Disclaimer:I don't own Harry Potter. It all belongs to J.K.Rowling.
To the last chapters reviewers:
la2ur2a-Thanks! I read your new chapter and it was great. oh and I was just wondering waht YW stands for. : )
HarryandGinny4eva- Thank you so much! You're really sweet. btw, you have an awesome name.
powerblazer- Thanks a lot! And you're very welcome, I really enjoyed reading it! Keep up the good work!
Babystar- Wow! Thank you so much! You're awesome! Oh and please post the next chapter of your story soon!
When you do, please tell me in a review or something so I'll know. You're welcome for my review! : )
Daphne Black-Thank you! I kinda like it, too. But of course, I'm the author, so I don't know if my opinion counts
or not.
Okay, that's all. Now for chapter 8 of "I can be your Hero."!!
Chapter 8
******************
Harry spent the next few weeks avoiding the Dursleys as much as possible. He spent most of the days sitting is his room,
either working on his homework or studying one of his text books. It wasn't much fun, but it managed to pass time.
One night Harry was sitting at his desk, reading the book on Quidditch that Hermoine gave him for Christmas. He
sighed as he closed the book and looked up at his alarm clock. Four minutes left. In four minutes he would be seventeen.
He stood up and jumped on his bed. He lay on his stomach, his head resting on his hands, staring at the clock and listening
to the soft patter of rain falling on the roof. Three minutes. Two and a half. Two. For some reason he felt excited, even though
he knew that there would be no big party in his honor, and very few presents. But still, party or no, he was turning seventeen,
and that alone was enough to excite him. One minute. He turned the clock so he could see it better. Thirty seconds. Ten, nine,
eight. He pushed himself up onto his elbows. Four seconds, Three, Two, One, He was seventeen. He smiled happily."Happy birthday,
Harry." He whispered. He jumped as he heard a taping noise behind him. He sat up and looked around to find several owls
outside his window, and in the middle of them was Hedwig, taping sharply on the glass window. Harry walked across the room
and opened the window. All of the owls flew inside, fighting each other to get through the window. Harry could hardly blame them,
it was raining much harder now. After they had all dropped their letters and packages on the bed and landed safely on the floor, the
owls instantly fell asleep. 'It must have been a long trip', Harry thought. He just hoped that they would wake up before morning, he
really didn't think the Dursleys would be pleased with a group of owls camping out in their house. He sat back on his bed and opened
the letter closest to him. It was the yearly letter from Hogwarts. He scanned it quickly, most of it was identical to last years, but one
sentance at the end caught his attention. "We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected Head Boy of Gryffindor. You
will be provided with a list of your new responsabilites when you reach Hogwarts." Cool, Harry thought. He threw the letter
aside and moved onto his other presents. In Ron's letter, he invited Harry to come over for Ginny's sixtenth birthday, which
was three weeks away. Harry felt like whoping aloud when he read this, he had been missing the Weasley's, and Ginny in
particular, very badly and didn't know if he would have been able to wait another month and a half before seeing them.
After he finished opening all his other presents he hid them in the loose board under his bed. He wrote a short note to Ron
saying that he would definitly come over, wether Uncle Vernon alowed it or not. He Woke Pig up, tied the note onto his leg,
and watched him fly away into the pitch black night. Harry changed into his pajamas and climbed into bed, suddenly very
tired. For the first time in 3 weeks, Harry went to sleep with a smile on his face.
**********************
The next morning there was the usual silence hanging over the breakfast table. You would never have known that it was one
of the family members 17th birthday. But this didn't bother Harry much, he was used to it. And besides, any attention the Dursleys
gave him was never a good kind. Harry was about to get up and go back to his room to look at his presents again when there
was a very loud knock on the door. Uncle Vernon laid down his paper. "Don't people know what a bloody doorbell is anymore?"
He muttered as he pushed his balky self out of the chair. He walked down the hall and opened the door a crack. Standing on the
small porch was a tall, skinny man whom Vernon had never seen before in his life. He had messy hair. Mr. Dursley already didn't
like him. "Can I help you?" He said gruffly. "uhh....yes...does Harry Potter live here?" Mr. Dursleys eyes snapped wide open.
