Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the song "Color My World," nor do I claim to. I'm just a broke 15 year-old girl, so if you try to sue me all you'll get is my laptop, a biology textbook, and various pictures of Ewan McGregor.

A/N: I was actually aiming to finish this story before the fifth book came out, but as it comes out tomorrow, I don't think that that's quite possible anymore. The delay was mainly due to the New York State Regents Exams That Are Officially From Hell. Whoever invented Regents should die a long, suffering death...but, cheers, everyone! The 5th book comes out tomorrow! But for now, let's go on with my little "book", shall we?

kateydidnt: Don't worry, I thought of that, too!

"As time goes on I realize
Just what you mean to me
And now, now that you're near
Promise your love
That I've wanted to share
And dreams of our moments together
Color my world with hope of loving you."

--Chicago (The group, not the musical!)

Chapter Twenty Two-Color My World

That afternoon found Harry sitting upright and leaning against his pillows in his hospital bed, fidgeting with the fringes of his blankets and half listening as Sirius described to a St. Mungo's nurse how he was feeling today. The nurse had already talked to Harry and evaluated his condition, and as a result he was once again left to ponder his thoughts.

He hardly noticed as the nurse left the room and Sirius turned to look at Harry curiously.

"Harry?" Sirius questioned cautiously. "You alright there?"

"Er...yeah," Harry said distractedly, staring down at his fingers which were twisting around his sheet. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Sirius's gaze traveled down to Harry's fingers as well. He turned back to look the teenager in the face, his eyebrow raised. "You don't seem fine. What's going on?"

Harry just sighed and shook his head slightly, looking back down at his hands. To be honest with himself, he didn't know what was wrong, either. He felt jumpy and nervous, not to mention sort of sick to his stomach, but for what reason he wasn't quite sure.

Sirius was about to question Harry further when there came a knock at the door.

"Come in," Sirius called out after a short hesitation, his eyes still resting on Harry for a moment before they moved to see who had entered the room.

It was Professor Dumbledore.

Harry stared at him for a second in surprise. He surely hadn't come to tell Sirius about...about what they had talked about, had he? Oh, no...

But then Harry mentally shook his head. Dumbledore wouldn't do that, but then again, he was so unpredictable...

He gulped and looked at the professor expectantly. Dumbledore, however, merely gave Harry a warm smile before pulling out the well-used chair from the corner of the room and sat on it, turning to Sirius.

"We have...a problem," Dumbledore began gently, but just as he was about to continue, he was cut off when there was another knock at the door.

Looking a little surprised this time; Sirius again called out an invitation for the new visitor to come in. The door opened to reveal Colette Villons, standing in the hallway and looking extremely uncomfortable.

Harry raised his eyebrow slightly at her, then back at Dumbledore, still wondering what the problem he had mentioned was. What was going on?

Colette looked at Dumbledore. "Have you told them yet?" She asked him sharply.

"No," Dumbledore said calmly. "I was just about to-"

"Tell us what?" Harry interrupted, unable to restrain himself.

Colette glanced at Dumbledore, then sighed, moving into the room and sinking down heavily upon a spare chair. She looked very tired.

There was a moment of silence, but then Harry couldn't take it any longer. "Tell us *what*?" He repeated, looking from Colette to Dumbledore, then back to Colette.

"Yes, please," Sirius said, glancing at Harry as he spoke, then turned to Dumbledore, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Please tell us, cause I think we'd like to know. That would be very nice. Oh, and by the way, you two are doing an extremely effective job of building up tension in here and making me and Harry wonder wildly what the hell is going on. Just thought I'd let you know. Congratulations."

Dumbledore either didn't get catch the sarcasm or chose to ignore it. Meanwhile, Colette glared at Sirius half-heartedly for a moment before speaking.

"We have a problem," She said simply, looking very uncomfortable again.

Harry stared at her. He momentarily felt like banging his head against the wall, but stopped himself before he did so, reminding himself that he would be most likely transferred to the mental ward of St. Mungo's. "We *know* that," He snapped impatiently, then paused and took a deep breath. He was under a lot of stress...and needed to calm down. He chose his next words carefully and spoke slowly. "What we *don't* know is what that problem *is.*"

After glancing at Dumbledore again, Colette shifted so that she could face both Sirius and Harry at the same time. "Pettigrew is not talking. Just not talking. About anything. At all. And if he doesn't confess...well, there isn't strong enough physical evidence against him to convince the Ministry that he is guilty. So basically, if he doesn't confess..."

