Ginny hadn't asked Harry's permission to take his Cloak this time, although he'd been happy enough to give it the other times she'd asked. She was sure that he wouldn't have agreed with her purpose. She had already overheard the password to the Headmaster's office, and was reluctantly on her way there.
She had passed most of the last few weeks in shock. The venom that Harry had shown towards the Slytherins was way out of character for him. Sure, he'd never had a good word for a Slytherin, and he'd occasionally picked a fight with Malfoy in the halls, but he'd never gone out of his way to harm them.
She went up the stairs, and hoped that he would be there - she found, though, that he wasn't alone.
"This has gone far enough, Albus!" McGonagall was almost shouting. She had gotten there at the same time as Snape, presumably for the same reason, although Snape was astonished at her venom.
"I agree," he said, nasal inflection making it sound like agreeing with McGonagall was the most unpleasant thing he had ever done. "I will admit to having pushed the limits with some of my character lessons in the past, but Mr. Potter's actions push far beyond those limits."
"Indeed," Dumbledore sat back in his chair, his normal twinkle curiously absent. "And what would you have me do?"
"I believe it's obvious, Professor, that Mr. Potter isn't ready to teach here, as it should have been obvious when I raised the same point this summer."
"And what would you have had him do, Severus," the headmaster admonished. "Would you have preferred him to have traded on his fame, going into government - or worse, playing Quidditch?"
"He would have been well suited for either of them - and in either case, he wouldn't have put my students in the Hospital Ward! Falco Von Hoek has had the curious honor of making a new Hogwarts record, only in school for nine days before his first overnight visit."
Harry, perhaps making up for not spending as much time with Pomfrey himself as he'd been accustomed to in the past, had kept her ward busy over the last month of schooling. There hadn't been a single night since his second week without at least one Slytherin in the Ward, often more than one.
The increased tensions were taking their toll on everyone, even Professor McGonagall. "Headmaster, I don't think that Harry is beyond redemption," she ignored Snape's snort, "but I think he needs a good talking to. Most of the students look up to him, and when he tortures children for merely being in his least favorite house, they imitate his actions."
Albus nodded, gravely. "That is a danger, although it will pass with time."
Snape was incredulous. "How, Headmaster? When all of my students are in the ward, and he finds someone else to dislike?"
Albus paused, then responded. "No, Severus. It has been my experience that our students are smarter than they are given credit for. When they see a professor being arbitrary, awarding his favorites, punishing those he dislikes for past or imagined wrongs, then they quickly lose all respect for him." McGonagall thought he was twinkling at Snape, but wasn't sure. She was certainly suppressing a smirk at the thought. "I'm more concerned at the cost to Harry."
"That's rich, Headmaster, although I suppose that I should not be surprised that you would side with your favorite student."
"That's enough, Severus." Albus' eyes weren't twinkling - they were flashing, and something impatient lay behind them. "There are still aspects to the situation that have yet to be revealed, even to me, but it is clear that if Harry continues on the path that he has set, there will come to be a point where he ceases to be the champion that we needed him to be in the past. And that, Severus, would be a tragedy that you cannot begin to imagine. I will talk with Mr. Potter," he said with finality, "and I hope that it will do some good. In the meantime, there's still the other matter."
~.~.~
Harry was dreaming, he knew it, but it didn't help. In his dreams, he saw Ron and Draco fighting - they were arguing about something, but he couldn't hear most of the words. He came closer.
Draco was taunting Ron, daring him to do his worst. Ron was casting spell after spell at Draco, and he was laughing away. Harry felt suddenly very angry - Draco was all that was wrong with the Wizarding world, he was a symbol for every Slytherin, every Pureblood bigot. In the dream, Harry pulled back his wand, and his face flushed with hatred, he cast a spell that he had never successfully performed while awake. "Avada Kadavra!" he called. There was a flash of green light, and Draco fell dead.
There was silence in his dream, and then Ron started to laugh. Harry rushed over to make sure he was okay, and then watched, stunned, horrified, as his features melded and ran together, as did the features of the boy on the ground. After an agonizing minute, the boy on the ground no longer looked like Draco - he saw Ron lying on the ground, dead, silent. In Ron's place was Draco, alive, laughing, content. "You've done it, Potter. You've really done it. I could never have managed it without you." Draco kept laughing.
Harry sat bolt upright. His scar wasn't hurting, but his head pounded. He put on his glasses. He felt somehow dirty - like he'd done something terribly wrong - but he wasn't sure why, or how to make it better. He needed to talk to someone, but it couldn't be Albus or McGonagall - they'd just talk to him, like they always had, as a child. They might trust him, might even like him, but he didn't have a real relationship with them.