"Who are you?" He asked angrily. "Oh, sorry, is this the wrong house? I'm pretty sure Dumbledore said #4, maybe it was 5,
My name is Sirius Black. Do you know a boy named Harry Potter?" Uncle Vernon wanted to slam the door shut, but if this man
was one of them, that might not be such a great idea. "Yes. I suppose you could say he's my nephew. How do you know him?" Sirius
cleared his throat, he couldn't figure out why this man seemed so angry. Had he broken some kind of strict muggle law never to
ask for someones nephew? "I'm his Godfather." He answered. All of the color drained from Mr. Dursley's once purple face.
"G-Godfaa-faa-Godfather?" He whispered. Sirius nodded confusedly. After a few minutes of staring into space Mr. Dursley
stepped back and opened the door wide. Sirius stepped inside and followed him into the kitchen. When Harry saw Sirius step
into the room, he thought there must be something wrong with his eyesight. What would Sirius be doing here? But as the man
got closer, he realized it was definitly Sirius. Harry jumped excitedly out of his chair and ran to Sirius. "Sirius! What are you
doing here?" He asked as he gave his Godfather a quick hug. Sirius laughed at his excited Godson. "Just came to wish my
favorite Godson a happy birthday." He said as he ruffled Harry's already wild hair. Harry smiled happily. "Here." Sirius said as
he handed Harry a small package wrapped messily in newspaper. Uncle Vernon had already pulled Aunt Petunia and Dudley
into the Living room and slamed the door shut loudly. Harry ripped open the present quickly. He opened up the small cardboard
box to reveal a miniature stag, carved out of wood. Every detail seemed perfect. Harry almost dropped it when it stomped its
foot and shook its head. It had a spell on it to make it move. Harry looked up at Sirius. "Thank you. It's wonderful." He
whispered happily. Sirius shrugged, but Harry could tell he was pleased that he liked it. "Did you make it?" Harry asked as
he stroked the smooth wood. "Yeah, I did. I know it's not much, but I can't really go into any stores. My dad taught me how
to carve when I was young and I borrowed a witch's wand to put the spell on it." Harry laughed. He didn't know why, but
he was so happy he just felt like laughing. For a split second he was no longer a orphen with a dark wizard after him, but a
young boy on his seventeenth birthday. For a moment he felt all his cares and worries disapear, and all that was left was joy.
To Harry's surprise as well as Sirius's, Sirius threw his head back and laughed, too. Uncle Vernon probably thought they had
both gone loopy. After a few minutes they both managed to stop laughing. "It's been a very long time since I've done that."
Sirius said with a smile. Harry grinned back at him. "Come on, I'll show you my room. Maybe you can help me with a nasty
Transfiguration essay I have to do." He said as he led his Godfather up the stairs.
******************
Three weeks later, Harry was getting ready to go to the Weasley's. He tried for the tenth time to flatten his hair, and sighed
as it popped right back up again. He grabbed Ginny's present and went down to the living room. Mr. Weasley was
going to pick him up using floo powder. This time the fire place was wisely left un-blocked. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia,
and Dudley had all gone out shopping, and Harry guessed it was more an excuse to get out of the house than a sudden need
for a new sprinkler. After Harry had been waiting for a few minutes Mr. Weasley appeared in the ashy fireplace.
"Hello, Harry. You all ready to go?" He asked as he stepped out and dusted himself off. "Hi Mr. Weasley. Yeah,
I'm ready." Harry answered as he walked over to the fireplace.
Harry got up off the floor and put his glasses back on his face to find himself standing in the Weasley's cheery living room.
"Harry!" Mrs. Weasley said as she gave him a motherly hug. "It's so nice to see you again. You're so tall!" Harry was
greeted by all the other members of the Weasley family, as was Mr Weasley when he stepped out of the fireplace. Harry
felt his heart speed up as usual when Ginny hugged him. He noticed that she had done something different with her
hair, parted it different, or something. It looked very pretty. He told her so as they walked into the dinning room. She
blushed and answered "Thanks. I saw it in a muggle magazine and thought I'd try it." Ron walked up to Harry. "Hey, Harry.