Harry felt as if a bomb had dropped inside his stomach. A mixture of despair and nausea filled him, and he swayed slightly, dizzied by it all. His throat constricted, and, unable to speak, he let Sirius do the talking.

"But...what..." Sirius's throat caught for a moment, but he quickly recovered. "What about Veritaserum?"

"That would be the most obvious action to take, wouldn't it? Just simply give him Veritaserum?" Colette sighed. "Thing is, he's not only not talking, he's not doing anything. Literally. He just sits there all day. All he's had since he came into custody was water. The only way for him to have Veritaserum is if someone forced him into taking it after putting him under the illegal Imperius Curse...which wouldn't go over very well with the Ministry, I daresay."

"He could be drugged into taking it," Sirius muttered irritably. "But then he might choke...and die...what a horrible, awful shame that would be..."

Finding his voice, Harry asked, "But he's been in custody for nearly a week. How come you're only finding out about this now? And you're the minister..."

"The Department of Magical Law Enforcement doesn't seem to care an awful lot about this case-" Colette began heatedly, but Dumbledore raised a hand to cut her off.

"The real point that we are trying to get to here, Harry, is that we need your help."

Harry couldn't help but raise an eyebrow slightly at his professor in surprise. "*My* help?"

"Yes. Your help," Dumbledore removed his glasses for a moment and rubbed at his eyes with a single finger, sighing. Harry shifted slightly, forgetting for a moment about what was going on presently. Extremely rarely had he ever seen Dumbledore act so tired and weary and...old. It was so uncharacteristic of him that it made Harry uncomfortable.

After the short pause, Dumbledore leaned forward, meeting Harry's eyes with his own. Green locked with blue, and Harry leaned forward as well.

"Harry," Dumbledore began softly. "I know, of course, you remember that night at Hogwarts when you first learned of Sirius's innocence?"

Harry nodded slowly. How could he forget?

"You remember how you prevented Sirius and Remus Lupin from killing Pettigrew. You didn't want them to do it."

Harry could distantly hear Sirius's breath catching somewhere inside his throat, but he paid him no mind. His mind was burning with the memory, how he had stopped Sirius and Professor Lupin from killing Pettigrew, saying that he thought his dad wouldn't have wanted them to become murderers. How he had saved Pettigrew's life, but in the end, that *rat* had gotten away...

Dumbledore began to speak again, pulling Harry out of his reverie.

"Do you remember what I had said to you the next day? About what you did for Pettigrew?"

"You said...you said that Pettigrew was now in my life debt," Harry said slowly, his eyes widening as he recalled the conversation they had had in Professor Lupin's deserted office. "And that one day I would be very glad that I had saved his life..." Harry looked up, surprise etched in his features. "Professor, do you mean to say-"

"What we need is for you to talk to Pettigrew," Colette said quickly, looking at him steadily. He met her gaze. "Remind him of how you saved his life last year. Remind him that he's in your debt. Remind him that...that if he is released from the Ministry, You-Know-Who won't be exactly overly pleased with him. He did fail with his mission, after all," She added, seeing the momentary confusion flicker over Harry's face. "He didn't even come close to completing it. You-Know-Who will not be happy.

"In other words, get him to confess."

Harry nodded; his gaze unfocused as he looked towards the foot of his bed, wondering why he hadn't thought of doing that himself. He looked up again, only to be surprised that Colette, Sirius, and Dumbledore were all watching him.

"Will you do it?" Colette asked him quietly.

Harry stared at her for a moment, briefly wondering why she even had to ask. "Of course I will!"

"I will contact the Ministry about your decision," Colette said, still quiet.

"Yes, perhaps the meeting could be conducted later," Dumbledore said, standing up and motioning for Colette to do the same. "The day's not over yet, but I believe that you two need your rest. You have a lot to think about," He gave Harry a quick-yet meaningful--glance before he left the room with Colette on his heels, and Harry knew that he was making a reference to the conversation that they had had earlier.

But then he realized what had just happened, and he wanted to jump and yell for Colette and Dumbledore to come back, that he wanted to talk Pettigrew right now and not wait another minute. But before he did so, he realized that he himself was pretty drained, and slid down onto his pillows as Sirius did the same.

"Well, that was...interesting," Sirius commented after a moment of silence. He gave Harry a sidelong glance. It was a quick look, but not quick enough for Harry to miss the concern that passed through Sirius's eyes.

"Are you sure that you're alright, kiddo?" Sirius asked Harry, repressing the urge to frown slightly. "You've just seemed so different these past few days..."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry said, giving Sirius a reassuring smile. "Just stressed, I guess."