He had one thought, though, and he reached for the Marauder's Map - it was late, but he thought there was a good chance that the person he wanted to talk to wouldn't be asleep, if she took after the rest of her family. He hoped so, anyway. He felt guilty for thinking about her this way, but she was the closest she had to one of the old crew.
~.~.~
Ginny made her way back to her dormitory in shock - she would give the Cloak back tomorrow. Harry probably needed to hear some of what she'd overheard, but she didn't know what the new Harry would do about it.
As she reached the snoring Fat Lady, she heard a whispering behind her. "Psst. Ginny."
She turned, and saw Harry there, the Marauder's Map tucked into a pocket. If he had it handy, then she was caught - she reluctantly pulled off the cloak, and tossed it to him.
"Err, thanks," he said. "I wasn't actually going to talk to you about that, but I appreciate having it back."
"What did you want then, Harry?" She couldn't hide her relief that he wasn't asking her about the cloak.
"I wanted to talk to you, if I could. Could we maybe go somewhere?"
"How about the Gryffindor common room?"
"That would be great, Ginny. I haven't been there since...last year." He trailed off, and Ginny saw a glimpse of the old, broken-hearted Harry under the new Harry with the heart of stone. Her heart melted, although she wondered why she preferred an unhappy Harry to one that was untouched by his pain.
Ginny muttered the password to the Fat Lady, who didn't even seem to wake up as the portrait opened and closed, and Harry followed her in.
The common room was almost deserted. It was late, and few of the Gryffindors of this year had a habit of finding their way out of bounds. Harry and Ginny sat on opposing couches, neither of them quite looking each other in the eye.
"What did you want to talk about, Harry?"
"I just wondered..." he trailed off, losing his nerve, but Ginny waited patiently. Then he seemed to change direction. "I noticed on the Map that you were in Dumbledore's office. Are you alright?"
Ginny spoke quietly. "Yes, I'm fine Harry. I had something to talk with Dumbledore about, but I didn't get the chance. I...I'm not sure if I should be telling you this, you a teacher and all."
Harry looked at her oddly. "Ginny, it's me. Remember, the guy who helped you get through the wards Fred put on his socks two summers ago?"
Ginny gave a slight smile, but her mood still wasn't light. It seemed like every good memory was tinged with something sad. She remembered that Harry, all right, but he seemed so different from the serious, drawn man sitting in front of her.
"I remember, Harry. Please, don't be upset, but I was going to talk to Dumbledore about...things...and he was talking with Snape and Professor McGonagall. And I listened."
"I can't be mad about that, Ginny. I've been there more than a few times myself, and it saved our lives a few times, to."
"Well, you probably know all about this already - but did you know that they're searching students?"
Harry looked back at her, oddly. "You mean searching their trunks or something? What, did Fred and George get a shipment past Filch?"
"No, Harry, searching actual students. Apparently, there's something - I'm not sure quite what - but it's connected with the Influensus curse. They're looking for it on students. Madam Pomfrey has been trying to look at people as they've come into the ward."
"Well, I suppose I've helped there." Harry seemed cheerful at the thought, which turned Ginny's stomach. Did he actually enjoy what he was doing?
"Not really. Most of the other curses make whatever they're looking for hard to find - they can't check the Slytherins who come in there cursed from head to toe for it. And the ward is so full all the time that they can't check anyone else, either."
Harry looked like he'd swallowed something sour. "Well, I suppose I'll have to cut back for awhile - at least until they find whatever it is they're looking for. Did they say anything about it?"
"Well, Snape said that Influensus was something like Imperious, but not as strong, and it doesn't work well on adults. Its not one of the Unforgivables, but it's close. And apparently, you need to leave some sort of mark on the target, which is tied to the spell - they didn't say what it looked like, though."
"Hmm, did they say how they knew about the spell?"
"Apparently, one of the older students was also under the spell. He said that it was some sort of plot to help along the next Dark Wizard." Ginny wasn't sure if she should have revealed this part to Harry - he looked grim, his jaw set. The fire in his eyes looked different - more like another pair of eyes that Ginny still saw in her nightmares. She was trembling, but he didn't seem to notice.
"Well, those of us on the other side will have to keep an eye out then, won't we?" Ginny definitely felt sick, now. There was a look of hate in Harry's eyes that she'd never seen in him before, and she was sure that she'd lost him. And she hadn't even told him what else she'd heard - the feelings of McGonagall and Dumbledore about his actions, which mirrored her own; or the other parts of the influenced student's plans. Plans which, apparently, involved Harry.
~.~.~
Harry returned to his bed, revitalized by the discussion. While most people wouldn't have been energized by the thought of yet another threat to Hogwarts, Harry was not most people. He had been conditioned by years of school to believe that he was at his best in such circumstances, that only under threats of violence could he build friendships or feel successful.
He fell asleep quickly, but found himself on a familiar plane. Ahead of him, Draco was arguing again - this time, with Hermione.