How's your summer going so far?" Harry shrugged. "I think you know how it's going." He answered. "Yeah, I asked mom
if you could stay for the rest of the summer but she said Dumbledore had told her that you have to stay at Privet Drive this
summer. Don't ask me why. Oh and I asked Hermione to come but she couldn't because she's on vacation with her parents
in Italy." Ron said. Harry felt a little disapointed that he wouldn't be able to stay at the Weasley's this summer, but he knew
that Dumbledore had his reasons.After dinner and cake, everyone sat around the living room to watch Ginny open her many
presents.
After about 30 minutes of getting lip gloss, books, and picture frames, Ginny came to Harry's present. She unwrapped it slowly, and
carefully opened up the little box inside. She gasped when she opened it, and stared at it for a few minutes. By now Harry was
very nervous. What if she didn't like it? What if she had a bad history with emeralds or something? But all his fears were
put at ease when she jumped up and threw her arms around his neck. "It's beautiful, Harry. I love it." She pulled back
with a huge grin on her face. She ran over to show it to her mother, and asked her to put it on her. "It's so beautiful."
She whispered. "I've never seen one like it. Where'd you get it?" She asked as she turned to look at Harry. Harry cleared
his throat. "Sirius gave it to me." He muttered. Ginny gave him a very confused look so he decided to explain a little more.
"It was my mother's," He started. "My father gave it to her when they first started dating. Sirius said she never took it off.
He took it off of her the night she was murdered, and just gave it to me this Christmas. I thought you would like it." Ginny
looked down at the shimmering emerald necklace, then back up at Harry. "Thank you." She whispered. "Thank you so much."
***********************
A/N: Sorry this took so long to get up and sorry if it's a little short. I was sick a couple of days last week and then went out
of town for a few more. I'll try to get the next chapter up a little sooner and the next one will also be less boring. (I hope)
And if anyone knows how to keep the original formating when you post a story, please tell me in your review! Whenever
I post a chapter or story all the paragraphs go bonkers! HELP ME! Oh and I just put up a new short fic about Sirius, so if
you haven't read it please do!! I've only got 4 reviews on it and I'm a little bit disapointed. Anyway, thanks for reading this and
if you liked it please tell me so! REVIEW!!! (please)
~*Katydid*~
To the last chapters reviewers:
la2ur2a-Thanks! I read your new chapter and it was great. oh and I was just wondering waht YW stands for. : )
HarryandGinny4eva- Thank you so much! You're really sweet. btw, you have an awesome name.
powerblazer- Thanks a lot! And you're very welcome, I really enjoyed reading it! Keep up the good work!
Babystar- Wow! Thank you so much! You're awesome! Oh and please post the next chapter of your story soon!
When you do, please tell me in a review or something so I'll know. You're welcome for my review! : )
Daphne Black-Thank you! I kinda like it, too. But of course, I'm the author, so I don't know if my opinion counts
or not.
Okay, that's all. Now for chapter 8 of "I can be your Hero."!!
Chapter 8
******************
Harry spent the next few weeks avoiding the Dursleys as much as possible. He spent most of the days sitting is his room,
either working on his homework or studying one of his text books. It wasn't much fun, but it managed to pass time.
One night Harry was sitting at his desk, reading the book on Quidditch that Hermoine gave him for Christmas. He
sighed as he closed the book and looked up at his alarm clock. Four minutes left. In four minutes he would be seventeen.
He stood up and jumped on his bed. He lay on his stomach, his head resting on his hands, staring at the clock and listening
to the soft patter of rain falling on the roof. Three minutes. Two and a half. Two. For some reason he felt excited, even though
he knew that there would be no big party in his honor, and very few presents. But still, party or no, he was turning seventeen,
and that alone was enough to excite him. One minute. He turned the clock so he could see it better. Thirty seconds. Ten, nine,
eight. He pushed himself up onto his elbows. Four seconds, Three, Two, One, He was seventeen. He smiled happily."Happy birthday,
Harry." He whispered. He jumped as he heard a taping noise behind him. He sat up and looked around to find several owls
outside his window, and in the middle of them was Hedwig, taping sharply on the glass window. Harry walked across the room
and opened the window. All of the owls flew inside, fighting each other to get through the window. Harry could hardly blame them,
it was raining much harder now. After they had all dropped their letters and packages on the bed and landed safely on the floor, the
owls instantly fell asleep. 'It must have been a long trip', Harry thought. He just hoped that they would wake up before morning, he
really didn't think the Dursleys would be pleased with a group of owls camping out in their house. He sat back on his bed and opened
the letter closest to him. It was the yearly letter from Hogwarts. He scanned it quickly, most of it was identical to last years, but one
sentance at the end caught his attention. "We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected Head Boy of Gryffindor. You
will be provided with a list of your new responsabilites when you reach Hogwarts." Cool, Harry thought. He threw the letter
aside and moved onto his other presents. In Ron's letter, he invited Harry to come over for Ginny's sixtenth birthday, which
was three weeks away. Harry felt like whoping aloud when he read this, he had been missing the Weasley's, and Ginny in
particular, very badly and didn't know if he would have been able to wait another month and a half before seeing them.