"Hmm-hm," Sirius mumbled, a note of skepticism in his voice. But then, the skepticism was gone as he flashed a grin at his godson. "I'm going to close my eyes for a bit, Harry. Good night."

"Good night," Harry replied absently, and it barely registered within his mind that it was the middle of the afternoon.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Unlike Sirius, Harry couldn't fall asleep right away. In fact, despite the fatigue that was tugging at his body, he couldn't fall asleep at all.

Yet how he wanted to sleep. To slip into a world where he didn't need to think about his dreams, or trials, or Pettigrew, or Voldemort, or to simply think at all.

But then again, Harry knew better than to just run away from his problems, because when you did, they often came to bite you harder than they had before. What he needed, he decided finally, was something to lift his spirits.

And pretty soon, his spirits were lifted.

But not in a way that he expected.

He was just watching Sirius sleep, for that moment not worrying about anything in particular, when there came a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" He asked out of habit, looking at the door and fully expecting there to be Dumbledore or Colette on the other side.

"It's...it's Ginny," Came a small voice.

Harry's breath caught in his throat, and his heart stopped beating for a moment. His initial reaction was surprise (*Ginny?*), and his second reaction was for his face to turn bright red.

He nearly groaned, covering his face with his hands for a moment and willing the blush to go away quickly. He couldn't just leave her standing out there...

"Come in," Harry called out, surprised at the shaky quality of his voice. The door opened, and Harry slowly and reluctantly moved his hands away from his cheeks, praying to whatever gods might be listening that his blush had gone away.

Ginny stepped into the room nervously and looked around shyly, leaving the door slightly ajar. She had only been in there a couple of times before, and those where when she had been with the rest of the Weasleys.

Harry swallowed his surprise and gave her a small smile.

"Hi," He began, but then paused; unsure of how he should continue.

"Hi," Ginny responded, glancing at Harry quickly before looking away. Then suddenly, she caught sight of Sirius and stopped, taking half a step back.

"Should I leave?" She asked nervously, looking over at Harry's godfather uneasily. "He's asleep...I should go..."

"No, no, that's okay," Harry said, shaking his head and realizing that he didn't want her to go. "Sirius will sleep through anything, trust me. You don't have to worry about waking him up. I'm sure," He added quickly, seeing the look on her face. "He'll be fine. You can stay."

Edging slightly away from Sirius, Ginny pulled up the empty chair so that it was near Harry's bed-though, he noticed, not as close as it could have been. She was uncomfortable with him.

After she sat down, she averted her eyes again, suddenly finding something very interesting in the tiled hospital floor. "I just...wanted to see how you were."

"Where's everybody else?" Harry asked curiously. It wasn't like Ginny to just come see him by herself; she was pretty timid by nature.

"Um...well, actually, they had to go somewhere...and Mum wanted me to come and keep you company," Ginny said a bit uncomfortably, shifting her weight.

Harry raised an eyebrow slightly, but said nothing. He had a feeling that she knew some stuff that she was not telling him, but he didn't feel like pressing her.

"Oh, okay, then," He smiled at her. He thought he was doing a good job of keeping his blush at bay, but then he conveniently ignored the part of his mind which asked why he had even blushed in the first place. He had never felt very uncomfortable around Ginny before.

They made small talk for a few minutes. Harry asked how Hedwig was, as she was staying at the Weasleys for the time being, and Ginny told him how "the Burrow was slowly turning into a zoo."

"...with all of us kids, and all the owls, and now Crookshanks, and Bill and Charlie will be coming in soon to visit..."

As Ginny talked and visibly became more comfortable, Harry's mind wandered off. Inevitably, he started thinking about the trial and Sirius and Pettigrew, but then he pushed those negative thoughts out of his head and decided to concentrate on what was directly in front of him. Ginny. Talking animatedly about this and that, wavy red falling in front of her eyes...blue eyes that were sparkling in the sunshine that fell out of the room's open window...

Harry stopped himself before he could go farther. For pity's sake! He was acting almost as if she was Cho Chang!

As that thought crossed his mind, he nearly slapped himself. What was *wrong* with him this afternoon?

Ginny seemed to have realized that she had lost her audience, and paused in the middle of a sentence that had something to do with Charlie and his dragons to raise an eyebrow at him. "Harry? Are you alright?"

"Yeah..." Harry said, giving himself an ever-so-slight shake of the head. "Yeah, I'm fine...Ginny? How old are you?"

The question fell out of his mouth before he could stop himself, and once again he felt like giving himself a good ole' smack on the head.

Meanwhile, Ginny blinked in mild surprise at the sudden change of subject. "I'm, uh, fourteen, Harry. A year younger than you. Same as I've always been."

