me?"
"Er . . . no. I just told them that I would be right back."
With that, she followed him into the next car and sat down next to Hermione.
"What is she doing here?" Ron demanded of Harry.
"I asked her to join us. I want her to hear."
"Alright," Ron agreed, but he didn't seem to happy for his little sister to join the conversation.
"First thing," Harry began, "Ginny, if we have to talk about Sir-, about my godfather, we use the name Snuffles."
"Ok"
"I still don't see why she has to hear all of this. It's not like she knows everything that happened and all."
"Ron, knock it off or Harry will never get his story out," Hermione said giving him a look.
"Alright!" Harry practically shouted to get their attention. "Well, when we got our Hogwarts letters, mine had a note from Dumbledore. Apparently, there are some things that I need to know about right away. I even have to miss the sorting this year again. Now, I couldn't think of anything that could be that important until I didn't hear from Snuffles."
"Do you think that Dumbledore knows what's happened to Snuffles, I mean, if anything has happened to Snuffles?" Hermione inquired.
"Dumbledore seems to know everything, but you know how he is. He couldn't just say something's wrong. He had to make it all mysterious. Here's the other thing, my scar hasn't hurt all summer."
"That's a good thing though," Ron interjected.
"Well, yes and no. It means that Vold-, You-Know-Who, hasn't been up to anything particularly evil. At the same time, isn't that a bit odd? I mean, I seriously doubt that his thoughts have turned to bunnies and puppies. It's kind of disturbing that there has been nothing going on."
It was true; the summer had been eerily calm. Even the Death Eaters had remained calm. After the action of the last two years, everyone in the wizarding world was relieved, but no one had let down their guard yet.
At this point, Ginny spoke up for the first time, "I don't know Harry. If You-Know-Who really was up to something, you would feel it for sure. The question seems more to be why he hasn't been doing anything."
"Ginny's right," Hermione started. "I bet he's gathering strength."
"That's somewhere along the lines of what I was thinking," Harry added slowly.
"Do you think that it's connected somehow to Snuffles?" Hermione prodded.
"I don't know. I hope not, but something tells me not to get too hopeful."
The four fell silent for a few minutes, each of them deep in thought of what it could all mean. Harry soon drifted off to sleep.
**Harry felt himself flying over a large area that he wasn't familiar with. As he pulled his broom closer to the ground, he found himself inside a gate next to a large building. Suddenly from around the corner came a dozen or so dementors. Suddenly Harry knew where he was, he was in Azkaban. Harry felt the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that only came when he was around dementors. Harry reached for his wand, but couldn't seem to find it anywhere. The dementors were getting closer and Harry was getting weaker by the second. Then everything went black.
The next thing Harry knew, he was in a cave. It was pitch black and he still felt dizzy from the presence of the dementors. A few moments later, Harry's eyes began to adjust to the darkness around him. Then, out of nowhere, a red fire flared up in the center of the cave, allowing Harry to look around at his surroundings. There was nothing in the cave except the fire with its eerie red glare. Harry's broom and wand were also not in the cave. The odd thing was that there didn't seem to be an entrance anywhere. It was one large stone room, but the room was completely enclosed. Harry wasn't known to be claustrophobic, but he began to panic. Without his wand, how was he ever supposed to get out; he couldn't even apperate. Then Harry heard an evil, low laughter that echoed around the enclosed walls.
"So, this is the GREAT Harry Potter. What I can't figure out is why you keep giving me such trouble."
"Voldemort!"
"Who else?" The voice seemed to originate from a different place in the room with every word.
"Alright. If you're really Voldemort, why haven't you killed me yet? And why won't you show yourself?"
"How do you know you aren't dead already?"
"I think I would remember something as significant as dying."
More laughter. "Why? Have you ever died? No? I have. As I recall, it was because of you."
"Enough of this. What do you want?"
"First, I'll patronize you and answer your questions. I cannot materialize in dreams; that's one of the side effects of my return. I have not killed you because I cannot. Killing in the dream-state is not possible because it is your body I must kill and fortunately for you, I do not have access to your body right now."
"So, I'm dreaming."
"You catch on quickly Potter," the voice snickered.
"I'll ask again then: what do you want?"
"Just to . . . warn you. Watch your dreams boy. Watch your dreams."**
Harry woke with a start and the slightest twinge of pain in his scar. They were at Hogwarts, so there was no time to tell everyone about his dream. Probably best that Dumbledore heard it first anyway. Harry quickly woke Ron, Hermione and Ginny and the four of the climbed down from the train and looked and headed off to face another year, no matter what it would bring.