After he finished opening all his other presents he hid them in the loose board under his bed. He wrote a short note to Ron
saying that he would definitly come over, wether Uncle Vernon alowed it or not. He Woke Pig up, tied the note onto his leg,
and watched him fly away into the pitch black night. Harry changed into his pajamas and climbed into bed, suddenly very
tired. For the first time in 3 weeks, Harry went to sleep with a smile on his face.
**********************
The next morning there was the usual silence hanging over the breakfast table. You would never have known that it was one
of the family members 17th birthday. But this didn't bother Harry much, he was used to it. And besides, any attention the Dursleys
gave him was never a good kind. Harry was about to get up and go back to his room to look at his presents again when there
was a very loud knock on the door. Uncle Vernon laid down his paper. "Don't people know what a bloody doorbell is anymore?"
He muttered as he pushed his balky self out of the chair. He walked down the hall and opened the door a crack. Standing on the
small porch was a tall, skinny man whom Vernon had never seen before in his life. He had messy hair. Mr. Dursley already didn't
like him. "Can I help you?" He said gruffly. "uhh....yes...does Harry Potter live here?" Mr. Dursleys eyes snapped wide open.
"Who are you?" He asked angrily. "Oh, sorry, is this the wrong house? I'm pretty sure Dumbledore said #4, maybe it was 5,
My name is Sirius Black. Do you know a boy named Harry Potter?" Uncle Vernon wanted to slam the door shut, but if this man
was one of them, that might not be such a great idea. "Yes. I suppose you could say he's my nephew. How do you know him?" Sirius
cleared his throat, he couldn't figure out why this man seemed so angry. Had he broken some kind of strict muggle law never to
ask for someones nephew? "I'm his Godfather." He answered. All of the color drained from Mr. Dursley's once purple face.
"G-Godfaa-faa-Godfather?" He whispered. Sirius nodded confusedly. After a few minutes of staring into space Mr. Dursley
stepped back and opened the door wide. Sirius stepped inside and followed him into the kitchen. When Harry saw Sirius step
into the room, he thought there must be something wrong with his eyesight. What would Sirius be doing here? But as the man
got closer, he realized it was definitly Sirius. Harry jumped excitedly out of his chair and ran to Sirius. "Sirius! What are you
doing here?" He asked as he gave his Godfather a quick hug. Sirius laughed at his excited Godson. "Just came to wish my
favorite Godson a happy birthday." He said as he ruffled Harry's already wild hair. Harry smiled happily. "Here." Sirius said as
he handed Harry a small package wrapped messily in newspaper. Uncle Vernon had already pulled Aunt Petunia and Dudley
into the Living room and slamed the door shut loudly. Harry ripped open the present quickly. He opened up the small cardboard
box to reveal a miniature stag, carved out of wood. Every detail seemed perfect. Harry almost dropped it when it stomped its
foot and shook its head. It had a spell on it to make it move. Harry looked up at Sirius. "Thank you. It's wonderful." He
whispered happily. Sirius shrugged, but Harry could tell he was pleased that he liked it. "Did you make it?" Harry asked as
he stroked the smooth wood. "Yeah, I did. I know it's not much, but I can't really go into any stores. My dad taught me how
to carve when I was young and I borrowed a witch's wand to put the spell on it." Harry laughed. He didn't know why, but
he was so happy he just felt like laughing. For a split second he was no longer a orphen with a dark wizard after him, but a
young boy on his seventeenth birthday. For a moment he felt all his cares and worries disapear, and all that was left was joy.