"When you saw me...that day at the Burrow...the first time that I was there...why did you seem so scared?" Harry's mouth seemed to have acquired a mind of it's own. He didn't know why on Earth he was bringing these things up...

But now it was Ginny's turn to blush. And she did so splendidly, her cheeks turning the color of ripe red apples. "Well...I...I...I had a crush on you," She blurted out, quickly turning her face away before looking back at him. "And I...I still do...but you know that! Isn't it obvious?"

*Isn't it obvious?* Ginny's words rang in his ears as Harry blinked and sat back, not realizing that he had even leaned forward in the first place. His heart boomed like a cannon in his ears. And now that he thought about it, he did see how obvious it was...he'd always suspected that she liked him for years, but it was never more than that-speculation. But, now...it was just...so obvious...so...duh.

Once he got past his surprise, he began to think, and then he began to realize...just how much she...the hammering of his heart seemed to be the most dominant sound in the world...

He had just opened his mouth to speak, although he was unsure of what to say, but he would never know what he would have said at all because right at that moment a head poked through the door that Ginny had left slightly open.

It was Colette Villons.

"Harry? I talked to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," She said promptly, stepping inside the room with a nod at Ginny and an amused glance at the still-sleeping Sirius before focusing on Harry. "You can talk to Pettigrew as soon as you wish."

It took a moment for Harry to find his voice, but when he did, he asked, "Now? Could we do it now?"

Colette nodded, then jerked her head in the direction of the other bed in the room. "Sirius. Wake him up first. He'd want to know."

Harry took a deep breath, suddenly nervous. "Yeah, yeah, I will."

"And I'll go find Mum and everyone," Ginny said quietly, smiling at Harry before slipping out of the room. Harry blinked. One moment, she was there and saying that she liked him...and he was realizing some things himself...the next moment...he shook his head a bit. When Ginny was gone, Colette looked at him.

"Take your time, Harry," She said, giving him a wink that was meant more to reassure herself than the teenage boy in front of her. "You don't need to rush out right this second." Glancing at Sirius once more, she quickly left the room.

*Don't need to rush out...yeah, right...* Harry thought almost bitterly, suddenly forgetting about Ginny as he threw aside his blankets and crossed the room to wake up his godfather. He wanted to get this done and finished with as soon as was humanly possible...Sirius needed his freedom...

A barely detectable ominous note tugged at his heart as he sat down at the edge of Sirius's bed. Everything was changing around him so quickly, only in the past week or two had his life taken on this new reality. One month ago he never would have pictured himself here...in St. Mungo's...

As he reached over to wake up his godfather, he felt the colors of the world swirl around him, a blurry rainbow of emotions, memories, events, dreams, pasts...and futures.

What happened today would determine how the rest of his life-and his godfather's-would be lived out.

And he wanted to make sure that their dreams, their fantasies, the way it should have been but wasn't...would become a reality.

~*~

A/N: I hope that, even after the 5th book comes out, people will still be interested in reading my story...I know that I'm going to finish it and post it, whether or not people will read it.

Anyway, merry Harry Potter Eve, everyone! May your many hours of reading be merry and bright!

Yeah, that was corny, I know...but I'm so excited about the book! The next chapter won't come out immediately, probably sometime late next week or the week after. I'm not going to write anything until the middle of this week, cause for the next few days I'm gonna hibernate until I've finished the book, and more likely than not the majority of you readers will, too, eh? The Harry Potter section of this site is going to be pretty quiet this week, I daresay.

Was this chapter sort of pointless? I had originally planned to push it on a bit longer, but I wanted to get it out to you guys before hype that's been building up with the 5th book reaches downright hysteria. It's almost like the quiet before the storm...pretty appropriate, considering the weather that we've been having around here recently...

Wow, I'm all over the place today. Onto the reviewers!

The Elfin Child: Lol that's a good idea! You should use it sometime, definitely! My way to scare Pettigrew into talking was pretty much revealed in this chapter...cause Pettigrew isn't a total coward. No, not completely...but he cracks under pressure, I think...

kateydidnt: As you could see, I did think of Veritaserum...does it make more sense now? I hope!

kagome-leostargirl: I'm glad you love it! And Peter is a bastard! And no, you can't spell! Hehe.

celestial princess: Random moods are good, Dena...they're very good for you...

WeasleyTwinsLover1112: I know the feeling. Pettigrew better do this or do that...gr...well, maybe Sirius will become free in the 5th book! I sure hope so...I love Sirius...

Well, happy reading everyone, and Happy Harry Day!