A/N: Ok, thanks to bec, who reviewed the last chapter. I know I usually wait a day to re-post, but I just had to keep writing and this was a pretty short chapter to get out. So, yea!!!! Two chapters in one day. That's good because I may or may not be able to write another chapter tomorrow. Anyway, how do you all like it so far? (I'll never know if you don't review!) I think it's turning out rather well, of course, I know what's going to happen. Anyway, I'll keep writing, but I want lots of reviews.
Chapter 5
Dreams
Ginny Weasley was confused. She had spent her first two years at Hogwarts admiring Harry Potter. She had spent her second two years getting over him. Now, here she was, about to start her fifth year, Harry Potter free, and the only thing she could think about was Harry Potter. Honestly, that boy made no sense. Sometimes he could be so sweet and thoughtful and other times it was like she wasn't even there. The fact that he had spent the last month at her house made everything that much worse. Her mind kept flipping back to the day they had gone to Diagon Alley. That day he was so sweet, he bought her the gorgeous dress robe that was now folded neatly into her trunk. Then that night he had crossed the hall to her room, something he had never done before, and actually talked to her for a while. She had felt so silly, telling him that she wanted to be his friend, and he had only smiled. Since then, they had become better friends, although, he still ignored her a quarter of the time.
Like today. When they had gotten onto the Hogwarts Express, she had followed Harry, her brother and Hermione into a car. Ron had promptly told her to leave because they had "important things" to discuss. Well! Ginny was far too strong of a person to take that! She continued walking into the next car, as if she had never meant to sit with them anyway. Even at that, Harry didn't say a word to her. Obviously, he didn't want her around to hear all the terribly important things they were going to discuss. It was stupid, Ginny knew. What did she really expect after all? It wasn't like she and Harry were that close and it certainly wasn't that he was going to start liking her all of a sudden. Then Ginny was reminded of the way that Harry fell all over himself when she came out wearing that dress robe. He had complimented her several times, but in the end, she was just Ginny Weasley. She knew she wasn't nearly as pretty as Cho Chang, but she also knew that Harry no longer liked the delicate Ravenclaw.
Speaking of Cho Chang . . .
That day when they had arrived at Platform 9 and ¾, Cho Chang was among the first to greet them. The seventh year girl looked particularly stunning that day, especially with her shiny new Head Girl badge. Harry and Hermione had congratulated her and talked to her for quite some time. Apparently, Cho and Harry had become good friends last year as they both mourned the death of Cedric. Ginny couldn't help feeling jealous even though she knew quite well that Harry was no longer interested in her. Then who was he interested in? Harry was a sixteen-year-old boy, certainly he had some love interest.
Suddenly, her car door opening interrupted Ginny's thoughts. She looked up to find Harry looking back at her. He started before she could say anything.
"Ginny, I'm sorry Ron told you to leave. I should have said something about it. Anyway, you're more than welcome to come sit with us."
"What makes you think that I had planned on sitting with the three of you?"
Harry just looked at her. It was as if he could see everything she had been thinking about for the last ten minutes.
"Well, actually, I was kind of hoping that you would come join us."
Ginny looked at him blankly. "Why?"
"Look, Ginny. I don't have very many friends. You were right, I'd really like for us to be friends."
"Harry, other than the Slytherins, who isn't your friend?"
"That's not what I mean. I mean people that are really my friends, people that know me just as Harry, not as the Boy-Who-Lived. Other than Hermione and Ron, I don't have those kind of friends."
"I'm sorry Harry, I didn't mean . . . well, I just thought . . ."
"Don't worry about it. Come on, I really want to know what you think about all the stuff I'm going to tell them."
"Wait. If you want to be my friend, why have you been ignoring me half of the summer?"
Harry couldn't really answer this. He had been so taken aback by his reaction to her at Madam Malkin's, he was not really sure where his feelings were leading him. He was only sixteen after all and hadn't really sorted out the difference between hormones and real feelings. Plus, he was afraid that Ron would kill him if he really did have feelings for Ginny.
"Ok, well let's try an easier question," Ginny continued when Harry didn't answer. "Why did it take you so long to come get me if you really wanted me to hear about all your 'important things'?"
Harry relaxed. "Run-in with Malfoy. Stupid prat came in with his bodyguards. Honestly, you'd think he was really afraid someone was going to hurt him the way he makes those two follow him around."
Ginny laughed and decided that if she was going to have Harry Potter as a friend, it wouldn't help to refuse his offer of friendship. Sighing, she got up and started to follow Harry out of the train car.
"Harry? Do Ron and Hermione know that you came to find me?"
"Er . . . no. I just told them that I would be right back."
With that, she followed him into the next car and sat down next to Hermione.
"What is she doing here?" Ron demanded of Harry.
"I asked her to join us. I want her to hear."
"Alright," Ron agreed, but he didn't seem to happy for his little sister to join the conversation.