To Harry's surprise as well as Sirius's, Sirius threw his head back and laughed, too. Uncle Vernon probably thought they had
both gone loopy. After a few minutes they both managed to stop laughing. "It's been a very long time since I've done that."
Sirius said with a smile. Harry grinned back at him. "Come on, I'll show you my room. Maybe you can help me with a nasty
Transfiguration essay I have to do." He said as he led his Godfather up the stairs.
******************
Three weeks later, Harry was getting ready to go to the Weasley's. He tried for the tenth time to flatten his hair, and sighed
as it popped right back up again. He grabbed Ginny's present and went down to the living room. Mr. Weasley was
going to pick him up using floo powder. This time the fire place was wisely left un-blocked. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia,
and Dudley had all gone out shopping, and Harry guessed it was more an excuse to get out of the house than a sudden need
for a new sprinkler. After Harry had been waiting for a few minutes Mr. Weasley appeared in the ashy fireplace.
"Hello, Harry. You all ready to go?" He asked as he stepped out and dusted himself off. "Hi Mr. Weasley. Yeah,
I'm ready." Harry answered as he walked over to the fireplace.
Harry got up off the floor and put his glasses back on his face to find himself standing in the Weasley's cheery living room.
"Harry!" Mrs. Weasley said as she gave him a motherly hug. "It's so nice to see you again. You're so tall!" Harry was
greeted by all the other members of the Weasley family, as was Mr Weasley when he stepped out of the fireplace. Harry
felt his heart speed up as usual when Ginny hugged him. He noticed that she had done something different with her
hair, parted it different, or something. It looked very pretty. He told her so as they walked into the dinning room. She
blushed and answered "Thanks. I saw it in a muggle magazine and thought I'd try it." Ron walked up to Harry. "Hey, Harry.
How's your summer going so far?" Harry shrugged. "I think you know how it's going." He answered. "Yeah, I asked mom
if you could stay for the rest of the summer but she said Dumbledore had told her that you have to stay at Privet Drive this
summer. Don't ask me why. Oh and I asked Hermione to come but she couldn't because she's on vacation with her parents
in Italy." Ron said. Harry felt a little disapointed that he wouldn't be able to stay at the Weasley's this summer, but he knew
that Dumbledore had his reasons.After dinner and cake, everyone sat around the living room to watch Ginny open her many
presents.
After about 30 minutes of getting lip gloss, books, and picture frames, Ginny came to Harry's present. She unwrapped it slowly, and
carefully opened up the little box inside. She gasped when she opened it, and stared at it for a few minutes. By now Harry was
very nervous. What if she didn't like it? What if she had a bad history with emeralds or something? But all his fears were
put at ease when she jumped up and threw her arms around his neck. "It's beautiful, Harry. I love it." She pulled back
with a huge grin on her face. She ran over to show it to her mother, and asked her to put it on her. "It's so beautiful."
She whispered. "I've never seen one like it. Where'd you get it?" She asked as she turned to look at Harry. Harry cleared
his throat. "Sirius gave it to me." He muttered. Ginny gave him a very confused look so he decided to explain a little more.
"It was my mother's," He started. "My father gave it to her when they first started dating. Sirius said she never took it off.
He took it off of her the night she was murdered, and just gave it to me this Christmas. I thought you would like it." Ginny
looked down at the shimmering emerald necklace, then back up at Harry. "Thank you." She whispered. "Thank you so much."
***********************
A/N: Sorry this took so long to get up and sorry if it's a little short. I was sick a couple of days last week and then went out
of town for a few more. I'll try to get the next chapter up a little sooner and the next one will also be less boring. (I hope)
And if anyone knows how to keep the original formating when you post a story, please tell me in your review! Whenever
I post a chapter or story all the paragraphs go bonkers! HELP ME! Oh and I just put up a new short fic about Sirius, so if
you haven't read it please do!! I've only got 4 reviews on it and I'm a little bit disapointed. Anyway, thanks for reading this and
if you liked it please tell me so! REVIEW!!! (please)
~*Katydid*~