The Same Old Harry

The Headmaster sat in his chair by the fireplace, contemplating the horrendous event that had taken place that morning.

Harry Potter was dead.

Albus Dumbledore had lost many people he cared for in his long life. However, this death upset him particularly for a number of reasons. He had been so young! Only twelve, yet his life was snuffed out so quickly. He had hardly discovered his true heritage as a wizard after years of not knowing and then that time was cut short so abruptly.

Harry had been a brave young man, kind and trusting too.

And he had been Albus' student. Albus' responsibility. Now he was dead. Nothing could alleviate the guilt that Albus felt.

A voice interrupted the thoughts of the headmaster.

"Sir? I have a message for you."

Albus turned slowly and found the Hufflepuff ghost in his study.

"Friar, I do not wish to be disturbed right now."

"I know Albus, but this is rather important. I am delivering a message to you from someone else."

"And why can't this person deliver it in person?" Albus' temper was not the best at the moment.

"That's just it sir, he does not wish to startle you."

"What do you mean?" Albus said impatiently.

"Harry Potter sir, asked me to introduce him to you as Hogwarts newest ghost."

Beside the Fat Friar there suddenly appeared another ghost.

"I didn't want to scare you Professor Dumbledore."

The Hufflepuff ghost left the study as the headmaster stared in sadness and in wonder at the twelve-year-old's ghost.

"Harry, I…I'm sorry." The headmaster stopped and bowed his head in his hands tears seeping down his worn face.

"Headmaster, my death was not your fault. It was the fault of whomever opened the Chamber of Secrets and let that bloody snake out. Just out of curiosity, what kind of snake is that? I've never studied magical creatures before."

The headmaster stared at the ghost again. The boy was taking his own death better than he was! Finally, he just answered, "It is a basilisk.  They kill with their stare. Harry…can you tell me what happened?"

"Well, I was following Hermione to the library.  Halfway there, I got caught in the stairwell and it took me a moment to get my leg out of the stairs. I was around the corner from the library when I heard the voice again it was saying something like, I wanted to kill! So, I ran around the corner.  The first thing I saw was Hermione and Penelope petrified. I was frantic to find out who did it and I looked up and saw the snake and died," Harry ended quite matter-of-factly.

"Where were your glasses? You should not have…died…if you saw the basilisk through your lenses?" wondered Dumbledore.

"My glasses?" Harry scrunched up his face for a moment trying to remember, "Oh! Right. When my leg got caught in the stairwell they fell off my face and snapped because my knee pressed them against the next step.  I just stuck them in my pocket."

"I am sorry Harry. A student's death, while I am Headmaster, is my responsibility. I cannot forgive myself for letting this happen."

"You didn't let anything happen, professor! I know you've been trying your best all year to find out who has been doing this! Or, rather, how. You seem to know who is responsible." Harry mused.

Dumbledore's eyebrows shot up, "I take it you were awake that night in the infirmary?"

Harry nodded a little bit sheepishly and then started speaking again, "If anything, I was stupid not to tell you all I knew when I was in your office just after Justin and Nearly-Headless Nick were attacked."

"About that, Harry, why did you not?"

Harry sighed and shrugged, floating higher in his agitation at himself, "I don't really know, sir. I really should have said something about the voice I kept hearing. Oh, I guess I should fill you in on everything that happened this past week.

"In early ­January, Ron and I were passing Myrtle's bathroom and we saw that she was flooding it so we went in to see what made her so upset. Anyway, someone had thrown a diary into her toilet and it upset her. I picked up the diary and took it back with me to the common room.  It had nothing written in it, but it did have a name written on it.  It said T.M. Riddle," at this point Harry was too involved in his story to notice the Headmaster's sudden change in posture.  He sat straight up and started listening intently, "Ron remembered the name from the trophy room; it was on some award for special services to the school, fifty years ago. Hermione thought that it might be important because we know the Chamber was opened fifty years ago too. But Ron pointed out that there was nothing written in it so it wasn't much help.  I just kept it in my trunk.  Then I decided to open it up again.  I dripped a bit of ink onto its pages by accident and it disappeared, so I wrote my name and that disappeared too. Then the diary answered. I asked Riddle about the Chamber of Secrets and he showed me his memory of…well, of Hagrid being blamed for it. Anyway, then last week the diary went missing again. I got back to my room and found it ransacked and the diary was gone. So, whoever has it must be a Gryffindor."

The headmaster stood and started pacing, mumbling to himself, "So that's how he did it!"

"Sir?"

"Harry, do you have any idea who might be in current possession of that diary? It is vitally important."

"No sir, why?"

"Because that diary is responsible for your death. Tom Riddle opened the Chamber of Secrets, Harry and then framed Hagrid for it. No one else believed me fifty years ago when I suspected Tom, but I knew he opened it last time, and only he could open it this time."

"What do you mean sir? How could Riddle open the Chamber of Secrets?"

Dumbledore stopped pacing and looked straight into Harry's pale, translucent eyes. "Tom Marvolo Riddle is Voldemort.  He is also the Heir of Slytherin."