"First thing," Harry began, "Ginny, if we have to talk about Sir-, about my godfather, we use the name Snuffles."
"Ok"
"I still don't see why she has to hear all of this. It's not like she knows everything that happened and all."
"Ron, knock it off or Harry will never get his story out," Hermione said giving him a look.
"Alright!" Harry practically shouted to get their attention. "Well, when we got our Hogwarts letters, mine had a note from Dumbledore. Apparently, there are some things that I need to know about right away. I even have to miss the sorting this year again. Now, I couldn't think of anything that could be that important until I didn't hear from Snuffles."
"Do you think that Dumbledore knows what's happened to Snuffles, I mean, if anything has happened to Snuffles?" Hermione inquired.
"Dumbledore seems to know everything, but you know how he is. He couldn't just say something's wrong. He had to make it all mysterious. Here's the other thing, my scar hasn't hurt all summer."
"That's a good thing though," Ron interjected.
"Well, yes and no. It means that Vold-, You-Know-Who, hasn't been up to anything particularly evil. At the same time, isn't that a bit odd? I mean, I seriously doubt that his thoughts have turned to bunnies and puppies. It's kind of disturbing that there has been nothing going on."
It was true; the summer had been eerily calm. Even the Death Eaters had remained calm. After the action of the last two years, everyone in the wizarding world was relieved, but no one had let down their guard yet.
At this point, Ginny spoke up for the first time, "I don't know Harry. If You-Know-Who really was up to something, you would feel it for sure. The question seems more to be why he hasn't been doing anything."
"Ginny's right," Hermione started. "I bet he's gathering strength."
"That's somewhere along the lines of what I was thinking," Harry added slowly.
"Do you think that it's connected somehow to Snuffles?" Hermione prodded.
"I don't know. I hope not, but something tells me not to get too hopeful."
The four fell silent for a few minutes, each of them deep in thought of what it could all mean. Harry soon drifted off to sleep.
**Harry felt himself flying over a large area that he wasn't familiar with. As he pulled his broom closer to the ground, he found himself inside a gate next to a large building. Suddenly from around the corner came a dozen or so dementors. Suddenly Harry knew where he was, he was in Azkaban. Harry felt the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that only came when he was around dementors. Harry reached for his wand, but couldn't seem to find it anywhere. The dementors were getting closer and Harry was getting weaker by the second. Then everything went black.
The next thing Harry knew, he was in a cave. It was pitch black and he still felt dizzy from the presence of the dementors. A few moments later, Harry's eyes began to adjust to the darkness around him. Then, out of nowhere, a red fire flared up in the center of the cave, allowing Harry to look around at his surroundings. There was nothing in the cave except the fire with its eerie red glare. Harry's broom and wand were also not in the cave. The odd thing was that there didn't seem to be an entrance anywhere. It was one large stone room, but the room was completely enclosed. Harry wasn't known to be claustrophobic, but he began to panic. Without his wand, how was he ever supposed to get out; he couldn't even apperate. Then Harry heard an evil, low laughter that echoed around the enclosed walls.
"So, this is the GREAT Harry Potter. What I can't figure out is why you keep giving me such trouble."
"Voldemort!"
"Who else?" The voice seemed to originate from a different place in the room with every word.
"Alright. If you're really Voldemort, why haven't you killed me yet? And why won't you show yourself?"
"How do you know you aren't dead already?"
"I think I would remember something as significant as dying."
More laughter. "Why? Have you ever died? No? I have. As I recall, it was because of you."
"Enough of this. What do you want?"
"First, I'll patronize you and answer your questions. I cannot materialize in dreams; that's one of the side effects of my return. I have not killed you because I cannot. Killing in the dream-state is not possible because it is your body I must kill and fortunately for you, I do not have access to your body right now."
"So, I'm dreaming."
"You catch on quickly Potter," the voice snickered.
"I'll ask again then: what do you want?"
"Just to . . . warn you. Watch your dreams boy. Watch your dreams."**
Harry woke with a start and the slightest twinge of pain in his scar. They were at Hogwarts, so there was no time to tell everyone about his dream. Probably best that Dumbledore heard it first anyway. Harry quickly woke Ron, Hermione and Ginny and the four of the climbed down from the train and looked and headed off to face another year, no matter what it would bring.
A/N: Ok, thanks to bec, who reviewed the last chapter. I know I usually wait a day to re-post, but I just had to keep writing and this was a pretty short chapter to get out. So, yea!!!! Two chapters in one day. That's good because I may or may not be able to write another chapter tomorrow. Anyway, how do you all like it so far? (I'll never know if you don't review!) I think it's turning out rather well, of course, I know what's going to happen. Anyway, I'll keep writing, but I want lots of reviews.