Harry gaped and then shook himself and asked, "So what is with the diary?"

"I assume he implanted part of his own soul and power into the diary so it could feed off another human soul and he could control the victim in order to continue after he left Hogwarts. We need to find that diary now!"

There was a knock at the study door and Dumbledore glanced quickly at Harry, who immediately went invisible. The headmaster opened the door to find a sobbing Ginny Weasley and a rather distraught Minerva McGonagall.

"Headmaster, I am sorry but Miss Weasley insist on seeing you. She claims to know something about the attacks."

"Thank you Minerva, I'll just take her, you can return to your post." Dumbledore said taking hold of Ginny's shoulders and leading her into his study.

"Sit down Miss Weasley, calm down my dear." He said soothingly, "Now, what do you want to tell me?" he asked, hoping fervently that she was not the one who was possessed by the Dark Lord.

"I…I th…think I k…killed H…H…Harry!" she sobbed brokenly.

Albus closed his eyes in sympathy for what this child had gone through.

"Ginny," he said gently, "do you have the diary with you?"

This startled Ginny so completely that she stopped crying and stared at the headmaster.

"Where is the diary?" He asked again.

She stuck a trembling hand into her pocket, pulled out the old diary, and handed it to the Headmaster. Albus took the diary from her and set it down on the floor and then pulled out his wand and started voicing various incantations.

After a few moments ink started to spurt from the diary, it gushed over the carpet and the liquid burbled as though it were the life blood flowing out of a body. Eventually the flood ebbed and the diary sat on the carpet, surrounded by the pool of black.

"The diary has no more power over you Ginny, it no longer has a life of its own." The headmaster sat beside the child who had started sobbing again.

"But, I …killed…h…Harry!"

"No you did not, Tom was controlling you. I am amazed that you had the strength to throw the diary away in the first place all those weeks ago and too that you had the strength to come here now. Tell me, why did you take the diary back?"

"Be…because, I s…saw Harry w…with it," she hiccupped, "I w…was af…fraid of what T…tom might tell h…him." She cried a moment to herself and then looked at the headmaster, "Am I g..going to be e..expelled?" she asked in a fearful whisper.

"No Ginny, you are not going to be expelled. You did nothing wrong."

"I killed Harry!" she screamed out and buried her head once more in her arms. Albus was distressed; he could see that Ginny was not going to believe him.  She would continue blaming herself.

Another voice came to his rescue, "Ginny, you did not kill me." Harry reappeared and said firmly.

Ginny's head whipped up and she almost fainted at the sight of the ghost.

"Harry?" she said in a strangled whisper.

"Ginny, you did not kill me. I do not blame you for my death.  There is only one person to blame and that is Voldemort who is despicable enough to use a child to commit crimes. He used you Ginny, as you would a tool that has no life of its own.  You could not help it; you had no choice in the matter."

"Miss Weasley, I think you need some rest. Will you allow me to give you a sleeping potion?" Dumbledore asked her, seeing how exhausted, both physically and emotionally, she was."

Ginny nodded, still staring at Harry. Dumbledore crossed the study and opened a door, "You may sleep here in my guest quarters." He led the now silent girl into the room and gave her a sleeping potion.

"Now, Harry, how do you wish to break the news to the others about your, ah, shall we say post mortem existence?"

"Please tell Ron privately. He deserves to know first.  I only revealed myself to Ginny because she needed it so badly."

Dumbledore nodded, "Do you want to do this now?"

"Please, he needs to know."

"Very well, we will go to his room now. Then I will call a staff meeting and notify them. Would you like to come?"

Harry went invisible and said, "Yes."

All of the teachers who were standing at various posts around the school were surprised to see the headmaster outside of his study and even more surprised at the slight twinkle in his eye.  They waited anxiously for the staff meeting to convene (after he told them of course) so they could find out more information.

When the headmaster entered the Gryffindor common room, it was to a very subdued audience.  Most, if not all, showed signs of crying.

"Mr. Weasley, where is your brother Ronald?" Albus asked Percy.

"He is in my Prefect's quarters, sir." Percy looked completely devastated.

"I need to speak with him right now.  Do you know if he is awake?"

"I think he is sir."

Albus nodded his thanks and walked up the stairs to the three private rooms that housed the Gryffindor male prefects.

Albus knocked lightly and heard a soft, "Go away."

He pushed open the door to find the young boy sitting in the windowsill staring across the grounds.  He didn't look to see who had entered.

"Ron, I need to speak with you," the Headmaster said gently, "A little over an hour ago the Fat Friar came into my study and introduced me to Hogwarts' newest ghost."

Ron looked over at Dumbledore blankly.

"Ron, Harry has become a ghost." Dumbledore explained simply. Harry appeared beside the headmaster.

Ron burst into tears at the sight.

"Harry, please join me in the staff room in thirty minutes.  Ron may accompany you if he wishes."

A/N well I'm not sure that ghost-Harry is the best thing to do in this story, but it was the only thing I could thing of to absolve Ginny. If you have any ideas please tell me. So, tell me if you think ghost-Harry is a good or bad idea. It can be either and it still fits the main plot.